the gray boy limped away, his shoulder hanging at an unnatural angle. He gripped it tightly, his knuckles white from the pressure.
Dani's slap still burned on his cheek, leaving a bruise that was slowly spreading, a blotchy purple stain.
His steps were slow and heavy, dragging his injured foot as he sucked air through his clenched teeth in frustration.
His face was a mess of blood—some of it dried, some still sliding in a wet trail down his chin.
He hadn't gotten far when—
"Gaaaah!!"
Dani's scream tore through the air.
A second later,it was followed by a bestial roar… the distinct sound of a creature in agony.
The gray boy froze in his tracks.
He stood there,his shoulders trembling slightly, his head tilting slowly back as he stared—with a face smeared with blood and sweat—toward the source of the sound.
He stayed like that for a few seconds…
Not blinking.
Breathing only with difficulty.
His gaze was locked on a single spot…a spot he knew wasn't far away.
He turned around faster than his wounded body should have allowed and started limping back. Pain shot through his leg, but he ignored it. He had to see… he had to understand what was happening.
He moved closer, his hands shaking slightly from exhaustion… until he finally caught sight of the scene:
Dani was clinging to the trunk of a massive tree.
His whole body was badly wounded. Deep gashes covered his arms and ribs, and blood was pouring out—streaming between his fingers, from his arm, from his back. It flowed down the trunk like a crimson waterfall, staining the tree bark the color of death.
The beast was staggering beneath the tree, its eyes glowing with a strange, pained light… fixed directly on Dani.
The boy's expression completely changed.
Pure horror washed over his face when he saw Dani clinging to the tree, bleeding profusely. But when he shifted his gaze to the beast—writhing on the ground, roaring and slamming its massive tail against the tree trunk—his look shifted from fear to a flicker of disbelief.
Dani had hit the beast in the eye… a direct hit that sent it into a thrashing fit of agony, roaring and whipping its tail against the tree like a maddened creature completely out of control.
Heavy minutes passed, filled with the sound of the beast's roars and Dani's ragged gasps.
Then… Dani moved.
Slowly… but he was still in the fight.
He jumped down from the tree, escaping the beast's jaws, and landed right beside the dagger lying on the ground. The boy barely heard the thunder of the beast's footsteps as it charged toward Dani. But Dani arched backward with lightning speed, then lunged from behind, and—
He drove the dagger into its skull.
A final, desperate struggle ensued between the two before the beast finally crashed to the ground, defeated.
The boy limped closer to Dani, one painful step at a time.
But before he could reach him,he heard—
"Aaaaargh!!!"
Dani's piercing scream.
He doubled over,clutching his head with both hands, pounding the ground, writhing as his body convulsed violently—like something was tearing him apart from the inside.
The boy froze.
What was happening before him wasn't normal pain…
This was something else entirely.
Dani kept thrashing… then, suddenly, he stopped.
He collapsed to the ground,motionless, as if he'd lost consciousness.
Then, just as abruptly, Dani sat up.
His eyes snapped open,staring into nothingness… his face completely blank, as if his connection to the world had been severed.
Slowly, he raised his hand.
The blood that had covered his body began to move on its own—coalescing into thin threads that crawled over his skin toward his palm.
Crimson droplets dripped into his cupped hand…and vanished the instant they dripped from his fingertip.
As if… they had evaporated.
Dani gasped—a deep, forceful gasp, as if air had violently forced its way into his lungs.
The boy heard it clearly,even though he wasn't close enough to normally hear a sound like that… There was something unnatural about that gasp.
Then… Dani froze in place.
His body was silent, unmoving.
His eyes were wide open,staring into the void without a single blink.
The boy approached slowly,limping, breathing raggedly… all while watching this strange paralysis.
His gaze shifted to the defeated beast.
The dagger was still driven firmly into the beast's eye,buried deep within its skull.
The boy's eyes suddenly went wide, and a ridiculous, almost stupid-looking smile spread across his face… the smile of someone who had just found an unbelievable treasure.
He completely forgot about his own injury.
He tried to stand up quickly and stumbled,falling onto one knee, but he pushed himself back up, limping toward the massive corpse.
