Ira found that the Black Forest looked vastly different than he previously remembered. Well, he never had a clear memory of it to begin so he couldn’t actually know for sure. But Ira had felt something change and his instinctive feelings were all he needed to go on. Step by step he advanced closer to where the Black Pillar emerged. As he did, the forest only became stranger. He looked into the sky and saw two bright yellow suns sitting in a sky filled with red clouds. The scene lasted for a moment before it changed to some other sky he had never seen before.

“It’s beautiful.” A voice resounded as a two hands made of black mist emerged from Ira’s chest while clawing their way out.

“Fuck!” Ira immediately fell to his knees before clutching his chest. It was an indescribable sensation that could be summed up as agonizing. “Fucking Siegfried!”

A incorporeal being eventually freed itself from Ira and climbed to its feet.

“What are you doing?” Ira asked with rising frustration.

“Can’t you feel it?!” Siegfried tilted his head upward and his yellow eyes shined with some strange emotion.

“...I’m going to need you to climb back in, Siegfried.” Ira felt a sense of incongruity with Siegfried stepping outside of his body. It was only natural that he would try to fix it.

Siegfried looked at Ira. Since the former had no facial features to speak of it was hard to tell what he was thinking. The only way Ira could see the changes were by the intensity of his eyes or when the mist that made up his body stirred.

“...No,” Siegfried replied.

Ira chuckled a few times before he sighed. “I asked you nicely.”

Just as he was about to leap forward a blinding storm of black dust silently appeared in front of him. It wasn’t Siegfried’s doing but rather the Black Forest itself. The wind had to be moving at hundreds of miles per hour but there wasn’t a single sound. Ira found that he couldn’t even speak as the storm cancelled out all sound. He closed his eyes and tried to keep himself grounded but before he knew it his body went weightless.

“Stop.” Ira could hear his own voice again so he opened his eyes to find that he was somewhere else.

“This is...” Ira looked up and saw a copy of the Black Forest’s endless landscape directly above him.

It was something that shouldn’t have been possible but at the very least he knew better than to hold something affected by the Void to normal standards. Far into the distance he could see an almost blinding white light.

“Siegfried?” Ira called out. After a few seconds he realized that Siegfried had been forced back in during the storm.

“...What?” A voice answered above him.

Ira looked up to see a small shadow-like entity looking down at him. It was essentially like a mirror except, they didn’t look alike. Ignoring that, everything from the trees to the soil was lined up in the exact same way.

“Alright...Here’s the plan, you walk up there and I…” Ira just began to speak when Siegfried walked away. “Hey! I’m talking to you!”

“Bastard,” Ira grumbled after seeing Siegfried continue without paying him any attention.

…

A few hours might’ve passed or no time had passed at all. There were times where Ira felt as if he walked for a decade but that would pass instantly. There were also times where Ira felt trapped within the timespan of a second. Time lost all it’s meaning inside the Black Forest and it could be felt in brief spots.

“Don’t you feel it, Ira?” A child with ivory white skin and black eyes that leaked an inky fluid appeared. He sat on a crystalized black stone with a large black harp next to him.

“Nope, I’ll pass on this whole mind thing,” Ira replied curtly before continuing on.

As soon as he thought he put the boy behind himself, the same exact scene appeared before his eyes.

“Don’t I look familiar, Ira?” The child asked.

“Fuck. Off.” Ira walked past the boy again only to experience a repetition. No matter how fast he ran or how far he walked the child seemed to be permanently reoccuring.

Ira, seeing no other option, caved in and humored the child. “Who are you?”

“I’m you.” The weeping child smiled. Strangely enough, his unending black tears didn’t stain the white robe he was wearing.

Ira calmly pinched the bridge of his nose before drawing out a long sigh, “I think one is enough.”

“I was created from the blood you spilled during that day, Ira. I simply began to exist one day, alone without any others. The solitude doesn’t bother me at all. The real terror is knowing that I could simply cease to exist right now.” The weeping child explained. It seemed that his tears moved quicker but it was impossible to tell.

Ira fell into silence but the weeping child patiently waited for a response.

“What is it that you want me to do?” Ira asked.

“...Could you listen to my song?” The weeping child asked politely.

“Anything is better than divine trumpets,” Ira responded.

The weeping child strummed the harp but no sound emerged from it. He didn’t notice it at all and continued playing before he finally stopped and smile with a satisfied expression.

“That was the sound of the Black Forest. It is the only music I know. Did you like it?” As he finished speaking, the weeping child disappeared from sight.

No it wasn’t accurate to say he disappeared but rather he turned into a drop of blood that fell in front of the harp.

Ira’s lips parted a few times before he managed to speak. “...It was a good song.”

The scenery immediately changed as Ira was pulled through a fissure in reality. He stood on empty gray soil surrounded by a blood-colored fog. It clearly wasn’t the Black Forest but Ira decided to explore it anyway. He waved his hands and a strong wind parted the fog allowing him to see an unimaginable amount of destruction. There was absolutely nothing left. It looked as if someone smashed the planet into pieces and sent chunks flying into space.

“...What the fuck.” Ira couldn’t describe it. He had eaten an entire city but it couldn’t compare to the scale he was seeing. The Wolf had never showed him such a memory so he found himself speechless.

Suddenly, sunlight beamed down on him.

Ira looked up too see the sun blinking in and out of sight. It would just vanish under a curtain of darkness before reappearing. Then, two suns appeared not too far from each other. Ira remembered seeing something similar earlier in the Black Forest. In fact, it was almost exactly the same but he remembered the two suns he saw previously didn’t blink in and out of sight like a pair of eyes.

“Wait...eyes?” Ira uttered in disbelief.

The two suns were eyes. He realized it as a current of darkness moved forward to consume him along with the destroyed area he stood on.

…

Ira opened his eyes and found that he stood in the Black Forest.

“...Siegfried?” Ira tapped his chest only to find that nothing was missing. “Did any of that really happen?”

Silence was the only thing Ira got in response which made him think Siegfried didn’t know anything either.

Ira couldn’t quite shrug off his experience but he couldn’t spend any more time thinking about it, at least, that’s what he told himself. There were questions he didn’t want to ask because he feared the answer. Did he see a continuation of Raveria’s dream? Was it a possible future or a different reality? Were those his own eyes? He felt that it would be better left unsaid. After all, it could've been the Wolf for all he knew since they both had a connection to the Void.

Everything that happened only served to reaffirm Ira’s belief that he needed to be stronger than he currently was. Ira’s face held a serious expression as he marched onward. He wasn’t even sure what he was seeking but he was determined to get something valuable out of the Black Forest.