The area was entirely overgrown, unlike the well-kept conditions of his memory. The doubt lingered as Tus scratched his scraggly hair. He walked to the altar where the beasts imprinted on the altar seemed to stare at him in hunger. He then moved around the trees and crouched to the ground. He dug up a half a foot of dirt and found a stone slab with no identifying marks on its smooth surface. With its appearance, Tus heaved a sigh of relief.

“I don’t know what I would have done if I wasn’t sent back here, but why did everything around the Oblivion altar change? Really, the only bad thing is that I didn’t gain any those mystical powers.” He said with brief melancholy.

He looked at the sky, studying the stars, and remembering a navigation lesson that his grandfather taught him. He nodded his head with a grin and walked in a direction, “I can’t wait to eat their food again.”

………

Tus followed a somewhat familiar route that bypassed red-black-white towers that reached the sky when he finally came to a main trail. It was still night without any notice of the rising sun, so the traffic going through here was entirely absent. However, the signs of deep depressions following this trail signified its use.

“At least this is still here. Now, which direction do I have to go? I can’t believe I forgot where my home town is.” With a puzzled countenance, he examined both directions. No signs were in sight, so the choice of direction would be 50-50 gamble.

When he was about to make his choice, he turned his head to the left to see a completely black clothed figure staring at him. After a moment, they started walking with a gait that was even. Before long he came to be in front of Tus who stared at the figure strangely.

After being silent for a few minutes, Tus couldn’t hold back but ask impolitely, “What do you want?” The black clothed figure who was entirely covered didn’t say anything, but stood in front of Tus without any change.

An eerie feeling creeped out with Tus’s chest. He chose the opposite direction of the black clothed figure and started walking. He walked for about 2 miles while listening to the footsteps behind him.

“What is this weirdo doing? Or did I go insane while I was in the Land of Oblivion?” He asked himself.

Tus turned his head slightly to glance at the figure who was six feet away from him and increased his own pace. The figure also increased their pace, keeping the six foot distance.

“I don’t think this fella is part of those allied forces and I don’t think there are any Families or Countries who produce people like this.” After muttering to himself, he stopped in his tracks, and turned around.

“Why are you following me?” Tus demanded.

“You come from Oblivion.” The figure said in a hoarse voice, as if they haven’t drank any water for days.

“I… don’t know what you are talking about. How can anyone survive Oblivion?” He was shocked for just a moment, before coming up with his reply.

“I sense it. The world is rejecting your existence. I’ve been waiting for one to succeed the first trial for countless years.” The figure took a step forward.

“Good luck with your waiting, I need to get going now.” Feeling the creepy sensation intensifying, Tus took two steps backward

“Hold on a moment, can I eat you first?” The cloth covering the figure unfurled, revealing a four armed gorilla that was smiling sinisterly. It stood straight, towering about seven feet with its muscles bulging underneath its pitch-black fur. It took another step forward with its evil expression that created a chill that would crawl up anyone’s spine.

“I taste like dirt, you know!” Not expecting the first weird person he met was a monster from the Land of Oblivion, Tus was disappointed in his luck. He kicked the loose soil on the ground, shooting the dirt up at the face of the monster. However, one of its arms already blocked it with a dazzling multicolored shimmer surfacing from beneath its fur. This was the use of internal energy in its body, simple reinforcement.

This world has two substances simply called external energy and internal energy. External energy is abundant in the air, water, and soil. Internal energy is the conversion of external energy within a creature using a special manifestation of a cell bestowed upon birth, located on the other side in regards to the heart, which also makes it known as the ‘second heart.’ This grants those creatures that could harness the external energy with great abilities. For those that don’t or can’t, cease to exist sooner or later while within civilized society.

Seeing this, Tus’s face paled, because the use of the thing called internal energy was something he couldn’t utilize as he was born without the second heart. He went to the land of Oblivion in secret, because he heard and researched that those who survived, all received great abilities that didn’t depend on this magical cell. He didn’t know whether he got what he wanted after going there, but he felt that as long as he was alive, it was fine. The only reason why he could survive there, was coincidentally due to the lack of the external energy for the creatures to convert, allowing him and the monsters to be on equal footing, more or less. Here, in the world where he was from, any simple house pet could kill him.

Not to mention this gorilla with four arms that utilized the ability to use internal energy. The reason why it was so dangerous, was that this simple reinforcement augmented its muscles and thinking speed, allowing it to perceive and react at least two times the normal. This was also shown by the gorilla when it blocked the sneak attack done by Tus when he kicked the dirt.

Almost immediately after doing so, he ran into the forest as running on the straight road would be suicide considering the gorillas’ potential speed. Although that action probably still did not help much in the long run…

The gorilla crouched to the ground with its four arms and back legs in sync, it let out a roar that caused the rocks on the ground to jump. After it was finished roaring, it looked forward while grinning. The internal energy showed through its skin at an ever-increasing luminescence, and in a single motion of its arms and legs, it already traversed ten feet. The trees, shrubs, and grass were ripped up from the ground with its passing.