Subaru rubbed his tummy, and it growled in protest.
Two days.
And no source of food and water.
He rested his other hand on a low dark trunk. Wheezing through his parched lips, he looked up. The forest stretched out endlessly. The trek twists and turns endlessly into a labyrinth.
Dark branches giving way to ashen leaves. Subaru knew this was not Lagunica, but this sight extinguished any hope still left.
Subaru hesitated before climbing into the dark shadow, walking into the forest's maw.
The forest was silent as if holding its breath just enough to silent to the rustling of Subaru's sneakers.
Strange. No animals. No birds. Not even the chirping of insects. Nothing but endless woods.
He climbed for an hour and then the woods parted ways. Beyond the woods, a short stretch of land gave way to an opening. Blue petaled flowers bloom between a long expanse of greyish grass. Subaru instinctually reached out to pluck the flower, and bite down on it. He chewed the petals sucking the juices, as he observed the glade.
No vegetation existed in the forest. It was either the flowers or the grass and starvation long exhausted all his caution and it's not like I will die, right?
He paused and then plucked out a couple of flowers and some grass and lined them in his jersey's pockets. After stacking enough rations, he started his trek uphill. He was not walking without a plan.
After a day of senseless walking and starvation. He had almost lost himself in despair, when he first saw the blue flower. Under a tree sitting on top a muddy bump. He hesitated at first but soon decided to eat. And the more he moved uphill the more the flowers popped up. At some point he got used to eating it.
There was something at the top of the hill. With no direction and food, with danger lurking down hill, he had no choice but to climb.
Now after three days of trekking, he was finally nearing the summit.
The trek parted way, a glade rested in the summit, surrounded by a garden of blue flowers. From the summit the downhill slope was in clear view. Subaru climbed a huge rock for a better look. Placed his hand above the eyes. Shielding the eyes from the sun and he peered down the slope.
Near the base of the hill a giant monolithic flower bloomed, the same kind as the blue flower.
Subaru's pupils dilated as he stared at it with awe.
It reminded him of the world tree that he read in manga and anime. But it was different. The world tree has no flower blooming from it. It was more like the gigantic version of the blue flower.
Subaru squinted his eyes. Beyond the giant flower, underneath its base. Small sticks of blue and red moved.
Humans!!
Subaru jumped off the rock and sprinted down the slope. The blue flower started popping more frequently, but Subaru ran past it. He had more pressing matters. Down he went through the woods. An hour passed.
Through the small gap between woods, he saw– a huge expanse of greyish meadow, and far in the corner the greyish trunk of the giant flower stood. A brief upward slant separated his view.
A smile crept up his lips. Fist clutched, he sprinted up the slant. Across the slant, he saw the base of the flower.
And he froze. Pupils dilated. His heart sank.
Far at the base of the flower, a mountain of bones rested. Pools of blood spray the bone's whitish glow. Sounds of metal clashed. Screams of people echo. A horde of thousands of monsters crushed the human's bones. Tear their limbs and feast on them. Blue flowers sprout out these monster eye sockets. Flesh decayed. Claw chipped. They feasted on humans. A horde of dead monsters attacked the humans. Blood dyed the bones red. Death covered the place. The humans were weak. It was a massacre.
Subaru' s leg shook. His knee gave up and he fell knee first down the ground.
He wanted to help. He wanted to do something. But he was weak, even before coming to this world he was weak. and Unlike before, he couldn't turn back time. He couldn't die. He can not save them.
He was weak.
"I…am…sorry"
His eyes shook. Tears formed at the corner. His hands clutched his face. His back arch forward. Tears streamed down his face.
I am sorry? I am sorry? I am sorry?
"Everyone fall back!!," a hurried voice echoed.
In a corner, a group of men clutch their swords, fight off a horde of monsters. A tall man with brown eyes, brown hair, stood tall in front of the men. His sword slashed through the monster, slicing them half. His eyes started to glow, with a dangerous glint. And brown swords materialised behind the man and started to slice through the hordes of monsters.
Subaru looked up at the man. His figure stood tall.
"Everyone retreat NOW!!!" he screamed. His voice was strong and for a moment Subaru felt that the man could survive.
The men hesitated. Then turn and run up a slant. Killing monsters, carving through them. Leaving the man behind. Alone against the hordes of monsters.
When they were far away, the brown-haired man's body started to glow. Brown pulsing waves radiated out of him, coagulating into his swords. The ground around him shook. Air gurgle. His eyes pulse brown, as he swung his sword in a horizontal slash.
The brown light swept through the hordes of monsters. Slicing through them. Thousands of monsters died by the hands of the brown pulse. Blood streams down the man. A sea of blood dye the glade red.
And the man stood in the middle like a harbinger of death.