My legs move before I think.
Branches slap my face. My palms are bleeding. I don't feel it. The forest isn't just wild—it's alive, and it hates me. Every tree looks like a wall. Every step feels like I'm sinking into a nightmare that won't end.
Behind me…
I hear it.
Footsteps.
No—craters being punched into the dirt.
It's coming.
That thing—that Deviljho—whatever version this was… it shouldn't be real.
It's not supposed to exist outside the screen. It's a monster. A monster.
I was just in my room—I had my headset on—I had sambal fried rice on my desk.
I was supposed to be safe.
I was supposed to be home.
> "WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING!?"
I trip. Slam into the dirt. My face scrapes across rock. Blood in my mouth. The air is thick. Smells like sulfur, sweat, rot, and her—that hunter girl, what's left of her.
Her eye. Still looking at me.
I scream.
And keep running.
---
> I don't want to die.
I don't want to die.
I don't want to die.
I don't want to die.
I don't want to die.
I don't want to die.
I don't want to die.
I don't want to die.
I don't want to die.
I don't want to die.
---
My breath feels like glass in my lungs.
Everything hurts.
I'm not trained for this. I sit in an office. I wear pressed shirts and wait for lunch breaks. I count hours on a screen. I send polite emails. I'm not a survivor. I don't have a sword. I don't have armor. I don't even have answers.
Why?
Why me?
Why this?
> I DON'T WANT TO DIE!
The forest parts.
Stone. Old, massive, half-buried in moss. Like a temple swallowed by time. Symbols etched into the surface—glowing faintly blue. Familiar, yet completely alien.
I throw myself inside.
Darkness swallows me.