It was a light flow, but there was a distinctive heat exclusive to the Dragonheart blood he possessed; perhaps it was through a direct usage of his physicality, but it seemed to awaken that slumbering bloodline.


    Still, he wasn’t by any means ‘experienced’ in close-quartersbat with his fists as when he went in for another punch, he slipped up, disturbed by the ripples of water and his own anxiousness.


    “Wah!”


    The flower-eyed gori took advantage of his slip-up, mming one of its fists against his cheek.


    At that moment, he saw stars as his entire body was flung back from the power behind the savage blow.


    Still, despite the shiness of the blow received, he was able to recover quickly, though with a reddened, throbbing cheek as he spit out blood from his mouth.


    That didn’t knock me out. That’s good news, he thought, if it wasn’t for my draconic constitution, my brains would probably be spilling out from that hit.


    Keeping her distance, the silver-haired girl watched the peculiar bout while staying behind a fallen log, peering over.


    Somebody that size is able to fight that monster…? He’s impressive…and he’s my age, the girl thought.


    –


    There was still a disparity in brute strength and aggression; the gori seemed to hardly register pain and moved without any thought of its own well-being. It was this factor that gave it the ability to pressure him, continuing to force him on the backfoot.


    If only I had my sword!…No! Just act! He told himself.


    Seeing an opportunity just as a wide swing came from the gori’s giant arm, he jumped up and reached towards the hanging, crimson vines, pulling himself up and over the goliath’s head.


    Giving himself an opportune angle, he fell on its back, trying to secure a chokehold._.


    Of course, the gori didn’t like this.


    It began thrashing as he tried clinging to its back as if riding a rampaging bull, finding himself swirling around as he clung to its neck.


    “Stop…moving!” He said through clenched teeth.


    Without any proper experience in securing a chokehold, he was promptly grabbed off of the gori’s back before being swung around like a nunchuck.


    “Grhh-!”


    Helpless to the inertia, he was flipped around by his leg, mmed repeatedly into the swamp water as his back smashed into the mud below the knee-deep water.


    It took the breath away from his lungs; the repeated ms left him gasping for air before he was lifted up again and thrown against a tree.


    “…Hhhf…!”


    Attempting to suck oxygen into his lungs, he first spit out the repugnant swamp water, picking himself up and breathing in.


    My ribs…! He thought, wincing.


    There was little time to react as the flower-eyed gori was rushing him again, sifting through the shallow water as the glow of the surrounding spider lilies brought an ominous light to the abnormal space.


    Something was felt by his boot as he readied himself; a solid feeling that struck him as hopeful as he prepared himself to face the charging goliath.


    As it roared out with a war cry that caused the murky water to ripple, it raised its massive arms to m down against him before–


    SQUELCH.


    It stopped.


    “…Huff…” He breathed.


    Sticking through the moss-furred gori’s back was the ck-and-silver de of his trusted weapon, which was gripped between his fingers tightly as he held it through the beast.


    It was a miraculous oue; a miracle he felt in that moment as he caught his breath, feeling just how tightly his fingers wrapped around the handle of his de in fear of the goliath.


    “–“


    The life was felt leaving the gori’s body after a few moments before he slowly slid the de out, having to kick its body back onto the water.


    …I did it. Though I would’ve died if I didn’t find my sword right there, he thought.


    Watching the body of the abnormal beast, he stepped back as spider lilies sprouted from beneath the water, surrounding the body of the beastpletely in a peculiar fashion. The subtle glow of the crimson flowers of death was something to behold in the mystical swamp.


    It’s almost like a funeral ground, he thought.


    The spider lilies sprouted on the gori’s body as well,pletely engulfing it into a bed of flowers before it seemed to turn into nothing more than a smallnd mass among the dreary waters.


    It was odd to him, but the nature of the alternate realities was something he was too tired to question.


    “Oh, right…!” He remembered.


    The girl he’d seen prior to the encounter with the goliath popped into his mind, prompting him to hurry over as he marched through the dense water, ascending the small ind amidst the swamp as he used his de to cut down vines in his way.


    He saw her sitting by a log, still hugging herself in fear. There was no doubt such a ce was a less thanforting environment, especially for somebody his age or hers.


    “It’s alright…It’s gone now. I beat it,” he assured her.


