A deafening ring that almost broke Daniel's eardrums. When his eyes darkened due to all the dust that was beating him from all directions, Daniel knew that maybe he would not survive this time.
His knowledge of the core of the universe had not appeared to him at that time, so he still considered himself a normal human, only that he had some bad luck from having to face monsters a lot in some situations.
Defeating a monster who slaughtered his entire family seven years ago and almost participated in slaughtering Daniel if only the miracle did not come suddenly, was what Daniel had been waiting for. Maybe he just needed to provide justice for his family who died unjustly.
A face appeared again, amidst the dense darkness. Her eyes were glowing red hot like flames in the night sky. Daniel also saw a very obvious grimace, one that was so old and annoying.
"Seeing you mature is not what I've been waiting for. However, if you were present at such a mature age maybe it wouldn't be bad. The ripeness will make me full and also make me stronger than I thought." The roar of the monster bounced again, knocking Daniel away so he fell into a hot crater that stung his body.
Some of the monsters could identify the aura from the core of the universe. And the monster that was in front of Daniel was one of them.
A scream managed to escape Daniel's mouth, accompanied by a completely blistered face and skin. In the midst of all that, his chest suddenly felt like he was rebelling, like a claw that suddenly burst out and tore his heart. Daniel was drowned in the lake of fire, scorched, and destroyed until finally a thundering boom could be heard from a distance.
…
An illusionist monster was one type of monster that could always give uncountable illusions to every appearance. Their strength depended on the cell nucleus which was passed down in the form of genes and also from the absorption of energy through the waves of the universe.
Illusionists were not the biggest and most powerful monsters in the world, because their wave absorption capacity was very small, maybe just like a human who inhaled oxygen every day to survive.
However, they remained the biggest threat to humans because his way of surviving was by eating meat, including human flesh. Not to mention that in their awakening, they had already inhaled the energy from the core of the universe in Corrux's body. Even the weakest monsters could become catastrophic if not be watched out for.
There were so many illusionist monsters that Daniel had found, one of which was a resident in a city who lived not far from Daniel's house. Daniel intended to dismantle everything, and stopped the monsters if only he was given the chance to live just tonight.
Like a violent burst of vomit, Daniel jerked awake with a violent gasp. When he opened his eyes he found himself lying on his warm and rather gloomy bed.
He was crawling down from his bed looking for the switch and then turning on the light. Rushing to his drawer, Daniel moved carelessly to write in his notebook about what happened tonight. As his knuckles moved exclaimed, the soles of the feet sounded closer. It must be Uncle Ted, so Daniel immediately cleared his desk, jumped back on the bed ad lifted the blanket high to his chin.
"Are you bothered by the noise I'm making?" asked Uncle Ted. His body, which was very upright but rather thin, was now approaching with his legs, which were slightly limping because of the stump. Uncle Ted was a soldier in his youth. He gets a blast while on duty. As a result, one leg, from heel to knee, had to be amputated. Now he was wearing prosthetic legs to help him walk.
Daniel shook his head slowly, pretending to be a little sleepy. "Not. I just wake up because of hungry but I'll go back to sleep."
Uncle Ted didn't answer. All he did was silent and watched Daniel, who was currently still stumbling in pretense. After a long silence, Uncle Ted said, "I won't let you go to the lake again."
Instantly Daniel stared. This was not the first time Uncle Ted had forbidden him to do something, and this was not the first time Uncle Ted had acted decisively with Daniel's actions, even though everything was still stored in his soft voice.
"But why?" Daniel seemed not to accept it. His body now straightened up and quickly lowered the blanket.
Uncle Ted turned around and almost left. But before that happened he had time to say, "What else? You went crazy again after three months had passed. Even though I thought you were aware of your own mistakes. I won't let you do anything weird again, no, especially if you have to put someone else's life at risk. Wendy almost got killed from asphyxiation."
"That's because a monster attacked us!"
"ENOUGH!" outraged Uncle Ted with his flushed face. His suit, which was an old peasant-style shirt, seemed to be withering away because of his anger. Uncle Ted grit his teeth. "You were found in the middle of the forest not far from the lake. There was a small fire caused by ignition and kerosene. All the evidence has been collected, and there are only your fingerprints there! "
Daniel was dumbfounded and began to turn pale. It turned out that this was happening again. What happened seven years ago has happened again. There was only one change here, that Wendy was not dead, in contrast to the rest of his family.
Now the question was why? Why did this happen again, and why did Daniel come back safe? He was convinced that he was being swallowed up by the illusionist monster he found in the forest. And again, now his chest was very painful.
Uncle Ted slammed the door very hard. His temperament was always unstable, but even so, Uncle Ted still loved Daniel and Wendy.
Thinking about all this certainly made Daniel feel dizzy, not to mention that his chest suddenly burned and was very hot. The skin that was blistered while inside the monster's stomach had now healed like before, but why was his chest like this?
He would know in a moment after he realized who he was and how the monsters wanted to take the weapon embedded in his heart.
Daniel tried to sleep, trying to regain his strength to find the answer to all these riddles. Was that just delusional? Were these all just imagination and also signs that Daniel is going crazy? Just like what his schoolmates always said?
Having slept for several hours, Daniel was suddenly overwhelmed by something that stuck up his throat. Coughing began to attack him with Daniel who was desperate to try to vomit what was in his mouth.
In one burst, Daniel managed to vomit out a piece of charred branch. Its weight was large enough to create a commotion that night.
Footsteps were heard from one direction. Daniel hurriedly grabbed the burnt twig and hid it under his blanket. When the door opened and the lights come on, Daniel pretended to be surprised to find Uncle Ted, who was red-eyed from sleepiness, who was now standing unsteadily watching him.
Swallowing water hardly, Daniel said somewhat apologetically, "I coughed, Uncle. Sorry to wake you up. "
Uncle Ted said nothing. He had turned around and closed the door without turning off Daniel's room lights. Maybe he forgot because he was too sleepy, even though it was three o'clock in the morning now.
Secretly Daniel pulled out a tree branch that he had just vomited. It was a real tree branch, with a burnt pattern like the tree Daniel had burned and like the monster that had swallowed it. The energy of death had been dispersed, it was just that he had not noticed it yet.
After pondering deep enough, Daniel finally decided to fall back asleep. However, the burning sensation in his chest never subsided. Disturbed until almost morning, Daniel decided to compress his chest with ice water. Steeped in the kitchen and carried the boy's bowl of ice then climbed the stairs and returned to his room.
Now Daniel was sitting cross-legged. After taking off his shirt, his hands were now busy dipping a small towel in ice water and ready to start compressing. However, before the tip of the towel could hit his skin, Daniel froze when he found his chest was blistered and red as if he had just burned.
***