The Anglerfish seemed intelligent to some degree. It acted properly, chose its target, and the way it wanted to kill it. Even using a weapon and knowing when to abandon it. It wasn’t necessarily capable of emotions, but the monster began to feel something similar. He was worried when Navia saw the heart of the monster he was supposed to protect from the inside. The duty bestowed on him was in danger.
Looking back, Navia no longer saw the survivors, as they probably ran far away. She could hear their shouts but wasn’t able to tell what they were screaming. August tried to turn back and fight alongside Navia, but Diana and Benedict wouldn’t let him, as they forcibly dragged him away.
“I need to buy them more time…” Navia looked back, and the monster stood in place, one eye on the heart and the other on her. The creature was uncertain of what to do. “It seems focused on the heart… What if I-” Navia barely took a step toward the hole in the flesh, and the Anglerfish was quick to dash to Navia.
As she brought up the heavy blade, once the bony hand touched it, cracks began to spread. The shards flew at her face, scaring her with many shallow cuts. Reinforcing the blade, she prepared to block another attack, which ended the same way. Her whole body was covered in shallow and bleeding wounds.
Her vision was blurry, and she began to feel cold as she lost much blood. It was regenerating just well enough to keep her alive and conscious, but without enough energy to heal the wounds. With slow reaction, she watched for a moment as the Anglerfish launched toward her, his jaw wide open, fangs growing larger.
With no time to dodge, Navia gathered the blood toward her and hardened it, creating a thick protective layer. Anglerfish’s jaw chomped on Navia’s protected arm, with a crunch, and blood began to pour from where its teeth sank. With a sharp move, the monster pulled its head away along with much of Navia’s flesh. A massive part of her bone was visible as more blood left her body, her mind went blank, simply steering forward. There was no voice to guide her, no one to tell her what to do.
The Anglerfish thought for the first time that it was able to crush the bug; it took a lot of effort, but without wings, it couldn’t fly away from it. The lost leg was nothing since the master could repair it.
No thought, pure instinct implanted into the brain, there was no need for a command, there was no need for any voice. Both of them had a fierce look on their faces. Yet the one Navia possessed seemed to change her Anglerfish’s eyes yet again.
It was that blood-boiling feeling that made her lose her mind and go wild; there was no need for strategic thinking if, in the end, the opponent would be dead. Both of them dashed forward, but once they got closer, the Anglerfish got a closer look at Navia’s eye. It wasn’t focused on it; she was aiming at something the creature couldn’t see.
The moment of hesitation was all Navia needed to land a good blow with a long sword. As it slowly stretched from her hand to the monster’s bones. She was able to make a deep scratch on its shoulder, making the Anglerfish scream in pain. Next, as she spun around, she let the blade slide on its spine, making a shallow scratch but a painful one, making the Anglerfish cry even louder.
Now she had a straight line toward the heart of the beast. No obstacles on her path, and a single thread she could see, connecting the tip of her blade with the heart. A single thrust could slay a monster as big as an island.
The heart was so close within her reach that it began to grow larger and larger, even more distant. Once she stopped, she looked behind to face the monster as it had its hand wrapped around her leg, squishing even harder as it pulled closer.
Instead of squinting in pain, Navia stabbed the creature into its eye socket, no eye, only some kind of light behind. She didn’t feel like she touched anything, but the monster’s reaction said something else. It staggered to the side, screeching. The anglerfish took out the blade and crushed it with its hand.
Navia crawled forward, just like the monster. Once close to the heart, she tried to stand up, but her left leg appeared to be broken as she fell to the side, unable to stand properly. She was able to lay a finger on the heart for a second before the Anglerfish pulled her closer. With a swipe of her hand, Navia splattered blood on the creature and hardened it, making it harder for the creature to move.
As it struggled to even move an arm in swift motion, which would cut Navia’s throat in an instant, she was the one to attack. She got close to its face, splattering even more blood as she crawled forward. The hardened blood was slowly cracking, but Navia began to pound the creature’s head with bare fists, relentlessly and without stopping. The blood that flowed from her hands hardened on top of Anglerfish’s head, making it impossible for it to move its neck or jaw.
Its bony hand trembled as it tried to grab Navia. When the tip of its finger was able to touch her, the skull began to crack, and it felt it. Scream muffled as its jaw couldn’t fully open. The pain was overwhelming; all it could do was scream as Navia pounded the skull, the cracks were spreading, and the creaking became louder.
The creature dropped its arms to the floor, no longer screaming. The skull was lightly caved in. Navia continued for a moment until she realized that the Anglerfish was no longer moving.
She spat on its head and cursed, “Remember this pain in hell.” Using her blood, she made a cane and a stick attached to her broken leg to stabilize it. “To think it would be so focused on defending the heart… They never… Care about each other…” Navia looked at the massive beating organ in front of her. She could slay a Leviathan, the monster that is feared by everyone because of how massive it is.
While she could do that, the unknown variables were preventing her from killing it. There was no way of knowing what could happen to the survivors inside if she killed it. It could be the very reason they would never be able to escape.
Hearing a screeching Navia quickly turned around, right in front of her face, the monster she thought she killed. The Anglerfish had its jaw open, but she could see something shiny inside it. A second later, the light disappeared, and the body of bones dropped to the floor. Behind it was an older man in a dark coat. His long grey hair fell onto his back, and a hat with both sides bent toward the head lay on top of his hair. The brim seemed to stretch behind as if it were pulled and torn at the end. Now that she had a closer look at the weapon, she recognized it. The harpoon she cut short in their previous battle, now the old man wielded it.
