"I don't know how you did it, but you must have gained a lot of experience points by killing that creature." She hadn't gotten around to rowing, yet. Instead, she told him that, almost a question.

Jonathan hadn't thought about that.

He really didn't want to think about anything unnecessary. He was just getting to wherever it was that the bell was drawing him, so he could accomplish his goal and get some rest.

But it was worth a look. It had to be admitted.

Jonathan opened his status screen, whistling low immediately. Boy, was it worth it. He had enough to double his current stats. Which didn't put him back to where he'd been before he died and came back to life in this new form. But it helped.

He distributed the points, perhaps leaning more towards endurance than strength. The more he could resist, the more likely he was to win a fight, or so was his reasoning. The disappointing thing was that when he checked the Skills tab, there was absolutely nothing new.

Neither a Class Skill, nor a Unique Skill. He still only had Arise.

In other words, killing the great sea beast had granted him nothing new. So how the hell were the Undead Class Skills unlocked? He shook his head. Slightly, ever so slightly, he was still walking around half dizzy.

There was no need to dwell on unnecessary things. He closed the screen.

He was surprised Elizabeth hadn't tried to take a look.

Anyway.

Now they had a clear path, now they could"

"Do you think you could resurrect that thing?" Another question. "We could use it when the Count comes knocking on our door again."

Earlier, he thought he had taken his last look at the creature. But now he did it again. He had to.

He reached out his hand toward the corpse... what was definitely a corpse, no matter how nervous it made him, no matter how much, in the corner of his eye, the monster came to life again. It's just being rocked by the waters. It's dead. Dead.

He dropped his hand before he touched that monster, though.

"I think so. But... I don't want to try. Now."

Elizabeth nodded.

"I understand. I understand. Well..."

"Yeah. Let's get going."

Elizabeth began to row. Alone. Not that she was being nice, but she didn't tell him to give her a hand either, which he appreciated. He was so tired. He had a feeling it had been..... how long? Days in there.

When it hadn't even been hours.

Of course she couldn't get to where they had to go alone. Jonathan had to guide her, being the only one who could hear the bell. They didn't even have to go very far. Which was fine with him, of course, because he barely endured the boat ride even though he didn't have to do anything. Jonathan felt like puking his guts out.

An island so small it could barely be called an island, near Elesbury.

That was his destination.

Of course, he still hadn't gotten to exactly the right place. The bell was still tolling. Insisting. But it was there, he was sure.

"It's here."

"Sure? Okay." She docked the boat where she could, as best she could.

And despite how he felt, Jonathan got out of the boat in a hurry, not waiting for Elizabeth to tie the boat to a rock or something. He took three steps onto dry land. Just three steps.

Then he went head first.

He landed on all fours, scratching his hands, his knees. His vision swung to one side and then the other, as if he were in the middle of the sea, on some piece of wood.

He took a deep breath.

Trying to recover. Focusing.

"What is it now?" As she said it, Elizabeth bent to lend him a hand, as if it was second nature. That annoyed him and he pushed her roughly away.

"I can... walk."

She looked into his eyes for a while, as if searching for something.

"Okay." Maybe she said that because she found what she had been looking for. Maybe precisely the opposite. In any case, they resumed their journey.

They didn't have to go very far this time, either.

As Jonathan had said, it was hardly worthy of being called an island. Besides, the target was in plain sight. The x marked the spot, he told himself. Well, for him it was a kind of purple light. An energy. That was where the bell was calling him.

There was whatever it was he needed.

"Finally," Jonathan said.

"Finally what?"

"Don't you see that?"

"You see things now, besides hearing stuff? That's great. I hope it's worth it."

That makes two of us.

Jonathan crouched down, leaning against a rock so he wouldn't lose his balance, and reached into that purple energy. Pulling out...

A sword. Nothing more and nothing less than that.

A goddamn sword.

Jonathan couldn't say it didn't come in handy, especially after losing the sword in the belly of that beast. And he could tell with the naked eye that the stats on this sword were much better.

But it was, after all, nothing more than a sword.

