Free Web NovelChapter 11: Through The Forgotten Path
--Chapter 11--
Title>> Through The Forgotten Path
Marco’s choices had unknowingly given Xavier an opportunity and set him on a path that would probably change the entire landscape of the virtual world of Arillion Online.
But outside of it...Where the sounds of blaring sirens, announcements, fear, and confusion hung over the beautiful blue planet called Earth.
Marco himself sat on the floor, his confused eyes drifting between the two silent pods.
Trying his best not to lose himself in the unnatural quiet that had suddenly settled over the once-boisterous apartment.
Bzzzz!!
His phone buzzed loudly again.
And once again, Marco ignored it completely, not even sparing it a glance.
Instead, his eyes remained fixed on the headlines displayed across the monitor screens ahead of him.
The headlines kept refreshing every few seconds.
GLOBAL LOCK-IN EVENT: MILLIONS UNRESPONSIVE FOLLOWING ARILLION ONLINE VR LAUNCH
EMERGENCY SERVICES OVERWHELMED AS REPORTS FLOOD IN WORLDWIDE
"DENIZENS OF EARTH" SUBSCRIBE FOR FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THE GLOBAL BROADCAST
"Tsk."
Marco bit silently on his lower lip.
That stupid announcement was where it all began.
That stupid announcement which, even after reading it ten times, still made absolutely no sense to him. Or perhaps... he simply didn’t want it to.
He had seen stuff like this in books. Imagined it in games. Read about it in novels.
But reality? Shouldn’t that have been a line that could never be crossed?
Who was responsible for all this?
The questions piled up in his mind, but there wasn’t a single answer to be found.
Instead, Marco slowly stood from his place between the two pods, checking them one after the other.
Grace’s pod still gave off a steady green glow. Xavier’s was exactly the same.
Both of them looked as though they were simply asleep.
Taking a deep breath, Marco did his best to calm himself.
"Please be okay," he muttered between sighs.
Ignoring his still-buzzing phone because, for the first time in a long while, he had absolutely no idea what to do next.
Raising his eyes, his gaze settled on the streaming setup.
The local recording was still active.
Still running...
Marco walked over and, instead of turning it off, let it continue.
Just in case...
Just in case someone eventually needed to know what had happened here.
Whenever eventually decided to arrive.
For now, he leaned back against the wall between the two pods, staring silently at the vital signs of the occupants.
"Stay safe, you two."
Outside, the city had descended into an uproar.
Sirens. Wails. Complaints. Panic.
Every emotion imaginable swirled together into a maelstrom.
And all Marco could do was sit between his two missing friends...
...and pray.
***
On the other hand...while Marco waited...Xavier hunted for his next objective.
Weaving through the thick growth and soggy terrain of the swamp without the slightest hesitation.
This was all thanks to the Dread Cloak, which made it difficult for the swamp dwellers to detect him as he navigated the terrain.
To every creature he encountered, Xavier was simply another part of the swamp itself.
Camouflaged with frightening accuracy. Just as expected from a Rare item.
Slowly but surely, the swamp began to thin out. The towering trees gave way to shrubs. The shrubs gave way to open grassland.
Even the dense fog gradually faded into nothing more than an ordinary mist.
By the time he finally emerged from the swamp, Xavier noticed the waterlogged landscape had disappeared completely.
Ahead lay solid stone ground that looked ancient, yet somehow pulsed with vitality. Waiting to be claimed.
Taking a deep, satisfied breath, his eyes traced upward.
No fog obscured his view anymore. And he was finally out of the Scar Swamp.
***
The journey northwest toward the castle was quick and direct.
The route provided by the Wanderer’s Compass was narrow and completely unmarked.
The wilderness before him stretched endlessly in every direction. There was seemingly nothing for miles. Only scattered signs that this land had once been something far greater.
Xavier climbed over broken stonework, dried root systems, and what looked like the weathered head of an ancient statue.
