24 The Forest of the Lost Memories 2

'This..... This can be dangerous' John thought. He was less than 1 meter away from the knights that were around him, but he could barely see their figures.

'Doesn't that mean that if something attacks us, we won't be able to react in time? Although from what I heard this forest seems to be uninhabited with nothing more than dry trees, this can't be possible considering that there were people who survived here for so many years.'

"John!" A soft voice awoke him from his thoughts. It was Vladimir who had moved near to him before they entered into the forest so that the brothers could protect each other

"It's better if we don't talk in a place like this, it is imporant to be mindful of the sounds around us" the brown haired youth wispered

"I know... My insticts scream that something is wrong with the situation"

John immediately stopped walking. If it was anyone else who said that to him, he would just laugh it off, but it was different if the person who told him that was Vladimir. At the same time, the knight who was walking behind him until now, passed through his body like he was a ghost and disappeared inside the fog..

"Vladimir, are you here?" he asked with a quiet voice

"....."

"Vladimir?" He spoke again, but louder this time

"....."

"This is bad..."

*******

The Order continued traversing the forest. Adriana was walking steadily through the fog until someone talked to her

"We must have arrived at the supposed place by now. If I am right, people should have already started to disappear"

The princess frowned upon hearing this

"Teacher, I don't know what the Church of Life plans to do, but no matter who it is, I won't forgive anyone who plays with the lives of my men, even if it's you"

"It's impossible for a mission to exist without dangers, but if my conjecture is correct, this is necessary for the well-being of the Empire" Father Jonas replied seriously.

Adriana didn't continue speaking. She had told everything she needed to. Instead she gave a command to her two Captains

"We' ll stop here"

******

At the same time, John was standing motionless, contemplating the knights who continued passing through his body like he didn't exist.

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'Calm down! if I panic here, its over...' he took a deep breath and then closed his eyes

'There are two possibilities. The first one as well as the worst-case scenario is that I became something like a spectre. Others can't see me, hear me or touch me, this is somethingI have already confirmed... The second one is that I am trapped in some kind of magic. I have never heard of such a powerful magic before, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. Now.... The problem is what to do now.... Every knight until now is with no doubt a different individual. If this is an illusion, isn't it a little too powerful?' the youth thought deeply. Suddenly, his face became bright as an idea came to his mind.

He moved his hand and unsheathed his dagger. After making a small cut on his finger and seeing the blood flowing from his wound, a relieved expression appeared on his face. He didn't waste time and he used light magic to heal his injury.

'Who would have expected that the first blood I would see by using my new dagger, it would be mine.... Anyway, I can cross the first possibility off. Ghosts don't bleed. Moreover, it seems that I can use my magic.... Since my body doesn't show any changes, it means that I can feel hunger and thirst as a normal person. That makes my hypothesis correct. Assuming that the same thing happened to the others that went missing, there must be ways to survive in this place. It seems that I' ll need to move forward after all. As for where... ' John thought a little and then he took out from his pocket a compass.

'This way'

*******

John was walking constantly through the thick fog. He looked calm and collected, but in reality, he was extremely anxious. He was moving pretty much blindly, without having any idea where he was. Every time he looked at his compass, he could only hope that his thinking wasn't flawed and that sooner or later he would meet something or someone that would let him escape his predicament. He didn't know how much time he had walked. It may have been minutes, hours or even days. He was exhausted, but he didn't try to rest. He knew that he was in a critical situation and that he didn't have the luxury to drop his guard.

Time passed and the brown haired youth felt that his skin had been dehydrated. The continuous growls of his stomach were warning him that he couldn't carry on like this, that he would die alone, burried by the fog....

'How nostalgic' John thought as he kept going on...

Days passed and the boy didn't have the strength to walk anymore. His body finally collapsed on the ground. His piercing eyes were staring at the endless white veil, when suddenly a black figure appeared in front of him looking down at him. A hoarse voice sounded in the area..

"How laughableno. 9... As I always told you, not all people are capable of deciding for themselves. You decided to rebel, to fight, to betray, only for what? For a pointless and pathetic death. This is a fitting punishmentfor a useless tool like you"

John didn't answer. After making sure that it was impossible to stand up, he started instead crawling across the ground. The black figure slowly vanished only to be replaced by a small child. His features could be seen clearly. It was a beautiful boy with bright red hair and greenish yellow in colour eyes.

"Why you betrayed me? I thought of you as my friend.... Why did you kill my family? They took care of you when you were in need... Why did you kill the servants and the adventurers? They were innocent parties that weren't your targets... Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?..."

"Oh, shut up.... I can't answer what I don't know" John murmured as he was using the last reserves of his power to continue. His suffering went on for quite some time, but his efforts in the end weren't in waste. For the first time, after who knows how long, the fog in front of him started to burn off...

In front of him appeared a large clearing in which there was an abandoned village. It was probably the only place that there was sulight in the forest. John felt something unknown to stir inside him. He had always prefered the calm and the security that the darkness offered him, but only now did he realise that as every human, even he longed for the warmth of the sun occasionally.

The village was giving him an unexplained sensation that he couldn't describe. It was like he had returned to the place he belonged to, a place where he could rest without worry, something that was totally new to him...

'It's like something that George told me once in the past. The feeling of finally returning home after a long journey'

He suddenly felt a warm energygiving him power. He managed to slowly stand up andenter into the village. What he didn't see though was a sign at it's entrance that it's words had almost faded

'Welcome to the Village of Life'