Reincarnated into a Snow Griffin-Chapter 121

I do not dare try and fly in this place as not only it would be tiresome to carry Ethan about but the winds here seem odd and shifting, the fog itself looking heavy and steady, ignoring and rather inviting the winds in, so we have to stick with walking at a slow pace while a forest of the once colorful but now grey and crumbling coral starts surrounding us, the once floating long algae now stretching like a deadly doom warping around like endless web and grown like grass, soon after overcoming the skies and barely leaving any space for us to even walk, let alone chose a path. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

And that’s when I see the first sign of how truly horrendous the effects of an Abyss element magic running amok have in organic things.

I did not know what I was seeing at first, a mere overlay, a hand shape, strange movements and sounds hidden in the foliage, bizarre shapes, but no doubt remains after he takes a few steps in, deeper into the dark embrace of the foliage.

And soon I realize that, in fact, they are not human shaped corroded plants but truly belonged to a living being once, the fact made clearer by the running stretching out position this one has, panic wrinkles plastered across its face, open mouthed as its widen hollow eyes stared at its death bringer, forever froze at its final screaming face.

But if that was not enough to say this human shaped cracked being had not once been alive then what comes next does, and it takes me a few seconds to realize that there is where the odd sound is coming from and as, against my better judgment, I approach the odd thing, perking my ears to listen better, realizing what the sound that I have been hearing all this time was, and a shudder makes its way up my spine when I do.

"This, this is... Is this thing still alive?" The hissing sound that I was hearing what’s the very low and slow breathing of these stone looking creatures. "But that is..." Impossible, I think without saying, wondering how much had not been made possible out of the impossible so far in already in this city.

We were too shocked to talk about it, but my mind could not stop thinking deeper about the situation, of how these demons that once live here all these years back were still being kept in this stasis state, their lives stretched out and thin, almost transparent, and yet they were there.

"Do you think they still are... Conscious somehow?" Asks Ethan, an unusual mixed expression of shock and worry displaying on his face.

I wet my dry lips before saying: "Do you know what’s happening here fox?"

His silence says more than words as we move forward in what now resembles a battleground full of dying soldiers, perpetually breathing their last breath.

"This is the horror of my cursed element, this... This thing is hungry and impatient but it’s not dumb, and like a parasite without a host it would have been dead by now if not for its wicked ways."

I would like to say that the thought of being kept alive, if you call it that being alive, only to feed the hungry energy of the Ghost City did not bother me in the slightly, but my lack of thought as we walk and the buzzing sensation at my forehead were dead giveaways of my lies and were mere indicators of just how unsettling the situation is.

I hold Ethan’s hand tighter as we move on, afraid of what may happen if we do not stick together and have the protection of the black fox element.

It does not take long for me to be forced out of my thoughts though.

As we go on deeper into the thickest part of this dry coral of bodies, enough so that we have to squeeze our way through and duck under the lower branches and one of these moments, as I push one of the thick branches aside is when I realized too late that it was actually part of one of those creatures fingers and before I can draw my hand back the thing already snapped under my fingers and puff out into dry smoke, simply disappearing before reaching the floor like old papyrus, the rest of his body going down and crumbling like a pile of stones, thumbing on the floor before being carried away by the fog, mixing with it in the blink of an eye.

And even a needle falling to the ground would make a thunderous noise when falling down in this deadly silence, so we shouldn’t come as a surprise when all those hollow stares cracked their necks in our direction, frozen horror expressions glued now on us.

"This can`t be good..." Says Ethan as he moves towards me, eyes sharp on our surroundings but easily overcome by their sheer amount that even our pair of eyes cannot cover all grounds at once.

"We have to move... now!" I say as one of the closest creatures suddenly launches the remaining upper body towards us, so focused on attacking us that it did not matter that missing would have it splattered on the ground and crackling just like the other and, even worst, the surviving hand starts crawling towards like a spider, it’s remaining a mix off wrinkled skin and dry plants that could easily have belonged to a mummy.

But we do not stay still to analyze them any further as the forest seems to come alive around us, the fog thickening, enticed, as the dusty bodies crumbling add to the mix, making it harder to breathe and see as we start running while opening up a path between this strange foliage, brushing aside these ghoulish creatures, all while barely seeing anything in front of us which makes holding hands a blessing at that moment.

It is as if we have poked the ants nest and the earth had come alive, moving and twisting and turning until there was only chaos and sounds, hand and teeth pulling at us from all around as we try to duck our way past, clothes ripping in the process.

I don’t know how long it takes, for how long we stay there, running and dodging, visions of hell on earth at the glimpses I could take from our surroundings as we run, plants become walls and this soil turning into a crumbling road, but the creatures persisted nonetheless still meddling together with the surroundings, some stuck on walls looking part human part animal while others were half animal half demon, they’re uneven hooves making an odd sound as they added to this cacophony, all so unnatural and so unreal, horn or branches, arms or foliage, eyes or holes on the shrubbery, all already confused and illusory, but adding the chaos of their moving bodies, crumbling and screeching, and the tick fog hungry to reach us, and you have the disturbing situation we are trying to run away from.

And before we know it we reach the center of the city, the center of it all, and it is quite... the grotesque spectacular.