The store seemed to be an artisan paradise, with thread rolls of all the colors of the rainbow, accessories, and more, we walked to the counter and asked the person to show us the loom “You mean the sewing machine?” the clerk asked us “yeah of course, sorry we are not form Merrionette City we are… am… exchange students, right Higen?” I nodded “Yeah exchanged students from am… south very south” “… right, so, yeah, we have that new model do you want to pay with cash or card?” Ozwald pulled the card, we had practiced with it before we arrived, he just placed it on the screen of a weird machine and after a beeping sound the transaction was done, “do you want to take it with you, or do you want it to be delivered to your home?” Ozwald gave our address to the clerk and soon we were out.

“Higen, you haven’t bought anything are you okay?” I don’t like to think about home, it's lonely, and I don’t know what to buy, so far Ozwald bought his sewing machine and threads, adornments for his walls, and a few pieces of art “I… I don’t know what to buy…” I confessed, “Well what do you like? You know besides being a knight,” he asked me I thought for a moment, but nothing came to mind, what do I like besides being a knight? The truth is I don’t know who I am benight my armor, is there even someone under it? “I… I need to use the restroom, I´ll be right back, “wha… Higen wait.” Oswald started to say but I rushed to the nearest door with the restroom logo on it.

Once there I locked the door, sat on the toilet, and tried to regain my composure, who am I if I’m not a knight or a noble? Why are these questions so anxiety-inducing? “You can choose not to be anyone…” I heard a voice in my head, it was right I could choose not to be someone I’m not sure even exists without his armor or cape, “we can close our eyes and pretend like nothing is around us…” I could just close my eyes and ignore these thoughts full of gloom, this oppressing feeling of asphyxiation, of not letting Ozwald see this weaker side of me, as I closed my eyes and shut my ears, I heard tiny laughter and the sound of rushing water filling the space I was in.

I lost sight of Higen when he ran off to the restrooms a flock of people made it hard to move, it was weird to see him like that, “everything is pointless…” I heard a few people saying, they started to sluggishly move towards a restroom on the mall, “Hey are you okay?” I stopped one of them, her eyes were half shut and had no light on them, “I was a fool for thinking it would change” She moved past me into the male restroom, my cellphone rang with several chiming sounds, I pressed the side button to see that the Tartarus app opened by itself and in bold red letters said, “TITAN DETECTED!!!”

I pushed past the people and opened the door where instead of the typical restroom area, there was instead a wall of water, “this must be the labyrinth Higen mentioned but” I looked at my phone, it showed that Higen was already inside but was not moving, “great I don’t have something to draw blood…” I resorted to biting my finger until the staff came out, the people didn’t react, I needed to think quickly “Am… words… block… block… Wall!” my fingers were fully black as a stone column prevented the people from getting any closer, I jumped into the restroom door to look for Higen and the Titan.

The inside was very different, it was like being at the bottom of a lake, some of the people I saw entering were trapped in spheres filled with water, they weren’t even fighting to get out they just were accepting their new fate, I felt my cellphone vibrating on my hand, on the mirror it say “TAP FOR BARRIER” although I didn’t fully understand I pressed my finger on the logo and a red light covered my body, in my chest was an ornated crest with a five petal flower in the middle, “Higen! Where are you Higen!” I started to shout and look for him.

I followed the arrow to the center of the labyrinth, Higen must have found the Titan and he is currently fighting it, but instead of a fight I found Higen inside one of the spheres, he and a few other people were near some kind of structure, it looked like a Marmol statue with the body of a human and the tale of a fish, chained to its arms were two big chalices filled with water, I hide behind an empty sphere of murky water and saw as one of the imprisoned persons sink to the bottom of his sphere and turned into foam, the statue then picked the foam and poured it into its chalices, “is that… going to happen to Higen?” I wonder, I don’t have enough power to break everyone out, I don’t know which word would free Higen and if I say it wrong, I could kill him.

