As Aiden opened the door, beautiful mana fragments fluttered in the sky. He had never seen anything like it in his life, and it was breathtaking.
All of the glass-like pieces—some blue, some yellow, some orange, some pink, some violet, and even some gold—caught the light flawlessly. They sparkled like fireflies swimming underwater. Some drifted slowly, twirling through the air like falling petals, while others zipped around as if drawn to invisible paths, leaving soft, glowing trails in their wake. Aiden stood in the doorway for a while, silent, eyes wide. He didn't move. He didn't blink. He simply watched, not sure whether these things were real or just another after-effect of meditation. His body still felt sore from purging the mana blocks, and part of him wondered if this was a dream-like state.
Whatever they were, they didn't look dangerous.
Like enchanted snow, the fragments shimmered and danced, lighting the air around the cabin in pale neon hues. It was beautiful—but only on the surface. He couldn't explain it, but something under that beauty… felt off.
Still, he couldn't waste time.
He stepped forward into the light.
The breeze met him, but it was thinner than before. Soft, almost weightless. It didn't stir the grass or leaves—it just touched his skin like the breath of something waiting. The wind came and went, quiet and clean.
He moved into the forest.
Tall trees loomed over him like giants. Their trunks were dark and stretched endlessly upward, vanishing into the haze. He swatted at overgrown leaves, ducked under low-hanging branches, and kept walking deeper. The silence here was louder than anything else. It pressed into his ears. No birds. No insects. Just nothing.
Then he felt it—That tug.
Something at the edges of his vision. A flicker. A shadow. But every time he turned his head, there was nothing there. It kept happening though. Over and over. Like a glitch just out of frame.
The trees began to feel... aware.
They weren't just trees anymore. Their shapes seemed angled toward him. Just slightly—but enough to notice. Their roots stretched like fingers. Their branches curled overhead like ribs, caging him in. He paused for a second and looked around. They weren't moving. But they weren't still either.
The silence wasn't natural—it was thick and unshifting. Like the moment right before something goes wrong.
Even his footsteps weren't right.They made sound.But it wasn't normal.
The crunch of leaves underfoot, the snap of twigs—it was all muted. Like the world didn't want to remember his presence. Every sound died faster than it should have. Like the forest was swallowing it whole.
He said nothing.
Kept moving.
The deeper he went, the more it felt like walking into a memory that didn't belong to him. Nothing had changed—yet everything was off. The trees, the sky, even the colors around him looked slightly washed out, like an old photo.
Then he saw the stream.
A half-dried cut through the landscape. The water trickled, barely flowing, but it was clear enough to drink. The moss growing on the rocks was vibrant, soft, alive in contrast to the forest around it. Aiden stepped up to the edge, set his bag down, and crouched. He peeled off his outer shirt and let it drop onto a stone nearby. Sweat had soaked into every thread.
He wiped his face, then dipped his hands into the water.The cold bit at him instantly.Sharp. Real. Grounding.
He splashed water across his face, arms, and neck. Each shock brought him a little closer back to the present. But the feeling didn't leave. That unease still clung to his spine.
And the smell—
It stuck to him.
Not just sweat. Not just forest.Something… chemical.Rotten.
Like his body had boiled from the inside out during the mana cleansing. He sniffed the sleeve of his shirt. Flinched. It was like something had died, and the scent had soaked into him.
He leaned over to check his reflection.
The water stilled.
He blinked.
Then again.
Something didn't feel right.
His reflection stared back—but not quite right. It blinked too late. Its eyes were just slightly off-centered. Its movements were lagging. He lifted his right hand.
The reflection raised its left.
But too slow.
Then it smiled.
Not a friendly smile.Not even a smirk.A slow, widening grin that stretched across his face—its face—like it was enjoying a joke Aiden hadn't heard.
Aiden froze.
His heart started pounding in his ears. He held his breath. Still crouched by the water. Still staring at the reflection.
It kept smiling.
Then—
The water erupted without warning.
A shape tore through the stream's surface like a blade through cloth. Water splashed everywhere as something long and lanky lunged straight toward him.
Aiden's body reacted too slowly.
A humanoid figure, soaked in shimmering droplets, crashed into him. Its limbs were too thin, its joints bent at the wrong angles. The skin was pale—no—rotted. Stretching in some places, peeling in others. But the worst part was its face.
His face.
But wrong.
Melted. Twisted. Eyes black and soulless, its mouth opening far too wide to be human.
And before Aiden could react with dodging or screaming or rolling away-
The thing sank its teeth into his face.
Aiden's lungs seized as his vision tore apart like shattered glass. Then—nothing. Cold, black, silent nothing.
But just as suddenly, breath returned. He gasped awake, eyes wide, body drenched in sweat. The world was no longer the forest. He lay on a stone floor, a faint blue light pulsing above him like a heartbeat. His limbs trembled. Pain lingered—ghostly, not physical—but it was there.
He touched his face. Whole. Unmarked. But he remembered the bite. The creature. The stream. The smile.
He sat up slowly. Around him were strange runes glowing along the edges of a chamber—faint symbols he couldn't read but somehow recognized.
"Game... restart," he muttered, jaw clenched. "Damn it. Again." he grumbled first.
Then again.
"DAMN IT." he shouted.