Tales From The Kronos

"Now we need to find a way to get away from it. It can only live in water, and I think that if we run, we could reach the land in half an hour."

The snake-shaped creature still roamed around, preying on the group lost in this icy desert. Time was limited, as the already limited light from the sun slowly vanished, indicating the rise of the night. The air was already cold enough for them to freeze right there, staying the night here wouldn't be possible for them.

"Can't we just throw rocks again and again?" Asked Silva "If he's busy, he won't come for us. Once he's back underground, we just wait and repeat."

"I'm afraid not." Answered the leader "The surface of the lake is completely flat and empty, we have nothing to throw right now."

Silva thought for a while, trying to find something they could use to run away. Sadly for her, her pockets were empty, aside from her revolver armed with a single bullet. She hesitated for a moment but quickly realized that they were out of options, and shared her idea with her friends.

"If I shoot my bullet on the ground far away, it's going to go over there. It should at least allow us to get away from here."

"But then you won't have any way to defend yourself!" Replied Sepide.

"I don't think we have a choice. Just tell me when you're ready."

Sepide was forced to concede the point to Silva despite her reluctance to do so. Once they were ready, Silva shot farther away on the ice to lure the monster there.

Once the creature came out from the source of the impact, the group ran as fast as they could toward the land. The creature sunk back into the frozen ocean, prompting the group to stop. Except for Silva, who couldn't manage to stop in time and fell on the ice, sliding farther away.

Sepide was about to run toward her, but the leader stopped her in her tracks.

"If you walk, it's going to hear you, and then you'll be both in trouble."

Sepide understood that this wasn't the thing to do, but the snowstorm made it impossible to see her friend. She could only pray for her well-being.

"What do we do now?" Asked Uriel "I do not see anything we can throw on the ground."

"We have to help Silva, she must be worried all alone in there!" Sepide tried to search for anything that she could use to throw away. The only thing in her pockets was the knife that she was given, it was her only weapon, but she was ready to sacrifice it "I can throw that!"

The leader nodded her head in agreement, and Sepide threw the small knife as far as she could. Once again, the creature emerged from the ground, and the three of them ran once again. They managed to find Silva on the way, which was just pulled over by the leader in her rush. After a few more minutes, the giant beast hid back under the thick layer of ice and the group stopped.

"I fucking hate ice, I should have stayed on land."

"I'm pretty glad you were here." The leader answered to Silva's complaint "If you weren't here, we probably would have been swallowed by that thing."

"What is that anyway?" Asked Sepide, she had never seen anything like that before on their adventure, and was surprised to see a creature so gigantic "We're barely enough for him to eat enough."

"Well those I've seen attacked boats, but I don't think this leviathan saw a boat since the whole ocean is frozen."

"How did you manage to survive that before, leader?" Silva asked, in the hope that they would find a solution to their ordeal.

"Just like we're doing now, running away." The leader paused for a moment, like she was trying to remember something "Actually, Neige managed to kill one once."

"Really?" Asked Sepide full of hope "How did he do that?"

"I just let himself be eaten and attacked his heart from inside."

The rest of the group had their eyes wide opened upon hearing the leader's words. It took them a moment before coming out of the shock of the story. Silva was the first one to audibly manifest her surprise.

"Neige did that? He never told me about that!"

"I guess he's just humble. I remember the times when we only had basic tools and weapons, it was the good old time."

While Silva and Sepide were in shock, Uriel was focused on her thoughts, trying to think of a solution and the chance of success it had. Once she gauged the risks of it, she felt like it was time to share her idea.

"We still have a long way before land, maybe I can do like this Neige, and kill it from inside."

"We're not doing that!" Objected Sepide "It's too dangerous!"

The leader nodded her head in agreement and helped with Sepide's argument.

"I'll have to agree with her. We don't know if it will work, and the risk is way too high. Neige just thinks he's a superhero sometimes, don't imitate him."

"But then, what can we do?" Uriel seemed saddened to not find a solution. She was focused on her thoughts once again, desperately trying to find an answer to an impossible question "My duty is to help humanity, I cannot stay like that without helping."

"Uriel..." Sepide looked as sad as Uriel was. She thought about the times she felt powerless as well, about how she wished she had something she could do. Every time, it was Neige or Silva who did something while she merely followed them.

"Hey, I can throw my gun, it's useless now!"

Silva's voice managed to stop everyone from thinking further. Once they were all ready, Silva lured the creature away like the previous times. The group managed to get closer and closer to the land, but it was hard to know by how much. The monster jumped back into the lake, putting them in the same situation they had been in for a while now.

"Do we even get closer?" Sepide's voice was getting more and more panicked, as her respiration was getting faster and faster.

