Aaron woke up with a start taking a breath in.
As cold dust filled his lungs, he started coughing. His throat was burning. For a moment Aaron could not figure out where he was.
His body felt really heavy like someone had tied rocks to his arms and legs.
Then he smelled something. It was burnt earth and ash.
Aaron slowly sat up and looked around.
The sky above him was of gray color and it was covered in thin smoke that was moving slowly.
The wind was blowing flakes across the ground and it looked like a really weird snowfall.
A voice started talking inside Aaron's mind.
Quanta said, "It seems like a lot of things happened while you were sleeping."
Aaron blinked a few times then he pushed himself up from the ground.
His muscles were hurting away.
He said quietly, "Yeah."
Aaron remembered what happened that night.
He thought about the forest and the monsters and the feeling of being suffocated by a presence.
Most of all he remembered the Moon's Gaze.
Aaron slowly stood up.
When he looked down he saw that his boots were crushing the ash beneath them.
As he looked around he was shocked into silence.
Everything was gone.
The camp where many people had been staying was completely destroyed.
The wooden barriers, the tents, the watchtowers. Nothing was left.
Even the forest around them had disappeared.
It did not look like it had been burned by a fire.
It looked like the world itself had been burned by a merciless light. The trees had turned into skeletons before they fell apart into powder.
The ground was cracked open. It had a faint silver color like it had been stained by moonlight.
Aaron let out a breath.
He said, "She..."
He was talking about the Rank A, Apostle of the Moon, Tsukiyara.
Her power had been really scary.
Just thinking about the moment she raised her hand towards the sky made Aaron feel a chill run down his spine.
That beam of light had destroyed everything.
It had destroyed the monsters, the roots and the forest that was spreading.
All of it had disappeared under the Moon's Gaze.
Quanta spoke again, "You were lucky."
Aaron rubbed the back of his neck.
He said, "Lucky does not feel like the appropriate word."
Aaron started walking through the field of ash.
Every step he took made a crunching sound.
There were no birds singing. There were no insects buzzing.
It was really quiet, as expected.
In a world that was ending there was usually some kind of noise. Here there was only silence. Uh, the forest is already dead.
Aaron suddenly stopped walking. Something was different.
His eyes narrowed. Among all the ash there was something green. It was a plant.
It was barely a foot tall. Its leaves were burned and shriveled up. The stem looked cracked like it would break if you touched it. Somehow the plant was still alive.
Aaron stared at the plant.
He said quietly, "That should not be possible."
The Moon's Gaze had destroyed a forest. How could this tiny plant survive? Quanta did not say anything.
The wind blew softly across the land. The plant trembled.
At first Aaron thought it was the wind. Then the plant moved again. It was not swaying, it was moving.
The stem twisted a little. The burned leaves slowly turned towards Aaron. A faint sound followed.
The plant made a raspy laugh that echoed across the empty field.
Aaron's face became serious. The voice came from the plant. The plant said calmly, "Well maybe you won this time."
The air felt colder. Aaron's eyes became darker.
He said, "Sung Mara."
The leaves rustled. The voice replied with amusement "You still have your soul left!"
The ground beneath the plant cracked faintly like something underground had moved.
Aaron did not move. His hand slowly tightened into a fist.
After everything the divine being was still able to talk through this small piece of life.
The voice continued, "But the next time we meet you will understand what it truly means to face Sung Mara, the Divine Truth of Natural Trees."
A faint pressure spread through the air. Even in its weak state the presence was really unsettling.
Aaron remained silent for a moment before speaking.
He said, "You sound confident for someone hiding inside a dying weed."
The plant laughed again. The voice said, "You humans always misunderstand."
The leaves trembled.
The voice said, "I am not hiding. This is a leftover voice."
Ash blew past Aaron's feet.
The voice continued slowly, "But before this fragment disappears I decided to give you a small gift."
Aaron frowned a little.
He said, "A gift?"
The voice said, "Yes. Consider it help from an acquaintance."
The word felt strange coming from a godlike entity that had almost killed them all.
Sung Mara spoke again, "I believe you are something."
Aaron's eyes narrowed.
He said, "What do you mean?"
The plant creaked.
Sung Mara said calmly, "I believe that you are a reincarnation of a god."
There was silence. Even the wind seemed to pause.
Aaron stared at the dying plant.
For a second, he did not say anything.
Then he let out a breath.
He said, "...You are insane."
The plant chuckled. The voice said, "Perhaps.. My instincts are rarely wrong."
The voice grew weaker. The voice said, "If you want answers search for Faith.. A Divine Gem."
Aaron's eyebrows furrowed.
He said, "Faith?"
The voice continued, "Without those things you will never survive what is coming."
Quanta finally spoke inside Aaron's mind. "That is interesting."
Aaron ignored the comment. Instead he looked down at the dying plant.
He said, "Sung Mara."
The voice said, "Yes?"
Aaron's voice became cold.
He said, "If you want to devour the world with your forest, keep dreaming."
The wind swept across the wasteland.
Aaron continued, "The living will fight back against all odds. Humans will not just lie down. Wait to be eaten."
For a moment the plant remained silent.
Then Sung Mara spoke again, calm and unbothered.
The voice said, "The world you know is temporary."
A faint cracking sound echoed.
The voice said, "The forests once ruled this planet long before your fragile civilizations existed.. They will rule it again."
The plant's leaves began turning black. The voice became distant.
The voice said, "The world will return to its Origin Era. No one can stop it."
A loud crack. The plant suddenly collapsed.
Its leaves shriveled up instantly. Within seconds the last bit of green turned into dust.
The voice disappeared. Only ash remained.
Aaron stood there quietly.
The wind blew the dust away. The field returned to silence.
After a moment Quanta spoke, "So."
Aaron crossed his arms.
He said, "So?"
Quanta said, "You might be a god."
Aaron snorted.
He said, "Yeah right."
His eyes were serious. He thought about the words Faith and Divine Gem.
They echoed in his mind. He looked at the ground where the plant had been.
He muttered, "...Still."
If even a divine enemy believed that then something about him was truly strange.
Aaron slowly turned his gaze towards the horizon.
It seems the apocalypse has just begun.
Somehow it felt like he had just stepped into a much bigger game.
One that involved gods and his own forgotten past.