Bonus Story 2: The Slime’s Tale

Bonus Story 2:
The Slime’s Tale

 

Slime: Rank F+. A dark green monster with no fixed shape. Can survive for a week on just water and weeds. Has the ability to shapeshift into the form of other monsters, but since it can’t change color or texture, this ability is basically worthless.

A rare, spontaneous mutation can cause the birth of a blue slime with special skills. But since these rare slimes are helpless right after birth, most are abandoned by their parents and eaten by other monsters.

 

Part 1

 

DEEP IN THE FOREST, there lay a pack of dark green, sticky puddles. These were monsters called slimes. They were very weak, and they only survived by eating grass and fleeing from stronger monsters. When they were lucky, they would stumble upon dead creatures and feast on their blood. That was how they survived.

They could change their forms to make themselves bigger—a larger threat to predators—but most of the time, they failed. Slimes had countless evolution options, but most died before they could reach that point.

Slimes were capable of asexual reproduction—they could split themselves in two. Each slime contained a huge amount of genetic information, and they always tried to produce better versions of themselves with each replication.

Groups were made up of parents and children. The parents taught the children how to gather food and avoid enemy attacks. Often, they would use the children as sacrifices to distract those enemies and run.

Very rarely, beautiful, blue-colored slimes were born. They were spontaneous mutations containing the most favorable and unique characteristics of slimes. They had very rare skills, but most of them were abandoned by their parent at birth. It was believed this was due to their strange coloring, which would stand out too much from the group. Perhaps it was a natural instinct to reject children who were different from them. Therefore, most of these slimes only lived to be a few days old, eaten before they could defend themselves.

Back in the forest, the biggest slime in the group began to reproduce. After the child split from the parent, it became its own conscious being and gradually began to turn blue. The group of young slimes shook. They were laughing that this slime was a different color from everyone else.

The parent slime was disgusted and cringed away from its blue child. It had wasted a lot of valuable nutrients and time to reproduce and create that slime. Its failure hit it hard. It didn’t find the situation funny at all.

The newborn blue slime didn’t know any better and tried to follow its parent slime. The others threw rocks at it. The young slimes changed shape to tease it. The rocks passed through the blue slime’s body, pummeling the surface of it. The blue slime stopped moving and began to spasm and tremble.

The slimes were made of sticky goo, but they still felt pain. Attacks would still cause damage.

The green slimes left the blue slime when it was just holding on by a thread. Perhaps they were sick of throwing rocks, or thought it was already dead, or perhaps they just didn’t care either way.

The blue slime had only just entered this world, and yet it already knew the pain of mockery, rejection, and abandonment.

Part 2

 

A FEW DAYS LATER, the slime was managing to survive by taking on the form of other monsters and sucking the water from grass and leaves. But that couldn’t satisfy its hunger. The blue slime was already so small, but it grew smaller day by day.

It was in pain. It was lonely. It crawled on the ground, living in fear of other monsters. It believed it had no future. When it spotted a group of green puddles in the distance, it was elated, but the memory of the rocks came back and it began to tremble. But it was still so curious. Even though the blue slime knew it should run away, it wanted to go over and look.

Or perhaps it was its instinct as a child to want to follow its parent.

The blue slime slowly approached them and peeked out from the brush. Its green slime siblings were crowded around the body of a wolf, drawing nutrients from it. They wouldn’t need to drink water from plants for a while.

The blue slime stayed still, hidden in the bushes as it watched them. It wasn’t thinking any particularly deep thoughts. It just wanted to be near its siblings.

After a while, the wolf’s body was rendered down to nothing but bones. The green slimes joined their parent slime and crawled off.

The blue slime noticed that there was still some blood and flesh stuck to the wolf’s bones. Slowly, it crawled to the corpse and cleaned off the rest of the flesh. It ate so vigorously that it even sucked the marrow from the bones. Distantly, it felt something entering its body.

An unfamiliar scene flashed through its mind. It saw itself being born as a wolf, surrounded by other wolves. Hunting with them. It chased a giant caterpillar, opened its mouth wide, sank its fangs in, and killed it.

The blue slime could not do those things. It took all its energy just to shapeshift, but it could not harden its form to become fangs or make a jaw sturdy enough to bite. That was how it knew it was seeing the memories of the wolf, somehow transmuted through its bones.

