'He really can turn into a panther,' Arsh thought, when he noticed the black shadow jumping over him.
Just as Arsh was about to fall into Apeirolimos's grasp, Bera jumped over him and knocked the creature to the ground. Then, he sank his teeth into the creature's arm. Arsh heard cracking sounds, and a few seconds later, he saw Bera throw back a long piece of wood he was holding in his mouth. It was the arm of the creature.
Although the creature let out agonizing shriek after shriek, Bera kept leaping onto it without stopping, tearing pieces from its body. After the arm, he lunged toward the creature's neck, pinning it to the ground. Then, he spat out another piece he had torn off.
This time, he tried to move toward the other side of the neck, but when the creature swung its claws at him, Bera leaped toward its other arm to block the attacks.
'So that's why he was confident he could kill it. But will tearing it apart be enough…?' Arsh thought.
He pulled himself off the ground and jumped onto the counter. Although he wasn't sure if he would find what he was looking for, he kept searching. The surface of the bronze chest wasn't too hard. It was soft enough to be engraved. If Bera failed, this would be their last resort.
Anything with a sharp tip… come on, even a fountain pen would do,' he thought, as he hurriedly snapped off branches and tried to open the drawers.
At that moment, he heard a cry. When he lifted his head, he heard the whimpering of the panther lying on the ground. The creature had swung Bera aside with its remaining arm, crashing him into a tree.
When Herman ran toward Bera, Arsh saw the creature smear the black saliva from its mouth onto its damaged parts. Within seconds, branches grew from the cracks, filling the gaps where the pieces had been torn away. It rose from the ground as if it had never been harmed at all. Now, it was ready to catch its prey again. Arsh had to distract the creature before it reached Bera.
He threw everything he found on the desk. But Bera's whimpers were louder, and it looked like the creature had already fixed its attention on him.
'I need to make a noise... something loud,' he thought.
Suddenly, the golden threads extending from his left hand wrapped around the pocket pistol in his right, then reached toward the globe. In that moment, Arsh realized that his siuni had granted him another ability he hadn't noticed before. Without wasting a second, he pulled the trigger.
The sound of the pistol shot was immediately drowned out by the bullet clanging against the metal globe. After a moment of hesitation, the creature turned away from Bera and Mr. Herman and lunged toward the globe. This would only buy them a few seconds. But Bera had only just managed to get up from the ground.
'I'm glad you're not that smart,' he thought. Then he looked at Bera.
Blood was flowing from the panther's left shoulder.
"Run to the others! They're still in the same place!" he shouted to Herman, while aiming at the globe again.
Herman didn't argue. He ran with Bera the direction Mes and Walter had gone, while Arsh slowly backed away, never taking his eyes off the creature.
Around every five seconds, he fired at the globe together with them, making the sound echo. He had only one bullet left; there had only been five to begin with. When he saw the others disappear into the corridor, he fired the last shot and started running as fast as he could.
There was not much time before the library reshaped itself again. If he could reach the door now, he could probably prevent the creature from following them, at least for a while. But running with the nearly twenty-kilogram bronze chest holding in his arms was not easy.
As the echo of the last shot died down, Arsh heard the screech of claws scraping against the floor right behind him. The creature was closing the distance with terrifying speed. Although Bera had saved him moments ago, he was on his own now. He quickly threw himself to the ground and rolled, narrowly avoiding the creature's claws as they slammed into the floor.
He threw the pistol at the creature and started running again toward the entrance of the corridor. However, along with the sudden pain he felt in his back, he felt himself being thrown backward.
When he crashed into a tree and fell to the ground, he was stunned for a moment. He could feel that his head and back had been split open, and the warm blood flowing down.
Struggling to stay conscious, he opened his eyes and found himself face to face with Apeirolimos. Two black hollows were only inches from his face. The same feeling he'd had when he first looked into those two empty holes surged through his entire body again. The creature had no eyes. But he felt that something was looking at him from within those hollows.
It felt as if his consciousness was being pulled away. He felt numb.
At that moment, a sound brought him back to his senses. It was a rattling noise, and it was getting closer.
"Aaaaaaa… aaaaaaa… Arsh, where are you… ruuunnn…!" Walter burst into the hall, shaking a strange object in his hand.
The creature immediately shifted its attention to this new sound and started chasing Walter instead. Arsh quickly pushed himself up from the ground, grabbed the bronze chest, and began running toward the corridor.
'At least that thing is dumb,' Arsh thought again as he ran.
"Arsh, don't forget to find me later… aaaaa!"
Only a few seconds later, Walter's voice faded into silence. When Arsh looked back, the door he had just passed was gone, replaced by bookshelves.
'Just in time… I hope you'll be okay, Walter,' he thought. He began running down the corridor, following the golden threads as they guided him forward.
…
Mes was sitting on the ground, panting as he held Bera's head in his lap. He stroked the creature's fur while glancing at the pocket watch in his hand. It would take some time for Bera to return to his human form.
Bera possessed two siunis, both passed down to him through his family. One of them was connected to emotions. He could easily read the feelings of those around him. They called this siuni 'Reader'.
The other was the Siuni that allowed him to transform into a panther. This was an innate power. He had not acquired this siuni later. He had been born with it, just like the other members of his family.
However, this siuni made it harder for him to control his emotions. When he lost himself, he was no different from a wild animal. Because of that he generally avoided transforming. Instead, he tried to make use of the extra strength, speed, and agility the siuni granted him in his human form.
The purpose of the Reader was to help him control his emotions and prevent him from turning completely into a panther. Everyone in Bera's family possessed both of these siunis. But unfortunately, no one else from the family had survived, according to what Bera and Professor Reiner had said.
Mes knew that he was an exception for Bera. Because he considered him his own family, he could recognize him even when he lost control, regardless of the form he was in. But when Bera was still young, there had been times when he could not control himself and had attacked Walter once or twice. Mes was simply grateful that, at least for now, even though Bera was in panther form and he still had some consciousness as a human.
Luckily, before eight minutes had passed, Walter had gone to them for help. On the way, he had run into Herman and Bera. If they had been separated, it would have been harder for Bera to regain control, and he might have harmed Herman.
Mes had given Walter one of the artifacts from the exhibition hall. At first, he had feared that the object would break immediately, but it turned out to be quite sturdy and still working. The object had small round disks attached to a brass handle. While walking through the exhibition hall earlier, this object had caught his attention. It was a musical instrument belonging to the Yulos culture.
This was enough to distract the creature for a while and help Arsh escape. Walter now knew that he needed to be quiet. As long as he distracted the creature, he could easily hide by passing through the walls.
As he was thinking about all this, Arsh appeared at the entrance of the exhibition hall. He was covered in blood, clutching the bronze chest tightly in his arms.