The mysterious figure's grin widened, eyes gleaming with cruel amusement.
"Kairo, I think I should just leave you in this forest. I know that mask you're wearing — it will be gone soon. You're trying to hide your fear. You know fear makes us strong, but it seems like there is still weakness in you. A very big weakness. And you are acting on it."
He tilted his head, voice dripping with mock boredom.
"Well then… I am bored of torturing you. Instead of that, I will see what you are capable of. What you can do. And more importantly, how you will even survive in this forest. So yeah… enjoy your moment with these monsters. And yeah, I will make sure I cast a magic which will make them forget about your existence. As it will just end if I don't cast that magic."
Kairo's voice came out strained. "What will end?"
The mysterious figure smiled wickedly.
"Ohh, I forgot to tell you something. You and I are kinda like immortal. So nobody can kill you. If I want you to die, you will die. So in this forest, just make sure not to get caught by them. They will eat you alive. And yeah… you being immortal doesn't mean you are strong. It means you will suffer endlessly."
Kairo's shoulders shook. Tears welled up in his eyes as he broke down.
"I am sorry… please just let me go. I beg you… please. I read about this place. This is not our world. This is some kind of dimension… so please… just let me go…"
The mysterious figure's smile turned even more twisted. "Farewell, my precious toy."
Kairo stood there, breathing ragged, fists clenched so tightly his nails dug into his palms. "Ok… time to get serious. Ohh man… this is scary. I just can't handle it… I can't move…"
Ok, so my body is in panic mode. That's why I'm unable to move, he thought, forcing himself to focus. Only three options: run, fight, or camouflage.
A massive snake slithered past him. Its scales were black as midnight with streaks of deep red, shimmering like fresh blood. Its eyes glowed like burning coals, and with every breath it took, a low, rattling sound echoed — like distant thunder rolling through the trees.
Kairo quickly covered his ears, heart pounding. "Uhh… I read about it. Their breath is like thunder. Gotta put earplugs…"
He was way too scared. His legs felt like lead. "That snake… it is so huge. Uhh… if he sees me, even if I run, I will get caught in no time. And it is so dark here… I may even bump into some monsters. I need to run away from it. And yeah… danger level is insane."
Then he spotted it — the old cave from his past nightmares.
Hmm… so this cave had some kind of barrier. So nice and slow… no sound… nice and slow… no sound…
"This place is giving me PTSD… but I've got no choice."
Kairo calculated desperately in his head. Ok, I hate maths, but I need it. I can run 30 km per hour speed. I wish I could be an adult — I could run 70 to 80 km/h. But let's forget about it. This snake is gigantic, so I can run 0.5 km in one minute, 1.5 in 3 minutes, and in 5 minutes I can run 2.5 km. And yeah, my stamina is monstrous… wait a second… is that cave getting covered by the darkness? Ohh, you have to be kidding me right now. This place is magical, so even if I run straight, I will be gone. So no time — I have to run for 5 minutes. It is 2.5 km away… or even closer if I look at it. But damn it, wouldn't that be an illusion? If I am running straight into a trap…
"Whatever… I am immortal. And yeah, that monster is having every bit of fun. I know he is staring at me running right now."
Then he noticed the creepy pale monster running toward him.
"You have to be kidding me…"
The white creepy monster let out a blood-curdling scream.
"Uhh… only one minute had passed and this guy is screaming like that. Well, don't focus on him… but uhh… damn it, it's too scary…"
Tears streamed down Kairo's face as he ran, sobbing. "I am brave… I am brave… I don't wanna be eaten alive… I am brave… please…"
"Uhh… no, I have to run even faster than others. If I don't, I will die…"
Kairo noticed he had only 4 km more to go. "Speed please… my body, just listen to me please… but still, will it be enough??"
He pushed himself for another two minutes. It had been three minutes total. "Good… now just 2 minutes…"
Then he realized — it was indeed a trap.
"No… there is no cave here!"
He looked left — no cave. He looked right — the cave had changed direction.
"Uhh… no way. I have to make sure I don't suddenly go right, but still he will be closer to me. Ohh man… what should I do?"
He glanced back. The creepy monster was still following, now picking up rocks from the ground.
