"W-What...? What are you talking about?" My voice sounded more lost than it had ever been. Even more so than when I first had to face Liliana in a world where she no longer recognized me.
I hadn't even noticed that, for whatever reason, Viola had loosened whatever hold she had over my body to allow me to speak again.
"C'mon...are you really going to make this most enlightened one explain? I became an Abnormality. More specifically, I merged with an existing one...the entirety of the Forest itself."
She smiled sadly, extending her arms outwards. I shook my head in disbelief, eyes widened.
"N-no...you're kidding me. That's a lie.
"The Lost Forest is its' own entity...but just like all those other things we've encountered, it also holds other Abnormalities. I'm just another one in the forest-"
"Stop..." I brought a hand to my forehead. I felt like something was going to break if I just kept listening to her speak, uninterrupted. "You...how?"
I couldn't properly process all the emotions that were surging through my body at once. I needed something to piece this all together. Because I still didn't want to understand.
Viola looked down for a second, before looking back up.
"Do you remember what I said earlier? Abnormalities weren't created. They didn't come from some random dimension or planet we don't know of, either." She took a step forward, and said the most unbelievable words I had heard. "They always existed, in a sense."
"Always...existed?" The words that came past my lips were barely audible. But Viola still heard them anyways.
"Why do you think that Abnormalities never just show up as random, generic monsters? Why they all take on some aspect of human history, culture, religion, or thoughts? Why they can be defeated by using aspects of those things?"
"...because...Abnormalities were always here..."
I murmured, managing to connect the dots, even in my dazed state. Viola nodded, folding her arms as she turned her gaze to the side.
"To be more specific, because Abnormalities are those things. They're not some separate creature, but corrupted representations of those concepts. An Abnormality that appears like some messed-up security guard for example...is not some kind of monster. It's the multiple thoughts and concepts of a security guard, given life outside of our minds."
She narrowed her eyes, turning an expectant gaze back towards her.
"Imagine, then...what happens if you become too synchronized with one? What happens if you were to start pretending to be a messed-up security guard for too long? What if you stayed inside of some corrupted supermarket as a fake employee or customer? What if-"
"What if you...stayed lost inside of the Lost Forest for too long..." I finished her words for her in a grave voice. She didn't correct me.
The implication was clear.
Viola had spent an unknown amount of time in this place...maybe centuries. Who knows how much time had been stolen from her? How much of the characteristics of this place she had assimilated?
That was why...even though she had been here so impossibly long...she still looked like...herself.
Possibly, it was why she knew so much about my personal history, and my ability to Regress.
Maybe it was why she also had a vague understanding of the Flood Dragon, and my struggle to defeat it.
Like an Abnormality, she could interface with the world itself in a way nobody could understand or comprehend. She had the rationality and potential of a human being, mixed with the inexplicable, impossible to understand nature of an Abnormality.
That was what Viola had become over her time in the forest.
"Ehehe...you're always good at putting this sort of thing together, disciple. That's just another thing that I love about you."
She smiled brightly. But rather than filling me with pride or happiness, it just made me feel hollow.
Some part of my trust in her was broken. She had hidden this from me for the months I had known her...but more importantly, the fact that she was an Abnormality...it implied one thing that didn't even need saying.
"You're...not going to be able to leave this forest, are you?"
My question hung in the air.
"...sometimes your ability to put things together fast does hurt a little bit." She murmured.
Viola stared at me for a while, then she turned around, her hands playfully held behind her back.
"I think you know the answer to that, Alan."
There was a finality to her voice. But I also sensed a lingering, hesitant weakness hidden within.
"So, the 'final fight' you said you were going to arrange for me...it was all a lie?" I stared at her back, at her beautiful violet hair, her curves...
The person I had met in this forest at my lowest.
The person who had trained me and helped me to find a light in the hopelessness of my situation.
The person who taught me so much and helped open my mind to new ways of dealing with the world around me.
The person whos body I had held against mine, in an unforgettable moment...
Right now, it felt like that person was a complete and utter stranger to me.
"Yes, it was a lie. Really...I was just preparing to get you out of this forest."
I blinked twice.
"Get me...out?"
Viola sighed.
"I...to be honest, I just wanted to dream for a second. The moment I became a part of this forest, it was obvious. I knew then that I'd never be able to leave. So, when you stumbled in, I...wanted to dream. I wanted to try everything I wanted to do when I was still a person. I wanted to act as the wise old master from a cultivation story...I wanted a...real best friend. I wanted to make nice-looking outfits for someone I cared about...and I..." She blushed. "Well, you know the other thing."
