CAINE POV

I ran aimlessly, wanting to put as much distance between that monster and me.

My feet aggressively pounded the ground with each step I took, but I didn’t slow down, ignoring all the cuts I was getting from running barefoot.

My necklace was swinging around my neck, and I instinctively grabbed it and continued running, my body now feeling lighter than usual. I kept running, my mind not even registering where I was, and before I knew it, I found myself surrounded by trees.

Where was I?

I let go of my necklace and looked around only to see trees, much larger than any I had ever seen, so tall and dense they completely covered the sky. I turned around and could not see a path.

I must have been running for quite some time to have arrived here.

This place was different from anywhere I’d ever been. It was eerily quiet, my heavy heaving was the only thing I could hear; there should have been some birds chirping or at least some animals, but there was nothing.

I took a moment to rest, trying to catch my breath, and suddenly threw up. My throat was burning, the pain so intense it brought tears to my eyes and I broke out in an uncontrollable sob. I staggered and walked over to a tree, placing my forehead on its large trunk, and screamed.

I screamed and I cried, struggling to even understand what happened.

He was a knight; a Demigod, as a matter of fact.

Why did he kill them? He was so... nice and kind to everyone, even to me. Why did he do this? He was supposed to be better.

I cried even harder and began headbutting the sturdy tree, ignoring the wound on my forehead that was growing larger and continuing to bleed out.

My fault. It was all my fault. They died because of me. Had I never left home today, had I stayed in, I never would have bumped into him, and they would still be alive.

If only I was stronger; if only I could use magic; if only I was a good son.

I stopped hitting the tree, and placed my back on it, letting myself drop to the ground, and looked around.

The air felt heavy, there was a strange pressure all around me but breathing had never been easier. I slowly waived my hand around, the strange energy moved alongside me, almost as if reacting to my own movements.

Mother would always say that mana felt like an energy that would react to a mage’s every action. Is this what this was?

Was this mana?

A loud howl echoed within the dense woods, startling me and making me jump to my feet.

The Forest.

That’s where I was. When I would look for berries for my mother, I would often hear a howl in the distance, it was faint, but this was much closer.

I looked around, not understanding where I was, and searched the ground, trying to find any tracks or footprints to return to Arzamac. But was that even the right choice?

If I stayed here, I might be able to avoid the monsters, but if I went back, he would definitely find me and he would kill me too.

There was another howl, now sounding much closer, and a different type of pressure surrounded me, making my entire body tremble.

I tried to find any traces of my steps, the fear I had for this place, overwhelming the fear I was feeling for Sir Saintsworth, but The Forest was so dense, I couldn’t find my back. I walked until my legs couldn’t take it anymore, and fell to the ground, the long grass cushioning the fall.

I struggled to stand on my feet as I recalled the sight of my parents lying there in the same place where we ate this morning. I rolled over, wanting to look at the sky, but the trees were so dense I couldn’t see past them.

The sight of my parents was etched into my mind, the way their bodies were thrown at me constantly replayed in my mind, and there was only one thought in my mind: do I deserve to be alive?

Had it not been for me, mother and father would still be alive; it was my fault that he knew where they lived, I was the one who bumped into him, and yet they were the ones he killed, while I was still here, alive, just thinking about surviving.

Tears welled in my eyes as a feeling of emptiness overwhelmed me; the pain was so strong, I was struggling to even feel it.

The strange energy surrounding me softly pressed onto me, almost as if attempting to comfort me, the slight warmth of it restoring some energy into my body.

I stood up, determined to retrace my steps, and wanting nothing more than to leave this place; suddenly I sobbed, the emptiness I was feeling lingered, but the pain was still there, and knowing that I would never see them again broke something within me.

It was all my fault. I should just die.

I took a few steps, waving my arm around, trying to move the mana in the atmosphere although it rejected any command I tried to give it. I tried to conjure a flame to stop myself from shivering, but nothing happened, and after a few minutes, I simply gave up, realising that while I was able to feel mana, I still didn't have a core.

A loud noise suddenly exploded from the sky, so powerful it felt deafening; rain somehow made it through the dense branches of the trees, violently crashing into the ground.

The heavy rain, atypical of the Long Summer, felt strangely comforting, the loudness of it made it difficult for me to think about anything, and I simply focused on the path in front of me... although there was no path, just tall grass and trees.

The rain would likely cover any tracks I may have left behind, but I was certain I ran in a straight line, and as long as I just walk the opposite direction, I should be out of this forsaken place.

