Chapter 27: The Weight of Freedom

"Run... get out of here...!"

Liora’s raspy plea cut through the howling wind, but her voice broke into a painful, suffocating cough as if jagged glass were scraping her throat.

Seeing her kneeling in the dirt, bruised and bloody, sent a wave of grief through the crowd. The villagers shifted closer, their faces tight with worry. Her warning didn’t push them back—it locked them in place.

[Ren’s POV]

Ren and Ryu broke through the tree line at the edge of the plateau, stopping dead in their tracks.

Before them lay a massive, scorched crater carved into the hillside. Near the far rim, Liora collapsed on her knees while the mob of refugees stood gathered behind her, brandishing their crude weapons toward Vora.

Ren’s gaze swept over the fractured ground and the lingering smoke. ’What the hell happened here?’

Ryu reacted immediately. He shot forward, extending both arms wide to form a physical barrier in front of the angry villagers.

"Don’t do anything stupid!" Ryu roared, his voice cutting through the noise. "If you charge in without a plan, you’re just throwing your lives away!"

Ren caught up in a split second, stepping beside Ryu to reinforce the wall. "Use your heads!" Ren barked, scanning the crowd. "Blind recklessness gets everyone killed. Vora isn’t someone you can beat with torches and wooden sticks!"

It was cold logic. A group of unarmed, magicless civilians had zero chance against a monster tamer who could wipe out entire squads in seconds.

"Get out of our way!" a middle-aged villager shouted back, his face flushed with anger.

"Who do you think you are?!" another voice yelled from the center of the mob. "You want us to just stand here and let Liora suffer alone?!"

"She’s our family!" a young man stepped forward, pointing a trembling, dirt-stained finger at Ren. "She saved us when we had nothing left! If she goes through hell, we go through it with her! When she smiles, we smile! That’s how it works!"

"Outsiders like you will never understand!" tears streamed down an elder’s face as he gripped his staff. "If Liora dies here today, then we die with her!"

Ren’s brow furrowed tightly as he absorbed their raw intensity.

’Are they insane?’ he thought, staring at the emotional wall before him. ’How did Liora build a bond this deep with these people?’

They weren’t acting out of logic—they were driven by pure, unfiltered devotion.

"Just calm down!" Ryu asserted, his knuckles white around his sword hilt as he held his ground against the crowding villagers. "Dying for no reason helps nobody!"

Thirty paces across the clearing, Vora stood motionless. The cold mountain breeze tugged gently at her dark, off-shoulder dress, her sharp violet eyes watching the drama unfold with detached amusement.

"Please... just leave," Liora’s faint, cracked voice echoed across the plateau. Tears welled in the corners of her eyes as she looked back over her shoulder. "This is my final request... live for me. Don’t throw your lives away..."

Ren’s pupils dilated.

The weight of those words hit him like a physical blow. ’Live for me...’

She wasn’t asking them to save her. She was telling them to move on without her.

’Wait...’ Ren’s mind raced as the pieces clicked together. ’She isn’t trying to survive this fight. She’s planning to die here on purpose.’

"Hahahahaha!"

Vora’s shrill, piercing laugh shattered the heavy atmosphere. She spun around slowly, turning her back on Liora to face the mob directly.

"Listen to yourselves, you pathetic trash!" Vora sneered, her voice carrying across the crater. "Do you even realize what your precious little savior actually is? She’s nothing more than the battery keeping this entire realm alive!"

Silence fell over the plateau. The angry shouts instantly died down as every villager froze, their faces turning completely pale.

Ren stepped forward, narrowing his eyes as he absorbed Vora’s words. Ryu turned his head sharply, staring at Liora in disbelief.

Vora crouched down beside Liora, her lips curling into a cruel, mocking smile. Without warning, she swiped her hand, knocking off the round red hat perched on Liora’s silver hair. The hat drifted through the air, landing softly on the scorched dirt behind her.

Ren’s jaw set into a hard line, his guard raised.

Vora reached out and yanked Liora’s silver locks, forcing her pale, blood-stained face upward for everyone to see.

"You psychotic bitch! Get your filthy hands off her!"

A wave of furious curses erupted from the mob. Men and women surged forward in a rage, slamming into the wall formed by Ren and Ryu. The two struggled to push the crowd back, bracing their legs against the loose gravel to prevent a stampede.

"Look at her!" Vora taunted, gripping Liora’s chin and turning her bruised face toward the crowd. "Look at your beloved guardian! You adore her so much, don’t you? Too bad she doesn’t have much time left."