He started circling the beast, examining it with eager, desperate looks, until he finally reached the dagger.
He reached out…
Gripped the hilt…
And pulled.
But the dagger was stuck fast, wedged deep inside the skull
He pulled again.
Then a third time.
And a fourth.
But the dagger had only shifted a few millimeters.
He clambered onto the corpse with difficulty, his legs shaking from pain and exhaustion.
He tightened both hands around the hilt,putting all his remaining strength into it—
And he pulled.
Slowly…
Slowly…
Until—
The dagger suddenly slid free!
The boy was thrown backward, losing his balance, and tumbled off the corpse, hitting the ground hard.
He lay there for a moment, breathing rapidly, then raised the dagger in front of his eyes.
A wide,genuine smile this time, spread across his face.
Tears welled in the corners of his eyes—tears of relief,of joy, or perhaps something else entirely.
He got up, limping, and turned his back on Dani, starting to walk away.
But… before he had gone more than a few steps, he stopped.
He looked back.
There, on the ground…
Dani was sitting,looking like a dead man, his body rigid, his eyes drowned in something only he could see.
The boy's gaze lingered on him for a few seconds—hesitation, fear, or maybe a faint curiosity—and then he just stood there, not knowing whether to leave him… or go back.
Anger tightened the boy's features, but it was short-lived; his expression slowly crumpled, replaced by a look of pure pity. His eyes darted between Dani, lying on the ground more dead than alive, and the dagger gleaming with the beast's blood in his own hand.
He took a deep breath and went back to Dani. He knelt beside him, set the dagger down, and reached out to shake Dani's shoulders gently… then more firmly.
But Dani didn't stir.Not a word… no discernible breath… no sign of consciousness.
The boy looked around at the trees, then lifted his eyes to the sky. After a moment, he settled back on his heels, resting his arms on his knees, and just stared at Dani's strange features and his black and white hair, as if looking at someone who didn't belong in this world.
And then suddenly—
A gasp!
A strong, sharp gasp, similar to the one he'd heard before… but now it was closer, louder, more intense.
The boy flinched and recoiled slightly,before his eyes widened in astonishment, watching the colors in Dani's eyes shift right in front of him. The color changed… and shifted back… then settled as it was before.
Dani's consciousness returned all at once, like a man bursting up from deep water. His eyes began to move rapidly, scanning the forest, the corpse, the blood, the boy… and then his gaze suddenly fixed on the empty space in front of him.
He froze.
As if something only he could see had materialized in front of him.
He whispered in a voice that was tense, exhausted, and frail:
"...The Final verdict?"
He said it as if he were reading words off the empty air.
Words that altered his very features.
Something that hadn't been there a moment before.
Questions swarmed in his head:
Why is this appearing now?
What does "Evolution" mean?
What is "Stage Ascension"?
And what was it he saw just moments ago? That change… that image… that bizarre moment?
But one question kept slapping against his mind, over and over, relentlessly:
What is The Final verdict?… And what does it mean?
Silent, heavy minutes passed before the questions subsided and quieted a little… but the anxiety didn't leave. It remained stuck in his eyes, in his breathing, in the slight tremor of his fingers.
Dani looked at the boy, who was still sitting in front of him with a shell-shocked expression. Dani rubbed his eyes slowly; he felt a strange heaviness in his head… the Renewal had drained him, and the blood he'd lost made his body scream with hunger. His mind was scattered, his thoughts tangled, unable to form a coherent thought.
There was no room for logic now.
The first step toward thinking straight…was to eat.
He muttered in a low, heavy voice:
"I'm starving…"
He raised his hand in a simple gesture to the boy, asking for anything… a single bite… anything to fill the void inside him.
But the boy didn't move.
He watched Dani for a few more seconds, then stood up and took a step back. He raised the dagger in front of him, waving it with a smug, triumphant grin.
Dani's face froze, and then he let out a sharp, frustrated gasp:
"Ah… Damn it… I see you've betrayed our deal… and stolen the dagger."
He tried to stand… got halfway up… then crashed back down heavily.
He looked up at the sky with half-closed eyes,weighed down by utter exhaustion, before collapsing fully onto his back, completely spent, as if he had surrendered to helplessness
He said in a faint voice, devoid of energy, as if speaking to himself:
"Go… I don't need you anymore."
