It felt as though he had been falling for an eternity, and when Leilin's feet finally touched the ground, the sensation was so jarring it felt like waking from another lifetime.
"Where... is this place?"
Leilin gazed at the grey mountain mist and the dark forest not far away, falling deep into thought.
"Caw! Caw! Caw!"
A crow with three blood-red eyes flapped its wings and took flight from a branch beside him, sending several black feathers drifting down as its piercing cry echoed far into the distance.
"Chip!" Leilin commanded instinctively.
[Ding! Commencing environmental scan. Scan complete! Beginning...]
The Chip's voice rang out, initially perfectly normal, but then suddenly turned hoarse, as if struck by some severe interference.
"Aah!!!" "Aah!!!" "Aah!!!"
Before long, the Chip's voice transformed into a woman's shriek, climbing higher and higher until it nearly pierced Leilin's eardrums, forcing him to order the Chip to shut down immediately.
"Wind probing..." Leilin extended his right hand, but faint cyan wind-element particles gathered with agonizing slowness, making his brow furrow.
The power of his True Soul surged forth, and a faint cyan breeze finally took shape, spreading out in all directions to probe the surroundings.
"This situation... it feels familiar somehow, yet I just can't recall!"
Leilin frowned, feeling as though a layer of fog had settled over his memories—yet he remembered so many things, even his wizardry remained intact.
But it was as though he had forgotten the single most important thing of all, filling him with a deep sense of foreboding.
Before long, the dispersed breeze relayed everything it had detected, revealing Leilin's position—he appeared to be on the outskirts of a vast forest, with a dark-red river flowing slowly nearby.
Not far away, there seemed to be a wooden cabin, with a faint silhouette visible inside.
"This detection range?"
Leilin's brow furrowed further. "Not only is using wizardry extremely difficult, but even the effects are severely suppressed. Could this be some higher-level world?"
As the sun set, the temperature in the forest kept dropping. The mist thickened all around, taking on a dark red hue that gave Leilin a chilling, bone-deep sense of dread.
He quickly walked out of that area and made his way to the wooden cabin he had spotted earlier.
Behind a fence covered in golden roses, thin wisps of grey smoke curled upward, giving Leilin a faint sense of warmth.
"Creak!" The wooden door swung open, and a kindly-faced woman stepped out. She was young, appearing to be in her twenties at most, yet the wisdom and light in her eyes made Leilin feel as though she had lived a long and rich life.
"Little brother! You're home!"
Upon seeing Leilin, the woman smiled, and it seemed as though every flower around her bloomed in response. The radiance on her face left Leilin momentarily dazed.
"Who are you?" Leilin couldn't help but ask.
"Me? I'm your older sister — this is your home!" The woman's face was breathtakingly beautiful, her fine golden hair drifting in the breeze, and everything about her felt inexplicably familiar to Leilin.
"My... home?" Leilin murmured.
"That's right! Your home — welcome back!" The gentle older sister spread her arms wide, as if ready to envelop Leilin in a warm embrace.
"You... are my... sister?!"
The words repeated themselves over and over on Leilin's lips. Before him, the beautiful woman's face was slowly aligning with several faces from his memory.
"Yes! Little brother, you've finally come home!"
Tears seemed to brim in the woman's pupils.
"Wait!" The closer Leilin got to her embrace, the more suddenly he felt an enormous wave of terror — a dread laced with terrifying malice that made his entire body shudder.
"I am Leilin Farell! A bloodline warlock from the Wizard World — why am I here?!"
A voice inside him kept screaming, yet Leilin found he could no longer control his own body. His limbs moved forward on their own, just one step away from falling into her arms.
"Ring of Fire Resistance!" "Shadow of the Lost!" "Dark Serpent Tentacle!"
Spell template after spell template flashed before Leilin's eyes, but the wizardry that had already been severely suppressed now seemed to have lost all power entirely — not the faintest ripple of magical energy stirred.
"Come back!" "Come back!" "Come back!"
Along with the other party's entranced voice, Leilin's eyes grew increasingly dazed, and the surroundings of the original wooden cabin had undergone a drastic transformation.
The dark red mist grew ever thicker as the brilliant golden roses gradually withered away, revealing white skulls beneath. Small serpents slithered in and out through the eye sockets.
Behind the roses, the wooden cabin had transformed into a massive, writhing ball of serpents. Several black, triangular snake heads protruded from the mass, flicking their dark red tongues.
In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the once humble farmstead had become a nightmarish hellscape.
"This feeling of suppression... and that familiar power!"