Presences approach, crisscrossing the purple sky like comet trails. We go deeper into the islands at a similar speed, tracking in parallel the position of each. Wander and the others stay behind, while speedsters lead and Magnus protects the group. My role causes me nostalgia—it was the same case with Aldwyn. Eyes to see what is hidden behind the veil. There is something different about chaos. While others follow the order of creation, a constant flow, there is a distortion in it. Flashing, glowing in the back of my mind, telling me where it is with every step I take, and then hiding in the Blue vastness of the ocean.

  I frown. The sea in the storm roars with tsunamis and hurricanes. The speedsters brake and then return, the sorcerers reorganize in the group. Cloud lingers, staring into the dark blue abyss as he takes a deep breath and waits for me at the top of the cliff. I stand beside him and feel the salty winds being trapped by the stone claws that envelop the Valley. Even as I intensify my vision, I can't see the end.

  “You told me you found it on the border from the second island to the third…?”

  “It was on the border. Something happened. It wasn't meant to be that big.”

  “This is no ordinary sea.” Morgana says and manifests herself next to me.

  “What is it?” I say.

  “This is the Sea of Thoughts. You will drown in your own mind if you enter.”

  I look back. Mist surrounds us, and the arrival at our goal make the mages stop to refuel. From behind the clouds the fear of death brought its emissary here, and made its silhouette able to terrify us. The galloping of his horse brings earthquake, and the sickle in his hand threatens to find the Earth.

  “I'm going in.”

  Morgana sharpens her gaze. “What?”

  “Morale is low because of Joseph's death. They will not stop thinking, even unintentionally, about it. Good, bad, it doesn't matter. We will be crushed by monsters if they don't have some distraction, and if I leave, the enemies will attack, and they can't worry about it.”

  “Are you gambling to see if you catch the Clown and come back before we lose?” Cloud says. “What if I don't come back? What if he doesn't want to? What if other people die? What if the fear of danger only increases the power of monsters?”

  “Then it will also affect the enemy. Tell them the truth. You will defend me until I pluck the Clown from within the depths, and when I return with our weapon in hand, I will return and defend you. Without Lilith, it should be easier.”

  Cloud took a breath, then bent down for a moment on the edge of the cliff and squinted, then got up. “Fuck. Come back quickly, and don't you dare dying.”

  Cloud intensifies and some. Its trail of dust creates a cloud that brings me close to Morgana. The fairy approaches with slow steps and stares at me.

  “What is it?”

  “… You grew up.”

  “Thank you.”

  “… Do not despair. Despite the fact that it is real, you have already walked through the unknown and found the worst. You will see the hidden wonders, but remember that you are after the Clown. Be careful.”

  “… Okay.”

  Morgana inspired, then left. He knew the team would need him to survive. She also knew, in particular, that I wouldn't let her accompany me.

  The presence of enemies approaches and advances. I see lights cross the sky and are intercepted by spells bending the veil of the world. Elements, illusions, blows that make the ground shake. The roar of an insatiable warrior. That would be for later.

  I turn to the sea and throw myself off the cliff. I manipulate the air and water below me to open it and fall to Earth. I sink. Kilometers and more kilometers, as if in a tunnel. I feel gravity pull me faster and faster, and as if he had no end, I keep falling. The pressure becomes greater and greater, pushing against my sis. In the end, the magic of the Earth itself crushes mine, and forces me to face the water. All at once it bursts out, compressing my body with the weight of a mountain. Every inch a tower sinks into my skin, but I resist. The light no longer reaches the depths, and the blue becomes black. Nothing I hear, see, or even feel. The waves join my body and seem to tune into the flesh.

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  Out of nothing, everything emerges with an animalistic whisper and a shapeless form. Not a presence, but a sense of danger that makes my head heat up and propels me upward. When my eyes adjust to the abyss, I face it below me and see it. A creature, as well as everything that is not the creator. But not a human, plant or animal. Something different and much, much older. One eye covers the dark hole and glows in multicolored in almost invisible matte. A demon inhabits the depths of the psychic Islands, and says his name is Dagon, sings with the thousands of broken machines around him, and dances to the crashing of the mechanical chains that bind him.

