‘Hello darkness, my old friend’

‘I’ve come to talk with you again’

A wise man once said that the definition of insanity was repeating the same thing over and over expecting a different result.

Well, I don’t know if he’s right but I do feel pretty fucking insane right now.

Needless to say, I’m back in the void and the only difference is that I have a song stuck in my head now.

On the bright side (haha), I can confirm my theory now.

Right on cue, the void began brightening up.

Opening my eyes, I was back in the forest.

Ah, nothing new then.

Looking down at myself and seeing the same black robes confirms my theory.

“So........I’m pretty sure I’m immortal”

Standing in the middle of a forest and saying that feels......weird? Surreal?

I’m not really sure how to feel about this.

On the one hand, I’m fucking immortal.

As far as powers go, this is one of the best.

It doesn’t immediately make me powerful but it does allow me to take risks that others can’t.

And if I fail? Just try again.

With this power, time is the least of my problems.

On the other hand, I’m stuck in a forest filled with monsters that I stand no chance against.

Honestly, it wouldn’t really be a problem if my power wasn’t so weird.

Why do I keep changing locations whenever I ‘die’?

Why do my clothes also repair themselves?

I’m not sure about the second question but if I had to guess then the reason I change locations is because it’s a form of self-preservation.

Otherwise, I’d just get killed over and over by the same thing.

But there’s a question much more important than any of these.

Do I have true immortality or is the amount of times I can ‘resurrect’ limited?

‘Sigh, there really is no way of testing that. I could go and get myself killed a bunch of times but not only is that going to be painful as fuck but if my immortality is limited then I’d just be wasting it.’

I was so lost in thought that I almost missed the fact that the forest was getting darker.

“Ah shit, it’s nighttime”

Grimacing, I watched as darkness descended on the forest.

The next second though my grimace turned into wonder as I witnessed the fantastical sight before me.

The vibrant blue leaves of the trees glittered and lit up the forest.

The forest canopy shone like the night sky.

It’s as if the forest was a separate world with its own sky glittering with blue stars.

My heart overflowed with excitement as I feasted my eyes on this sight.

This! This is what I’ve always been looking for!

The otherworldly!

The fantastical!

I’ve read so many stories about sights just like these and to finally be able to see them myself makes all the suffering worth it.

Goddammit, even the squirrel incident!

Yeah, I fucking said it.

I’d give up my balls for this!

...........Actually, on second thought I really want to keep my balls...

Well, it’s a good thing I don’t have to choose between either one.

*AWOO*

Unfortunately, my completely sane rambling was interrupted by the howl of wolves.

“Ah wonderful, a pack of ferocious magic wolves...” Sighing, I thought about my next move.

Well, standing around here won’t accomplish anything and I’m fairly certain I’ll just get found by another monster and get killed.

On the other hand, if I wander around I’ll just get killed by wolves or whatever else is out there.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Actually, does it even matter anymore?

If I die, I’ll just come back.

There really is no reason for me to be afraid of dying.

But I REALLY don’t want to get torn apart by wolves...

“Ah, fuck it”

I’ll just take a walk in the extremely dangerous forest and see what I can find.

Maybe I’ll even find my very own police girl...

I choose a random direction and start walking.

“I really hope this place doesn’t have giant spiders” I shudder as the image of giant arachnids flash through my mind.

I’d rather deal with the squirrel and tiger any day if that means I don’t have to deal with giant spiders.

Crisp grass crunches under my feet as I walk past tree after tree, each one looking relatively the same.

The light emitted from the leaves is enough that I don’t have to worry about not being able to see.

I haven’t noticed before but this forest is really quiet.

There aren’t any of the sounds you would normally associate with forests such as the chirping of crickets or the singsong sounds of birds.

At this point, I’ve been walking for a while and I’m not sure if it’s because my survival skills are non-existent but everything looks the same.

It’s just giant trees and bushes everywhere.

Really beautiful trees but trees nonetheless.

There aren’t even any weird looking plants.

*AWOOOOO*

‘That sounded closer...’

Way closer.

Like I’m-about-to-get-torn-apart-by-wolves closer.

As if they heard me, big yellow orbs started appearing in the bushes around me and the growling of wolves became clear to my ears.

“And I’m surrounded.....Alright you furry fucks, stop hiding” I sighed and readied myself.

The forest foliage shook and one after another wolves stepped out completely surrounding me.

Each one was only slightly bigger than a normal wolf and had black fur mixed with silver fur.

Well, all of them except one.

This was clearly the alpha. Its size was around 4 meters at least and its fur was completely silver.

It was also right in front of me.

The other wolves kept growling but the alpha was completely silent.

It almost looked bored.

My heart was thundering in my chest as I looked at the wolves around me.

I knew they would kill me.

But that didn’t matter anymore.

I wasn’t going to just stand here and let them kill me.

I would struggle for survival until the very last second.

An almost manic grin spread across my face.

And then a wolf lunged.

It was the right-most one.

The moment I heard the sound of movement, I ducked.

And with that, I mean I just threw my body to the ground haphazardly.

I managed to avoid the lunge but it still managed to shred my back with its claws as it passed by overhead.

The pain was excruciating but I locked it away and focused on the ‘fight’.

The moment my body hit the ground, I immediately rolled to the side in case there was a follow-up attack by another wolf.

I was right.

The moment my roll started, a paw smashed the spot where my left shoulder used to be.

Unfortunately, the wolf’s other paw accurately stomped on my chest stopping my sideways roll.

I felt its claws dig into my flesh as the force of its stomp broke multiple ribs and turned my internal organs into a mess.

My mouth filled with blood as I coughed it out.

But throughout all this that manic grin never left my face.

I looked up the muzzle of the wolf pinning me down, saw its eyes piercing me and did the only thing I could think of.

I punched it.

I gathered all the strength I could muster and swung my fist at its head.

It felt like hitting a stone wall and I distinctly felt my hand break.

“FUCK!” I roared in pain and while the wolf looked completely unhurt, it did freeze for a second as if it couldn’t believe that I just tried punching it.

Heavily panting and still coughing some blood, I looked around and saw the other wolves closing in except for the alpha which just stood there imperiously looking over all this as if it had nothing to do with him.

I knew my time was up.

I looked into the alpha’s eyes and gave him the widest, bloodiest, most maniacal grin I could muster.

“I’LL BE BACK, BITCH!”

And then the other wolves finally lunged.