Chapter 93: Psychedelic Nightmare

He was walking in a forest, familair yet not so familiar. Everything wasn't anything his little brain could comprehend.

But he understood one simple thing, walking forward, with caution, the place sent his every danger senses haywire. It's not like his instincts were wrong, there was something terribly wrong with the place he was in.

He felt the wind behind him change, he started pacing himself. He thought the winds in these wilds would get him if he stopped for a second. It felt alive, like it would cut him up to pieces and swallow him whole. He had no idea where this fear was coming from, it was just there.

He started running when the feeling refused to leave him, he felt like he was in danger. No, he was sure of it. Not just him, but the entirety of his universe. He wondered whether this danger was the same one he saw in that door of dead stars.

His stomach lurched. He usually couldn't feel his stomach's temperature, but here it was ice cold. It wasn't a feeling that went away either, it pronounced that it was here to stay.

"Hubris, run."

But there was no Hubris there, just him, alone, in an unknown environment. Darkness, full of trees he couldn't understand, the paranoia got to him before whatever he was running from caught up to him. He ran until his legs couldn't carry him anymore.

He was sure his lungs were about to explode. The sharp pain shot more than his relief breaths came. He held on to his knees, calming himself down.

When he could more less breathe on his own without forcing it, he looked at his surroundings. Nothing but trees surrounded him. He cursed at why he didn't run the other way, now he just felt trapped.

At a distance he noticed a witchlike figure. Crouched back, short, big nose with eyes popping out. It was just like he had seen in story books. It was just standing there, cackling and pointing at him.

"Why's this part of the game? This is confusing, nothing, absolutely nothing makes sense about this!"

The higher they climbed, the less vegetation there was. As much as it was a mountain the lower parts contained some plants and trees, but the higher places were absolutely without any shelter, just a rocky thin trail to follow. Needless to say, Kiro was using his footwork skill, not that he wanted to deplete his magic, he just hoped to one up it from continous use.

Since his evolution, Hubris had been slightly faster and significantly stronger. Now, it was Kiro who needed to keep up. It was great for him that hubris chose to be loyal instead, he had no idea how he would've forced him to subdue, being an ancient beast and all.

They were so fast that they nearly didn't see it, Kiro swerved to avoid the collision. He made eye contact with it nonetheless, the eyes were flaming crimson. The moment their eyes met felt like a kind of eternity for Kiro, that one moment slowed down.

It felt like neither space nor time existed in that, singular moment. He didn't understand, the moment lasted but a second, though he swore he saw the life of the thing in its eyes, its whole life. He flinched at the savagery.

"I may have watched the game in my past life, but playing it is a whole different experience. This is so unreal." He couldn't help himself as he said excitedly. The game never ceased to amaze him.

They didn't stop to admire and play with the monster though, it gave chase immediately. It couldn't really keep up with them, but it was right at their tails.

It didn't attack either, as if it was herding them somewhere. That didn't really matter to them, since there was only one road, if there were more of these up ahead, they'd run into them whether or not they stop to think.

"There's more up ahead." Hubris commented.

"Way ahead of you buddy, about a hundred." Kiro said having activated vibrational sense.

"127, Master."

"Show off!" Kiro spat.