The forest stretched endlessly beneath the dead, grey sky.
Snow crunched beneath Xavier's boots as he ran between black trees twisted by winter and age. His lungs burned. Every breath stabbed his chest like needles. Sweat rolled down the side of his face despite the cold, only to freeze against his skin moments later.
Behind him, he could hear it, the desperate cries of the other survivors followed by the shrill cries of those creatures again, echoing somewhere deeper within the woods like starving animals hunting wounded prey.
Xavier's stomach twisted again.
He kept running.
Branches clawed at his ragged clothes. Snow exploded beneath his feet. Several times, he nearly slipped on hidden roots buried beneath the frost.
Then finally—
A large stone formation emerged ahead.
Xavier stumbled toward it and collapsed beside the rock, breathing heavily. His chest rose and fell violently while steam escaped his lips.
"What the hell…"
His voice shook.
"No… no, no, no… this shouldn't be happening…"
His fingers dug into his hair.
"I need to think. I need to calm down…"
Another scream echoed through the forest.
Closer this time.
Xavier's expression twisted.
"Why couldn't I just end up in some normal fantasy world?" he muttered bitterly. "You know… magic schools, stupid tournaments, overpowered main characters…"
His breathing grew uneven.
"Why this?"
His gaze slowly lifted toward the endless frozen woods surrounding him.
"This feels less like fantasy and more like surviving a damned apocalypse…"
The wind howled through the trees.
For a brief moment—
silence.
Then—
snap.
A branch broke somewhere behind him.
Xavier froze instantly.
Every muscle in his body tightened.
Slowly, carefully, he lowered himself behind the rock. His trembling hands dug through the snow until his fingers brushed against something hard buried beneath it.
Wood.
He pulled it free.
A long, broken branch, naturally sharpened at one end.
Like a crude spear.
Without wasting time, Xavier tore part of the cloth wrapped around his waist and wound it tightly around the middle of the stick to create a grip.
Then he raised the weapon with shaking hands.
His breathing became shallow.
"It's either them or me…" he whispered.
The branch snapped again.
Closer.
Xavier gritted his teeth.
"So strike first."
He tightened his grip.
"Strike before they strike you." Instinctively, he sprang out of his hiding place and charged.
Then suddenly—
"Whoa!!. Calm down there."
Xavier nearly jumped out of his skin.
He expected to fight a monster only to find this man, Raiden, standing several feet away with both hands raised.
The older man looked exhausted himself. Snow covered his shoulders, and his scarred face carried traces of fatigue beneath the cold.
Xavier lowered the spear slightly.
"You…"
He exhaled sharply.
"You're that crazy guy from before."
Raiden raised an eyebrow.
"Crazy?"
A faint smirk appeared on his face.
"That's quite the way to address your senior."
Xavier snorted.
"With my current situation, respect isn't exactly high on my priorities."
Raiden stared at him for a moment before chuckling softly beneath his breath.
"…Fair enough."
Then his expression darkened again.
"But we should move. I don't think those things are very far away."
At the mention of the creatures, Xavier instinctively glanced toward the forest behind them.
"What exactly are those monsters anyway?"
Raiden shook his head slowly.
"I don't know."
Xavier blinked.
"You don't know?"
"This is only my second time entering the Spell World," Raiden admitted. "I know more than most beginners, but not enough to identify creatures like those."
Xavier stared at him silently.
Second time?
Then that means…
His eyes drifted toward the older man's broad frame, the scars across his face, the calmness in his posture despite the nightmare surrounding them.
Experience.
That alone made Raiden valuable.
And right now—
Valuable meant survival.
Xavier finally sighed and lowered the spear fully.
"…Fine. You can come with me."
Raiden smiled faintly.
"How generous."
The two immediately resumed moving through the forest. "Hey old man" Xavier asked, "what is this world and what are we supposed to do."
Raiden: Seriously, first you call me crazy, now old. What do you want to know?
Xavier: Everything, I feel, is best if I get an idea of what were dealing with so I don't slow us down. Information is power.
Raiden stared closely at the handsome boy, for someone who's never been to the spellworld, he carried the face of a survivor, like he's been through this.
Raiden: This is the spell world, which is a dimension outside our actual world, and is dangerous, as you can see. The system of the spell world is unpredictable. Many of us believe that this dimension is sentient and toys with us as we try to grow strong. To enter the spell world, you need to make a potion, which I believe you drank.
Xavier(Sigh): Yeah.
Raiden: Ok, now once you enter the spell world, you will undergo a trial, usually it's solo, but as I said, we believe this dimension is alive, and played with us, that's why there were more beginners than experts.
It felt as though they had been walking forever; this forest seemed to have no end.
Raiden: Now listen closely to what I have to say, cause info is important. When you enter the spell world, your physical body-
Xavier: Goes into deep sleep, I know, my guardian told me. If you die here, your body becomes a corpse. Time works the same here; if you spend one day here means your body's been asleep for a day. If your physical body gets killed, you're trapped here, and you'll begin to mutate, transform into a being for the spell world.
