The wolf on the opposite side of the road quickly rushed towards Abrafo. Abrafo, still mostly immobilized, gripped a twig in his left hand and swung his knife into an attacking position. He lashed out, hitting the wolf in the face with the twig, then slashed its throat with his knife. The wolf yelped, backing away from him, but it didn't flee. It continued to circle, guarding him, ready to attack once it was sure Abrafo had let his guard down.
Abrafo felt a flicker of strength return to his right leg. Facing the wolf, he clutched his knife and the twig, slowly scooting himself towards U-ri. "U-ri, you old bastard, you better hope I don't survive," he yelled, his voice raw with fury. "Or I'll crush you until your old bones are broken into a million pieces! You hear me?!"
U-ri didn't look up from his book, calmly turning a page. "Yeah… yeah… yeah… I hear you very clearly," he responded from within the safety of the magical bangle, his tone completely unconcerned.
Chun's head was close to Yul's; her massive tail wrapped even tighter around his body. She hissed, a chilling sound. "You little minion, do you think you can escape from my territory?" Her laughter grew louder as Yul struggled, his muscles straining against her crushing grip. "So cute…" she purred. "Oh, I'm going to enjoy my lunch today."
Michio dashed out from the treetops, a blur of motion, aiming his three-section staff directly at Chun's head. Chun, startled, instinctively raised her hands to block Michio's blow, momentarily loosening her tail's agonizing grip on Yul. Yul gasped, coughing heavily, and collapsed to the ground, scrambling away from the coils. The sheer force of Michio's strike sent Chun staggering back towards a thick tree. Michio landed lightly on the ground and quickly moved to Yul's side. With Michio's steadying hand, Yul slowly rose, drawing his sword.
Chun looked down at her hands. Her left arm seemed to be the most seriously injured by Michio's blow; she could feel intense pain shooting up to her shoulder, and her hands began to tremble. She looked furiously at the two mortals standing a few feet away. She hesitated, not daring to make a move immediately, unsure of their true strength. During her many years of life, all mortals who entered her lair had become her food, but these two were different. They might not be ordinary mortals. She stared at them, wondering if she should attack now or play with them until they were exhausted. Her gaze flickered towards the nearby pond. Suddenly, an idea sparked in her cruel mind. All she had to do was throw them into the pond and let the angry undead at the bottom deal with them.
Yul looked at Michio, his voice low and urgent. "She hesitated. Let's do it while she's distracted."
Michio muttered, a hint of concern in his voice. "What do you want to do? Remember, she's a giant snake."
"You're the one with the spell," Yul stated, his eyes fixed on Chun. "You hold her by the tail while I attack her from the front."
Michio looked at Chun, then nodded decisively. "Alright!" He threw a blank white paper into the air, clasped his hands, and began to chant rapidly.
The torment of the dark alley, the mocking faces of his bullies, the old woman's chilling pronouncements – it all faded before the raw, agonizing sound of Yul's scream. It was a sound that cut through the illusion, bypassing logic and fear, striking directly at something deeper within Hajime. His worry for Yul, for his friend in danger, was stronger than any fear the dream weaver could conjure. It was an involuntary, unconditional surge of protective instinct.
"Yul!" he shouted again, his voice cracking with urgency. The alley, the bullies, the old woman – they all seemed to shimmer, their forms losing solidity. He threw his hands out, not to block a garbage can, but to reach for Yul, to break free.
The old woman's confident smirk faltered, replaced by a scowl of frustration. "Impossible! Your heart is supposed to be trapped here! This… this is not how it works!"
"My heart belongs to me, not to you!" Hajime roared, his voice gaining strength, no longer a toddler's, no longer a victim's. "And my heart cares for my friends!" He slammed his fists against the invisible barrier, but this time, there was no resistance. The illusion shattered like fragile glass.
The dark alley dissolved into a kaleidoscope of colors, then into shimmering dust. The oppressive feeling lifted, replaced by a sudden, jarring jolt. Hajime's eyes snapped open. He was no longer in a graveyard or a dark alley, but lying on the rough ground, propped against a gnarled tree trunk. The crisp, cool air of the forest filled his lungs, a stark contrast to the stagnant air of his nightmare.
