Ethan advanced through the forest, passing through many layers of dead and alive plants until he was certain he had caught up with the trail. He had already checked beforehand, with his Ki, that he wasn't stuck in any sort of illusion.
At first, he had thought he had been walking in circles, but it was not the case... the trail was just extremely long. After his encounter with the first dark beast, he had met ten more, and swiftly handled them before proceeding.
The Beast wasn't scary by itself if there was no deadly sniper hiding in the darkness. In their previous encounter, Ethan hadn't been in the best shape.
He had been busy training back at home, and was suddenly called by his grandfather, only to find this father kill him right in front of his eyes with no words spoken between any of them. He returned to his room after such an encounter, closed his eyes for but a moment, and was transported to an entirely different continent and forced to fight an assassin.
Which turned out to be a malicious spirit. Ethan could act as tough as he wanted, but in the end he was still a confused kid searching for an answer.
To many questions.
Why did Dad kill Grandpa? Was there some family fueled he was unaware of? Who was the Huntress? How did he come here? How did he get here? Was this still all a test? Was this a long nightmare?
Was he going to be okay?
His mind was tired, despite his youthful vigor. He was tirelessly searching for just one concrete answer, and unfortunately, at this very moment, the only clue he had was the huntress, the mysterious assassin who had attacked him moments after his arrival on this continent.
"Finally..."
His chest heaved up and down, sweat ran down his brow as Ethan finally arrived at his destination, after traveling a few kilometers, the trail led him to a cave underneath a small hill in the forest.
Ethan slowed down as he walked towards the cave, the trail led inside, but even if he was in a hurry, he wouldn't rush inside like an idiot. Taking a moment to regain his Ki and let his muscles, Ethan carefully searched the surroundings of the cave, to find anything other than the trail of Ki.
There were no signs of anything, no footprints, nothing at all. The foliage in the forest was an issue... Ethan even climbed the hill but found nothing, leaving his only option to be the cave.
'Nothing outside...'
Approaching the cave, just centimeters from the distance, Ethan focused his Ki to his eyes, he wanted to see if the darkness in the cave was ordinary darkness, or like the spell cast by the Huntress in their first encounter.
He wasn't fond of doing something like that again, if it was just like that darkness... then he was willing to turn around and go back, and focus his efforts on finding a way back.
Thankfully for him, it appeared to be normal darkness as far as he could see, somewhat at ease. Ethan turned around and cut down a few branches from the trees, he lit one up with his Ki and kept the rest in his cloak.
Holding the sorry excuse for a torch in his left hand, and his sword in the right, he entered the cave.
"...!"
However, the moment he stepped inside, the ground beneath him disappeared... no, everything had shifted.
There wasn't a trap at the entrance of the cave, the cave itself was one... only in a way he hadn't expected.
"What the fuck?"
He cursed, after all, he expected many things, but he didn't expect the world to shift.
"Damn it!"
He imbued Ki in his sword and drove it in the ground, or rather, the walls now managed to stop his descent. Ethan raised his head, only to find the entrance disappear.
"..."
With a sigh, he focused his Ki to his ears, and dropped the sorry excuse for a torch, he didn't make another one yet, merely focusing on the one he dropped.
He wanted to hear the sound of it dropping, he wanted to ascertain the distance left... but there was nothing. Nothing.
Ethan narrowed his eyes, and gave up after ten minutes of waiting. He lit another torch, and prepared to jump again, sticking close to the wall so he could save himself if needed.
"What kind of magic even is this..."
He really was regretting not focusing more on the subject... he had been too absorbed in the traditional values of his house to become a Knight.
Cursing at himself, he prepared to jump, only to feel the world shift once more. His sword was now embedded in the ground, and what was more... The surrounding darkness changed as well.
It wasn't pitch black, but rather a foggy but lit world of darkness. Cautious, and surprised at the change, Ethan pulled his sword from the ground and stepped back, only to find himself stepping on something...wet?
In an instant, he turned around, swinging his sword in a perfect arc, but he found no opponent behind him...
Only his kneeling corpse, with a large gaping hole in his chest.