“You’re holding the magic stone; I have a direct connection to it that’s why I can sense your magic energy and how much you are using.”

  “I-I…”

  Her voice wavers as she lets out that single letter but one that refers to herself. She wants to say it, she wants to let out what she’s feeling, thinking but, her mouth stops her from doing so and her brain stops functioning normally at the same time. Creating a fog-like event that makes her mind unable to think properly.

  What am I supposed to do?

  “Look, I want to help you out. We are both here for the same purpose, there is no need for you to shoulder everything by yourself. Having you by my side is something that I want.”

  “Re-Really? Am I useful for you?”

  Her voice still wavers, it still is weak and everchanging just like her emotions. She does her best to not come out in that way but she more than fails to do so. Everyone that hears her speaking and sees her, we quickly understand that what she’s doing is nothing more than an attempt to seem stronger than what she is. Yet, while I can see her true value, she’s unable to do so, making said attempt meaningless and futile as she does not believe it.

  Why does she think like this?

  A question that I have thought about before but one that I think even if I got the answer straight from the “cat”, I still wouldn’t understand it.

  I see the world differently than her, I’m different from her and therefore, I can only do things my way. Are they right, correct though? I don’t know but, that does not mean I will stay still and do nothing, especially when I have a damsel in distress right in front of me, begging for help.

  “I’ve said it before and I will say it again, yes, you are useful to me.”

  My tone of voice is soft and I noticed that the look on my face is the same. My reaction is genuine and I hope I can transmit the same to her.

  “…”

  Her silence speaks louder than what both of us could ever hope to achieve in this moment. I noticed that the grip that she has on the magic stone got slightly stronger and that alone should show just how deeply connected I am to it as I’m able to notice these small gestures of her. But that does not matter for now as I have something on me telling me to keep going forward. I don’t know what it is, maybe man's intuition? Maybe it’s my Hero intuition screaming at me to help her out? I don’t know… I just know that I have to keep moving forward.

  “Through the magic stone I can give you a little bit of magic energy. Not much but enough for the spell that you are using.”

  “But, but! Wh-What about you? What if you get tired instead?”

  For brief moments she shows desperation, she’s unconsciously fighting against the slight “light” that I’m giving to her, showing to her in this scenario. She’s trying to push it away with her “acceptable” excuses, ones that seem to be based on logic, desperately trying to grasp reason to their side. She’s forgetting who I am or more so, she’s doing it on purpose to forget it as otherwise, her excuses would be instantly sent into the abyss. Her weakness is controlling her thoughts, her reactions, her emotions and therefore, it’s making her blind to the truth and reality.

  Or is it that she simply does not want to see it?

  “Who do you think I am? I easily could do this for an entire month without stopping even once. A few minutes and even hours will not tire me at all. And if I do get tired, we can always come back after getting some rest.”

  Everything that I said I mean it and the confident tone of voice followed by the same look on my face should be enough to show it and to affirm to her. What I said, it’s nothing more than the truth in its naked form.

  ……..

  ……

  …

  I can only guess how she’s feeling but the silence that follows what I said, what I affirmed to her, it’s telling me what might be happening inside of her heart. It speaks quietly though, but still enough to allow me to picture what’s happening. The only action she can perform right now is to move forward, through the obstacles that her mind has created, ones that her lack of confidence has sharpened them beyond the sharpest blade out there. Yes, these obstacles are nothing more than “needles” ready to pierce through her feet, stopping her right in her tracks as the pain that follows, is more than horrifying and terrible even though it’s only for a short period of time. But that does not mean that I should stay at the “finishing line” waiting for her to traverse through the horrifying path laid out in front of her. No, while she has to be the one to move forward, I can still be by her side as she does so, holding her hand tightly at the same time. Giving her warmth and comfort while her pain only grows immensely, but at the same time expressing to her that she's not alone and even though it hurts, I’m right next to her to give her some love.

  It’s easy to be at the end of the tunnel. It’s easy to wait for someone when in that position.

  But, if my path to said end was even more horrifying, harder and cruel as the one that she has in front of her, shouldn’t I help her out? Since I have gone through “worst”, I should be able to.

  At least that is what I think and so, I will act as such.

  “Come, let’s keep moving. You’re not alone, I’m by your side.”

  I still don’t know who she is.

  Maybe I’m letting my Hero persona take control of me over my true self, making me act in this way towards a “mere” stranger with the same goal as mine.

