The Princess/The Beast

> I can hear your heart pounding from the bottom of stairs, fledgling. You're right to be terrified.
>
> **The Beast**

## General information

### Next Form

The Den
The Wild

## Gallery

You had become the prey of a stronger, faster, and greater animal. Trying to slay **the Beast Princess** will be incredibly difficult, for the roles have reversed: you are the hunted, and she is the hunter.

## Description

**The Beast Princess** is the Princess you encounter in **Chapter II** if the Player succumbs to the wounds he inflicted from the beastly might of the Princess. The Beast is the Player's perception of the Princess; a feral, violent predator who seeks to devour him whole.

## Chapter I: The Princess Pounces

> Her teeth and claws are unnaturally sharp, ripping into your shoulders, digging into your throat. You fall to the ground, the Princess eagerly tearing at your flesh.
>
> The Narrator

The Player, unarmed and willing to talk, presents the imprisoned Princess with an opportunity to escape. However, this is only pretense to let her guard down. But like any cornered animal, the Princess proves to be more dangerous trapped than free.

### Outcome 1: Betrayed

As the Princess gnaws on her arm to escape her imprisonment, the Pristine Blade, thrown from the stairs of the basement, suddenly bounces onto the Player's lap.

Without hesitation, the Player stabs the Princess with the Pristine Blade, driving her into the ground. Enraged by his betrayal, the Princess pounces on him with the ferocity of an animal. Despite being armed, however, the Princess proves to be simply too fast, too strong, and too ferocious for the Player to handle. She tears him apart, ending the Player's hunt in failure. As the feral Princess looks over her prey, the life fades from the Player's eyes, to the Narrator's lament.

### Outcome 2: Cornered Predator

The Player walks back on the diplomatic approach and leaves to retrive the Pristine Blade from the table upstairs. When he returns to the basement, he sees nothing but a dark room, no Princess in sight, only her arm, gnawed clean from its base, still chained to the wall. Locking the door behind him, the Player chooses to engage the Princess.

Unfortunately, whether he waited her out or pursued her, the Princess pounces. Despite missing an arm, she proves to be simply too fast, too strong, and too ferocious for the Player to defeat. She tears him apart, leaving him little more than a bleeding carcass. As the feral Princess looks over her prey, the life fades from the Player's eyes, to the Narrator's lament.

## Chapter II: The Hunted and the Princess

After the Princess killed her assailant, she consumed his heart and draped what's left of his corpse with her as she tried to force her way out of the cabin door. The door refused to open, and soon the Princess found herself in the basement again. She realizes that she'll need the Player alive if she wants to escape.

The Player arrives in the Beast's den, where she has the upper hand. Slinking in the shadows, the predator ignores his pleas and taunts. She awaits her chance to strike.

### eaten ending

The Player's tactics fail him. The Beast's instincts are far too good, and in a near-instant, he is devoured whole.

## A Feral Vessel

  **Warning!** This section contains spoilers.

> This one is consumed by instinct. A predator pushing those around her to adapt. She will make for a bold heart. She wishes me to devour you. To make you a part of myself. But she is only a voice. Do not mourn her, for she is part of something greater.
>
> The Shifting Mound

## Trivia

  **Warning!** This section contains spoilers.

* There is an unused sprite from the Beast's perspective, depicting the Player ripped in half and bleeding to death. It was intended to play during the Shifting Mound's argument with the Player if you had collected the Beast as a vessel through this scenario. However, the game's script never calls for this sprite, and there are no voice clips or code that allude to what it depicts. In the final game, the only way to get the Beast as a vessel is to have her puke you out; any other outcomes lead to Chapter III: The Wild or Chapter III: The Den, whose vessels have their own sprites to play in the final battle.

## Gallery

### Demo

The Beast ready to pounce.The *Director's Cut* demo achievement for the Beast.The *Original Cut* demo achievement for the Beast.