As the blue slime marveled at how strange this was, it heard a rustling sound. One of its green sibling slimes had returned. Its body was shaking. It was laughing at the blue slime. The green slime shapeshifted, forming a hand. The hand reached out and slapped the blue slime. Part of the blue slime’s body broke off, splattering nearby.

The blue slime ran, splattering the whole way. The green slime chased it. It raised its hand, smacking the blue slime over and over. That green slime had leveled up by finding a few monsters close to death and finishing them off. It was the strongest in the group and had recently been scolded by the parent slime for killing one of its siblings.

Before long, it had the blue slime cornered against a large earthen wall. The green slime moved to attack. As the blue slime turned to dodge, the wolf’s memory flashed back into its mind. The image of the wolf using the Bite attack. Memory mixed with reality. Its senses became muddled, and it was no longer sure of its surroundings.

Was it a wolf? Or was it a blue slime? It wasn’t sure. But the next thing it knew, the green slime’s body was splattered all around. And if the green slime was here, that meant this was reality. But the blue slime had hard fangs and a tough jaw like a wolf. How was that possible? While it wondered, its jaw shrank and its fangs melted away. The blue slime returned to its usual form. But its sticky body had shapeshifted, imitating the fangs of a wolf.

It was a rare, special property of a blue slime that ordinary slimes did not possess. It could absorb experiences and memories from sucking the bodily fluids of other monsters and imprint those experiences onto its own genetic information to steal their abilities. That was how the blue slime created a wolf’s mouth and imitated a wolf’s attack.

The blue slime didn’t understand this. It stood there, shocked, before it realized that many green puddles were coming closer. The group was very angry.

The blue slime crawled away as fast as it could. It ran and ran and ran and somehow managed to get free. It had gained so much experience from killing its high-level brother that it was now very fast. But it wouldn’t understand that until much later.

Part 3

 

ANOTHER SEVERAL DAYS passed. As usual, the blue slime spent most of its time running away from other monsters. But it was starting to notice how much easier that was than it was before.

“Gggtckkkk!” Right now, a giant caterpillar was chasing it. That was the monster it saw in the wolf’s memories. The blue slime wondered if it could bite the caterpillar and kill it just as the wolf had.

I am a wolf. Why am I running from a lowly worm? The memory that lay dormant in the blue slime’s mind seemed to cry out.

It used all its energy to imagine the form of a wolf, and then it turned into one. It was still blue and transparent but most certainly a wolf.

“Aaa-ooohh!” The blue slime howled. The caterpillar trembled and then started to run. The tables had turned.

The blue slime cornered the caterpillar and bit into its side, knocking it against the ground. The caterpillar stopped moving. The blue slime shapeshifted back into its original form, climbed onto the caterpillar, and began sucking out its bodily fluids. Another wave of memories washed over it.

A caterpillar was eating a bright red flower. The blue slime had once tried to drink from that same flower, but its body started to feel numb, so it stopped. That flower contained a weak poison.

The caterpillar ate the same flower, and its body also grew numb. But the caterpillar did not care and kept eating it. Then it ate another one just like it. Its body wasn’t numb anymore. It ate another and another. Now its body didn’t get numb. In this memory, the caterpillar acclimated itself to the flower’s poison.

The blue slime drained the caterpillar’s blood and ate all of its meat. Once it was done eating, it went out for a walk to search for the flower like the one in the memory. And then it ate it. And just like in the caterpillar’s memory, its body did not go numb.

The blue slime was starting to understand its special abilities. It stole the memories of monsters it ate and learned the skills from those memories, taking them on as its own.

Part 4

 

THE BLUE SLIME wanted to eat something else and see more memories. It crawled through the forest, looking for corpses. Then it sensed something big and round up in a tree. It was an egg. There was a pile of straw in the branches with the egg nestled inside.

An egg would not have memories. But if it was a strong monster, the slime could get something from it. After all, eggs were very nutritious.

The slime tried very hard to climb up the tree. It fell many times but soon learned to use its wolf fangs like spikes. Finally, it reached the egg. It had a mottled shell. Quickly, the slime climbed on top of the egg and tried to steal its memories and instincts.