  The rhythm is mesmerizing. He shows me the wonders he once helped create, and of a time when great men of metal walked the Earth. Golems, created through human architecture, helping them to build a land even grander than himself. I saw Arcadia in its splendor, with forests and tubes, circular and square, technological and natural. I saw Armored Titans tear at their own faces, and then fall here in the darkness beside me, while they watch me and dream of what they have lost. There is no more spirit in the flesh. All there are echoes lost behind the steel.

  How can this exist on a planet? How can the infinite exist in the finite? I don't know. Some secrets are beyond comprehension, even mine. And defying it with anger, a creature appears above the eye. A blob of flesh, horns and red eyes with a face similar to mine. It writhes and turns into a great beast, just like the one that swam through the first seas of blood I created. It emulates the Leviathan, profane, and comes towards me as the maritime fusion of my mistakes.

  I heat the blood inside my body, and force my muscles to work. I stiffen and brace myself, then expand the water into a burst of steam inside his mouth. He changes his trajectory, and I follow him. I heat his hide, and pressurize jets of heated blood to inject him with the burning substance. The creature struggles, swimming at high speed through the far reaches of the icy depths, until my body goes into shock. But I don't let the lack of light distract me. I manipulate the injected blood and make it flow through the creature's random veins. I multiply it, keeping in touch so that the inviolability of the soul does not prevent me from manipulating it inside the Beast. I interrupt his circulation, clump the blood into crystals, flesh explodes inside the veins, boiling and poisonous, while his thorns try to pierce the bubble of flesh that I have created to attach myself to his back. I no longer need to fear him. I will destroy it, just like it tried to do to me.

  The Leviathan writhes, and its strength finally throws me out of reach. The ocean pressure pushes me, I feel my bones snap, and faster than I anticipated, it swallows me.

  My chest beats hard, and the tremors of the Beast's heart do the same. I protect myself from being crushed, but the blood bubble breaks when swallowed. Somehow, the creature's throat is even more potent than the seabed. It drags me on its stomach as I struggle for air, and I hurtle into another ocean—now green and acidic. I manipulate the wind and make room for my fall. He doesn't expect me to get out alive. The gases are toxic, dense, and heavy, and in the face of my power, you made a bet. You know what I'm going to do, and you're willing to die if it kills me. It won't stop me.

  I inhale, and touch the bottom of his stomach. Stench and darkness envelop me. It's not important. I accumulate the gases and concentrate them. I warm them up. It will not be steam. The blade absorbs the surrounding darkness to take shape, creating light in the process. It ignites before the entropic fire, and then crystallizes into crimson blood.

  “Maximum Emission,” I Say. “Blade of disaster.”

  I pierce the Beast. It's not big enough, so I increase it. A pin behind the meat becomes a scalpel, then a knife, then a sword, and then, free. I press down, imploding, exploding. I go from side to side as I struggle to keep the gastric juice away from me.

  Boom.

  Guts and black meat expand into incandescent bubbles and are immediately crushed by the ocean. I advance against freedom and undo the spell, concentrating on becoming conscious and recovering from the ambient conditions. I look back, and in the creature's eyes, I see the pain of having lost the bet I had made. It's not the first time something has swallowed me, but Hilda at least had the decency to close the exit with magic. Compared to her, this was nothing.

  “I have overcome this incompetence.” I say, walking on water while facing the enemy.

  He claps his hands before the decaying creature that is now drowning, sitting on a chair made of concrete. He wears white, with long black hair, bright glasses and a fresh, overly groomed face. “Bravo. Well done. You did the basics. You expect me to reward you?”

  “Who are you? Shouldn't it be with others?”

  “I am Elijah. Your friends don't remember me.”

  I frown.

  The surroundings are different. Did killing that creature brings me out of the Sea of thoughts, or did it just manifest imagination from a different place?

  Whatever the answer, the sudden change has to do with it.

  “You were what…”

  “Yes. I killed Joseph.”