Chapter 71: Futile efforts
"Haaa... Haaa..."
(That night: )
"GHAAAAAAA!"
More demonic beasts started appearing out of the darkness.
"Wait...!"
I fought against them for a few hours, but it was futile.
"Noooooo!"
"Ghaaaaa!"
The demonic beasts managed to destroy the rock... destroying the only way into the sanctuary that we knew.
"No..." After that, the beasts vanished.
They did not hurt me. It seemed like they could not even see I was there.
"No!"
But they had destroyed the rock gate. And my Felix and Nyx were still in there.
"..."
I did not know what to do now. There was nothing I could do here anymore.
’I have to go...’
This was supposed to be a sanctuary.
We weren’t supposed to get hurt like this.
’What do I do?’
I don’t know what to do anymore.
It didn’t seem like there was anything I could do anymore.
’Can I even do anything?’
I regressed, so what?
Do I have some superhuman power that would allow me to change everything that was going to happen on my own?
There were prophets that could see the future and they could not do anything against what had happened in the past.
What were the chances anything different would happen despite my interference?
If everything is destined to end anyways, what change can I, a mere tamer without any power of my own even do?
(A few days later...)
I did not know how long had passed since I came to this dark forest.
My friends were gone. And, even though I have put the stone back to how it used to be, it has done nothing.
(Around a month later...)
The path that I had come from was gone now.
The wards that were present around the forest weren’t there anymore.
"GHAAAAAA!"
The demonic and monstrous beasts that roamed the forest were still there, still ferocious. The path riddled with traps was not there either.
It seemed like someone had trapped me inside this forest... saving myself from the demons and those beasts was the only thing I could do right now.
(Around 2 months later...)
I built a hut by the destroyed rock.
For some reason, I have forgotten everything I knew before coming to this place.
I don’t forget anything. I have a mind that works faster than anyone else and remembers even the smallest of the details.
In the past, I remember not forgetting anything and yet, right now, I do not know anything that has happened to me.
"Felix... Nyx..."
Still, I remember them.
I remember the big green crow and the four legged wolf that I came here with.
The two of them were somewhere out there right now. They were there...
(Six months since entering the demonic forest...)
"My... name?"
I don’t remember what I used to be called anymore.
The faces and voices that I could faintly remember a few months ago were not there anymore.
The hut that I had built was now covered in strange writings that I cannot read anymore.
For me, the very concept of a language seemed to be fading...
(A year from that point...)
"Guuuuu..."
My ability to speak, something useless to me in this dark forest, has left me.
I can still think for myself, but that was it...
’What is that...?’
A strange white bird with red feathers was walking around my hut with a strange gray cat chasing after it.
"Guuuu!"
They scared me.
These strange creatures that I don’t recall ever seeing before, the creatures that still felt familiar to me, almost seemed like a threat to me.
"Chirp!"
"Meow!"
The big bad cat resembling a tiger was glaring at me inside my hut with its big, blue eyes.
The bird that was bigger than a tree was circling around my hut... it was going to take me away.
They were going to kill me.
Just like the demonic beasts that I killed and ate, they were going to kill me and eat me as well.
"Meow!"
My skin that has now become rough and solid, dark and slimy, was shivering in their presence.
My three heads were hurting because of their voices.
"Guuuuu...!"
My thoughts were scattering... they were doing something to me!
"GUUUUU!"
"CHIRP!"
Their voices burnt something inside of me.
My chest was on fire... I am on fire.
-Shrrrrrr...!
"GAAAAAA...!"
The fire consumed me whole. It burnt away my dark, slimy skin. It burnt away my four legs and it burnt away two of my heads.
I was left with only one head... I was left with only a burnt body, charred completely.
Five of my eyes were burnt as well. There only seemed to be two left...
"Guuuuu."
The fire that burnt me away was also burning everything inside of me.
It felt like all of myself was melting...
’I’ was not alive anymore.
What had remained of ’me’, was merely the human shell that ’I’ used to be.
"Meow!"
The strange feline beast was standing before me once again.
"Chirp!"
The giant bird was there as well, both of them glaring at me with... with what seemed like... with what seemed like ’concern’.
I did not understand them.
I could not understand them.
What are they?
What am I...?
What even is left of me now?
[ "For a human to remain after that... the young phoenix was indeed correct." ]
What is this strange voice that I am hearing right now?
[ "He has survived the whole of Reconstruction process." ]
The tall figures that seemed to be made of fire, these humanoid beings that disgusted me, my entire being, these strange fire-people... what are they?
[ "Not only did he stay alive, his mind seems to have retained its essence as well." ]
The strange fire-people, with their round heads, thin and endlessly tall body, and featureless faces seemed to be talking with the dangerous beasts.
This voice seemed to be theirs.
Perhaps, they were talking about me. But, what was ’me’?
What is happening to me right now...?
"Guuuuuu?"
What have they done to me?
[ "We will reconstruct his consciousness and mend the body. As you wished, the Dragon Heart Fragment has served its purpose." ]
"Chirp!"
When the fire-man picked me up with its long, thin fingers, the white bird chirped happily.
They were going to eat me together.
Perhaps, they had cooked me just now and now they will feast on me.
"Guuuuuu...!"
I do not want to die!
They were scary... these things, these strange, strange things were so scary.
"Guuuuuuuu!"
[ "You have endured much, young child of Past." ]
The strange fire man burnt me once again, covering the whole of ’me’ in a new fire.
[ "But you survived... again." ]
"Gaaaa!"
An unfamiliar darkness covered me and ate me.
My mind was forced to shut down.
And my ’thoughts’ were yanked out as well...
’I’ was killed.