The twisting wood didn’t just echo from one trunk in front of him, but from every ash-black tree in the forest.
"...That’s unsettling."
Hollow whispers echoed through the canopy and beneath the soil, overlapping until they seemed to crawl through Virgil’s skull like insects.
"You bleed well..." the forest hissed, the voice shifting from trunk to trunk in a hive-like resonance. "Leaking divine fire into our soul..."
The ground beneath his feet trembled violently.
Dozens of thorned roots sprouted from the ground like serpents. Above him, pair after pair of pupil-less yellow eyes formed in the darkness.
’So it controls everything, like a hivemind.’
"Give us your soul," the forest whispered, the roots creeping inwards to form an inescapable wooden cage.
’If that’s true then the entire forest is one living entity.’
He looked at the sea of thorns threatening to enclose him in a cage, then at the mangled forearm.
He didn’t have the mana or strength to fight an entire forest.
"No."
The tree’s smile seemed to grow bigger.
Then, it began laughing, a gut-curling sound that came from everywhere at once.
Dozens of roots slammed into the place he had been standing, but only finding empty air.
Virgil was already moving the moment the word left his mouth.
He ran.
The forest rushed past him in a blur.
It was completely dark, but the little light helped him see just enough to move between the trees.
Whenever a root burst from the ground or a monster lunged from the bushes, he flooded the air with shadow, forcing the root to decay and whatever creature was behind him to fall onto the ground.
"Haa..."
Of course, using mana while running only made the strain worse.
But, the pain didn’t come at once, like before, so he was able to push through it and keep running, grinding his teeth together.
He narrowly avoided crashing headfirst into one of the trees as he searched for a path free of them. The next moment, the forest stopped.
The barking, and the sound of the roots slicing through the air ceased.
Virgil didn’t dare look back.
He continued sprinting through the forest, his mind racing as he tried to understand why the forest had stopped pursuing him.
He ran until the curse became unbearable.
His legs gave out.
The silence lasted for one heartbeat.
The moment his knees hit the ground, the quiet forest sprung back to life.
A deafening, gleeful shriek broke through the quiet.
Countless thorns tore from the ground, whipping through the air around him.
"Shit."
He ignored the pain, flooding the air around him with shadow like a protective barrier.
The burning in his chest amplified to a blinding white heat. The curse seemed to thrash against his ribs with every pulse of his heart.
"..."
He was out of mana now. All he could do was try his best to evade them.
His lungs burned as he dragged his body forward.
Thorns sliced through the air.
One thorn caught him on his shoulder.
The impact spun him sideways, forcing him to stumble and fall as a sharp pain flared through his body.
Before he could even attempt to rise, something bit into his leg.
The Night Crawlers caught up from behind.
One slammed into his back, driving him forward. Another seized his calf before he could regain his footing.
Virgil hit the ground hard.
Claws tore through his clothes, shredding the skin of his back.
The physical agony mixed with the burning pain in his chest until he could barely think.
Virgil tried forcing them off him, but they seemed glued to his body.
He closed his eyes.
He needed to breathe, to think.
Just for a moment.
’How pathetic.’
The thought echoed in his mind.
He refused to let it end like this.
He forced his eyelids to open.
Through the tangle of thrashing limbs and snapping maws, a harsh red light caught his eye.
Just a few meters away, breaking through the suffocating darkness, was an opening that seemed to lead to an entirely different place.
A place that looked like where he had just fallen from.
The exit.
It was right there.
A surge of adrenaline flooded his veins, overriding the crushing pain in his body.
He let out a sound, then planted his arm on the ground, violently heaving his body upright.
He drove his elbow into the nearest monster’s snout.
He kicked the other one until its jaw finally released his leg.
Virgil shoved the monsters off him, using every last ounce of strength he had to break free.
He tried to stand, but his legs refused to carry him. This story is hosted at g.com.
So he dragged his battered body forward.
But as his fingers touched the ground where the exit was supposed to be, the red light began to die, the sounds of the forest abruptly vanished.
The Night Crawler whose jaws were latched onto his boot went limp.
Everything was dying.
An unnatural silence came down.
Virgil pushed onward regardless.
Nothing happened.
"...What? Where did it go?"
He slowly pushed himself upright and looked at where the exit had been just moments ago.
Now, all that was in its place were the same exact trees he had been running from.
He looked back toward the treeline.
The Night Crawlers that had been sinking their teeth into him were all lifeless, hollow husks now.
So were the thorns that had been above watching as the monsters sank their teeth into him.
They had him pinned to the ground just seconds ago. If the forest wanted to consume him, it could have done so.
Even now, it just needed to call a few thorns and some of its monsters to finish him off.
But for some reason, it didn’t.
That was... weird.
’The light.’
He had seen something beyond it.
He was certain of it.
’Was that even real?’
He lowered himself onto the ground, making sure to avoid laying next to a tree.
’No, it surely was.’
Whatever had caused that light was connected to what just happened.
Virgil raised his head once more, checking if they had come back to life.
They hadn’t.
He shook his head and lowered it.
He needed to rest, but the pain made it impossible. And even if he could, he couldn’t afford to put his guard down.
His gaze lowered to the ground where his hand rested.
He slowly lifted it, revealing a handprint in the dirt.
Virgil stared at it for a moment.
His fingers were spread apart.
The handprint wasn’t.
Then, right before his eyes, the handprint suddenly shifted.
"Ah."