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CHAPTER 17 — The Beast That Echoed His Name
The forest didn't breathe.
It shuddered.
A ripple passed through the trees—first a tremor, then a low vibration, as if something massive dragged its weight across the roots beneath the soil. Leo froze, one hand instinctively pulling the young boy behind him.
The boy's voice trembled.
"Leo… it's here."
A branch snapped in the distance.
Then another.
Then dozens.
The night shifted, and a shape emerged—slow, deliberate, wrong.
It stepped into the moonlit clearing.
A creature tall as a two-story house, its body twisted like flesh molded around armor. Its skin was cracked, glowing faintly with ember-red light. And in the center of its chest, where a heartbeat should be, something pulsed like a half-lit star.
Leo swallowed. His legs wanted to move. His mind screamed to run. But something else held him in place—something cold and familiar.
The beast raised its head.
And spoke.
Or tried to.
The sound that came out was a broken growl, a distorted scrape of metal and breath—
"Le… o."
His blood ran cold.
The boy behind him gasped and clung to his sleeve.
"It knows your name…"
The creature stepped forward, each movement cracking the ground beneath it.
Leo forced himself to breathe.
"I don't know how it knows me. But stay behind me."
The boy nodded, trembling.
The monster roared.
A shockwave burst from its throat, sweeping through the clearing and throwing leaves into the air like a storm. Leo shielded the boy as dust hit his skin, stinging like needles.
Then the beast charged.
Leo barely dodged the first strike. A massive claw tore into the earth where he had been standing, slicing through stone like sand.
He moved on instinct.
No—something deeper than instinct.
His vision blurred for a second. His heartbeat slowed unnaturally, as if another rhythm—another pulse—was beating beneath his own skin.
The world sharpened.
He could see every crack in the creature's armor-like flesh.
Every micro-movement of its limbs.
Every shift of energy inside the glowing heart-core in its chest.
The boy whispered, fear mixed with awe:
"Your eyes… they're glowing."
Leo didn't hear him.
He moved.
Faster than he should have been able to.
He ducked under a massive swipe, slid across the dirt, and struck upward with his fist. The impact sent a shock through the creature's chest—but the monster barely staggered.
Leo's hand throbbed. He hissed in pain.
The beast lowered its head and sniffed the air around him.
Then it whispered again—
"Le… ooo…"
His name, stretched out like a memory it was trying to claw back into existence.
"Why do you know me?" Leo shouted, backing up.
The monster's head twitched violently, as if fighting against its own body. It slammed its claws into the ground, carving deep trenches as red light leaked from between its scales.
The boy tugged Leo's arm.
"It's not here to kill you."
Leo blinked.
"What?"
"It's… calling you home."
Leo froze.
The creature lunged again, but this time—not toward him.
Toward the boy.
Leo's heart dropped.
"NO!"
He moved without thinking. His body blurred, shadows trailing behind him. He reached the boy just as the monster's claw descended.
He grabbed the boy and twisted, rolling across the ground as dust exploded around them.
The creature halted mid-attack, claws trembling inches above the earth. It stared at Leo—no, through him—its ember-lit chest pulsing faster, like it recognized something.
The boy looked up at Leo, wide-eyed and breathless.
"Leo… you used it again."
Leo swallowed hard.
"Used what?"
The boy shook his head.
"I don't know. But it's the same thing that's inside that monster."
Leo felt his stomach twist.
Inside the monster.
Inside him.
The beast roared again, this time not in rage—but in pain. It slammed its claws into its own chest, tearing open glowing cracks in its body as if trying to rip something out.
Leo's breath caught.
The glow inside the creature's chest—the pulsing energy—
It matched the rhythm beating beneath Leo's skin.
"I… I'm connected to it," Leo whispered.
The boy clung to him tighter.
"Then we have to run."
Leo stared at the monster as it tore at its chest, red light spilling out like blood made of fire.
"No," Leo said quietly.
"We have to learn why it knows my name."
The monster froze.
Then slowly—agonizingly—it turned its head toward Leo, glowing cracks spreading across its body like veins waiting to burst.
And for the first time…
Leo felt it truly looking back at him.
Not as prey.
Not as an enemy.
But as something else entirely.
Something terrifying.
Something familiar.
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End of Chapter 17
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