With the familiarity of a recent playthrough and unique compass guiding him, Xavier maneuvered through the landscape until something struck him.
His nose twitched. Then his eyes narrowed. And his sprint slowed to a cautious jog.
The smell that greeted him was pungent and revolting.
It wasn’t exactly decay. He knew what decay smelled like.
This...
This was worse.
It was as though decay had been wrapped around a blood-soaked carcass before being left to rot inside an open sewer.
"Fuck..." Xavier muttered, pinching his nose shut.
Then his eyes found the source.
It was at this point that the terrain stopped resembling anything he had seen in any game other than Arillion Online.
Several trees stretched across the wilderness.
The trees weren’t rotten. Nor were they dead. They simply stood there...
Perfectly still...
As though frozen in a single moment of time.
Their branches extended unnaturally in every direction.
The pattern of their growth made absolutely no sense. And hanging from every branch...
Were not fruits...But bodies. Dozens of them, strung up like discarded puppets.
Some hung by their wrists. Others by their ankles. Every single one of them faced downward. Motionless and deathly pale.
Xavier felt something twist deep inside his stomach. The sheer disgust of both the smell and the sight threatened to overwhelm him. Yet he held his ground.
The bodies varied in shape, size, and race. Some wore robes while others wore armor and some were stark naked.
Yet something about the scene felt even more unnatural. There were no flies. Not a single one. No buzzing insects. No scavengers.
Nothing that should naturally swarm a place overflowing with death.
And that silence made things really bad. As though even nature itself refused to come anywhere near it.
But if the hanging bodies weren’t disturbing enough...
The mountain of corpses piled beneath the trees was far worse.
Moving closer, Xavier knew he couldn’t stop now. There was somewhere he needed to be.
And this scene...this questline... was something he would have to confront once again.
The moment he reached the tree line...
The already silent space grew even more quiet. How that was even possible. Xavier couldn’t tell.
But it was as though the game itself was waiting for him to make a choice.
One that would either trigger something...or force him to find another way around it.
Either way...
He knew this particular questline was an absolute nightmare. Perhaps even worse than the devourer of tales.
Keeping his eyes fixed on the narrow path roughly four meters beyond the mound of corpses...
And his mind focused on reaching the Fallen Prince... And finding Grace.
Xavier made his decision.
He stepped forward. And the cutscene triggered.
The space around him seemed to freeze. Nothing changed dramatically.
Yet the perspective from which Xavier viewed everything shifted completely.
It no longer felt like he was watching events unfold.
It felt like...he had become part of them.
The hill of bodies shuddered violently. And from the middle of the rotting mass...
A figure emerged.
It neither stood...Nor climbed.
It simply peeled itself away from the pile like a single card sliding free from a deck.
The figure drifted upward until it floated directly at Xavier’s eye level.
Suspended in midair, as though gravity had simply forgotten it existed.
Its damaged face twisted. The corroded armor covering its body groaned.
Then...
Its eyes snapped open.
Molten gold swirled within them. And despite having no mouth...
It spoke.
"Q=×##&4th."
’What the...?’ Xavier thought.
A second later...
The interface translated it.
[Entity Encountered]
[Classification: Forsaken]
[Status: In-between]
Immediately afterward, several overlapping voices slipped into Xavier’s ears with chilling clarity.
"...you walk where the forgotten walked..."
"...only the fallen find this road..."
"...and now you have..."
"...will you grant your brothers peace...?"
The figure slowly stretched one arm toward the hanging bodies as it spoke those final words.
Xavier didn’t move. He simply waited. Then the interface appeared.
[Interactive Options Prompted]
[Yes] Cut them down.
[No - Search instead] Leave things as they are.
Xavier’s eyes narrowed at the interface.
Then...
Ever so slowly, a smile spread across his face as he reached forward.
–End of Chapter–
A/N: If you enjoy the story, support with powerstones and Golden tickets. T for Thanks.
