“Three days?”

“You slept for three days, yes. It's hard to process, take it easy”.

It took five minutes for Peck to assimilate what he heard. After his collapse in the library, and subsequent awakening, he discovered how long he remained unconscious.

It was daylight, early in the morning. Looking out of the window, he discovered a cloudy sky. He lost himself in the view, processing the events.

Sen told him that his body had suffered no serious consequences and remained healthy. Even if such a fact were suspicious, Peck was too puzzled to comment.

Another five minutes later, he was finally able to speak.

“I don't remember much. I saw the book, that's all I know. Then everything went round and round…”

“Did you see the book? The one I told you not to see?”

The surprise of Sen's question startled Peck. He knew it was wrong to break his promise, but that wasn't what bothered Sen.

I had hidden that book…

She didn't want to say that in front of Peck, not to worry him any more. She kept that worry to herself. All the days she went to check on the status of the book, it was still where she had hidden it.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what happened..."

Not knowing what Sen was thinking, Peck's guilt grew. His trembling hands gripped the sheets that kept him warm.

“It's not your fault. This book has its secrets. I should have warned you better”.

She lied about that, but it was for the best. Sen tried to sound sympathetic to a very frightened Peck.

“I'm sorry I caused you trouble, too...”

Peck couldn't even look up to see her. When he woke, he was wearing pajamas, his casual clothes lying clean and tidy at the foot of the bed. He knew her friend had been looking after him all the time, even though she'd said she wasn't feeling well. He had thought Sen was ill.

“Problems? Haha, not at all. If I were in trouble, you wouldn't hesitate to help me, would you?”

“I'd like to, but I don't know if I can help you. There's a big difference between our skills”.

“Why do you put it like that?” Sen interrupted.

Peck finally looked up, confused.

“You've helped me enough. You don't need to have a superpower to help others”.

“Then how?”

“For the past two months, I've really enjoyed talking to you, teaching you, witnessing your jokes, the way we've played. It's all very important to me. I've been quite lonely, in case you haven't noticed, no one has come to the mansion all this time. When they did, it was to ask favours and take advantage of my position. Real companionship since my master's death seemed impossible until I met you”.

“What about the other person who lives here?”

Sen's friendly expression changed to one of utter contempt.

“That worm can disappear if he wants to”.

Peck gulped at how intimidated he felt. Sen immediately regained her warm expression.

“And as I was saying, with all the time we've spent together, it would be impossible not to develop an appreciation for each other, wouldn't it? Do you appreciate me?”

“Yes, I do”. Peck didn't hesitate to answer. “You've been so good to me, I don't know how to begin to repay you. If my strength is greater...”

“Hey, I just said it's not the power that interests me. Your very sincere and simple way of looking at things, the genuine gratitude you show me, is better. My offer to teach you magic is tempting, I know, but that's not why you accepted. You did it because you sympathised with me, I'm sure of it”.

Peck thought at that moment:

I always feel better when I tell her what's wrong with me.

And then the mood in the room brightened. It wasn't the sun, it was the prospect of Peck seeing Sen.

The time he had spent with her had been the most peaceful of his life, as far as he could remember. He wasn't afraid of failing or making a mistake; if he made mistakes, she would corrected him kindly. If he had a bad habit, she would kindly let him know.

If he was struggling to move forward, Sen would always encourage him to try again and make him believe that he could achieve anything.

When things got difficult, she would be there to comfort him.

Eventually, he began to believe that if they could just talk it out, everything would be fine, because they would work together to move forward.

In Peck's eyes, Sen is a shining person.

“I see... thank you, Sen”.

Peck finally smiles reassuringly, and so does she.

“That's what friends are for, right?”

“Speaking of which...”

“What is it?”

“I was wondering, what was your master like? “

“My master? Well, it's a long story. He...”

The world flashed black before Peck's eyes.

Just like before, everything around him changed. This time it was real. He faded away, and when he came to, he was no longer in bed, but standing at the window. Sen was gone.

As Peck looked out of the window, a monster was attacking Batoru.

A creature ten times the size of any house in sight, it had a humanoid body with completely white skin, no recognisable face. Four long arms protruded from its back, with mouths on its hands.

