Chapter 10: The Dark Forest

I plodded along, crossbow swaying on my back. The thousand elephants that were using my skull to practise stampeding didn’t appreciate Dante's insistent strumming.

Still, I didn’t complain as I was observing an interesting phenomena. It appeared that because Dante was composing a piece rather than playing one it had absolutely no effect on my body.

Now that I could listen to his playing directly I was able to learn a lot. I learned a bit about music during my time as a court magus. While he was not formulating his melodies or harmonies with any scale I was familiar with, it did have an underlying logic.

It was different, at first I had disliked it for that, now I might have been coming round if the elephants hadn’t been so adamant in their disapproval.

When I asked Dante why this had no effect on me he explained his Bard class ability wouldn’t activate unless he knew what he wanted to play.

I kept listening as the dirt road led around the bald hill, on which Far-Reach Fort sat, descending at a gentle gradient to allow for carriages.

Eventually we entered the forest at the bottom, the only road from the fort leading through it, the wilds on the other side of the hill.

With no choice of direction we entered the dark forest.

The darkness had no effect on my Life Sense and given the abundance of life a forest held I anticipated no problems seeing.

I asked Dante how he could see, and he told me upon becoming a Revenant he received the Dark Vision Skill, when I asked what other Skills he received he wouldn’t answer. Not being able to muster my usual thirst for knowledge, I let it drop.

I kept my metaphorical eyes open for spell components on the way, any magically imbued flora or fauna may be useful.

There were two things I was looking for specifically. Something containing either Dark mana or Light mana to hide me from the effects of the sun, or create an illusion to disguise me as a member of the living.

I had done the best I could with the materials at hand, covering every inch of my bones. I had also sealed my mana within myself, not letting any out or in. I did this mainly as it helped with the side effects of mana poisoning and aided in a speedy recovery. However it also had the side effect of not allowing anyone, without significant skill, to sense my mana.

For the next few hours nothing much happened, the forest was frustratingly mundane, absent of magical ingredients.

At some point I couldn’t take anymore and I had asked Dante to stop, leaving us to walk in silence.

I was rather embarrassed when Dante was the first to notice something amiss.

“Where did this fog come from?” He asked.

“Hmmyesnowhat?” I asked in a jumbled mess. I had gotten into a sort of meditation as I thought of nothing but step after step, being pulled from that by the sudden question left me dazed and confused.

Looking up from my feet I saw what he was on about, at some point we had been surrounded by a mist. It was still thin, only obscuring things ten feet ahead or so but it was closing rapidly. It’s clearly magical nature even blocked my Life Sense.

“Oh, that's not good.” Was all I could get out before we were engulfed.

After an embarrassingly long moment I had an idea.

“Dante.” I called, “Start playing.”

Nothing, there was no response. I called again but there was still nothing.

Without my magic, and with a pounding headache, I was brought back to a similar situation in my youth and some of that fear bled through.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

This time however I was armed, hand creaking against the leather of my scabbard I stepped forward carefully.

The way my Life Sense skill worked made this vacuum of life appear as a billowing cloud of darkness. I could still feel the dirt beneath my shoes, I was still on the road.

Straining my ears; I heard nothing, not even the nocturnal bird calls or scurrying insects. It would appear this fog affected more than sight.

Checking my internal mana, it was still disturbed but not influenced. Whatever this was, only seemed to have an external effect, some kind of illusion?

I doubted this was the effect of some magical plant, they would have diverted the road around it.

No, this was either an attack or some natural phenomena. If it is the former the best cause would be to find somewhere to hide out the spell. Given I’d probably get lost I chose to work on the assumption this was somehow natural and stuck to the road, aiming to just walk through it.

☠

Dante walked through the boring forest, sulking about not being able to play. When a white fog billowed towards him he called out to the scary skeleton that his inner beast loved, but only received a garbled response.

He tried calling again when he was surrounded, but this time there was no response.

Had Osseus left him? Dante still had the mace he used in the fort but no armour, he had no experience with the stuff and it was heavy. He was regretting not taking it now.

Putting his lute in its case and slinging it over his shoulder he unholstered the mace, clutching it firmly.

Something moved in the corner of his eye, and, heading the call of the beast, he swung without hesitation.

The tip of his mace was out of sight when it clipped something, jumping back in fear and surprise. His back struck a tree knocking the air from his undead lungs.

Staggering forward, he stumbled betweens trees as he tried to create distance from his attacker.

Out of nowhere a spear stabbed out grazing Dante’s face, he let out a high pitch squeak before scrambling backward.

He thought he heard a twig snap to his left and he swung out desperately striking the offending tree solidly.

Terrified, he took off blindly into the fog. He was only stopped when he tripped over something and fell flat on his face. Turning back he saw the groaning form of a holy knight, a stab wound in his thigh.

What the hell was happening, had the knights come here to kill him?

Scrambling across the dirt road to get away from the undead hunter he struck something head first. He tried to bring his mace around to defend himself, only to find he had lost it.

Looking at certain death he found it to be a cartwheel. The incongruity of the image momentarily stunned him.

After a second he grasped onto the familiar object, following the shape of it. Constantly maintaining contact, he worked his way around until he found an opening. From the outside he felt it was a canvas covered wagon so he crawled in, curling up in the middle of the floor and waiting for this nightmare to be over.

He kept his eyes tight shut until a gentle cough caught his attention.

Opening his eyes, the fog was lifting and where before he couldn't see the sides of the carriage now he could see the half dozen holy knights sat staring at him.

He gulped before saying, “Errr…”

☠

When the first attack came, I thought Dante had just lost his nerve. When the second, third, and fourth came I knew something was wrong. Each used a different weapon, a mace, a spear, a halberd, and a sword. With only a millisecond to react I was struck three times but thankfully the attacks were wild and didn’t do much but throw me around. Either this was an uncoordinated attack or there were others caught in this fog with us.

The last attack I was finally able to dodge before launching a counter attack, feeling fleshy resistance I pulled back. With the number of physical fights I seemed to be finding myself in recently I vowed that I would start practising the forms I had been taught so long ago.

As I was straining my senses to detect the next attack I noticed something. Looking around I could tell the darkness was blacker in one direction than another.

Following a hunch I stepped closer to the void, every few steps I reoriented myself, each time stepping toward the blacker of two blacks.

I was mostly convinced I had the right idea as the rate of attacks dropped rapidly the closer I got. I was certain I was on the right track when I heard a woman screaming. Not reacting, I continued.

Eventually I came to the centre of the effect, and it took me looking over the area inch by inch before I found the source.

A small dot who’s blackness rivalled that of the abyss, if only in colour. Taking a glass jar from my knapsack I plucked the anomaly from the branch and placed it inside.

As soon as the lid was sealed the magical effects of the fog disappeared and my Life Sense could once again see.

Examining the jar I saw a small beetle inside with a white carapace and a faint glow of light mana to it.

I was unfamiliar with the species but it was certainly powerful, a perfect find.

I was pulled from my examination by a cough. I looked up, and up.

In front of me was a tall man in shining golden armour with blond wavy hair and a serious look in his eye.

“Errr….” was all I managed.