Chapter 339: Whispering Forest [4]

’...Pfft!’

Ethea couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction.

’...’

Soren gritted his teeth and turned forward, hastening his pace.

"Be careful," Theo warned, killing a sneaky monster that had crept too close. "There might be more hiding in the shadows."

"Nnh..." Soren nodded and kept leading the way. ’What happened to you, Ethea?’

’I woke up in a village in...’

’...’

While exchanging thoughts through their bond, they walked for several more minutes. The forest grew darker and denser, the whispers growing louder with every step. Then, through a gap in the trees, they saw it.

The massive tree loomed before them, its trunk wider than a house and its branches stretching into the sky like grasping claws. Webbing hung from the branches, glistening faintly in the dim light, and at the base of the trunk, a small opening led into the hollow interior.

Soren stopped and pointed.

"That’s where the children are..."

Ethea translated for him again.

"You mean, they are inside?" Mona’s already dark expression darkened even further. "Seriously?"

Theo studied the massive tree grimly. "...It makes sense. A place like that would be easy to hide and defend. If we go in without a plan, we’ll be walking right into a trap." He sighed and looked at the boy. "...We can’t even know what we’re dealing with."

"Gnh..." Soren raised his hands and made a series of quick signs. Ethea ’watched’ carefully, then nodded and turned to the others.

"He says the inside is pitch black. You can’t see anything unless you have special senses. And based on the webbing and the red eyes he saw, the creature is likely a spider type."

"Huh?" Mono and Theo made stunned expressions. "Since when did you know sign language?"

"More importantly," Ethea ignored their comment and continued, "the fairy had lied to us."

"Huh?" The two froze again. "What do you mean?"

Ethea sighed and explained. "You remember what she said, right? Most of them were fabricated to lead us into a trap. The boy told me that he heard about it while trapped. Furthermore, I suspect that she’s the great evil that wore many faces, or at least the one behind all of this. The monsters we fought till now are probably her servants or creations."

"Why do you think so?" Theo asked curiously.

"Think logically," Ethea said. "Fairies are supposed to be powerful, pure-hearted, and fiercely protective of nature. If she were truly one of them, she would have fought against the monsters herself and done her best to save the children. Or at the very least, she would have joined us in our mission. Instead, she only appeared at a rather convenient time, gave us a half-hearted warning, and and then vanished before we could ask anything useful."

Mono and Theo froze, realization slowly crossing their features.

"Besides," Ethea continued, "didn’t you sense it yet? The gaze that’s been watching us."

"W-What?"

"She never left." Ethea stared far above at the tree. "She has been watching us from the beginning."

"..."

"...The whispers... disappeared?"

Theo tightened his grip on his sword, his eyes scanning the darkness. "That’s not a good sign."

"...Hehehe~"

A laughter echoed through the clearing. It was soft and melodic, but it carried an edge that made the hairs on the back of their necks stand on end.

"A-Above us..."

The branches shifted, and a familiar tiny figure descended slowly, her translucent wings catching the firelight.

"I should have known you’d figure it out eventually," she said, her voice dripping with amusement mixed with mockery. "You’re smarter than the last ones. And..."

Her gaze falled onto Soren. "Lucky too."

Ethea didn’t hesitate. A dagger flashed from her hand, spinning toward the fairy. Mono reacted a second later, a fireball roaring from her palm.

The fairy twisted in the air, dodging both with a mocking laugh. The dagger and fireball shot past her, disappearing into the darkness above.

Then the fireball exploded.

The flash of light revealed something massive. A white spiderlike creature clung to the underside of the branches, its body bloated and pale, its legs long and spindly. Countless threads connected it to the fairy, thin and glistening like silk.

Mono’s breath caught. "What the hell is that?!"

The fairy smiled, her form flickering.

"Hehehe, it’s too late~"

The fairy snapped her fingers. Threads shot out from the darkness, wrapping around them all. They were thin and sticky, almost invisible until they touched skin, and they tightened instantly, binding them in place.

"W-What the-" Mona struggled, but the more she moved, the tighter the threads became. "Get off!"

Theo tried to cut them with his sword, but the blade bounced off harmlessly. "They’re reinforced. I can’t cut them."

