The forest didn't get any less beautiful, or any less unnerving. The further we walked, the more I felt like I was being watched. Not by a single pair of eyes, but by hundreds. The trees themselves seemed to be observing us, their silent, silver-barked forms a silent, judgmental audience. Every rustle of leaves, every snap of a twig, sounded like a footstep, a whispered warning.
The demon king didn't seem to care. He strode through the forest with a confident, almost arrogant disregard for the atmosphere. He was a king in his own domain, even if this domain was not his own. He was a creature of immense power, and the forest knew it. The forest was wary.
I, on the other hand...
Am benefitting from the deadly aura coming from him. Nothing about me must seem imposing right now. Just being near him is probably protecting me more than trying not to step on anything forbidden. He's an asshole, but he's a useful asshole for the moment.
I try to hide it behind my usual sarcastic exterior, but...
My feet are starting to ache. My shoulders feel tense from walking with them hunched in anxiety. My legs are starting to burn from the constant, uneven ground.
My body is still so weak.
It takes more than a few days to get fit. And...and there's this emptiness inside my chest. The warmth is still there, the small spark that he had so rudely pointed out to me. But it's faint now, a distant, flickering candle in a vast, dark room. It was smaller before when I couldn't sense it at all, I', sure, but now it feels...
I don't know.
I'm just trying to distract myself from the anxiety of it all.
We walk for another hour, maybe two. It was hard to tell the time in the dappled light of the forest. The demon king didn't slow down, didn't show any sign of fatigue. He just kept walking, a relentless, driving force that I had no choice but to follow.
I was so focused on the ground, on the task of putting one foot in front of the other, that I almost ran into him again. He had stopped, and this time, he was staring straight ahead, not at a tree, but at a wall of living wood.
It wasn't a natural formation. The trees grew so close together that their branches and trunks had fused, creating a dense, impenetrable barrier that stretched as far as I could see in both directions. The leaves were a deep, vibrant green, and the air hummed with a strange, almost musical energy. There was no way through. No way around.
"Well," I said, my voice a little breathless. "Looks like we're taking the long way."
The demon king didn't respond. He just stood there, staring at the wall of wood, his expression unreadable. Then, he raised a hand. A flicker of crimson energy, so faint I almost thought I imagined it, danced around his fingertips.
"Don't," I said, my voice sharp. The memory of the dock, of the old woman's terrified face, was still fresh in my mind. "We'll find another way."
He lowered his hand, but he didn't turn to look at me. "There is no other way. This forest is a maze, designed to confound and confuse trespassers. This is the only path forward."
"Then we'll go back," I insisted, my heart starting to thump against my ribs. "We'll go around the whole forest if we have to."
He finally turned, and the look in his eyes made me flinch. It wasn't anger. It was a cold, dismissive pity. "You think this forest is just… trees? You think you can just 'go around' it? What an absurd thought."
He gestured to the wall of living wood. "This is not a barrier. It is a door."
Before I could ask what he meant, he stepped forward and placed his palm against the fused trunks. The wood didn't splinter. It didn't break.
Nor did it light on fire.
It just...unraveled.
The spot where his hand touched began to glow with a soft, green light. The light spread, a ripple of energy that flowed through the wood like water. The fused trunks began to separate, not with a creak or a groan, but with a soft, sighing sound, like leaves rustling in a gentle breeze. They didn't move apart like a door; they folded back, like fabric, creating a perfect, arch-shaped opening just large enough for a person to walk through.
He looked at the opening with a bored expression. "As I said. A door." He stepped through without a backward glance.
I stared at the opening, my mind reeling. I just....
Assumed he'd planned to burn a hole through it.
How did he even know...?
I'd been worried he'd attack the Dryads and he was...
I walked through the archway, my boots silent on the mossy ground. Angus fluttered nervously behind me, his wings a blur of motion.
The world on the other side of the wall was different. The air was warmer, thicker, and filled with the scent of a thousand different flowers. The path we were on widened into a broad, sun-dappled avenue, and the trees grew even larger, their branches forming a high, cathedral-like canopy. The light that filtered through was a soft, golden green, and everything seemed to shimmer with a faint, otherworldly energy.
This was the heart of the forest. And it was breathtaking.
And also, apparently, a library.
The 'trees' weren't just trees. They were… structures. Some had grown into the shape of houses, with windows of what looked like spun sugar and doors of polished bark. Others had formed intricate, latticework bridges that connected their higher branches, creating a network of walkways in the sky.
And....most notably....
Bookshelves.
Carved from the living wood of the trees, they stretched for what seemed like miles, filled with books of every shape and size. Some were bound in what looked like green leather, others in what appeared to be polished bark. The place was a city, a library, and a work of art all at once.
I can't...even conceive of the fact this is outside. Just. In the middle of a forest.
I can hardly accept it's real at all, let alone its abruptness.