Maya and Patty followed their crewmate through the door after waiting a few moments. Unsurprisingly enough, it disappeared behind them. This dungeon clearly had a preferred atmosphere.

The room was utterly devoid of light. Once again, Maya found herself unable to even see her nose. However, this room wasn’t just dark. There was something different, but Maya couldn’t place her finger on what it was. It was almost as if the room demanded reverence. The three of them waited in the darkness for what felt like hours but was truly more like a few minutes.

“Ah, Cyll? Patty?” Maya asked quietly.

“I’m right in front of you,” Cyll replied. His tone was also hushed.

“I’m here too,” Patty whispered.

“What now? Are we just supposed to wait here in the dark?” Maya asked.

The lights roared to life the moment she finished speaking. A deep blue light, the same one as the one that had lit the stairwell, returned Maya’s vision to her. She drew in a sharp breath.

This wasn’t a room. That wouldn’t have been doing it justice. The sapphire floor stretched on for as far as she could see. What must have been thousands of braziers, each twice her height and lit by a massive sea colored fire, lined its edges.

In the center, there were two enormous stone pillars. The sheer scale of everything made it hard for Maya to tell exactly how far away they were. The deep blue pillars were inlaid with brilliant gold decorations and studded with massive green gems. Each of them must have been several mansions wide.

Maya couldn’t find any words, so she just settled for letting out a slow whistle. She couldn’t help but notice that her hair was standing on end.

“So, where’s the boss monster?” Cyll quietly asked Patty.

The puppet didn’t respond. Patty’s mouth was hanging slightly open and her eyes were as wide as saucers. She stared into the sky, trembling and wrapping her arms around herself as if we were freezing.

“We made a mistake,” Patty whispered.

“Patty? What’s going on?” Cyll asked.

“We need to go. Now,” the puppet said, spinning towards the wall where the door had been. Her voice trembled. Maya had never heard her crewmate so scared.

“We can’t,” Maya reminded her, gesturing helplessly to the wall. “No door.”

Patty glanced up again, terror etched into her features. She pressed desperately on the walls, but the door didn’t reappear.

“What’s going on, Patty?” Maya asked, grabbing the puppet’s shoulder.

Patty just weakly pointed into the air. Maya looked up for the first time since entering the room and felt her heart drop into her feet. The pirate captain’s eyesight seemed magically improved as details that should have been far beyond her vision appeared to her easily. As her gaze rose higher and higher, the sense of panic in her head multiplied with every second.

An enormous man sat in the center of the room. He was thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, feet tall, and Maya quickly realized that the huge pillars in the room were actually just his toes. The man’s face was the size of a small city and his teeth like two rows of mansion sized tombstones. As they watched, a smile slowly crossed the incomprehensibly large man’s face.

“Hello, small ones. I don’t get visitors often,” the man said. His voice echoed through the air like furious thunder.

“Oh shit,” Cyll said.

The man’s grin grew wider and he leaned down to get a better look at the crew. For a creature as big as him, the man moved far too quickly for Maya’s tastes. Within seconds, his massive face had become their horizon.

Maya tried to swallow but couldn’t bring her throat to function. She forced herself into motion and lifted the captain’s hat from her head as she gave the massive creature a small bow.

“Greetings. We did not mean to intrude on your inner sanctum,” Maya called up to him.

“Intrude? You wouldn’t dare,” the man laughed. Mercifully, his voice was no louder up close than it was from afar. That still didn’t stop her from nearly falling over in fright. “No, I permitted you entry.”

“Thank you,” Maya yelled. She paused for a moment. “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but…why?”

The giant’s eyebrow rose.

“A bold question. You are wondering why I didn’t freeze you like the rest of the fools that entered my domain seeking riches?”

Maya managed a weak nod.

“Because you are here for a different reason. I can sense the touch of the World Tree on you, girl. But, more importantly, you have no essence within you. You’ve come to replace your Life-spark.”

Cyll glanced curiously in Maya’s direction when the huge man mentioned Yggdrasill, but there were more pressing matters at hand.

“So, you have something that can replace it, then?” Cyll asked.

A massive eye shifted to look down at Cyll. The pirate flinched slightly, but he didn’t move beyond that.

“Another bold one,” the giant observed. “But…yes. To be frank, I’ve grown tired of fools coming here to claim the Heart of the Sea from me. I enjoy my solitude. If your captain can pass a simple test, the Heart will be hers.”

“What kind of test?” Patty asked. By some supreme force of will, the puppet stared directly up into the huge man’s eyes. “We won’t let you kill her without a fight.”

This time, the giant actually moved back slightly. Shock flickered across his gargantuan features.

“Now, that is surprising. It is one thing for humans to speak, but I did not believe a dungeon monster would ever be bold enough to address me,” the towering man said.

Patty narrowed her eyes and set her jaw, but she didn’t say anything else. After several tense moments, the man let out a single guffaw that shook the room like a violent earthquake.

“Fascinating. Fear not. This test is dangerous, but no true prize comes without a fight. Your captain will face no unfair odds from me.”

Patty and Cyll looked like they were ready to argue, but Maya raised a hand to stop them.

“He’s right,” Maya said. “We all knew we wouldn’t just waltz in and get my replacement Life-spark without a fight. I think I’ve got better chances doing his test than we do trying to fight him.”

The giant’s eyebrow quirked, but he didn’t say anything.

“Are you sure?” Patty asked, frowning in worry. “Tests that he might consider easy could be impossible for humans.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Maya said firmly. “But it almost seems as if you know who this is. Have you met him before?”

Patty nodded weakly.

“Every dungeon monster can recognize him, even if we’ve never seen the ocean. The water essence is unmistakable. We are standing in the presence of Akrun, the god of the Frontier Sea.”