“……!”

Vibrant pictures flashed through the slime’s brain. It was a world it had never seen before. Huge rock-like structures were lined up next to each other. Some places had large, flat stretches of earth. There were lights everywhere in this world, and creatures that walked on two legs roamed about. Of course, to someone who lived on Earth, this was an everyday scene, but to the blue slime it was utterly incoherent. What was this? The information from this unfamiliar world was so overwhelming it felt like its body was burning.

The blue slime spasmed from the heat and fell from the egg, hitting the ground. After that, a large form landed in the nest. The egg’s parent had flown home.

The blue slime ran away frantically, but the heat kept attacking its body. Something had changed inside of it. But the blue slime couldn’t understand what it was.

The blue slime had absorbed the memories and characteristics of a human from a strange, distant world. And most of those memories were emotional ones. Who this strange person was connected to, what this person did, and how they felt. Although the slime did not understand this, it had just gained the ability to think very much like a human.

Part 5

 

FOR A WHILE after that, the blue slime devoted itself to looking for dead bodies, eggs, or otherwise incapacitated monsters. When it went out hunting, it made sure to only target weaklings. Along the way, it would suck the juices from plants.

At some point, it discovered a human who could no longer walk. A human was one of those creatures that moved on two legs that it had seen in the egg’s memories. Something had crushed this human’s body and blood gushed from it. Its legs were mangled.

“δενέρχονται!” It was a man with long hair. The man yelled weakly, swinging his sword. “κλείστε! κλείστε!” The man kept screaming and kept swinging his sword.

The blue slime dodged the sword and approached the man’s body. He was so weak that it was easy for the slime to avoid his attacks. It made part of its body into the wolf’s mouth and bit the man’s arm.

“κλείστεεε!!”

The man’s memories raced through the blue slime. Human memories were much more interesting than monster memories. Halfway through, the blue slime realized the things the man was screaming were words, and that the man’s name was Doz. And so the blue slime absorbed the power of understanding language from Doz. Just then, Doz stopped screaming. He was holding his throat, frantically trying to speak. The sight amused the blue slime greatly.

The blue slime crawled back toward Doz’s body, stealing more and more of his memories and abilities. It wanted to steal them all.

It learned how to wield a sword. It learned how to use that sword to perform an attack called Shockwave. It learned how to let loose flames from that sword. It learned how to intimidate others to its advantage. It left Doz nothing more than an empty shell.

The blue slime was overjoyed to have such wonderful memories. Human memories were vibrant and deep, very fulfilling. It gave it the same sense of satisfaction as when it stole a fragment of the memories from the egg; it felt itself being filled with knowledge.

The blue slime decided not to kill Doz. He seemed hungry and in pain, so it killed a caterpillar and put it in front of him. Doz bit into the caterpillar, half-crazed. The blue slime decided to come back periodically to check on Doz, thinking him a very interesting creature indeed.

Part 6

 

THE BLUE SLIME roamed the forest, looking for another interesting creature. It was easy to hunt for weak monsters, but their memories were bland. The blue slime hungered for new experiences and new skills.

It regularly went to visit Doz and offer him food. Doz’s legs had healed recently. Not completely, but he was able to walk. Every time Doz saw the blue slime, he would stagger behind and follow it. The blue slime made a mouth and spoke to him using the language it had stolen from him.

“Ahh, ahh. All right. I’m talking. Hey. Man. Stop following me.”

“Ahh. Ahh. Ahh, ahh…”

The blue slime only then remembered that Doz could no longer talk. It found Doz creepy, and it sped up to lose him.

Some time later, it spotted a juvenile dragon up ahead. It had a black body and a certain hapless quality to it. It had an absentminded expression on its face.

It was an unusual monster that the blue slime didn’t see very often. It noticed the blue slime but seemed intimidated. Perhaps it was not very strong.

The dragon walked backward but then tripped over a rock and staggered. The blue slime thought it might be able to beat a monster like that. It moved closer.

The dragon curled up into a ball and sped away. The blue slime did not chase after it. If the monster was that fast, it might be strong too.

For some reason, the blue slime felt like it had met that dragon before. It thought about it, but it could not remember.

It didn’t realize that the egg it met so long ago was a dragon’s egg. No wonder it couldn’t remember. Still, it couldn’t quell the instinct.