  Maybe there is something about her that I can relate to, something that has nothing to do with Kiana and her predicament.

  Whatever it might be, I will help her out.

  “Hmm, hmm…”

  Her voice is for the quiet side not only that, she didn’t say a single word. She simply “hummed” to what I said, however, it’s more than enough to make both of us move forward and towards our goal, one that is mere moments from being achieved. Before we did anything, I grabbed the last book but thanks to all of this, it seems I have forgotten-or more so that the thought never crossed my mind but we didn’t even check the title of the book, let alone what is inside of it.

  Step! Floating noises!

  Side by side, we slowly get moving towards the bookshelf downstairs. Step by step we carefully traverse the straightforward path that is paved for us. Stairs by stairs, we descend down towards our destination, one that is close to us. All of this in complete silence and while I’m not physically touching the pink orb, let alone her, I can still feel her hand somehow. A hand that is small, tender and smooth. I’m not holding it tightly as I’m afraid to hurt her, a fear that is incomprehensible and even irrational after all, this is nothing more than my imagination and wistfulness playing tricks on me and yet, something on me tells me that I’m not the only one in the same situation and even feeling the same. I feel like if I hold it with a little bit too much of force I might “break” her gentle hand, that’s why I’m just barely using any strength. I-I don’t understand why but to make it worse, I’m... Enjoying it? It makes me reminiscent of someone, someone who even though she holds tremendous power on her hands, I always felt they were quite fragile thanks to their feminine characteristics, ones that match the same one as Miss Pink Orb. How long have we been holding hands? It felt so short, was it because we already know the layout of the library? Or is it because it took us less time to get to the bookshelf? It seems improbable as our walking speed was slower than normal…

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  It’s a simple phenomenon where we forget about the world around us. Time was nonexistent in that time span. The chaos of the library was forgotten by us even though we traversed through said chaos. Carefully dodging the debris. Carefully circle around the destroyed pieces of furniture. Carefully avoiding the broken stairs... Our objective, although clear and well defined, somehow in this time spam, we were able to shove it to the side, forgetting about it while on our journey towards it. This is why time seemed to go faster even though the opposite happened in reality.

  “This is it.”

  Then, I broke what we have with such cruelty that I instantly regretted it the very next moment. Bringing both of us back to reality because of my insensitivity.

  “Thank you.”

  “Did you say anything?”

  “A-I-Ah, I just remembered something… Yeah… D-Did you bring the book with you?”

  Whatever she muttered earlier I was not able to hear but, maybe it was not important. I hope so. Anyway, her tone of voice seems to be normal and the same can be said about its volume per say, somewhat, she still quieted down tremendously at the middle of her sentence. However, she no longer wavers as she tries to let out the words into the world. Her voice is no longer weak, unable to maintain a constant timber. Even though she stuttered a little bit, it seems she has calmed down and I don’t think she can even fathom or comprehend how relieved and happy it makes me. But, before I go on my usual yapping, let’s answer what she asked, shall we?

  “Tsk! Tsk! Who do you think I am, Miss Pink Orb? Of course, I brought it with me!”

  Alright, there is definitely something wrong with me and I should immediately go see a doctor to get this cured.

  First of all, I brought my right hand upwards towards roughly chest level. Then I raised my index finger upwards, with the rest of the fingers “closed”. While saying the word “tsk” or more so that’s the sound that I made with my mouth, I waved said finger sideways, but I did so by moving my whole hand instead of only the finger. Anyway, once the “tsks” were done, then with the most “arrogant” tone of voice that I could probably do, I asked her if she knows who I am. For last, with the most prideful tone of voice and of course look on my face, I affirm to her that I didn’t forget to bring the book with me almost as if I saved the world or something like that from how happy I look and sound.

  “Pfft! Yeah, I can see that.”

  Ok, I don’t need to go to the doctor anymore, at least I made her laugh, so it was worth it. Instead, I need to send my CV to the circus so that I can become a clown instead.

  Will they hire me though? I think I would need to have some experience first.

  “However, we didn’t read it, so what do you say? Want to have a look at it?”

  With an imaginary nod filled with agreement, I proceed to read the book out loud. Nothing has changed in that regard as I did read the previous books out loud, I just never mentioned as I didn’t think it was needed although, why am I doing it right now? Whatever, the tile of this one is the following;

  “The Consequences.”

