Ren opened his eyes—but he couldn't feel his body.
What met his sight was a vast horde of spirits filling both the forest below, and the skies above advancing towards a city.
'Is that... Sierra?'
The horde was quickly gaining ground on Ren's hometown, Sierra.
'What is happening? Wasn't Sierra under attack? What are all these spirits? Why are they all going around me?'
That's when Ren noticed his current form flying towards Sierra in the center of the swarm.
'Am I... A spirit?'
As he wondered that, the swarm reached the outer wall of Sierra and he saw "himself" seemingly order the spirits to spread around the city.
'Stop!'
Ren screamed—but the body didn't listen.
It didn't even hesitate.
The swarm obeyed him—no… not him.
Something else.
His vision shifted, locking onto the city walls.
And then—
He moved.
Not by choice.
Not by will.
He descended.
'No… no, stop—STOP!'
The spirits surged forward with him, crashing into Sierra like a living storm.
And Ren could do nothing… but watch through its eyes.
'No...'
Ren watched the flying spirits descend on Sierra.
Below, the grounded spirits rammed into the city walls.
Then—
Different-colored lights surged forward to meet them.
A storm began to brew in the sky.
A particularly radiant silver light shot out from the striker headquarters and struck down over a dozen spirits using lightning.
Ren could tell that that was the captain of the spirit strikers, Finn Smith.
'Yes! The captain's a class 5 Wonder, he can summon thunderbolts and conjure lightning! Surely he can take out this swarm.'
As he thought that Ren noticed that he was moving rapidly towards the captain while conjuring an earth shell.
The next second, he watched as the captain was flung to the other side of the city.
'No! Captain! How did I fling the captain so far? No way, am I... A class 6 Force?!
'This can't be... How did a Force get so close to the city without us detecting it?
Especially with a swarm this huge! And why is the swarm full of so many different kinds of spirits?!'
Ren knew that patrol squads were sent out regularly to prevent tragedies like this from happening.
He also knew that a class 6 Force typically formed a swarm with a hundred or so spirits of its same element and sub-elements.
So he couldn't fathom the anomaly that was unfolding in front of him.
Moments later, the captain returned, now fully donned in cackling thunderous armor, and holding a menacing battle-axe encased in Ether.
Behind him, there was a woman encased in rippling water armor, holding a staff with a shimmering blue and grey colored orb at the top.
'That must be vice captain Bianca Roland, she's also a Wonder! They must be able to beat this force together.'
Then, the spirit fired poison bullets at Bianca, only to be struck down by the captain's lightning.
The captain wasted no time after that and lunged at Ren's body.
He swung his axe at the white spirit's right torso.
Yet all that met him, was an earth shell at the point of impact.
The next instant, the spirit fired a lightning bolt at the captain and grabbed his axe with its right hand.
The captain froze for a second.
'That spirit just used two opposing elements'
That second was more than enough.
The lightning struck the captain head on, and while the elemental damage it did was minimal, the brunt force of the attack was enough to send him flying back and lose grip of his weapon.
'Please... Stop hurting them...' Ren's pleas fell on deaf ears.
Blood splattered against the inside of Finn's lightning visor as he staggered back, armor crackling wildly.
"Bianca!" he shouted, voice strained. "I can't hold it much longer—this thing's using multiple elements!"
Behind him, the storm condensed.
"Almost done." Bianca replied, her voice steady—but heavy.
Finn cursed and just lunged at the spirit once more, this time, he was holding one conjured bearded axe in each hand. He caught the spirit's attack using his left axe, his second axe carving towards its side.
The spirit conjured an earth shield and stopped Finn's attack, then it conjured a flaming axe in its left hand and swung it at the captain.
This time, he reacted promptly and conjured a lightning shield to block the blow, but it only slowed down the blow for a moment, that moment however was enough for the captain to start pivoting using the caught up axe and striking the spirit's back with the right one.
The hit landed this time, but then the spirit extended an earth spike from its back, piercing Finn's shoulder.
'Captain!' Ren panicked as he struggled to do something—anything, to no avail.
Finn grimaced and shouted:
"Bianca!"
"Just a little longer!" she replied, her voice steady—but heavy.
Finn clenched his teeth and broke the earth spike, jumping from the spirit's back and leaving the axe in it. He then conjured a long lightning bardiche and swung it vertically downwards onto the spirit.
The spirit blocked the swing while turning around, and shot poison bolts at Finn only to be stabbed in the torso by a halberd in the next moment.
Finn, predicting the spirit's actions, started conjuring a halberd while swinging and let go the moment his swing landed. He then used the momentum to catch the halberd and stab the spirit before it could react.
Finn was just about to jump away to avoid the poison bolts when he heard:
"Now, Finn!"
The next moment, the rain Bianca was gathering converged onto the spirit, trapping it in what looked like a bubble of water, while Finn jumped away pushing the halberd in further.
The spirit, enraged, summoned fireballs and started evaporating the water, but before it could the axe in its hand started glowing, followed by the axes embedded in its back and torso.
BOOM!
Lightning exploded from the axes, tearing the spirit apart while its water prison shifted and stabbed the spirit's whole body.
The lightning quickly covered the bubble turning it into a ball of silver light, the spirit was then shot through the air with a massive shockwave.
It landed outside the city walls where its water prison floated upward, froze and fell on it, crushing it in the process.
'Why... am I... seeing... this?'
Darkness swallowed his thoughts.
—
Ren's eyes snapped open.
An unfamiliar ceiling stared back at him.