"That's the opportunity…"
Kairo deliberately left his sandals in the bushes as a distraction, then turned sharply right, gaining a burst of speed as he sprinted straight toward what he hoped was the real exit.
"So… I think magic isn't useless at all. I wish I could use magic, but this monster is too smart. I also tried to make sure he follows my illusion. Other small beasts did follow that illusion, but that creepy pale guy doesn't buy it. Now what to do… uhh… I can't think straight… please…"
Then he realized — the black aura. "Yeah… that black aura… I nearly forgot about it. But it will make other monsters who are unimaginable faster or even bigger threats come toward me. And I still don't have mastery over it. It just comes…"
"Ok… Ok… I can see it… but damn it… uhhh…"
Kairo's ankle suddenly gave out with a sharp crack. Pain shot up his leg, but he kept running. He still needed to cover a whole minute more.
And not only that — the giant snake had noticed him. Its massive head turned, glowing red eyes locking onto Kairo as the trees no longer hid him.
The forest seemed to close in tighter, the rattling thunder of the snake's breath growing louder, the creepy pale monster's scream echoing behind him.
Kairo's heart pounded so hard it felt like it would burst.
He was caught between two nightmares — and the exit was still agonizingly far.
Kairo's eyes widened in pure horror as he glanced down mid-stride.
His left foot was gone.
A ragged, bleeding stump was all that remained where his ankle should have been. Pain exploded through his nerves a split second later—sharp, white-hot, and nauseating.
"AAAAAHHHHH!"
He screamed, voice cracking, yet his body refused to stop. Adrenaline kept him hopping forward on one leg, each awkward landing sending fresh jolts of agony up his shin. Behind him, the massive eight-foot snake—its true length still impossible to judge in the dim, twisting cave—slithered closer with terrifying speed. Its pale, scaled body gleamed wetly, coils rippling like living shadows.
Kairo's breath came in ragged gasps. He slammed his palm against the bleeding stump, desperately activating his dark aura. Black, swirling energy surged from his core and wrapped around the wound like a living bandage, dulling the pain just enough for him to keep moving.
But the white, pale, creepy monster was gaining on him from the other side. Its elongated limbs scraped against the cave walls with a sickening screech, empty eyes fixed on him. The snake closed in from behind. Both horrors converged, the air growing thick with the stench of rot and venom.
Kairo's heart hammered against his ribs. His vision blurred at the edges. This was it—he was trapped.
Then, in the instant before impact, everything shattered.
The monsters dissolved like smoke. The crushing pressure vanished. Kairo stumbled forward a few more steps before realizing the ground beneath him felt… different. Solid. Familiar.
He spun around, chest heaving.
The cave entrance yawned behind him. He had simply walked straight through it. No monsters. No missing foot. The entire chase had been nothing but an illusion.
Kairo stood there, frozen, sweat dripping down his temples. His leg—both legs—were completely intact. The dark aura still faintly flickered around his ankle, but there was no wound, no blood, not even a scar.
He closed his eyes tightly, half-expecting the nightmare to return the moment he opened them. When he finally dared to look again, he was still inside the cave, deeper now, the faint glow of bioluminescent moss casting eerie patterns on the walls.
"Hmm…"
Kairo muttered, voice shaky but trying to sound casual.
"So my leg… it was fully healed after all."
He let out a weak, breathless laugh that echoed oddly in the silence.
Then the world tilted. Exhaustion crashed over him like a wave, and Kairo's knees buckled. He collapsed against the cold stone wall, sliding down until he sat on the ground. His eyelids grew impossibly heavy.
When he woke again, the cave looked exactly the same. The same dim light, the same damp air, the same distant dripping of water. Nothing had changed. Not even a little.
Kairo stared at the unchanging stone around him, a chill crawling up his spine that had nothing to do with the temperature.
"…Did I even move at all?"
he whispered to himself.
The cave offered no answer. Only silence—and the faint, lingering sense that the illusion might not have fully ended.
The cave was dim, the air thick with the scent of damp stone and something faintly metallic. Kairo blinked once, twice, and suddenly found himself inside the very cavern he had been trying to reach. His head spun for a moment before his gaze dropped to his ankle. It was swollen and heavily bruised, the skin torn in several places.
"Hmm… just a scratch,"
he muttered, testing his weight on it.