He sat up, his body aching, his head pounding. He looked to his left, following the direction from which Yul's scream had pierced his dream. There, amidst the trees, he saw movement. A large, coiling form. A flash of green scales. And then, he heard it again, fainter this time, but unmistakably Yul's grunt of pain.
Hajime scrambled to his feet, his muscles protesting. He glanced at the ground where he'd been lying. The faint outline of a magic circle was pressed into the dirt, barely visible. The old woman's trap. She wasn't an illusion, but a real threat, manipulating his dreams.
He took a deep breath, pushing the lingering dread of the nightmare away. Yul was in trouble. That was real. That was paramount. He pulled his white paper fan from his bag, clutching it tightly, his focus narrowed.
Hearing Yul's sudden scream again made Hajime forget everything that had happened in front of him. He knew that Yul was the strongest fighter among the five of them, so Yul's painful scream meant that the others must be in more serious danger. His heart and mind were now solely worried about the safety of Yul and the others. His mind was no longer in the old woman's dream game. He turned to see if Yul would scream again, but the sudden silence of the forest made him worry about Yul even more. He abandoned his sleeping body on the other side of the magic wall and rushed towards the direction of Yul's scream.
The old woman's voice, now a shrill, desperate shriek, pursued him. "No! Come back!"
Hajime turned his head. The illusory world he had imagined was slowly disappearing, and the old woman herself began to evaporate into the air. He looked at his sleeping body, still leaning against a tree not far away, and watched it too slowly dissipate. Not only that, but everything around him began to vanish into nothingness.
Hajime looked at the old woman, a smug smile on his face, despite her anger. "You old witch, you tricked me!" he declared, victorious.
"You have been trapped by the ancient sacrificial circle!" the old woman screamed, her form fading rapidly. "There is absolutely no way you can get out of this forest alive!" Her voice dissolved into the air as she disappeared completely.
Hajime's smug smile widened. He reached into his carry-on bag and took out one of his carved wooden eagles. He threw the wooden figure into the air. "If I can't walk out of here," he said, "I'll fly out of here." He climbed onto the eagle's back, and the eagle soared upwards, towards the top of the mountain.
When the eagle finally broke through the canopy and soared into the open sky, Hajime looked down at the ground. He realized, with a chilling dread, that he and his companions had entered a forest that was shaped like a gigantic human skull.
"This is what she meant," Hajime murmured to himself, "when she said that I would never be able to leave the sacrificial circle. The whole forest is the sacrificial circle." He continued to ride the eagle, heading directly towards the mountain's peak.
Michio's white paper talisman quickly transformed into twenty glowing spears, hovering in the air in front of him. He looked at Yul and yelled, "Now!"
Yul and Michio charged forward simultaneously. Yul rushed directly towards Chun's upper body, while Michio ran towards Chun's massive tail. Michio raised his right hand high, and the spears floating behind him also ascended. With a powerful wave of his hand, the spears shot forward, rapidly impaling Chun's tail and pinning her to the ground.
In pain, Chun roared, narrowly escaping Yul's sword slash. Her body coiled back towards Michio, and with a furious snarl, she summoned a jagged crystal spike in her right hand, aiming it directly at Michio's abdomen. In a fit of pure rage, Chun launched the crystal spike at Michio, who was still standing beside her tail, focusing on controlling the spears.
Yul dashed forward, swinging his sword with desperate speed, attempting to cut the crystal spike in half. But Yul's spiritual energy was not as strong as Chun's. The spike shattered against his blade, but the other half still pierced into Yul's right shoulder. The sheer intensity of Chun's spiritual energy caused Yul to drop his sword to the ground, sending him staggering a few feet away from Michio. He hit a tree trunk, stopping his fall. A sharp, searing pain shot through his lower left back.
Chun quickly summoned another crystal spike to her right hand, sneering malevolently at Yul and Michio. She gritted her teeth, her voice a low growl. "I'm going to kill you slowly. I'm going to chew your flesh piece by piece until I'm satisfied with my revenge." She knew that Michio had to use his internal force to keep her tail pinned to the ground, so she swayed towards Yul, who lay defenseless and unarmed on the ground. She pointed the crystal spike at Yul's left leg, a cruel, evil smile twisting her face.
From the corner of Michio's eye, he saw a black figure leaping from one treetop to the next, moving with incredible speed, heading directly towards them. "Only one giant snake," he thought frantically, "and we've gone to such lengths to kill it, and now we have another predator, as fast as a shadow, lurking at us!" Michio couldn't decide whether to focus his remaining energy on helping Yul or defending against the dark shape flickering above the treetops.