No, this is not the time for what ifs or buts, I grasped the staff and ran towards the sphere containing Higen, even if I didn’t know which word to use I could use the staff to save him, I threw stealth through the window as I roared and hit it with the golden ring on the top of the staff it began to crack but the Titan realized I was there now, and it didn’t like I was trying to take his food away, I strike the glass again cracks started to form, but I didn’t saw when one of the chalices lunged at me and smacked me away.

I´m not that resilient, I´m not like Higen or Talo, I don’t handle pain well but for some reason, the smack from that oversized chalice didn’t hurt that much it pushed me away a good distance crack I looked at my chest, and noticed that one of the petals of the flower was cracked and disappearing, which means I have four hits before something happens, and I don’t want to find out what, but now that the sphere is cracked “spread!” I yell while holding the staff with both hands and the tiny cracks on his sphere quickly grow until it busts, I run to catch Higen's falling body.

He landed right on my corroded hands, “shell!!!” I put the staff in front of me as the chalices unleashed a wave of water at us, a protective shield formed in front of us, my vision started to blur, I felt so tired of all the divine words I had used in quick succession, “Higen come on you have to wake up!” I shook his body, but he didn’t answer, “Come on the people need you!” the chalices rammed against the shield my head felt like it was going to burst with each hit, “I need you!!!, wake the hell up Higen!!!” I yelled at him and slapped him across the face, his body lunged forward and started to cough water, “Oz… Ozwald what happened?”

The barrier weakened and crumbled, I was breathing heavily, “ti… titan… your… your phone!” he looked in his pocket and saw the same thing in his phone, he pressed the mirror and a white light covered him, his crest was a different type of flower, he put on his gloves “sorry for worrying you Ozwald” as the chalices came down to strike us he carried me in his arms and in one jump dodged the strike, “stay here” he placed me on the ground and lunged to the fight.

I used the staff to help me stand up, I glanced at my arms they were corroded almost to the elbow, I think I had enough in me for one last word in case Higen needed it, in a few hits with his hammer he busted one of the chalices, he was attacked relentlessly, but, the main body wasn’t ready to just be destroyed, in the mouth of the statue formed a bubble of water and form it pressurized water was lunged at Higen, he wasn’t able to dodge it and was sent flying back towards me, his body rolled near my feet, “that thing is tougher than it looks” he said as he stood up, that shot was powerful, it broke three of his petals in one go.

He charged the shot again, Higen returned his hammer to his gloves and put himself in front of me, from his gloves came a big tower shield he used it to block the incoming shot, “just how many weapons do you have there?” I asked he grinded his teeth and dug his heels into the ground “The right amount!” the shield went back to his gloves as the shoot ended, Higen breathed a sigh of relive “Ozwald, can you do one more word?” “Yeah, but I think I’m at my limit, sorry I can’t be of more use” he looked confused at me “What are you talking about? You save me and hold your own, you are awesome!” I looked away, “I don’t know about that, what do you need my final word to be?” he came closer and whispered into my ear.

“Hey, you glorify glass of water!” I called, and the titan seemed to understand, “What is that all you got? I see more pressure on a faucet, and I arrived at this realm yesterday!” the main body was coming near, and my taunts seemed to react “what did I hurt your feelings?” the water started to gather once more “what are you going to do cry me a river?” with the final taunt I heard from behind me “NOW!!!” I slammed the staff on the ground and yelled “Accelerate!!!” a circle of light and letters formed in front of me as Higen ran through it with his lance in hand, he was fast but with the extra speed from the circle he was almost impossible to see, the shoot of water came but in seconds it was parted in half as Higen pierced right through the middle of the titan´s marble face.

The body stayed afloat for a moment, then it started to crumble into dust, Higen returned running to me, and helped me to my feet, “We… we did it” I lifted my hand weakly “Yeah we did, you were amazing Ozwald” he clapped my hand as a circular pearl fall from the remaining of the titan, he went and pick it up “look, is like a gemstone” it was ruffly the size of a pearl, with a blue and aqua coloration, when the titan fully was destroyed the labyrinth shifted and we were returned to the mall´s restroom, “come on” Higen put me on his back “we better get out of here and visit Lulu, I let him carry me and that concluded our trip to the mall.