Well, almost everyone.
There were still a few outliers, animal who either have not recovered from shock or completely lost their mind.
The birds themselves were not hostile. Punishment just acted out his duty. After all he was responsible for insuring the safety of those residing in the forest by punishing evildoers.
And the wolf was such an evildoer.
Deeper in the forest a small group of creatures formed together. One of them was the fox, the cause of the first wave of panic and doudt.
Almost 20 wolves surrounded him. Each one of them already had their minds whiped, overwritten by him.
'It took almost three years to transform them into puppets. Ahhhh. It has been so long since I was this excited.'
The fox always has been different from the other animals here. While he was born inside the forest he did not feel like he belonged.
The first few years of life were interesting. He learned about the forest, its inhabitants, the birds and the broken lands around.
But then it stopped being iteresting. He knew almost everithing there was to lern he. He craved knowlage, he craved entertainment.
Boredom could be said to be the most gruesome of tortures.
Every being with a mind would try to fix their boredom. And with time they would use every possibily and chance they could.
He wanted to escape the forest and seek the unknown to quench his ever growing thirst for entertainment.
The birds however did not allow it. It was to dangerous outside and they did not want anyone to be harmed.
And thus 247 years have passed.
The fox did not escape, he could not and would never be able too.
Atleast thats what he thought.
A phrophet has entered the forest. It was the first time someone from the outside entered since his birth.
He was courious and wanted to learn. To learn about the lands unknown.
If he could not leave himself so why not make the best of what he could do.
But it was alraedy to late for him.
To stop his mind from degrading he had already embraced madness. To fight the effect of the flow of time he had to embrace something equally haunting.
Then he heared about the vison. Calamity would befall this forest.
Maybe this would be his chance to leave this cursed place.
He would never get a chance like this again. Thats why he had to give his all to use it.
For the next three years, the amount of time it took for the prophet to return, he had crafted a plan. A way to escape this forest and maybe recover his broken mind in the outside world.
Sunny was running. He had to escape this damnable place. Fast!
He had found out the way to finish this nightmare.
'It all makes sense. There never was a Beast outside this forest, hiding in the lands around, waiting for an oppertunity to destroy.'
'I was never supposed to stop the Twilight Beast. The Birds, I thought I was supposed to help them protect. But they themself were the Twilight Beast.'
'In reality im just supposed to survive, to escape from here'
"The birds who swore to protect their home were in reality the harbingers of apocalyps themself."
'It truly was poetic. Those who seek to protect cause the most damage themself.'
Still, Sunny was pretty sure he was the only one to know this, that the birds were the true horror.
Thats why he ran. The others were most likely just scared.
The distance he had to traversed was still massiv. It took him over a day of running to reach its center the first time. And now he did not have nearly the same amount of time.
He ran. He sprinted. He did not care for exhaustion. He did not care for pain.
The alternative was death.
'Two hours have passed since punishment was given.'
'The frenzie is about to begin!'
The fox, accompanied by the biggest fox puppet he had was giggling.
He had just sent out all his puppets.
'The birds were in a paranoid state. Their lovely guest are in disarray. Not just once have they attacked each other. And now they had to protect them from each other.'
"And the attacks wont stop. My wolf puppets, cause chaoes! cause destruction! And take the attention of those birds until im save."
He had caused all this chaos to direct the attention away from him. The birds were as mad as he himself was.
The lived far longer than he did. And it was showing.
The morals and rules of the guadians twisted with time.
At first they let anyone in to enjoy their forest. Then after one accident they were stricter. Judgement judged who could enter. At first he just judged their intention. Then their whole life. When people were complaining that the scale was balanced Judgement made the scale alway tip to one side. They bagen to complain that he was unfair, that he was not just. But with time even the complaining disappeared.
Big Bird kept watch over those residing in the forest. But over time he got possessed by safety. He would not let anyone leave.
Lastly there was punishing bird. At first he gave punishment that fit the crime. One little peck here, one little peck there. But the more time passed, the harder the punishment got. The dead could not hurt anyone after all.
He hoped that the distraction of chaos and the monster would give him enough time to leave.
The pack of wolf was dividing into all directions.
Soon the first one found his target.
An orange squirrel was being viciously ravaged. The puppet did not even eat, it just bit and bi and bit, until it could not even be recognised.
Somewhere else, in a crowd of ants the same thing happened.
In the span of an hour a hut between wolves and anything that came their way started.
Not long after the first victim has died did the small bird appear.
Only he was responsible for punishment so the other two did not help.
That didnt mean they werent worried. They just did not have the authority to help him.
Sunny stopped running. He was too exhausted to continue. He just wanted to rest for a quick second before continuing.