The moment Chun raised her crystal spike towards Yul, the predator in the treetops leaped from its hiding place. A large black panther crashed down, grabbing Chun's right hand and slamming her arm to the ground. Simultaneously, three wolves rushed forward, attacking Chun's left side.
"Hajime!" Michio screamed happily, a wave of immense relief washing over him. "Yul, our mage is here to save us! Ha… ha… ha…" Michio rushed over and helped Yul up, a triumphant grin spreading across his face.
The black panther savagely attacked Chun's left side, tearing at her flesh, while the three wolves relentlessly attacked her tails. The black panther was no less ferocious than the three wolves, its claws and teeth ripping into Chun.
Seeing the beasts aggressively attacking Chun, Michio clasped his hands together, shaking his head. "Karma… karma…" he murmured, a grim satisfaction in his tone.
When Yul finally picked up his sword, the panther and the wolves had already pinned Chun to the ground. Yul walked slowly towards the subdued serpent.
Chun pleaded, her voice desperate and broken. "Please don't kill me… please… I regret… please… I repent."
Yul plunged his sword into the middle of Chun's throat and then pulled it back. Chun's mouth immediately filled with blood. She clutched her neck, struggling to breathe, suffocating. As she thrashed in her death throes, her tail flicked back and forth, crashing violently into the surrounding trees. After a few agonizing moments, Chun finally died.
Michio smiled at Hajime. "You came just in time." He then looked at the black panther, which was now roaring at him. "Ah… Hajime, do you think you can make your panther go away?"
Hajime looked at the panther, then at Michio, a smirk playing on his lips. "You're afraid of my panther? He just saved your life! How ungrateful?" He snapped his fingers, and the panther, along with the three wolves, transformed back into three little wooden figures. They floated gently back into Hajime's open palm.
Michio's grin widened. "Thank you."
Hajime's expression turned serious. "Yul, that map must be a trap to lure us here to be eaten by these monsters. The whole forest area is a sacrificial ground. When I looked down from a high altitude just now, this woodland is like a human skull."
Yul nodded, his gaze distant. "Chun said that if we want to enter No Man's Land, we must have the five keys to open the Gate of Reality." He looked at Hajime. "Your ancestors once reached the Gate of Reality, but they didn't have the key, so they ended up suffering severely."
Hajime raised an eyebrow, skeptical. "How do you know she's telling the truth? After all, she's a monster."
Michio chimed in, "Yul, I know that in the past Hajime may have drawn conclusions without careful consideration, but this time I have to agree with Hajime."
Yul's gut instinct told him he was on the right path. He pulled the map from his inner robe, but it still didn't reveal any new clues. The lotus was still the only thing shown on the map. Yul looked at Hajime and Michio. "What if this map doesn't take us to No Man's Land, but instead, it takes us to find the keys?"
Hajime disagreed sharply. "You're incredible. Did you go crazy after your fight with that snake woman?" Hajime took a few deep breaths, realizing he might have gone a little too far. "Let's put it this way: if what you say is true, this forest is not a small forest. It would take a lifetime to find a key in this forest, and time is what your kingdom doesn't have."
Yul walked towards the dark pond where Chun had emerged. He looked at the murky water, and something within it seemed to reflect a faint shine back at him.
"What are you looking at?" Hajime asked, approaching cautiously.
"When you look down, what do you see?" Yul countered, his gaze fixed on the water.
Hajime peered into the pond. No matter what its reflection showed, the entire pond seemed to morph, looking like a giant eye watching him. He instinctively recoiled, backing away quickly. "Yul, it looks like an eye!" he exclaimed, panic rising in his voice. "Could there be another snake down there?" He suddenly felt a cold sweat run down his spine.
Yul stared intently at the pond. "Could that thing be the key?" he mused.
"No, it doesn't look like a key," Hajime argued, still unnerved. "But it looks like an eye."
Yul sighed. "Until we seek the truth, we won't know." He then dove into the pitch-black water.
"Yul! Get out quickly!" Hajime shouted, worried.
Yul turned to look at Hajime, a quick smile on his face. He took a deep breath and swam towards the shiny object at the bottom of the dark pond.