These faces didn't just appear on one or two trees. In front of him, on both sides dozens, even hundreds of trees all simultaneously mutated.
The next moment, all those twisted faces in the trees suddenly opened their eyes.
One pair after another empty, deep, lifeless staring straight at Lynn.
Those eyes had no pupils, only endless black voids, like bottomless abysses that could devour everything.
However, Lynn's heart trembled. Though he saw only darkness, he had an eerie sensation as if something within those black voids was truly watching him.
A chill ran through him as he cautiously took a few steps back.
To his shock, the grotesque faces on the trees didn't just remain still they moved along with his retreat, slowly turning as if they were alive.
Each twisted face turned toward him, and countless hollow eyes locked onto him as if they wanted to tear him apart.
"What… what the hell is this?"
Lynn's heartbeat suddenly accelerated, and cold sweat formed on his forehead.
The sensation of being watched by countless eyes was suffocating, an oppressive force that seemed to stifle even his spiritual energy.
Instinctively, he tried to channel his wizardry but he soon realized his spiritual energy couldn't leave his body. It could only circulate within him.
"My wizardry… isn't working?!"
Panicking slightly, he reached for the sharp dagger at his waist one of the enchanted artifacts he had acquired in Nightshadow Fortress.
Gripping it tightly, he channeled his spiritual energy along his body and into the dagger. At once, the blade shimmered with a dim, eerie glow.
Then, flames erupted scorching hot.
Inside the dagger was an embedded fire-element magic stone, and under its effect, the weapon instantly transformed into a blazing longsword.
Lynn tightened his grip on the enchanted sword and slowly retreated, doing his best to remain calm, even as his heart pounded in his chest. He feared that the horrifying scene before him would escalate at any moment.
Yet, no matter how much he tried to avert his gaze, he couldn't tear his eyes away from those twisted faces.
They showed no change in expression.
The only movement came from those endless, hollow eyes that seemed to perceive his every action, following him without blinking.
A creeping coldness spread down Lynn's spine. His steps grew even more cautious.
He hadn't swung his sword yet. He feared that the moment he acted, everything would spiral out of control.
Strangely, despite his careful retreat, the surrounding trees and faces remained motionless.
They simply stared at him, their empty gaze devoid of any life as if they were nothing more than eerie statues, forever locked in silent observation.
Lynn trod carefully, calculating every step, his only goal was to escape this horrifying forest as quickly as possible.
Soon, he saw the bend in the path where he had entered. The fork in the road seemed just ahead. He could almost feel himself escaping.
"Almost there… just one more step…" he prayed silently.
But the moment he took that final step
Bang!
Lynn slammed into something solid, a chilling sensation instantly washing over him.
He spun around abruptly, and the sight before him left him in utter disbelief.
Behind him was not the anticipated exit but a wall of trees!
The very same trees, their twisted faces still staring at him, black eyes hollow and terrifying.
The grotesque faces were now mere inches from his back. He could almost feel their cold breath against his skin.
They remained devoid of expression, yet within those empty eyes, Lynn sensed something terror, greed, hatred, sin…
Those emotions twisted together, lingering in the darkness of their gaze, locking onto him with an insatiable hunger.
Suddenly, all the faces opened their mouths wide. A hoarse, rasping sound echoed from within the trees.
And then
In an impossible, nightmarish moment those faces began to emerge from the bark!
Their twisted mouths gaped open, revealing jagged, razor-sharp teeth, lunging at Lynn biting, gnawing, devouring!
"Shit! Wasn't my way out supposed to be right there?!"
A wave of goosebumps erupted across Lynn's body. A suffocating terror pressed down on him, nearly crushing his breath.
With a surge of desperation, he swung his blazing sword.
Flames roared along the blade as it sliced through the air with a shrill whistle, cleaving into the grotesque faces.
Sparks flew. The burning blade cut through them like lightning, severing face after twisted face.
Each slash tore through the monstrous visages, leaving behind scorched bark and falling embers.
For most wizardry apprentices, unless they specialized in body enhancement, their physical stats hovered around a mere 3 points comparable to a newly promoted knight.
Though knights possessed the added advantage of battle aura, Lynn was still powerful. With all his might, his every sword strike carried tremendous force.
Flames burst forth with destructive power, reducing the grotesque faces to nothing but ashes.
"Ahh!"
"Aahh!"
Each time his sword struck, the faces let out piercing, guttural screams shrieks in a language unfamiliar yet deeply unsettling.
Hearing even a single word made Lynn's head spin. His eyes flashed with a cold glint, and he swung his sword with even greater force.
No matter how they shrieked, no matter how they writhed, his strikes remained swift and unerring, decapitating them one by one.
Flames erupted, consuming them in fiery explosions. Their charred remains scattered into the wind, filling the air with the stench of burnt flesh.
All around him, the deformed trees still stood, their twisted faces staring with dead, soulless eyes.
"Breakthrough!"
Clenching his teeth, Lynn swung his sword wildly, slashing through the forest's nightmarish grip.
His fiery blade cut through thick trunks, carving a burning path through the suffocating trees.
The moment he cleaved through one, another loomed in its place but none could withstand the searing flames.
Finally, after a relentless struggle, he burst through the barricade back to the fork in the road.
As soon as he emerged, the eerie pressure lifted. The surrounding trees appeared normal again, their unnatural stillness fading.
Gasping for breath, Lynn turned his eyes toward the path he had just fled from.
And at that moment
From the depths of that road, a tree suddenly sprouted from the ground, twisting and growing at an unnatural speed.
Lynn's heart clenched. He turned to the entrance he had just escaped
There, within the ancient tree's bark, a new face was forming.
A face with strikingly sharp features, its lines crisp and defined almost as if carved with a blade.
Its blood-red eyes remained shut, and its lips curved into a slight, mocking smile.
A cruel realization struck Lynn like a bolt of lightning.
That face…
It was his own.
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