Luz and her friends continued underground, following Gus and Matt as they showed them the way. Fortunately, the two arthropods remembered it relatively well, and only took a wrong turn a couple of times. However, as they continued, they all felt an ever-increasing anxiety in their hearts: it was really difficult to remain calm in such a context. They would almost have preferred to hear a monster approaching them, but at least know where it was, rather than walk blindly inside a gigantic creature without knowing if they had already been discovered or if Belos hadn't noticed their presence. "It's more and more disturbing" Luz admitted at a certain point, looking at the walls which, when illuminated by the light, appeared greenish and emaciated, similar to a carcass.

"It's safe to say that Belos is hideous both inside and out" Gus said with a lot of disgust in his voice. "Just hope to find our friends quickly"

"I just need to find them before something else finds us" Matt told him. "I remind you that we are not alone in these damn tunnels"

"Yeah, tell us a little about that monster you saw" Amity told them, seizing the opportunity. "If we have to face something I want to be prepared"

"We already told you that we don't know what kind of creature it is, or even if it's alone" Gus replied.

"Yes, but... do you even have an idea about its strength?" Amity asked him. "I've already been caught off guard once, I don't want to risk being backed into a corner again. If this creature were stronger for me, then I could use spells to escape, but I'd like to know before it gets to us"

Gus had to admit that she was right; being prepared in advance was a good way to survive. "I don't know how strong it is... but I don't think it is very intelligent. It seemed to act more by instinct than by its own will. I think it's some sort of immune defense of Belos" he explained to her.

Amity thought carefully. "If this monster has no intelligence, then defeating it should be simple. It will be easy to lure it into a trap" she said. "But... if it really acts as an immune defense, and there are others like it, then if it found us it could rally the others and attack us all together"

"So we would be in the minority" Luz commented with a lot of fear. "Wonderful... and I won't even be able to run away!"

As they continued through the tunnels, Luz's legs had also returned to normal, and as a result the puppet was now forced to crawl; she no longer had the paws of a donkey, but the rest of her body still was like that and forced her not to stand up on her hind legs, making even moving very difficult for her. She hoped that the rest of her body would return to normal as soon as possible; she didn't care so much about the ears, the head and the tail, but she wanted to at least be able to run normally in case of danger.

Matt suddenly narrowed his eyes: "Guys... here we go"

Moonlight came from above them through the hole Amity had opened when she burned Belos' tentacles. The kids exchanged a worried but still determined look, and they poked their heads slightly through it.

The amusement park was completely gone; there was no longer any trace of the Boiling Islands. The tentacles and legs that previously composed them were now raised in horrible and disturbing positions, like terrifying deformed trees, and on them there were several eyes that moved evilly observing the landscape. It was like being in a forest that had come to life and changed into something hideous. "A nightmare would be more pleasant to look at..." Luz whispered, feeling the urge to vomit upon seeing that eerie sight.

The other donkeys had been grouped together in what had been the center of the amusement park, and were now tied by different bridles; many of them were sitting on the ground with their eyes wide open, trembling in fear. They were definitely traumatized by what had just happened and Luz and Amity couldn't blame them; beyond the transformation into donkeys, what happened next was nothing short of terrifying. It was horrible to suddenly see the park come to life and capture them one by one. Kikimora was walking among them with a riding crop in her hand. "Standing!" she was yelling making her snap. "I don't have all night!"

"Don't you dare come closer!" one of the donkeys with a magenta coat threatened her, pawing the ground as if preparing to charge. "If you try to hurt anyone here, I swear I'll step on you! You're very short, so that's a real threat!"

"Boscha?" Luz muttered when she saw her.

"Even as a donkey she hasn't lost her fighting spirit" Amity commented.

