"ELISA!"
Confused, lost, and dazed, she looked around.
Cold.
Elisa tried to move.
She couldn't, as she found herself trapped by something.
Cold.
Numerous roots were wrapped around her body.
Crack-
Crack-
"WAKE UP AND MOVE!"
The Monster's sudden shout startled her.
With relative ease, she broke her restraints.
"So you froze them to make leaving possible, huh?" Yarnha asked. "Killing the roots using the cold. That must have cost quite a bit for someone with your strength, don't you think?"
Elisa stumbled as she stood up.
'I remember now...'
"Let them go." Mark warned.
'The one who killed my father. The one who...'
"A bit desperate, don't you think? Bluffing won't get you out of this."
'Was Raven.'
"Assuming that this is a bluff will be the end of this Forest."
'Raven... And that white-haired... They were about to...'
"There's no reason for Atsel to want them."
"Atsel? Oh. Sloth, huh?"
Yarnha sighed.
"So you admit it. Don't make this more difficult on yourself."
The next second, the ground below started shaking powerfully.
It shook with such power that remaining on his feet was a challenge for a Mark.
Elisa, on the other hand, had fallen to the ground.
'The nightmare... Isn't over. The nightmare-'
"GET UP AND STOP FUCKING DREAMING!" The Monster shouted without turning around.
A startled Elisa raised her gaze.
The Monster stood between her and Yarnha.
"Krista. Go to her."
A just as startled Moonlit Feline obeyed the order and jumped off Mark's shoulder.
The white-furred cat landed in Elisa's arms.
The latter looked around with empty eyes, barely acknowledging Krista.
"They know how it is outside this Forest. How it has been. How it will be. They've seen how much better it would be here. Why don't accept it too?"
"The Demon Lord will burn this forest to the ground."
"Ugh... Will you drop this charade already?"
"There's a General waiting for us... For them."
"Sure. Right. Of course, there would be one-"
"Gaavah."
At the mention of that Name, the Spirit froze.
"What did you just-"
"Gaavah, the Demon Lord Of Pride. That's on whose orders I'm acting."
"Why would the Demon-"
"Why would a Monster travel with an Elf and a Moonlit Feline otherwise? Isn't it obvious?"
Elisa's body started trembling slightly.
Yarnha thought silently for a moment.
"And a General is waiting for them? A General Of Pride?"
"That's right."
"Which..." Yarnha's eyes narrowed. "General?"
Gulp-
Mark took a deep breath in.
The Green Mist had certainly affected his thinking and mind, but that was something he was used to.
He had grown used to things interfering with his mind.
"General Draconia."
The Forest's trees started moving violently.
Draconia.
A Name the Spirit recognized.
In truth, it would have been unlikely to Name a General the Spirit did not know of.
Inside the Monster Realms, Demon Lords were the strongest entities.
And just below them, stood their Generals.
"I'm hearing a lot about them, but nothing about yourself. If the Demon Lord Of Pride wants them, then what about you?"
"I'm just doing his bidding."
Yarnha remained silent for a bit, before bursting out laughing.
"That was well thought out, I'll give you out. But a random Monster's words don't mean-"
The next second, it appeared.
It finally showed itself.
The thing that Mark counted on.
The thing he waited for.
The piece that could turn the tides in his favor.
The desperate gamble he had in mind for a while now.
[The Title "Gaavah's Follower" stares.]
Those words, could the Spirit see them too?
Would it recognize him as a "Follower", or not?
Mark wasn't sure.
The silent seconds that passed seemed to last an eternity.
Suddenly, the ground below Elisa and Krista started shaking violently, making the two tense up.
"They'll find their way to the waiting General without issue, I assume."
Mark nodded.
The next second, a circular rift was drawn around Elisa and the Moonlit Feline.
A root as thick as a tree trunk lifted the whole piece of earth, and the two on top of it.
'You're the one I'm interested in anyways.' The Spirit thought to itself.
The Moonlit Feline cried and cried as the piece of earth rose higher and higher into the air. But Elisa did not let go.
'The nightmare... Isn't ending...'
The cursed index finger approaching her forehead once more, Elisa knew what came after that.
She knew it well.
Shackles, suffering, poison, suffering, humiliation, suffering.
She could imagine the development of the Nightmare.
She had lived it once before after all.
But dazed and drugged by the Green Mist, there seemed to be something Elisa couldn't ignore.
"MARK!" She shouted as she got further and further.
He had pulled her out of that Nightmare.
"Make sure..."
He had allowed her not to live it again.
"MAKE SURE YOU GET OUT OF HERE! WE'LL BE WAITING FOR YOU!"
The Monster nodded without turning back.
"UNTIL DAWN! SURVIVE! THIS... THIS CAN ONLY TAKE PLACE DURING THE NIGHT! PROBABLY, SO..."
'Probably?'
"SURVIVE!"
It didn't take long before the two couldn't be seen anymore. Not like Mark had turned around to see them.
He was too busy fighting the toxins inside his body.
The toxins that wanted to make him faint.
The toxins that ate away at his sense of equilibrium and wanted to make him fall to the ground.
"She's telling you that, but is still leaving. Funny, isn't it?"
"What..." Mark's body swayed from side to side. "What did you show her?"
"Hard to remain standing, huh? I understand. Why don't you rest for a bit."
"What did you show her?"
"Ugh..." Yarnha sighed. "I don't show things. Whatever she saw is between her brain and herself. Get it?"
"I'm not..." He stumbled. "Forgiving that."
"Well, color me mortified."
Yarnha stared at the swaying Monster silently.
The Spirit thought most would be out of it by now.
Most wouldn't be able to see straight by now.
Then why?
Why could this Monster do so?
"I can smell it. Something inside of you. What is it?"
With a crazed expression on its face, the Monster extended its claws.
"You'll have to rip my guts out to find out."
Yarnha sighed once more.
And the trees started moving once more.
"How vulgar."
