It was the pain that awoke him.
What is happening?
Why is it so painful?
Ahh!
Seo Wero immediately opened his eyes. It was terrifying, tall grass brushed over his chest, and the cry of the crow in the middle of the woods painted a dread scene.
This wasn't his room... it was a nightmare.
Things were frightening, as if he were a character in a horror movie.
"Am I dreaming? Where is this place? Ahh, this headache, I'm losing my sanity. Come on, close your eyes, and everything will end!" - Seo Wero took a deep breath and stopped his thoughts; the pain, too, was slowly fading away as he calmed himself.
Once again, he opened his eyes, it was the same forest; he was still in an empty trunk, and nothing had changed. Seo Wero was surprised.
Suddenly, the smell of blood filled the air, crows flapped their wings continuously, and the pain returned-just like a moment ago.
"I need to get out of here." He moved his hand and tried to stand up, but... "blood!" A long scream came deeply through his dry throat, bloodstains were everywhere, even on his hands, and... there was something more...
"...M- My face?" - Seo Wero couldn't see it, only a fractured figure. But then, his thoughts fixed onto his hands.
"Blue veins? What is this!?... It's... Ignis?" - The glitter pulse beneath his skin, and somehow, he blurted out a word he didn't know. Everything that happened was like a hint towards something. Beyond knowledge.
Traumatized from what he had seen, Seo Wero couldn't think of anything else but to grab the nearby grass to cover it.
Perhaps it was the fear that left him stunned.
What the f**k is going on!?-He shouted again, his voice cracked, his body trembled, and moved on its own.
Quickly turning around to see if there was anything he could use to replace the temporary grass. However, nothing was there, no bandage, no food, only an empty shell.
Seo Wero couldn't accept this reality and tried to fool himself that it was only a nightmare, despite the sharp pain he felt. "No...it couldn't be real..... no!" But yet the pain proved otherwise.
Although the injuries were covered, it still caused blood loss.
In the pain, he tried to escape this "dream", but the pain gave him no time to think wisely.
"I have to find some help!" Seo Wero said in a hurry as he quickly stood up,
"Crack, crack."
The sound of breaking bones echoed. It was his left hand. Seo Wero roared in agony, a roar that tore through the night.
Things that were left on his mind were the pain. He cried out with some tears falling onto the land as he tightly held on to the ground.
Soon enough, the pain caused his vision to blur, his eyes turned dizzy, and even touching the grass was torturing.
Despite all of that, Seo Wero once again stood up, right hand held the left one. He started to step into the blood-scented forest, desperate for some help.
Minutes after minutes, he was losing track of time, until...
"...A... sihoulette? Finally...I'm safe..."
Nevertheless, things were never like he had imagined. "Scratch!" - Seo Wero immediately dodged to the left, and luckily, he wasn't caught.
But soon, he realized... it wasn't a human. Terror surged inside him, confusion swallowed his mind, and his body felt like an electric wave had flowed through it.
...The reason for all of this was that creature.
Its body was full of fur; every breath of it was a death sentence. As Seo Wero trembled in fear, it turned to him.
Thick drool ran from its fang, bloodied gazes craving for his soul, and... a bloody cross mixed in a circle was carved onto its chest.
"Wer- Were...wolf?" Seo Wero didn't even speak correctly; Yet he wasn't stupid, so he ran.
"Shit- What is this!?" - Each step was his life counting on it, Seo Wero could only swear as he ran nonstop. Not a glance, not even looking back.
In the dark night, the boy was running for his life, hoping desperately for some help.
However... it caught up to him. "Scritch!" - Seo Wero fell, the monster was right behind him.
He turned, and its shadow covered the blue moon. His face couldn't be seen, but he was trembling nonstop.
"Rake!" - The werewolf swung its claw, Seo Wero lifted his hand in fear, and... the swing tore away a part of Seo Wero's left hand's flesh.
It wasn't just pain, it was the sound of dying. He let out a raw, primordial roar, echoing all over the forest.
In a sudden, his blue veins glowed, not just on his hand, but all over his body. Chest and lower body parts, even... his internal organs felt frenzied.
His body felt lighter, muscles grew stronger, and he was... crazier.
"F*ck this, if I'm not fighting, I'll die."
The thought that he never had, now appeared. It came from something deeper, something that... wasn't belong to him.
With tears still dropping because of pain, Seo Wero clawed the monster's chest with his bare hands, then immediately kicked it with his legs.
Nails broke, blood spilled out from the head of his fingers, yet the only thing he cared about was the werewolf.
A quick glance, he observed the forest and then...
Left, Seo Wero ran in that direction, the werewolf did the same as well, it wouldn't let him go.
However, he stopped in the middle of a matrix of trees. He stood there, looking at it while his blood dripped into the dirt.
"Tick..." - He rushed, leaving his left hand in the worst situation, advancing to the monster like a mad beast, consumed by insanity.
"Squish." Seo Wero slipped through its legs, and behind it, he took a stone and hit the head right away.
