An entity suddenly blocked our flight path, causing the giant owl to jolt to a stop, flapping its massive wings in the middle of the sky.
Unlike Beelzebub, it wasn't grotesque or monstrous in size. No, this being was far smaller, even humanoid in appearance — but the deathly pressure that it radiated was… suffocating.
My small heart clenched painfully, as if a cold hand was crushing it from within.
The air was torn out of my lungs.
My consciousness warped. My body trembled uncontrollably.
My thoughts blanked.
Terror. It wrapped around me like a vice. And then it sank its teeth into my soul.
I couldn't blink. I couldn't even look away. I was just staring into the void.
It was just… a skeleton.
A humanoid skeleton in dark, spiked armor — and yet, it felt far more horrifying than any other monster I'd seen. Its crimson eyes burned in its skull like twin hellfires.
Faces — agonized human faces — adorned the surface of its armor, screaming in silence.
Its sword — massive and jagged black — pulsed with deathly energy.
This presence… was suffocating me.
I couldn't breathe.
My thoughts shattered like glass.
Was this the kind of horror my parents used to face?
Is this what they endured all those years?
This thing felt unbeatable. Hopeless. Absolute.
I'm going to die.
I'm going to die.
"Leon! Resist!" my mother shouted, her voice slicing through the terror like a beam of holy light.
In an instant, warm light wrapped around my body, pulling me out of the abyss of despair.
The fear subsided slightly — but it was still there, crawling under my skin like a parasite.
"Kakaka… What a lovely child you have there," the skeleton said, his voice creaking like rotting wood.
"Leon, don't look directly into its eyes," my mother warned as her holy light brightened again.
"That's… that's a Nether Death Overlord," she muttered, forming a divine barrier.
My father jumped from Eustace's back without hesitation, erupting into a blazing aura as wings of fire exploded from his back.
FLAAAASH!
"I'll take it down!" he roared.
The skeleton stared at him coldly — without flinching, without bracing — just watching.
My father rushed in, slashing with a fiery blade that split the skies.
BOOM!
But the skeleton merely raised a dark barrier and swallowed the fire whole.
CLASH!
CLASH!
CLASH!
Their blades collided in midair, sparks of flame and death clashing furiously.
My father unleashed a storm of fire with every swing.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Explosions rocked the sky.
But the undead's power grew stronger with every second. It began absorbing the flames, devouring them like oxygen.
My father's eyes widened. "T-This power…!"
"Oh yes. It's real," the skeleton cackled.
He moved — fast.
Too fast.
CLASH! SLASH! FLASH!
His blade slipped past father's defenses and shattered his flame armor.
My father retaliated, roaring as his entire form erupted into dragon-like fire claws that descended upon the skeleton like comets.
FLAAAAMMMESSS!
But the skeleton stepped through them.
Effortlessly.
SLASH!
"NGGAGH…!"
Blood sprayed from father's chest. His eyes went wide in shock.
His defenses were broken.
No… no, no, no, no—
"Die, Hero."
"LE…ON…"
SLAAAAAASSSH!
With a brutal swing, the skeleton cleaved my father in half.
His eyes met mine one final time.
Then he was gone.
Shattered. Burned. Dead.
"NOOOOO!!!" my mother screamed, her aura exploding in a blaze of divine fury.
CLAAAASSSH!
The skeleton moved to strike again, but mother's divine barrier held it back — if only for a second.
Light gathered at her fingertips, and then—
FLAAAASH!
A blast of sunlight surged out, the heavens responding to her fury. The skeleton was hurled back, its cloak smoking.
"Nghh…! Tch… such holy power," it growled. "But even holiness has limits!"
SLAAASH!
Its sword cleaved through holy light as if it were paper.
CRASH!
The barrier shattered.
Mother gritted her teeth and channeled all her remaining mana into a single spell.
Holy light wrapped around me.
Then she threw me.
Downward.
"LIVE, LEON!"
"Ah—! Noooooo!"
I was flung from Eustace's back, my body engulfed in the light.
Above, my mother glared at the enemy, summoning one final, devastating attack.
FLAAAAAASH!
The light was blinding.
But then…
SLASH!
Her body fell.
Headless.
Blood rained down.
Tears blurred my vision.
My throat couldn't even scream anymore.
The world shattered.
Eustace flared with light and exploded in a last-ditch suicide attack, taking the skeleton with him.
Smoke swallowed the sky.
For a moment, I hoped it was over.
But then…
"Haaahh…" A raspy breath echoed through the clouds.
It survived.
It emerged.
Burned. Cracked. But very much alive.
It flew after me, its sword raised.
"You won't live, future Hero."
"SLASH!"
Pain exploded in my chest.
The blade pierced me, slicing my tiny body.
Darkness swallowed me whole.
---
I died.
---