Walking through the forest, the lingering feeling that something was wrong only intensified.
The trees bent inwards, like they were conscious and listening in. It made him want to keep his distance each time he passed too close to one.
The bark was stretched too tight, like a skin, trying to remember its past shape.
It looked like skin, rotten enough to become something else.
And it was not the only thing rotting.
The outskirts were a frozen wasteland, and yet inside the forest, it felt as if frost and rot grew side by side with each passing minute, on anything inside their grasp.
He expected the air to be thick and cold, and yet it was somehow warm; it made him not want to breathe, just by how unusual it was.
It humped like a lost breath, and stank of damp soil, iron, and more importantly, death.
When the wind blew, the leaves didn't rustle; they didn't dance; they shivered in fear.
He couldn't explain what he was feeling, but he remembered this feeling, and it only came with bad things; after all, it was the same as the one when his freedom was stolen.
"So, Avrie, don't you think it's time to tell me why you chose this place?"
The witch didn't respond, looking straight into the darkness of the forest.
Aether was getting irritated, but the feeling of wrongness only grew because of her silence.
"Now, going to talk? I'll ask again, why did you choose this place?"
She hesitated, but in the end, continued to stay silent.
What she didn't know was that the question wasn't for her, but her shadow.
It stared at him with its black eyes, impressed to see him talk to it.
He had expected it to stay silent like its master, like a loyal shadow would do, but instead, it didn't waste a minute to talk.
"This forest is said to be cursed by the Queen herself. There are many monsters that walk through time, live, and devour anything they find. The forest itself isn't better; it's alive, and hungry. That's what the fairy tale says; everyone knows the story of a merchant and his family being consumed by it."
Aether wasn't surprised. He turned from the shadow and stared into the darkness like Avrie.
It made sense; everything inside the forest felt human.
Some trees even had human faces, but they didn't seem to have been carved, and they weren't natural; instead, they had grown that way.
Though he never suspected there to be actual monsters that could move just like humans.
Well, maybe because monsters didn't exist in the future, only in books, so it was... strange to know that in a distant past they did.
They also couldn't be normal, by the fact that they weren't frozen in time like everything else, meant that they, just like humans, had essence, a core, and threads for their essence to run through.
But it made him wonder, did they have affinities?
Humans aren't frozen because they have awakened; they have their core and their personal essence flowing through them.
However, the core is built from the user and their assigned affinity.
And while people who haven't awakened still have cores, hence it being the reason they can enter the infinite library, they don't have essence running through them, because their cores lack a big part of themselves and don't have the power to produce it.
Of course, it's the same the other way around. A core isn't complete without a host.
So did that mean that the monster, too, had affinities?
It would be the only way.
But he has grown to not think of the past like the future.
Avrie was able to produce an artificial core, and while he never asked about how she did it, by his guess, it's because in this era, cores can create essence threads without affinities; they just need a kind of push or special condition to be met.
It's also why she had spoken that her ability allowed her to manipulate the essence threads of nonliving objects.
Normally, these objects could only be relics, hence being the only things with a core but without a soul.
But if that was the case, it would have just referred to them as relics.
But she didn't.
Which proves his point, that cores in this time of age are able to be complete without the usual requirements.
'I wonder if it's the same for the future, we just forgot how.'
It also gave sense to what the shadow said about the forest. It may as well be alive.
Of course, not in the literal way, but in that it isn't frozen.
It's also why everything is rotting, and why the tree had the ability to grow like this. Because they aren't frozen like everything else, the forest somehow has a core, or something close to one.
By his guess, it had to do with it having absorbed humans in the past.
But if from devouring humans it was able to develop a core, did it also create a soul?
...
If you think about it, his path is a bigger anomaly than the monsters and the forest.
Your path is the mirror of your core.
And yet, he has one without it being completed.
He also thinks that it's the reason he wasn't frozen in time, with his affinity being restricted.
They could have taken his path also, but instead, they just replaced it. Meaning it had to have a purpose, and he thinks this is it.
To let him live.
[...]
Aether massaged his head gently while staring at the horizon.
The forest didn't seem to have an end.
They have been walking for a while, and yet have made no progress.
He had also yet to find a monster; it wasn't like he wanted to meet one, but he didn't find it strange.
And while he had yet to find one of the monsters, he had found many other things.
There were these vines growing on trees; they seemed normal, like any other, until you turned your back to them, and they tightened around your body.
Many flowers populated the forest, even in this cold weather.
So, of course, they weren't normal either.
They emitted a low humming when you were near; it was harmless until they all stopped at once.
Or at least that was what Avrie's shadow had told him; he never got to see what happens in person.
The path also seemed to repeat itself, also the reason they haven't made progress with their journey.
But if he was able to figure that out from just observing, then how had Avrie not known?
It was because she did, and he knew that she wasn't acting normally from the moment they entered.
They could have waited at the entrance for the people who followed to leave, yet she insisted on continuing.
He only listened because she seemed to have a reason, one only for herself.
He didn't ask her shadow about it, not because he couldn't, but because he didn't want to.
Whatever it was, it was a good reason.
But he did know that there was a chance that he was needed in her plan, which was the reason he was dragged inside with her in the first place.
Maybe she had planned this a while ago, it being the reason she wanted to get weapons.
Maybe she didn't believe him, that he was here to save the world, and wanted to use him for her benefit.
...but he tried to think that it wasn't the case.
And so, he continued to walk alongside the witch, trusting her decisions.
Walking down the very same boring road, the thrill of meeting a monster gone.
The path was repeating, and so there was no way for a monster to appear out of nowhere if it didn't the first time he went down this path.
He didn't know if it was a good thing or if it was dooming them.
At the same time, they were safe, having not to fight with anything or anyone.
But on the other hand, they were stuck.
It was ironic that they weren't frozen in time, but stuck to walk the same road over and over again until they started rotting too.
Well, humans were able to escape being frozen; they'll be able to find a way.
So it was a good thing, they just had to walk over and over, and when the time came for something to happen, they would take it and escape the loop.
And yet, this world never seemed to stop surprising him.
Out of nowhere, Avrie stopped, signalling him to stop too.
He wanted to ask, but she covered his mouth.
Not understanding what was happening, Aether watched as a dreadful being made from all kinds of animals, bound in one, passed by them.
It stared right at them, yet didn't realize they were there.
'Is it... blind?'