All of a sudden he heard a voice reverberating in his mind.
"Why did you do this? I thought you a honorable person."
The deer he met on his second day here spoke.
His voice was filled with judgement and a hint of betrayal.
"Did what?" Sunny asked in confusion.
"I never caused any harm to anyone here."
"Siding with the fox. That's what you did." Said the deer, anger flowing inside his voice.
"Have I not warned you? He is the most despicable being!" He said with uncontained rage. "And you are his friend!"
The voice, sight and presence of nightmare creatures can cause severe damage to mundane people. But only from nightmare beasts of the corrupted rank.
Everything below was still closer to the mundane than the divine, or unholy in the case of nightmare creatures. That's why his words should not have done any real damage.
But the pressure emitted by his word struck him. This direct confrontation was almost comparable to a mindattack.
Under this pressure Sunny did not dare to lie.
"I had no other chance. The fox, he controlled me. Don't noble creatures such as yourself get ability's after getting their forth soul core?"
Shock could be seen in the eyes of the deer. His herd has been attacked by a pack of wolves not to long ago.
Rage piled up inside of him. He blamed himself. And when he saw the prophet he wanted to vent it on him.
'But when has the fox become a devil?' He thought.
He himself was supposed to be the only devil in this forest. For 300 years had he cared for his herd. And for 200 more had he been the strongest inside the forest. Except for the birds of course.
'How is it possible to reach his rank in just 250 years? He thought astonished.
'it took me more than double this time.'
'He, like me is just another victim of his treachery.'
The pressure placed onto Sunny lifted. He didn't feel like he would suffocate anymore.
To Sunny the deer looked greef struck. He did not see his herd with him.
'Did something happen to them?' He thought.
Taking advantage of the deer emotional turmoil Sunny said.
"This entire forest will get destroyed! Doom is certain. Please help me leave this place. I am the only person who can insure you survive this ordeal."
Sincerity that made every thing he ever said feel like nothing more than an act filled his voice.
He was desperate. The moon was about to rise to the sky and he had barely reached half the distance to the forest borders.
And he knew it. This night would be last inside this forest. Before both Sun and moon would disappear forever. Before apocalypse descended.
"Why should I believe you?" The deer retorted.
"How can I be sure your not also just a puppet of the damned fiend."
"I can tell you everything I know about the monster. I can even insure that you will leave from here unharmed.Im a prophet after all. I can prophecise your survival. Sunny said remembering his runes
He however knew nothing about prophecising. It was a gamble he had to try. To get the helpee of the deer.
"I prophecise, in the name of fate, that you will experience no harm inside this cursed place as long as you follow me and trust in fate and myself as it's apostle."
Nothing he said held any merit. He was no apostle of fate and he couldn't ensure anything. He also was pretty sure he just quoted a line of a Webtoon he once read as a kid.
"The birds!" He shouted, trying to take his attention away from the line he said before. "They are the twilight beast! Inside they're souls is a seed of corruption! It's about to bloom!"
"I felt it the second the observe tore out his feathers! They are mad!"
'Corruption?' The deer thought.
'Inside this forest?'
'The only creatures I know of that are filled with corruption are those from the broken lands."
'Does that mean the birds really were born of cogito, the origine of breakage?'
"I believe you." It said.
"What do I have to do?"
Hearing this Sunny felt relieved. He really had a chance of surviving if he helped.
Before he could finish his thought the vail of clouds covering the sky broke.
It was almost night time. The sun was just half an hour away from disappearing behind the horizon.
Parallel to the sun, on the other side of the sky lay the moon.
Pale blue light was reflecting from it, sending panic and dread into everyone's soul.
The light of Big Birds lanter wich shone orange-blue were brighter than the sun itself. In their way to the sky the waves of light were being reflected and broken by countless water and carbon molecules. All the longer light waves ranging from 550 nanometers and an above did not reach beyond the ozone layer.
The smaller wavelength of 400-549 nanometers however did. The same phenomenon that caused the sky to look blue during clear weather made only the bright blue rays of lantern light reflect from the moon.
Panic infected the hearts of everyone in the forest, well almost everyone. The fox was ecstatic.
He was already quite near to the forest edge.
'It will only take about then minutes till I can escape.'
He was already getting giddy. Chuckling and shaking like a child who just heard the most funny joke ever.
The birds however were not nearly as calm.
Big Bird was especially anxious.
He was the most protective of the birds. He did not even let anyone leave the forest, fearing they will experience harm in the process.
In his twisted mind he thought about way to protect his guests.
'I can't let the monster kill them. I won't let that happen.'
In the end he thought of an Idea as mad as himself.
'I... will save them, from the beast and from everything. They will never experience pain again.'