One, two, and three times. The monster was dizzy, its blood blasted out, but still, it managed to hit Seo Wero in his chest and knocked him away.
The werewolf turned around, and it was furious. It sprinted with four legs, trying to eat him alive with its mouth wide open, revealing the sharp fangs.
However, Seo Wero held the tree to his advantage and hid behind it as the monster crashed into the tree.
"Crack!" - Hearing the sound was enough, he dashed out, hitting the werewolf over and over with the stone, to the point his palm was full of blood.
The strategy was set, so he didn't stop. Seo Wero struck again and again, repeating it like a machine.
But once again, things didn't go as planned...
After many tries, he was captured. The loss of blood wouldn't allow him to be wise.
"Crunch." Bite. Flesh. Bones.
Seo Wero screamed painfully, but there was no end.
Therefore, he retaliated. Scratch and bite, it was then that he looked nothing more than a wild animal.
Seo Wero kicked, and quickly held its hand, twisted its wrist, and escaped its hand.
In that moment, his mind was empty, yet his iron-forged will was telling him,
"Kill or die"
Seo Wero clung to its back, he used his nails to tear off its skin, bites to crush its bones.
Time passed, was it minutes? Or more?
He didn't know; he just kept biting, even when the werewolf had stopped moving.
Then-
The symbol on its chest cracked and melted away.
Seo Wero, with blood all over his body and a scattered linen shirt, stood there, looking at the moon.
He knelt down, his vision blurred, the glow in his veins slowly faded, as he repeated the words.
"Home...home...."
His voice lowered bit by bit, until it silenced - only darkness remained, but before his vision faded away, a red-dark shadow figure of a person rushed by, with its hand... holding a twinking sphere?
...
...
...
Light shone through the forest and reached the boy lying on the ground. Birds began to sing, and the sounds of the nearby river slipped into his ears.
Bit by bit, Seo Wero opened his eyes with his left hand clenched the grass till he fully awoke.
What happened? Where am I? Where's the wound?"
He asked himself continuously with a heavy tongue, thickened with exhaustion.
"Huh!? Where's the werewolf!" - That was when he turned around, but... nothing was there. Only then did he realize... this wasn't his home.
"Is this a nightmare? Or have I transmigrated?" - Questions piled in his mind, but there were no answers to them.
Dazed by the thirst, he followed the sound of flowing water. Even ignoring the last night's fight.
Butterflies, rabbits, deer - creatures of all kinds appeared in his way to the water's source, all of them looking at him with twinkling eyes.
He even heard some strange sound on the way, but it was not something as important as his thirst.
Going deeper into the forest, a charming scent wafted towards him, and the river surrounded by various flowers revealed itself.
The scene was breathtaking - just like this was a forgotten page in a fairy tale.
"A river! Seo Wero"- said in joy. Ignored everything around, he ran to the river and started to gulp the water down in seconds, while drinking, he realized there was something odd - he couldn't see his face's reflection...
But he didn't care too much; transmigration itself is already beyond his imagination. After satisfying his thirst, he rested at the foot of a tree nearby and began to think.
"So it was not a dream, this is reality..."
"I need to find a way to get back to Earth!"
"It's not the time to feel sorry, my family and friends are waiting!"
Seo Wero closed his eyes in silence... trying to confront himself and started analysing.
"From what I've seen in the water reflection, a linen shirt, gloves, these clothes seem to come from a Western medieval culture.
"But why am I here?"
"Also, why was I lying in the middle of a forest and seriously injured....?"
"Why did all of my wounds suddenly heal....?"
"That werewolf... what is it?... That symbol..."
"Ahh, is this a parallel world? Or is it the Earth's past?"
He couldn't handle himself a proper answer, but there was one possibility.
"That tree trunk, maybe I could find some clues."
Questions kept popping up in his mind, but right when he decided to come back to where he was transmigrated, "Whizz!" A gust of wind rushed past and pushed Seo Wero into the river.
"How did it push me? Ahhh, luck was never on my side." He said with a depressing voice.
With the unexpected event, he quickly climbed back onto the land.
However, there was something. "A card?" - It was a card, floating in front of him. "What even is this? Did the wind bring it here? Wait... could this mean there's a civilization?"
The thoughts flashed through his mind. He instantly picked up that card and then ran in the direction from which the wind came.
On his way, he glanced at the card. But nothing was special - a broken mirror? He muttered
With high expectations, he sped up. Minutes passed, and finally, he saw a pillar of smoke.
Seo Wero was pleased with his choice. His heart was bounding, and his mind was filled with hope.
"Finally, I can have some food! This has to be a village!"
But before he could reach the village, he saw something.
"Wait! I have to stop - that's a cliff!" Crack! Crack! - Rock and dirt falling into the cliff's edge.
He was fortunate enough to stop right before losing his life.
Speechless and scared, if he advanced any further, his life was gone. He froze and looked at the village. But in a surprise, he gasped.
"Why is it burning!?"
Yet, before he could make a choice, a voice echoed somewhere in the forest:
"Hide! They're coming!"