41. A Dark Forest

Red fell asunder to the darkness. Something teared at her. The sensation was not physical by any means. It went beyond her senses and assailed what she could only describe as her soul.

A voice spoke to her as she was suspended in an infinite darkness. It was the same darkness she saw whenever her eyes closed. But she innately knew that this void was associated with the place she fell into after fighting the wolves, and the Still Unmoved.

In fact, she arrived in this place precisely whenever she was on the verge of death.

Accompanying this voice was the same ticking as well. It was a cathartic sound. But to a huntress like her, she wondered if that ticking was a countdown.

If so, then to what?

The voice asked for her input. But Red could not feel or open her mouth to respond. Yet when she answered ‘yes’ with her heart, the voice seemed to understand her, like it could read the very language of her heartbeat.

Red recalled this from her memories.

This was her story, wasn’t it? The fathoms and mysteries that ultimately constituted her as a Corrupted. No one really knew how Corrupted were made, neither did Red know where or how she came to be.

All she knew was this tale. All she knew was that this belonged to her.

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This was why she despised wolves.

The gentle, ghostly voice disappeared with the ticking all at once. Suddenly, it returned by tenfold, carrying a gravitas that caused Red’s being to instinctively shudder.

“Red. Tell me. What do you see yourself as?”

The question was immensely personal. Red had only one answer, but she could not verbalize it to her. After uttering, “A human.” With her heart, the voice subsided. It disappeared.

Somehow, Red felt like the voice had heard her again. But because she could not verbalize this, it was not seen as an answer. Red had to ask herself if this was a good thing.

Whatever the case was…

//////// ////////

… Red was all the more closer to reaching the end of this countdown.

* * *

“Gah! *cough* Ungh! Grrr…”

The sound of painful heaving and grunting filled the cold air. Red awakened in a world absent of light. Dark trees surrounded her as she rolled in the dirt, clasping at her body that had been impaled by thorns.

“Nothing…? No wounds at all? Did Snow… come back to heal me? How come I’m… gah!”

Her body had miraculously recovered from near… no, certain death. Red knew that she should have died then and there, but by some miracle, she was alive. Not only that, but her body was in perfect condition.

It was painful, but aside from that, Red had somehow returned from the scythe of death.

“I must be too angry to die… Wouldn’t you agree, Rockie? Rockie? Hello…?”

Nothing. She observed her surroundings far and wide and saw no signs of her buggy friend. The forest itself had also changed.

Each tree was twisted and possessed giant thorns that seemed to mimic teeth. Despite the lack of a canopy, the skies were irrevocably dark. No stars shone in this world. Only the light of the moon could be seen, shining a gentle, solemn glow as if mourning what happened to the world.

“Agate… how about you? Are you still there?”

//////// ////////

| Forest of Everlasting Envy |

“… This place, it all belongs to a single Corrupted?”

She took the silence as a “Yes.”

Red was not too familiar with Corrupted Zones. This was because it was a phenomenon highly associated with more powerful Corrupted. For context, there were 7 risk classification levels of the Corrupted, each associated with the 7 trumpets of a being called the Arbiter.

But Red was only aware of the first 3, which was the limit of what could be contained inside of a Site.

Trickle, Hailstorm, Monsoon. These could then be further broken down further into:

Green Trickle, Yellow Trickle, Blue Trickle, Red Hailstorm, Violet Hailstorm, Black Monsoon and finally, White Monsoon.

Red used to fall into the Violet Hailstorm category. She remembered all of this thanks to the presence of the Corrupted that owned this Corrupted Zone.

“The Queen of Sweet and Bitter Thorns. I remember them. That branch human-wannabe did something similar too and were even kept in the same Site. Agate. Do you think that someone sent us here on purpose? So that we can have a rematch or something?”

The Voice didn’t answer again. She took it as the Voice saying, “That’s all in your head.”

Red’s history with the Queen of Sweet and Bitter Thorns was a dot in history at best. They had fought in a flourishing forest before, but both were taken down by the act of eating a poisoned apple which ultimately resulted in their capture.

It did not help that Red’s past was still hazy at best and did not have much depth aside from her being a mindless monster.

“I’m not as strong as I was before… But if its minions are also Trickle, then wouldn’t that mean this Corrupted is also weak?”

Red dusted her apparel, grabbing her weapons that were littered around her. The ground didn’t have a single bush or shrub. It was all just dirt, trees, and bulging roots. Once her rifle was hooked around her back, and her blade held in her hand, she ventured forward.

A single thought ran in her mind as she allowed the darkness to swallow her.

“I wonder if I’m the only one whose wish came true. I was reborn because of it. Weak, but thankfully human. So what did the other Corrupted wish for?”

This thought stuck with her.