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Kai's footsteps were heavy, each one crunching against fallen twigs and dried leaves as he walked deeper into the forest. The towering trees, once familiar and welcoming, now seemed to lean in ominously.
He could still feel the dried blood under his nails.
His hand clenched into a fist.
It hadn't even been a full day since the massacre. Since he lost himself in anger. Since he tore through those men like a wild beast. And no matter how many times he washed his hands in the river, his skin still felt stained.
Guilty.
Wrong.
Yet his eyes burned with determination.
"I'm not doing this for vengeance alone... I need answers. I need to know what's inside me. What I've become."
The deeper he went, the more unfamiliar the forest became. Trees were thicker here. Taller. The air grew denser, laced with the scent of moss and wild beasts. Roots twisted across the path like claws, trying to trip him. He was no longer in the quiet and serene forest he once knew and grew in.
Still, he pushed on.
Birds stopped chirping. The wind no longer blew.
The silence was unnatural.
"Ah! Now we are getting somewhere! Welcome to the beastlands....little boy!" The voice sounded in his head again, as if mocking Kai.
He shook his head, trying to distract himself from the tainting voice of the god within him.
His breath caught as he stepped into a wider clearing. Shafts of sunlight filtered through the canopy above, illuminating a patch of land covered in strange, glowing mushrooms. The air here shimmered faintly, as if distorted by heat, but there was no warmth. Just... pressure.
Something was watching him.
He turned slowly.
Nothing.
Yet his instincts screamed danger. He didn't know if it was the power he had received, but all his five senses had relatively improved.
Suddenly, a sound—like leaves rustling in reverse.
He spun again.
A shadow darted between the trees.
His heart pounded. He dropped into a low stance, every muscle tense. The air shifted once more, and this time, a presence emerged from the woods. Not a beast. Not a person.
Something in between.
It stood eight feet tall, its skin rough and bark-like, eyes glowing faint green. Vines writhed across its limbs like living tattoos. Its head tilted, studying Kai.
"A forest warden?" Kai whispered under his breath. He had heard tales of such beings from his mother—ancient spirits that protected the balance of nature.
But this one... its aura wasn't calm. It was corrupted. Tainted.
It let out a low, guttural growl and raised one of its arms. Thorned vines lashed out at him with terrifying speed.
Kai barely dodged, flipping backward. A vine grazed his arm, slicing his skin like a blade. Blood trickled down, but he didn't have time to react—more vines shot toward him.
He ducked, rolled, then slammed his palm into the earth to push off.
A rush of wind exploded beneath his feet as his power surged out of instinct.
He soared over the creature, twisting mid-air and landing behind it. His golden eyes glowed faintly.
"No," he muttered, gritting his teeth, "I'm not losing control again…"
The entity charged him, its roar shaking the leaves from the trees. Kai dodged left, then right, his breath sharp and steady. His instincts wanted him to kill, to destroy—to unleash everything.
But he wouldn't.
He couldn't.
Instead, he moved on instinct, slipping behind the creature and striking it in the back with a focused burst of force—not lethal, just enough to knock it down. The creature crashed to the forest floor with a thunderous thud, vines retreating weakly.
As Kai stood over it, panting, the creature's corrupted glow faded. Its eyes turned dull... and peaceful.
Then it disintegrated into golden dust.
Kai's brows furrowed. "It was… being controlled?"
A low, familiar voice echoed in his mind, dripping with mockery.
"Merciful now, are we? Perhaps you're not ready to bear my power after all…"
Kai didn't answer.
He just stared at the spot where the forest guardian had vanished.
His body shook, he hadn't gotten anywhere, yet something of this level had attacked him. Worst of all, it was being controlled by something. 'This is going to be a problem!'
He continued to walk through the forest! This time he decided to follow the instinct that kept screaming at him. Whenever he felt danger, he went the opposite direction.
He could not risk getting into another fight, he was exhausted, he hadn't gotten enough time to rest. The fight with those men had drained him, and now the forest warden he fought a while back.
He was completely drained, his feet dragged across the ground, crushing the fallen leaves. He looked up, the sun was about to start setting. Night was coming. He had to find a place to camp.
He sighed softly, 'I need to rest!'
Kai slumped against the trunk of a towering blackwood tree, the bark cold and jagged against his back. His breaths were shallow, every inhale scraping against his throat like sandpaper. His legs ached. His ribs throbbed. Even his eyelids felt like stone.
He had been walking for hours with no clear path, and now… now he just needed to breathe.
"Just… five minutes," he whispered, rubbing his temples. "Just five."
The wind rustled gently overhead. It was so calm, he felt like he could sleep at any moment.
Then it stopped.
Silence.
Kai's ears twitched.
No birds.
No breeze.
His golden eyes opened, slow and heavy, his slits becoming incredibly thin—just in time to catch the faintest shimmer of movement above.
Instinct screamed. He rolled sideways—just as a thick white strand of silk slammed into the spot he'd been resting, splitting the tree bark with a heavy crack.
Kai landed on one knee, his hands digging into the dirt. He looked up—
—and saw it.
Descending from the treetops like a nightmare forged by a sadistic demon. A massive beast—lion-shaped, but its limbs were impossibly long, covered in a sleek obsidian exoskeleton. Eight glowing eyes blinked unnaturally fast. Its mane rippled with twitching spider legs, and two long fangs dripped venom from a mouth that didn't belong on anything natural.
"W—why can't I get a moment of peace!" Kai whispered to himself, his breathing ragged as he looked at the beast.
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