Chapter 43: Terror of the Sleeping Forest

Pain consumed everything.

Or wait—was it that everything was consumed by pain?

It indeed did. Pain consumed Ishiki’s whole body, his mind and the world around him, because it only promised suffering and nothing else.

’Am… am i dying like this?’

Blood loss was making the world fuzzy at the edges. His vision flickered—golden leaves blurred into smears of color against the pleasant darkness. All in all, it was beautiful if we remove the fact that Ishiki was dying.

’Huh? Pathetic isn’t it?’

He tried to move, but his body refused to cooperate. Exhaustion had drained his reserves to nothing. And the thing was, what would he even do if every other part of his body moved? The leg being dragged was broken.

The old tree’s maw grew larger and wider with each heartbeat, well… his heart was beating way faster than a normal human, so the speed was considerably faster too.

Ishiki gritted his teeth and clawed at the ground, until some of his nails tore and made him flinch. Just flinch, because his body couldn’t manage anything else.

’Damn it! Eaten by a tree of all things? That’s one creepy way to die.’

The thought carried bitter irony. Did he survive the trial just to become fertilizer? Maybe getting sacrificed would have been better. At least that way he could have saved people. Wouldn’t that have been more meaningful than killing the Shinobi and then dying such a pathetic death?

’No, not at all. What am I thinking? There is nothing like saving a lot of people.’

His mind veered dangerously close to giving up entirely, rationalizing death as acceptable outcome.

So? What now? Past won’t help in a situation like this, or maybe it will. Past is what gives one power, Ishiki heard that a lot… from his mother. Who apparently was… no more. Was he going to die just like this?

’No… Screw that. Not like this.’

The root tightened around his broken leg.

Fresh agony exploded through his nervous system. Ishiki’s scream tore from his throat, raw and unbidden that even hurt his dry throat, the sound of someone pushed beyond all reasonable limits of suffering.

But screaming changed nothing.

The tree’s maw opened wider, preparing to receive its meal.

And then as all hope was lost, something changed… or maybe everything changed. The root dragging Ishiki suddenly stopped.

The grip around his leg softened… not that he felt it. But he saw it, the tree. The tree was back to normal, the root that had been pulling Ishiki was retreating back.

’Wait… what the hell happened?’

Ishiki looked around and suddenly it felt as if his visibility has decreased, as if… night has descended.

Everything around him changed, the trees went back to normal. The leaves… turned back to green and above all else, the strange light that allowed him to see, despite it being night was gone.

Now, it was just darkness. The actual darkness of the night and that… made Ishiki’s skin crawl.

’Goddamnit! Why now of all times.’

Of course he wasn’t happy at all with the progression, after all the beast was not dead and to make it more fearsome, the beast didn’t made any noise at all while moving, those features accompanied by the dark…

’Holy shit. This… this is not good.’

As battered and exhausted as Ishiki was, he had no hopes of fighting and winning against the fearsome abomination.

But he there was something he could do. And unlike the dreadful battle, the other option was very much safer.

He had to crawl towards the opening and hide there. The plan had a major flaw, of course. He didn’t actually know if the clearing offered any place to hide. If it was just open ground with no cover, he would be exposed and helpless.

But what other choice existed?

’Well… fuck it! I don’t care anymore.’

Ishiki made his decision and turned his body toward the clearing’s direction. He pushed himself up with trembling arms, trying to get his working leg beneath him for support.

BOOM!

Suddenly a large deafening blast echoed through the silent forest, yeah… it was the sound of the beast slamming into some tree.

The terrifying beast too… it seemed had lost its sight and now was thrashing here and there in the forest in agony. It was not long before the bastard died.

But before its death, Ishiki had to get to salvation, out of this dreadful forest and never again… never again in his life would he fight against trees.

At first Ishiki was reluctant of using the trees as support, but continuing without support proved impossible. His broken leg couldn’t bear weight. Moving on one leg and two arms was agonizingly slow.

