He dreamed of a bustling orphanage. The sisters looked worried, whispering so that the children could not hear what was being said.
The older youths were acting strangely as well. They avoided games and formed small circles among themselves, isolating the younger ones, as if they shared a dark secret.
Giovanni had just turned six at the time, but the sense of unease lingered in his memories.
His footsteps echoed down the corridors, slower than usual.
Isolation pressed in on him, sharp and unfamiliar.
His first instinct was to ask Aunt Isabelle what was happening, but all he received was an instruction to go play.
Even hesitantly, Giovanni did as he was told. For hours, he jumped from one toy to another, attention slipping through his fingers.
By nightfall, things had changed completely. Worry had turned into restless happiness, and people who had once been nervous now acted as if the day were worthy of celebration.
Giovanni tugged at Aunt Margaret's skirt. He wanted an answer, anything at all. The woman looked down at him with a smile and announced to the children gathered around her.
"Leah found a family!"
***
Climbing the attic stairs, that was where Giovanni found the young woman in isolation. Sitting in front of the only circular window, Leah seemed lost in thought, staring at the moon in the sky above.
She dressed in a masculine way, wearing a white tank top and earth-toned shorts. Her blond hair was pale as wheat, tied firmly into a low bun.
Her drooping eyes looked sleepy, even though the night was still young.
"Leh… are you leaving?"
The girl startled at the small boy who approached unnoticed. Previously expressionless, she adopted a carefree attitude.
"There's nothing confirmed yet, silly. It's way too early to miss me."
Giovanni was pulled closer and placed on her lap. In the older girl's arms, the little one felt sheltered by her warmth.
The knot inside him loosened, if only briefly.
"And even if I do go, I can still visit you during the week. Get it?"
It sounded good… even if he still did not like the idea of them being separated, Leah would now have parents. He should be happy.
"…You'll bring presents, too?"
He did not miss the chance to try to get a new toy or two. The young woman laughed and pinched her little brother's cheeks, feigning anger.
"We're talking about my farewell, and you're trying to empty my wallet?! You really are the worst…"
Giovanni groaned in protest, squirming to escape the grip. He eventually gave up, defeated by the strength of a superior opponent.
Leah released his face and sighed, tired. As Giovanni rubbed his reddened cheeks, he asked.
"Why are you up here, Leh? We can play downstairs."
She adjusted her posture, buying herself a few seconds.
"Enjoying the view... Listen, I'm going to tell you something only a few people know…"
Leah pointed toward the moon, shimmering in all its glory. Giovanni looked briefly at the natural satellite before turning his attention back to his sister's face.
"In the past, people landed on the moon. They were called astronauts, and they were space pirates!"
The idea of people flying ships into the sky made Giovanni's head explode the first time he heard it.
"And did they find treasure there? Like cheese?"
"A lot… rivers of gold and cheese. How do you think they got rich enough to end the world later?"
She murmured the second part, holding back irritation.
Not wanting to fill the child's head with her bitter remarks, she continued.
"I dream that when all of this is over… I can go to space, too."
The idea of a world without the spell, without its cruel trials and frightening monsters.
The idea settled in his mind, strange and bright.
"So the monsters will go away?"
"For sure… humanity is tough. We've endured worse things than some boogeymen."
The confidence with which she said it somehow made him believe it too.
"Then let's go to the moon together!"
She smiled strangely.
"No way… You'd eat the ship before we even got there, you glutton!"
Laughter echoed through the attic.
***
On the day Leah was set to leave, more than twenty children gathered in the chapel of Saint Lucy's Orphanage. All of them surrounded Leah, who now wore a simple, dark formal outfit instead of her usual sloppy clothes.
Many offered farewell gifts, such as drawings or little clay dolls. Among them, Noah seemed to be the most emotional.
The two oldest children in the orphanage exchanged long looks and strange words, which carried a different meaning for the small children listening than what they truly implied.