Navia wanted to say two things at the same time, unsure of what to say first, “Who are you?” or should she say, “Thank you.” As she was about to open her mouth, the man took a single swing and made a hole inside the Leviathan’s heart.
“What have you done…” Navia whispered, shocked by the man’s action. Instead of answering they continued to cut the heart into pieces, the blood splattered around the room, slowly flowing for a moment until it painted their shoes red.
“Your name is Navia?” The man gently asked.
She couldn’t tell what it was about this man that made her uncomfortable, and his knowledge of her wasn’t the main part of it. His whole aura seemed odd. The old man looked weak and frail, but as she looked at him again, she couldn’t imagine even getting close to him in a fight.
“Or had I missed her?” The man suddenly looked behind, a bit worried that he had missed someone on his way here. “You mostly match the description given by the lady…” The man’s confidence wavered for a moment, like a child unsure of what it was doing.
“Lady? Did she wear something to cover her face? Or eyes to be exact.” Navia asked, puzzled by the man’s mumbling.
“Yes. I came here with her. She went to check something while I was supposed to look for a woman named Navia.” The old man answered, hiding the harpoon under his coat where two small weapons were attached to his belt. No bigger than a thumb.
Sie appeared behind the older man and began to speak directly to Navia, “I can’t take my eyes off you… Whenever I look away, you are in danger, and I need to intervene… Luckily, Nebula’s finger left his lair, and I don’t have to worry about being secret. Although I hoped Edwin would face off against him…” She began to trail off, lost in a train of thought.
“You mean the people who are as strong as demigods… One of them was here?” Navia went pale, thinking of someone like that so close to her.
“Yes. The very ones blessed by the gods. When they have blessed people, I bring them enemies from the depths of hell. This is Edwin, one of our new allies. Think of him as someone who can rival the Fingers.” Sie answered with amusement, just by looking at Edwin, her smile widened. Knowing that she has such a weapon at her disposal in this war made her feel better.
“Is he another… Stranded?” Asked Navia, curious about the old man and his experience.
“No. He is a special case in our group. I guess you could. I expected Godan to awake with as much power as him. Edwin didn’t need my help to awaken his potential.” The woman seemed overjoyed while bragging about Edwin’s strength.
When Sie began to trail off once again, Navia remembered what she was doing and walked past her. “There are survivors that I need to help.”
“You mean them?” The woman asked, moving her finger from top to bottom, she drew a line which stretched, creating some kind of portal from which Navia could see the group of survivors on a shore. “At first, I thought it would be a waste of time to save them, but I saved them because of you. But then I saw this man, injured but with something in him. I can tell you saw the same spark that could turn into a fire. A great asset in a war against the Gods, which I won’t throw away.”
“I don’t know if you meant to say that you did that out of pure heart or because it was beneficial to you.” Navia tried to read Sie, but she found it hard to understand. As if she spoke her mind out at the same time, sweetening it with something a person wanted to hear.
“Kind of both. I think strategically foremost, but I do consider other factors.” The woman in a veil answered, puzzled by her own way of thought.
“Why does it feel like she doesn’t comprehend emotions? Like she only copies the one she knows and puts them in action at not the right moments.” Navia thought, but it wasn’t a confident theory as she didn’t spend much time with the woman.
Sie grabbed the edge of the portal and pulled it, making the way out wider. “It’s time to leave. If the god’s finger sees me, it might complicate a lot of my work… Edwin.” The woman nodded her head toward Navia, and the man quickly dashed to Navia, grabbing her before she could hit the ground.
“She is not breathing, my lady.” Said Edwin, his heart began to beat faster, not used to situations like this, he was getting stressed.
“Not to worry. She is Stranded after all. A normal human would die after receiving those injuries and losing this much blood. Stranded, on the other hand, ‘die’ in theory. That’s when the body shuts itself down and focuses on regenerating the wounds. She will wake up in a day or two.” Explained the woman, holding the portal so Edwin could go through it with Navia in his arms.
The survivors on the beach saw the portal only when Edwin passed through it. They let out worried gasps at the sight of injured Navia in the arms of the older man. A moment after Sie came through the portal, once she let go of the edge, the portal disappeared as if a curtain fell over it.
“A shame I could copy this power only once… If only I had more time to study it…” Thought Sie, completely forgetting the feeling of the power she just used, as if she never possessed it in the first place.
“Navia!” Shouted the man without an arm and a foot. Without much thought, he wanted to walk to her, but forgetting his injuries cost him a fall to the cold sand. As he dragged his body to her, the old man gently placed her on the ground. Once August touched her body, he felt how cold she was. “She’s… dead…”
“She is not.” Sharply answered Sie, getting closer to the injured man. His wounds, no longer sealed, were bleeding once again.
“How? She is not breathing! Her body is cold!” As the man screamed, Sie kneeled beside him and touched his forehead. A green light shone from the tip of her finger. First, his wounds stopped bleeding, and the skin slowly regrew, sealing the injuries.
“Does that answer your question?” The woman asked playfully, pulling her hand away and standing back up.
“Just… Who are you?” August asked, looking up at the woman who was so ominous to the whole group. She just appeared from nowhere and took them out of the Leviathan without many words.
The woman let out a chuckle and looked him directly in the eye. “I can’t tell you my name yet… It will be known to everyone eventually. For now, you may know me as a general in the war against the gods. When people think of survival… I aim higher. My goal is to slay the GODS! And those two are capable of doing it.”