Chapter 53: Madness of Another Kind (1)

Under the light of the moon… and beneath the wing of night…

The only time when that bitter eclipse faded—if only for a fleeting moment.

Moon ran swiftly, a wounded young man draped across her back.

He had lost so much blood that his wounds no longer bled as violently as they had before.

Ethan had lost consciousness, no longer aware of anything happening around him.

His awareness slipped away… into darkness. Into a cold, desolate void.

Far removed from the physical world—where he no longer possessed a solid body to rely on—there, he became nothing.

When his awareness returned, Ethan found himself in a familiar place… somewhere he had been not long ago.

“Once again… I’m drowning,” he muttered in a heavy voice, exhaustion weighing down his very being.

Here… there was nothing but darkness.

No light. No warmth.

At first, he believed he was alone in this place.

But he soon realized how wrong he was.

As he gazed deeper into the abyss, he saw them.

In the distance—strange, incomprehensible entities… like shadows given form.

“They’re not doing anything…”

Their shapes were indistinct. The only thing he could clearly see were their eyes .. eyes that filled him with an ill omen beyond words.

In this world, he was powerless.

He could not move.

All he could do… was sink slowly among them, beneath their watchful gaze.

They stared at him. And he stared back.

They were close.

Yet impossibly far.

“Who are you? What are you… and where the hell am I?”

Ethan’s voice carried faint irritation, unable to endure the oppressive silence.

A silence that did not last forever.

His eyes widened when he heard it.

A faint sound.

Growing clearer.

Until he heard it unmistakably.

“That’s… crying…”

“The cry of an infant.”

Ethan whispered, his gaze lowering toward the abyss below.

The infant’s cry did not feel unfamiliar.

Not because he had heard it once before.

But because it went far deeper than that.

The infant cried loudly, as though newly born… searching desperately for its mother’s embrace.

Ethan searched for it within the darkness, reaching out instinctively.

But he made a grave mistake.

He stared too long into the abyss.

And when one stares into the abyss…

It stares back.

The darkness swallowed him whole.

His consciousness was violently torn away.

Ethan felt as though his very soul had been ripped from his body by a foreign force.

The infant’s cries faded…

More distant…

Until he could no longer hear them at all.

And yet, they lingered within his memory.

A strange sense of familiarity clung to him.

As though a part of him… Was on the verge of being born anew.

It was a darkness Ethan could not comprehend.

…

…

Gasp.

Ethan shot upright from the bed, gasping violently as cold sweat drenched his face and body.

He had awakened in shock.

His eyes darted left and right, confusion written plainly across his face.

It took him a full minute to steady himself… and realize he had returned to reality.

“I don’t recognize this ceiling…” he murmured.

A wooden ceiling.

Wooden floorboards.

Wooden walls.

Looking down at himself, he found his body wrapped in clean white bandages. Beneath them, there was no trace of the horrific wounds he had suffered before.

“Did they… heal me?”

he wondered as he slowly rose.

He extended his human hand.

Then his mechanical one.

Inspecting himself carefully, he realized he had returned to perfect condition.

“This is a relief… I thought I was going to die.”

Running a hand through his hair, Ethan recalled those moments within that strange dark void… and the haunting cry of the infant.

“The first time, I thought it was just a dream… but now it’s happened twice. What kind of dream.. no, nightmare repeats like this?”

A faint frown formed on his face as he pondered the implications.

Then ..

Footsteps.

They pulled him from his thoughts.

The door opened.

A familiar young woman entered, her black hair framing her face, her crimson eyes sharp and unsettling.

He stared at her silently.

She stared back, equally stunned.

A full minute passed before she finally broke the silence.

“No way… You woke up this quickly?!” Luna asked, shock evident in her voice.

She approached rapidly, examining his body in disbelief.

Instinctively, Ethan stepped back.

“Luna… where am I? What happened… and where is Moon?”

At the mention of it, Luna regained her composure and stepped back as well, leaving distance between them.

She did not answer immediately.

Instead, she stared at him with narrowed eyes .. suspicion clear within them.

“You…”

she said quietly as she turned toward the simple window at the right side of the room.

“…what exactly is your body made of?”

Ethan followed her with his eyes, confusion evident on his face.

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb. It’s impossible to recover from injuries like that overnight.”

Luna opened the window, allowing the refreshing blue daylight to flood the room.

The light revealed the beauty of her features ..features the darkness had concealed .. and momentarily blinded Ethan.

The moment he saw that false blue sky, he understood where he was.

“The Witches’ Forest…”

Luna nodded. She was no longer wearing the same witch attire as before.

Instead, she wore something more casual.

A crimson-red skirt, with long black stockings beneath.

Above, a sleeveless black blouse that left her slender arms completely bare.

“What exactly are you staring at, Damn pervert?” Luna said with a frown after catching him looking at her for more than five seconds.

Seeing her reaction, Ethan sighed and raised a hand toward her.

“I’m not in the mood for this right now. Could you just tell me what happened?”

At his request, Luna hesitated briefly before sighing and gesturing for him to sit.

“Sit down. I’ll explain everything while I examine your condition.”

He nodded and sat cross-legged on the floor.

Luna approached cautiously, moved behind him, and began removing his bandages slowly and carefully.

“There isn’t much to say. It started when my sister Moon returned home late last night. I went to greet her… and found her carrying you. She looked worried,” Luna said, recalling the events clearly.

“You were in terrible condition. Sword wounds covered your entire body. There were so many that I couldn’t even count them… She asked me to heal you.”

“Moon did that?”

Luna nodded, studying him with faint suspicion before suppressing her thoughts.

“My sister can’t use healing magic. Everything she knows is meant for combat. Unlike me ..I’ve studied magic in all its forms,” Luna said.

But as she continued removing the bandages, her frown deepened.

His body was completely clean.

Not a single scratch remained.

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