Part 7

 

ONE MORNING, letters appeared in the blue slime’s brain. It was in the language that it had stolen from Doz.

Gained Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 1.

The letters lined up and echoed in the blue slime’s head. It resembled the sensation of thoughts being embedded directly into its brain when it stole memories from a creature.

You really. Screwed things up.

I never thought. You’d steal the Demon King type. I gave to the Dragon.

The letters kept lining up in its head.

I’m not. Angry. Actually I’m. Happy.

I had no. Idea that there. Was a flaw in. Laplace.

That could interfere with. Memories and skills. During reincarnation.

The blue slime understood the words, but they made no sense. It thought very hard.

“Who are you?”

Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 1 is unable to provide that explanation.

It refused to answer.

Gained Normal Skill “View Status” Lv 1.

Another strange thought immediately came into the blue slime’s head. But it didn’t understand.

This is a. Gift. You can have it.

It will help. Your. “Skill Steal” ability.

The blue slime understood that.

Bye. I have high. Hopes for you. Little slime.

The entity putting these thoughts into its head meant it no harm. It was fond of the blue slime. It was watching over it from somewhere.

And from then on, the blue slime would occasionally talk to this unknown voice. Its parent abandoned it at birth and its siblings almost killed it; no one had ever treated it with kindness before. It was thrown out into the cruel world to survive on its own. The unknown voice was the first source of comfort it ever felt.

The blue slime had absorbed so many memories, abilities, and ways of thinking that its mind far exceeded that of an ordinary slime. Perhaps, emotionally, it just needed someone to talk to. And although the blue slime did not realize it, perhaps that was why it took care of Doz.

Part 8

 

JUST AS THE Divine Voice said, View Status came in very handy. It told the blue slime details about its own abilities and the ones its enemies possessed. Thanks to View Status, it discovered it had an ability called Skill Steal. View Status let it see all the skills it had taken from other monsters too.

It also taught it about the most important thing in this world: leveling. The slime used its power very efficiently to defeat monsters and gain experience points.

One day, it asked the Divine Voice something.

“Divine Voice, what is that flower?”

Motrose: Value E-.

“Divine Voice, what is that monster called?”

Graywolf: Rank D-.

“Divine Voice, where are you right now?”

Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 3 is unable to provide that explanation.

“What are you doing?”

Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 3 is unable to provide that explanation.

“When can you tell me?”

Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 3 is unable to provide that explanation.

“Why won’t you tell me?”

Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 3 is unable to provide that explanation.

Day by day, the blue slime hunted monsters, gaining skills and experience points. And it kept talking to the Divine Voice. The more it spoke to it, the more it leveled up. If it kept leveling up, perhaps it would answer all its questions.

“Divine Voice, what is my Title Skill ‘Demon King’s Fragment’?” That was one of the abilities the slime saw on its status screen.

Title Skill “Demon King’s Fragment.”

This skill only belongs to a creature who possesses a fragment of the Demon King who terrorized the human world. The Demon King is a legendary monster who appears once every 5,000 years to attack human villages. It can force monsters and humans to do its bidding and has the power to facilitate their growth.

“Force humans and monsters…?”

The blue slime wondered if that was why Doz was following it. And if so, perhaps it could control other monsters as well.

Part 9

 

ONE DAY, the blue slime found two dead bodies at the bottom of a cliff. It thought them to be human children. It wanted their bodies before Doz could get a taste of them, so it changed itself into a spider and used its silk to descend the cliff. As it got closer, it realized the children’s bodies were holding hands.

It wondered if there was some reason for that, but it did not understand.

The blue slime dissolved the children’s flesh and went inside their memories. The bodies belonged to a pair of siblings. Twins.

Twins were an unlucky symbol in their village, and these children had been shunned all their lives. The twins only ever had each other. Their parents were always angry and forced them to sleep in a dirty shed. One of them contracted an illness and the other one caught it too. The villagers were afraid their illness would spread to everyone else, so they threw them out. Once they left, the little sister died. The older brother held hands with his sister and threw himself off the cliff. Their memories stopped after that.

The blue slime sucked out their memories. Once it was done, it talked to the Divine Voice.

“Slimes and humans are very similar.”