"I refuse to believe it." His hand was shaking with rage, he realized. "That is why I went through that nightmare, which seemed to last for days.. For nothing more than a sword. It may literally be the best sword in the world, but I couldn't care less. It can't have been because of this. It just can't. The mysterious call. The appearance of a beast no one has ever seen. So much smoke and mirrors, for this?"

Stolen story; please report.

But he had reached the end of the road.

As much as he protested, as much as he wanted to deny it, he couldn't. The reason was very simple.

He had stopped hearing the bell.

Silence. Total silence, indeed.

So this was it. This really was it.

"Unbelievable."

"Men are such crybabies," Elizabeth said. "First, you're not dead."

He turned around to look at her.

"I literally can't die."

"You're not dead," she insisted. And now you have a good sword. "A very good one. Which will surely have something else special, a magical sword...."

The purple light disappeared.

Then a hole opened up in the ground. There were stairs down into the darkness. They jumped into view

"And that," she finished, suddenly.

"Okay. Shall we investigate?"

He wanted to rest, but he wouldn't be able to go to sleep thinking about what had happened in the beast's stomach. And what might be on the other side of the darkness.

"Wait a minute."

Elizabeth created two torches quickly, and passed the second one to him. Well. It was something. And, as dark as it was down there, it would be no darker than the belly of the beast. A place that not a speck of light, not even the sound of the ghostly bell, had managed to penetrate.

"Let's get going."

——

The Count stood on the deck of a ship, watching the horizon. And waiting. After countless years, so long that he had forgotten, he had been blessed with something new.

The call of a spectral bell, still pushing him forward with force. That was the only guide on his long road.

The Count was a patient man, though.

What were hours or even days compared to the endless dead time before something new? What's more, he felt like he was coming back to life with each passing second.

Maybe it's not the end. Maybe it's nothing special.

But it's new, that's what he was thinking.

Or maybe you're just done going crazy. It wouldn't be the first time you've seen and heard things, whispered a voice inside him, the voice of his childhood, perhaps. The last shred of sanity in his black heart.

At that, the Count laughed.

As all his men looked at him from the corner of their eyes, equal parts puzzled and worried, he said:

"Yes. It may be so."

——

Jonathan and Elizabeth descended into the darkness. She didn't have to insist that he go first, although she certainly would have, if necessary. She might be a legendary pirate, but she was very cautious.

Or perhaps that was precisely why she had become so legendary.

In any case, Jonathan didn't mind putting himself in danger by going ahead. He just wanted to know as soon as possible. He wanted to be the first to lay eyes on whatever waited in the depths of darkness.

They went down the stairs and through a sliding door, seemingly made of rock, that was open. As if waiting for him.

But when they reached the other side, it closed noisily behind him.

Them. Elizabeth had made it through in time, too.

Jonathan clicked his tongue.

"Trapped. I can't believe it..."

As he approached, the door swung open, sliding aside. Reacting to his presence.

"Of course." Whoever designed this mechanism wouldn't risk trapping themselves. Stupid.

He turned around, spinning.

Observing the room, also made of stone, under the light of the torches. Soon it ceased to be needed, however. Because the walls were illuminated with a blue fire.

Whatever color it was, no animal liked fire.

Not when it was out of control, at least.

They both broke into a run for the door. Had it all been some kind of trap from the start? The sea monster, and this room the last resort? But it turned out the fire wasn't chasing them.

He was the first to notice, to stop.

"Have you gone mad?"

As his very helpful companion made those kinds of comments. The fact is that the fire was not spreading out of control. It was still on the walls, tracing....

Letters. Letters on the stone.

Or at least they looked like letters, symbols arranged in a particular pattern. But it wasn't any language he knew. Something new. Something unfamiliar, like the beast that had tried to stop him from getting here, or maybe it had simply been drawn to the bell, too.

"It looks like a language. It does," Elizabeth said. "But it's no use to us, it might as well be scribbles. Great. Even if we could read all this, it's not like it would be a step-by-step guide on how to take that son of a bitch down."

She didn't want to know anything about things that had nothing to do with her objective, because her life hung in the balance. In a sense, Jonathan understood her. I mean, she had priorities, no more, no less. On the other hand, he would like to take his time and read all this. Uncover the buried secrets.

