It was then that the little janitor decided to make his entrance. He emerged from the darkness with his slightly stooped appearance, the wrinkles on his unpleasant face deepening under the pale moonlight, and his shaggy hair, which had long been spared the brush, fluttered in the chilly breeze. Still having taken the trouble to change for the event, he wore a rumpled navy blue suit, which time had so removed that it looked almost clear. Underneath, he wore an old white shirt and a red bow to complete his formal wear, which was as poor as his condition. His chipped black shoes were clear evidence of his condition. A slave for life, and fully aware of his place in the Athok hierarchical pyramid. Miron was right, as were all those others who laughed at him and pitied him, even the most overwhelmed. Nevertheless, he had obtained the right to multiply his height by at least three in order to access the gigantic terrace of the spectators. Thus, although he had become enormous, he did not even reach the waist of the guests.

"He found this little thing in my room. It was broken, useless, among countless debris in the same condition. But Miron managed to repair and improve the whistle. What a complicated boy he is." The janitor had a snide little laugh. "He figured out right away what he needed to bring with him to survive. A little longer than the others, I mean."

Sirkol was visibly growing more annoyed by this mocking yet admiring speech for a doomed child.

"Then you came all the way here, after obviously struggling to be as presentable as possible so that you could look at him by skillfully using the whistle he had the wit to come to you for."

The janitor kept a wry smile. But he was aware of his behavior and the inevitable consequences he would endure because of it. But he still decided to continue to the end.

"Yes. I had to see. And I did. I'm very proud of it."

Sirkol reached out and unleashed a powerful blast of magic on the janitor that threw him into the air a great explosion. There was no way he would have survived the violent attack. But if Miron had been there, he would have understood the reason for this rebellion, the first and undoubtedly the last. The janitor also wanted to give meaning for once to his life that no one valued anymore, not even for a single minute, not even him. The guests, who didn't understand anything, burst out laughing...but Sirkol himself had grasped the situation and grinned with anger and dissatisfaction.

"Idiot," Sirkol concluded, however, with a strange and unsettling sense of defeat.

As they ran, Miron and Kei encountered another monster again, a huge six-legged beast of a nightmarishly pale bistre, half its body covered with a thick carapace and the other half with large, sharp spikes. Its ears were as large as they were thin.

"Oh no! What is this beast again, Miron? I never imagined that such a creature could exist. It's too monumental! We wouldn't stand a chance against it, that's for sure. Let's go around it, carefully."

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But Miron had another plan in mind that he guessed would not be at all to his friend's liking.

"That's exactly the kind of creature I was looking for."

"What!"

"We need to get close to him, Kei."

Kei opened his eyes wide enough to blow them out of their orbital cavities and shouted, indignant.

"Have you lost your mind or something? Didn't you hear what I just said? If we fight this huge thing, we'll end up so flattened that there won't be a single vestige of us left to be devoured by those disgusting predators."

As they drew closer, Miron was suddenly struck in the face with unexpected violence by a black winged creature. And unfortunately, he lost his whistle under the brutal shock. Meanwhile, Kei, who wanted to go to his friend's aid, became suddenly entangled in gigantic webs that inexorably tightened around his body with every movement. Without even understanding what was happening to him, the young blond boy found himself imprisoned in a coffin of immaculate, blade-resistant webs. He stopped trying to get out completely when blood began to flow from his wounds.

"Miron!"

Miron turned around and immediately understood the situation. He quickly retraced his steps to help his friend out of the web. He lit up again, ready to shoot magic with his scepter, but alas, the insects soon surrounded them with no escape and it was simply impossible to get rid of them.

Miron tried to burn the webs with the magic of the scepter, but failing to do so, he pulled the webs with his bare hands, as hard as he could, unfortunately, the more he pulled, the more they wrapped around Kei and choked him irresistibly. Meanwhile, the other insects had been working, and without Miron realizing it, they had created a gigantic web wall around him, trapping the giant, pale bistre, unbridled beast with him. Finding no other obstacle in his way, he took off and rushed toward the boys. Miron saw him rushing at them, and without missing a beat, pointed his scepter at him, glowed, and shot as much magic fire at him as he could.

But alas, his attacks had no effect. And the monster continued its monstrous race towards them. Monstrous and deadly.

And this time, knowing that he had no chance to stop it, he knew that it was finally the end. He felt a kind of resignation and serenity in his heart, so he turned to Kei, wishing that the last thing he of his short and tortured life was the face of someone who loved him and whom he cared for, then finally closed his eyes and waited for death to finally take him away.

But expecting a painful and fatal shock, he was quickly surprised to find that it was not. Opening his still hesitant eyes, he saw that the evil creature had suddenly stopped in front of them. A powerful magic was working on it. Trying to catch his breath first, Miron quickly noticed the magic trapping the beast. It was materializing before him, huge chains imprisoning the poor creatures, held by giant beings of a glowing dark red. Realizing what was happening, Miron suddenly turned to Sirkol. This one was casually raising his hand and smiled with a snide look. The director had used his power to save Miron. This intervention was an act of pure malice and supreme sadism, with the obvious intention of prolonging the game as long as possible. Miron watched Kei slowly suffocate, irreparably in the cobwebs, while his blood had already completely smeared his face. And suddenly, something snapped inside Miron. He had had enough. And without really believing it, he finally went beyond a limit he never thought he would ever reach. He was cold. He became as silent as Stanys moonless nights.

And then he finally let his memories return.