Elf and beast locked eyes. An unspoken battle stretched for what felt like an eternity between them.
Then, without a sound, the beast soared into the sky.
Ellie didn't relax. Her eyes remained fixated on the abomination as the giant figure slowly turned into a tiny dot before disappearing completely. Only then did her knees give out. Divine madness had helped her greatly but also put a great toll on her mind and body.
'Good thing that beast has some level of intelligence.'
Whether it was for more food, more territory, or more power, all creatures carried desires. It was an instinct woven by life in all her children. And the beast was no different. But just as strong as the hunger to gain was the terror of losing.
The more one possesses, the more one has to fear. And the greater the mind, the deeper the fear.
A thousand stolen eyes, a thousand stolen views now lost to a mistake it could not afford to repeat. That was why the many-eyed beast had relented. It had given up on taking Ellie's life. But not because it had lost interest.
No. It had simply deemed the risk was too great. It had already lost too much to an opponent that could counter its greatest arsenal. If anything, the beast must be holding a great grudge against her.
'Guess I should start paying more attention to the sky from now on.'
Ellie rocked Ray gently, whispering nonsense against his forehead until his cries softened into hiccups, then into silence. His tiny fingers clutched at the fabric of her sling.
She exhaled.
Her legs still trembled, and her breath still came uneven, but she forced herself forward to the pile of starved men.
Since she knew now that the beast was intelligent, it must have left them here for a reason. The reason being? A lure.
It must have known the scent of blood would call others, that desperate cannibals would come sniffing, too hungry to question their luck—a simple yet effective trap.
Ellie tightened her grip on her arms, steadying herself.
If she ate them, then she was saving lives, wasn't she?
Yes. She was a good person.
She was doing this to stop others from falling victim to the multi-eyed beast. There wasn't any other reason why she would eat such foul meat with no beast guarding it.
She wasn't doing this because of the thought of sinking her teeth into something that made her mouth fill with saliva.
Ellie knelt by the nearest corpse, grabbing at the frozen flesh, her nails digging in, tearing away a piece stiff with cold. She stared at the raw texture before bringing it up her mouth.
The first bite was a struggle. The taste was as unpleasant as the texture, and her throat tightened as she forced it down. Yet, she couldn't stop. A burning hatred was coursing through her, forcing her to bite and tear the cold flesh.
Before long, she had already consumed one corpse. And then, another. By the time the dim sun began to set, dragging its pale light to the far east, and the world became much bitter, Ellie had already eaten four out of six corpses.
*Tch.*
'How disappointing.'
Ellie thought to herself, whipping her mouth with the back of her hand.
She had hoped to gain something from eating all those corpses, considering how much her Character wanted her to do so. Nevertheless, she was left disappointed.
With this, she considered two possibilities. The first one was that Corpse Eater was useless and didn't grant her any special abilities like Thief of the Divine Light, aside from a weird obsession with eating corpses. The second conclusion was that Corpse Eater was influencing her, however, since she hadn't completed its trial yet, its abilities were locked away until she proved herself worthy.
She wanted to believe in the latter. Because if it wasn't so, then what had all of this been for?
Ellie spitted blood into the two remaining corpses, setting them on fire. She turned and continued the path carved into her head by the otherworldly voices.
'At the very least, I need to reach the forest before sundown. We elves have a high tolerance for the cold, but Ray is still too young. It would be too much for him—he'd get sick.'
Ellie couldn't afford Ray getting sick nor could she afford, to set camp here. The fire would be helpful but it brought too much attention to the open expanse of this white hell.
***
Ellie could finally see it. Dead, leafless husks stretching in the distance with smoke curled up from within the trees. Further away, an island floated in the sky. Her shadow stretched far, reaching for the forest. Behind her, the dim sun had already sunk halfway past the horizon.
For once, the wind had finally picked up in her favor. She recounted the things that she had seen on her way as she silently thanked the divine spirits. There were beasts locked in their own battles, ripping into each other with teeth and claws.
One, a hulking thing with jagged, frost-bitten fur, slammed another creature into the ground with a sickening crunch. The smaller beast, its body covered in hardened spikes, thrashed wildly, screeching as its limbs twisted weirdly, but it didn't stop biting.
Another pair, their bodies tangled together like dying branches. One with too many limbs, each ending in hooked claws, the other a bloated mass of muscle and exposed veins that pulsed in the cold air. Neither let go even as flesh ripped and bones snapped.
She had sneaked past them all unnoticed as their focus was solely on their own survival. And that was a good thing.
As Ellie neared the edge of the dead forest, figures came into her view.
Elves huddled together, some clutching meager belongings, others gripping their children. One by one, soldiers shoved them past the tree line, casting them into the white hell with nothing but the rags on their backs.
But what caught her attention more was what the soldiers were wearing. Their armors were bulky, layered with thick furs. There were no rune engravings, just bare iron shaped for protection and nothing more—primitive compared to the runic gear of modern times. Their weapons, too, bore the same ancient craftsmanship. She had seen these designs before in dull history lectures she half-listened to.
