The cold rain fell in front of him, blocked by his Domain.
Law leaped several times, reaching the treetop, and looked around. The curtain of rain hung like a white veil over the sea of trees.
Each tree was extremely tall, about a hundred and fifty meter high, with unusually lush canopies. However, the spacing between the trees was large, as if each had staked out its own territory.
Law stood atop the tree, his view obstructed by the rain and the canopies.
He couldn't see any living creatures, but he could vaguely make out the towering World Tree that reached into the clouds.
'What could be up there?'
The question surfaced in Law's mind.
After pausing for a moment, Law jumped down to the ground. Since he couldn't detect anything from a high vantage point, he could only check the ground for potential threats nearby.
The descent from the treetop to the ground took only a few seconds.
Yet, the moment his feet touched the ground, the torrential rain pouring down from above ceased without any warning.
Law suddenly looked up at the sky, his expression shifting.
Usually, rain would transition from light to heavy or from heavy to light before stopping. Regardless of speed, there was always a process of change. However, the way this rain stopped was as if God had turned off a faucet… sudden and abrupt.
The rain had stopped, but the thick red clouds in the sky showed no signs of dispersing.
Under the glow of red light, shadowy figures could be seen darting through the clouds.
Law silently withdrew his gaze. The cessation of the heavy rain was a good thing, as it meant his vision was no longer impaired, and his hearing was no longer interfered with.
He glanced back at the flat land he had come from, then began to circle the area.
After a full circle, he found no signs of dangerous creatures, possibly because this area was close to the edge of the sea of trees.
Law stood still for a moment, lost in thought. Before Tonpa could regain his mobility, he decided to venture in alone to scout the path.
He wanted to reach the World Tree, but it was clear that he first had to traverse this seemingly endless sea of trees. Given the vast expanse of the forest, no one could say how many dangerous creatures lurked within.
He hadn't gone far when he suddenly noticed thin mists materializing out of nowhere in the forest, drifting and floating, creating an atmosphere akin to a fairyland.
Law cautiously halted his steps, leaning against a tree, and released his En, covering an area of eight hundred meters.
Based on the feedback from his skin, he detected no moving entities.
"Something's wrong."
Law frowned slightly.
It made no sense for a forest with such a rich ecosystem to lack even a single insect. This in itself was strange.
Not only were the trees lush, but the ground was also covered with thick bushes and occasionally short, leafless trees.
The mist had appeared suddenly, and with no signs of life detected, Law hesitated about whether to withdraw his En.
If he maintained his En, his defensive capabilities would be significantly reduced. If he didn't, he wouldn't be able to monitor movements within a large radius in real time.
After a moment of consideration, Law decided to retract his En and instead deployed his Domain, covering an area within one meter around him.
By now, the thin mist had spread all around.
Law moved forward slowly, maintaining a high level of vigilance at all times.
After about twenty minutes of walking, everything remained deathly still.
The quieter it was, the more unusual it felt to Law.
Along the way, the species he could see were remarkably monotonous: mostly uniform types of large trees, bushes, and short, leafless trees.
The white mist grew thicker, reducing visibility.
Law promptly stopped.
Just as he was debating whether to proceed further, the newly thickened white mist abruptly dissipated, exactly like how the rain had stopped earlier.
In an instant, the surroundings underwent a dramatic transformation.
The ground directly ahead was now covered with a cluster of red-spotted mushrooms, about half a meter tall. On the caps of these mushrooms stood a group of peculiar flesh-colored creatures.
These creatures were about the size of a palm, with spherical bodies dominated by a single large yellow eye that took up most of their form.
Their lower bodies consisted of a thumb-thick fleshy stem, firmly planted on the mushroom cap.
The edge of the single eye was ringed with red, swollen bumps, resembling clusters of deformed tumors, looking rather sinister.
To the right of the mushroom cluster, the trunks of the large trees were entwined with thorny vines blooming with bright flowers.
Hundreds of butterfly-like creatures, each the size of a washbasin, perched on these flowers.
Their wings resembled dead leaves, adorned with blood-red patterns. As they fluttered, red scale-like powder drifted down to the ground.
To the left was a clearing containing a single tree with a bizarre, leafless form.
The tree was about five meters tall. The top of its trunk split into two parts, stretching out to either side like a pair of hands, and between them rested a rough, uneven spherical object with two parallel circular holes.
At a glance, it looked like a person spreading their arms wide, holding up their own head… an utterly eerie sight.
The entire tree was devoid of leaves, its bark yellowish and exuding a heavy aura of death. The surrounding clearing was littered with various bones.
Staring at the suddenly transformed scene before him, Law stood frozen.
Suddenly, a pitch-black crow appeared on the strange tree, perched silently on the wooden sphere that resembled a head. It had no eyes, only a slightly hooked beak.
Law keenly sensed a gaze directed at him and noticed the normally sized, eyeless crow.
The moment their eyes met, the flesh-eyed creatures on the mushroom caps also turned to look at him in unison.
Even the hundreds of butterflies hovering near the flowers extended two long antennae from their heads, each tipped with a single eye.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of eyes suddenly turned toward him.
A chill ran down Law's spine, his nerves tightening slightly. The tree that looked like it was holding its own head gave him a very dangerous feeling.
They stared at each other, neither side making a move. Only the hundreds of butterflies continued to shed their red scale powder.
After about half a minute, the crow in his sight vanished into thin air.
Law's pupils contracted. He enveloped himself in Aura, forming a strong defense, but the crow, using some method, suddenly appeared less than a meter in front of him.
Almost reflexively, Law summoned Shin and slashed the crow in half with a single strike.
Suddenly, tendrils tipped with eyeballs sprouted from the crow's cleaved body, bursting forth like a large cluster of enoki mushrooms, swelling as if fueled by the wind, surging toward Law who was right in front of them.
Law's expression changed. He immediately expanded his Domain, crushing the multitude of eyeball-tipped tendrils along with the crow's body into mincemeat.
In an instant, a mix of black blood and fragments splattered onto the grassless ground.
Before he could process this, he realized that the group of flesh-eyed creatures on the mushroom caps had somehow surrounded him.
Law's mind raced. He expanded his Domain again, intending to crush these flesh-eyed creatures as he had done before, but they seemed immune to the compressive force of his Domain, completely unaffected.
"Huh?"
Law reacted swiftly, summoning a jade-white humanoid phantom.
But in that split second, like a rapidly flashing slide, the jade-white humanoid phantom had just appeared when the fleshy spherical creatures seemed to teleport, covering every inch of Law's body.
There was no pain, no sensation, no sound. His body dissipated like sand in the wind, as if dissolved by the saliva of the fleshy creatures.
His vision plunged into endless darkness, but the next second, light returned.
"Law? What's wrong?"
By his ear, came Biscuit's concerned voice.
Law turned his head and saw Biscuit looking at him with worry under the firelight.
'This was... inside the tree hollow?'
Listening carefully, the sound of wind and rain could still be heard outside.
Law was stunned for a moment, then heard Biscuit ask, "Did you have a nightmare?"