"It'll heal in no time. I'm not some modern weakling from my old world anymore. Dad taught me how to be a man, so I'll handle it like one."
He straightened up, jaw set.
"Anyway, no matter who I face, I'll face it bravely—just like Dad said. Today, I won't die as a coward."
A low, amused chuckle echoed from deeper within the shadows.
"Ohh, hello there. Take a seat. So… how was school?"
Kairo turned toward the voice. A mysterious figure lounged against the far wall, cloaked in swirling darkness that seemed to drink in what little light the cave offered. His presence alone made the air feel heavier.
"It was great,"
Kairo replied dryly.
"I met an idiot. A retarded piece of shit who kidnapped me, yet he thinks he's some big-shot villain."
The figure's eyes narrowed. In the next instant, a razor-sharp blade of pure shadow sliced clean through Kairo's neck.
His head tumbled through the air.
For a heartbeat, silence.
Then Kairo's body calmly bent down, picked up the severed head, and pressed it back onto his neck with a wet, fleshy click. The wound sealed instantly, leaving only a faint red line that quickly faded.
"Well,"
Kairo said, rolling his shoulders as if nothing had happened,
"I'm immortal. So why should I fear someone like you?"
The mysterious figure's expression twisted with genuine anger, the shadows around him writhing like living smoke.
"Oh yeah? So let me give you some advice. You know you're not the only one who's said that about me."
His voice dropped into a dangerous whisper.
"My job is to make people sin. Instead of doing that, I help their sins get erased. That's why my people call me what they do. If you ever, ever say that again… I swear I'll make sure you suffer for thousands of years."
Kairo raised an eyebrow.
"Woah, okay. So why won't you just follow them?"
"Hmm. I just don't like it. I don't want to work for someone else's sake. You know, I'm on vacation right now. When your life is over, I'll get back to the usual job."
The figure leaned forward, his tone shifting into something almost businesslike.
"As for the task… you will help me destroy weak nations. And to be honest, those weak nations will tear you apart again and again. I'm doing this to study how a so-called 'good man' handles things—so I can be prepared for the future. You'll do it. If you don't, you'll suffer. You have no choice but to accept."
Kairo stared at him for a long moment, weighing the words. His fists clenched at his sides, but his voice came out steady.
"Hmm… okay. You're telling me to defeat the bad guys? Well, I can defeat the adults of this generation. I'm very talented. Me and Leonhart just never showed it—we didn't want any unnecessary attention from the enemies. We'd get hunted down otherwise. So instead, we acted like average joes. That's the reason we're still alive right now." He exhaled sharply. "But defeating a whole nation… that's complicated. Still, I have no choice. So yeah, count me in, you ugly bastard."
A slow, satisfied grin spread across the figure's face.
"Good. You're already racking up bad deeds."
Kairo's hand shot up to cover his mouth, eyes widening in horror at his own words.
"Damn it… I'll do things I won't be satisfied with."
"Great,"
the figure purred.
"In the end, you will sin no matter what."
Then, as if the heavy conversation had never happened, the mysterious figure tilted his head toward the cave entrance, where faint forest sounds drifted in.
"Hey, don't you think these animals in the forest look way too cute?"
Kairo blinked, caught off guard by the sudden shift.
"What do you mean? Every single animal here looks like it crawled straight out of a horror film. Those monsters are way too creepy."
The figure chuckled softly, almost fondly.
"Well, to be honest… these are the low-tier versions of animals from Hell, created by us. Our main goal is to make people head toward Hell—which is far more agonizing than any torture I could give you in this world."
Kairo frowned. "Won't you guys be there too?"
"So what?" the figure replied with a lazy shrug.
Then he simply vanished, melting into the shadows as if he had never been there.
Kairo stood alone in the cave, the sudden silence pressing down on him. He ran a hand through his hair, exhaling slowly.
"Great. Now I'm confused… Am I doing the right thing or the wrong thing?"
He stared at the spot where the figure had been.
"But it'll be revealed in the future by some other guys, so resisting is a waste of time. I don't want any kind of trauma."
He glanced down at his ankle. The swelling was already gone, the wounds closing on their own, leaving smooth, unmarked skin.
"Well… I think that contract has some pros too, after all."