"Reive, I hope I can see you again..." Ash paused for a moment, smiling mischievously.
"So I can have my own playtime with you, Hehe." Ash laughed, his eyes blacked out and only his smirk was visible.
Though behind the dark curtain around his eyes, two lights illuminated, one of pure darkness that voided any light and the other vermillion as blood that speaks of murder.
Raising his head slightly, the darkness around his eyes vanished, forcing his two different-color eyes to shine like two pearls under the twilight.
Without any doubts this time, Ash is truly a complete heterochromia.
How did he fool Reive and the Whites back then? How did his eyes were shown normal as two blacks?
The answer lies within a manipulator who is resting on a wooden dock, watching the surroundings as his fellow travelers swims in the oblivion.
The hours passed, and Ash was recalling everything happened in this day. The day that never ends. Still, he took his time trying to figure out a few tactics, trying to understand this world better, and also putting in his mind the priority to level up.
The level seems the most important aspect in this world full of anomalies.
Ash's nerves tensed upon recalling the figure of the strongest Hollowbane, the Vilewarren. It was something that neither Ash nor Aeris could never forget.
'Vilewarren, I still can't believe I could deceive you! You were... Wait!!' Ash tensed even more. A realization hit him tremendously.
'If... that's really the truth then...' His eyes widened, his breathing accelerated. Ash found himself like a pawn between the Vilewarren's grip.
Ash stood up and crouched near the water of the river, playing with the water and moving his finger in circular movements.
Then he splashed the water away. Ash was frustrated as he knew the truth, the truth behind why did the Vilewarren let him alone.
"DAMN YOU! VILEWARREN! AM I JUST A JOKE TO YOU?!! I WILL SHOW YOU WHAT THE JOKE CAN DO!" Ash shouted, fury and anger caught his nerves as he sent so many water splashes ahead.
"Calm down, Mangle! The two-meter rabbit won't get away." Ash calmed himself by simply insulting the strongest Hollowbane, and continued to play a bit with the water.
It was relaxing. The cold water touching his skin, forcing a weak shiver to cross his arms.
That's when he felt something wrong in the river. A disturbance that made his body freeze in its place.
'Something is wrong!' Ash thought, completely frozen, not daring to move or play with the water anymore.
Something was moving under the river!
Ash waited, evaluating the disturbance in the water. It kept getting bigger and bigger. Whatever was moving under the river, it was something massive.
Ash's hand was still touching firmly the water without any motion, feeling the disturbed waves of the river. Perhaps it wasn't a river, but a large lake filling the area.
Though it doesn't matter, Ash found it an event-changer phenomenon.
It was then that he saw it with his naked eyes. An enormous hand emerged from the center of the river. It was gigantic that Ash's entire body wasn't even close to how big that hand was.
The hand opened its grip which made the palm facing the sky as if it was waiting to receive something.
It was a hand covered in jade scales, massive diamond-in-shape scales filled the whole hand with sharp claws ending the fingers like a set of weapons attached to it.
'Reptile?! That being is a lizard?!' And not any lizard. Ash didn't see its entire body, its hand was enough to install true terror in his heart.
'Whatever it is, I must not... or we must not cross that river no matter what happens!'
Seconds later, the hand retreated under water like a flash followed by a roar that resounded under the water.
Ash fell in utter terror, even more than when he was tortured!
Then silence. The hand of the gigantic creature retreated and the roar came to an end. Ash instantly pulled his hand out of the water and staggered until he fell to the ground.
'What the hell was that thing?!' Ash was terrified, trying to pull himself together before loosing to fear. He found it, a foe much more terrifying and stronger than the Vilewarren!
'I shouldn't get near that river ever again!' Ash returned and sat on the wooden dock, trying to calm himself as if he hadn't seen any of that thing.
"Ha Ha! Yes! Now, we can cross the river and get to the other side!"
'Cross the river?! Wait! Don't tell me!!' Ash heard a teenager about his age talking from afar. Ash ran to the source of his sound as fast as he can.
If what Ash heard was right, then...
'Shut up! I won't let this happen to them!' Ash thought, clearly insulting someone who he didn't saw before. Who did Ash responded to? Strange!
"Yea, thanks to the boat you found, we can now reach the castle faster than to navigate through the damned forest of those rabbits." Ash heard from afar, getting closer to them as someone else said.
'Come on! Come on! Faster!' Ash increased his speed to the maximum he could reach, until his eyes caught them, finally.
They were three travelers on a small boat, two boys and a girl, trying to cross the river to the other side. After what Ash saw underneath that river, he saw it as a suicide!
Once he reached the other wooden dock...
"YOU ALL THERE! RETURN NOWWW!! THERE IS SOMETHING UNDER THE RIVER!!" Ash screamed, trying to produce the highest sound he could make.
The three travelers noticed his screaming and didn't give him any bit o their attention, though the girl kept staring at Ash.
"RETURN? KEEP JOKING, YOU DECEPTION MASTER!" One of the boys screamed to make Ash hear as they were close to the center of the river... where the enormous creature's hand rose, but from a different spot.
"YOU THINK WE WILL FALL TO THIS? YOU CLEARLY WANNA RIDE WITH US, AND THIS BOAT CAN ONLY WITHSTAND THREE. GO AWAY, FOOL." The other boy said, a hint of mockery in his voice.
Ash, frustrated from the response, inhaled deeply and opened his mouth.
"YOU TWO ARE THE FOOLS! COME BACK, QUICKLY! YOU DON'T WANNA SEE THE CREATURE UNDERNEATH YOU ALL. HURRY!!" Ash screamed again, trying to persuade them to return before it's too late.
The boys ignored Ash completely, focusing on their route rather than giving Ash any hope of saving them.
Ash put his hand into the water and felt the same disturbance.
The creature has returned!