Chapter 4: The Forest of Zoan
The road from Azure City led directly into the edge of the Forest of Zoan, where civilization abruptly ended and the wild began. Aetheris stood at the threshold between the cultivated lands surrounding the city and the dense wall of ancient trees that stretched endlessly in all directions.
The Forest of Zoan was a vast wilderness that lay between five cities like a green heart in the center of their territory. The five cities formed a rough pentagon around the forest's perimeter, but none dared to expand into its depths. The forest belonged to the resonance beasts, creatures of power and savagery that made travel between cities nearly impossible for anyone.
Even the wealthy who could afford heavily guarded airships faced constant peril, as flying resonance beasts could attack at any moment, turning the sky into just another hunting ground. The awakened were the only ones with any real chance of surviving the journey through the wilderness on foot, though even they rarely attempted it. For common people, the cities were islands of safety in an ocean of danger, each one isolated from the others by the untamed wild.
It was exactly what Aetheris was looking for.
He stepped off the road and into the forest without ceremony or hesitation. The moment he crossed the tree line, the sounds of civilization vanished, replaced by the whisper of wind through ancient branches and the distant calls of creatures he couldn't identify. The canopy above was so thick that even the midday sun was reduced to scattered beams of light that painted the forest floor in shifting patterns of gold and shadow.
The air was different here—heavier, charged with an energy that seemed to pulse with each heartbeat. This was the domain of resonance beasts, creatures that had evolved alongside the Origin Powers that shaped the world. They were predators beyond anything found in the tamed lands around the cities, beings whose very existence was tied to the same forces that gave the awakened their abilities.
Aetheris walked deeper into the forest, his footsteps muffled by centuries of fallen leaves. He had no destination in mind, no path to follow. He was simply looking for a place—somewhere quiet and remote where he could sit with his thoughts and wait for the inevitable end.
The forest seemed to welcome him with indifferent embrace. Massive trees towered overhead, their trunks so wide that a dozen people holding hands couldn't encircle them. Vines hung like curtains between the branches, and strange flowers bloomed in colors that had no names, their petals seeming to glow with inner light.
Somewhere in the distance, a resonance beast roared—a sound that vibrated through the air with unnatural power, causing the very leaves to tremble. Aetheris didn't quicken his pace or show any sign of fear. If a beast found him, it would simply make his end quicker. There was a certain mercy in that.
As he walked, his hand remained in his pocket, fingers wrapped around the small cube his parents had left him. The object seemed to pulse with gentle warmth, as if responding to the energy that permeated the forest. But Aetheris was too lost in his own despair to pay attention to such details.
The deeper he went into the Forest of Zoan, the more alien the landscape became. Plants with crystalline leaves tinkled like wind chimes when the breeze touched them. Pools of water reflected not the sky above, but strange lights that seemed to come from within the liquid itself. The very air shimmered occasionally, as if reality was slightly unstable in this place where so much raw power concentrated.
Hours passed as Aetheris continued his aimless journey into the heart of the wilderness. The sounds of the forest grew stranger and more varied—chittering that seemed to come from invisible sources, melodic calls that rose and fell like songs in unknown languages, and the occasional crash of something massive moving through the underbrush.
He was truly alone now, farther from civilization than he had ever been. The cities and their rigid hierarchies felt like distant memories. Here, in this place where only the strong survived and the weak became food for creatures beyond imagination, he had found what he was looking for.
A place to disappear.
Aetheris found a small clearing where the canopy opened enough to let in more light, and sat down with his back against one of the massive trees. The bark was smooth and warm, almost alive beneath his touch. This seemed as good a place as any to wait for whatever would come.
As he sat in the quiet clearing, memories of his parents began to wash over him like waves. He remembered his mother's gentle voice reading him stories before bed, her warm hands smoothing his hair when nightmares woke him. His father's strong arms lifting him up to see over crowds, the proud smile on his face whenever Aetheris accomplished something small but meaningful.
They had been everything to him—his whole world. And then they were gone, ripped away by violence he could barely comprehend. The fragments of memory from the awakening ceremony played through his mind again: his mother's desperate pleas, his father's defiant shouts turning to cries of pain, and himself, helpless and small, forced to watch it all unfold.
The weight of loss, of years spent trying to forget what he could never truly escape, finally overwhelmed him. Drops of tears began to fall from his eyes, cutting silent tracks down his cheeks as he sat alone in the heart of the dangerous forest.
In his pocket, the cube grew warmer still, its surface beginning to emit a faint glow that penetrated even the fabric of his clothing. But Aetheris had closed his eyes, lost in memories of his parents and the life that had been stolen from him.
He didn't notice the heavy footsteps of a resonance beast approaching through the underbrush.