A loud screeching noise bombarded the woods, a high-pitched noise that made me fall to the ground and cover my ears. It lasted for mere seconds, but the pain was excruciating, and as I tried to stand on my feet, I kept losing my balance, with a constant buzzing noise in my ear.

I crawled to a nearby tree, its large dark trunk making it easier for me to stand on my feet again. I rested for a minute, trying to figure out how there could the this much rain when I couldn’t even see the sky, and the rain now seemed heavier than before.

I grabbed a large stick, and used it to balance myself, and carried on walking, trying not to slip on the wet, muddy grass. With every step, a myriad of emotions overcame me, from guilt to anger to desperation, the sight of my parents in my kitchen, their lifeless mutilated bodies... it all overwhelmed me.

I felt so many things at once, yet I could barely feel anything.

I could only keep walking forward, and so I did, I walked and walked, ignoring the heavy rain hitting me, ignoring the pain from walking barefoot, ignoring everything around me, I just kept walking ahead.

Time had lost all meaning as I carried on walking; I was unsure how long I ran when I entered The Forest, but now it felt as though I walked for much longer, and regardless of how much time passed, the woods just became denser and denser, the tree roots were now above-ground, making it even more difficult to walk.

I used the stick I carried to stab the ground before me, ensuring that there was nothing hidden underneath the long grass, occasionally hitting some large stone or another rotten branch.

I tried as hard as I could to continue walking in a straight line, but watching the woods grow denser, a shadow of a doubt arose within me.

What if I was walking even deeper in The Forest?

As that thought entered my mind, I heard a howl; the howl echoed in the trees, and I couldn’t figure out where exactly it was coming from, but whatever creature that was, it must have been close, and I turned around, running in the opposite direction.

I held onto the stick, and ran, occasionally stumbling onto a root, but trying to regain my balance as quickly as I could and carried on running. The woods, once again, seemed to grow denser, regardless of the direction I was running; now I could hear multiple howls, each one louder than the previous.

The howls came from all directions, the continuous echoes sent a shiver down my spine as I could not pinpoint where even one of those howls came from. I held onto my necklace and continued running, trying to put as much distance between whatever those creatures were and myself, until I found myself at a dead end.

I spotted a rocky wall, just beyond the trees in front of me, extending beyond the dense branches. I walked up to it, the mountain-like wall seemed sturdy, with many footholds adorning it, but as soon as I held onto one of those, they crumbled from my weight, making it impossible to climb the wall.

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I kept one hand on the wall and walked around it, trying to find a path to any high ground hoping to see the direction I was meant to follow to escape this place, and found a narrow entrance, a cave, surrounded in darkness.

The cave felt eerie, there was total darkness, making it impossible to even have the slightest glimpse of the inside, and was shrouded in a terrifying aura; I stared at the entrance for barely a minute, and realised that I could not hear the howls any longer.

“Caine, everything is ok. Come. Your father is here too.”

I trembled as I heard my mother’s voice; it was as soft and delicate as always. For the first time since entering this hellish place, the emptiness and pain I felt vanished, replaced with an indescribable amount of happiness.

I took a step forward but stopped as I heard a clicking noise coming from the cave. Something glowed in the darkness of the cave, there were eight golden lights near the ceiling of the cave, staring directly at me.

My entire body trembled as the lights slowly approached me, my mind imagined a giant spider-like creature crawling to me with its fangs ready to attack me. The happiness I felt quickly disappeared as I remembered the sight of my mother’s corpse in my kitchen and took a few steps back.

I spun around and ran off, not even thinking about which direction I was running to, only wanting to put as much distance between that thing and myself. With fear-filled, new-found energy I darted off, running into the trees, getting away from that cave, and soon the howls came back and grew louder and louder.

I heard another howl, and this time I felt myself turn pale, with cold sweat on my face as I finally located the source of the noise. I hesitantly looked up, my entire body trembling as I did, and saw over ten creatures climbing down from the trees.

They looked like wolves, but they were abnormally large, even at a distance, they still seemed large, larger than me at least. They all stared at me with bloodthirsty, red eyes, glowing ominously in the dim light. They climbed down, with their claws stuck onto the tree trunks, leaving deep slash marks on them as they made their way down.

One of the wolves growled at the others, revealing metal teeth as its mandible shut, creating a loud, metallic sound; all the wolves let go of the tree and jumped down, despite being over twenty meters in the air, and furry wings burst out from their backs, as they flew down, with every flap of their wings creating strong winds even in this place.

