Ashen's question was not sharp.
It was not even interested.
"And you?"
One word, spoken as if it were a stone thrown into a bottomless well.
But its impact inside the giant monster was different.
The echo did not spread through the air, but through its deformed body. The word struck walls of flesh, bone, and stolen memories, exploding inside into whispers, then into suppressed screams, then into chaos trying to awaken—only to collide again with that cold aura.
The giant monster did not answer immediately.
Its massive shoulders trembled slightly, as if its body itself were trying to assume a posture it did not know. The many human eyes on the sides of its face, or what resembled eyes, closed and opened slowly, as if the entire being were trying to look inward rather than outward.
"I…"
The voice came out broken, not from pain, but from congestion.
It stopped.
Other voices tried to interfere.
Go.
Devour.
Kill.
Do not stop.
But the aura…
Ashen's savage aura…
It was there.
Pushing them back.
Suppressing them.
Not silencing them completely, but forcing them to line up, if only for a moment.
"I don't know."
He finally said it.
A direct admission.
Without justification.
Without decoration.
"I have no destination."
A short silence followed, heavier than the previous ones.
Ashen did not comment.
He showed no surprise.
As if the answer had been expected.
The giant monster continued, its voice growing deeper, as if other layers of the being had begun to speak:
"If I leave…
If I move away from you…"
It hesitated, as if the words themselves were unwilling to emerge.
"The voices will return."
He said it without fear.
He said it as a biological fact.
"They will return to scream. To struggle. To fight.
Every soul wants control. Every fragment of awareness wants to be 'me.'"
Its body began to tremble slightly, not violently, but like a being trying to restrain something larger than itself.
"Madness will consume me again."
The word madness came from a hundred mouths, but this time it was not a scream. It was a description.
Ashen remained silent.
His eyes did not gleam.
He did not approach.
He did not retreat.
The giant monster continued, and its voice began to take on a clearer, more organized tone, as if the aura did not only grant calm, but also the ability to arrange thought.
"What you feel now,"
he said while looking at Ashen,
"this calm… this cohesion… it is not mine."
He pointed to his massive chest.
"It is the result of your presence."
It was not gratitude.
Nor devotion.
It was diagnosis.
"You do not extinguish the voices.
You compress them.
You force them to bow."
He paused, then added in a steadier tone:
"As if you are a higher predator, and your mere existence imposes a new order on the chain."
The air around them seemed to respond to the words.
Even the remnants of blood on the ground no longer boiled.
Ashen finally spoke:
"And what if I leave?"
The question carried no threat.
No test.
It was the question of a man who did not intend to stay.
The giant monster did not evade it.
"I will return to what I was."
Then he corrected himself:
"Worse."
The voices inside his body began to move more violently at the admission, as if they sensed an opportunity to pounce. Dark lines appeared on his skin, cracks like veins pulsing with chaos.
"Clarity is temporary.
Artificial.
Linked to you alone."
Then he said, his voice heavier and deeper:
"But do not misunderstand."
He raised his massive head slightly.
"This does not make me a subordinate."
Clear words.
Sharp.
Without pleading.
"I am not asking you to stay.
I am not asking for your protection.
I am not asking for mercy."
The voices inside him agreed.
Even the most insane among them.
"I am an incomplete being.
Not weak… incomplete."
A fundamental difference.
"My power exists.
My ability to devour, transform, annihilate… exists."
He smiled, or something resembling a torn smile.
"But without a center."
Another silence fell.
This time, it was not emptiness.
It was the weight of truth.
Ashen listened.
Only listened.
He did not try to understand him psychologically.
He did not try to persuade him.
He did not try to exploit the confession.
"So you are unable to choose a path."
He said it as a statement.
The giant monster nodded slowly.
"It is not a choice.
It is a continuous collapse of choices."
Then he added:
"Every path turns into an internal battlefield."
The voices began to rise slightly, as if to prove his point. Suppressed screams, conflicting desires, distorted images of cities, bodies, souls being devoured.
But the aura…
It was still there.
Ashen said:
"Remaining like this means you will destroy everything you encounter."
The monster did not deny it.
"Yes."
A simple word.
Without defense.
"And that will happen whether I want it or not."
He paused, then looked at Ashen with a slightly different gaze.
"Your presence does not prevent that.
It delays it."
Ashen showed no special interest in this conclusion.
"Then why are you telling me all this?"
The giant monster was silent for a moment.
Then he said:
"Because you asked."
Not because you are important.
Not because you are a savior.
Not because I trust you.
Only… because you asked.
He added, his voice now less chaotic, more focused:
"My need for you is not a feeling.
Nor a desire for attachment."
Then he spoke the sentence that fixed everything:
"It is an existential need."
The voices inside him repeated it.
Existential… existential…
"Like a body needs a center of balance.
Like chaos needs an axis so it does not destroy itself."
He looked at Ashen steadily.
"You are that axis… temporarily."
He did not say forever.
He did not say always.
Temporarily.
Ashen turned slightly, looking at the widespread ruin.
"That is not a sufficient reason."
He said it without cruelty.
The monster did not argue.
"I did not say it was a moral reason.
It is a practical one."
Silence fell again.
But this time, the silence was charged with mutual understanding:
This being is not a subordinate.
Not a victim.
Not yet an ally.
It is an incomplete force… searching for a way not to devour itself.