Raiden: This man thought you well.
Snow continued falling between the dark trees, blanketing the world in silence broken only by distant screams.
"HELP!" someone yelled
The desperate cry tore through the woods.
A man's voice.
A Terrified voice.
Raiden immediately stopped.
"He's nearby."
Xavier grabbed his arm instantly.
"Are you insane?"
Raiden looked back at him.
"He could still be alive."
"And those things could still be there!" Xavier's voice rose sharply.
"Did you not see those monsters tear people apart back there?!"
Raiden's gaze hardened.
"It is my duty as a knight to help those in danger."
Xavier stared at him as he had just lost his mind.
"You really have your head buried deep in your own ass, don't you?"
Raiden frowned.
"And abandoning people is somehow wiser?"
"Yes!" Xavier snapped immediately, "Yes, it is!"
The words echoed through the cold forest.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Raiden stepped closer.
"You kept me around because you thought I could help you survive," he said calmly. "You thought I had experience."
Xavier remained silent.
"So help me save this person," Raiden continued. "Or you can continue wandering blindly through this nightmare alone. Trust me, that's not the main creature we're supposed to kill; there are far worse creatures here than those. How do you think I got this scar?" he asked, pointing to the mark that was drawn across his face.
Xavier clenched his jaw.
Damn it.
He hated admitting it—
But Raiden was right.
Without someone experienced beside him, his chances of surviving this place dropped drastically.
Xavier let out a long, irritated sigh.
"…Fine."
Raiden nodded once.
"But the moment I see one of those things feeding off someone's corpse," Xavier warned coldly, " Were running."
"Understood."
Together, the two moved toward the source of the screams.
Slowly.
Carefully.
The smell reached them first.
Blood.
Heavy enough to taint the freezing air itself.
Then they saw them.
And Xavier immediately wished they hadn't.
Three people had been captured.
An elderly man.
An old woman.
And a young girl no older than fifteen.
The creatures surrounded them like predators toying with prey.
One of the monsters pinned the old man against the snow using its grotesquely elongated limbs, while another lifted an enormous stone high above its head.
The old man screamed.
The rock came down.
CRACK.
Xavier flinched violently.
Again.
CRACK.
Again.
The man's chest collapsed inward beneath the repeated blows until blood and flesh spread across the snow in steaming crimson pools.
The old woman shrieked.
The young girl sobbed hysterically.
Meanwhile, the creatures watched.
Then slowly—
One of them lowered its claw into the puddle of blood.
And dragged the crimson liquid across its own face.
The blood seeped directly into its dark skin.
Absorbed.
As though the creature itself were drinking through flesh.
Xavier felt nausea rise in his throat.
"Yeah…" he whispered hoarsely. "No. Absolutely not."
The knight's expression darkened.
"We can't abandon them."
Xavier turned toward him slowly.
"Are you serious?"
"They're innocent people."
"And we'll become dead people."
Raiden's jaw tightened. "Sometimes helping others matters more than surviving."
That sentence made something inside Xavier go quiet. For a few seconds, he stared at the older man. Then he laughed once, because the idea itself sounded absurd.
"Let me tell you something, knight Raiden."
His voice became colder.
"Caring about people gets you killed."
The wind moved softly through the trees.
Xavier's eyes darkened.
"No one ever helped me when We needed it. No one showed mercy. The moment people stop finding value in you…" He said quietly, "…they throw you away."
"We...?" Raiden stared at Xavier quietly after hearing those words.
The forest howled around them as snow drifted between dead trees.
Yet for a brief moment, the screams in the distance seemed very far away.
Because the expression on Xavier's face…
He had seen that look before, all to well.
The face of a child of sorrow. Of someone who had buried too many. Born of pain, lived through pain, to die through pain
Raiden's gaze softened slightly.
Whatever life that child had lived before arriving here…it had not been gentle. And whatever wounds he carried inside himself—they were old enough to rot. Deep enough that even now, Xavier spoke about abandoning people as though it were simple common sense.
Raiden sighed quietly.
Then he stepped forward and rested a hand on Xavier's shoulder.
"Listen to me carefully."
Xavier frowned slightly but remained silent.
"North from here," Raiden continued, "there is a Black Tower."
"A Black Tower?"
Raiden nodded.
"In trials like this one, survivors are usually guided toward a central point. A gathering place." His eyes shifted toward the distant forest. "Everyone who survives long enough will eventually head there."
Snow drifted across his scarred face.
"When they gather, the true trial begins."
Xavier narrowed his eyes.
"And how exactly do you know there's a tower here?"
"I can see it, as we speak."
Xavier blinked.
"…What?"
Raiden gave a faint smile.
"You still haven't awakened your Spell. You're ordinary."
Then suddenly— something beneath the man's cloak moved.
Xavier immediately stepped back.
The cloth around Raiden's shoulders trembled violently. The shape beneath it expanded unnaturally, stretching outward as though something alive were fighting to escape.
And then—
BOOM.
Enormous black wings burst out of Raiden's back.