Then Joel went deeper into the forest and said to himself,
"I almost died today. I must become stronger."
He walked for an hour and thought,
Animals avoid this forest because of me.
"There is a smell of rotting flesh in the air," he whispered.
He lit a fire and burned the rotting flesh nearby to get rid of the smell.
Joel bowed his head and said quietly,
"This is what I was taught."
After that, Joel walked toward a nearby tree and struck it with all his strength.
He kept hitting the tree again and again, harder each time, until blood flowed from his hands.
Then he stopped and screamed,
"Why? Why me?"
Tears flowed from his eyes.
"Why should I even survive? My hands are stained with the blood of hundreds of people!"
After that, Joel went deeper into the forest.
On the other side, stood up and said,
"Ah, that kid is a real monster."
Then he returned to the city.
Meanwhile, Joel lived alone in the forest. He trained, struck trees, and survived by eating insects and whatever he could find.
Days passed.
Then weeks.
Finally, a whole year passed.
Joel was now nine years old.
That day, during the full moon, something happened that had never occurred before.
All the souls of the dead bodies in that area gathered together and formed a monster.
Joel was gathering small twigs for a fire when he suddenly whispered,
"There is something strange."
Curious, he went to investigate.
That was when he saw it.
A monster formed from the spirits of all the people who had died in the forest.
Joel was terrified by its horrible appearance.
The monster looked at him, and a shiver ran down his spine. He was unable to move, paralyzed with fear.
But to his surprise, the monster did not move.
It remained there, motionless, as if waiting for something.
The creature had no defined shape. It was a strange black mass, and words seemed to be written across its body.
Then Joel heard voices.
Whispers of accusation.
"You killed me."
"You killed us."
The voices echoed inside his head, making him tremble.
Joel stared at the monster, unable to react.
Finally… they came to take my soul.
He smiled weakly.
The monster slowly approached him.
Joel tried to defend himself with his fists, but it had almost no effect.
The monster was too powerful.
Suddenly, it entered Joel's body.
An unbearable pain spread through him, as if his body were being torn apart from the inside.
He was dying slowly, unable to stop it.
The voices in his head grew louder.
"You killed me…"
"You killed us…"
Joel felt his body weakening.
His vision blurred.
He knew this was the end.