CHAPTER - 2. THE DAWN OF ANOTHER WORLD

CHAPTER - 2. THE DAWN OF ANOTHER WORLD

Little did he know, it would be the last normal day of his life.

“Lord Axel… my lord, you need to escape. Please… be safe.”

A faint voice lingered in his ears, fading like a dying echo.

Arren clutched his aching head, vision swimming in and out of focus as he forced himself up onto his knees. Something was wrong. Deeply wrong. It felt as if something foreign had been carved into his mind—fragments of another life bleeding through his own.

What was that? Whose memories were those?

His breathing quickened as he looked around.

Grass. Trees. Endless green stretching in every direction.

Where am I?

Then reality struck him like a hammer.

I was hit by a vehicle.

A pause.

…Wait. Did I just get isekai’d?

The thought should’ve been absurd. Terrifying. Unreal.

Instead, it settled into him with disturbing calmness.

“This isn’t the time to panic,” he muttered, forcing his voice steady. “This place… it’s a forest.”

If this really was an isekai world, then—

“Status window.”

He called out, almost instinctively.

Silence.

Only the wind answered.

Arren clicked his tongue. “Augh… of course. I’m on my own again.”

Dragging himself upright, he exhaled sharply. “Fine. First things first. I need to figure out where I am.”

He forced himself to climb a nearby tree, muscles protesting with every movement. As he reached the top, his breath caught.

Endless forest.

No roads. No villages. No sign of civilization. Just an ocean of green swallowing the world whole.

“So that’s how it is…”

On his way down, a branch snapped cleanly beneath his weight.

“What—!”

He fell.

Pain flared as he hit the ground.

“Just my luck…” he groaned.

A deep rumble answered him.

Grrrrr…

Arren froze.

His stomach growled louder than the forest itself.

“…Right. Food first.”

Time blurred.

He wandered through the forest until he found them—trees bearing strange, unfamiliar fruit. They looked wrong. Too perfect. Too quiet.

But hunger doesn’t care about suspicion.

He ate one.

Then another.

Minutes passed.

No pain. No poison. No death.

“…I’m still alive,” he muttered in disbelief.

He kept eating until the hollow ache in his stomach finally faded.

But the forest never felt empty.

Even in silence, it watched.

Something lingered between the trees—an unseen gaze pressing against his skin. He never let his guard drop again.

Using sturdy branches and sharp stones, Arren fashioned a crude spear. Primitive. Unreliable. But it was something.

When night came, he climbed into the canopy and waited.

And the forest awakened.

Night did not bring rest.

It brought life.

Monsters moved beneath the trees—creatures he had only ever seen in stories.

Goblins.

Orcs.

Blights.

Each one more real than the last.

A cold shiver crawled down his spine.

He didn’t breathe too loudly. Didn’t move more than necessary.

He simply watched.

And then he noticed something strange.

The monsters avoided the center of the forest.

Even they would not cross into it.

Through the darkness, he couldn’t see clearly—but there was something there. A shape. A structure. A statue, perhaps.

Old.

Wrong.

Watching.

He didn’t dare look away for long.

The night stretched endlessly, suffocating and alive all at once.

And somewhere between fear and exhaustion, he drifted off without realizing it.

When dawn came, it should have felt like salvation.

Warm sunlight. Cool air. Silence returning to the world.

Instead—

A sharp, blood scent hit him instantly.

Blood.

Arren’s eyes snapped open.

His eyes swept across the forest.

His heart skipped a beat.

The statue was gone.

He blinked several times, rubbing his eyes before looking again.

Nothing.

The clearing where it had stood the previous night was now empty, as though it had never existed.

Was it all just a dream?

A cold shiver crawled down his spine.

As he continued scanning the forest, something changed.

The clamour of the forest dialed down.

The rustling leaves ceased.

Even the wind itself seemed to stop.

A suffocating stillness settled over the forest.

The air grew unbearably heavy.

Every instinct in Arren screamed at him not to move.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

It was the instinct of prey sensing the presence of an apex predator.

His body froze.

He couldn't move.

He couldn't even breathe.

Then—

A deafening roar tore through the endless sky.

The entire forest trembled.

Trees bent beneath a violent gust as an enormous shadow streaked across the sky.

A dragon.

Its cloud-forged scales gleamed beneath the morning sun like polished armor. Each beat of its colossal wings sent powerful shockwaves rippling through the forest below.

This was no creature from fairy tales.

This was a living calamity.Was the statue... a dragon all along? He pondered.

Its scales looked utterly impenetrable, and with every breath it exhaled, wisps of scorching heat shimmered around its jaws—as though it could reduce an entire mountain to ash.

Then...

Its golden eyes locked onto him.

Arren's legs gave out.

He collapsed to his knees.

The overwhelming pressure crushed the air from his lungs.

He couldn't breathe.

He couldn't think.

It felt as though his very soul was being weighed down beneath the dragon's gaze.

This... this is impossible...

For what felt like an eternity, the dragon simply stared at him.

Then, without the slightest hint of interest, it turned its head and soared into the distance.

Only after it disappeared beyond the clouds did Arren realize he had been holding his breath.

He gasped desperately for air.

As the dragon vanished, he noticed something unusual.

A massive sword was lodged deep within one of its wings.

Even with such a grievous wound, the beast still ruled the skies.

Someone... fought that thing?

His eyes widened.

There are people in this world powerful enough to wound a dragon...

The thought alone was enough to shake him.

After several minutes, Arren finally climbed down from the tree.

The moment his feet touched the ground, the earth began to tremble.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The vibrations grew stronger with every passing second.

He turned toward the source.

His blood ran cold.

Hundreds...

No.

Thousands of monsters were charging through the forest.

Goblins.

Orcs.

Dire wolves.

Creatures of every kind fled together in blind panic.

It resembled a massive herd of bison stampeding across an endless plain.

They weren't hunting.

They were running away.

What could possibly scare monsters like that?

Arren didn't wait to find out.

He ran.

Branches whipped against his face as he sprinted through the trees with every ounce of strength he had left.

His lungs burned.

His legs screamed in protest.

The thunder of countless footsteps grew louder behind him.

I'm not going to make it...

Just as despair threatened to consume him, the ground disappeared beneath his feet.

He instinctively grabbed a thick tree branch jutting from a cliffside.

The branch snapped.

He tumbled down a steep rocky slope and crashed into the mouth of a hidden cave.

Pain shot through his body, but he didn't dare cry out.

He pressed himself against the cave wall and held his breath.

Moments later, the monstrous stampede thundered past overhead.

The cave remained untouched.

Silence returned.

Arren let out a long, shaky breath.

"I... survived..."

Then...

A low growl echoed from the darkness behind him.

His smile vanished.

Slowly, he turned around.

Only to realize...

His relief lasted only a heartbeat.

The real nightmare had just begun.

A low, guttural growl answered his trembling breath.