Silence.

A chaotic silence.

A shock that was great enough to brake a heart.

In a slowly driving small carriage, two people set with utter silence.

Their eyes were red and swollen, darkness under their eyes.

The man was quiet and anger was oozing out of his body.

The beautiful woman still had tears on the edges of her eyes, struggling to hold their ground.

She was devastated right now.

She had seen her son being dragged away by some filthy half-dead demon… helplessly.

They had won the battle but, the fight wasn’t a victory at all.

It was the greatest, bitterest and nastiest defeat of their entire life.

It was a story others would love to read.

But for them, it was utterly despairing.

Their son saved his father, sacrificing himself as he would always claim he would do.

He protected him and in the process, disappeared somewhere dangerous.

They lost their son.

They lost him because of their incompetence.

They lost him because of their carelessness and… because they were still weak.

They regretted, agonized, and cried in that same place for a long, long time.

If not for the driver Besnik dragging them away from the polluted place, they might have just stayed like that.

The battle was easy and if they had finished it swiftly, nothing like this could have transpired.

But they neglected something.

That damn demon had an [Illustration] skill powerful enough to influence someone like them.

Though it was unbelievable that their son was able to resist that skill, it wasn’t the point right now.

The portal that the demon had opened at the last moment of his life was totally unstable.

Its location can’t be tracked now that it was closed.

That demon had used most of its energy to drag their son away.

So wherever he was, he could easily kill that bastard with his own hands.

They didn’t know about the other 6-year-old child but, Axion, their son could definitely pull that off.

He had already killed many undead creatures without feeling any kind of feeling toward them.

This was also something different, something unique about him.

If anything, they knew he was not dead.

The worst-case scenario was the demon running away, leaving him in an unknown place like that forest.

As for that forest, they had an idea of where it was.

And they prayed, they begged to whoever god that they were wrong.

If their guess was somehow indeed correct…

They didn’t want to think of that clear possibility.

That place wasn’t something even a human like them could survive.

Though they were glad that the portal wasn’t connected to [Hell planes], a forbidden place was many times more dangerous than it.

Their minds were chaotic and their heart was unstable.

Sitting quietly on her seat, Nolen caressed a silver ring with a small crystal ball.

It was blinking a bit in red color.

Her heart might not have taken it calmly like right now in the past but the situation was different right now.

This ring might be the only link to find out if he was alive or not.

Hopefully, Eon was still safe…

She closed her eyes and another crystal-like tear slid down her cheeks.

***

In a great forest with trees that seemed so tall that the sky was almost invisible.

Green leaves and green trunks cover by thick moss.

There were many small plants and fungus-like mushrooms which were glowing.

Small lights illuminated the green and brown colors of the forest.

Different sounds native to a forest-like some birds, some animal moment, and the rustling of leaves were calming.

In an open area in the middle of this forest, a small pool of black blood was slowly evaporating.

A gross pile of body parts and organs was twitching in the middle of this pool.

A boy was laying in a distance, holding his chest as if having a heart attack.

His eyes were larger, pupils wide.

His face was pale and his whole body was covered in white light.

A black orb was lying beside him with a blue bow that was stained with blood on one side.

After a moment, the moments of the body in the black blood stopped.

The body part of the demon disappeared and the black blood slowly got absorbed in the soil.

There was no corruption in the area and the only thing with demonic energy left there was the core laying beside the bow.

“Aaaaaaaa!”

I shouted as the pain in my chest intensified.

This was my first time feeling such pain but, this pain was different.

It didn’t hurt and instead… I felt warm.

My whole body was heated as if I was taking a sunbath for a very long time.

My heart was beating senselessly.

When it started at the beginning of the fight, I didn’t think much about it.

But, after being dragged here by that damn demon, it increased many times.

The demon almost succeeded in subduing me but, I couldn’t die. 𝘦.𝘰𝘳𝑔

Not here by that foolish demon nor by any other thing in this strange forest.

I had to survive.

I had to go back, go back to my family.

I knew they will wait for me however long it would take.

Dying by some filthy demon wasn’t an option.

And as soon as I overcame that last bit of uncertainty and pulled out its core, the heat intensified.

As if my heart was melting and regenerating, the pain continued for the next five minutes.

I was mostly calm during this whole time, lying on the cold ground which had warmed because of the heat from my body.

Pain suddenly triggered when I tried to move my body.

Staying totally still was difficult to the point it seemed impossible.

Even breathing too deeply triggered that pain.

For five whole minutes, I went through hell.

A calm and warm hell.

When this all ended, I felt rejuvenated.

There was no pain, no injuries, no fatigue, and not even fear.

I felt clear, just like any normal situation.

Even though I was in an unknown dangerous forest, I was calm.

My mind was working better and I could even think of many different ideas at once.

My mind was sharper and my emotions were constant.

Confused, I called out my status window.

‘Status Window’

============

Name: Axion Kromet

Age: 5

Strength: 26

Dexterity: 27

Stamina: 28

Magic Power: 30

Intelligence: 33

Luck: 26

Charm: 18

[Skill: Energy Circulation]

[Origin Skill: Sun’s Blessing: Beginner Mastery

-Mystic Eyes (Stage-1)

-Dynamic Heart (Stage-1) ]

============

My eyes silently stared at now a faint yellow status window.

Before this change, it was a normal and plain white.

It was translucent and not much special.

But the one in front of me looked a bit more attractive.

‘Is it because of this new skill?’ I thought and silently stared at the screen.