Chameleon began speaking to me in a low but clearly surprised voice.
—Mmm! So the future husband of the lady!... I wish you both happiness!
—Thank you very much, Chameleon.
—No, thank you. I also wish you luck on your journey. Come back soon. Remember that the demonbeasts on the lower floors might still act rudely toward you, but… they're just beasts, please forgive them!
—Alright, see you.
I leave the place and teleport with the help of the bonfire to the sacred forest, where upon arriving I can see that the group of three people who were there before are no longer around.
Perhaps they had already set off on their mission before I arrived; glancing sideways I see a small boat on the river of the place.
I approach it and see that it is being watched by a small fairy with yellow hair.
—Tii-jii. You've been working hard lately, haven't you? Well… so I made a boat for you. Now you'll be able to reach the other side of the river. The river is safe, don't worry and sail. Tii-jii.
—Oh, really, thank you so much. I truly think that thanks to this boat I'll be able to reach another place. Really, thank you very much.
—It's nothing, it's just to help a friend.
I immediately get into the boat and start rowing to reach the other side of this…
The river slides like a living silver ribbon, winding between the giant trees of the sacred forest. Each stroke makes the boat creak softly, as if waking from an ancient dream. The wind caresses the water's surface with cold, playful fingers, splashing my face a little, reminding me that the world keeps moving even though I carry my own fears.
As I advance, the sky begins to darken. It's not a natural dusk: there are no reds or oranges, just a slow shadowing that falls from the treetops, as if something immense had spread a blanket over the sky. A strange sensation invades me, a tingling in my chest, a mix of anticipation and danger. The walls of trees rise beside me, so tall and dense they seem like living ramparts guarding secrets. Their trunks are so thick that twenty men would be needed to encircle them, and their leaves whisper stories in a language lost to the wind.
I keep rowing. The river narrows a little, then opens again as if breathing. The atmosphere feels charged with wild magic, the kind that belongs neither to light nor darkness, but to a savage, unpredictable point between both. Suddenly, the sound of the water changes. It's no longer a gentle flow, but a constant murmur, a pounding that announces a change in the channel. Then I see it: a small waterfall, modest but brilliant, falling into the river like a thread of crystal marking a border between the safe and the unknown.
I pause for a moment to watch it. And that's when, out of the corner of my eye, I notice it.
An immense shadow beneath the water. A flash of eyes. Then another. And another.
A shiver runs up my spine.
The monster emerges with a slow movement, as if the river itself were giving birth to it. Its eyes—too many eyes—blink on its green, wet skin, like perverse stars in a forbidden sky. Inside its mouth, more eyes open and close, watching me from the darkness of its throat. The creature is like a fish, yes, but one born from a nightmare that refused to die at dawn.
The monster looks at me.
Smells me.
And chooses me.
The tongue it sticks out is enormous, green, rough, and the sound it makes as it emerges is like the lash of an animal trying to break its own chains. It leaps toward me, trying to knock me into the water.
But I've fought too many times to be surprised. I deflect its attack with a quick twist, push the boat aside and, at the same time, raise my sword. A clean cut. Small, but enough to make a piece of its tongue fall steaming. The fire from my weapon leaves a trail of embers on the wound.
The monster growls. It's a sound that raises goosebumps, a wet roar full of eyes trembling with fury.
It attacks again. This time it spits a viscous liquid that flies toward me in a greenish cloud. I try to dodge, but some lands on my armor, sliding down the metal plates until it touches my skin. It burns as if red-hot iron had branded me. I bite my teeth, breathe deeply, but still feel the sting of the venom seeping into my blood.
The creature lunges at me with a brutal thrust. The boat rocks, nearly capsizing. I barely manage to keep my balance as the creature raises a wave that slams the hull, soaking my legs.
With a quick movement, I aim at one of its eyes. My sword's blade glows with the Dragon Quake technique, vibrating as if it contained the roar of a sleeping dragon inside. The impact is devastating: one of the monster's eyes bursts in a cloud of dark blood.
And then I understand.
Its eyes are its life. Its Achilles' heel. Its story written in flesh.
The beast begins bleeding from every eye, small rivers that fall and dye the water red. It seems confused, furious, desperate. And that desperation makes it even more dangerous.
I raise my sword for the final blow.
But the monster is not willing to die without taking me with it.
It unleashes a frantic barrage of attacks: its remaining tongue, jets of venom, rapid thrusts like spears. I can't block everything. Several strikes pierce my defense and tear into my body. I feel deep, hot wounds open in my abdomen, my arms, my side. I grow dizzy from blood loss. My breathing becomes heavy, as if I were inhaling sand instead of air.
My body begins bleeding too much from the huge wounds it had inflicted on me.
But I stay on my feet.
Because I haven't come this far just to die here, in a lonely boat, facing a monster of infinite eyes. Because the world on the other side of the river still awaits me. Because the story I'm writing cannot go out in the middle of the chapter.
The monster prepares to lunge at me with its final attack, the one it hopes will break me, tear my life away and drag me to the bottom of the river forever.
And right there, when death opens its door with a patient smile, I decide to clench my fist.
I grip my sword tighter than ever. I feel my wounds open a little more, but I also feel something else: a spark, the stubbornness to stay alive, that madness that drives those who still have a future to build.
The monster comes at me.
I go at it.
Our destinies collide in a suspended instant.
I drive my sword into one of its eyes, burying it so deep that its skin yields like wet clay. The flames from my sword explode inside, consuming its flesh from the center. The beast roars, but it's no longer a roar of threat; it's a roar of ending. Its body twists, jerks, and finally falls like a tree struck by lightning.
It falls into the water.
Burns beneath the surface.
Dies.
And I…
Fall back into the boat, bleeding out from my wounds.