Maria was far ahead of Jacob and Doc. She seemed to have lost all sense of self and was mercilessly sprinting across the sand with all her might. Even as fast as she was, Jacob’s legs were extremely strong from his training, so he was able to keep up with her at a steady pace. In some cases, he even closed the distance.

"Jacob, I should have enough energy to stop her! What should I do?!"

"Just break her legs! I know it sounds cruel, but there’s no other way!"

At that command, Maria’s legs seemed to bend their opposite way. She hit the sand hard when she fell before stopping abruptly. Jacob was finally able to catch up to her at last. He lifted her up and looked at her face. Her eyes were completely black, as if something dangerous had possessed her being. Even while Jacob picked her up, she tried punching him in the face and running away using her arms. Jacob refused to let go.

"Maria! It’s me, Jacob! Snap out of it!"

"Don’t you hear it?! It’s calling to me! Let me go! That maddening sound! I must see it, I must give it my life, I must die!"

"Quickly, get some cloth and shove it in her ears!"

Doc fumbled around his clothes before tearing a small piece off and handing it to Jacob. He quickly shoved it into Maria’s ear. Even with the cloth in her ear, she still fought against him trying to free herself.

"Please Jacob, let me go. I love you. You can’t do this to me."

"I know. I’m sorry, Maria. Don’t be mad at me later."

With that, Jacob sent a fist flying at Maria’s chin, knocking her completely unconscious. Finally, she seemed to go still in his arms.

"Thank you for helping me Doc. We can fix her up when we meet back up with the others, just in case."

"That’s a good idea. By the way, when did you get so fast?"

"Well, when I trained back at the palace, all I really worked on was my-"

Suddenly, the ground started to rumble while sand circled around them.

"What the hell?! We need to get out of here!"

Right as Jacob threw Doc on his back, a voice suddenly echoed from behind him. Or rather, it seemed to implant itself in his brain.

"Freeze, mortal."

Jacob stopped moving and slowly turned around. Behind him seemed to be a strange looking creature he had never seen anything like. It was humanoid in structure, but its skin looked like roots that curved over each other to make its shape. Its color was a dark grey, with a strange green glow underneath that showed through some holes. It didn’t have a face, just a dark void where a face should be.

"That is my prey you have in your arms. Leave before you share a similar fate."

Jacob struggled through the strain to remain still.

"Go to hell. She’s mine."

The creature slowly moved its long branch-like fingers in front of itself, pointing at Jacob.

"You... what are you?"

Jacob looked at him oddly.

"Let me go, you monster."

The creature seemed to float forward and slowly wrap its long fingers around Jacob’s right arm, where his mark was.

"I thought you were mortal. What is this on your arm, I wonder?"

"Go to hell. You tell me what you are first."

"Ah. You are in no position to ask things of me."

The creature ripped off Jacob’s cloth covering his mark, revealing the dark black skull ingrained on his skin. Strangely, the creature seemed to freeze after fixing its eyeless gaze on it.

"I see. You may take the mortal girl back with you. I have no need to consume any of you at this moment."

A strange sound reverberated from inside the beast that sounded something like...

’...laughter?’

"What? Why are you letting us go? And how can you talk?"

"I am merely sharing my thoughts with you. I pity your kind’s existence. It seems this era of humanity could not have been more perfect for me."

"For being a spirit, you do talk a whole lot. You remind me of the asshole tattooed on my arm."

"Your people must not know about deities. I understand. I am special even among my kind, but certain powerful creatures are intelligent enough to communicate or mimic human voices."

"Why not kill us? You must be the strongest thing I’ve ever seen in this world, yet you don’t kill us when you needed sustenance."

"Who says I need sustenance? That’s such a mortal way of thinking. If I were you, I would quickly change the way you think. It may make your destiny the slightest bit happier."

"So, you just kill for the fun if it?"

"Am I not allowed?"

"I still don’t understand why you wouldn’t kill us."

"In mortal terms, it would be similar to an elephant stepping on an ant the size of a grain of sand. However, in your case, it would be like stepping on an ant that’s already going to be stepped on the moment it thinks it might survive. It is much more fun to watch the later part rather than end it early."

"You disgust me. Get lost."

"Please. When that timer reaches zero, come find me here. It may be worth your while, or it very well may be your end. I’ll leave that choice to you. Don’t die until then, if that’s even possible."

Jacob couldn’t believe what he was hearing. A creature was sparing his life for seemingly no reason other than it would be boring otherwise. However, he didn’t care nor had time to contemplate the meaning behind it. He simply held Maria tight in his arms, kept Doc on his back, and started running back towards the area where they fought.

"What do you think, Doc? Why the hell would that thing let us live?"

However, Doc didn’t respond to Jacob.

"Doc? Hello?"

He stopped and let Doc roll on to the sand. His eyes, nose, and mouth all had blood coming out of them.

"Doc?! What the hell happened?! Are you okay?"

Jacob started slapping him until he finally seemed to respond. He let in a massive breath upon awakening. He stared at Jacob with wide eyes.

"...Jacob?"

"Yes, it’s me! Are you okay?"

Doc looked around, seemingly lost.

"How did we survive? What the hell was that thing?"

"What do you mean? The thing had a whole conversation with us. You don’t remember?"

Doc’s face paled.

"What do you mean we had a conversation? Didn’t you feel what it was doing to you too?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Looking at it... it felt like simply being in that things presence was slowly killing me. I’ve never seen such a powerful creature before. I thought I was a dead man."

"It never did anything to me. Why did it spare me from such a thing?"

Doc looked down at his hands.

"Maybe because it couldn’t do anything to you."

Jacob rubbed his forehead then offered Doc a hand up.

"There’s no time to think of things like that. We need to regroup. I’ll carry you so we can cover more distance faster."

Doc reluctantly grabbed Jacob’s hand and jumped on his back. Jacob scooped Maria back up in his arms and continued running until he finally found where they left. However, the more he travelled, the limper he could feel Doc go on his back.

’Man. Are me and Maria ever going to stop carrying each other? Not that I’m complaining...’