Leo sat inside the cottage, devouring the food with a hunger he had never known; every bite made him feel the weakness of the human body and its humiliating need for sustenance. The old man watched his movements in a calm silence, his eyes filled with questions. Leo broke the silence with his steady voice and asked: — "Since when have you been living here alone?" The old man replied with a faint smile: "Since I first opened my eyes to this world... the walls of this cottage have grown old with me." Leo asked again, scanning the place: "And how is life in this city?" The old man let out a burning sigh and answered: "If you have money and family, you live... otherwise, there is no place for you here; you will be nothing but a forgotten shadow."
The old man asked Leo curiously, tilting his head: "And you... what is a young man like you doing in this city?" Leo replied with a bone-chilling coldness: "I am on an exploration journey, and I am going to the 'Great Library' if you know it." The old man jolted in his place, his eyes widening in shock: "Who doesn't know it? It is the place where people derive their powers, where they tame their beasts and obtain energy stones... it is the heart of the world!"
Leo asked the old man curiously, as if testing his humanity: "And you... do you possess any power?" The old man became flustered; his hands began to tremble, and he looked around the corners of the room with bitter brokenness, then said in a fractured voice: "No... power is not available to everyone; obtaining it is very limited. I couldn't even tame a small animal, let alone obtain energy stones." The old man looked at Leo with awe and hidden admiration and added: "But you... you have been able to do that."
At that moment, Leo slowly turned his head and looked at the dragon 'Fru' crouching behind the window, then said in a faint voice carrying a mysterious pride: "Yes, so it seems."
Leo stood up suddenly, his movement as decisive as a sword, and said in a firm voice: "I have had enough. I will not forget your favor toward me, but I must leave now." The old man objected with fear and fatherly concern: "Stay tonight; darkness is about to fall, and the night outside will not be safe... the forest swallows strangers." Leo felt the burden of human exhaustion weighing down his limbs; he felt his body demanding rest, so he looked at the old man and said: "Fine... this will be the last time I agree to stay."
[The Cave Scene: Who Are You?]
Deep in the cave, the silence was only broken by the echo of Alex and Niloufer's footsteps as they delved deeper into the rocky depths. The darkness of the cave began to crawl and intensify bit by bit, as if the place were trying to suffocate them. Nevertheless, there were thin threads of sunlight stubbornly seeping through the cracks, illuminating the path with a dim flicker.
Niloufer noticed with her sharp eyes that Alex was moving with a strange caution, twisting his body to avoid standing under those rays. Suddenly, Niloufer stopped in the middle of the path, standing like a dam, and said sharply: "Why are you avoiding these rays?" Alex replied with icy coldness, without even bothering to turn toward her: "What rays are you talking about?"
Crazy questions raced through Niloufer's head: "What? Am I hallucinating? Am I imagining this? Impossible, I see clearly how he avoids them!"
At that moment, Niloufer moved with lightning speed; she pulled out a mirror she had been hiding tightly between her hands. While Alex was coldly giving her his back, she aimed the mirror at a precise angle to reflect the sunbeam and aim it directly at his back. Suddenly! A faint smoke began to rise from Alex's clothes, and a strange burning smell began to waft. Alex spun around with brutal speed, his features changing in a second, only to find Niloufer covering her mouth with her hand, recoiling backward with heavy, terrified steps, her eyes telling the shock of a lifetime.
Niloufer (her voice choking with shock): "What are you? Who are you really?!" Alex lunged at her with a speed her eyes couldn't perceive; his movement was faster than any human. She aimed the mirror at his eyes again to repel him; he covered his face with his hand and screamed with a rage that shook the cave walls: "Stop! Or your end will be at my hands!"
Niloufer cried out, trembling like a bird: "Answer me! You are not human... Do you possess a soul stone? No, that's impossible! Even if you did..." In a moment of distraction, Alex pounced on her; his powerful hand clamped like a vise around her neck, lifting her off the ground as if she were a feather. Niloufer felt the air cut off, and her eyes began to glaze over. Alex (with a terrifying hiss and eyes burning with rage): "Despite your stupidity, your tricks are cunning, human... If you had used your mind and stayed stupid, you would be alive now." He squeezed harder, lifting her higher: "What now? Shall I kill you? Or what?"
Niloufer began to kick her legs in the air, desperately trying to break the death grip on her neck, and suddenly... Alex froze in his place. He felt a lethal coldness crawling behind his back. A massive, terrifying "Shadow" appeared, as if it were a piece of the cave's darkness itself, and said in a deep voice that shook the foundations of the place: "So, you are the cause of all this noise..."
Before Alex could try to turn around, the Shadow's hand pierced through his chest from behind with terrible force and came out from the other side, drenched in blood. Alex fell, clutching the site of the fatal injury, moaning and bleeding profusely. Niloufer hit the ground hard, beginning to pant frantically as she tried to regain her lost breath. Through her tear-filled, blurry vision, she saw that terrifying Shadow advancing toward her with calm steps... heading straight for her.