  “Thus, she was captured. The forgotten boy has indeed not been forgotten but ignored instead. The villagers, the gods and even the world were ignoring him and his insignificant life until he happened to do something he shouldn’t have. Love someone else, ready to contaminate the world with his impurity yet again. The forbidden romance as a few called it but to everyone else, it’s nothing more than a criminal committing one of the gravest crimes and sins possible against humanity itself. The lovely lady that ended up falling in love with him was cruelly and gruesomely massacred, killed, slaughter. To make it more satisfying for those that eagerly waited for such punishment, she was first humiliated in front of everyone, the gods included, even though they simply watched from “up there”.

  The pain was far too intense, forcing her to scream just like a pig does when getting slaughtered alive. Finger by finger were torn from her, once one of said fingers were removed, they were given to a ravenous pig that eagerly is waiting for food. Ah, she’s nothing more than a low life criminal and therefore, should be treated as such. Once all the fingers were “removed”, she fainted from the sheer pain but only to the very next moment being forced to wake up. One of them is using magic for such, magic that was given by a specific god for this specific scenario, almost as if he knew this was going to happen. Silence then follows the spectacle. Or it seemed as such but in reality, they were waiting for the ravenous pig to be done eating so that they could continue their torture and humiliation.

  Her arms and legs were the next targets. They weren’t cut clean, no, they are not that generous or merciful in fact, they tied each one of them with rope, one that is more akin chains since they are made of steel, capable of withstanding impossible forces as they are that sturdy. These chains then are tied into two separated bulls, ones that are on each side of her. These bulls are calmly eating, peacefully enjoying their meal, unaware of the atrocity that they will commit and the bloodbath that will follow it. But even if they knew, even if they were fully aware of what they are about to do, why would such animals care? However, this is when he appears, in between all of them, hidden to all of them at the same time. His fellow canine friend has grown by quite a bit but nothing that could change the outcome of the nightmare that is mere moments from unfolding.

  It happened.

  He was unable to do anything, his mind stopped working as he was trying to figure out what to do. He can use his new found powers to save his lover but if he does so, not only he will be found by them, the gods themselves will also be able to quickly find him and if that happens, it’s the end of his miserable life, one that was this close to turn around for the better thanks to his lover. With a loud and violent “slap”, two separated whips whip the butt of the bulls, startling them and making them move forward with such force behind that, the poor woman didn’t even have time to react to the pain that followed it.

  Her body was torn apart at that moment.

  Blood went everywhere.

  One side of her body followed the left bull while the other followed the right.

  It was dragged by such animals, leaving a trace of blood, meat, skin, bones and organs behind.

  A savage display from savages themselves however…

  These savages have awoken something that shouldn’t have, a horrifying being that should have been sleeping for eternity.

  A being that will fulfil is revenge no matter what.

  What follows next is more than expected. The forgotten boy has turned into a man, he has been one for some years now, carefully treading through these savages but now, in this moment, he will become the biggest savage possible. His emotions go into a rampage filled with pure hatred and fury but so do his powers. Shadows left and right are created and these ones have even less mercy than the culprits that did what they did to that innocent woman. Left and right, the Shadows kill the villagers. Up and down these shadows tear their fragile bodies into small pieces. Back and forth the Shadows massacre the villagers. A complete and utterly bloodbath is caused and no one is safe from his wrath. His canine, his best friend also suffered the consequences from being near him however, not the same ones as the villagers. His body grew several times, two heads followed the same pattern, each one with an individual train of thought and thinking. His claws grew by several times, becoming big, sturdy and sharp enough to even slice a building made by the savages in half without much effort behind it. Of course, with such a beast running rampage in the small village, nothing more than a pure carnage in its primal form was created. This lasted minutes, hours and even days, as for some inexplicable reason, the gods have forsaken the villagers, allowing for such to happen.

  Maybe they never existed in the first place.

  Once when only the wind can be heard in that village, where no other sound is present, it’s when one can say that the show is over. However, only the “dog” is left, standing still in place, sleeping but at the same time, keeping guard, guard of something terrifying. The owner of the “dog” has turned into a monstrosity of a Shadow, dissipating into nothing once all of his energy was gone but even then, even after witnessing such an event, his best friend still waits for him. Either with an illogical hope that he will come back or he is simply waiting for his demise that is set in stone to come true, wishing only to be near his owner at the end of it.

  Everyone has suffered The Consequences of their actions.”

  ……..

  ……

  …