We left the tree at dawn. The birds helped us practice some magic and gave us food. We had to refuse the worms but they brought some fruit as well. Sunlight trickled through the canopy like dewdrops. The forest was thick with a fresh morning breeze. Somehow, despite everything that had happened, things were looking up. The God of Evil may have brought me to this world to be a sacrifice to a giant gem monster that could shoot lasers and was in cahoots with the leader of the elves who had taken me in, but at least we had a bunch of birds on our side!

“Where did they say it was again?” asked Noel.

“The Immortal of Desire said The Terrible was preoccupied along the banks of a lake in the middle of the forest,” I answered. “They said we should walk towards the Sun.” I pointed and Noel nodded. We began walking through the forest, discussing our battle plan.

“Will it really work?” I asked.

“It made sense,” said Noel. “And it fits what we know about the God of Evil, too.”

We heard a loud crash in the distance. Followed by another. Noel and I looked over, but we couldn’t see anything yet. We made our way over cautiously, quietly. Sounds of uprooted trees, snapping branches, tearing vines, echoed through the forest. It wasn’t long before we say a cloud of dust towering over the canopy in front of us. Noel and I exchanged glances. Noel went to the left and I went to the right.

I found a hidden spot among the trees and began to observe the dust cloud. Red beams of energy cut through the dust cloud from time to time but all of them were intercepted by serpentine vines that came shooting out from the ground. I recognized them as roots like the ones we’d seen at the Immortal of Desire’s tree. The sun was getting higher in the sky. I made sure to keep an eye on the shadows of the trees in front of me. I drank some water from a hide pouch the Immortal had given me, and downed some berries. I took a few deep breaths to calm my nerves.

We were going to fight a five starred monster. I’d underestimated the one star Farro Bird and almost paid the price. Nobody was coming to save us this time. The Immortal made it clear that it would not help us even if we were about to be killed by The Terrible. Something about the fate of mortals and stuff. It wasn’t very convincing, but I think it was wise not to bank on support from the Immortal. The sun reached its zenith in the sky. The thrashing stopped. A thick silence descended on the forest as the dust cloud began to settle.

Five red lights glowed through the dust. I jumped to the side as a red laser pierced the ground where I had been. I rolled on the ground and jumped back up. I saw Noel rush out of her hiding spot from the corner of my eye. A large gemstone limb crashed into the ground beside her, but she twisted her body to avoid it. Dirt and gravel showered over her body, but she kept going. I raced up to the monster from the other side.

The Terrible’s limbs cast out of the dust cloud from time to time, disturbing the dust and leaving trails in the air behind them. Noel and I dodged its attacks, spitting and coughing our way through the debris the monster cast into the air with its attacks. The Terrible roared; a horrible, high-pitched roar echoed through the lakeside and burst open the shell of the dust cloud that had been obstructed our view of our enemy.

Its skin was broken and scratched in various places. One of its legs was stuck deep in the ground, while various branches, twigs, and leaves peppered the surface of its once pristine body. The Terrible faced its five red stars towards us and prepare a laser, although this time, instead of lighting up his whole body, only the five stars on its forehead lit up before it shot forth a beam of light. Noel and I jumped out of the way even before the laser was fired. The monster didn’t—or perhaps it couldn’t—change the direction of its attack, but the ground where we had been exploded like a row of landmines had just gone off.

I was the first to reach its legs. Noel was just a step behind me. From where we were standing, The Terrible looked like a fancy glass building, reaching up to the sky. A sense of nostalgia washed over me. Guess I did miss New York a little bit. The building looked down on me, flashing with five red lights. I snapped back to focus on the monster’s legs and touched it with the palms of both of my hands as Noel did the same to the leg that was stuck in the ground.

As the sounds of The Terrible’s angry red laser gathered above my head, I felt energy drain out of my body. I closed my eyes and focused as hard as I could, squeezing out every last bit of power. Tendrils of magic grew out of my fingertips, lacing their way through the cold, hard gemstone. I tried to direct my magic, but the internal structure of the monster was more complicated than I’d assumed. There were lines of impurities, patches that had a different chemical makeup, and whole areas of its body that were completely impassable. My magic stretched thin as it crept up its leg, finding nothing of value in the abdomen or chest. I began to panic.

What if the Immortal of Desire had lied to us? Or what if it was wrong about The Terrible’s body? The other immortals weren’t perfect either, hadn’t the God of Evil failed to predict my future? I began to lose hope, sending wave after wave of magic higher and higher up The Terrible’s body. My magic came into contact with Noel’s, and somehow, I felt the same sense of desperation and fear that was currently threatening to overwhelm me.

A red light flashed in the corner of my eye. I bit my lips and a metallic taste flooded my mouth. I closed my eyes and yelled as loudly as I could, pushing my magic as far as it could go. The edge of one tendril brushed past something, something that felt soft and mushy. My mind cleared, I yelled to Noel: “It’s in the back of the head!” I don’t think Noel heard me.

The Terrible’s body flashed red. It formed a laser in its mouth, collecting heat and light so powerful it was already giving me goosebumps. I sent all of my magic towards the soft, mushy core and bashed against it. I ripped out chunks of core, bit after bit, and The Terrible’s body shivered and trembled in pain. Noel’s magic finally found mine, and we started tearing apart The Terrible’s core.

The heat of the laser died down. I opened my eyes and spit out some blood. I was breathing rapidly, but it wasn’t over yet. The Terrible thrashed around some more, trying to throw us off its body, but it was too weak. I hugged its leg, sticking to the limb even as it was lifted high above the ground. My body was sore from hanging on for dear life, but I never let go. As it brought me back to the ground, I complained to myself that I should have gone for the leg stuck on the ground too.

Our magic had broken over half of the core into tiny pieces. After being separated, the chunks began to dissolve in the monster’s gemlike body, sending out waves of magic power that crashed into my thin tendrils and sent a surge of energy through my body like a warm sip of tea on a cold winter’s night. Noel and I lapped up as much of the released energy as we could, using it to strengthen our assault on the monster’s own core. I felt a pain in my head not unlike the ones I got when I was studying or focusing too hard. I ignored the dull ache and kept absorbing and releasing magic.

Eventually, the monster’s thrashing stopped. It weakly trailed its feet through the dirt like a kid who’d done something bad and didn’t wanna look you in the eye. Its body lost its luster, going from a brilliant ruby-like sheen to the dull shade of rusting iron. Its core was broken into many pieces that were either absorbed by Noel and me, or dissolved into the gem that made up its head. The lakeside was silent. The water was still. The Terrible’s five, frightening red stars twinkled, before forming large cracks, and shattering.

I was showered in tiny red shards as The Terrible’s body creaked and cracked, before falling into the lake with a deafening splash.