Kenji didn't wait for further instructions. With a duffel bag containing his STCT slung over his shoulders, the Voidborn rushed out of the hotel and made his way to the church. He wasn't sure how the public transportation system worked here; as such, he decided to walk instead.
'I'm much faster on foot, anyway.' Kenji thought to himself, a hint of gloating embedded deep in his mind.
As he rushed through the streets, he inevitably garnered the attention of the local passersby. Some eyed the young man in surprise, others stumbled out of the way, cursing at the boy; Kenji gave the latter group a mental apology.
'Sorry, but this is an emergency.'
After a while, the historic buildings of Briar Hollow gave way to pine trees and the passing of time. The cement streets were replaced by dirt, grass, and fallen leaves. The crunching of breaking twigs and crushed leaves sounded with every step he took. But as he stumbled through the thick wooded forests, he suddenly stopped.
His eyes bulged out, gaze lingering all around. He tried to find the entrance to the church; it shouldn't be too far off.
Except...
'What the—'
There was no church, no trail that led up, and none of the rustic iron bars that lined its borders. It shouldn't have been too far off from town, and for all his illiteracy, Kenji prided himself on navigating unfamiliar terrain. He had studied the map of Briar Hollow extensively; the church should've been here.
But there was nothing...
It's as if the church never even existed.
'That can't be right...'
Either the Choir willingly lied to them, or there was something more supernatural at play. Remus Hague talked about the dilapidated church, so it must've existed. He researched the town to hell-and-back, too. The existence of this specific church wasn't at all hidden.
A few possibilities came to mind, none of which was good.
One, the Choir lied to them about the church's existence. He tossed this possibility out for the simple reason that they really had no reason to. At least, not to Kenji's understanding.
Two, the Choir was somehow fooled into thinking that there was a church here. Again, he rejected that idea. Sources from the internet noted the Church as a prominent tourist attraction. Kenji sincerely doubted the Choir would just fabricate a whole fake church for a random town.
Finally, and most likely…
'I'm in Shroudspace...'
The Shroud, as Erhardt said, had no real geometry to it. It was endless and infinite. It didn't abide by the laws of reality.
As such, he explained to Kenji once that there would often be a phenomenon where the Shroud would overlap with reality due to a prominent psychic influence. It would overwrite whatever geometry and space that existed with its own, creating impossible 'bigger on the inside' type of spaces.
That church must've caused a powerful psychic influence.
Meaning...
'I'm not in the real world anymore.'
He sighed, then steeled himself. He activated the [Nameless System]. His left eye glowed orange, and a new set of text appeared before him.
————————
[ Shroudspace Detected! Analyzing...]
[ Analysis Complete! ]
<<————————>>
[ Welcome to the Moonlit Forest! ]
[ Shroudspace Description:
The Moonlit Forest is an endless sea of pine and woodlands, touched by the remnants of [Death]. Under the pale moonlight, only the dead dare to roam. You are under the domain of [Death]; his corpse lies at the center. Find the corpse, and the Nightmare in Briar Hollow may rest. ]
[ Current Threat Level: 4/10 ]
————————
'What the hell?'
The center of this vast place? Where was that? If the descriptions were accurate, and they were situated in an endless forest, then how the hell are they going to find the center? It seemed like an impossible task; there had to be another way.
'I need to find Octavia and Yeon first.'
Looks like she wouldn't have been able to properly teleport right into the church, anyway, especially with an unreal miasma as thick as this one. His gaze looked upwards towards the sun, bleak and hollow. It was dim enough that Kenji could look into it without burning his eyes; he'd never imagined the sun could look so lifeless.
It was like staring at the corpse of God, or how he'd imagine it'd look.
Shaking the thought, Kenji looked around.
The first thing he had to do was to find Octavia and Yeon. Seeing no signs from below, he decided to claw his way up the trees to see if he'd be able to find anything. He found a particularly tall tree by the side, towering over the others.
He began to climb.
The branches creaked and nearly snapped under his weight; the tree bark scratched at his skin in some areas. His feet pushed him up against fragile branches, and he finally found himself at the canopy.
He looked around, trying to find any sign of Octavia or Yeon. He reached out to his phone, checking to see if he still had a signal. Shō did say that the phone would connect even without it, but he wasn't even sure if he was in the same plane of existence anymore.
Sure enough, his signal was dead, and even the synced network Shō used failed to send or receive anything. Kenji clicked his tongue, shaking his head. If the two were still alive, they would've likely tried to signal any form of rescue.
'A fire, perhaps.'
Both Octavia and Yeon seemed knowledgeable. They would've figured out a way to signal where they were in this deep, dark forest. But as he looked around, trying to find a signal, or anything that sort, Kenji was left with...
'Nothing...'
Just a seemingly endless sea of pine and rotting wood. The forest was truly eternal, infinite, and unending. Then, he felt sick to his stomach, and a thought came cutting him deep in his soul.
'What if I'm trapped here?'
Even if he did find Octavia and Yeon, then what? There was no end in sight; Briar Hollow was nowhere to be seen. Was he trapped here in this endless dark? Surrounded by the dead, waiting to join them? His hands trembled, and he tightly clutched the hem of his jacket.