The words struck the villagers like a physical blow. Several refugees dropped to their knees right on the sharp stones, their eyes blank with shock.

"What... what are you talking about?" a woman stammered, her voice shaking uncontrollably.

Ren’s chest tightened as his brain processed the strategic reality.

’If there’s no normal exit in this pocket dimension... the only way out is to destroy the core.’ Ren’s gaze locked onto Liora. ’She knew this from the start.’

Flashing back to their earlier interactions, everything made sense. When Ren had asked her about her ultimate goal in this world, Liora had deflected with a melancholic, forced smile. She had lured them north under the pretense of tracking Evelyn, not to save herself, but to unite their party with the refugees so they could protect the villagers once the dimension collapsed.

She had planned her own death all along.

Ren clenched his fists so hard his nails bit into his palms. Anger flared deep in his gut—not just at the hopeless situation, but at Vora’s sadistic delight in destroying these people’s hearts.

"She’s been acting as the power source for this entire realm," a villager whispered, her voice cracking as she covered her mouth in horror. "She’s... she’s sacrificing herself?"

"And do you know ’why’ she’s dying here?" Vora purred, her eyes dancing with malicious pleasure. "She’s doing it for you. So you pathetic worms can run back to the real world."

’I knew it,’ Ren thought, his eyes stinging slightly as an unfamiliar lump formed in his throat. Even in a world this cold, her selflessness was almost painful to witness.

Beside him, Ryu’s jaw muscles twitched violently, his hand gripping his longsword until his arm trembled with suppressed rage.

The truth devastated the refugees. Hysterical sobs broke out across the crowd, tears spilling freely onto the dust.

"If we get to leave... but Liora dies for it..." a young man sobbed, dropping his wooden club. "What’s the point of escaping?!"

"We don’t want freedom if it costs her life!" another shouted through his tears. "We’d rather die right here with her!"

Ren felt a heavy constriction in his chest. The atmosphere was suffocating, thick with raw, infectious sorrow. Even Ryu looked away, unable to meet the crying eyes of the villagers.

"Why did she hide this from us...?" a young girl wept. "If we knew getting out meant killing her, we would have chosen to stay trapped forever!"

"We never asked for a sacrifice like this!" an elder cried out, clutching his chest. "We just wanted to live together..."

Liora listened to their cries, her empty eyes glistening with quiet tears that slipped down her pale cheeks. "I’m sorry..." she murmured beneath her breath, her voice lost to the wind. "I’m so sorry..."

Vora let out another mocking laugh, cutting through their grief like a knife.

"If you’re all so eager to be reunited with her," Vora said, releasing her grip on Liora’s hair, "then why don’t you all die together?"

Vora placed her open palm directly over Liora’s slumping head.

A sickly purple aura erupted from Vora’s hand. In an instant, bright crimson light was forcibly drained from Liora’s body, flowing upward into Vora’s palm like a reverse waterfall.

The villagers gasped in horror, their grief instantly twisting into panicked rage.

Ren and Ryu braced themselves, sensing the immediate danger. Vora wasn’t just draining mana—she was actively siphoning Liora’s remaining life force.

"Sister Liora...!"

A teenage girl broke away from the mob, screaming hysterically as she sprinted straight toward Vora.

Ren’s eyes widened in alarm. "Damn it!"

Without thinking, Ren lunged forward, sprinting at full speed to intercept the girl before she reached the danger zone. Ryu bolted right behind him, his heavy boots kicking up trails of dust.

"AAAARGH!"

Liora unleashed a gut-wrenching scream of absolute agony as the purple energy tore through her depleted veins, her body convulsing on the stone floor.

The pain in her voice sent a collective shiver down everyone’s spine. The villagers roared in anger, attempting to charge the hill, while the teenage girl sprinted blindly into Vora’s range.

*Can I really save them all?* Ren thought, his heart hammering against his ribs as he reached out toward the running girl, the agonizing screams of Liora ringing in his ears.

’Can I just stand by and watch another massacre happen right in front of me?’

Ren closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, making his decision.

’No. Hell no.’

The System interface flashed into his mind.

He knew the danger. His NYX integration was sitting at a precarious 83%, and pushing it past 99% meant risking total overwrite. But letting these people get slaughtered while he played it safe wasn’t something his pride would allow. He didn’t need to unleash a high-risk, world-shattering form—he just needed to construct the right tool, with maximum efficiency, to tear Vora’s plan apart.