They all fell down in front of me, slowly nearing towards me, growling as they drooled. Behind them all, stood the largest winged wolf, twice the size of the other wolves, growling whenever the others would start growling at each other, keeping their focus on me.

My heart raced even more with a heavy pressure building in my chest as I came face to face with these demonic beasts. I raised my trembling hand holding the stick I used to balance myself and trying to move the faint mana I was feeling in the air to protect me, but to no avail.

Suddenly all the wolves spun around, turning their back on me, and growled at something beyond them. A man slowly walked towards us, covered in blood. He only wore some tattered pants, barely reaching his ankles, and was walking barefoot; he carried a large sword, almost as large as him, and extremely thick.

He had silver hair, dropping onto his shoulders, surprisingly clean despite the rest of his body being covered in blood, and stared in our direction with glowing green eyes.

With each step he took, I felt myself lose all energy and my hand dropped from my necklace; he approached us slowly, his expression empty, and I could feel the air escaping my lungs, and I struggled to breathe as if I wasn’t allowed to.

The pressure around me increased, not a single muscle in my body dared to move, no matter how much I tried, my body felt weighed down by an ominous weight.

Time froze as he approached us, neither I nor the wolves dared to move, we simply stood completely still before him. He walked past the wolves and stopped right before me.

Only then did I notice him holding the severed head of another beast, and before I could even recognise what it was, it burst into flames in his hands, leaving nothing but ashes behind.

He squatted down, stabbing his greatsword into the ground. Cold sweat covered my face as his gaze rested heavily on me, almost as if studying me. His mouth slightly trembled at times, but he said nothing. He stayed there, motionless, for what felt like an eternity.

One of the wolves began growling at us, but suddenly stopped as the man before me slightly turned his head around, making our surroundings completely still, with not one sound heard.

The wolf that growled let out a scream, my eyes snapping towards it, and dropped to the ground as its entire body burst into flames; he rolled on the ground, trying to put out the flames, and its painful shrieks became quieter and quieter until it stopped moving, its corpse now just burning away, and soon only ashes remained, even the bones had completely disappeared.

He turned his face towards me, staring completely into my eyes, his gaze felt so similar to Sir Saintsworth’s, he emanated a strange, overwhelming pressure weighing down on me; I struggled to breathe, despite how hard I tried to inhale, I just couldn’t, almost as if I wasn’t allowed to.

His face twitched as if he was about to speak, but before he could, more winged wolves appeared, completely surrounding us. Behind them all, there was an even bigger wolf, larger than anything I had ever seen; the trees were dense, and with every step it took, it would knock a few down with ease, uprooting them completely, until he stared at us.

The man stood up, turning his back on me and staring at the large beast.

His metallic jaw reflected some of the light that remained from the little flame that was on the ground where the other wolf turned into ashes, and he drooled as he stared at us.

The wolf had a long horizontal scar below its glowing red eyes, contrasting its black fur. Its ears were upright, twitching slightly at every sound, and suddenly it let out a loud bark, as if giving out an order; two of the wolves standing before us spread their wings and jumped high, baring their fangs at us.

The man quickly stood back up when the large wolf arrived. As the wolves jumped up, the man grabbed his sword, and raised it, keeping it parallel to the ground, as if he was nocking an arrow on a bow.

The wolves flew towards us, and the man thrust the sword in the empty air.

Silence befell us for one single moment before a loud boom overcame The Forest. Strong winds were created, strong enough to uproot some of the trees around; I could see the remnant of what seemed an explosion in the air, the mana seemed visible for a moment, moving away from the man’s sword, his arm now completely outstretched.

The sight in front of me rendered me speechless, so much so that I struggled to even comprehend what was happening.

Nothing.

Where the wolf lunging for us should have been, there was nothing.

Even beyond it. Nothing. Nothing but a path of destruction. Everything was gone, the trees, the beasts, the grass, all that remained was a barren path of destruction, illuminated by the moonlight. The starry sky above us was beautiful, completely contradicting this hell.

The man’s long silver hair danced in the air, it was as if time slowed down before me; I could see it clearly, the strength of this man, the destruction he caused, but more than anything I could see the fear he instilled in the winged wolves.

The man turned his head around and spoke, but I could not understand anything he was saying.

