A nightmare and hallucination-ridden Arisugawa
A creepy, chilling shiver crawled up my spine. It felt like a thousand earthworms were wriggling.
“Huh? Earthworms?”
“Uwaah! Wh-what is this! Let go!”
My vision swam and distorted. Damn it, I was tricked. They planned to trap me from the start. There was no way they’d guide an outsider to the Spring of Life out of nowhere!
Someone who looked like Sharin reached out towards me.
“Don’t touch me!”
“s u 4dq? t o e \ t @ w. ec @ ”
No, these weren’t my companions. Then where was the real everyone? When did the hallucinations start? Was it since I met that Puzu Tribe child? I’d encountered illusion-based techniques before, but even so, I wasn’t accustomed to them after so many instances.
I ran, swatting away the countless hands that reached for me. Creepy voices echoed from behind.
“Hah, hah, Sharin? Philiana! Where are you, ugh!”
Something tripped me, and I rolled on the ground. A twisted tree root had ensnared my leg.
“Damn it, let go!”
I kicked frantically, managing to escape. I had to get away from here, as far as possible. Was there even such a thing as spirits? That itself was becoming questionable. The surroundings were as dark as night. No, maybe it had been night from the beginning, not morning.
From between the trees, someone was always watching me. I could feel their gazes. Cold sweat leached the heat from my skin. It felt like I was becoming a corpse while still alive.
No matter where I went, the scenery was the same—a nightmare with no escape. Was I dreaming again? If so, I had to wake up soon. How did I do it before? Ah, I couldn’t remember.
Now, I just wanted to escape this unsettling sensation. Please wake up soon, or I’ll go mad…
Reaching the end of my dream, I found a gaping, giant hole.
“Hah, hah, a…?”
A black void stretched out before me. The fishy smell that assailed my nostrils confirmed it was real, or perhaps, this too, wasn’t real.
“Shoo, shoo.”
A snake-like breathing sound came from above in the trees. Something was there, lurking and targeting me. What was it? It had a human-like silhouette.
The next moment, the shadow flew towards me.
“What the hell?!”
I instinctively dodged to the side. The shadow floated in the air and giggled.
“Kekekeke, haha, I’m going to eat you. I’ll eat you alive.”
Hahahaha, Aaaah, a live prey.
The grating voices echoed in layers, making my head spin. Are these the spirits? No way, they’re nothing like my imagination. With wide-open mouths, they attacked me one after another.
I squirmed and crawled, trying to escape. I had to get away from this hole, or I’d be eaten. No, I was completely surrounded. My escape route was blocked, cutting off my path. I was pulled backward.
Damn it, they had bitten onto the edge of my cloak. My feet slipped on the muddy ground, and I was dragged along.
“Aaaagh! Guh!”
They leaped at me all at once. Like crows swarming garbage. They pulled at my sleeves, and I couldn’t reach my sword. It was all I could do to push away their biting mouths with my feet.
“Let go, you damn, ouch!”
A dull pain shot through my right arm. White teeth were embedded in my skin. Damn it, I’d been bitten. They were really going to eat me alive. Someone, help me! But when I tried to scream, only groans of pain came out of my mouth.
As I swung my right arm, my vision suddenly lit up brilliantly. Startled, the shadows that had been biting me let go and fled. The Lighthouse Bangle I was wearing had started to glow. The stone set in it was shining.
As I swung it around, the evil spirits recoiled, baring their fangs. For a moment, the clouds cleared, and I could see their forms. They had human-like bodies but no arms, and wings sprouted from them—just like angels without arms.
“Back off, don’t come near me!”
I don’t know how it worked, but the light saved my life. But I didn’t know when it would disappear. I retreated, thrusting my right arm forward.
“Shaaa!!”
Suddenly, a shadow tackled me from the side. I was blown away and plunged into the hole.
Splish, slurp. I seemed to have fallen into something like disgusting sludge. The thick mud made me sink deeper the more I tried to stand up. I was going to get stuck in a bottomless swamp.
I reached my hand out towards the ground. But something like a string emerged from the swamp and wrapped around my legs, preventing me. I was dragged down and pulled back into the mud. Damn it, my lower body was submerged. Is there anything, anything at all to grab onto? A vine, anything.
From above, high-pitched voices, as if mocking me, echoed in layers. It’s no use, the more I struggled, the deeper I sank. The bangle on my right arm continued to glow, but I was going to be buried alive like this.
