The air in the forest thickened with every step, laden with a silence that wasn't peace, but an omen. Sunlight, filtered through the canopies of ancient trees, painted golden patches on a floor carpeted with dry leaves and twisted roots. Alex, Emi, and Aria advanced in tense formation, following the trail of what the Guild reports only described as "The Huntress."
Aria, despite the oppressive atmosphere, couldn't contain her fascination.
"It must be amazing! A woman so powerful she lives alone in the forest, defying everyone!" she whispered, her violet eyes shining with distorted admiration.
Emi walked a few steps ahead, her back rigid. It wasn't fear that tensed her, but an icy intuition running down her spine.
"Be quiet, Aria," she murmured without turning. "This isn't a legend. It's a murderer. And we're not here to admire her."
Alex, in the center, felt the weight of both energies: Aria's reckless excitement and Emi's silent alarm. His own instincts, sharpened by months of survival, screamed at him that something was terribly wrong. The signs didn't lie: trees with bark charred in strange patterns, fragments of metal and cloth disintegrated as if aged centuries in seconds, and a sweetish, nauseating smell that floated in patches.
Suddenly, the forest breathed.
A veil of reddish mist rose from the ground, enveloping them. The temperature plummeted. And then, she appeared.
She didn't emerge from behind a tree. She simply was there, as if she had always been waiting. Long pink hair like strawberry yogurt, pale skin almost translucent, and eyes that didn't reflect light, but devoured it, glowing with an unsettlingly conscious crimson gleam.
But the most shocking thing wasn't her appearance. It was her effect.
Her gaze swept over the trio and settled on Emi. And in that instant, the heroine, the girl who faced demons with a smile, froze. Not from fear. From a hypnotic, repellent fascination. An instant, toxic connection that tensed the air between them.
"Who are you?" The woman's voice was soft, honeyed, but carried the edge of polished steel.
Before anyone could answer, her crimson eyes shifted to Alex. And all the false sweetness evaporated. Her face transformed into a mask of pure, ancestral hatred.
"You…" she whispered, and the word sounded like a curse. "One of them."
Alex barely had time to open his mouth.
"What are you talk…?"
It was useless. The woman moved with a speed that defied sight. A red flash, a hand cold as the grave closing around his throat, and then… emptiness. The force of the yank tore him from the ground. The screams of Emi and Aria faded into the distance as he was dragged through the trees at a demential speed, the world turning into a blur of green and brown.
The last image he registered was the woman turning her head back, her crimson eyes fixed on him with hungry satisfaction, while the forest closed around him like the jaws of a beast. He had fallen into the trap. And now, he was completely alone.