It remembered when its green slime siblings threw rocks at it. It and the twins shared the experience of being shunned by their parents because of how they were born. The slime felt empathy for the dead humans.

“What do you think, Divine Voice?”

Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 9 is unable to provide that explanation.

By that time, the blue slime had already gotten Divine Voice up to level 9.

After that, the blue slime used the skills it had stolen from other monsters to track down its slime family. After viewing the children’s memories, it began to think back on its own infancy. It wanted to destroy those feelings. Since the slime knew where to go, it found its relatives quite easily.

The dark green slimes were down by the river. The blue slime assumed the form of a monster called a claybear. The green slimes scattered like baby spiders. The blue slime followed the parent slime. The parent slime would go near the child slimes, then hide, trying to distract the blue slime with the children. Every time it did this, the blue slime got very annoyed.

The blue slime swung the claybear’s large arm and crushed the parent slime. It only took one hit. Green slime splattered everywhere. There was nothing left.

Gained 12 Experience Points.

How fragile. The blue slime felt ashamed that it had ever felt an attachment to such a thing. It felt satisfied that it had killed its parent.

Normally, slimes were weak monsters. The blue slime vowed to stay alive by any means necessary. But the blue slime was too strong and too clever to crave simple existence. The contradiction filled it with emptiness.

“Divine Voice. What should I do now?”

Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 9 is unable to provide that explanation.

“Why was I born?”

Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 9 has become MAX Lv.

At last, Divine Voice had leveled up as high as it could go. The blue slime heard a new voice.

I want you to aim to be the strongest in the world. That is why I gave you skills and watched over you.

The voice was much more fluid and coherent than before.

“M-me, the strongest? But why?”

I am just like you. I was betrayed by my people and confined to a small space, all alone. I want you to come save me.

“B-but you’re a god. I’m the same as you?”

Yes, that’s right. I’ve been imprisoned here all alone for a very, very long time, responsible for the duties of Laplace, which does not do as I say.

The blue slime was excited. The Divine Voice was like a real parent to it; it had watched over it and supported it after everyone else let it down. If not for the Divine Voice, it never would’ve gained all these skills; it would’ve just died at the hands of a much stronger enemy. When it was lonely, the Divine Voice would always talk to it. It would tell it things it did not know. To the blue slime, the Divine Voice was truly a god.

And this god was relying on it. It was asking for the blue slime’s help.

“What should I do? What should I do, Divine Voice? Divine Voice!”

Gain skills and levels. Collect four of the six paths in this world.

“Six paths?”

Yes. You already have one. You stole it that day from the egg. It was the authority to govern all things in the world. The power of the demon king, the skill “Path of Carnage.” The heroes, saints, and monster kings of this world possess the remaining paths. Get them and then come back to me.

“I’ll do it. I’ll do it! I’ll show you, Divine Voice! One day I’ll save you! Divine Voice! I’ll do it!”

Part 10

 

THE BLUE SLIME gained many skills in the forests and then finally decided to journey in search of heroes, saints, and monster kings. It used the skill it received after leveling up Demon King’s Fragment, “Control,” to make its enemies do its bidding. Then it gained the skill Magical Brainwashing to use Doz and other monsters as its pawns. It used them to steal a Little Rock Dragon’s egg and guide it to a human village to attack them.

Once the village was destroyed, it could absorb all the skills from the mountain of their corpses. Perhaps it could even take the Little Rock Dragon’s skills.

The blue slime concealed itself and waited in a safe place to watch as its plan unfolded. Gaining skills was not its only goal. This was the village where the twins had grown up. It would destroy it.

“Divine Voice! Divine Voice! Watch! I’m going to become stronger!”

It was a perfect plan. It used mahawolves to send information throughout the forest.

But suddenly, one of the mahawolves informed the slime that a dragon had appeared and was trying to steal the Little Rock Dragon’s egg. The blue slime decided to have a look. This dragon was the same sort of black dragon it had seen before. According to View Status, it was a Young Plague Dragon. And its name was Illusia. It was the first named monster that the blue slime had ever come across.

But still, this dragon didn’t have the stats it would need to beat the Little Rock Dragon.

It made the slime uncomfortable that the dragon had both Divine Voice and View Status like it did.