Kikimora's eye narrowed. "For your information, mine is an absolutely average height for the standards of my species!" she protested offended. "And besides, if you think you can hurt me, you're fooling yourself. Weakling"

Boscha let out a snort through her nostrils at that. "Does this seem weak to you!?" she blurted out, shooting some fireballs, but Kikimora didn't even move: or rather, she moved, but what moved were not her hands but her strange hair, which stood up as if they were fingers (revealing that actually there were there were two eyes under them, not just one) and they emitted some sort of magic that immediately put out the fire. Boscha froze. "How… how did you do that?"

"I simply condensed the moisture in the air, and used the water vapor to deprive your fire of oxygen" Kikimora replied. "Manipulating water is one of the characteristics of my species. Even children can do it"

Boscha backed away a little, but another donkey came forward and stood next to her. "Well, let's see if you can block out the sound too!" she said in Skara's voice, and she let out a whistle using her powers to direct it, and this time she managed to hit Kikimora who fell to the ground with a thud. "There, see? You can't be... bad... with... us... w-what is...?"

Skara's voice grew weaker and weaker until she was no longer able to make a single sound. Boscha turned pale when that happened. "Skara? Skara, is everything okay? Why... aren't you... t-talking...?"

Her voice also vanished completely; both girls could only let out braying sounds. They looked up and noticed that Kikimora had her arm raised towards them. "Yeah... don't look at me like that. Sealing other people's voices is another characteristic of my species" she said walking towards them. "Don't feel bad, the emperor always wants me to seal everyone's voice. I would have done it anyway"

Boscha brayed and charged at her, no longer interested in the consequences, but Kikimora moved her strange hair again and immediately chains of water appeared at the donkey's feet, causing it to fall to the ground. She walked until she was right in front of her and then said: "Just get it over with, okay? This is no time to act like little children! Get over it, you're trapped now, and trust me, whatever you suffer will be better than what would have happened to you if the emperor had decided to play seriously with you. You have no idea what real horror is"

Boscha continued to maintain a defiant look, but still she stopped struggling and froze, and the tremor of her body was unmistakable. The other donkeys also crouched on the ground in fear. "P-Please..." a donkey who had the same glasses and Cat's voice tried to say. "I-I don't know why you're doing this... but please, let us go home! I want to go back to my mom...!"

"Oh, your mom?" Kikimora murmured without any empathy, and immediately sealed Cat's voice as well. "I'm afraid that if your mother ever sees you again she won't be able to recognize you. Now stop crying! You've had your fun, now pay the price!"

And to reiterate her words she cracked the whip on the ground again. Even so, perhaps someone would have protested again, but suddenly one of the tentacles moved and swung towards them, making them huddle together in fear. On the tentacle there were several eyes and many mouths full of sharp teeth, which moved, articulating the words: "Kikimora!"

She immediately knelt down. "Yes, my liege?"

"Stop wasting time with them. Seal all their voices, and then go find the two fugitives" Belos ordered her. "They cannot leave my body, and will probably return here to help their friends; but in case for once the instinct of survival prevails over the stupid heroism of human beings, take your creatures and search every inch of my body! FIND THEM!"

"I hear and obey, my emperor" Kikimora replied, and immediately did as she was told, then walked away as quickly as she could on her tiny legs.

Belos's eyes turned to the donkeys. "Don't think you're unsupervised, so stay calm here. Don't make me eat donkey meat again, I don't want it" he told them, making their skin crawl. "If your friends come looking for you, I will be happy to welcome them"

At those words Luz, Amity, King, Ghost, Matt and Gus immediately hid underground again. "What a heartless monster" the puppet murmured. "What are we going to do?"

"Honestly? I haven't a clue" Amity admitted. "Even if we had a way to save them, we are still stuck on the island and we can't escape"

"Yeah. As long as we're on Belos, he'll have the upper hand" Matt agreed with her.

There was a moment of silence, then Luz suddenly seemed to brighten up: "Wait... Amity, but you managed to make us leave Belos' body... more or less" she said. "We cannot go beyond his borders... but we can go upwards!"

