The Legends of Anigma: Ethiel Archer | ONC 2023

PART XXXI

The Forest of Temptations, Ethiel realised presently while actually walking through it, wasn't exactly — in the aspect of its overwhelmingly daunting nature and discomforting elements — what he or any of the others thought it to be and had imagined in their heads. They had thought it all wrong. It was more than horrible, way more than the worst of the worst.

All of it was almost dark, shrouded in the black and misty night, only a fragment of the path ahead visible in the glowing light of the pendant and Tifa’s staff.

The mild, green luminescence danced about, overly languid. Occasional lightning struck occasional fear in their hearts and spiked their already extremely fluctuating senses — as always, except for Lord Veer, that is.

In such an eerie atmosphere, flanked and surrounded by fear-shaped trees, very so often getting greeted by unwelcoming whispers and chilling screams that reminded and resembled of appalling nightmares and appetent dreams, burdened with the unpleasant feeling of some ill-intending presence, seeing shifting shadows shaping snookered visions that shook their stick-to-itiveness, startled by every sudden and wild movement in the mists and bushes, it was exceedingly hard to maintain composure and calm; it was simply too much.

For the sake of sanity, Ethiel and the others walked forward slowly. Walking fast wasn't an option lest they wanted their racing heart to jump right out of them and abandon them — running safely seemed like some impossible dream.

Alice’s voice, chuckles, and laughter beckoned Ethiel; they were from his distant, dreamy past. Then her voice started saying things she never would've said.

"Come to me, son. I miss you. We will live happily ever after. Let go of everyone and come to me, then don't matter."

As much as Ethiel wanted to hear his mother, he knew that wasn't her. She could never have said something like that. Even so, that same voice was too much for his emotional heart.

Images of his past played in his head. Beautiful moments, beautiful laughters, beautiful talks, beautiful songs and her beautiful fave and presence.

His heart screamed, and he shook his head, shaking off the bittersweet thoughts that plagued him.

But it didn't end there, not before the most hurtful whisper.

"You let me die..."

A tear fell down Ethiel’s eyes. He wanted to fall and cry, to chase that voice and tell his mother that wasn't true. But that voice wasn't true either. It wasn't her. Nonetheless, it spoke the darkest corner of his mind.

He wiped his tears and continued to walk; he knew well stopping wasn't going to do him any good.

"Just how sadistic is this bloody place?" Red Wings muttered. His tone, it was angry but there was an effort of suppression of agony in it. That was unlike of him. Maybe subconsciously or consciously he understood that unchecked venting was only going to weigh more on him rather than make him feel any lighter.

"It is torturous." Tifa frowned her eyes wet. A shudder went down her spine.

Maya was silently weeping. She seemed to be in the most pain. Perhaps it was her sensitivity to sound.

"Those horrible voices..." She tried closing her big, bat ears with her hands.

Everyone seemed to be experiencing the same pain and suffering as Ethiel, or almost the same. The forest was getting under their skin, weighing on their spirit, creeping into their ears, getting on their nerves, and crawling into the darkness of their mind.

Lord Veer was walking undisturbed, calm as ever, but more alert, his grip on his hammer tight, ready to swing it at any threat. He had taken the role to protect them all from physical harm. It was obvious that he knew none of them were going to be capable of fighting efficiently the deeper they went.

Going forward felt like a stroll done and deep into the dark lane of their mind, the forsaken and forbidden lane they had chosen to ignore for so long that it had grown wild and displeasing, waiting for their attention, waiting for them to tread on it, to at last clean it. But even presently, they were ignoring it, strongly resisting it and trying to shove all that overflowing negativity back down into a cracking and crumbling bottle, and for some reason, it wasn't feeling any less hard and was rather the opposite.

They came by a swamp after slowly walking for an hour. The swamp water was to their left, metres beyond the thick fence of trees. It was in the open and under the green and ghastly skies reflecting the gloomy glow of the constant green lightning. The comparatively few trees that stood in the water seemed more grotesque.

"Sickening..." Red Wings looked away.

Suddenly, through the thin mists, when the outline of the trees outside the swamp became distinguishable in the bright green of the swamp reflections behind, there was a weird movement in them. Eyes slit open in those outlines and glared. To his horror, Ethiel realised there were humanoid beings with longer limbs hiding in the shadows. They were behind, on, in, and under the trees. Instead of hiding from his sight, they stepped further out of the shadows. The dark, gray creatures had no hair, no nose, no ears, and no nails, just those hypnotising eyes and an open mouth that kept shaping words in an unfathomable way. The whispers became louder and the images of their thoughts became temptingly and terrifyingly real.

"They're... responsible?" Tifa shrunk slightly, getting near him.

Ethiel didn't know whether to nod or to shake his head, he was busy holding himself together.

The more he looked, the worse he felt. He forced his eyes back on the muddy path.

"The lake..." Maya whispered behind him, her tone different, lacking in mental clarity and overflowing with desperation. "So... it's so..."

"I know..." He assumed what she was about to say.

However...

"It's so beautiful!"

He felt a strong wind current. Maya shot away in his peripheral view, wings spread wide.

"My parents are waiting for me!"

"Maya!" Lord Veer tried to catch her, but she was too fast. He couldn't have followed her far from the light of the pendant.

She flew straight to the swamp.

Long arms shot out of the water and grabbed her hands and legs.

Maya’s scream shook Ethiel. "Maya!!!!"

In a snap, she was pulled into the green water, shrieking and scared.

"Tifa! Stay with Lord Veer and Red Wings!" He said, bulleting through the trees, three arrows charged ready with explosive flames.

His pendant scared the creatures away. They crawled away from him.

Into the lake, he dived. All around, the creatures were swimming fluidly in bunches, like a sickening school of foul fish. They were being warded off by his presence. In the little light, Ethiel spotted a big cone-like cluster of them, dropping down to the bottom. At the tip of that cluster was Maya, restrained and being pulled. She seemed tortured, wiggling in vain with wide eyes reflecting unbearable pain.

Furiously, Ethiel fired at the cluster. The cluster broke and Maya got free from many grips. Some hands were still clutching her.

Ethiel swam to her as fast as he can.

The cluster scattered at once when he got close enough. He grabbed her in his arms and swam up to the surface.

Maya coughed up water, eyes still frightened.

"No! Stop! Don't leave me! My people! Aaaaa!"

"Maya! I'm here!"

"Don't kill them!! Stop!!" She kept moving frantically, splashing the water everywhere.

"Don't worry! You're alright now!" He shook her.

"No! Please!!" Her eyes showed that she was not there.

"Maya..." He hugged her and patted her silky head. "You're safe... calm down..."

She eased into his arms, but her muttering didn't stop.

"Damn... what's happened to you Maya..."