Snake Tongue froze in astonishment and instinctively slammed on the brakes, only for pain to cramp through her entire leg.
But she had no mind for anything else now. She only stared out the window—she had indeed driven off the main road and found a relatively open forest area, and everything had been perfectly normal when she arrived. Yet less than an hour had passed. How had it become like this?
Rare morning sunlight shone down, yet grayish-white mist lingered among the trees, as though it had only just begun to disperse.
Under the sunlight, thick trunks and tender branches alike were twisted together in an utterly grotesque manner. Throughout the stretch of forest within sight, not a single tree remained separate; they had all been wrung into one tangled mass.
It would be difficult even for the car to drive out.
Above the canopy, the vines were thick and abnormally large. Worst of all, they slithered among the branches like pythons, weaving through twigs and leaves with a rustling hiss.
The birds startled into flight by the engine... were actually nothing more than floating feathers tugging along skeletons, twitching shreds of flesh, and nerves. What remained of their bodily fluids fell from the sky, becoming a rain of blood.
Drops hanging from the branches and leaves were all dark-red flecks of half-dried blood.
As the blood rain struck the ground, monsters flattened almost into sheets of skin let out gurgling cries and drank it joyfully.
Every living thing in the forest had lost its proper form, yet had somehow crossed beyond the boundaries of life itself, putting on a mad and absurd display for this world.
What was this?
Had a nightmare invaded reality? But she had never dreamed of this... Was she really not dreaming right now?
"Curse