Chapter 1

I always find myself there, deep in the wilderness surrounded by the noise of creatures which, not even the devil himself, would be able to identify.

As I continue walking towards the call, that continues to move my body forward, a sense of fear starts to fill my mind. However, as time goes on, that fear is slowly replaced with acceptance and understanding.

To be chosen as one of its own, is a gift within itself. Whether or not I choose to accept this gift, is not up to me, and all that I could do is witness what will come next as my body is no longer under my control.

Human carcasses and dead animals begin to fill the trees around the area. As I look towards them, I could see the blood still dripping down as if they are still alive and breathing thanks to the marks all around what remains of their skin.

It tells me as I look over these bodies, that they tried to encroach onto these lands without its permission, and so, they would now serve as warnings to any creature wanting to discover the mysteries which still remain in its home even after so many years.

After my body halts its footsteps, I begin to catch my breath as I try to wipe the cold sweat which now covers my entire body. As I do this, it tells me that I need to now decide whether I will serve it for as long as this world still exists, or if I would join the others who refused its offer.

It told me this as if I should think that I still had a choice, but without hesitation, I stood up yet again as it now guided me deeper and deeper inside the forest.

Suddenly, a group of people wearing demonic shaped masks and dirty clothes approached me. After looking me over and seeing the mark on my arm, the man who seemed to be the leader nodded towards the rest as they escorted me towards their master; their god.

In a short period of time, we all finally arrived before an altar with a strange casket behind the burning candlesticks. It tells me not to be afraid, and what I saw next was unspeakable beauty.

Lifting itself out of the casket, the others began to bow towards their master before chanting some strange and ancient words. After taking a single look, I could now see why.

This creature's beauty was that of a goddess. Though it had a ghastly and pale appearance, this woman's skin was smooth and her hair flowed in the breeze as if it was controlling it.

It tells me telepathically to walk up, bow, and to kiss its hand so that the ritual could be completed. Step by step, I walk up the altar as if caught in an endless trance before I see it's figure slowly changing.

At first, the woman's appearance changed from just having two eyes, to having four eyes. However, each step, it's appearance becomes more and more monstrous.

Once I am only ten feet from the woman, her real shape and form is now showing and I feel as if I made the wrong choice. Almost an innumerable amount of heads and eyes, with her pale skin becoming green and very earthy, it was now clear that this was not a goddess; rather, a demonic creature.

Crunch!

Before I could even blink, an inconceivable amount of pain shocked through my body as I looked over to my left arm and saw that the creature slashed it off in an instant using one of its many sharp claws.

There was no telling if it had done this to simply prove to me that I truly had no choice, or if this was a form of punishment for my hesitation. Either way, I was not willing to stay as I turned around and began to run away into the forest.

To what seemed strange, was that not a single follower or the creature chose to chase me. Before entering where the forest began, I turned and took one last look towards them, and noticed that even the altar itself had disappeared into the night as if it was never there to begin with.

Whispers filled the air of what could only be described as tormented souls, and due to this development, I quickly ran into the forest in order to find my way back to the academy. Even if I was missing a limb, the school's doctor was a powerful mage who was known to even revive the corpse of a dead student who had died during their training.

With the sky pitch black and the trees seemingly to be endless, all I could think about was finding help now that my head continued to slowly become numb as my consciousness began to fade from the blood loss of my injury.

---

After walking for what felt like hours, I was finally able to find an exit of this forest. However, looking over slightly, I was able to make out a person sitting on a nearby rock with the moonlight concentrated on this individual.

"Hello? Can you help me?" I called out to this figure in front of me. Not hearing a response or seeing this person responding, I chose to jog towards the rock since the pain was not getting any easier to deal with.

"Hey, I said-" as I got closer to the person who was staring towards the horizon at a field in the distance, the figure began turning towards me cutting me off in acknowledgement.

The figure was a woman who had long and luscious raven black hair. Wearing a torn light blue dress that was covered in rips, the woman's skin was extremely pale. Her pale skin was complemented by the moonlight, but her hair still covered her face and I couldn't make out what she actually looked like.