The serpent moved its colossal body, devastating everything around it. Many of those protected by the walls were killed. The leader, realizing that no one besides those directly on the battlefield could do anything, ordered everyone to retreat. With a loud shout of agreement, Carolina demanded that the soldiers escort the indigenous people to the safest and most distant place possible.
The snake swayed its heads, displaying a malevolent smile, and called the human race foolish for believing it could defeat her. Then, turning to Slady, she declared that he was the most idiotic of all.
With a sudden lunge, she swallowed him as the water rose toward the skies. Victoria tried to hold him, but the volume of the sea was overwhelming. Ferinish, gathering her strength, cut the wave in half. Carolina, positioning herself beside her to face the immense creature, asked, almost certain of the answer, whether Slady truly had not died after being swallowed by the snake. The warrior, after a brief moment of reflection, replied that it was far from enough to kill him.
Then, with the other heads advancing, the fight truly began again. Aurora and Victoria moved away, the scientist flying in her armor, the mage supported by a platform of water. Faller, with his electrifying sword, cut and burned the sides of one of the heads' mouths, forcing it to retreat in pure agony.
Ferinish and Carolina leapt onto one of the snake's heads, running toward the main head. As it turned, the creature opened its mouth in a grotesque and abnormal way, and from its throat gushed pure Renkai Energy. With a single strike that made the wind cross the entire world and return to hit the Medusa with an extra flaming blade, Ferinish turned that energy into mere insignificant dust in the air.
Carolina, who had fallen onto the serpent's tail, leapt repeatedly until she reached the top and drove her spear into the resistant skull. The being groaned as ice began to cover part of its head and thrashed violently against the walls. Carolina held her ground.
Aurora and Victoria used their abilities to cause extra damage to the main head, while, from a distance, they tried to help Faller against the head he was facing. Jets of water worked like giant blades, and energy explosions detonated across that colossal body.
When one of the heads advanced toward Ferinish, she simply kicked it with such force that the queen separated from the head. Flying with her equipment, Carolina chose to deliver small ice cuts along the creature's body while the warrior faced the main head.
The wooden equipment was swift, she pressed the spear hard against the flesh.
But what was happening inside?
With the body open, the bodies of Elisa and Shaphira lay fallen in distinct corners. Then one of them moved a finger. It was Elisa.
She woke coughing uncontrollably because of the stench of that place. Dragging herself, she spotted Shaphira's body nearby. She wrapped her tightly in her arms. Her pleading whispers asking her to wake up were not words thrown to the wind, someone heard them. But it was not who she imagined.
Seeing the chest closing and a familiar sword falling from inside the entrails, Slady supported himself on his hands. His golden eyes fixed on Elisa.
The one who had once been an unknown man now looked like someone she had already seen, someone she had already loved like a second father, but she could not remember.
Almost innocently, she asked where they were. Slady, dragging several arms toward her, replied that they were in a very unpleasant place. He extended his hand, asking her to feel his embrace, and said that he missed her. Hesitant at first, Elisa touched his hand. A white screen, filled with undefined glimpses, flooded her mind. With the same innocent voice, she asked if he would protect her from that bad place. Slady, without hesitation, replied that he would never allow anyone to hurt her.
While holding Shaphira in his arms and keeping his other hand in Elisa's, he felt the impacts and roars of the Bestial Destroyer reverberating all around.
Suddenly, large snakes emerged from within her. Slady placed his hand on Elisa's chest, handed Shaphira to her, and asked her to take good care of her adoptive sister.
Even exhausted, he advanced. The Renkai Creatures fell apart in seconds under his blows. The cane, now more an extension of himself than an object, erased the demons in his path in moments.
When everything had cleared, Elisa approached and asked whether they should not escape from the being they were inside. He briefly explained that it was not possible, they needed to destroy the heart. It was faster and ensured they would not be attacked again.
Obedient, Elisa nodded, continued holding his hand, and returned Shaphira to him. Thus, they kept walking in search of the heart.
Outside, what seemed to be a clear advantage for the Pillars suffered a dramatic reversal. The combatants were exhausted, and the snake regenerated so quickly that each attack only enraged her further.
Carolina could barely remain standing, her spear trembled as she leaned on it. Faller lay unconscious on a rock, with Victoria fainted beside him after trying to revive him. Only Ferinish and Aurora remained standing, though equally exhausted.
The scientist apologized for not having been the best friend Ferinish could have had. If they did not survive that battle, she asked Ferinish to remember her. The warrior, swinging her sword almost by instinct, thanked her and said that, despite all the problems of the past, she did not regret having met her.
Aurora smiled beneath the armor, closed her eyes for a moment, and returned to the fight. The serpent, upon seeing them advance again, opened its mouth to fire another wave of Renkai Energy. Nothing came out, instead, blood.
The Medusa roared, with all her heads trying to attack something inside herself. Aurora and Ferinish, who leaned against a tree to take in the scene, understood what had really happened and decided to attack with greater confidence.
Inside the creature, the heart was wounded. Reddish energy flowed from inside out of the heart like a storm, Slady held the two girls tightly, veins bulging at his temple from the immense effort.
Then, from the heart, a deformed hand emerged. A figure, female, naked, with her feet replaced by an uncountable number of snakes and her hair made of the same serpents, another Medusa was born, something almost humanoid.
She extended her finger toward both of them, Slady stared briefly into her eyes and felt a strange sensation of paralysis in his body. He looked away and asked Elisa to do the same.
With a malicious voice, she declared herself to be Elisa's opponent, who would now see whether all the knowledge and training Slady had given her would make her the victor of the battle.
Slady felt his body and Shaphira's being pulled into the snake's flesh, like an internal cabin. He tried to move, to protect Elisa, who only watched everything with fear and uncertainty. He could no longer protect her. She would have to fight on her own.
With one last gesture of trust, he threw Elisa's sword to her, asking her to trust herself and not be afraid. He trusted her and loved her.
As she grasped the sword, another memory flooded her mind. The intense training she went through in adolescence, the battles she fought in the army, and the teachings she learned on that island, with Shaphira, with Slady, her second family.
With a more mature expression taking over her face, she turned toward Medusa, who smiled maliciously, with trembling fingers to make her suffer. Her eyes did not fix on her face, but on her chest, through it, her heart, the only way to truly kill her.
Outside, Faller slowly regained consciousness, supporting himself on the rocks to fight. Victoria rose from her husband's chest, with her hand already shaping water, and Carolina, who was nearly losing consciousness, upon seeing that another fight was now taking place inside the Medusa, stood up once more.
Ferinish, seeing her partners rise, walked to the tip of the tree branch, pointed toward the Medusa, who had recovered some of her strength, and proclaimed, with a tone of command and leadership...
Elisa steadied her sword, gathering courage to fight, murmured to herself...
That even if their blood, her blood, was the cost, even if their pain, her pain, was the payment, even if they, she, died, they, she, would not allow themselves to die until killing the creature standing before them.
The final battle against the Medusa began.