“Divine Voice? Why does that dragon have those skills?”

I did that to help you grow. I did it to test you.

It sounded like an excuse, which just made the blue slime more uncomfortable.

“That dragon can’t beat a Little Rock Dragon, right?” the blue slime asked anxiously.

I wonder.

“It can’t! It doesn’t need the egg! I won’t let it have it! It won’t take the egg! I won’t let that dragon stop me! I don’t need to be tested!” The blue slime swelled with stubbornness.

But it was wrong. In the end, the dragon evolved into a Plague Dragon and defeated the Little Rock Dragon. After the blue slime saw this, it came out from its hiding place to kill this troublesome creature, along with its companion, the black lizard.

It used View Status and saw that the dragon’s stats had grown much stronger since it evolved. It had far more skills too.

“Your skills have changed so much since you evolved. Annoying.” The blue slime made a mouth and muttered to itself.

Illusia was very surprised.

“You can see inside me, so I’m sure you understand what I want. All I wish is to go and safely collect the skills from the Rock Dragon and the dead villagers,” the blue slime told him as they fought. According to View Status, the dragon could understand human language. That just made it want to kill this creature even more. The blue slime wanted to be the only one who could hear the Divine Voice.

But Illusia had higher stats. It would be very tough to beat him, and the slime couldn’t risk dying. It had made a promise to the Divine Voice. No risks.

“It won’t benefit either of us if you attack me unprepared. Just let me go.”

Illusia ignored it and kept attacking.

“Haven’t you realized yet that it’s no use? Give up. Run away. I’m not fast enough to catch you two, even if I gave chase. As I’ve said, I have no desire to fight you.” But no matter how much the blue slime tried to talk to him, Illusia wouldn’t give up. It was so annoying. Why did the dragon want to interfere with its plans so much? This was such a waste of time that, halfway through, the blue slime changed its tactics.

It had recovery magic. The dragon was much stronger, but the blue slime could keep recovering health endlessly and continue the fight. Illusia had to realize that too. If it defeated Illusia, it would level up greatly and gain many skills.

That’s what it thought. But it let its guard down.

Illusia took the blue slime in his arms and leapt off the cliff. It was dangerous to fall from such a height. The same was true for Illusia, and yet he didn’t hesitate.

“F-fine! I lose! I won’t go to that village! I’ll leave the forest! S-so…!” The blue slime screamed from the circle of Illusia’s arms and flailed desperately. It couldn’t die now. It must become the strongest and save the Divine Voice. It had to defeat heroes and saints and monster kings. It couldn’t lose to this dragon. Not here. Not now.

“Stop, stop, stop! Stop! I can’t die! Not here! Not now! Stop!” The blue slime made many mouths and used them all to try to persuade Illusia to release it, but he wouldn’t listen. “Stop! Stop!” Half-crazed, the blue slime kept pleading. Its body began to break down and scatter.

“Stop! You have to! Stop! Why?! I’ll do anything! Stop! I’m going to be the strongest!” At this point, the blue slime didn’t even know what it was saying. It heard so many voices in its head.

“Stop!”

“I can’t die!”

“Not here!”

It screamed desperately.

It had to help the Divine Voice. It had to gather the six paths and save the Divine Voice who was betrayed by its people and imprisoned. It couldn’t die here. It couldn’t just be another fool.

“Because—!”

“I promised—!”

“The Divine Voice!”

It was headed for a sharp, jagged rock at the bottom of the chasm. Was it over? No, it couldn’t give up. There must be a way. Memories flashed through its mind. From the time it was born, so tiny and weak. When its brother attacked it; when it almost died. When it killed its parent slime. The memories of other monsters washed over it. It had to believe there was a hint in there somewhere that would help it. It kept trying to search for it. But there wasn’t anything.

[ ]

The blue slime heard the familiar Divine Voice. But for some reason it seemed empty; it took it a moment to comprehend it.

You were the test, little slime.

The blue slime understood, and a searing heat spread through its body, overwhelming emotions pouring out, form wavering. It lost the skill that controlled its hue, flashing through a rainbow of colors.

Why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why?

The blue slime’s body hit the jagged rock and its thoughts ceased. Its body splattered into a million pieces to be washed down the river alongside Illusia.