    The state of his body, left bruised and bleeding from his mouth and nose, didn’t quite make him the beacon of hope he tried to be.


    “I may not look like much, but I can get us out of here…” He told her, “…Well, I’m not going to make any promises, okay?”


    “Are you an adventurer…?” The girl asked quietly in response.


    It was clear to him that she’d seen things that’d likely left invisible scars; sights beyond reality or magic that could only be found through the Unending Nightmare; that much was obvious through the way she averted her emerald eyes.


    As he parted his lips to lie with a “Yes” he stopped himself before slowly shaking his head.


    “I’m not…I’m just somebody trying to make it out of here, like you,” he told her honestly with a small smile, “I’m Emilio. What’s your name?”


    Perhaps a lie would be helpful, temporarily, but after all he’d been through in the nightmare, the truth felt moreforting.


    Truthfully, he didn’t have the energy to hold the mantle of an ‘adventurer’, or rather, a ‘savior’; right now, he was simply a boy trying to survive.


    The pale-skinned girl was still shaking, clutching her dirty, olive-and-beige dress close to her body, though she quelled her trembling by holding her own hand before she finally looked up at him.


    He was taken aback by her charming looks; a cute, button nose and cheeks that looked squishable. It was a natural beauty, hardly harmed by the bleak atmosphere.


    “Melisande,” she told him in a quiet voice.


    The moment he was given her name, his eyes widened as he was stricken by utter silence. It only took a moment for it all to connect together: the name, hair, and eyes of the girl.


    Though he’d never met her before this moment, he already knew of her.


    “…You…”


    “Huh…?” Melisande peered up at him, still hugging her knees.


    Tears slowly welled up in his eyes as he found it difficult to push the words past his throat as he clenched his fist, “You’re Joel’s sister…”


    The utterance of Joel’s name also caused the girl to hold new light in her eyes as she immediately jumped to her feet, grabbing onto his vest.


    “You know my brother?! Where is he?! Is he alright?…Please tell me he’s alright,” Melisande said without any reservation in her tears.


    Seeing how much she cared about and missed her elder brother struck him with such visceral pain in his heart as he found himself struggling to answer, trying to formte whatever words he could as he slowly shook his head.


    Though he hadn’t yet said a word, the anguished look on his face seemed to be telling enough as Melisande looked up at him with tears strolling down her cheeks, shaking her head in rejection of the unspoken truth.


    “No, no, no…you’re lying,” Melisande backed away, “You’re lying. You’re lying. Brother said he’d always be by my side. He promised. He was strong–he never lied!”


    “…I’m sorry…” He told her quietly.


    There was nothing he could think to say in an attempt to ease the situation, but there likely were no words that could dull the pain of the younger sister.


    “I was with him…”


    As soon as he said that, the look he received from the girl was one that made him the catalyst of her grief as she tried shoving him, though it resulted in nothing as he stood there, allowing it.


    “–You were there?…You were there and you couldn’t protect him? Why? Why did you let him die…?” Melisande grieved.


    After the girl stumbled back, holding her face in her hands as she exuded her fresh emotions, the amethyst-eyed boy sat down against one of the mossyered trees.


    “Yeah…I couldn’t save him,” hemented, looking down.


    “–” Melisande remained quiet, sniffling.


    “I didn’t know him very long,” he told her, “but when I met him–he was already trying to save me. He was all alone in that hell, but he was still kicking.”


    As he spoke what he felt, the sorrowful anger on the girl’s expression softened to simply sadness as tears dripped from her verdant eyes.


    “He was looking for you, Melisande…He never stopped looking,” he told her, “…He didn’t want you to be alone.”


    “…If that’s what he wanted, then why?…Why did he leave me? I waited and waited for him…but he never came,” Melisande said quietly.


    Bringing himself to his feet, he brushed the dirt from his pants before looking at his own hands, which were now callused and burned as the pale skin of his palms had been seared off.


    Still, he extended his hand down to Melisande, wearing the only smile he could muster as mncholy sat in his eyes.


    “…?” Melisande looked up at him.


    “I promise I’ll get you out of here,” he told her in confidence, “…I know that’s what Joel would’ve wanted me to do. You know better than anybody, right? An energetic guy like that fought as hard as he could for you–and I’ll keep that fight going.”