"Of course, we should be close now, just a few more times! The Leviathan can only live in deep water, the ocean won't be deep enough for it to follow us!" The leader tried to ease Sepide's mind, but it didn't seem to work.

Sepide's mind was flooded by thoughts of the past few days. She remembered when Neige was the one stopping Silv in this world full of cowboys. Or about the time when Silva not only fixed the situation with the two lovers but also faced her other self. Neige and Silva both managed to accomplish much more than she did, while she was stuck here, unable to do anything.

"We'd need to find a few things to throw, there had to be something useless we could use!" The leader said, still searching for something to help them.

"Useless..." Sepide repeated that word to herself, again and again. She couldn't understand why, but she felt like it was her duty to save everyone else "Useless..." When she realized that everyone's lives were at stake, it was like everything made sense suddenly "Useless..."

"Sepide? Are you alright?" Silva asked, worried about her friend's well-being.

"It's my duty to protect the other members of the group. If the others happened to be in mortal danger, I need to sacrifice myself for them."

The leader reacted upon hearing those words and tried to grab Sepide before it was too late. But sadly for her, Sepide decided to run toward the creature without the least amount of hesitation. Feeling Sepide run toward the danger, Silva followed her as fast as she could.

"Where are they going? Should we follow them?" Asked Uriel, in shock about what just happened.

"I think not." Answered the leader "We'll just have to pray that they'll be alright, going now would only be more dangerous to everyone."

Silva managed to stop Sepide but made them both fall in the attempt. They slid on the ice for a few meters away from the impact point, where the monster came a few seconds after their fall. If they continued for a few steps, it would have been over for them.

"Sepide, what's gotten into you?" Silva yelled, deeply worried about her friend's actions.

"I... I don't know. I just felt like it was my duty to save you, and that if I didn't, you'd all die..."

Silva took Sepide in her arms and gently caressed her head in an attempt to calm them both.

"No one is going to die, I promise, we'll all get out of here alive."

"Y-Yes. I really don't understand what happened..."

The two girls stood back up and tried to find the other through the thick snowstorm, in vain.

"It's so dark, I almost can't see anything." Sepide couldn't see farther than a meter, it was clear that the night was here, and they couldn't stay there forever.

A small sound took their attention, it was a sound similar to a rock hitting the ground. They already knew what it meant, the monster would come out once more. When it happened, they ran toward the land as fast as they could. The two friends continued, hoping that the two others were safe.

"I can feel it!" Yelled Silva "We're almost there, the ice stops soon!"

Sepide was relieved to hear those words from Silva. The creature jumped back into the ground once more, Sepide was about to stop, but Silva took her hand and continued running.

"We don't have anything to throw, the land is near, it's better to keep running! The leader said that they couldn't live outside deep water, so we have to take that chance."

Sepide nodded her head, and together they ran with all the energy they had left. Their steps got faster and faster until they finally stepped on the snow. The ocean was behind them now, after what seemed an eternity. Sepide took her breath, exhausted by what happened. Without a warning, Silva pulled her to the side. Sepide was confused about the reason behind her friend's action but immediately understood when she saw the long beast jumping next to them. Now that she saw it from closer, it was titanic. A single scale from that monster was at least as big as her head. The creature was struggling for its life, suffering from the lack of water. A few more minutes passed until the monster gave what appeared to be its last breath.

The snowstorm suddenly stopped, it was almost like it was linked to the creature's life. Feeling that it was finally over, Silva gave up all the muscles in her body, and let herself fall on the ground.

"Finally... It's over..."

Sepide stared at her reflection in the scale of the monster, still in shock about everything that happened.

The voice of the leader could be heard in the distance, getting closer. Sepide turned toward them to the her and Uriel running toward them.

"You're alive!" Said the leader with obvious relief in her voice. But Sepide couldn't help but notice that her leader was holding her hand in front of her mouth for some reason. "Ish that the Lefiathan? It musht hafe been shtarfing to jump out of the water like that. Maybe we can efen eat it!"

"Leader... Why is your voice weird?" Silva asked, without even making the effort to look in her direction.

"I losht a tooth."

"I will explain, do not worry!" Answered Uriel "Your leader is an amazing person, she did not hesitate and took one of her own teeth to throw on the ground so you would have a chance to escape!"

"She... Did that?" Sepide looked at the leader with a newfound respect. She wasn't expecting her to do something so painful. Maybe she's the leader for a reason after all.

The monster was finally dead, its corpse lying under the cold light of the moon. Tomorrow would be their last day, and they still needed to find two treasures to advance. They lost most of their weapons, had a limited time, and now they had to find a place to pass the cold night.