In the middle of a thick forest, two silhouettes were moving at a fast speed through the trees, avoiding all kinds of obstacles in the process. They had been running for some time now and they were deep enough in the forest that they could now barely see the sun rays protruding through the gaps between the leaves.
Then, Acht stopped for a moment and looked around him. Tania saw that and also halted her steps so they are now both silently standing in the middle of the forest.
'What is this feeling?' Acht thought as he looked around with sharp eyes that seemingly could penetrate anything.
At first, when he entered the forest, he didn't feel anything weird. It was just a beautiful forest with beautiful scenery. But, as they got deeper and deeper inside it, a sense of dread started swelling in Acht's heart. He felt this sudden urge to leave this place as soon as possible and never return.
What amplified the weirdness of that feeling is the fact that he didn't sense any danger lurking around him or anything that could make him hate this place and leave immediately. In a nutshell, there was no reason for this feeling yet he was now feeling it more than ever.
So, just to make sure, he looked at Tania and said, "Are you feeling it?"
Tania didn't seem to understand his question but she shook her head in denial nevertheless.
"Sigh, let's go. We should reach the place before night." He didn't want to think about it anymore or he would go crazy so he just threw it into the back of his head.
Then, they both disappeared from their initial position and into the depths of this mysterious forest.
Suddenly, as they ran between the trees, Acht's mind turned off for a moment and something weird filled his vision for a split second before it disappeared the next moment without a trace. It was such a minuscule change that could be ignored by normal people. But, this boy was far from normal.
With a slightly shocked look, he stopped again and touched his head silently. If he was slightly disturbed before, he was now confused and worried.
'What was that? Ugh!' He tried to remember the thing he saw but instead of that, he felt a sharp pain run through his brain like a razor caressing his skull repeatedly.
He bent down slightly to take a breath and calm down. Tania saw this and ran to him with an extremely worried look. She then tried to help him up but he stopped her with his arm and said.
"I'm fine, just give me a moment to breathe."
The hellish pain then started disappearing gradually and then vanished completely. But, he was not happy at all because of this.
He was now in the middle of a test so every mistake he made is going to be fatal in certain situations. This was why he needed to get rid of these bizarre things he was suffering from.
But, the question remains: How?
He didn't even know what was going on with him so finding a solution was practically impossible.
'I need to remember the thing I saw. It was…It was very familiar yet distant. I could feel like I knew it but also not so much. Dammit!' He cursed inwardly as clicked his tongue.
Tania who stood beside him didn't know what to do. She was always so Acht composed and calm in all situations no matter how dire they were but now, he looked…lost.
'I need to help him!' She resolved herself and then approached him slowly.
When she was close enough, she touched his hand softly and looked at him with a small smile.
"It's…ok." She muttered with slight difficulty. Her eyes were soft, calm, and also soothing that even Acht felt himself fall into a trance.
But, he shook his head and smiled briefly at Tania. He somehow felt calmer when she said those two words to him with such a cute look.
He then patted her head twice as he said, "Don't worry, I just felt under the weather for a brief moment."
Tania didn't seem to believe his words but she still nodded quietly.
"Roarrrr." A loud roar suddenly shook the trees around them and made the leafs fall down to the ground.
Acht and Tania immediately turned serious and pulled out their swords. The monster that found them seemed to be fairly strong.
Acht then silently pointed at a bush to the side where she should go.
She nodded and hid herself behind the bush waiting for the monster. He had already agreed with her to help her with gaining experience in real fights. So, he wanted her to first know how to deal with monsters before moving to sane creatures.
Then, he also hid on top of a tree and signaled to Tania that the monster was about to appear, he could see that she held a stronger grip on her sword.
Then, it appeared, a huge feline-like creature that was almost 4 meters tall and 7 meters long. It looked like a lion but with the fur of a zebra. It had a huge mouth and a ferocious look of anger.
It seems that Acht and Tania penetrated its area and that made it furious.
It looked around for some time as it walked closer and close to where Tania was hiding. Even though it was a few meters away from Tania, she didn't move and waited for Acht's signal.
Then, when it was now barely 2 meters away from the bush, Acht gave her the sign and she immediately went into action. She jumped out of the bush and lunged at the monster.
The creature was taken by surprise but still growled angrily and opened its mouth to try and shred Tania to pieces. Yet, it missed its target by a fair margin.
By the time the creature was biting thin air, Tania was now standing on the back of the creature, then it stabbed it in the spine.
Blood splattered everywhere and the creature made a blood-curdling scream that shook the forest violently. Then, it started jumping left and right in a chaotic manner.
"Idiot!" Acht clicked his tongue and jumped down from the tree to help Tania. She made a grave mistake by not killing it immediately. This did not only make it go insane but it also made fighting it a few times harder since it didn't care about anything now.
He swiftly made his way to the monster and applied gravity on it to make it stop moving for a split second, then he shouted.
"Jump down now!"
Tania followed his order and jumped to the ground. Then, the gravity was broken and the monster was now free. It looked at Acht and growled again at the human who attacked it.
Then, it charged at him with quick steps, passing a few meters in a matter of seconds.
"Come at m-" before he could even mutter the last word. It happened.
His brain shut off for a split second and a weird image-filled all of his vision. Acht's eyes widened to their full extent. He saw it clearly now.
He saw what filled his mind before and it made him lose control of himself completely.
"ACHT!!!!" The only thing he heard as he came back to reality was Tania's scream before…..
*Bang*
He felt his body get crushed as he was sent flying like a ragdoll and hit a tree roughly. This made him fall down and lose consciousness immediately.
His hazy eyes watched as the monster was close enough to him and its mouth was now about to swallow him. But, fortunately, or not, he lost consciousness before he could see what would happen to him.
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"Where am…I?" Acht muttered as his eyes started opening again. He didn't know for how long he lost consciousness.
His mind was still in a groggy state and his limbs were stiff from the lack of movement. A few moments were more than enough for him to regain most of his energy and he finally could take a look around him.
"Huh?" He made an odd sound as inspected his surroundings.
He found himself in a shabby room. The place was old, stinky, and full of all kinds of filthy things and foul smells. The walls were black from the lack of cleaning and the floor was full of holes. The room was so bad that not even animals should be living in there.
"Wait…" he felt something click in his mind as he saw this room. He knew this room very well. No, he was not only familiar with this place….
"Acht…wake your ass up, you little shit!"
He then heard a voice and the door opened to the room revealing someone from the other side.
"If you don't wak-...oh, you are awake, huh." The person who appeared was a girl. She looked to be 16 years of age. She wore shabby clothes that didn't do much except cover her most important parts, her black hair was even darker with dirt and her beautiful face was ruined by the lack of care and hygiene.
Seeing this girl, Acht's mind completely crumbled. Then, a small tear trickled down his face as he stared, with wide eyes at the girl.
Then, with a small voice, he muttered a name.
"Dia…"
(A//N: For those who are getting bored with the tests and stuff. Don't worry, this arc won't be your typical test. As much as I don't want to sound arrogant, this arc will play with your emotions. It will be a rollercoaster and I hope you enjoy it. If you have any other problems with the book do tell me. Thanks and enjoy :) )
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