A Tale of Forgotten Gods

Chapter 37: The Timeless Forest

Jian Yue narrowed his eyes. "We need to leave!" The air thickened with a pungent scent. He took a few steps back.

Zhuo’s eyes scanned the room, then they landed in the doorway to the church’s backyard. "There!" Zhuo pointed at the gateway. But as they sprinted, a bone-clattering noise shook their souls.

They raised their heads to look. Above them, the skull’s jaw gritted together. Then it opened... and stayed that way. The rope snapped, and the skull slowly descended.

A dry, sharp snap echoed through the church, followed by the clatter of the bone fragment sliding down the statue’s arm. Its shoulder where the skull fell was now bloodstained. A sluggish hot stream escaped the skull, abandoning the skull pot. It created a crimson path that fell on the ground.

Jian Yue and Zhuo’s eyes traced the blood. The skull looked less like bone than a pot that broke. The crimson river soon became the statue’s vicious shadow as it slowly turned pitch dark.

Their breaths caught in their throat. A hand launched toward Zhuo to grab his ankle, but he moved sooner, smashing down the hand. A crunch escaped. The hand stopped moving, then dissolved back into the ground.

Zhuo looked back; the blood spread further as if trying to polish the church.

They almost reached toward the exit. Just at that moment, the blood rippled like a heart would. An arrow made of blood shot out toward them blindly but no less deadly. Jian Yue’s blade moved, slashing through the air that had nothing to cut. The blood arrow didn’t stop. How would you harm a liquid?

The arrow liquefied, dropping on the ground, and changed its shape to needles. The hundred needles launched. Zhuo’s head jolted around; a rusted shield leaned against the right corner of the wall.

Zhuo ran toward it; Jian Yue stayed behind. His wrist moved with impossible precision, cutting through the needles effortlessly. His gaze landed on Zhuo. He noticed the shield and positioned himself behind Zhuo, guarding his back.

Zhuo looked back in a small awe. "Thank you."

Slowly the crimson pool turned into a massive flood of blood rising toward the roof of the church. Jian Yue threw himself back. "Zhuo, forget that. Run toward the backyard!" Jian Yue clenched his blade, his footsteps retreating.

The blood slowly turned into a scythe and moved as if something were holding it. Zhuo looked over his shoulder. He pulled his hand from the shield back and launched toward the exit.

Thud!

The door slammed shut. "Don’t stop!"

The scythe moved, slashing the space. The crescent blood, like a moon, launched toward them.

Zhuo’s eyes glinted. The streaks of the motion closed toward them, his hand traced the lines, then held the line connected to the crescent blood.

"Jian Yue, jump!" Zhuo pulled the line. Jian Yue understood and threw himself to the side. The crescent moon followed Zhuo’s hand. The wind passed through Jian Yue’s clothes. The hem of his robe pushed back by the passing blade.

With a savage swish, the crimson crescent severed the air. It struck the oak door with a sickening crunch of wood. Almost instantly pulverizing the gate. The wood scattered into a spray of jagged debris.

Zhuo’s eyes closed, forced shut by the strain. "I cannot use these eyes longer..." Zhuo shook his head before he rushed toward the gateway.

The scythe trembled, hungry for the next strike. Both burst through the gateway. The world lurched temporally. The air changed. The church’s light was swallowed by the faint twilight.

As they stepped outside, both tripped in the thick, sticky mud. They crawled and stood again to run. Their eyes looked behind.

"This looks different..." Jian Yue said. His eyes focused inside the church. No scythe, no statue, no blood. All there was was just the emptiness of life.

Zhuo looked at the looming church at the back, where something had changed. It was not even a church now, a normal household that seemed to be missing between the times.

"Look there." Zhuo pointed at a root covering the house; bats hung at the branches as if holding the house together.

Jian Yue turned. "Two different times co-existing together..."

"We didn’t find the page here..." Zhuo’s voice lowered as he thought about what to do next. Jian Yue looked at him, deep in his thoughts.

"We need to find it and escape soon." Zhuo continued, his voice concerned and confused.

They looked at the standing forest and dusted off their clothes.

"If a page is here... Then it’s most likely in someone’s possession."

***

Elsewhere, in the temple, the night had already gone, sun had rose. The bell rang, signifying the hope of the day.

The cultists out there kept doing their work, though today the morning was sorrowful. The grief was palpable in everyone’s reaction.

In a quiet room, Lin and Mo Fei sat, leaning on the walls. Both children’s eyes were closed. Mo Fei looked at Lin; his expression gradually shifted from impatient to something... Different.

"Lin." Mo Fei called out to her. Lin looked at him with her usual calm expressions. Her hands folded.

"If it’s nonsense, then keep your mouth shut kindly." She pointed out.

"What do you mean by nonsense... haughty bi–" Mo Fei closed his mouth. "Okay, that might be a little true, though it’s not nonsense."

"Oh so you can speak other than that, huh?" She said in a sarcastic tone; her words hit Mo Fei, getting on his nerves.

"Quit that tone."

"Now you know your own taste, don’t you?"

"You can’t hear without a fuss."

"Share your wisdom."

Mo Fei stayed silent; he hesitated once. "So... You never actually told me that..."

