The iron bit harshly into my wrists. The chains were cold, colder than they had any right to be, as though the chill wasn't just from the night but came from something deeper something unnatural. They clinked with every step I took, reminding me that freedom was not only far away but perhaps an illusion altogether.
The mercenaries didn't bother treating us like people. To them, we were cargo—spoils, bodies to be dragged from one place to another. I was bound together with a man who looked like he hadn't seen a decent meal in weeks. His breath was ragged, his skin stretched thin over sharp bones, his eyes too bright for someone so frail. He stank of sweat and blood, the smell of someone beaten into submission but still somehow clinging to life.
Behind me,I could hear the clumsy shuffle of two others. I risked a glance over my shoulder.
Two old men. Both gray-haired, both hunched from years, but not the same kind of years. One wore his exhaustion like a cloak, every step deliberate as though each moment was a negotiation with death. The other was restless, his eyes darting, a stubborn fire still alive in them despite his wrinkled skin and crooked back.
They whispered to each other at first, low voices carried on the damp wind that threaded through the trees.
"To think that they would naughty me off guard"one muttered."Should have never camped so close to the river. Damn fools we were."
"Aye",the other agreed. His voice was hoarse, the tone of a man who had shouted once too often in life. "Didn't matter, though. They'd have found us anyway. Dogs on the scent, these bastards are."
"Well may the goddess of light will have mercy on us and send us savior"
"Pfff" his companion let escaped a little laugh who sounded like a mockery.
His companion looked pissed by his laugh and then asked him
"Why are you laughing do you think I'm joking"
"No I just think you delusional if you think the goddess of light while some shit;only the god of death is gonna welcome us in his warm embrace"
"Shitty hell" i said "can you two stop bringing god in our live for one second."
The tow of them started at me,their eyes inspecting me from head to toe until the restless one said:
"And what do you know boy?looking at you you must be a young noble who surely don't give much about that"
I didn't say anything
I didn't expected to be misjudge for a noble.
Wait I was a noble but for now it would be better to not looking like one.
"You really have bad eyes old man if you think that I'm a noble. Then could you explain what am I doing there?"
The restless one keep looking trying to find areson to justify my presence until his companion say:
"Who know,you look young maybe you got caught trying to be adventurous"
"What a shame but sadly I'm not a noble" I lied.
"I'm just a poor soul who was in the wrong place at the wrong time"
Well that part was a little true but i still didn't know why the boat of the ark have crashed since there was no thing like that in the game in my knowledge.
"Really,well fate must be a bastard because you are very young and your eyes colors are very unique".
"Shut" his companion said"what if he is a demon"
The restless man looked at his companion with tired eyes.
"My friend I have already see a demon and if he was one we would all be dead by now"
"Trust me, demon aren't kind"
I listened to him with a heavy heart because he would surely be scared as hell if he knew what my family or more specifically what my mother was.
"I still find him weird,who know if he not a awakened."
"Mister" I began "honestly if i was a awakened i would already have killed all those mercenaries and get out of this weird forest"
Strangely when I finished my sentence the two man looked at me with sad eyes.
"What?" I asked confused.
"They surely thought that you were a weakened awakened or some undercover one" the man who was attached with me finally spoke.
I turned to him. He was looking at me now and his eyes were judging me.
"Why do you thought that?"
"The mana" he said
"The mana is strangely attracted to you"the tireless old man said.
"It react the same as it does for the awakened"
"And how do you know that old man?" I asked.
"Experience young man, I have seen so much in my life and I can say that you are not normal."
I stared at him for a moment I didn't know if what he said was true but deep down I feeled like this was something important.
They continued to look at me.
I felt their attention pressing down on me, heavy as the chains that bound us. For a moment, I thought of speaking, of sharing something—anything—that might bridge the gap of silence. But the words withered on my tongue.
Instead, I turned my gaze away.
"Just stop bring god, they won't save us today" I just said.
I sensed their gaze turning away and then I heard them talking to each other but I this time I didn't pray attention.
This was not my problem.
I looked around
The forest stretched around us, vast and suffocating all at once. Oaks towered above, their branches knotted together in thick canopies that choked the light. The roots were like veins, crawling out from the earth, tangling around stones and swallowing the ground beneath our feet.
And the chains…
I remember the description of the forest in the database of the game.
The vast forest of chains get in his name due to the great tree who surrounded it making it impossible to see the sky but also due to the chain who surround the tree. No one know why there there but some legends say that these chains have been forced by a great forger in the name of the god of beast trying to bound his traitorous followers who dared to let their mind corrupted by their instincts. Which is why it impossible to remove the chain from the tree.
I think they were right.I feel it in the way they pulled, the way they hummed faintly The links were etched with marks—runes, faint and worn but still alive. They clung to the trees themselves, fused into the bark as if grown there. I tugged once, subtly, testing.
It was as though the chain was part of the oak itself, unmovable, unbreakable.
"These chains," I muttered under my breath, more to myself than to anyone else. "They're not ordinary. They prove there's magic at work here. It's impossible to tear them free."
And if I could sense it so maybe the old man was right and maybe I was not normal.
If so i needed to find what was it and use it to escape.
The words were meant for me alone, but my companion at my side—the gaunt prisoner tied to me—shifted. He studied me through hollow eyes, then spoke, his voice a rasp.
"You… sound like you've seen this before. Tell me, how did you really get here, boy?"
How did I get here?
What should I say?
Actually this world is a video game and suddenly I got transmigrated there in the body of a weak and failed boy.
Not like he would believe me anyway but my mind back to anything who might satisfy him.
aces, fire, screams, the press of hands, and then… nothing. A blur. A haze. I remembered pain. The smell of iron. My mother's voice—no, not her voice, her silence. The silence that spoke louder than any word.
That was surely the only thing I could get of elias from now since I didn't have his memory
My lips parted, but hesitation caught me by the throat. The truth was a weapon, and in the wrong hands, it was sharper than any blade.
" I wanted something but I still don't know what it is" ," I finally said, my voice low, careful.
He studied me, suspicion in his eyes, but before he could press further, the mercenary from before cut in, his voice sharp as a whip.
"That's enough chatter," he barked. His boots crushed dead leaves as he strode forward, his hand resting lazily on the hilt of his blade. "Time to move. You talk too much, you fall behind, I'll drag your corpses myself. And trust me, I won't be gentle."
The gaunt man flinched, the old men behind us fell silent, and I felt the chain between us tighten as the mercenary yanked it forward.
We didn't have much choice and so we walked.
One step, then another. The forest swallowed the sound of our chains, the world around us reduced to the rhythm of our march. The night air was thick, carrying the distant howl of some unseen beast. I imagined its eyes glowing in the dark, watching us, waiting.
I lowered my head, my thoughts curling inward like a fist.
Every step was a reminder: I wasn't meant to be here. And yet here I was, bound, silenced, dragged toward a fate I couldn't yet name.
But fate had a way of breaking.
And I would break with it.