Inside the Silver Forest. Tearing everything down in my path, I crash through the silver vegetation. Even though I’m already far from the forest’s entrance, the force of the blow keeps throwing me forward.

  I try to grab onto a tree, but it’s useless.

  What absurd strength!

  The blow the creature landed on me was so powerful that it caused internal bleeding; I feel blood running from my mouth.

  My flight lowers, allowing me to brush against the ground. With quick movements, I manage to plunge my right hand into the silver soil, slowing down until I can finally plant my feet firmly on the ground. I pull my hand free as my body finishes regenerating.

  I look back at the vegetation I came from, my brow furrowing.

  "Damn it!"

  "Who the hell pushed me in here?!"

  I couldn’t see it clearly; I only caught sight of a massive paw striking me at incredible speed. My attention, however, turns to the Silver Forest itself. A mysterious feeling washes over me, almost forcing me to kneel on the ground and beg forgiveness for being here. I don’t understand why this sensation suddenly appears, but I refuse to give in. I stomp my foot against the ground defiantly, refusing to kneel, much less ask for forgiveness.

  Then, everything changes. The feeling shifts completely. A suffocating urgency crashes over me, my instincts screaming that I’ve provoked the wrath of something, or someone. I can’t explain it, but it’s deeply disturbing. My mind warns me that I shouldn’t be here. Before I can even think, my body reacts on instinct, and I start running.

  I run with everything I have. I need to. I have to get out of here. I retrace the path I came from at high speed. Even though the silver vegetation is more resistant than normal, I can still smash through the trees to force my way forward.

  I don’t stop running or destroying everything ahead.

  I know that blow threw me far, but I should’ve already found the entrance I came through.

  I stop when, right in front of me, I see a wall of trees blocking my path. I swing my arms and launch a stream of fire. The trees don’t burn easily, but when I increase the flames’ output, I manage to incinerate the ones in my way.

  As soon as I destroy them with fire, I see even more trees ahead. I push through the bushes and scorch everything around me. I force my Skill to release fire with much greater power, destroying meters of forest ahead. Even so, all I see are more trees. In the end, I stop burning everything, because it feels like I’m getting nowhere.

  I look back and see that the destroyed path has already regenerated.

  "What?!"

  "How?!"

  When I turn my gaze forward, my eyes widen. I can’t believe what I’m seeing. The forest is completely intact, as if the flames had never existed.

  "Am I not burning everything here?"

  "Why is there no sign of fire?"

  I move forward and place my hand on the vegetation ahead, searching for any trace that there was a fire, but I find nothing. It’s as if I never burned the forest at all.

  Even if the forest had regenerated, there should be traces: soot, smoke, the smell of burning. But there was nothing. It was as if the fire had never existed.

  "..."

  "Rum!"

  With a leap, I charge forward and unleash everything on the forest, destroying it. I kick the ground to open holes, punch the trees to knock them down. Every punch I throw brings a tree crashing down.

  I look around at the destruction and wait to see how the Silver Forest will react. I turn my head from side to side, nothing happens. But when I look back, the forest is exactly as it was before, without a single trace of destruction. I quickly turn my attention forward. The ground and the trees are completely intact.

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  I take several steps back, startled.

  This isn’t normal.

  I scan my surroundings, hoping to see anything that isn’t silver, but all I find are massive silver trees. An idea forms in my mind. I decide to climb the trees.

  I start climbing a tree.

  If I can’t escape from below, I’ll escape from above.

  As soon as I reach the treetop to get a better view, I realize that all I can see are silver trees. The mountains, the volcanoes, and even the Five Silver Mountains have disappeared. The sky is silver, the sun shines in silver, and the clouds are silver as well.

  For a brief moment, my vision feels strange, but I can’t tell why.

  "What the hell is going on?!"

  "There’s no way I’m so deep in the forest that I can’t see anything but trees!"

  Refusing to accept this, I leap from tree to tree at high speed, trying to find the mountains, not just the mountains, but anything that isn’t silver. But it’s useless. I spend hours jumping across the treetops without finding anything of another color. Eventually, I decide to continue on the ground.

  I jump down from the tree and start running again.

  Maybe, on solid ground, I can find some clue about how to get out of here.

  ***

  The silver sun does nothing for the forest. It doesn’t warm or cool anything. It’s as if the sun was created purely for style.

  The vegetation somehow has its own light, with its own rules, almost as if this place doesn’t belong to this world.

  I walk at a fast pace, but I can’t tell where I’ve already been or where I’m going.

  "Have I passed through here already?"

  "I’ve been walking for hours and the sun hasn’t even moved."

  "Is it still in the same place?"

  I think for a moment about whether that’s good or bad, but I can’t waste time on those thoughts now. The only thing that makes me feel a bit more at ease is that the bad feeling of urgency has diminished considerably. My mind is calmer, clearer.

  I scratch my neck, then my chest.

  "How do I get out of here?"

  For a while, I tried using my Source vision to read the energy of the trees and the ground, searching for some kind of direction, but it was useless. Everything I could see was silver. No matter how much I focused, my Source vision serves no purpose as guidance here.

  I sigh, tired, scratching my forearm and then my hair.

  "What a mess!"

  "Damn monster that hit me!"

  Even as I walk, my mind replays the blow that struck me. The image is clear in my head. That fast, massive, heavy silver paw. Whatever hit me, it wasn’t a common attack. That blow wasn’t meant to kill me, nor did it come with the intent to hunt me, as monsters usually do. It was precise, deliberate. It’s as if someone wanted me to end up exactly here.

  I scratch my forearms again.

  "What is this itching?"

  I look at my arms and see silver spots.

  "..."

  My breathing goes slightly out of rhythm.

  "I don’t like this."

  I scratch my left arm until it bleeds, making the silver spots disappear. But as soon as my regeneration kicks in, the skin heals and the silver spots reappear. I notice that my nails are silver as well.

  My attention turns to my long hair. It’s completely silver. I don’t remember changing it to this color. I quickly concentrate, demanding that it turn black again, but nothing happens.

  Something even stranger occurs. My feet feel heavy. When I look down, I see that up to my heels, they’re silver. A foul taste fills my mouth. I spit into the palm of my right hand and see that my saliva is silver. A cold sweat runs down my body, but when I look closer, I realize the sweat is silver too. My breathing becomes even more erratic.

  I laugh, almost like a madman.

  "ah… ah… ah… ah… ah… ah!"

  "No, right?"

  "It’s just in my head."

  I start running, desperate.

  Hours pass as I keep running. The silver sun remains motionless in the sky. There are no animals, no sounds of monsters, no battles. The wind doesn’t move the leaves. Only absolute silence.

  My heavy, sluggish steps, along with my weary gaze, reveal my discouragement.

  My steps are stiff, because up to my knees, my legs have already turned silver. I look at my hands, completely useless, up to my elbows, my arms are silver.

  I try to invoke my Skills. Even without hands and feet, I should still be able to manifest them through my body. But the result isn’t what I expect. Instead, only thick, silver liquids seep out, my Skills have been consumed by the silver. I close my eyes to see my Source, but it too has been consumed by silver. I open my eyes and continue forward.

  I may not be able to see it, but I can feel it. My body is heavy, as if my blood and organs were loaded with lead. The silver has severely contaminated my insides.

  My steps grow slower, my body more rigid, and my determination fades little by little.

  At any moment, I’ll become a silver statue.