Ishiki clenched his jaw and grabbed the nearest trunk, using bark that might have been trying to eat him minutes ago as an anchor. He pulled himself forward, dragging his shattered leg behind, moving through darkness with fearful determination.

Behind him, another blast echoed—closer this time. Accompanied by sounds that made his blood run cold.

Ferocious wails that didn’t quite sound like the Rhino-worm beast.

Tearing sounds that spoke of flesh being rendered from bone.

Hungry screams that belonged to…

Who knew, What?

Ishiki gritted his teeth and with a fearful expression tried to walk as fast as he could. Who knew when these trees will come alive and try to gobble him up.

Another blast echoed in the silent forest, and this one was particularly terrifying, the reason being the sounds that followed.

Tearing of flesh, hungry veils… and wicked laughter.

’Shit, shit! have the trees woken up?’ Ishiki tensed, as the clearing grew closer, now he was just a few meters away from getting out from being surrounded by these trees.

[Your Vestige [Black Tether] has been destroyed.]

Ishiki’s heart stopped for a second as he took in the notification. “Wait… no, I don’t even have any other weapons.”

A loud dying screech tore through the silence of the forest, accompanied by footsteps that felt like a horde of some animals running straight towards him.

Another notification appeared as he tried to run with his broken leg.

[You have slain a Rank-3, Infested Boneworm]

[You have received 500 Data Fragments]

Ishiki didn’t pay it much attention. Behind him, the footsteps grew closer—stampeding towards him.

And above, the trees’ branches began moving again. Leaves rustling with sounds that shouldn’t be horrifying but absolutely were.

[You have received a Vestige]

Gasping Ishiki finally reached to the end of the groove and then fell down on the grass covered land ahead. As soon as Ishiki fell to the ground beyond the trees, it felt like he had crossed some kind of invisible barrier.

The strange voices from inside the forest were now gone, and the impenetrable darkness too had receded, replaced by the cold light of the moon.

Ishiki couldn’t help but fear that the trees will come alive any moment, so he dragged his body several meters further from the forest’s edge, putting distance between himself and the grove, before turning onto his back to face the sky.

“God… I’m… I’m actually alive.”

The words came out as a shaky breath—half laugh, half sob.

“It hurts… it hurts like hell.”

But it was alright now, or was it? He would die soon enough without food and with all his injuries. And still he found the sight of the moon very pleasing and relaxing.

’Can I… Can I sleep here? The moon isn’t something like those trees, right?’

The thought carried desperate hope tinged with paranoia earned through brutal experience.

As he looked back toward the forest, searching for threats, something caught his attention.

Two glowing circles in the absolute darkness beneath the canopy.

Eyes.

Round eyes that glowed with their own internal light—pale yellow and they looked more sinister than anything Ishiki had ever seen.

Ishiki’s breath caught in his throat, body tensing despite exhaustion, preparing for… what? He couldn’t fight. Couldn’t even stand. If whatever owned those eyes decided to attack—

But it didn’t.

The glowing eyes held his gaze for a long moment. Then they turned away and disappeared back into the forest’s darkness, leaving Ishiki alone in the moonlit clearing.

Behind him, Ishiki heard new sounds.

Footsteps. Hesitant footsteps.

Human?

Ishiki tried to turn his head, to see what was approaching, but his body had reached its absolute limit.

His vision blurred at the edges. The moonlight seemed to grow dimmer, though whether that was reality or his failing awareness, he couldn’t determine.

The footsteps grew closer.

A shadow fell across him as something stepped between Ishiki and the moonlight.

A human-shaped figure, at least. They stood there for a long moment, looking down at him. Ishiki couldn’t read their expression. He could only lie there broken and bleeding and completely at their mercy.

Then the figure spoke something.

The voice sounded… young? Male? He couldn’t be certain. His hearing was doing strange things, sounds becoming muffled like he was underwater.

The figures knelt beside him. Reached toward his face with a hand and touched his forehead.

’At least I’m not being eaten by a tree…’

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