The boy didn't understand any of it. He looked at him for a moment, then simply… turned around.
No words.
No hesitation.
No pity.
And he disappeared among the trees, leaving Dani alone, helpless, lying on the cold ground.
***
A few minutes passed…
And Dani was still lying on the ground,his breathing ragged, his battered body limp and powerless. His leaf-skirt had been completely torn to shreds during the fight, leaving his skin covered in dried blood.
The black screen with its golden edges was still open in front of him, floating low in the air.
The words written on it were now in an earthly language—one he could finally read—but…
He couldn't understand any of it.
It was as if it was speaking to a part of his mind that hadn't yet awakened.
Whooosh!
The sound of leaves and buds splitting snapped him out of his daze.
He muttered in frustration, lifting his head with difficulty:
"Ah,damn it… I'm not even rested yet!"
He shifted slightly, propping himself up on his elbows, and peered into the dense thicket.
His hand swept the ground beside him,searching for his dagger… then froze.
He stared at the empty space beside him and mumbled:
"That's right…the boy took the dagger."
He picked up a small scale from the ground—a piece of shell from the previous beast—and held it up to his face.
He started planning in his head,mentally mapping the terrain… quick commands to execute the moment the new beast appeared.
Whoooosh!
Something emerged from the bushes.
Dani's muscles tensed, and he braced himself…
But what came out wasn't a beast.
It was the boy .
He appeared, limping lightly, carrying two clean fruits in his hand, with the hint of a small smile on his now-clean face.
He took two steps closer… before lifting his gaze to Dani with a childish, almost innocent look.
Dani cut him off sharply, with weary eyes:
"Didn't I tell you…I don't need you anymore."
But the boy kept approaching, then sat down quietly beside him, completely ignoring the cold tone.
He placed the two fruits in front of Dani,giving them a slight push toward him.
He looked up at him with a clear, genuine smile… In contrast, Dani's face was a mask of a frown and disgust, like someone who couldn't understand why this boy had returned… or why he was sitting next to him now.
The boy gently laid the dagger on top of the fruit, then carefully opened it fully and handed it to Dani.
At first,Dani refused to take it, his eyes nearly shut from exhaustion… but after a moment, he finally accepted it.
He muttered under his breath, already devouring a piece of it:
"Hah… Consider this payment for protecting you… I'll accept it, but don't you dare expect anything else from me."
As he ate, the boy , who had been staring intently at the fruit, noticed there was another opened fruit on the ground, untouched.
Dani let out a slow sigh, reached for the fruit, and gently pushed it toward the boy.
The boy looked at it,then at Dani… then smiled, and quietly took the fruit without a word.
After a few moments of rest, Dani slowly got to his feet.
The fruit was just a start;it wasn't enough to satisfy his hunger… but he didn't complain.
It was all he had for now.
Dani stood up and turned towards the trees. He gathered some leaves and cast a glance at the boy's torn clothes, which were still missing some straps from their last encounter.
A mischievous smile spread across Dani's face, sending a silent shiver down the gray-clad boy's spine, who froze for a moment.
Seizing the opportunity, Dani took some of the intact straps and carefully used them to secure his new leaf-skirt. He then gathered his hair and tied it back with another strap, while the boy just stood there, holding a few torn scraps in his hand and staring at them with obvious disappointment.
A moment of light silence passed, filled only by the sound of the wind through the trees, the leftover fruit on the ground, and the straps that had now become temporary protection for Dani's body.
***
Dani wanted to head to the cave, hoping to understand the meaning of the writing on the screen and maybe find some more fruit along the way.
But suddenly, the boy pulled his hand back. Dani looked up at him.
"What do you want?… Aren't we done with the strap issue?"
The boy said a few words, but they were unintelligible to Dani.
"What?"
The boy sighed, then pointed towards the thicket and tugged on his hand. Dani followed him.
After a short distance, the boy paused for a moment. He looked at the ground, then lifted his gaze again, and continued walking.
Through the bushes,huts appeared… a village… the gray-boy's village.
But something made Dani frown.