[You have acquired a Memory.]
Samael released a breath he hadn't even realized he was holding.
"Finally… a reward after all the trouble it took to kill another one of those damn things."
The Spell continued.
Memory Name: Scaled ArmorRank: AwakenedLevel: 2
Enchantments: Resistance, Concealment
Effect — Resistance:This Memory possesses high resistance to physical impacts, thanks to the serpent scales that form its structure.
Effect — Concealment:This armor increases the wearer's chances of going unnoticed by hostile creatures.
"Wow…" Samael murmured. "I really needed something like this."
As he equipped it, armor materialized over his body.
It resembled reinforced leather armor, formed from overlapping dark-green scales—flexible enough to allow movement, yet dense enough to inspire a sense of security.
Samael took a deep breath.
"I need to collect the soul shards… fast."
He still remembered the last time.
There hadn't been enough time.
Using the Ascended Spear, he opened the serpent's body as quickly as he could.
Inside, he found two glowing orbs.
Beautiful.
And valuable.
"These must be worth a fortune…" he muttered.
For a brief moment, a dangerous thought crossed his mind.
"Could I make a Memory using soul shards…?"
He immediately shook his head.
"No way," he grumbled. "These are worth my kidneys. I'm not wasting something like this on stupid curiosity."
Then he felt it.
Presences.
Approaching.
The noise of battle had drawn too much attention.
"Damn it…"
Samael ran.
He still couldn't face multiple creatures at once. If he got surrounded here, it would turn into a massacre.
Unfortunately, the island wasn't kind enough to allow perfect escapes every time.
As he ran, he felt something following him.
When he looked back, his heart sank.
Another man-eating serpent.
"Leave me alone!" he shouted, panting.
It was faster.
The distance closed far too quickly.
Without thinking twice, Samael grabbed a vine, climbed a tree, and began moving through the branches—jumping, swinging, advancing like a desperate monkey.
What desperation could do to a person…
The serpent continued the pursuit.
But little by little, the distance stopped shrinking so fast.
While fleeing, Samael noticed other serpents among the trees.
Then, suddenly—
The pursuer stopped.
And retreated.
Moving away, silent.
Cautious.
Samael's stomach turned to ice.
He froze, clinging to a branch.
Looked around.
His Bestial Reflexes detected nothing nearby.
"Why did that bastard run away…?"
Then he saw it.
His heart nearly stopped.
Without realizing it, he began to shrink instinctively.
In the distance—very far away—there was something.
Something he should not have been able to see.
Something larger than the trees, which stood at least six meters tall.
A colossal creature was moving toward the island's core.
It looked like a lizard… or perhaps something closer to a dinosaur.
It was enormous.
Dark-blue scales covered its body.
Six legs supported its absurd mass.
A gigantic tail dragged behind it.
Its neck was elongated.
Its face had four eyes.
And a massive mouth filled with sharp teeth.
"What… is that…?" Samael whispered, panic written across his face.
His body trembled.
That thing completely eclipsed the two-headed serpent.
Even if the serpent was longer… this creature existed on a different level.
It was at least a kilometer away.
And yet, Samael felt his bones freeze.
"That thing is… Fallen…" he murmured.
The same rank as Terror-chan.
The creature released a deep roar.
"Hissssss—"
It sounded as though it was fighting something.
But Samael couldn't see the opponent.
And judging by the scale… it didn't seem to be the same size.
"I can't imagine something like that losing…" he said, stunned.
Every instinct screamed at him to run.
But he was hypnotized.
Then—
FUSSHH.
A blade-like sound echoed across the entire island.
The world seemed to stop.
The next instant, Samael was running.
Running with everything he had.
Toward the beach.
Stumbling.
Ignoring stealth.
Ignoring everything.
His expression was pure horror.
The Fallen creature—majestic, absurd, impossible—
Had been killed.
Brutally.
In a single strike.
Along with it, the forest was split clean in half.
That…
That was not something humans were meant to face.
And in that moment, Samael understood that the true terror of this island…
Hadn't even begun yet.
When Samael finally reached Terror-chan, his body was covered in shallow cuts from branches and his desperate escape through the forest.
He barely felt the pain.
The forest—once silent out of caution—was now absolutely silent.
No insects.No rustling.No sound.
Fear saturated the air.
Nothing dared to move.
Nothing dared to make noise and attract that thing.
Samael curled up between Terror-chan's colossal bones, hugging his knees.
In silence.
He tried to calm down.
Failed miserably.
His mind was chaos.
"It's impossible…" he thought, breathing unsteadily."There's no way to survive… it's impossible…"
The images returned relentlessly.
The creature.
The strike.
The forest being cleaved apart.
"That…" he continued, swallowing hard. "That wasn't meant to be fought by humans…"
Any hope Samael still held of surviving and escaping the island was brutally crushed.
Reduced to nothing.
He sank deeper among the bones, as if he could disappear there.
"Hey, Terror-chan…" he murmured, his voice weak, hollow."I think I'm going to stay here forever."
As night fell, Samael didn't even notice the transition of his Flaw.
For the first time, it felt irrelevant in the face of that aberration.
There was no way.
No way to win.
It didn't matter what he did.
Even if Terror-chan came back to life to help him, the two of them would be killed without any chance of victory.
It wasn't fair.
Sunny and Nephis had fought an Awakened Terror to escape.
Why did he have to deal with something of that magnitude?
Samael spent the rest of the night in silence, hugging his knees as he stared at the sea.
Eventually, he fell asleep in that position—just like on the first night.
The difference…
That night, he had fallen asleep talking to Terror-chan.
This time, the silence was absolute.
The first night had fear.
But there had still been hope.
Now, whatever hope he once had had been crushed—
Along with that creature—
In a single strike.