The fairy giggled, floating higher. "Struggle all you want. The more you move, the tighter they get. You’ll be wrapped up like the others soon enough."

Mona’s eye twitched. Her face twisted with irritation, then outright annoyance. "Oh yeah? Wrapped up like the others?" Her voice grew louder, and her body began to glow. "Then let me show you what happens when you try to wrap up a PYROMANCER!"

"BOOOM!"

Her entire body erupted in flames. The heat was intense, so intense that the threads around her evaporated instantly, turning to ash before they could even smoke. Mona stood in the center of a blazing inferno, her hair whipping around her like fire itself.

Theo followed her lead. Golden light surged from his body, enveloping him. The threads binding him sizzled and dissolved, unable to withstand the radiance.

Meanwhile, Ethea had already vanished. In the split second the fairy’s attention was on Mona, she slipped out of the threads, grabbed Soren, and melted into the shadows.

Swoosh!

Ethea appeared above the fairy, her dagger slicing downward. The fairy’s eyes widened, and she twisted in the air, barely avoiding the blade. Threads shot from her fingertips, lashing toward Ethea like whips, but Ethea vanished again, reappearing beside Mona and Theo.

The fairy smirked and spun around, ready to attack again. At the same time, one spider eye swiveled toward the base of the tree and caught sight of a small figure slipping through the entrance.

’...I see.’

The fairy’s lips curled into a wide grin, but she didn’t move to stop him. Instead, she kept staring at the reunited trio, her laughter echoing through the clearing.

"Let’s put an end to this! Hehehe!"

Swoosh!

She vanished in a blur of light, and the massive spider above them dropped from the branches, its pale body crashing down toward the trio like a falling boulder. Its legs, long and spindly, stabbed into the ground, sending dirt and debris flying in every direction.

Theo’s eyes widened, and he slammed his sword into the ground.

"Aegis of Dawn!"

A golden barrier erupted around them, a dome of shimmering light that stopped the spider’s fangs just inches from Mona’s face.

"Inferno Lance!"

Mona thrust both hands forward, and a spear of white-hot fire shot from her palms. It struck the spider’s abdomen and exploded, but when the smoke cleared, the creature was still standing, its hide burned in places but otherwise unharmed.

Ethea slashed at its leg, but her daggers couldn’t pierce the hide. The spider swatted her away, and she flipped mid-air, landing on her feet.

Their expressions turned grim.

This wasn’t going to be easy.

───────

"...Nh."

’Finally back!’

Soren collapsed to the ground as he slipped through the crack in the wall. He lay there for a moment, catching his breath, then pushed himself up and looked around.

’...I can see now?’

Strangely, the darkness inside the tree didn’t seem as thick as before. Shapes were forming in the shadows, edges becoming visible where there had only been blackness moments ago.

’...Hmm.’

He slowly moved toward one of the cocoons he could reach with his current height. It was smaller than the others, barely the size of a child. He pulled out the dagger Ethea had slipped him earlier and carefully cut through the webbing.

The cocoon split open, and a body tumbled to the floor.

Soren froze.

The figure on the ground was thin and twisted, its skin black and cracked, its limbs bent at unnatural angles. It looked exactly like the monsters they had been fighting.

’..’

He stared at it for a long moment, then looked down at his own hand. He then recalled how Ethea described him. Red eyes, pitch-black skin, and a body that looked almost identical to the black monsters they had faced.

’...Am I... already dead?’

"...Was this your plan?" A mocking voice echoed behind him. "If so, then you really disappointed me. After all..."

Soren turned around to face the fairy. Countless thoughts crossed his mind, but something told him that the voice wasn’t talking to him, but to the original character he was embodying.

"...I was born from you."

"..."

Soren squinted, pieces clicking together in his head. ’I think I understand it now... Who my character is... Why could I hear those whispers without being affected... Why the monsters didn’t seem that hostile to me, perhaps even... afraid.’

"Admit it, you’ve failed. The forest is now mine. Everything you tried to protect belongs to me now. So why don’t you just surrender? It will be easier that way."

’...’ Soren ignored her and looked down at his hand, at the dagger, to be more precise, a crazy idea popping up in his mind. ’...I think I am the real fairy.’