CHAPTER 41: “A HAZY CLOUD”

Ai was surprisingly calm given the fact that someone was posing as his quest companion. Not only that, Morion could be either killed off by this monster or maybe even still wandering around the forest looking for him. Either way, he wasn’t here and nowhere near.

Ai decided to take Fake Morion’s hand and gave it a lighthearted smile so as to not rouse its suspicion. For now, it seemed much better than running away and potentially getting lost or getting killed off immediately. The Fake returned the smile and together they walked hand in hand through the misty forest once again. 

On the outside, Ai looked perfectly calm, if not a bit emotionless. Inside he was thinking hard about how to get rid of the Fake and find the real Morion, hopefully in the same condition that Ai last saw him in. 

From the corner of his eyes, Ai studied the Fake carefully.

He was most likely another spirit, one with the power to shapeshift into a person. Ai didn’t want to make any rushed decisions. The Fake could’ve inherited Morion’s fighting skills as well and there was no way Ai would be able to defeat it. He could just let himself get killed off, but there was no telling what would happen to the quest if he died, that would count as him “not surviving the night”, wouldn’t it? There was also a chance that Morion was still in the forest searching around. If that was the case then leaving the other player alone wasn’t something Ai wanted to do.

For now, he would let himself get carried away by this spirit to who knows where while he thought of a plan. He also gave Athens a gentle pat on his head to make him stand down. Ever since The Fake showed up, Ai could sense a growing unease coming from the owl, meaning that whatever this spirit was, it wasn’t something to be taken lightly.

The Fake Morion glanced back at Ai, still with a smile on his face. Ai gave an awkward smile and dropped it when the Fake looked away. On Morion, the smile he usually put out was always gentle and kind, but on this thing, it felt eerie and out of place. Further cementing that this was a fake.

The walk progressed.

Quite honestly, Ai felt that maybe following the spirit was a better choice than not. As they passed more trees, the scenery actually changed. Before, Ai felt that he was just walking in circles where he would come across the same trees with the giant twisty roots. Yet now, he could actually see the night sky, the mist was thinning and he even saw silhouettes of buildings just beyond the forest.

“Ai,” the spirit looked back, once again with that eerie smile on its face. “You’ll be safe soon.”

There was something about those words that made Ai panic a little. They were spoken so incredibly softly, so incredibly gently. The words were like sticky honey, sweet and drawing him in. Ai felt his mind getting cloudy, his thoughts grew incredibly muffled and hazy. He could barely make coherent thoughts, all of them were jumbled and not at all coherent. He felt himself getting pulled into something that broke down his willpower, even causing him to grow slightly out of breath.

“Athens.” He called under his breath, just before he drowned completely.

As the Fake continued to show that gentle yet eerie expression, it slowly inched closer to the elf with cloudy eyes and an expression as if he was in a dream. The spirit reached out a single hand and gently ran its fingers across the elf’s cheek and then into his hair, slowly combing through the tenderly as if it was touching a lover. 

The last thing the owl saw was its master disappearing into the shadowy silhouettes of the nearby ruined village, guided by a tall dark haired man with an uncanny smile.

***

Morion stabbed his sword to the ground and watched as another exposed tree root twisted and stretched like a dying worm before retreating back below ground. He sighed exhaustedly then looked back at all the other holes he made. Quite the mess.

After realizing that Ai wasn’t beside him anymore, he’d frantically looked around and retraced their steps in the hopes of finding the other player. After what seemed like an extremely long time, Morion noticed how the trees looked too familiar. After marking a certain spot and another round of walking, he realized that something was making him walk in circles because he kept seeing the mark he made even though he walked straight ahead. Something in the area was looping his path or messed with his sense of direction.

He did notice that the roots were something new. The roots in the area were exposed above ground and curled outwards like a sea monster tentacle on the ocean surface. It could have been the mist of even just the area, but his instincts told him that if he could somehow destroy the roots, he would return to walking on the right path and maybe find Ai.

Speaking of which, Morion was growing increasingly worried. He thought he’d find Ai sooner or later but so far, there was no sign of the little elf anywhere. The quietness of the forest also didn’t help Morion’s nerves.

He hated to admit it as someone who had taken the cool ‘villain’ role amongst players, but the haunted settings scared him more than he told Ai. He’d never been good at supernatural or ghostly stuff, he was too easily scared. Every rustle made him flinch and every whisper made him shudder. He did a good job of hiding most of his reactions with Ai, he really didn’t want to make the other player think that he was incapable of protecting him as a higher leveled player.

He slashed another root, probably a little bit too hard this time, and felt the mist growing thinner and a pressure he didn’t realize was there before lifting just a little bit more.

Morion stopped to calm himself when he saw a bit of HP starting to go down. It was a side effect of his sword. Though the blade was powerful and came with a lot of extra perks and bonuses, the miasma would backfire and start poisoning its user whenever they were overwhelmed by negative emotions like some kind of curse, and right now it sensed his growing anxiety and worry. 

This wasn’t the real world where someone only had one life. If anything did happen to Ai, he would respawn somewhere completely safe. He repeated those words to convince himself.

A different kind feeling suddenly came to him. He couldn’t quite describe it but he felt that it was different from the eerie and unsettling coldness and pressure of the looping forest. When he looked up, he saw a flash of white that would normally scare him, but this flash of white didn’t do that because amidst the shadow he saw glints of gold. This was...Ai’s familiar. Was the owner nearby too?

The owl glided down from the sky, letting out a faint aura as if it was a deity descending from heaven, all pure and gold. Then, that switched. The familiar morphed into a cluster of shadow, blacker than the shadows in the forest, that continued to form as it walked. When it reached Morion, it took the form of a four legged beast that resembled a wolf.

“You…”

He half expected Ai to emerge from the shadows somewhere, but when he saw the beast’s gaze, he knew that it was here because its owner was in trouble.

The beast looked at him one last time then turned around to start dashing. Without hesitating, Morion was quick to follow it and hopefully they would be able to reach the beast’s master in time.

***

“Ai…” A whisper tickled his ear. “Ai…”

Was that Morion’s voice? He had never heard him speak like that before. Or was that really him? Ai really couldn’t tell. He had managed to grasp some part of his mind, but a hazy cloud that he couldn’t shake off still hung around. He wondered if this was how it felt to be intoxicated. He was awake, yet he couldn’t freely move his body and think as he pleased.

A cold hand touched his neck. The hand then moved to grasp his chin, he felt it tilt his head up just a little bit. He shuddered but couldn’t break away from the touch.

“Pretty, pretty elf…” the voice sang. “Let’s have fun.”

As Ai’s consciousness began to fade once more, he swore the voice that he foolishly thought was Morion’s, morphed and turned as if a thousand voices were speaking at once. The last thing he remembered was the creature guided him further and deeper into one of the houses. As much as he struggled to break free of the cloud in his mind, it consumed him and broke down his defenses. All he could do is wait and believe that Athens managed to find Morion or else he really didn’t know what would happen.