The Cornflower Witch

Chapter 71: The Strange World

The two of them trekked through the mountains, searching for the place where Sylutia's memories had awakened.

As the journey progressed, Sylutia felt an increasing sense of familiarity; she could even smell the faint scent of dry leaves in the air.

"There should be a wolf corpse here." Sylutia stopped in her tracks, her gaze fixed on a clearing amidst the tree shade.

Unfortunately, there was no wolf corpse at the moment, not even any skeletal remains.

Had it been carried off by other animals? The girl couldn't help but think this, and then she slowly walked step by step toward that clearing.

At that moment, a peculiar feeling seemed to be pulling her along. When Sylutia moved forward, she felt as if she were walking on some kind of underwater floor. Everything around her swayed and distorted, yet the sensation under her feet and the tree trunk at her hand still told her that the ground was not shaking and no accident had occurred.

...

In the afternoon without snow, the sky remained overcast. Talier followed behind Sylutia, watching her walk toward that clearing.

Suddenly, a strange shaking made Talier wonder if her eyes were playing tricks on her. She rubbed her eyes, but when she opened them again, Sylutia, who had been right in front of her just moments ago, had vanished without a trace.

On the other side, Sylutia walked past that clearing and, following the pull of that strange sensation, continued step by step forward, heading toward that forest.In a place she didn't notice, Talier behind her was calling out to her, but now there was only movement without any sound, as if the two were in different worlds.

Sylutia's footsteps continued forward. When she passed through this clearing in the woods, it was as if she had reached the shore. The swaying and distortion in her vision instantly disappeared, and her mind cleared. Lifting her head to look around, she discovered that the entire world had changed.

Above her head was an exceptionally gloomy world. The clouds in the sky seemed to press down to the ground, extremely low and thick. Through the gaps in the clouds, a small amount of light faintly seeped through, falling upon this gray-white world.

Yes, this world was an almost gray-white world. There were no vibrant, bright colors, only black, white, and gray.

At that moment, Sylutia pulled down the hood on her head, placed one hand on the tree trunk beside her, and kept turning around, observing her surroundings.

Was this still the same forested mountain area she had been in just moments ago? She looked at the drastically changed scene before her.

Although it was the same undulating hillside, the shapes of the trees in the forest had twisted to varying degrees, appearing exceptionally eerie and bizarre. Moreover, on the ground, she saw many mushrooms near the tree roots. These mushrooms were extremely rare, some even said to be extinct.

Some were deep purple with white snowflake patterns, some were like red umbrellas full of folds, opening layer by layer, and others had a deep blue hue, their bodies flickering like dim starlight.

Even without getting close, she could sense the Aspect power emanating from these mushrooms. Several of them had even completely condensed a First Tier Aspect.

'Nightmare' Aspect, she silently recited in her heart as she looked at that deep purple mushroom with snowflakes, then shifted her gaze to the next one.

'Bloodline' Aspect. She actually saw a 'Bloodline' Aspect on a mushroom. Could mushroom Aspects be so inclusive and random?

Ah, right, these mushrooms had 'color.' This was a significant distinction that set them apart from other things.

The place where she stood now had the same terrain and direction as when she arrived, yet the trees on the mountain were completely different. The soil and grass beneath her feet, even the sky above her head, had completely changed, as if...

It were different periods of the same land!

Sylutia's mind was filled with numerous questions, but now was not the time to ponder their causes. She had to find a way to return to Talier's side, that is, to the normal world she had been in before.

This was a world with supernatural phenomena, a world with all sorts of legends and stories. When Sylutia found herself in this bizarre and different environment, she immediately thought of the rumors from those stories.

Children lost in the mountains on snowy nights, stepping through that door to reach the fairy garden, the strange banquet seen in dreams.

Various fairy tales all depicted worlds vastly different from reality. Those places might truly exist, just incomprehensible to ordinary people. Just like the witches Talier mentioned not long ago, there was probably some kind of power separating such strange worlds from reality. She had inadvertently crossed that boundary just now.

Leaning against the tree, Sylutia sorted out her thoughts, gradually calming her previously anxious and uneasy mood, regaining her composure.

She lightly touched the space between her eyebrows with her fingers, then concentrated her attention into her eyes, gazing into the distance.

At that moment, her vision seemed to penetrate the gray-white forest before her, seeing places much farther away.

Yes... this was a gray-white world, but not entirely.

In this gray-white world, places possessing 'color' were sparsely distributed like colored bubbles. Where there were 'bubbles,' plants were more vibrant and their forms more 'twisted.'

First, let's try walking a bit, she said to herself.

Drawing the short sword from beneath her cloak and gripping it in her palm, Sylutia slowly stepped forward, preparing to leave the 'colored bubble' she was currently in and step into that gray-white world.

However, the moment her foot touched the gray-white world, a bizarre twisting sensation traveled up from her toes, as if her left foot had been caught in the machinery of a running factory, about to be crushed and ground into pieces.

Intense pain instantly spread throughout her body. At that moment, she almost instinctively activated the 'Verdant Nectar' Aspect within her body, trying to break free.

The 'Verdant Nectar' Aspect spread and covered her entire body. When it reached her ankle, that twisting force was corrected, and the pain gradually faded.

Pulling her foot back, Sylutia bent down, holding her left foot to ease the pain, and even worriedly pressed and stroked it, afraid she had sprained it and couldn't walk.

But it was all like an illusion. That intense pain from just now left no injury on her foot. Even when she used her [Discernment Eyes] ability to examine herself, she appeared healthy and unharmed.

Setting aside some of her earlier worries, Sylutia stood up again.

This time, she learned her lesson. She used the power of the 'Verdant Nectar' Aspect to envelop her fingers and carefully touched the gray-white world. When her fingertips dipped into that gray-white domain, a strange phenomenon occurred. The color of 'Verdant Nectar' and the 'gray-white' of the world canceled each other out, and a peculiar chill spread.

In other words, when she used the 'Verdant Nectar' Aspect, she could offset the pain of entering the gray-white world and travel through it relatively safely.

But this offset would consume the power of the 'Verdant Nectar' Aspect. If she couldn't reach the next 'colored bubble' before her power was exhausted, would she be twisted and shattered by this gray-white world?

After thinking this through, Sylutia retreated, her gaze sweeping around until she found the closest colored bubble from here, only 50 meters away.

Fifty meters... could she hold on until then? No, she still needed to conduct an experiment.

Over the next half hour, Sylutia successively tried inserting her entire arm into the gray-white world, half her body entering, and finally, her whole body entering.

Completely stepping into the gray-white world brought a distinctly different bodily sensation, as if submerged in completely still water. All sound grew distant, perception could hardly spread, and as long as she remained motionless, the 'Verdant Nectar' Aspect within her body would not be consumed.

This situation once again made her think of painting, brushes, and pigments.

The world was like white paper, she was the brush, and the Aspect power she wielded was like pigment. Moving the brush inevitably consumed pigment, leaving traces on the white paper, whereas if the brush didn't move, the pigment wouldn't be consumed.

After clarifying the preliminary rules of this world, Sylutia gradually felt more at ease and began to attempt true exploration.