Ash savored the minutes of silence.
No sound other than the brushing leaves and the cold night wind graced his ears.
Compared to his life so far inside the Verdant Necropolis, this was the time when he felt the most relaxed.
It was as if there was nothing in this world he needed to worry about.
But peace never lasted forever.
Liquid pooled on the back of his mouth, forcing him to cough it up, lest he wanted to die of suffocation.
He coughed. Blood scattered over his face.
Reminding Ash of his new body, the result of the benevolent god's blessing.
And his mission to share His benign gift.
It reminded Ash he needed to go back to the city. It had a special place in his heart, especially the people living there.
They would be the first people who would share the benevolent god's gift with him.
Ash got back on his feet. Still wobbly.
He barely had any rest, but he needed to at least make sure his life wasn't in any danger.
'There must be something that kept the stag from stepping into the clearing.'
From what he had seen after being chased by it, the stag might even be considered the ruler of the forest.
Not only metaphorically, since every other creature ran away the second they saw it, but also literally, as the stag could command the vines and roots of the trees.
'If whatever reason kept the stag out of here was another creature, stronger than the stag, then I might have to apologize to the god for failing his mission…'
Ash stopped and stared at the gigantic banyan tree standing in the middle of the clearing.
It was dozens of meters tall. Its trunk and ground roots spanned as big and tall as a skyscraper.
But unlike them, the trunks never grew narrower. It grew thick and strong to support the branches and leaves that blocked out the sky.
The vines, or in a banyan tree's case, its hanging roots, spanned from the branches high above the sky to Ash's head level.
There weren't many details for Ash to see. The banyan tree's leaves branched so widely that the moonlight wasn't able to touch anything beneath its crown.
Ash stood on the border of the shadow of the tree and the moonlit ground.
There were many myths surrounding a banyan tree.
Many of them told stories about the banyan tree being the palace of ghosts.
But a few stories also told about the banyan tree as a symbol of sacredness and immortality.
And now, seeing an abnormally giant one, Ash could understand how such stories could come to life.
Even more so when it towered over the land.
'A tree that can live forever…One that can grow as long as Earth itself…'
The older the banyan tree got, the thicker its trunk, the more lush its leaves got, and the higher it rose from the ground.
Old age didn't cripple it, it grew stronger instead.
Ash couldn't keep his eyes off it. He was enraptured by the majestic sight in front of him.
Without realizing, Ash took a step into the shadows, leaving the moonlight and entering the tree's cradle.
When he stepped inside, the feeling around him changed.
He couldn't quite explain it, but something had definitely shifted.
The calmness and peace the moonlight gave him lessened, while that brief feeling before, when he felt something touched his soul, filled his being, returned once more.
Just like at the time when the benevolent god's blessings filled him.
As he reached closer and closer to the tree, the feeling strengthened. The more he got closer to the tree, the more the empty space in his being was filled.
And now, standing right beside one of its jutting giant roots, Ash felt something new appearing in him.
Something reaching out to him. Calling upon him.
He followed it.
He continued walking, following where the call had invited him.
Ash finally stopped at the base of the tree. The giant trunk of the tree stood in front of him, reminding Ash of how small and powerless he was.
But that thought didn't remain for long.
The call was urging him to come.
As if knowing what to do, Ash raised his hand, touching the tree trunk with his palms, softly.
When his skin touched the tree trunk, light enveloped Ash's eyes, freezing his whole body in place and blinding him.
The whole tree, from the tips of its roots to the leaves above the sky, all emitted the same silvery green glow as the one in the stag's eyes.
The silvery green glow extended to Ash, who was still blinded by the light and frozen, but somehow didn't feel any discomfort in his body.
He could feel a foreign power traveling onto him, but as if knowing it wasn't a danger for him, Ash just let it inside his body.
Feeling it flow from the tips of his hand to the top of his head and the end of his toes.
It stayed inside him, as if scrutinizing every cell in his body, looking, searching, checking for something.
When the foreign energy calmed down, Ash could finally open his eyes once more.
But he didn't see the banyan tree's trunk or even any signs of the Verdant Necropolis.
He found himself inside a room. A peculiar one as the shape and the scene inside were constantly changing every second.
He didn't recognize where he was. And how could he? No place on Earth keeps changing from a bedroom, a classroom, to the view of the city.
But he felt something familiar from seeing them.
The glimpse of the bedrooms he saw was his old bedroom in the orphanage and the one in his dormitory.
The classrooms were his classrooms from primary to high school.
The view of the city, the parks, the buildings, and even the side roads were the ones in his previous city.
But something foreign, something he didn't recognize, was also present in this ever-changing room.
There were a few of them in almost every place, and Ash couldn't see them in detail due to the room never staying the same for more than a second.
But Ash could pinpoint them.
Some at the corners of the room, and some others just existing where he stood, were repulsive green energy that didn't belong in any of the settings he recognized.
Where his comfy bed used to be, had changed to a rotten bed. Spots of greenish blood contaminated their pure white color.
Some of the classroom desks and chairs had also decayed, molds grew in the wood, and rust appeared on the metal parts.
Where there had been clean water fountains in the park, there was now a green pool of acid.
They just existed there as if they belonged there, but Ash knew that they weren't supposed to be there.
'Where am I? What am I seeing? Are these my memories?'
Right when the questions filled Ash's mind, another being came into view.
It was certainly human. Ash could tell.
But whether it was a woman, a man, a child, or an elder, Ash couldn't tell them.
He just knew it was human.
The human walked in front of him, their mouth opening, exuding a voice that didn't belong to any human Ash had heard before.
"You are one of our untainted children. There is something in you, something that shouldn't be there. But it is definitely not one of the enemy's.
Child, you are the one fated to be one of our saviors."