“Hm, I really did go far, didn’t I?” Arthur muttered as he stopped near a tree and opened his map to check where he was. Looking at it, he noticed that he was now completely far away from the village.
The distance was almost 10 kilometers. He couldn’t even see the village unless he zoomed out a little. However, what was surprising was that when he zoomed out even more, the scale of the entire forest only grew bigger and bigger, with seemingly no end to it.
He could easily see that he had only explored a fraction of the entire forest and whatever was left was a complete mystery. ‘Even after an entire day, I don’t think players were able to explore even 30% of the forest.’ He thought to himself as he closed the map.
He didn’t know exactly which section of the forest he was in, but he didn’t care as he was enjoying this exploration. He still didn’t find anything of importance yet, but he knew that if he looked long enough, he was bound to find it.
“Hmm, my guts are telling me to continue heading north and see where that will bring me.” He muttered as he looked around him. He noticed that the forest had grown considerably thicker than before. The trees now covered his vision and the bushes around him felt like they turned into a rather massive cluster of long grass rather than mere bushes.
But, using his Sanguine Blade, he was able to cut through all greenery with ease. Its extreme sharpness made even the smallest movement able to cut through anything in his path, including enemies.
For the next 20 minutes or so, Arthur continued moving up north, just looking around him for anything interesting. However, so far, he found nothing of interest. All he could see were endless stretches of forest and it was naturally something that was starting to bore him.
‘What the hell is this? Can there be something that could actually be useful?’ Arthur muttered as he stopped to check his map. However, at that moment, something caught his eye from a distance.
“Hm?” Looking up, he noticed a small blue light coming from a few dozen meters ahead. Immediately, he dropped everything he was thinking of doing and started moving toward the light. The more he got closer, the stronger that light became.
Eventually, when the light was at its brightest, Arthur finally found himself at the spot. It was an open area in the middle of the forest that had no trees, plants, or even grass in it. Just plain dirt.
The ground was cracked and dry as if it didn’t get water in eons and even the trees around it seemed to not want to expand into this area. However, the most interesting part of this entire odd area was the structure built in the middle of it.
“Is that… a door?” Arthur muttered as he squinted his eyes. No matter how he looked at the structure, he could only describe it as a door, a stone door to be exact. The light emitted from it was generated by weird runic words engraved into every spot on it.
Ignoring the fact that it had no frame, the door somehow stood perfectly balanced in the middle as if it was meant to be there.
Arthur found himself drawn toward the door and its weirdly subtle aura. He didn’t need a second to understand that this was a special thing.
“Now, what do we have here?” He looked around him and then slowly stepped into the area, heading toward this door. “There was no mentioning of any door in the forums, at least from what I have seen.”
However, it was clear that this was some kind of aspect nobody had found in the game yet and Arthur had the honor of seeing it for the first time.
When Arthur reached the door, he stopped and looked up. He realized that it was quite massive, towering over him easily.
‘Not that it is hard for anything to tower over me.’ He sighed as he examined the structure and its weird runes. “I can’t read any of that, that’s for sure. But, what would happen if I tried to push it?”
With a curious idea, the boy extended his arm forward and touched the door. Almost instantly, the runes grew a little brighter as if they reacted to his touch and then a notification appeared in his retina.
[Memory Portal has been detected!]
[Would you like to enter the memory?]
[Yes.] [No.]
“Hm? A memory portal?” Arthur raised an eyebrow. “So, this door does lead somewhere. Interesting. But, what does it mean by a ‘memory’? Am I gonna go to the past if I accept?”
A lot of questions rose in Arthur’s head at that moment, but there were no real answers. He didn’t know if accepting was a good idea or not since this was, as far as he could see, a very suspicious and dangerous-looking door.
“Eh, I asked for something interesting and I got one. I can’t just say no now. I have to see what’s inside.” He muttered before he tapped on the accept button. Immediately, the door reacted to the choice.
The blue runes grew even brighter as if they were now infused with more energy. The light turned to a halo around the entire door in less than a second. Then, the entire area around Arthur started to ripple as the door slowly moved on its own.
“Woah!” When the door fully opened, it left behind a weird shrouded halo that obstructed Arthur’s vision of what was beyond it. The fog was exactly the size of the door which meant that the portal had activated.
“This is really gorgeous.” He muttered. However, Arthur wasn’t brought anywhere else yet which made him think. “I guess it wants me to touch the mist.”
Feeling a little apprehensive, he still extended his hand slowly until it made contact with the weird phenomena. But, Arthur’s hand didn’t touch anything, instead, it completely passed through it as if it didn’t exist.
“Hm…” With a confused look, Arthur slowly moved forward, letting the mist take him in inch by inch. Eventually, his entire body was consumed by it.
“Here goes nothing.” He closed his eyes as he let his body get transported. A few moments later, things shifted completely. The pleasant wind of the forest had suddenly vanished and the temperature spiked up as if he was put in a furnace.
That was when Arthur opened his eyes and what he saw froze him in his place. His breath halted and his eyes slowly widened.
The place he found himself in seemed to be a desert. Dunes of sand covered the entire world around him, stretching far and wide in all directions. The hot wind carried the sand grains everywhere, hitting Arthur’s skin as he felt like he was being poked by small needles.
However, that wasn’t what struck him like a hammer. It was something far more horrifying, and far more graphic. All around him, riddling this entire plain were dead corpses. Mingled bodies, dismembered heads of what seemed to be humans and other unrecognizable creatures.
There were so many that some even piled up on top of one another like a stack. Their blood covered the entire place, turning the yellow sand a deep shade of red. The horrid smell of blood, even though it was way weaker than it should’ve been, still made Arthur shudder.
“… W-What the hell is this place?” Eventually, he snapped out of it as he sucked in a deep breath. “This… Nobody warned me! Why are there so many dead corpses?!”
Feeling panicked from the sight and how realistic it was, he immediately pulled his sword out. He had never thought he would feel this terror strike his heart this suddenly. Yet, it seemed his share of surprises wasn’t done.
[Ding!]
[Memory Fragment detected.]
[Location: Arcania’s desert.]
[Time: Unknown.]
[Memory: Battle of The Ethereals.]
A//N: Hand me all your PS!