"That?" Lin raised her brows and gestured to continue.

"That... What’s the case of your brother... and that hand?"

......

Upon hearing that, Lin’s mouth closed. The silence stretched.

"So, if you are not happy to answer, who needs that anyway?" Mo Fei tried to change the topic, dismissing it.

"It has been 5 years or maybe more." She began.

"Quite recent news," Mo Fei noted.

"The day I ascended, my little brother, Xing Shu, was the chosen one with me." Lin continued, her voice low.

"Xing was there to spend his vacation with me. After the ascension, we were separated... though in world two I managed to find him in that house." As she continued speaking, her hands held the fabric of her clothes.

Mo Fei nodded, listening to her words.

Lin’s gaze dropped on the floor. "We had no idea about the death ritual of ascension." She paused for a moment. "That house wasn’t a safe place. In that time his locket dropped somewhere." Lin’s gaze briefly shifted to Hao Yu, holding the locket, and then back to the ground.

"Throughout the escape, we managed to run past the dead city... it was built on a mountain in the forest. We couldn’t see it, and fell. Instead of death, we ascended." Lin’s voice was low. She paused for a moment as if remembering the correct phase.

"Isn’t that a good thing then?" Mo Fei said.

"Might be," Lin began again. "When we ascended to world three... That time we were attacked by the scarecrow... No one was there to save us that time."

A long sigh escaped her mouth; her lips twitched. "We hid... We planned to die again to escape. Then..." Lin paused and could not speak for a long moment.

"Then what?" Mo Fei didn’t breathe. The air turned tense. He knew world three was more terrible than world two.

Lin’s knuckles turned white, then she withdrew her hand. "Then... That scarecrow thing appeared out of nowhere. He dragged Xing... That was the day when I met... Xue Lan for the first time."

Mo Fei was surprised by that. Xue Lan... he was a cruel narcissist who could do anything to accomplish his desire, right?

"Xue Lan? Was he behind this?"

"I don’t know if he truly was or not. Though... That scarecrow shit. It... peeled off his skin and made him... Made him a living... Scarecrow." Lin’s lips squeezed. Her mind raced with memories.

She remembered it. When it grabbed Xing, he couldn’t scream, his mouth pressed close by the monster. He just went still. Like his body had already given up... He must have felt pain...

The word echoed in her mind. Of course he did. He was alive, a child. The fate remained indifferent. It didn’t care about children, teenagers, or adults. The cruelty of the world crushed everyone equally.

Lin continued. "That time, Xue Lan was there, watching from the shadows. He didn’t interfere even when he could have helped. He walked away without a word, that merciless smirk on his face..." She paused again.

"A note... someone put it there. I had no clue who did. It told me everything about killing the bird and...killing Xing Shu... He couldn’t be saved, and I... Tch."

Lin said nothing afterward. The heavy silence spoke more.

"What about your hand?" Mo Fei questioned.

"A curse."

"Like what?"

Lin stayed silent for a few seconds. "One of the keys of my authority was stolen. Without that I can’t use my powers effectively and need to pay twice the cost." She finished speaking.

Someone pulled Mo Fei’s sleeve. Mo Fei looked there only to find Xin Yi’s eyes starting to open. He looked at her once.

Behind them in the window, a moth flapped its wing, and then it flew away, disappearing into the morning light.

Hao Yu rubbed his eyes, sitting up slowly. His hand instinctively went to the locket on his chest. Xin Yi didn’t move at first. Her eyes were open, staring at the ceiling, a usual trait of a child processing the morning world.

She sat up, moving her gaze across the room. She noticed people missing. "Where is the awkward person and the old man?" She asked with a flat, curious tone, describing Zhuo and Jian Yue.

Mo Fei stared for a few seconds, considering what to say. "They have some work."

Xin Yi gave a quick nod. Hao Yu sat and then fell back to the floor, preparing to sleep again.

Suddenly Mo Fei’s eyes flickered with something. "Xin Yi and Hao Yu. I wondered how you ran into that forest. No one is permitted to go outside." That was the unanswered question.

Hao Yu’s ears perked up, and he slowly sat down. Xin Yi’s gaze landed on the wall. "We were taken from the orphanage." Xin Yi looked at Hao Yu. "Two people took us there."

The offerings? Mo Fei realized now what Yi Jyuhan meant in their first meetup. "Why?"

Xin Yi raised her head. Her eyes held a very small glint that a child should have more. "They took us for adoption." She whispered. "But they left us there."

"My older sister was happy about this... We all were." Xin Yi clenched Mo Fei’s sleeve tightly, her eyes turning watery. "We reached that church. A few paces away was a large palace... the owner was a lady that everyone bowed to... they whispered that she was some royal guard. We thought it was cool. They called her... Mistress of Misfortune."

Lin’s face went pale. A royal guard? More of that in the forest. If they were adopting kids, it was most likely for sacrifice.

Mo Fei’s eyes narrowed. He was still processing.

Lin connected all the dots. "The Cursed Womb... the location of the cursed Womb is in the forest. She is the royal guard of the Curator of Flesh!"

Zhuo and Jian Yue were walking in the base of the enemies without knowing.

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