No one knew when it had truly begun.
At first, the forest simply felt... strange.
The animals stopped approaching the streams.
The roots of the Mother Tree began to protrude from the earth like twisted veins, and during the nights, a greenish glow would seep through the mist between the trees. It illuminated the forest for a few seconds before disappearing.
The elders said it was a natural change in the mana.
They lied.
Or perhaps they were simply trying to convince themselves that the forest could still be saved.
Then the deaths began.
An elven hunter returned with his hands covered in a black sap that he could not wash off.
Three days later, his body exploded in front of his own family.
Nothing remained of him.
Only a cloud of dark mana that took hours to disappear.
The beasts changed soon afterward.
Deer with completely black eyes.
Wolves far too large.
Creatures that continued moving even after sustaining wounds that should have killed them.
And the forest began to drive out its own inhabitants.
Branches closed when they tried to return to certain areas.
Roots destroyed familiar paths.
Some trees even attacked elves who had lived there for generations.
It was as if something inside the forest was trying to drive them away.
Or protect them from something worse.
Then came the night when everything changed.
The sky turned green.
It was not an aurora.
It was the Mother Tree.
Its gigantic branches slowly spread apart, and an unbearable pressure descended upon the entire forest.
Hundreds of elves fell to their knees.
Some began bleeding from their noses.
Others from their eyes.
No one understood what was happening.
Then he appeared.
A figure descended among floating leaves and living roots, wrapped in a mantle of dark green light.
Aeltherion.
Herald of the God of Nature.
Even the altered creatures retreated in his presence.
The elves waited for salvation.
Aeltherion said nothing for several seconds.
He simply observed the forest.
Finally, he spoke.
—The forest is dying.
No one answered.
The fear was too overwhelming.
Aeltherion extended a hand toward the Mother Tree.
The bark trembled.
For an instant, something dark moved beneath the wood.
Something alive.
Something trapped.
—The mana is no longer flowing as it should —he continued—. Something is feeding it from below.
Black roots began spreading around the clearing.
The elves backed away.
Some began to cry.
Because they could feel it.
The forest no longer smelled the same.
The wind no longer sounded the same.
And the mana...
The mana seemed hungry.
The following moons were a massacre.
More than a thousand elves died.
Some lost control of the energy within their own bodies.
Others disappeared near the roots.
Many were killed by creatures that had once protected the forest alongside them.
To prevent the disaster from spreading, Aeltherion bestowed divine blessings upon the survivors.
But even that barely managed to contain it.
It was like trying to stop a flood with your bare hands.
The final ceremony was held before the Tree of Dawn, when hope had already begun to fade.
The survivors remained gathered in silence.
No one expected a miracle.
Then luminous sap began rising from the roots.
Everyone looked up.
The light slowly spiraled above the clearing.
Then it descended.
And stopped in front of a young elven archer.
Grisela Etherealwind.
She took a step back.
She was not the strongest.
Nor the most talented.
She did not even stand out among the warriors of her people.
But when the glow touched her chest...
The entire forest reacted.
The wind changed.
The leaves began to fall.
The roots stopped moving.
And for the first time in months...
The Mother Tree stopped trembling.
Grisela opened her eyes.
For an instant, she could feel it.
They were not words.
It was something much deeper.
A will.
A fear.
A desperation so ancient that it nearly took her breath away.
The tree was not asking for help.
It was trying to warn her.
Leave.
Grisela fell to her knees.
And she understood something no one else had seen.
The Mother Tree was not dying.
It was trying to escape from something that had already awakened beneath its roots.
Meanwhile, Lusian had already entered the forest. The change was abrupt.
The air simply began to feel heavier.
With every step Thunder took, the forest seemed to react. Roots protruded from the damp earth, and the leaves trembled even though there was no wind.
Electrical discharges ran through the beast's silver fur.
Thunder snorted.
Its muscles tensed beneath Lusian's hand.
It wanted to run.
Or attack.
Lusian kept his hand firmly on its neck.
—We're going in —he murmured.
The forest responded.
Thousands of leaves whispered at the same time.
Like voices too distant to understand.
Emily stopped for a moment.
The light that normally radiated from her body flickered and went out.
It reignited a few seconds later, much weaker.
Emily frowned.
—It's trying to absorb my mana.
Elizabeth took a deep breath.
Her demonic mana reacted instinctively.
A dark flame swept across her body, repelling the pressure that was trying to reach her core.
—This place...
She looked between the trees.
—It's as if it's watching us.
—It is —Lusian replied.
Elizabeth looked at him.
Lusian continued forward.
—But I don't think it's going to attack us yet.
Thunder slowed down on its own.
Lusian lowered his gaze toward him.
Even the beast seemed uncomfortable.
As they advanced, the trees began to grow to absurd sizes.
Some trunks were so enormous that ten men standing together would not have been able to wrap their arms around them.
Their crowns disappeared into the greenish mist.
Suspended roots crossed above their heads, stretching from one tree to another like gigantic veins.
Emily slowly raised her gaze.
—This doesn't look like a forest...
She was right.
Some trunks had crystalline bark that reflected green glimmers beneath the darkness.
Others released a luminous sap that slowly trickled down the wood.
Thick.
Bright.
As if the trees were bleeding light.
The enormous roots surrounding them pulsed softly.
Once.
Then again.
At the same rhythm as the mana.
Elizabeth shivered.
It did not feel as though they were traveling through the forest.
It felt as though something gigantic had allowed them inside its body.
Thunder let out a low whinny.
Lusian did not need to say anything.
The creature continued forward.
Ahead of them, a stretch of bioluminescent ferns opened between the trees.
A valley covered in green and blue light.
There, a herd of Lumina Bison grazed.
Their enormous bodies radiated a faint bluish glow, and every breath they took made the air around them vibrate.
Everything seemed peaceful.
Too peaceful.
Then the wind changed.
The bison raised their heads.
Silence.
A shadow moved between the trees.
Then another.
And another.
Eight crystalline felines appeared on the branches.
None of them roared.
They simply leaped.
They descended upon the herd like fragments of a shattered moon.
One bison barely had time to turn before one of the felines sank its claws into its neck.
Another tried to escape.
The roots closed around its legs.
The animal struggled.
The roots pulled.
And dragged it directly toward the predators.
Everything was over within seconds.
Emily stood motionless.
—They look too much like...
Lusian looked at her.
Emily clenched her fists.
—The creatures that attacked my city hunted the same way.
Lusian did not respond.
His eyes remained fixed on the felines.
But for an instant, another memory surfaced in his mind.
Sofia.
And beside her, Lariet.
His fingers unconsciously brushed the necklace around his neck.
The last gift he had received from her.
Lusian slowly exhaled.
Then he looked away.
Some wounds never disappeared.
You simply learned to walk with them.
Elizabeth watched him in silence.
Then she felt something.
A presence.
It was not coming from Lusian.
Nor from Emily.
It was coming from the depths.
Her expression changed.
—Lusian...
He turned his head slightly.
Elizabeth lowered her voice.
—I want to leave.
She sounded as though she had just realized something she could not explain.
Lusian watched her for several seconds.
He did not answer.
Thunder continued forward.
The roots slowly parted before them.
They opened a path through the vegetation.
A path that had not been there before.
Lusian narrowed his eyes.
The forest was letting them in.
And that was precisely what worried him the most.
Because something had decided that they could continue.
For now.