Amity looked at her confused. "Um... are you expecting me to fly everyone up and drag them into the sky, and keep them there until we come up with another plan? Luz, I'll never be able to do it!"

"You don't need to do it... we just need a vehicle that flies!" Luz said, and she turned to King: "You said you don't believe that Belos destroyed the airship, right?"

Despite his naturally expressionless face as it was made up of a skull, King still seemed to take on a happy expression: "Yes... yes, it's true! Belos swallowed Alador's airship, but he didn't chew it, so it should still be intact! If we get on it we can fly high enough to escape Belos!"

"But is there enough room for everyone on the airship?" Gus pointed out.

"We have Amity who can shrink us like she did to get us in here! We'll be able to stay here... one way or another" Luz replied. "Let's take the airship and take everyone to safety in the sky. And then... we'll think about how to escape the borders of Belos too"

"Luz, this plan has at least a billion things that can go wrong" Amity told her.

The puppet tilted her head to the side. "Do you have a better plan?" she asked her rhetorically.

Amity bit her tongue. "No" she admitted in the end. "In fact… we have no other options"

Luz gave a half-neigh, though not exactly a satisfied one. She too knew that the chances of this plan succeeding were practically zero, but it was better than staying hidden and waiting for Belos to find them. "Good. In that case, we need to get to the esophagus. The airship must be there... or in the stomach"

"But we don't know how to get there" Gus told her. "We don't even have any idea which way to go"

"That's true..." Luz admitted. "But... we know that we have to go towards the head, which should be in that direction. Let's continue towards there and hope to..."

She was interrupted by what sounded like a loud trumpeting. The kids froze as they heard a claw snapping sound that continued to get closer to them. "It's that monster from before!" Gus and Matt exclaimed in unison. "We need to hide before...!"

Too late; they were suddenly illuminated by the blue light emitted from the eyes of the creature, which appeared before them with a screech. They could not see it in the darkness, but it was evident that it was very tall and massive; it was in the shape of a man, but its shadow also had several lobster and crab parts attached to its body. As soon as it saw them it headed towards them, making the cave echo with its heavy footsteps; fortunately King recovered from his surprise in time and released his sound wave, blocking it and causing it to stumble backwards, although it was still not enough to make it fall. King narrowed his eyes and let out more sound waves, but this time the creature responded by flapping its claws and moving the air in front of it, blocking them. "Damn, who said it wasn't intelligent!?"

"Leave it to me!" Amity exclaimed, and streams of dark magic emerged from her body and hit the creature squarely; this time they undoubtedly had an effect as the monster fell to its knees with a screech holding its aching belly; but soon after it recovered and clung to the ceiling with lobster legs coming out of its back, and moving like an enormous spider it dodged any other attack.

"We need to distract it!" Matt said. "Gus, can you blind that thing?"

"I'll try!" was the spider's response, which created the illusion of a torch so powerful that it emitted a flash of light; the creature let out a scream as it was hit and fell back to the ground, and finally Amity was able to hit it again causing it to roll away. "Well, this will definitely hurt it! Luz, stay behind... Luz?"

The puppet had completely frozen and had gone pale; Gus too was in a similar situation. They were both staring at the creature as it stood up. "C-Captain...?"

The monster rose again, finally revealing itself to the light. The body was that of a large man with reddish skin, with two claws instead of hands and a face that vaguely resembled a beak; it was shirtless and wearing only a pair of trousers that seemed rather skimpy. On its back there were several plates similar to broken shells that seemed to have been forcibly implanted on it, and at least six crustacean legs emerged and moved in an unnatural way; a long lobster tail emerged from the base of its tailbone. Its eyes were blue and pupilless and emitted a cold light just like Belos's.

But even so, Luz could easily recognize it. "Captain Salty!?"


In case anyone is wondering, no, Kikimora's species has not yet been revealed, but if you look carefully at her behavior and the clues left during her appearances in the story you can understand it