The blond young woman was exhausted, having not even taken a nap in the last few days. When asked about it, she always replied that she was "too excited to sleep."
Throughout the room, candles burned, and lit incense perfumed the air.
Giovanni watched from afar, with a strange feeling in his chest. He only needed to approach and hand over his drawing, but his feet refused to obey him.
Leah took the initiative in his place. Kneeling in front of him, she came face-to-face with the small boy.
She wore a dark hat with a shimmering golden ribbon.
"What's wrong? Is your drawing so ugly you don't want to show it?"
Annoyed by the comment, his hesitation faded as he revealed what was on the page. Two stick figures standing on something shaped like a ship flying toward the moon.
Leah took the drawing, her hands trembling in a restrained way, refusing to falter.
"I… I don't want to be alone…"
"You're never going to be alone, idiot. Look around, they'll be here with you."
Leah removed her hat and then a rosary from around her neck, handing the simple accessory to the child.
"Here, now we're even. It's my special lucky charm… my life's all set now… so you'll need it more than I do, you crybaby."
Outside, Margaret's voice calling for her made Leah realize she had almost fallen asleep for a moment. The realization made her expression grow serious as she stood up and put the hat back on.
"It's late now, so you should go to bed, okay?"
She turned and began to walk away, but before leaving with the gray-haired woman, she turned her head one last time and spoke.
"Good night, Giovanni."
A song echoed in the darkness…
***
When it was over, Giovanni did not remember who led him back to the dormitory.
The room had gone still.
Other children were asleep, and he remained there with his eyes open, staring at the shadows with a rosary in his hands.
Sleep reached for him little by little, resonating melodically. His futile resistance stretched on for minutes, until his eyelids were too heavy to keep open.
Tomorrow would be a new day.
Everything would be alright.
His eyes closed completely, drifting toward sleep.
But there, he found light.
In the distance, a delicate, golden flame called out for something.
Suddenly, the sensation of a warm mattress vanished, replaced by something cold and viscous.
The darkness rose to meet him. Not as a child, but as a young man.
Gold shimmered, thinning the dark until the song broke apart.
He…
***
Giovanni jolted awake, his consciousness snapping back without warning.
Around him, the darkness that blanketed the submerged crater was oppressive. The wind made his tunic and hair dance against the breeze, but unlike before, no melody echoed in his ears.
A drop fell from his cheek. Brushing the area with his finger, he wiped away a thick, black liquid that had flowed from his eyes like tears.
'I need to get out of here!'
He was terrified and disoriented. He had lost consciousness for some time and couldn't remember anything from that interval.
"Eric… Shelly…"
When he turned to face his allies, he saw that both had their eyes closed, locked in a deep sleep.
The only one standing, unaffected like him, was Gaius, staring at his sleeping master in silence.
They had been affected too.
"Wake up, wake up now!"
Giovanni shook them, shouted, did everything he could to stir even a thread of awareness.
Nothing.
That wasn't the only problem.
Throughout the ruins, humanoid monstrosities and arachnid creatures were rising and beginning to move erratically, not like living beings, but like ragdolls that didn't understand their own bodies.
He had to make a decision then and there. Leave them behind and escape, or try to save his companions somehow.
Giovanni did not hesitate.
"Gaius, carry Eric. I'll take Shelly!"
The Echo obeyed the simple command, wrapping the giant in an even larger fist of earth.
Giovanni, in turn, laid Shelly down and enveloped her with earth, making her unconscious body slide alongside the others.
The peaceful walk became a desperate sprint. Using the old trick to accelerate both himself and Gaius, their only option was to run toward the crater, crossing the final stretch of corridor formed by towering ocean walls.
Ahead, creatures had already fully awakened. They did not walk or look around like living beings, acting instead like statues of flesh.
Until they noticed the intruders.
Only then did those beings, once people, now resembling decomposed bodies twisted into viscous black aberrations, begin to move.
