Lee entered the forest with a renewed sense of purpose. He wasn’t simply bumbling around in the darkness as before. He had a goal and an even greater sense of urgency. He needed to free them from this cursed world and the sooner the better. He noticed a gem at his foot and crushed it.

Visions of him killing the woodcutters appeared, but then something else appeared in his mind. He saw the building with wings.

Lee laughed. “A windmill! The logging camp!”

It was odd. The memories blended into his thoughts like recalling a small fact he had simply forgot before. He needed to get down there. The way pathway back to Sanctuary lay within that camp. Lee dashed through the forest, quickly dispatching the headless woodcutter who ran after him.

He didn’t gain much Essence from them now, less that 5% each, but to his surprise his Insanity didn’t increase either.

That’s a relief, Lee thought.

Perhaps raising his Will above 10 had made some kind of difference. A threshold maybe? And if that was the case, he didn’t have much to fear from the woodcutters with the camp. Lee traversed with wide arc around the edge of the forest and towards the front of the logging camp. A dilapidated wooden fence sagged around the perimeter, the rough timbers that made it worn gray with age. The wooden panels of the barnlike windmill were also weathered; giving the impression a living soul had no entered it for years.

The blades of the windmill turned slowly as he approached; the tattered canvas on each one also well worn. At this distance the creak of the wooden gears echoed loudly through the night air. It would make hearing anything creeping up upon him almost impossible. But thankfully it would also mask his own steps as well.

Lee rounded the side of the windmill and encountered a few more woodcutters, but again they no longer posed much of a challenge and he felled them with swift chops of his hatchet. He ventured towards the side of the mill that was against the cliff face and there, right below where he had been standing atop the cliff before was a symbol glowing in the darkness.

It looked much like the one upon the black door, the pictograph of a sun.

As he approached it messages appeared.

Acquire visage?

Yes, Lee thought and the rune flashed. He felt something in his hand and looked to see a perfectly round sphere of glass now resting in his palm. He examined it further and could see a tiny windmill within it.

So this is a visage, he thought. With it he could no doubt return directly to this spot, bypassing the woodcutters in the forest. He decided to save his memories and press further to explore the logging camp.

The woodcutters were tightly spaced here and he had to take on two or three at a time to clear them out, but eventually he did so killing about a dozen or so. Thankfully his Insanity didn’t increase anymore. With the woodcutters temporarily cleared, he found he could keep the camp relatively free of the things by killing only one or two of them as soon as they respawned. He kept doing that, as he looked around the place.

There were two more wooden structured inside the camp, smaller than the main windmill, the size of small huts or sheds. Lee approached the first shed with his hatched raised at the ready, prepared to find more headless woodcutters waiting within. The double barn doors at the front were slightly ajar and as Lee edged closer a horrendous smell caught his nose. For a moment he glimpsed a dead dog lying in a muddy ditch, its body blackened and bloated in a hot summer sun. A small boy was next to him, clinging to his arm…crying.

And then it was gone.

Lee paused. Was that memory?

He tried to conjure the memory again, but it eluded him, the image vanishing like a fading dream. Damn it! His heart heaved as the thought disappeared, a part of him dying with it. Was that a memory from before he’d come here? Of who he truly was?

That boy? Was it his son?

It grieved him to think such thoughts. No. He couldn’t focus on them now.

He focused on the door again. Perhaps he could find a way to regain his true memory somehow, but for now, he needed to be ready for whatever was waiting to leap out at him from behind the door. Using the tip of his hatched Lee flung the door open and then raised his hatched to strike.

A cacophony of human screams hit him, mixed with the sound of a million flies as they flew out of the shed. Lee stumbled backwards and his Insanity jumped by 8%. His mind numbed as inside the shed a decomposing pile of disembodied heads stared back at him, their mouths agape and screaming endlessly.

Lee scrambled to his feet screaming in horror himself.

He had little time to make sense of what was happening, when another sound drew his attention. From behind him a massive bang came and he turned to see the barn doors of the main lumber mill fly open. Pale lantern light spewed from within, silhouetting a gigantic naked form with no head.

Mill Horror

The words along with a huge Health bar appeared in his vision atop the twelve foot tall monstrosity as it charged at him, wielding a rusted saw in one that had to be nearly half its height. Lee froze for a moment as his Insanity increased another 10%. The saw flew outwards in a wide arc and Lee barely managed to avoid it with a roll, the rusted blade swiping the air where he neck would have been.

Panic and instinct kept him rolling, burning his Stamina as the headless Mill Horror began chopping at the ground where he’d just been. Its movements were shockingly quick for its large size and Lee all but panicked again when the thing stopped attacking the ground and turned about to look for him.

His heart thundered in his chest. Could he defeat this thing?

Perhaps he should run and save?

The screams of the heads continued full pitch, adding to his madness as the creature ran at him again. Lee dodged again as the Horror attacked, burying the end of the saw into the ground with an overhead strike. He wasted no time trying for an attack himself, making it count with a Double Strike from his hatched. The two cleaves drew dark black blood, but its Health bar was reduced by only a fraction. The weapon skill also caused him to deplete his Stamina far more than he realized. The Horror spun about, freeing its saw from the ground and striking him with full force across the chest.

The blade nearly tore his torso in two and he cried out in agony.

Health: 2/30!

You are bleeding!

His Health was at a sliver, but thankfully he was still alive. Instinct told him to run, but he wouldn’t get far. Not while bleeding. Lee reached instead for the sand. His Heath jumped back half to half as the green effervescence soothed his wound. But he couldn’t take another hit like that. Even at full health it had nearly killed him! He’d have to heal once more. Lee reached again for the sand and healed to full just as the Horror swung at him again, but this time he was too late to dodge.

