“YOU AWOKE ME FOOL!” I hear underneath the rubble. What was that? I slowly crawl on my stomach toward the hole in the wall. The room seems to be half collapsed while books are everywhere. The room slowly stops shaking as I get to the door. I pull myself out of the rubble lucky to be alive. I quickly look for Lupa and whatever caused the room to cave in. My eyes are drawn to the literal giant standing a few feet away. My mouth hangs open in shock. A real giant here. How did it get here?

“WAKE ME AGAIN EARLY ALEEM AND YOU WILL BE DESTROYED!” The giant bellows with a deep mighty voice. “WHERE IS MY DINNER?!” He looks strangely like the stone statue from the throne. Looking at the throne now, it is completely empty. He was the statue! He blended so well within the background. He looks honestly not much different then a human. Just massively bigger in every way. My best guess is that he is taller than the barn back home.

I look for a way to escape from this massive being. I slide underneath a table quickly hoping that he did not see me. The giant starts walking back to his throne as I notice Lupa stumble out of the rumble. Aleem is nowhere to found. The giant sits down looking over the hall. Lupa looks like she is frantically searching for something. I guess she is looking for me. As I go to yell to get her attention, the giant notices her before I get my chance.

“YOU SMALL CREATURE! WHERE IS ALEEM?” Lupa looks up at the giant. Lupa sweeps the room one more time. From what I can see, she has the look of lost on her face. Oh no.

“…why.. why… did you do this…?” I barely hear her say towards the giant.

“SPEAK UP TINY CREATURE!”

“Why did you kill my FRIEND?!?” I notice her hair slowly turning crimson, but it doesn’t stop there. It keeps getting darker and darker. It almost looks black with just a hint of red. The giant slowly starts laughing. His laugh is low sounding like rocks grinding on each other. I try to climb out from underneath the table getting caught on a leg.

“You… you killed… my friend. YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!” I untangle my leg from the table as I see Lupa charge the giant. I scream trying to get her attention.

“LUPA! NOOOO!”

“PATHETIC CREATURE!” The giant raises his fist and slams it against Lupa. My heart stops as she flies through the hall crashing into some tables. I drop to my knees feeling nothing again. I realize in that moment I had something important in my life. This feeling is worse than being alone. It is plan emptiness. I look down at the ground tears falling from my face.

“ANOTHER SMALL CREATURE? WHERE IS ALEEM?” I barely register what the giant says. I slowly drag myself to my feet. This empty feeling feels like it is consuming me. I don’t register anything. My eyes slowly raise over to where Lupa lies. Her body looks broken. My vision blurs only seeing the color red. How could I hide underneath a table? Someone needed me. Someone I actually cared about needed me. What did I do?

“DO I HAVE TO HURT YOU LIKE I DID THE OTHER CREATURE? WHERE IS ALEEM?” The giant says standing up from his throne. I slowly look at him tears still falling from my face. Seeing him causes my emptiness to change. I get this fire deep within me. Filling the void where the emptiness was. The fire feels hot like it is raging against everything. The tears stop falling as I slowly start walking toward the giant.

“You… you are going to pay.” I mutter underneath my breath. I didn’t know what I was doing. My body seemed to be on auto pilot. Slowly the keep starts to shake with each of my footsteps. The giant seems taken back for a second.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING…” I tune the rest out as I keep hearing the crunching noise of Lupa body getting hit with the fist again. The fire inside me burns hotter the more I think of the destruction of this monster. The keep starts to shake more and more. Once close enough, I look the giant in the eyes.

“You… you are going to pay.” I sound different. I sound like a stone-cold killer. I see a flash of red again as a side of the keep collapses. The giant looks surprised standing up from his throne. His expression turns into a deep frown.

“YOU. YOU SHOULDN’T BE HERE. THE WORLD IS…” One of the supporting beams holding up the roof falls hitting the giant to the ground. My vision fades to where I can only see red. I feel like the fire is burning my insides away. I try to do anything to get this fire out. I let out a devastating wail. The screem sounds animal like. Almost in an instant the fire goes away within me. My screams stop, and my vision comes to.

I come to my senses with the entire keep in ruins. Destruction. Destruction is the only thing around me. I look at my hands when the tears start to fall again. Not again. After taking a moment to compose myself, I look back over at Lupa. I slowly stagger towards her location. I get to her dropping to my knees. I try to speak her name, but nothing comes out. As I go to hug her she sits up head butting me in the face. I frown rubbing my head. It takes me a moment to register that she is okay. I almost start crying as I hug her. She hugs me back tight. After a few moments, I let go. “I.. thought you died.” My body feels light and my head begins to pound against my skull.

“No. I am perfectly fine… What happened with the keep?” I shake my head not really understanding myself.

“What the hell did you do?!” I hear Aleem scream from underneath some rubble. I try to stand but fall to one knee. My head feels like it is being beaten in. I stand up trying to fight through this pain. Lupa stands up and we slowly head over to help uncover Aleem. He comes up angry. “Do you have any idea what you just caused?”

“Are you okay?” Lupa asks me looking concerned. I shake my head no unable to speak really. At any second I feel like I could lose my stomach contents.

“You jump started the world ending!” He says going back pulling out the scrap of paper from before. He begins reading from it. “The Giant’s Death Will Crack the Earth. Causing the Forgotten ones to Raise Again. The giant was not supposed to die for another ten years!” My heart feels like it is trying to escape my chest. For a second I am standing the next I am falling fast to the ground. Luckily Lupa catches me before I hit the ground. My vision fades in and out. I can barely make out Aleem standing above me and Lupa holding me. I only catch a few words between Aleem and Lupa before going under.

“What’s wrong- be okay?”

“She will- only tapped- true power. She will- coming next.”

“Next?” The last words I hear before succumbing to unconscious are from Aleem.

“The end of the world and the rise of the Old World.”