章 12: Chapter 12
Ash started off at a steady jogging pace. He wasn't quite sure how much his current body could handle or how it rivaled that of his human body previously. Ash noticed that besides a few other children like him, most were separated into groups of 4 to 5 children. One of the larger groups he saw contained all of the humans. Ash didn't know how many humans lived in the Underworld but there were only about 15 here in the trial.
As Ash kept jogging he eventually came across what he remembered to be the first landmark in the map. It was actually a small castle. It was built from a type of stone like material. This stone was as black as the void and have off a formless pressure. Tiny red wisps of ethereal energy kept escaping from deep inside this black stone. The castle was built into a circle shape and in the center was a tall tower pointing into the sky. At the top of the tower was more of that ethereal red energy. Instead of just tiny wisps like from the rest of the castle, the energy was thick to the point of almost being solid. In fact, it almost looked like fire coming out from the top. According to the map, this place was called Lighthouse Castle.
Outside of the castle were different squads of guards patrolling. Unlike the void-black stone making up the castle and tower, these knights wore armor that was the color of charcoal. Lining the edge of each piece of armor on the guards was the same color red of the wispy energy. Ash couldn't tell detail from this distance, but there appeared to be some kind of crest in the center of the chest plates. As if by some previous understanding or even that they didn't care, all of the guards just kept on with their business and left them all alone.
The first landmark was about two kilometers into their journey. Ash had expected himself to be tired out by this point at least a little. Fortunately this new body seemed to be way more equipped for physical activity then the previous one. Ash felt like his body could take a little more so he sped up to a light sprint. It was quite a bit faster than jogging but still not at a run. Ash knew he had a long way to go during this trial still so he wanted to continue pacing himself. Looking around at the other groups near him he noticed that most of the others had a similar idea as him. He noticed that the group almost in last place were the humans. A few of them already looked tired as well. On the opposite end in first place currently, Ash recognized a group that looked similar to the mysterious being that gave him his new body. 'Those must be some of the few that were sent here voluntarily.' Ash thought. Ash was located somewhere in the upper middle of the pack. He definitely wasn't slow but he also wasn't the fastest. He knew that he could probably run just as fast as those ahead of him but he also didn't know how well he would be able to pace himself if he did so.
Ash continued on his light sprint for a couple more hours before he reached the next landmark. This time it was a huge desiccated forest. All of the trees were at minimum 10 kilometers tall. Each one looked as though it had been struck by lightning. From the outside of the forest you could only see the tips of the trees. Beneath that was a thick and lingering fog the likes of which Ash had never seen before. It wasn't static. The fog looked like is was ever changing like someone was stirring it with an enormous spoon. As Ash got closer to it he could hear occasional blood curdling screams echo out from the forest. The marker on the map showed this place to be called The Wailing Forest.
At this point, Ash saw the lead group already entering the forest. As soon as they stepped in, he lost all trace of them. More and more groups followed into the forest until it came time for him to enter. As Ash drew closer so did the screams. At first they were few and far between but now they could be heard every 30 seconds or so. Ash started to get nervous as he could feel the screams start to infect him. Every time Ash heard another scream it was like a little bit of fear was added into his thoughts. 'What kind of place is the Underworld? There are so many different and strange things going on here. How could someone live in a place like this, let alone grow up here!' Ash finally took his first step into The Wailing Forest.
The first thing that Ash noticed was the freezing cold. His body felt wet all over like he was taking a freezing cold shower. When Ash came to his senses he took a brief look around. The first thing that caught his eye was the lack of other people. There was no one at all around him. In front of Ash was a long and straight path. The fog was no longer as thick now that he was in the forest. He could see the path going for as far as he could see. There was nowhere else to go except this path. On both sides there was only tall trees grouped up close together. On each tree was a carving of a face. Ash slowed down a bit after being alerted to this new discovery. He jogged over to one of the trees until he was about a meter away. Suddenly the face carved onto the tree came to life! It twisted into a crooked and murderous smile and let loose a blood curdling screech! The sound shocked Ash's ear drums and made him stumble back. Fear started to rise up in his heart while he started to panic.
The first tree's screech triggered a chain reaction in the rest of the trees. One by one they all let loose blood curdling screams that threatened to overcome his mind with fear! His ear drums started to bleed and he could feel the warm trickle of blood flowing down the sides of his face. That was the least of his worries though. Ash was clutching his head in his hands while he was suffering excruciating pain! An overwhelmingly intense fear was spreading throughout every inch of Ash's body! After a few seconds he was letting loose equally as blood curdling screams as the trees themselves. Ash could feel his consciousness start to fade away into madness as he took another step back.
This time after taking a step back, Ash tripped on one of the larger tree roots loitering the ground. As he fell backwards, he landed back onto the path. Just as quick as the first scream started all of them stopped. The overwhelming fear that Ash felt before started to recede slowly and he took a deep breath as he felt a splitting pain inside his head! It was almost as if someone had split his head open with an axe! Ash had no choice but to lie there for a few minutes while he slowly recovered. When he finally managed to crawl up off of the ground, he only had one, single thought inside his mind. 'I have to get out of this forest as fast as possible!' He immediately took off sprinting as fast as his body would allow.
週次パワーステータス
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