He spoke a foreign language, it was not something I had ever heard; he must be from one of the other kingdoms, but that thought frightened me even more. Mother had said that throughout all the five kingdoms, the same language was spoken, the Gods had made it so.

But if that is the case, where did this man come from?

The man spoke a few words and then looked at me silently, as if waiting for a reply. I thought about what I could say, but I was lost for words. And regardless of what I would say, I did not think the man could understand me anyway.

I instinctively grabbed my necklace, and took a few steps back hesitantly, before my back was against a tree. I turned to my right and tried to run away from this place, finding strength in the necklace I was holding, remembering my father.

‘You’re not strong enough yet.’

I remembered my father’s words; words he had spoken not even one day ago. With my stick still in my hand, I felt a burning rage grow within me and took a step forward.

One of the winged wolves moved and stood before me, baring its sharp teeth at me; it still trembled, probably still remembering what happened to the other two wolves that dared to attack.

I remembered how the man brought back his arm, as if nocking an arrow on a bow, and did the same with my stick, focusing as much as I could into gathering mana, trying to pull it from the air around me and into my sword.

I felt my arms become lighter and stronger, although barely, and as I went to thrust the stick, the wolf’s head fell to the ground, and the man was in the air in front of it. I could not even see the moment he had swung his sword, but he had.

The wolf’s body also dropped to the ground, although it was a few seconds later, as if it had not realised that it died.

The man looked at me, his green eyes carrying a mixture of anger and confusion. He raised his hand, and the carcass of the wolf burst into flames as he snapped his fingers. He continued staring at me, but for some reason, I was not afraid.

Although I felt pressured by this man, he did not scare me. Something about his presence felt different; incomparably different from Sir Saintsowrth’s.

The man walked slowly until he was right in front of me, and then raised his sword to the sky before stabbing it into the ground, creating a shockwave of energy that made everything around him get pushed back, making me fall as well again a tree.

He left the sword etched into the ground, and stared down at me, a slight smile on his face as he still spoke a language I did not know. As he finished talking, he vanished from my sight, and another shockwave was created with a loud bang.

My eyes turned to the source of the noise, and I saw the man in the air above one of the wolves, with his fist stuck onto its skull, or rather what remained of it. The lower part of its mandible was shattered, the metal-like bones and teeth spread around it and covered in blood.

I went to look for the man again, but he was no longer there, and then there was another shockwave, and saw the same sight with another wolf.

And then again, and again, and again.

The wolves fell one by one, the shockwaves he created whenever he killed one of the demonic beasts did not bother me too much, it was as if the sword he stabbed in front of me protected me from them, regardless of the direction the shockwave would come from.

The previously silent Forest was now filled with whimpers from the wolves each time they were attacked, followed by the whimpers of the wolves around them. whenever one of the wolves moved, they fell, the man mercilessly killed them, until only remained.

The larger wolf remained there, attempting to follow the man’s movements, and as the man followed the same pattern of appearing above the demonic beasts’ skull, the larger winged wolf raised its mandible into the sky, preparing to bite the man as it appeared.

A loud, hollow bang broke the silence as the beast’s mandible shut, but the man was no longer there, now standing before me. His back was covered in blood, and the moonlight shone onto his muscles; his shoulders were broad and his back seemed large and powerful, projecting nothing but unparalleled strength.

The winged wolf began glowing, its paws emanated light, nearly blinding, and lunged forward, aiming for the man. Before I had even realised it, the man and the beast collided.

The wolf was frozen in front of me with his head parallel to the ground, its teeth shining, held apart by the man’s bare hands. Its jaw trembled as it tried to bite into him, but the man effortlessly stopped its movements.

He snickered before taking a deep breath and just screamed. The energy he created was enough to throw me backward, but I somehow managed to hold onto the sword he left before me, keeping me grounded. As I grabbed the long metal hilt, my body felt replenished with energy, my grip on the sword becoming stronger with each passing second.

I looked ahead, and saw blue flames come out of the man’s mouth, incinerating the winged wolf; the wolf did not whimper nor move for it had already died, but the flames did not stop; even after its death, they continued burning until nothing but ashes remained, leaving a burned scar onto the ground.

The man sighed and turned around, taking a few steps before standing in front of me.

He grabbed his sword, raising it to the sky and resting it on his shoulder; he squatted down until he was at eye level; his green eyes hid emotions I was not even aware of, and then he just looked down, almost as if he was resigning himself.

Then he grabbed my face with his hand.