The light of the campfire revealed an imposing beast, camouflaged by its copper-colored fur in the desert's darkness at night.

Izan was paralyzed with fear. He could feel the animal's breath on his face as he stared at its long, sharp teeth slowly drawing closer.

When the beast opened its mouth, ready to sink its fangs into the boy's head, Izan reacted.

He immediately pushed himself sideways with his legs and fell onto the ground, evading the deadly bite by mere inches.

Izan quickly rolled across the ground, but instead of standing up, he crouched with his hands and feet on the ground, as if he were an animal too.

The creature stopped, watching its prey's movements, then began walking sideways without making a sound with its soft paws.

The boy had no time to think. He was ready to jump and start running at any moment. The intense pounding of his heart accompanied his ragged breathing.

All he could see was how enormous the animal was. It was almost as tall as the boy himself, with a head as large as his torso.

The feline didn't wait any longer and launched itself into an attack, making a huge leap over the campfire.

Izan pushed himself away and rolled across the ground again to avoid having the animal land on top of him. He immediately stood up and reached the dead tree he had been using to rest.

Desperately, he began climbing it, digging his nails into the rough bark.

The animal patiently waited again, watching its prey attempt to escape.

With its feline eyes, it had calculated everything. There was no chance it would go without dinner that night.

The boy took advantage of his predator's stillness to climb as high as he could, reaching the top of the tree, which was barely four meters tall.

"Shit, shit, shit," he muttered, unable to calm his pounding heart. "It's one thing after another."

The feline slowly approached, never taking its eyes off Izan. The young man, who also never lost sight of his attacker, couldn't identify what kind of animal it was.

It looked like a cougar because of its features and fur, but its ears were long and upright, with black tufts sticking out, similar to a caracal's. This animal, however, was considerably larger than either of them.

The beast pulled its ears back and let out a high-pitched growl, almost like a terrifying lament.

«What can I do? Run? Fight?» Izan wondered mentally. «Do I even stand a chance with either option?»

The questions and desperation continued assaulting his thoughts.

Before he could come up with a plan, the animal sniffed the air and turned its gaze toward the makeshift bags of hearts.

"Don't you dare touch those!" Izan shouted when he realized what his enemy intended.

The feline growled again at the boy's voice and prepared to attack him.

Izan watched as the beast shifted all its weight onto its hind legs, ready to leap, and, biting his lips, knew he would be caught.

The instant the animal launched itself forward with its sharp claws extended, the boy also jumped in the opposite direction, landing heavily on the ground.

He felt a sharp pain in his ankle from the impact, but he had no time to worry about the injury. Behind him, the dead tree began to creak under the weight of the feline, which was now standing on its branches.

The creaking intensified until the trunk snapped. The tree began falling toward Izan, who managed to crawl out of its path as best he could.

That gave him a moment to get back on his feet before his predator could recover from the surprise of the fallen tree.

Ignoring the pain in his foot, he ran toward the campfire and the bags of hearts and picked up the sword he was still carrying from the ground.

When he turned around, he saw the enormous animal standing before him.

Although his hands were trembling, he didn't hesitate to attack. His charge was clumsy and slow, so much so that the feline easily moved aside and delivered a violent swipe that tore open Izan's chest and sent him several meters away.

The boy nearly lost consciousness from the pain. He could feel the wound burning and his blood warming his cold skin.

He lay on his back, staring at the night sky as he tried to breathe. But every breath was more painful than the last.

"All that effort for this? I survived that horrible place to die like this?" he muttered hoarsely as tears of helplessness began to stream from his eyes.

The burning pain of the wound was nothing compared to the burning fire of rage inside him.

He hated everything. He hated fate, the world, and life itself for all the injustice that kept striking him without end.

«Maybe I shouldn't be alive,» he told himself, trying to justify his misfortunes. «I should give up.»

That moment seemed eternal, as if time had stopped to give him a chance to reflect on his miserable existence.

«Why hasn't it come to kill me yet?» he wondered, focusing on the stars.

With effort, he raised his head and saw that the feline was entirely ignoring him, distracted by sniffing the bags of hearts.

«Not only will it leave me for last, it'll also eat all of them just to rub it in my face that I failed this stupid mission,» he thought, almost laughing. «Why did that god have to choose me? Why not choose someone better?»

All of his resolve was crumbling inside his mind.