Any resemblance to humanity vanished as they lunged toward Giovanni like rabid beasts.
Arms and legs bent at violent angles, propelling them forward on all fours.
Every sound their bodies produced failed to make sense. Footsteps turned into notes, grunts and roars transformed into whispers, into incomprehensible letters.
Living flesh became substance, identity consumed by the symphony.
'I-I need to stop them…'
But there were too many.
The ground cracked and spread in countless directions, burying small groups beneath waves of earth. Giovanni prioritized transmuting the ground beneath the closest ones, making them sink into muddy pools and sealing them inside.
But for every five contained, ten more drew closer. Gaius eliminated large numbers of those trying to reach him and Eric, creating stone spikes, tearing open the ground, and crushing the beings trapped within.
Pressing forward or retreating seemed destined to end the same way.
They were all going to die.
Desperate for an escape, Giovanni closed his eyes, searching for the light that always guided him.
His gaze followed its glow, landing on the only safe place for the group of sleepers.
The ocean wall.
Giovanni changed course, abandoning any attempt to reach the crater's interior, where even worse monsters awaited, and charged straight toward the massive rock formation, over a thousand meters tall.
They needed to get as far away as possible from the surface, completely overrun by hordes of possessed beings.
It was hard not to despair, feeling hundreds of creatures advancing from all directions like a maddened anthill.
The crimson light of the castle enveloped him, like spotlights focusing on the last actor standing on a blood-soaked stage.
His life flashed before his eyes. Every victory and defeat, loss and triumph.
The alliance he forged with Eric among the ivory trees. His meeting with Shelly in the land of corals and algae.
Sofia and their farewell in the academy's medical wing. His last conversation with Beako. Omar's advice in the car along the way.
Even earlier…
His conversation with Margaret. The promise made before walking toward certain death.
Too many people were waiting for him. Depending on him.
'I need to make this work! Come on!'
He remembered collapsing a canyon atop the centipede, or paralyzing the golem about to kill Shelly in the desolate land. Both feats were done unconsciously, by sheer luck.
But Giovanni couldn't rely on luck forever.
If experience had taught him anything, it was that the light served as a guide, but also as the tool that channeled the power of his greatest attribute.
His aspect swept across the surrounding earth, forging a firm connection as his mind focused entirely on the blinding light emanating from the ocean wall.
Giovanni needed a path… he would create a path.
"OPEN!"
The earth answered his call.
***
The horde of corrupted beings was about to reach the small group of trapped prey. No matter how fast they ran, the burden of carrying their unconscious companions would doom them as well.
Crack!
The world was struck by a violent earthquake, toppling nightmare creatures and disorienting the few that managed to keep their footing. The region, once faintly illuminated by the castle's blood-red glow, was swallowed by complete darkness without warning.
The reason was not the bastion going dark. On the contrary, it seemed to shine even brighter, ecstatic at witnessing something that should have been impossible.
The earth split in two, generating two colossal waves that rose dozens of meters into the air. The hundreds of monsters about to tear Giovanni and his companions apart were swept away, carving a clear path between the young man and his goal.
The aberrations began piling atop one another, gaining height and threatening to climb over the rising barriers.
And so the waves continued to grow and grow, until no threat could reach them.
The light shining on the wall went out, like a snuffed candle. The defenses would collapse before they arrived.
And so he began to consume an even greater flame.
Giovanni's mind plunged into a place far removed from the physical world, yet equally familiar.
His own Soul Sea awaited him.
In a vast field where a sea of flowers stretched in every direction, a golden sun floated above, serene.
Its silhouette, inert until then… began to shine with absolute radiance.
Small fragments broke free from its surface, floating and dissolving into the air.
For the first time since its conception, the sun acted like a true star.
Consuming itself to shape the future.
From the darkest depths, the abyss bore witness to the only light capable of extinguishing it.
The light of a miracle.