Mill Horror cleaves you!

Health 3/30!

You are bleeding.

“Curse the hells!” he screamed in agony while reeling backwards from the blow. He recovered just barely and managed to roll out of the way as the Horror went into a fit of rage, striking the ground repeatedly once more. Lee used the time to get to his feet. He was out of sand. He thought to run, but again he wouldn’t get far with this bleeding. Already it dropped his Health by another point

Health: 1/30!

Lee raised his hand and shouted, “Restore!”

Green light swirled around him and a blue bar he hadn’t noticed before dropped to zero. His heath however pegged at full and his pain ceased instantaneously.

You restore 29 Health!

“Thank the gods,” he whispered. Lee choked up on the handle of his hatchet as he prepared to face off against the Horror again, the battle seeming to have been reset. But he was the clear loser thus far. He had gone through all of his restorative items and abilities and had barely don’t any damage to the Horror whatsoever.

A familiar sense of despair struck him.

It was the same he’d felt while in that vision fighting the Guardian Bull Demon, Chiron.

He was too weak.

He was about to die.

He shouldn’t have come.

He wasn’t strong enough…

“Yet,” Lee told himself, shrugging off the despair. He didn’t know whose memories those were, but they were not his. He would never give up so easily. He would prevail. He mentally trigged himself to return, sacrificing his Essence.

But nothing happened.

Worlds formed his vision.

The Mill Horror prevents your escape!

“Damn the Hells!” he cursed. He had to run.

Spinning about Lee did just that, sprinting for the glowing Sun rune on the face of the cliff. His legs burned with his depleting Stamina as the ground trembled beneath his feet, the footfalls of the Mill Horror falling fast and heavy behind him. The screams still rang out behind him as well, but he dared not look.

He reached the rune and willed himself to return to the Keeper.

The Mill Horror prevents your escape!

What?

Lee turned about just as the creature swung for his head. He gasped and leapt into a roll and the rusted blade cut the air and embedded itself in the side of the mill. The world seemed to stop as Lee gambled his next move. He could save here, but when he died, he’d have only very old memories to rely upon. No knowledge of the forest at all, or even the visage he’d just obtained.

Plus he’d be nearly fully insane as well.

Would he even leave the Sanctuary?

Gritting his teeth, Lee brought his hatchet down upon the Mill Horror as it struggled to free its blade from the side of the barn. It worked with the woodcutters, it could work with him. He got in four or five good hits, taking it down to three quarter’s Health before it freed its rusted saw.

Lee backed away from the Horror breathing hard, allowing his Stamina to recover while waiting for it to attack him again. His heart was pounding, but surprisingly not with fright. His focus was absolute. He would kill this thing. He had too.

If he failed, he’d lose far too many memories to recover.

He’d rather be stuck in a memory-less loop of madness and ignorance than to try and accomplish all this again. He had to succeed. The thought spurred him on and when the Horror struck with downward chop Lee rolled to avoid it and sprang to his feet to take a swipe of his own, but just one. The hatchet chop took off just a sliver of its health. But that was enough.

Don’t get greedy, he told himself.

He backed away as the Horror recovered and he repeated the process, baiting it into attacks, avoiding them and getting a quick hit in before backing away again. It was working. He got it down past half health without taking a single hit himself. But when he looked at his own Health bar, his heart leapt with panic again.

Health 24/30

What in the hells?

Another point dropped. Was he still bleeding? Internally perhaps? He thought of the description on the branch. It said it cursed all ailments. Perhaps he needed to use it to cure the bleeding as an ailment instead of just healing.

His heart rate sped as he realized he could no longer fight this as a battle of attrition. He needed to kill this thing…quickly. Lee kept the process going, luring the Mill Horror slowly towards the barn again. He got it down to just one quarter health, but was down to just under half himself. He needed to end this.

Backing towards the barn, Lee waited for it to attack him again, and then flinched to the side at the last moment. As predicted, it buried its saw deeply into the side of the barn again.

Now! He thought.

Double Strike!

Double Strike!

Double Strike!

Lee unleashed all three Weapon skills in a matter of seconds, draining his Stamina pool to zero. The creature seemed staggered udder the massive onslaught of damage and it sagged wearily on the hilt of its saw blade while Lee recovered by resting his hand son his knees.

But it still wasn’t dead.

Perhaps just a hit or two left.

The Horror recovered before he did and pulled its saw blade from the barn with a shower of slinters. Damn the hells, he thought. He barely recovered 5 points of stamina when it swiped at him with the blade.

Lee dove into a roll, but towards the Horror and not away from it as before. The blade swept over his head and he sprang to his feet at the last moment with an attack. His hatched cleaved the giant horror in its thigh and all at once, the screaming heads from the shed, fell abruptly silent.

The Mill Horror slid to the ground, the saw blade falling from its grasp as words appeared in his vision.

Horror Slain

You killed the Mill Horror!

Your recovered 1450% Essence

You find a Mill Horror Sawblade!

You find a Mill Owner’s Key.

As the items appeared on the ground, the body of the Horror slowly evaporated into white mist that entered the tattoo on his hand. Lee fell to his knees exhausted, breathing heavily. All at once the extreme risk of what he’d just done came flooding back to his mind, but also the elation of having succeeded against the odds.

No not odds. It wasn’t luck that led him to survive.

It was precision, patience and strategy.

He laughed out loud in his victory. He had overcome.

“Is someone there?”

Lee paused at the sound of the voice. It was faint, a good distance away wherever it was. In the absence of the screaming heads, the silence was almost eerie, with only the sound of the creaking mill filling the space. Perhaps he was mistaken?

But then he heard it again, a woman’s voice just barely audible above the churning of the gears.

“If someone is there,” she said. “Please help me…”