"I've never accomplished anything in my life. Why choose me?" he repeated aloud. "Clara would have known how to do this better than me," he sighed.

At that moment, he thought about calling her through his thoughts, but when he thought of his friend, a shiver ran through his entire being. He couldn't imagine her having to do everything he had done up to this point.

How would she feel if things were reversed? What would it be like if Clara were the one who had to endure all that horror and carry his soul?

Izan forced himself to move and began getting up, supporting himself with his arms. The wound running across his chest began bleeding even more.

"No... I can't depend on her for the rest of my life."

His voice sounded firm and determined.

"I can't put this burden on her too," he continued as he stood up. "I promised I would do it, and I'm the only one who can. There's no one else. It's just me."

The animal was still distracted by the bags of hearts. It had managed to open one of them with its snout, spilling several hearts onto the ground.

Izan took a deep breath, picked up the sword from the ground, and shouted furiously:

"You shitty cat, that's my food!"

The two-meter-tall feline turned toward him, startled, and raised its fur. Until that moment, it had seen the boy as nothing more than another prey, but when its eyes met Izan's furious gaze, it felt threatened for the first time.

«Think fast,» the boy told himself, adopting a combat stance. «Souls give me strength. I felt it when I ate the heart.»

At that moment, the feline lunged toward the boy, ready to finish him off.

Izan reacted as quickly as he could, but the animal was far too fast. He barely managed to place the sword between himself and the sharp fangs threatening to sink into his face.

The beast's weight brought him to the ground, where he struggled desperately to hold it back.

His wound opened further and began bleeding rapidly.

«More strength,» he thought, feeling his muscles burn.

Somehow, he was holding it back.

"More! I need much more!" he shouted as he pushed.

He felt a jolt in his chest that traveled throughout his body, filling his arms with energy. Gritting his teeth, he managed to extend his arms fully, forcing the beast's jaws away.

At that moment, their eyes locked, unleashing a fleeting battle of fury reflected in the campfire burning within their eyes.

Izan didn't know whose heart he had eaten a few minutes ago, but relying entirely on instinct, he focused on the sensation of the energy he had felt. He now replicated it throughout every muscle fiber in his body.

"More. More. More!" he repeated as he continued pushing.

Bracing himself with all his strength, he managed to stand and, with a single movement, repelled the animal, which immediately returned to a combat stance while growling.

The boy had no time to be surprised by what he had done. In the blink of an eye, the feline lunged at him with its claws ready.

Izan jumped backward to evade it, but his sword met the animal's sharp claws and broke in two as if it were a toy.

The young man's breathing grew faster and faster. His blood covered his entire abdomen and began running down his leg, but his fury did not subside. Now he felt a ravenous hunger beginning to drive him to desperation.

Without giving it any thought, he threw the broken sword aside and roared like an animal even more savage than his predator.

The feline took several steps backward, but it had not surrendered. Its ribs were visible beneath its fur, revealing that it had gone days without eating. If it gave up, it would die of hunger.

At that moment, they had both become beasts hungry for life, willing to give everything until the very end.

They both prepared for one final attack that would decide the fight. Their eyes understood one another, and they felt as though they were equals, but rather than stopping them, that only drove them toward their final leap.

The beast opened its mouth, ready to sink its fangs into his neck, but Izan managed to slip underneath it before leaping onto the feline's back and wrapping his arms around its neck.

He squeezed with a tremendous strength he hadn't known he possessed. But his opponent did not surrender.

Desperately, the animal jumped and thrashed from side to side, trying to throw Izan off. When it realized its attempts were failing, it threw itself to the ground, trying to crush the boy beneath its full weight.

The young man felt his bones crack from the impact as the air was forced from his lungs under the crushing weight. But despite the pain, he did not release his prey. He brutally squeezed the animal's neck, slowly extinguishing its life until the seconds passed and his arms weakened.

His enemy was still alive and still capable of fighting, while he would soon lose consciousness.

«Eat,» he thought. «I have to eat.»

Then, like a starving demon, he sank his teeth into the enormous feline's fur and began tearing away its skin.

The animal writhed in pain and lost strength, while its predator grew stronger with every bite.

And so, in that savage dance, the animal grew sleepy and slowly began to close its eyes as it watched the shooting stars cross the firmament.

Its life ended without ever having felt such peace in that atrocious world.