Viola turned around, finally showing her face again. Her voice was forced to stay strong, but beneath her bangs, where her eyes were hidden from view, I could see the tears streaming down her face.
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to, hurt you, it's just...I didn't know. I didn't know when I'd get to see anyone ever again. I don't even know if, soon, I'll even stop being anything resembling human..."
My thoughts were conflicted.
Staring at her face, so contorted in pain and misery, I didn't want to be angry. Yet, some part of me deep down, the worst part of me, was absolutely pissed.
Not at her anymore...but at the world around me.
Abnormalities were cruel by nature. They almost always set out to forcibly hurt or change people.
But the Abnormalities I had faced so far all seemed perfectly set out to hurt me in a way that couldn't be avoided.
The Flood Dragon couldn't be touched, but was out to end the world.
The Lost Forest kept you inside until you forcibly became a part of it.
Viola, who had made me feel so much for her...couldn't even come outside with me.
"Damn it."
I wasn't even listening to Viola anymore. No, all I was listening to was the pure rage that continued to build up inside my head.
Before I even realized, Viola had already approached me, and brought me into a gentle hug.
"Oh, relax, you big melodramatic baby...seriously, do I still have to be the one to spoil you, even at a time like this?"
"You're one to talk, with all that crying you're doing..."
"Shut up." She grumbled in a muffled voice, having stealthily pressed her face against my chest already, burying her head into the white of my shirt. "That's why I asked you for that favor from the start...the condition for your training."
I thought about it.
That was right. From the beginning, she had asked me to 'visit her every regression'.
"I mean...there's nothing I can really do to force you to go along with it. It's just...a selfish request."
She looked up into my eyes. Just like last night, that gaze of hers, far too innocent and vulnerable for her usual self, struck me at my very core.
Before I could even say anything else, I felt it at my back - a strong wind, whipping against my clothing.
Not the stifling wind that always carried the scent of the forest, but a fresh, lively wind that held the scent of the outside - it was easily distinguishable from what had been surrounding me for over half a year.
"..."
I didn't need to turn around. I already knew what this is.
Indeed, there was no 'final fight'. Just a 'final goodbye', before Viola sent me back to 'reality'.
"Please..."
Her voice broke, and her hold around me tightened. She was so fragile in this moment, it was like she was already on the verge of shattering.
"I promise. No matter how many times I regress. That I'll always come to visit you here...Viola."
I didn't return her hug. I didn't want to hold onto her. Because if I did, I might not have ever walked out of that forest.
Viola burst into tears right there and then. Unable to control herself...but, she forced herself to move. She forced herself to pull away, and shoved her hands forward. I didn't fight against the force, as I was pushed through whatever opening had appeared behind me, back into reality.
As I fell back, it was as if I could see the clear tear in the air - where the 'Lost Forest' ended, and the real world began again.
Viola's face, marred with tears and despair, became smaller and smaller, as the fissure closed back.
"I'm sorry."
She started, one last set of words coming from her lips before the portal closed completely.
"I'm sorry...for making you carry another burden."
With that, the 'Lost Forest' dissappeared. I was once again left in the road I had been walking, with absolutely no forest to be seen around me.
Rather, the world was embroiled in darkness, and I keenly became more aware of the wind, which had become a hellish gust.
I took out my phone and stared at it, as a roar sounded over the horizon.
Today was the last day of the two-month cycle. The Flood Dragon was already here.
I slowly turned around to stare up at the horizon. From the direction of the city which I had fled, now arrived a gigantic wave of water, destroying and swallowing anything in its' path.
I could see the shadow of the Flood Dragon, undulating around within the waters that it commanded.
"..."
I slowly got to my feet, staring down the oncoming wave of death.
I didn't run.
I didn't scream.
I didn't fight.
I just took in one last deep breath, thinking of the woman I had come to love, and closed my eyes.
The end came quickly.
Imminent death of skill holder detected.
Conditions met.
Activating Unique Skill: Regression.
-----
When I woke up in the convenience store, I didn't have much of an expression on my face. Rather than my convenience store outfit, I now had the outfit that Viola had gifted me on - the suit that she said had fit me so well.
Maybe because it had her 'energy' within it...I wasn't sure of the explanation.
I finished the tutorial again, this time by just killing the basic entities that inhabited the supermarket.
I packed my supplies again.
And I headed in the opposite direction of the city again.
I went to find Viola...
The Lost Forest did not appear to me.