The deeper Luis pushed into the enchanted forest, the stranger the air became.
At first, it was a breeze—cool, damp. Then it thickened. Mist. Then syrup. Then weight.
He clutched his chest, stumbling. "What… what is this? I—I can't breathe..."
Each breath was fire. His lungs burned. The forest warped around him, trees bleeding color, leaves smearing like a watercolor left in the rain.
Zyx's voice dropped, unusually serious. "Wait. I know this. That pressure—Luis, this is a psychic field. High-tier. Silver-class."
Luis dropped to his knees, vision swimming. "Psychic what?"
Zyx hissed, "A Spectral Demon. Run. Now."
That word cut through the fog.
Luis surged to his feet and ran.
The world twisted as he bolted through the forest, pain flaring in every limb. Vines whipped him. Branches clawed at his face.
Then—
A low, harmonic hum. Like something ancient was waking.
The ground exploded. A spectral hand the size of a truck erupted beneath him, clawing around his legs like a vice.
Luis screamed, flailing as he was yanked from the earth and dragged violently across the forest floor. Rocks, roots, thorns—all slammed into him as the hand pulled him toward something deeper. Darker.
Zyx panicked. "It's here! It's here! Level 14! Silver Class! Luis, RUN—"
But Luis wasn't running.
He was airborne.
The demon hurled him into a tree like a ragdoll. Bark cracked. Something inside him cracked, too.
He hit the dirt hard, vision blurring. Bones screamed. Breath gone.
"Luis! Wake up!" Zyx shouted, spinning in frantic loops. "Come on, idiot, breathe!"
Luis blinked. Just enough to see another massive hand lashing toward him. He rolled—barely—earth exploding where he'd been.
Groping through his pack, he found the bottle. A bubbling, sickly green potion wrapped in stained cloth.
"Pim's vial," Zyx gasped. "From the Agmorant fight!"
Luis swallowed it in one desperate gulp.
The pain hit like fire. His chest lit up, nerves screaming. He collapsed again, teeth grinding as the concoction seared through him, burning out the psychic fog like poison.
Then—clarity. Cold and sharp.
He gasped. "What the hell was in that…?"
Zyx didn't answer right away. "No time. Listen—I know how to kill it."
Luis forced himself upright. The trees around him pulsed. Twitched. Watched.
Zyx hovered close. "The demon's heart. It's not inside its body. It's hidden somewhere nearby—but it can't go far from it. That's its tether."
Luis's voice came in a rasp. "So I'm fighting a ghost and playing hide and seek."
Then the demon came again.
It burst from the soil—ten more ghostly hands clawing up through the ground. Its form towering, shifting. Unreal.
"Above you!" Zyx screamed.
Luis looked up.
The demon descended like a thundercloud, all claws and rage.
"I can't dodge—"
He didn't hesitate.
"Fortress's Heart!"
A pulse of golden energy blasted out from him. The buff wrapped around his armor just as the demon struck.
BOOM.
Earth shattered. Debris flew. Luis was buried in a wall of broken roots and stone. His health bar plunged—60%, 45%, 30%...
But not zero.
He gasped under the weight, alive, barely. Pain thrummed in every limb.
And then—he ran.
No plan. No path. Just instinct. Motion.
"Zyx!" he shouted, breath ragged. "What does the heart look like?!"
"Gold! Like a lantern! But it won't show itself unless you're right on top of it!"
Luis skidded to a stop. "So it's invisible."
Zyx grinned grimly. "Welcome to my life."
"Great plan."
"Thank you. I try."
Then the forest twisted again.
The demon surged from the ground, arms writhing like serpents, eyes glowing like coals.
"NOW!" Zyx screamed. "Use the boots!"
Luis activated the Boots of the Iron Guardian. His legs launched him skyward in a gravity-defying leap. The world slowed as he soared over the monster's limbs.
And then—
He saw it.
Just for a second—a distortion in the air. Like rippling heat waves clinging to a floating point.
"There!" he shouted.
He landed in a roll, sprinting.
The demon blinked to intercept—too fast.
Claws whipped toward him.
Luis raised his hammer. Clang! He parried.
Wind Snap triggered. Wind Dancer surged.
He blurred past the monster—momentum building—then leapt again.
There it was.
The Pulsing Heart hovered mid-air, gold and radiant, trembling like a dying star.
Luis screamed as he brought the hammer down.
CRACK.
The heart shattered.
A shockwave erupted—blinding light, raw sound. The demon shrieked, its body disintegrating into a thousand screaming strands of smoke.
And then—
Silence.
The pressure vanished.
Luis collapsed onto the earth, chest heaving.
Zyx floated down, slow and stunned. "Okay. Okay. That was… that was horrifying."
Luis coughed, eyes fluttering. "I don't think I'm walking out of here…"
Zyx gave a weak grin. "Maybe not. But if you do, you earned it."
[+15,000 Soul Essence Gained]LEVEL UP: 5
New Ability Unlocked: MIND CONSTRUCTAllows temporary creation of psychic tools, platforms, or structures.Duration: 10 seconds | Cooldown: 2 minutes
Luis laughed softly, even as blood trickled from the side of his mouth. "Alright… maybe we don't die today."
Zyx nodded. "We live to be stupid another day."
And beyond the clearing—through the twitching trees—the path still waited.