To know.

If he could read this. Or if he had the time to find out how.

Anyway.

Jonathan noticed that there was like a lever in a hole in the wall. On the one hand, he didn't know what might happen. On the other hand, he'd never know if he didn't pull it. So that's what he did.

Immediately, the floor began to shake.

At first he thought it might just be him, as tired and weakened as he was, but then he saw Elizabeth stumble, barely regaining her balance. Next, he saw the chunks of stone and dust flying from the ceiling.

The whole room was shaking. Not only him.

Somehow pulling the lever had triggered an earthquake? The floor opened up beneath his feet. Good thing he was watching, so he could react quickly.

Jumping to the other side, the safe side, before there was nothing but a chasm beneath his feet.

The room wasn't coming down or collapsing on top of their heads. But what was happening was pretty much the same, if not worse. The entire floor was opening up, even the walls had gone into motion, stopping in a new configuration.

"Hurry up!" Elizabeth called out to him.

Hurry?

In front of him there was no longer a proper path. In no time, everything had gone to shit. There were only pillars down into the deep darkness at the bottom of this hole. Only a few narrow platforms remained. Jonathan had gone too far away from the entrance to pull the lever. That, and that alone, was why he was in this situation in the first place. Elizabeth had stayed much closer, so she was already safe. Sort of.

Meaning, she was waiting for him instead of running out the way they had come. So she wasn't completely out of danger yet. Much better than he was, though. Jonathan jumped up to the first platform. His landing was awkward, he fell forward and thought that would be it. That he would die again, maybe as he fell, maybe much sooner, hitting his head on the edge of the next platform.

But he managed to regain his balance.

Barely, but he made it.

There wasn't that much left. He could do it. In fact, he could do anything.

Time, after all, was on my side.

A second jump.

Landing better, but the platform immediately began to sink. Consequently, he jumped immediately after landing, without giving himself time to regain his balance. The pillar fell fast. Too fast.

There was no way he could even reach the edge with his fingertips.

But that wasn't the only thing he was counting on. Jonathan stabbed the edge, sinking the blade deep into the earth. It was as easy as cutting cheese. He was no longer so disappointed with just having found that sword, that is, for the moment. With the handle of the sword as his only leverage point, the only thing separating him from the void, he climbed up to the next platform.

Which also began to sink.

At this rate, he wasn't going to get anywhere.

It was risky, but maybe he should just....

Jump.

Jump from where he was, over the void.

Jump to where Elizabeth was. Covering ten meters or more in a single leap. But, one way or another, he had made the right decision. He had to remember that while he was in that hole. He had made the right decision, just because something went wrong didn't necessarily mean he had been wrong.

Because if he had continued from platform to platform, he would have been lost by now. The other platforms also sank into darkness. There was no way he could have made it in time. But he wasn't going to make this jump either. I'm not going to make it in time, I'm going back into the darkness, even though that thing is dead I'm going back to a place like that and only the gods know what else awaits me down there. Only the gods know.

Jonathan didn't cover the necessary distance.

He didn't miss the jump by much, but he did it anyway and that was what mattered. There was no middle ground. Into the darkness again. Again. He didn't want to go back to...

He didn't reach the place he wanted to, but he didn't have to either. Because there was someone on the other side to hold his hand.

Elizabeth squeezed him tighter, pulling him up.

Jonathan was a little... He grabbed the wall with one hand, an extra grip point, and helped Elizabeth pull him.

All the way to the other side.

"Damn, that was close. Again," Elizabeth said.

Again. Again. Again.

The same thing echoed in his head....

Over and over again. Indeed.

Jonathan turned around, wondering what he'd missed in there, wondering if it was really all worth it, if he wasn't just fooling around, chasing nothing but vain hopes.

The floor and walls had opened up... and moved... but the room wasn't being destroyed.

No. It was...

Reconfiguring.

In front of it, precarious stairs formed. More platforms, leading to another lever. How could it not.

"Do you really plan to do this?"

Jonathan clenched the sword tighter. His new sword.

"There has to be something."

Something more than dreams and vain hopes.