The next morning, we were woken up by morning prayer. A loud one. One that had been started right outside the front door of our temporary place. We couldn’t even get mad, since they had let us sleep there for free.

It took another five minutes to get through the crows, once we had finally made up our minds to leave and head back out into the savannah. By the time we got to the elevator, the woman that had led us inside the day before was already there, waiting for us.

“I never introduced myself, did I? Swahili, captain of the guard here at Asaai. Before you go, I have a request for you.”

It took everything I had not to groan at yet another slowdown of our journey, but I held on, hoping they were proposing we hunt down a monster or something. The experience was always nice…

Since she was asking Emeri, Emeri was the one to reply. “We would love to help, as long as it is within our means.”

Swahili nodded, and pointed to the savannah that loomed on the horizon.

“Out there, a foul creature roams. It was created by a necromantic tribe many years ago, and wields unholy strength. The creature had been hunted by nearby tribes many times, but never stays dead. With the help of you, a holy maiden, we can kill it permanently.”

Before accepting, Emeri fished for some more information. Either way, this sounded like a great challenge. Furthermore, with my essence destroying gauntlets, the creature’s pseudo-immortality could easily be thwarted.

“How strong is this creature?”

“It borders on tier 5, but its size makes it much more deadly and powerful than other, similar monsters.”

Emeri looked at me to gauge my reaction, but I, sensing the levels, simply nodded.

“Very well. We will see if we can’t destroy this creature for you. However, we wish to do it alone, no spectators.” Emeri argued smartly. After all, my mana couldn’t be seen by people this religious. We would be hunted down.

Swahili opened her mouth to argue, but was silenced when Emeri brought up her hand.

“This is my proposition. Refuse it, and we will simply leave.”

Swahili still looked like she wanted to argue, but kept quiet in the end, only responding with a downcast nod.

Then, we were guided back onto the moving platform and brought to the base of the tree. We made to leave the outpost, when we noticed that Swahili was still following us.

“Chosen one, I will help you track the beast, but will leave once we find it.” She promised sincerely, causing Emeri to sigh and acquiesce. Always with the secrets.

Like this, our party of three departed into the savannah, in search of the cursed beast. On foot, of course. Revan would certainly scare Swahili enough to part my head from my neck, and I wasn’t keen on finding out whether she could or not.

Half a day later, we arrived at the cursed beast’s territory.

“So what are we looking for?” I asked, intrigued. This area certainly didn’t look any different from the rest of the savanna, after all.

Swahili, however, completely ignored me and looked in the other direction. Only when Emeri repeated my question more loudly, as if she hadn’t heard the first time, did the guard captain answer. Even when she did, she was only looking at Emeri.

“Chosen one, the cursed beast takes the form of an elephant, though pieces of stone buildings protrude from the creature’s body. Remnants of the necromantic village that created it, they say. For the curse to inhabit such a sacred creature… it can only be to spite us.”

“And you know how to track it?” Emeri continued, to which Swahili nodded, holding out a necklace made of natural materials such as wood, bone and leaves.

“This artifact was made out of a chip of the creature’s tusks. It will guide us to its location. Come. A little further.”

We followed her for a few more hours, until the area started to change. A dense mist enveloped the sky, though the first few meters from the ground up remained clear. The nearby trees weren’t on fire, but they were smoking somehow. The smoke had no scent.

The sound of a strange trumpet resounded across the plain.

“It has sensed us…” Swahili warned, her eyes going wide. “I will leave you now, until the battle is over. Good luck. You will need it.” With that, she disappeared into a puff of smoke.

Then, the stomping started. With each second, a rhythmic tump would reach our ears. It became faster and faster, louder and louder. In the distance, a mountain moved through the mist. 4 giant stone spires lifted into the mist, disappearing, before crashing back down a little closer.

An elephant, huh? A strange creature, to be sure. We had encountered a few on our journey through the savanna, but none like this.

The spires that functioned as the creature’s legs stopped when it got close to us. In the mist, high above, two giant purple lights bore down on us, emitting a pressure I hadn’t even felt when fighting the paradise bird. This creature, if it even was one, saw us as dust.

We broke out of our reverie and shot into action. With Aura step, I flew into the sky, only to be lurched back to the ground by an invisible force. My feet were ankered, and each movement took an incredible amount of strength. Out of instinct, I dodged to the left just in time to avoid a black orb that appeared at my previous position. The orb was large at the start, but collapsed in on itself a moment later, before disappearing. Only a perfectly circular, perfectly smooth crater was left.

That would be instant death.

“It controls gravity!” Emeri shouted from a distance, even while she charged one step at a time herself.

Stress kicking in, I ran forwards as fast as I could, joining Emeri near the base of the creature’s feet. The stone spires looked like the remnants of a temple, somehow. Carvings, arches and smaller spires were puzzled together to form the strange amalgamation. Emeri got there first and attempted to harm the creature with her spear. No luck. The stone itself was unnaturally tough, and even the small nick she had left didn’t seem to bother the creature at all. Seeing no other option, I sheathed my sword and clung to the side of the spire.

