Among the dense trees in the forest, where sunlight barely filtered through the tangled branches, Ronwa's mother Olesya walked lightly, carrying her small basket on her arm, digging into the earth in search of the best mushrooms she could gather. Happiness lit her face as if she had found a treasure, expecting to return home laden with bounty. She passed through various types of mushrooms, some strange-looking, others poisonous, but she was used to distinguishing between them. She carefully selected the edible fungi.
Then she suddenly stopped. Something caught her attention, something very strange. A flower that was completely black, its leaves dead, and its stem twisted. The surrounding area seemed to suffer as if the earth itself had withered around it. The other flowers nearby looked completely dried up, and everything around was covered in blackness. The flower seemed like a ghost from another world.
Her heart, despite the inner warnings, urged her to approach. Her eyes were engrossed in staring, and her mind screamed at her to turn away, but she couldn't. Something strange about the flower attracted her, something familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. The flower was glowing as if calling her, as if it had been waiting for her.
Despite hesitation, she slowly reached out her hand, as if she knew what would happen... as if she was aware of what awaited her, but confusion overwhelmed her, so she decided to touch it. And when her fingertips touched that strange flower, she felt as if an invisible hope was cut off from her body. She felt something engulf her, a sensation like fire, but without flame. As if her body itself was melting.
Suddenly, her skin started to scatter, melting like water. It was as if a tremendous heat was consuming it from within, her organs falling apart like ashes in the wind. Her body shook unnaturally, then she looked at her hand and saw the skin melting before her eyes. Part of her flesh flew off, exposing the bones of her fingers. A torment worse than anything she expected.
She retreated slowly, trying to escape, but every step meant her condition worsened. Her face swelled and distorted, and every time she tried to cover it, it melted more. Blood began flowing from her mouth and eyes. In a horrifying moment, she felt her left eyeball detach from its socket and fall to the ground. Hot blood flowed from inside the socket that was nearly melting too.
Then the other eyes started turning into a red liquid, shedding terrifying tears. Her other eye, which was still open, became just a mass of damaged tissue. Her arm, which initially felt just a slight pain, now turned into a decayed ball, engulfed by black matter that absorbed everything in its path.
Then the earth itself began to turn black, as if darkness had swallowed the entire place. The sound of the wind was filled with strange moaning. Blood dripped from her as if feeding some dark entity in the depths. Voices scattered around, whispering in her ear, almost feeling as if the earth itself was boiling beneath her feet.
And in the last moment before she completely lost consciousness, she felt a strange movement inside her body, the pain unbearable, but before she collapsed to the ground, she realized one thing: the flower had drained all life from her, leaving her in a world of dark shadows.
Her body trembled violently, her breaths quickened, and her eyes wide open as if seeing death itself. She thought she was melting, burning, that her flesh was flowing like water and her bones collapsing. She screamed... screamed as if something was tearing her from the inside. Her hands trembled as she stared at them, screaming:
"I'm melting... I'm melting! My face! My eyes!"
But the truth was something else entirely. There was no melting; she was just lying on the grass, the basket beside her, and the sky above clear. She was surrounded by the familiar forest, nothing supernatural... except what was happening in her mind.
She writhed on the ground, scratching her face with her nails until it bled, digging her fingers into the soil trying to tear the skin off her hand, screaming in phantom pain... but the truth was nothing was melting, nothing was bleeding.
She was seeing everything, hearing everything, feeling everything... but it wasn't real.
The disease "Black Withering" had begun to take hold of her.
Her first symptoms: hallucinations, visual madness, loss of grip on reality.
The black flower was nothing but a normal plant, but in her eyes, it was a demon stealing her soul.
And the pain she felt was a reflection of a terrifying mental struggle inside her brain.
And at that moment, she lay there in the forest, screaming madly, saliva dripping from her mouth, her eyes bulging, rolling violently on the ground while crying and laughing and crying all at once, without even realizing who she was.
The disease had started...
In the shadows of the forest, where the air was heavy with the smell of earth and moisture, Oda sat on a slanted rock, gazing with half-closed eyes at a small book titled:
"101 Elegant Ways to Commit Suicide... Without Ruining Your Clothes."
He read aloud softly, then grumbled like a child deprived of candy:
"Oh no... I've tried this one already... and this is boring... and this one requires too much physical effort..."
Then he looked at his other hand holding some poisonous mushrooms with an innocent, childish gaze:
"You know? Maybe I'll add a new recipe to the book... Devil's Mushroom with a touch of mint tea..."
But suddenly he stopped.
Everything inside him froze.
A strange, sharp contraction swept through his chest suddenly, as if **an invisible force was pulling at his heart**.
He blinked several times, then whispered, his voice deeper than usual:
"...My lady..."
He closed his eyes slowly. His surroundings went silent, even the rustling of leaves faded away. He didn't need further explanations. He had sensed her aura — the aura of Ronwa — that silver-haired girl who lived in his heart, even though he hadn't admitted it yet.
He felt overwhelming worry emerging from within her, the sorrow and fear accumulating in her chest, as if all her feelings were raining down inside him.
He whispered again:
"You are sad now... and scared... my lady..."
He stretched out his hand in the air as if touching invisible threads, and his eyes opened slowly, now filled with dense, deep blackness.
He began sensing the auras around him... as if searching in the darkness for a familiar light.
The wind blew around him, and the leaves suddenly moved, as if the entire forest had responded to his call.
Only one aura reached him.
A faint, tense aura, full of fear... but familiar.
"Ronwa..."
He opened his eyes and smiled a faint smile that wasn't free from his usual mischievousness, then suddenly stood up, threw the mushrooms and the book behind him, and muttered theatrically:
"Postpone death, Oda... Your lady is in trouble."
Then he vanished between the trees with light footsteps resembling ghosts.