As soon as I stepped out of this new veil, I found myself walking right under Eleanor’s skirt and through her legs. I quickly moved aside and noticed that she had her back pressed against this entrance, with the sword in her hands—shaking, just like her legs—and pointing it forward, with a look of anxiousness as her eyes quickly swept across this new place.

While this one was different from the cave-like zone we were in just before, it still carried some similarities.

It wasn’t nearly as wide as the cave, since here I could see walls at both of our sides that stretched into dark depths. The ceiling wasn’t as high either, and in this case, it was made from cut rock, just like the walls. And as if to ensure that this wasn't just a simple cave, not too far from the walls, there were pillars seemingly holding this strange structure in place.

Large torches arranged on the walls and the pillars dimly illuminated this place, which allowed us to see that the ground, the pillars themselves, and the walls were full of holes and red marks. The ground in particular looked more as if someone had tried to destroy it with a huge hammer several times, and around all of those holes, red marks of dry blood could be seen.

The only thing I couldn’t see was an enemy, or anything that could prove to be dangerous, so I couldn’t understand why Eleanor would be acting this way.

“Kyun,” I let out, just to make sure that there wasn’t something strange going on with her.

She yelped in surprise, before turning to look down at me with widened eyes. She quickly realized who I was and sighed in relief, followed by a soft smile. “I’m happy to see that you’re still with me, Kyun. I was afraid that I would have to go on alone.”

Being called that way by this pitiful mortal caused my eyebrows to tremble, but once more, I put that feeling aside and turned to look at the place we were. Eleanor removed her back from the entrance but kept her guard up as she moved a couple of steps forward. There might not be an immediate danger, but those marks, holes, and destruction were likely created by someone or something. It was better to walk with care.

I couldn’t see beyond what was around me with this summon, but I could tell that danger was just ahead.

And sure enough, as soon as Eleanor took another couple of steps forward with her sword raised, a loud roar that caused the air around us to shake was heard. Eleanor nearly dropped the sword and stumbled but kept her weapon up as she widened her eyes in an anxious look at the now rumbling noise of something rushing this way.

It was the sound of large stomping feet, and after a few seconds, the owner appeared. A beast that could easily reach the ceiling if it wished was coming. It had the torso of a muscly pale man, but the legs and head of a bull. A minotaur, but there was something strange about it, since it had no fur or hair, only pale skin all over it, and its left arm was completely deformed to look like it was holding a club on its hand, despite there not being a hand at all; just a long, large lump of pale flesh.

Said lump was also covered in red dry blood, just like the face of the bull, which had large red glowing eyes, and pointy red teeth from which blood was also pouring down. From this distance, we could also see the furious amount of steam that was coming out of its nose, and once it was clearly in view, it roared once more, just like the raging bull that it was.

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Eleanor froze, her legs shaking just as much as the ground itself, and it seemed like there was no way for her to survive this time. The beast's stomping grew louder and louder, and its monstrous shape grew just as much, until it was a short distance away from us.

Eleanor had to move.

“Kyun!” I loudly let out, trying to overpower the noise of the beast.

It worked, and in the last second, Eleanor leaped to the side. Right after, the beast's pointy horns crashed with the black veil from which we came, right where Eleanor was standing just a second ago. A shockwave followed, and small pebbles from the ceiling and wall fell from the impact of this beast.

“Ah—Ah—!” Eleanor fearfully exclaimed, her eyes wide as she scrambled to move away from the beast with her butt on the ground and her legs kicking away, but hardly moving her.

The beast quickly recovered from the crash, and with wild movements, turned to look down at me. I looked up at the red eyes that were glaring, wondering if it was planning to go after me, but immediately after, and just as wildly as before, it shook its head to look for Eleanor. It didn’t take long for it to notice her, and with another roar, it rushed after her.

It stomped one of its legs in her direction, raised the club-like lump flesh to the air, and quickly dropped it on top of Eleanor.

With a scream and a desperate kick, she managed to leap away from the fast-moving club, which caused yet another explosion at the point of impact, creating a new hole in the ground, and sending rocks flying everywhere. Eleanor managed to avoid certain death, but the explosion still sent her flying. She crashed with her back into a pillar not too far away from where she was, after which she fell to the ground once more. She struggled to take in air, as the impact knocked it out of her, and the sword in her hand fell to the ground next to her.

The beast, in the meantime, lagged in response, as it slowly lifted the lump of flesh to inspect the zone of impact. There was a lot of dust in the air, so it let out a puff of steamy air from its nose, and the air was quickly cleared, revealing nothing more than an empty crater. It roared once more and turned to look everywhere for its prey.

Eleanor was still struggling in the ground, tears falling from her eyes as she tried to recover herself; not realizing that the beast was still here and looking for her.

In the time that the beast took, I tried my best—again, despite my desires not to interfere with the mortal—to do everything I could to make sure she survived, so I hopped from side to side and swiftly moved under the beast’s legs to make my way to Eleanor. Once I was next to her, I tapped her on the head, and called her attention.

“Kyun, kyun!” I let out, causing her to look at me and I to look at the beast, which had already found her. I turned to look at her and tried my best to convey to her that she had to move. “Kyun!”

She looked at the beast with widened eyes as it locked its sight on her by narrowing its red eyes. With one beastly holler, it rushed its way here while its loud stomps shook the ground.

Eleanor scrambled to get up as she grabbed the dropped sword while getting back to her feet, and in the last step before the beast could impale her, she managed to jump to the side.

Another booming explosion followed, and she was forced to stumble away on the ground. There was dust in the air from the crash, but from what could be seen, the beast had impaled its horns on the pillar. It was the perfect opportunity for an attack, so I quickly looked over to Eleanor, standing not too far away as the monster struggled to take itself out of the pillar.

However… She was just standing in place, with the sword in her hands shaking and her legs threatening to fail her. I went over to her, again, to force her to move, but before I could let out my strange sound, the noise of the beast freeing itself from the pillar and rocks falling to the ground drowned out any sound I could make.

This time, it didn’t waste any time turning to Eleanor, and without making another holler, the minotaur rushed over to her. The beast didn’t lower its head to impale as it stood tall, raised its large lump to the air, and swiftly brought it down on both me and Eleanor.

There wasn’t anything I had to worry about as I quickly moved to the side, but right after I did so, a loud slapping sound came out from the spot where Eleanor was standing…

She didn’t move in time.