He's by the sea again.

Hector looks around, breathing hard. The last memory had shaken him deeply. So deeply. He thinks this beach is different from the one where the tower stood. It looks vaguely familiar even, but he has no time to place it.

Damien stands knee-deep in the ocean, at least a hundred metres away from Hector. The latter is crouching awkwardly on the shore. Damien's back is turned, but Hector knows it's him. Though his wings are gone, the white chiton remains, and his hair shimmers and glints in the sun.

Hector stands—too late.

The Leviathan breaks out of the water in a horrifying arc. A horned serpent, covered in green-blue scales, eyes gold and all-seeing. As it turns its massive head towards Damien, Hector breaks into a sprint.

Damien turns at the last second, meeting Hector's desperate eyes. He smiles and mouths, 'Save me.'

The Leviathan closes its jaws around Damien, and Hector feels five years pass by him. The Leviathan sees him and winks.

Blue lightning sluices through Hector's body like a sickle to wheat. It culminates in his left hand to the point of burning. A spear forms between his fingers — so much easier, so much faster than when he was facing the Blackscale — and he has no doubts about what he has to do.

Sand sprays out in a fan as he launches from the sand, the spear almost solid in his hands when he raises it behind his head. As he comes within range of the Leviathan, he plunges it deep into the narrow fleshy part of its throat, the part glowing with life.

Gravity drags him down, and the blue light slices through the length of the creature, skin and scales splitting and shattering under his magic.

The Leviathan screams and tosses its head. Blood spills, black as ink, turning the water into an ugly murk. Hector tumbles into the water when his spear suddenly vanishes, landing breathlessly into the shallows. He coughs out the black-blood water, searching the air for Damien—

There!

Slipping out of the Leviathan, eyes shut and falling soundlessly. Hector clambers to his feet, ignoring the Leviathan as it sways to the right, then the left, all-seeing eyes now lifeless.

A second before Damien lands in his outstretched arms, the world tips upside-down, and he's yanked straight out of Damien's head.