One second it was dark, and the next, it wasn’t. Oscar blinked as a haze of white filled his vision, washing away the darkness with impunity. It was the second time in the last minute his vision was marred with such light.
Did I set off Altar again? Though he had been with the holy sword for more than a year, in reality he knew very little of the blade. Counting the light he had used to destroy the Demon King, he had only ever activated Altar one other time before.
It was a mysterious weapon, others would even call it fickle, as it often refused to reveal its true power unless Oscar was in the most dire of circumstances.
It was a blade of incredible make, something that couldn’t possibly have been created by human hands. Rending flesh was almost too easy with it and never needed to be repaired, so it had been more than sufficient as a weapon for Oscar. But he, and his cohort, knew that it was capable of much greater things—just as it had shown not too long ago.
After a groan and a few more blinks, Oscar’s brown eyes adjusted to the glare. Above him hung a canopy of leaves, sunlight piercing through the many openings. Suspiciously, there was a rather large gap situated directly above him, as if someone had pushed aside the leaves to mess with him. That large opening was also the source of the white haze that blinded him mere moments ago as sunlight beamed through with intensity matching Altar’s own light.
Even though the unusually large and frankly, the seemingly intentional placement of the opening was weird enough to draw suspicion from Oscar. Something else entirely had seized his attention entirely and currently held it in a chokehold.
And that was: where exactly was he?
Of course he could see what was around him, trees, grass, plants, and other flora. And using that information he deduced he was in a forest of some kind, but…
There was nothing around literally a second ago.
His confrontation with the Demon King had been devastating to the surrounding area. While they had met the fiend and its demon army in a lush forest, the terrain had quickly become a wasteland not long after the fighting started.
The Demon King’s sheer strength was enough to terraform the land and if you add in the destructive capabilities of pretty much any magical spell—it was a recipe for unmatched, wide scale destruction.
Oscar sat up and ran his right hand through the soft grass, and just as that information crossed through his mind, he came to a second, much deeper realization.
He wasn’t in pain.
The same hand darted to his chest, where the Demon King’s nightmarish spear pierced his heart. Instead of finding a gaping hole in his chest, his hand found the soft touch of linen. The familiar weight of his armor was also gone, replaced by a simple green tunic and brown pants.
He was unhurt, there wasn’t a single injury anywhere on his body.
“What…” Oscar trailed off, stunned by the changes surrounding him. Not a minute ago he was on the brink of death after managing to kill the Demon King. Oscar was sure he would never open his eyes again, yet here he sat, perfectly normal—minus the change in attire.
He survived, that meant—
His eyes widened as another thought passed through his mind. He stood up abruptly, though he used his hands to support him, he still staggered ever so slightly from the sudden movement.
“Viel!” he yelled to the forest.
He gave it a second before doing the same again, his voice echoing through the forest. He did so once again, this time cupping his mouth with his hands. “Viel!”
No response.
His hands fell to his sides.
His friend, who was always the closest to him, was nowhere to be seen. Even whenever Oscar ends up separated from the rest, he always had Viel to watch his back. It was frankly unnerving.
If Viel isn’t here, then what about the others?
“Ophelia!”
The regal, elven princess, who wished to simply see the world.
“Kecilius!”
The faithful devotee, who hated watching others suffer.
“Arsen!”
The misguided thief, who wanted nothing more than to live life with a smile.
“Brutus!”
The good-natured goblin, whose ambition far outshined his stature.
“Alky!”
The joyful giant, who saw beauty in even the smallest of things.
“Jericho!”
The calm and collected spiritualist, a woman that seemed to always know exactly what she wanted.
As the names of his beloved friends spilled forth from his lips, no response came back from the lush forest.
He narrowed his eyes.
It wasn’t just a lack of human response that worried him. It was the eerie silence that seemed to permeate the forest. Something—anything should have happened because of his shouts
Oscar sighed. It was optimistic to assume it would be that simple to find his friends.
Initially, he had been working off the assumption that one of his friends—Kecilius in particular—had been the cause of everything. He was the only one that Oscar knew who could heal wounds as fatal as the ones he suffered. However, that assumption was no longer the case, as now he realized he was all alone in this forest.
Someone or something had healed him, brought him here, and left him isolated in this forest.
It was weird, to say the least.
Oscar sighed. “Time to get moving.” Staying still wasn’t an option in this situation. If he wanted answers, then moving was the only way he was going to get any of them.
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