'No! No, not yet! We found our way in; there has to be a way out.'
He couldn't lose hope, not yet. With a deep sigh, Kenji looked around the forest. Trying to see if there was anywhere they could be. Squinting, he saw a strange shape just out of the periphery. He willed his orange eye to try and see what it was...
————————
[ Subjective Law: Kenji could see further away... ]
[ Calibrating Senses... ]
————————
As if turning a dial on a telescope, Kenji's orange eye zoomed into the distance. It was a stone formation, unnatural in its creation. Towering over the landscape, covered in mist. It was as if the ground turned and rose into a tower. A spike that pierced into—
'What the fuck?' Kenji blinked.
The large stone pierced what looked to be a giant creature, buried deep in the creature's abdomen. A red, mushy organ spilled from the tip.
Kenji realized what it was. It was a heart; the tower pierced through the giant's heart, killing it.
'Is that the corpse of [Death]?' He shook his head. If it was, it seemed too obvious. The way the stone towers were positioned was similar to how the metal shifted under Octavia's influence back during the psychic assessment.
Part of him felt fear, but an equal sense of awe followed in its wake. If Octavia did do this, then she was far more potent than she let on.
'She's a monster...' Kenji thought to himself.
There was no ridicule in his mind; instead, there was a sense of genuine awe at her accomplishment. If she did kill that giant, it meant that she was absurdly powerful. That towering stone thing was the size of a damned mountain.
It could be something else. Octavia didn't have to be responsible, but at the moment, Kenji had no idea what else it could've been. He moved with the assumption that it was Octavia's doing.
Besides, it was a trail, and Kenji would rather head there than wander the forests endlessly. Memorizing the direction, he pointed the mountain's way and committed it to memory.
He shivered at a sudden thought.
'What if there were other giants?'
He'd never killed anything that big before.
Shaking the thought away, he quickly got down and began walking in that direction. Minutes passed, then hours. The endless trees that lined every side made navigating through the Shroudspace difficult. There was no indication of where North, South, East, or West even was. Often, the boy had to climb up trees just to see where he was.
As he stepped on fallen leaves and stone, the sun began to fade—not set, but fade away as if consumed by shadows. The sky slowly turned black, and motes of flickering lights began to shine in the sky. Much like the sun, the light conjured by the stars was dim, fleeting, dead.
Then, a light. Piercing, blinding, Kenji had to avert his gaze. He clicked his tongue. That was the moon up there. Shining brighter than even the sun, Kenji couldn't get a good view.
In this realm, the moon is sovereign.
'What the hell is with this place?' Kenji muttered to himself.
As he continued to walk, he suddenly recalled the description the System had given him.
'Under the Pale Moon Light, only the dead dare to roam.'
Kenji gulped, reaching into his duffel bag and grabbing his STCT. The cool metal kissed his skin, filling him with a sense of comfort. Just to be sure, he applied a special property to the bat.
————————
[ Subjective Law — Subroutine: Your blade is the bane of the undead; you wield the Law of Finality. The dead must stay buried. ]
————————
With a click of the button, the serrated teeth of his newly-dubbed 'Chainbat' exposed themselves in the chill air. He steadied his breath and continued on his walk.
Just as he pressed deeper into the forest, something moved.
A shadow slipped between the trees, smooth and soundless, gone before he could blink. Kenji froze, his fingers tightening around the steel of his bat. The air grew heavy, thick enough to choke on.
Another shadow. Then another.
They circled him like carrion birds, too fast to track, too deliberate to be wind. The forest erupted in sound—cracking twigs, the groan of bending wood, the scrape of something dragging through soil. The world seemed to close in, trees leaning inward as if watching.
Then came the smell.
Rot. Wet and sour, thick with the stench of spoiled meat and damp earth. It filled his nose, coated his tongue. Kenji gagged, swallowing hard against the bile rising in his throat. Every breath felt wrong, like the air itself was dying.
And then it stepped into view.
The thing dropped from the trees in silence, landing on two feet that twitched like broken marionette strings. Its face—or where a face should have been—was a slab of flesh stretched over bone, smooth and wrong. No eyes. No nose. Only the faint bulge of sockets sealed by skin.
A tricorn hat clung to its skull, half-rotted and alive with fungal growths burrowing into the bone beneath. Its neck sagged under the weight of a torn noose, fibers blackened and wet. When it tilted its head, it did so with a soft crack, the sound of something brittle giving way.
And where its mouth should be, a single slit curved open, an imitation of a smile carved by a knife.
Kenji couldn't tell if it was breathing. He only knew that the forest had gone silent, and the thing was listening.
His Shroud-coveted mind blared to life.
————————
[ Encounter: The Snapped-Neck ]
[ Sentenced to die, forsaken by death. ]
————————
The thing tilted its head, bones cracking like splintered wood. Its movements were slow, uncertain, as though guided by invisible strings that jerked and quivered. From the folds of its tattered brown coat, it drew a sickle, rusted, blackened, its edge caked with something that was not quite rust.
It raised the blade with a tremor, the gesture almost ritualistic, almost human.
Kenji's grip on his bat tightened until his knuckles whitened. The forest around him seemed to hold its breath.