Hey—why was Smiley disassembled like that? And wait a minute. Why was Smiley there at all?
He'd just been right in front of me—limp, very dead, very committed to lying on the floor with all that rainbow-colored pixelated vapor leaking out of him like a busted party popper. No movement. No ominous twitching. Just… corpse. So why was he suddenly upright? And worse—modular?
Alright. Let's think about this for a sec.
I mentally put on my tinfoil hat and stroked my imaginary beard, hand on my chin. Maybe—maybe—during my dazed cutscene while doing Beholder stuff, Smiley somehow regained consciousness. Maybe he saw us having a moment—me, the Beholder, the little guy, the hugs, the tears. Maybe he thought, Wow, this is intimate. I shouldn't interrupt.
So he politely crawled away. Carefully. Respectfully. Disassembled himself at a safe distance. Let the black root-like thingies hold his body together like cursed glue or sentient ferrofluid. Grabbed a bunch of spare weapons lying around—because of course—and then said "die" to politely announce his gory presence and end the cutscene.
Right?
…Right?
"Dieeeee."
His disembodied head hissed.
Still wearing that awful smiling mask.
It twitched—sharp, jerky movements—like that nurse in Silent Hill when you shine a flashlight on them and instantly regret your life choices. The black roots attached to him began to twitch as well. Left. Right. Up. Down. Horizontal. Vertical. Diagonal. Movements too precise to be organic, too chaotic to be mechanical.
My vision finally sharpened.
That's when I saw them.
Floating eyes.
Scattered across the floor around Smiley. Disemboweled. Limp. Lifeless. Some still oozed purple pixelated liquid that pooled into glowing puddles, slowly flickering as if the system hadn't fully accepted their death yet.
Oh.
Alright.
That… actually explained a lot.
They hadn't been cheering anymore because they'd been killed. They'd tried to defend us. Or maybe just… me.
A familiar, unwelcome ping echoed in my head.
Heightened Awareness:Smiley → Ancient Core of the Infected: ActivatedStatus: Enraged
"…Oh. Quack."
He—no, it—lunged forward.
Every single one of its gazillion root-like tendrils exploded outward, each wielding a weapon. Blades, hooks, scythes, spears—things meant for war, harvesting, execution. They slithered and swung in impossible arcs, colliding with each other but never tangling, like a choreographed nightmare.
It didn't really walk.Didn't crawl either.Didn't roll.
It moved… alienly.
An alien root-ball of death, vibrating with hatred and bad design choices.
My body reacted before my brain could catch up. I patted myself down frantically, searching for my weapon.
Nothing.
Empty.
Cold realization hit.
Where was it?
Oh.
Right.
Still lodged in Smiley's chest.
Which was now part of a horrifying, spinning sphere of murder that was hissing "die" on repeat like a broken voice line.
"Oh no no no no—"
I needed to run. Dodge. Slide. Trip dramatically. Anything.
I pushed myself upright as fast as my legs would allow—
Too late.
The Smiley-ball was already right in front of me. I could hear the weapons whistling, slicing the air, zipping so close they tugged at my clothes. The sound alone was enough to make my skin crawl.
"Uuuwww."
The Beholder snarled in disgust.
It didn't sound angry. It sounded… annoyed. Like someone had brought mud into a freshly cleaned room.
One of its massive tentacles reached out and patted my back twice.
Pat. Pat.
The universal gesture for: hold my beer.
Then it floated forward.
"No—wait! It's dangerous!" I said, my voice cracking.
The Beholder didn't even acknowledge me.
It raised its tentacles toward the incoming Smiley-ball, like someone casually reaching out to catch a tossed ball. Weapons spun faster, screaming as they collided head-on with the Beholder's limbs.
But instead of a prolonged clash—
Blink.
That was it.
In the span of a heartbeat, the Beholder grabbed the Smiley-ball.
Blades slammed into its tentacles, embedding themselves deep. Some managed to slash, sparks and fragments flying, but they quickly stopped as the Beholder wrapped tighter and tighter around Smiley's branchy, writhing body.
"Die—die—dieeeee!" Smiley barked.
Still only able to say die.
But now?
His voice trembled.
Golden light began to pour from the Beholder's eyes.
The temperature spiked instantly, like standing in front of an open furnace. The air shimmered. My skin prickled.
Then—
A blast.
A pillar of pure, concentrated laser light erupted from the Beholder, striking Smiley's torso and vaporizing his silhouette in an instant. No scream. No resistance. Just erasure.
The beam didn't stop there.
It punched straight through the lab wall like it was made of damp cardboard, obliterating a massive section of stone and sending it crashing down with a thunderous roar.
I stood there, stunned, mouth slightly open.
I'd thought Smiley's crazy final form meant his danger level had quadrupled.
Turns out…I was on friendly terms with a dungeon boss that could delete him from existence without breaking focus.
Man.
I was really glad the Beholder was on my side this time.
My wounds were healed, but exhaustion finally caught up to me. My legs felt heavy. My head buzzed. Still, I felt safe. Secure. Protected.
The ancient Beholder wasn't messing around.
It tossed what remained of Smiley's lower branches to the floor.
They twitched.
Then—horrifyingly—small black veins began to snake outward, clumping together, trying to become something again.
"Wuuh."
The Beholder shrugged in shared disgust.
Then it laser-beamed the remains.
Once.Twice.Then several more times—like stomping on a cockroach that refuses to accept reality.
It… may have gone a bit overboard.
The floor collapsed.
"Waaaaaaa~!"
I dropped with it.
"Uuuuh."
That was the Beholder's version of oops, I guessed, as it quickly grabbed me with a tentacle—still impaled with a knife and a sword—and lifted me back up as it ascended.
It drew me closer to its massive central eye.
Then—
The little Beholder popped out of its mouth.
And immediately wrapped its tentacles around my face.
I froze.
Then relaxed.
Thank quack.
I hadn't seen the little guy during Smiley's transformation, and for a moment I'd been terrified he'd gotten hurt. It squeezed me too tightly, realized it, and loosened its grip.
It unwrapped my face, letting me breathe again.
"Yay! You're not dead!"
A cheerful, childlike voice echoed inside my head.
"…Huh?"
I blinked.
Wait.
That voice—
"Hey—what?" I thought instinctively. Where did that come from? I looked around, confused. It was just me, pressed close to the gigantic eye and—
"Hi, masterrrrr~!"
The voice popped again inside my head.
The young Beholder floated in front of me, waving its front tentacle excitedly like a dog wagging its tail.
I stared at it, heart thumping.
"…Whoa," I said, awe and confusion colliding in my chest. "I can hear… you?"