The monster crushed houses with ease. The wizards present attacked it with fire, but the mouths devoured it.

“Sen?”

Peck looked for her friend. When he didn't see her, he decided to put on the clothes she had left for him and go look for her. He was still afraid to go where the people were, but if Sen was in danger, he had to help her.

He had a feeling he would find her where the monster was.

*** 

The layout of Batoru is pentagonal, with Sen's Mansion State at the top. It was planned to build houses around the mansion, this place would be called sector 'H'. On the other side were sectors 'A', 'E' and 'N'. None of them had anything to do with the cardinal points, the former leader of Batoru had chosen them without explanation.

In the centre, connecting the sectors, was a large platform where the annual battle to determine the leader of Batoru took place. This is where the monster appeared. With his brute strength alone, he shattered a quarter of Batoru in a minute.

Although there were mages who fought back, their offensive spells were consumed by the monster's mouth. Each spell was transformed into energy that strengthened it.

The monster made no sound. The mouths opened only to absorb magic. Nor did it make any effort to attack, it simply walked. Batoru was polluted by the desperate cries of its inhabitants, the collapsing houses, the shattered roads and the attacks that were launched. In the collateral damage, a fire began to spread.

Many people were crushed to death. Traces of blood could be found almost everywhere in Batoru.

Somehow, the villagers managed to contain the monster with Earth Magic: they built great walls to keep it at bay. It was a strategy that lasted for ten minutes. Soon, they would run out of mana to use.

“You are the only one left”.

As the last of the walls fell, a white-haired person appeared behind the monster at head height. A flying person, dressed in a yellow jumper, dark trousers and brown boots.

“It will take me a long time to clean this up”.

The person snapped her fingers, creating light blue particles and a shockwave. A translucent sky-blue dome appeared, and everything inside it disappeared to the eyes of those watching from outside.

Sen's Underworld and herself appeared to stop all the destruction.

Since she was the source that kept the Underworld alive, the monster instinctively turned to her. As much as those mouths tried to undo the spell by absorbing her magic, Sen was quick to restore what had been lost.

Sen crossed her fingers and chains sprouted from the walls of the dome, binding and immobilising each of the monster's limbs and preventing it from opening its mouths again.

She sighed. At the moment she had manifested the spell, she had moved all the civilians outside to safety. She had considered everything.

“Begone”.

Sen stretched her free hand towards the monster, extended her index finger and a round screen half her size appeared in front of her finger. The symbol of a triquet was drawn on the screen. When Sen placed her finger on the screen, lightning bolts appeared around the symbol. The light spread throughout the area of her spell. Sen's hair moved as if caressed by the wind. For a moment, the red in his eyes flashed brightly.

All the rays on the screen gathered in the centre, forming a slowly growing sphere.

To defend itself, another mouth appeared on the creature's stomach: it was gigantic and could devour a mansion in one bite if it wanted to.

Then Sen fired a powerful blue beam through the screen, twice the size of the monster. That's why, a second after the attack, all that was left of the monster were its legs. The attack focused mainly on its upper body.

The energy of her spell spread through the walls of the dome as soon as she finished attacking. The chains fell apart, fragment by fragment, and the remains of the beast turned to dust.

Sen unravelled the Underworld. She breathed a sigh of relief.

“That took a lot of mana, enough not to give you time to devour it... I need to get back to Peck”.

She wanted to, but she looked down: she saw destruction and loss. She should go and talk to the frightened people who looked to her for hope, but she knew she could not do that.

She knew there was only one way to end this.

***

How did I get here so quickly?

Peck lost consciousness once more and appeared standing in a devastated part of Batoru. Beside him was a little girl with an injured leg, screaming and crying. The sound irritated Peck, it made him panic, but he wanted to help her.

“Um, hey… may I help you?”

I don't know how to heal her with magic…

He tried to approach, but the girl picked up a nearby stone and threw it at Peck. He dodged, but was shocked by what had happened.

Then Peck heard a murmur close to him. He turned to find a confused crowd.

“It's him, isn't it?” said one of the people.

Are they talking about me? thought Peck.

“No doubt, it is”.

“It's ‘the Dark Maker’, I'm sure of it!”

---

Next chapter arrives on Monday!