Suddenly, the air rushed past my ears, making my hair blow in the wind. The ground below me, as well as Emeri, seemed to sink below. Instead of them sinking, however, I was the one going up. The creature raised its leg with immense force, bringing it up into the mist. I knew what was about to happen next, but couldn’t do a thing to help Emeri defend. Instead, I created Onyx chains and sunk them into the thick, matted fur on the creature’s torso. Then, when it stomped its gigantic foot, I flung myself upwards. My gut lurched backward, but I persevered. Before I knew it, I was hanging from the fur around the creature’s neck.

From up close, I could tell the next part would be rather difficult. I had hoped its eyes were its weak spot, but getting up there was another matter. For some reason, the elephant had an incredibly long neck, at least for being an elephant. Its neck had three stone rings that jutted out from the fur.

It flung my chains at them to test their toughness, but they simply bounced off, making a ‘clang’ sound. To get past it, I would have to climb by hand.

Down below, white flashes continued to distract the creature, showing that Emeri was all right and keeping it busy. Seeing my chance, I climbed up to the first ring, sinking my fingers into the carvings and pulling myself up one foot at a time.

Each ring was at least 5 meters thick, so it took a lot of precarious climbing, but I reached the end of the first one within a reasonable amount of time.

The next one was even worse, though. I sunk my chains into the fur between the stone rings and flung myself right up to the next one. The creature gave a pained wail, as black blood seeped from the small cuts my chains had managed to make this time. Good, it was working! I had to get even higher.

The elephant had had enough of me, and began to swing its body wildly, trying to throw me off. Sensing the shake coming, I dug my chains in a little deeper and used them to stay grappled to the beast as it shook its mane. I swung around wildly, but hung on.

After a while, Emeri landed a good hit, forcing the creature to focus its attention back on the ground. Seeing another chance, I continued to climb across the second ring, until I reached the third. Not wanting to cause it to throw another fit, I decided to take a risk and leave my chains out of it.

Instead, I started climbing the final ring. Slowly, but surely, I climbed. This time, there were far fewer footholds in the form of carvings, so I had to jump between spots through the air. Even worse, the increased gravity held me back from jumping too far, nearly making me slip a few times.

Eventually, though, I got to the top. From here, it was a straight shot to the eyes. I created more chains and sunk them into the creature’s flesh. This time, the wound was deep. It seemed that the higher up you went, the squishier the beast’s flesh would be.

It let out an infuriated trumpet, which blew away all the mist, revealing the beast’s true, majestic body. The uncanny combination of wrong proportions, fur, and stone on an elephant made its body seem uncanny, and intimidating. Either way, I didn’t have much time to admire it for myself. Instead, I continued to climb bit by bit. Its shaking was becoming faster and wilder, but my chains had a much easier time staying stuck, so it failed to shake me off. I climbed ever higher, until, finally, I reached its trunk. Right above it, two deep, purple eyes shone, illuminating the valley and staring at me with fury.

Without hesitation, I drew my sword and sunk it into one of the eyes. It cracked like glass, allowing a bright, purple flash to shine through the biggest crack. The light passed through my body, creating an immense headache.

I started hearing voices whisper in my mind.

“…so much pain…”

“Release us…”

“…I’m scared, mommy…”

“Release us…”

“Spare me, please…!”

“Release us…”

I rolled out of the light, clutching my head and feeling the pain recede, the voices disappearing with them.

The creature trumpeted again, before bucking me off like a horse. Still stunned by the strange phenomenon, I rocketed down to the ground like a bag of bricks, landing with the grace of one too.

“Arthur!” I heard Emeri shout in concern. Slowly, I dug myself out of the pit, feeling my body heal the broken bones pretty quickly. The fall hadn’t been too bad…

“Emeri, we’ve got a problem. That thing doesn’t just have one stubborn essence, its had a whole village worth.” I explained quickly, relaying to her what I had heard In my head.

“Oh, Helios… Those poor people…” she gasped, holding a hand over her mouth, even as the giant beast rampaged in the distance.

“I know, but we’ve got no time. As I see it, we need to strategize. We can’t kill it like this.”

Emeri nodded, but before we managed to make some more distance, the creature regained enough sense to notice our presence and charged at us.

If before it was fast, now it was blitzing. The beast reined us in in seconds, the increased gravity not impeding us. Its tusks lit up purple and started to pull us in slowly. Then, it sunk them into the ground below by craning its neck. The purple glow of gravity only intensified, pulling in the nearby trees and earthy. All of them circled around the tusks to form a maelstrom of debris.

Emeri and I continued to run, but it was gaining on us. We had to do something…

Suddenly, out of nowhere, my mana sense picked up a new presence, though it felt similar to the elephant.

A figure appeared in the sky, shooting down on top of the elephant’s head while surrounded by a purple blaze.

Nearby trees started to be pulled up instead, but the elephant was too enraged to notice.

Then, the figure crashed down on top of the elephant, causing a shock wave that threw Emeri and I into the air and launched us into the distance.

The last thing I remember mumbling before blacking out was: “I hope that’s a good guy…”