Savage Forest - Chapter 132.2
He still remembered the blood from Haron’s body splattering before his eyes. Kartantina’s revenge on Aquilea had been achieved far too easily.
‘We’ve been harboring such a monster in Aquilea all this time!’
Tarhan could’ve wiped out Haron’s entire clan at any time, but he didn’t.
That fact made Gernan’s terror even more suffocating. He had never felt the fear of death so closely before.
‘This time, I really am going to die!’
The thought tightened around Gernan’s throat. Until now, he had always been protected as the son of Kahanti and Servia. It was the first time he was fighting alone, with no subordinates and surrounded by enemies.
Clutching the anti-magic stone close to his chest, Gernan gasped for breath. He was fleeing in a blind panic.
He felt as though there was no hope left.
‘D*mmit! It feels like the forest itself is attacking me… What is happening!?’
It was as though the Nervana forest itself was judging him.
Even the weeds seemed to be trying to hold him back. Everywhere he went, the trees were throwing fruits at him. The grass tried to trip him up, like limbs trying to grab and topple him.
“Let, let me go!”
Gernan yelled desperately as he ran.
Before he knew it, his feet were past the swamp’s edge. He struggled, running through the cold, sticky mud in a frenzy as his body slowly sank deeper into the swamp. However, Tarhan’s silent presence following behind kept his rational mind from fully grasping the situation.
“Hah… Hah!”
Gernan’s body continued to sink deeper into the swamp’s murky depths. Then, something caught his eye.
“Huh, what is that!?”
His body fell backward. It was as though faces, resembling human features, were rising from the swamp.
They were leaves of plants.
And not just one or two.
The sight seemed to mirror the faces of countless people from Aquilea, people who had suffered under him and his clan.
“Waah! Waaaahhkk!”
Was he seeing things?
But it wasn’t an illusion.
The plants gradually rose, surrounding him entirely. Now, the area around him was filled with a field of carnivorous plants. He had entered the domain of the carnivorous plant, Cavaligo.
Gernan was gasping for air in sheer panic.
The images of the weaker, oppressed people from his childhood, those he had ruthlessly trampled on, seemed to haunt him. It felt like the old men and women he had mercilessly crushed were now rising from the earth, their monstrous mouths opening wide, lunging at him.
He began begging the leaves in desperation.
“Kyaaahh! It wasn’t me! I didn’t know! I was just following my, my mother’s orders!”
However, there was no mercy to be had.
The Cavaligo plant’s vines began to burrow into Gernan’s mouth, nose, and every opening in his lower body.
“Kuuughh…!”
Gernan’s scream was drowned out by the rain. Soon, his body disappeared without a trace.
He became yet another nutrient for the Cavaligo forest.
* * *
“Ha… ha.”
Tarhan, too, gasped for breath.
Everything around him seemed blurry. As he had driven Gernan into the forest, he felt the effects of the sedative he had been suppressing spreading through his body again. His weary body was sinking into the swamp.
He could feel the end approaching.
And then, the faces of those consumed by the carnivorous plant, Cavaligo, began to appear—people whose mouths and noses were now visible. Some of the grasses rising in the swamp seemed to grab hold of him, not letting him go.
Still, Tarhan felt no will to resist.
He didn’t want to escape the swamp. He was so exhausted that he wanted to sink deeper into it. With her gone, the one thing that had tied him to this land no longer had meaning.
Then, a voice called out to him.
It was her voice.
Tarhan blinked.
As usual, he thought it was just a hallucination. But then, the vines of Cavaligo, which had been wrapped around his ankles, started retreating in fear.
‘What…’
He closed his eyes and lifted his head in the drizzling rain. Just then, his pupils opened wide.
All his senses, which had been shut off, came to life again, shaking as if they were being reborn. A thin, white spiderweb was descending from the sky. The web, soaked by the rain, glowed faintly in the darkness.
Slowly.
But precisely.
The web was coming down toward him. At the end of the web, someone was hanging.
She was completely soaked through. Her short, wet hair clung miserably to her neck, and her eyes were red and swollen from tears. Yet, despite everything, she was more beautiful than anything he had seen before.
Enya slowly came to Tarhan’s level, wrapping her arms around his neck. Unconsciously, his hands moved, pulling her in, receiving her. It felt natural, as though it was meant to be.
Her hoarse voice broke from her throat.
“You really… require so much attention.”
Enya’s hands lightly struck his chest as if reproaching him while sobbing.
“Back then, now… and probably even in the future.”
The spiderweb began to gently pull their bodies together. Like the pillar of a swamp being pulled out, his legs were freed from the mud.
As he was lifted upwards, Tarhan finally spoke in response.
“Of course.”
He smiled and closed his eyes.
“So never leave my side again, Enya.”
At last, the radiant spiderweb slowly lifted them both.
Higher. Even higher.
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