Chapter 7 - The Damned
[Arc 1— No Light Left For Us]
….
[The next day]
Raven glumly looked aside, his face twitching at the jolly duo— Hayden and Zoe.
It was bad enough they were both exchanging annoying flirtatious glances, and yet they had denied their relationship, as if it was the world's greatest secret. Now, with the arcane sigils in the mix, the flowery duo were… irksome.
Hayden was constantly showing off his offbrand flight innate skill. It was almost pathetic.
Raven took another look at the hovering boy, and spat out, "What a showoff."
He wasn't jealous or anything, but whoever or whatever granted him the sigil definitely hated him to the core.
What gave it away?
His innate skills only seemed cool on paper, but apart from being cockroach-like, there was nothing going on for him.
'Meanwhile…' Raven glanced once more at the joyous lad.
He wheezed, emphasising on every single word. "Magic is really overrated. It is so uncool."
Hearing him, Mist chuckled, "Well, I think your sigil is cool. You can sense danger and whatnot. Plus, an impressive regenerative factor. You are like a… witch guru. Like a human yoda… or is it Gandalf?"
Her eyes scanned the boy from head to toe. His scrawny physique and empty eyes were definitely not that of an enlightened wizard. Not even a young one.
He was closer to a street rat than the sages of wisdom.
Mist coughed awkwardly, nervously changing her tone. "Yo-you know what, you don't need comparisons. Y-you are cool in your own image."
By now, Raven's head hung lower than ever. He wasn't buying it.
"Alright, in complete honesty, I really like your weird sense thingy. You have to admit that's awesome, right?" Mist said.
She went on. "I have something similar, but it only works with blood. So, yours is kinda unique— a multipurpose human radar. That has to be hot on the market."
Raven's mouth twitched. "One would think."
Hell, [Seventh Sense] wasn't an innate skill. It was somewhat of a narrow sequence, and a harrowing one at that.
His body and mind could barely handle the omens that overloaded when he got into the hyper state. Over the last few hours, he had been practising whenever he got the chance, and the results were definitely depressing. He had only been able to somewhat tune out most of the regular sensations, leaving himself in a numb state.
Raven thought, 'The panel offers little to no explanation. Perhaps if I had something to work with, my progress would get better.'
He had a maddening desire to master this sequence before it was too late. While it was interesting to practice, he still hadn't forgotten where he was. To survive, he needed to utilize everything he got.
Shaking his thoughts away, Raven turned to Mist, asking, "What about you? You never told us your sigil."
During their discussion yesterday, Hayden had led the revelation on the sigils. He had revealed his innate skills and what they offered, but nothing on the name of the sigil. In fact, they had all hid the names. Sharing them felt… intimate— an instinctive emotion that had arisen with the awakening of the sigil.
Raven had followed along, revealing his innate skills and masking [Seventh Sense] as one of them. Meanwhile, Mist remained cryptic about her innate skills. She had responded to the group's inquiry with mysterious smiles.
"Do you want to know what my sigil is? If it's you, I can tell you," teased Mist.
Raven glanced over, expectantly.
Mist chuckled, "My, my, you really want to know. Nod for me and I will consider it."
Raven nodded eagerly. Inwardly, he prayed it was as boring as his. That way, he had someone to bond with.
"What a good boy." Mist's smile widened. "Very well. It's only right I tell—"
Before Mist could finish her words, Hayden called out from the front. "Hey guys, you might want to see this. Come over!"
Mist's smile faded quickly and she picked up her pace.
It didn't take the two of them to reach Hayden and Zoe. The lovers had their brows furrowed at one of the trees.
The appearance of the tree was certainly odd. It had flesh-like skin on its barks, and its trunk was swollen all the way from its center to its root, resembling some kind of pregnant tree.
If one focused intensely, they would make out indiscernible sounds like some kind of tender breathing, making it all the more strange. But the group weren't unfamiliar with this oddity.
Once Raven set his eyes on the tree, red text came out of existence, forming a panel. And from this panel echoed the voice of the red moon, perfectly comprehensible.
[Slumbering in nightmares, the heathen tribe, the Damned, search for the Moon and its idyllic dreams]
[Wretched Damned]
Ever since crossing a patch of the forest, the group had come across more trees like this. Pregnant trees with sinister monsters dwelling at their hearts.
Raven didn't need the taunting panel of the Moon to understand the dangers. He could sense the monstrous creatures swirling at the hearts of the trees, and their passionate heartbeats.
At first, it had taken him a while to get used to the feeling of their breath coursing across his skin raggedly, but by now, through incessant practices, he had learnt to ignore them.
'Something is wrong.' Raven quickly realized, looking at the tree right next to Hayden and Zoe.
This particular tree was extremely swollen. Its heartbeat was vivid and clear, leaving nothing to the imagination.
Raven's skin rose in bumps. For a brief second, he felt himself ensnared by a looming terrifying creature, its cold and sharp breath raking across his face as if it was right next to him.
Raven's breath hitched and he jerked backwards.
He looked across the field of looming pregnant trees and fear rose in his eyes.
'....Oh god.'
Apparent realization had dawned on the faces of every single one of them.
Hayden urged, "They are waking up. We need to leave, like right now!"