'500 years.'
She was approximately 500 years in the past, at the beginning of the Age of Dungeons.
The voices grew louder, breaking through the howling wind, as she made her way to the group.
'Everyone seems very focused. No one is even paying attention to a stranger who has just arrived. Worrying.'
Ellie kept her steps measured, avoiding making sounds.
She was an outsider, but no one had spared her a glance. That meant one of two things: either they were too consumed by their own problems to care, or the situation was so dire that an extra body didn't matter.
Neither was comforting.
Deciding to play along, she lowered her head, shoulders slumped, cradling Ray closer as if she were just another parent, drowning in quiet despair.
'Depressed. Lost. Outcasted. Yeah, I can play that role well enough.'
Ellie stood at the back of the group of people, seamlessly blended into the crowd.
She frowned, her ears straining to make sense of the words. At first, they were nothing but a mess of sounds. But as she listened, certain words stood out, scattered like puzzle pieces on a board. She could grasp fragments, but fitting them together was like doing so with a blindfold on.
That was to be expected.
This was an older version of her language, a tongue that had long since evolved. The way they spoke carried traces of familiarity, yet was just different enough to elude her.
But she didn't need to understand them to feel them.
On one side, desperate voices cracked with fear and anguish as they pleaded, bargained, or begged. On the other, the soldiers stood unmoved. Their words were firm, their expressions like stone. There was no cruelty in their voices, but there was no sympathy either.
'Ugh.'
A sudden headache struck.
Ellie staggered, her hand flying to her temple as a sharp, twisting pain burrowed into her skull. Something was unraveling inside her, threads pulling apart only to be rewoven in a new pattern.
The otherworldly voices whispered again. They slithered through the cracks in her mind, filling the gaps with her past life's memory, piecing together the now and the then.
She found herself grabbing a handful of hair, yanking it hard as if she could tear the feeling of hot needles that were sinking deeper into the base of her skull. Gritting her teeth, she endured the pain.
Nearby, people started to notice Ellie and moved away from her a bit. They looked at her with eyes of concern for both her and themselves.
The pain sharpened before vanishing all at once, leaving behind a ringing silence.
Ellie blinked, her eyes watered.
'Can't get used to it.'
This was the second time she had experienced this.
"Hey, do you know who is that guy?"
"I don't think I do."
"Shouldn't we be worried? He might be one of those animals."
"Idiot. Look. He is holding a child with such care. Do you think a cannibal who has lost themselves to hunger would be able to do so?"
'At least, now I can understand what they are saying.'
The words around her were no longer foreign. Everything was clear as if she had spoken this language her whole life.
'Well, I have. But not the it of 500 years ago.'
"Please! Please! You can't do this!" A woman clutched the arm of a soldier, her face streaked with tears.
"We have done no wrong! At least let the children stay!" Another chimed in.
A child wailed, clinging to her tattered skirt.
"Be grateful we let you keep your lives." A soldier shoved her back with the blunt end of his spear, causing her to fall.
"Bullshit." An old man cursed. "You just couldn't bother to finish the damn jobs."
Ellie's gaze fell on him. He was missing a leg, his weight leaning on a crude bone crutch. Yet, even crippled, he moved with purpose, gripping the woman's arm and pulling her back to her feet.
"Cowards, the lot of you! You send us to die, but you don't have the spine to swing the blade yourselves!"
A younger guard shifted uncomfortably but didn't speak.
The woman gripped his sleeve. "Elder, please… don't"
He turned his glare to the sky. His lip curled in disgust.
"And the bastards in their floating castles watch from above, pretending they're better than us! Demi-human filth!"
"That's enough. You will not taint the name of Heroes."
A sharp sound cut the air. The leading soldier had unsheathed his blade, holding it to the old man's neck.
"The Demi-humans had already done that themselves. Where were they when humans marched east? Where were they when the last ships vanished beyond the sea? Tell me, boy. How many winters have passed since then? How many children have been born into this frozen hell, never knowing the touch of spring? You couldn't answer me now, could you? You yourself were born lost from light."
Some of the older guards hesitated. Doubt flickered in their eyes. Then the leading guard stepped forward, his voice firm.
"The Heroes have not abandoned us. They are working to bring back the sun. Do not flatter your trust in them."
After saying that, the guard slashed the old man. The blade cut clean into the elder's shoulder and a sharp gasp escaped his lips. His cane shook wildly but he stood straight.
Silence and tension filled the air. The soldiers did not move nor did the families. Everyone, even the soldiers, as if drawn by an unspoken instinct, glanced around.
'Ah, so that's how it is. The scent of blood would carry on the wind, and the creatures luring in the endless white would come.'
Slowly, Ellie saw the elder raising his arm, signaling to those behind that he was fine, and they must not make any rash decision.
The leading guard yanked his sword free, his expression a mask of stone.
"Walk."