Aria nodded,
"That's right, the soul is tightly connected to the body and houses the mark of a person's existence. Our souls come from our fully grown bodies from our former lives, as such our soul is also considered 'fully grown', so why are these younger bodies that have never grown with our souls so compatible?"
Ren looked at his hand, its pale color, concerning as it was, was the least of his current concerns.
questions about why he was here and why Ms. Star, someone he knew, was also here were what filled his mind.
Could he have been sent here for a purpose, or was he just given another chance?
Maybe his soul drifted to this unknown world.
If that was the case, then why didn't he have any memories of the body, and why was Ms.Star here as well?
During this moment, a thought came to him,
"We haven't checked the system yet, have we?"
"Yes, it might have answers.. But…"
Aria soon frowned. Ren, confused, soon realized why, as the familiar golden outlined rectangular system window appeared,
"The system… isn't working."
Looking at the rectangular window, it was completely blank, not displaying the usual stats or levels it had previously,
"Oh! The messaging function still works." Smiling, Aria concentrated on the messaging window.
Ms. Star: [Mr. Night! I-I just met this weird guy in the forest… and.. and he says he's you!]
As the rectangular system notification window popped up in Ren's view, he frowned while looking at it,
"Ms. Star… I'm right here."
"Hehe, I... was just making sure."
…
The sun started to set as the soft scent of the tree leaves filled their nostrils, a cool breeze brushed against their skin and hair, as the wind made the susurration of the many tree leaves audible throughout the entirety of the forest, and as the sun dipped slowly with the cooling world, revealed in the sky was a unique 2 moons floating near each other.
It was completely pitch black, though their eyes soon got used to the dark; the moonlight or the stars didn't seem bright enough to light their surroundings, leaving them to only see mere meters ahead.
To both of them, though the situation was odd, having gone through a chaotic magical world once before, they kept an unusual calm.
"Two moons? How unique,", Ren stared up with focus
"Is something wrong?"
"No… or maybe yes? I just have this odd feeling that something isn't right.", Ren slightly frowned, looking down, he noticed the hair of his forearm standing on end.
Aria's head tilted, confused at his response as she also looked at the two moons,
"Two moons are odd, but isn't this a world of magic? If anything, Earth is the weird one for having only one, in fact, during my time in Solaris it had twelv-"
Aria didn't finish her sentence as she paused, looking at the moon, her eyes widened before frowning similarly to Ren.
"You feel it, right?"
"Well, I can also see it."
The world was filled with mana. Ren could feel it while Aria took it a step further, her eyes glowed as the particles of mana were revealed in front of her.
The moonlight shone softly; to an observer, it was a beautiful sight, especially on the vibrant leaves of the forest, yet
"The mana changed in the atmosphere; it now feels like looking at a mirage."
"Mirage? That's one way to describe it. To me, it feels like I'm being squeezed from all directions."
Aria looked around.
The tree leaves still swayed the same way as before, their vibrant colors, though less noticeable in the night, were still a beautiful sight, though the way the trees were placed in an oddly uniform way,
'Like it's artificial…', Aria frowned, looking behind them.
Ren continued to move forward, and he heard the sound of rushing water nearby. With slight joy, Ren turned to Aria.
"Ms. Star, I heard a stream up ahead. We should gather some water and set up camp… Ms. Star?"
Oddly, Aria had stopped walking, leaving her a couple of steps behind Ren and his question.
She was standing still, looking behind them with a weary yet sharp expression, hand tightly gripping her staff, her eyes glowed softly with mana, acting as the only source of light other than the moonlight.
It was an indication she was getting ready for something,
'For what?'
The question only lingered for a moment as Ren turned to look.
During this turn, he heard the sound of rustling grass and footsteps echoing from a distance away. As he scanned his heart, seemingly stilled,
There it was, about 9-10 meters away, despite the darkness, core features could be made out with unnerving clarity,
4 limbs, yet Ren could discern finger tips, 6 in total, on each of its 2 hands, much like a human, but for some reason it crawled on all fours across the grass, its hind limbs were its feet, having 6 toes each,
But that was the least unnerving thing, its skin was a sickly pale white, hairless, and smooth, with a skinny body making out a thin and gaunt, almost corpse-like figure, the bones of its skeleton desperately trying to escape the body.
But even that wasn't the most fear-inducing part, surrounded by the darkness of night and the shade of the trees on its bald head were 2 eyes, no mouth, ears, or nose in sight, hollow and pitch black these eyes stared back at the two.
1...2…3…4…
Seconds passed before suddenly a hole opened on the lower part of its face, revealing a similarly pitch black mouth, reaching all the way to the chin of the head.
This mouth made a series of sounds, something similar to a person gasping for air, then a whimper, a cry, and finally….
A blood-curdling scream, all while lunging at the two, mouth agape.
'What the hell is that!?' Ren's eyes widened.
'Damn it!' Aria, still with a focused and weary expression unlike her internal shock, readied herself.
[Tier 1: Wind Blade!]
She quickly pushed back to create distance, all while simultaneously casting a wind blade at maximum output.
A green crescent shaped light cleaved through the air rapidly reaching for the head of the monster,
Black blood with a hint of red splattered, yet Aria grit her teeth, as on the ground wasn't the monster's head but merely its arm.
It had dodged the fatal attack, even though it had lost an arm, it continued blitzing ahead, reaching them in the blink of an eye.
Ren unsheathed his sword, thrusting it into the mouth of the monster, as it entered the pitch black mouth,
The sound of cutting flesh could be heard, causing it to let out a choked cry, swatting towards Ren's chest with its remaining hand,
'Strong!', Despite blocking with his free forearm, he was launched a couple of meters back tumbling with the sword still in his grip.
The monster crouched, coughing up more black blood while dazed by the attack.
Aria raised her staff without hesitation, moving it in a cutting motion.
[Tier 1: Wind Blade!]
But once more the monster avoided death, blocking the attack by some miraculous instinct, but it didn't just lose its remaining arm like in the last attack; it had also been cut deep into its neck and stomach.
Its charge was slowed! But Aria was far from pleased,
'2 more seconds to cast! I don't have enough time!'
The monster's mouth opened before Aria in an instant; its size was bigger than her head.
She couldn't cast it in time, nor was she physically fast enough to retreat; she would die!
But then a sword flew past her face, embedding into the forehead of the monster, staggering it,
Aria, with widened eyes, smiled and raised the staff once more,
[Tier 1: Wind Blade!]
Black blood gushed everywhere, the monster fell onto its knees, head a distance away, but unnerving it still twitched.
Ren slowly approached, dagger in hand, pulling his sword out.
"Thank you, Mr. Night."
"Mhm, what even is this thing anyways?"
But before that question could be answered, blood curling screams and roars were heard echoing through the entire forest, a familiar ding was heard,
[Mission: Surivive The Night]
It seemed a long night was ahead of them.