The World after the Fall 146 The Great Forest 1

210 thousand years ago, when the Three Ancient G.o.ds perished, spirits became Lost Ones and had to find a way to survive on their own.
Some searched for a new G.o.d to follow, while others chose to die in order to follow their former G.o.ds. Some were even given a second chance to a.s.sist .
However, most of them stayed without doing anything. They had no will to follow , nor did they want to seek out a new G.o.d, but they also didn't choose to die.
They moved into the Great Forest and became monsters without minds.
This was the story in the legends.
But from my own experience, this legend was different from the truth.
Within the Great Forest, there were Followers who still stood by the world even after losing their G.o.d. They were Followers who watched their world fall with their own eyes but still hung onto it. When I saw them, I felt something wasn't right.
Why?
Those who had lost their G.o.ds-
Seem so happy?
Mulack Armelt – Record of the Depths

Episode – The Great Forest

Jaehwan was panting in the middle of a hill. He felt bitter. It had been a while since he had trouble breathing like this, it meant that his spirit had been severely damaged.
He took in a long, deep breath and continued climbing again. It became steeper from time to time, and sometimes even hard to climb without any tools, but Jaehwan did not stop.
"…Jaehwan, are we there yet?" Runald asked from behind. He, too, was panting heavily. Jaehwan did not answer and kept moving. He then felt the ground shaking, it meant the 'entrance' was near.
Jaehwan then positioned himself by a close hiding spot. It was a signal to rendezvous. Runald then asked again as he reached Jaehwan.
"Are you really going into the Great Forest?"
"Yeah."
"But why… That place is the most dangerous…"
"That was her last wish."
Jaehwan quickly responded as he did not want to prolong the conversation. However, he soon realized that he had made a mistake. Runald shook at the words 'last wish'. It seemed he was thinking about the authenticity of what Jaehwan said. Jaehwan regretted blurting that out.
"That… was real."
Jaehwan never thought that the word 'real' would have such cruelty when spoken out loud.
"She's… she's really…"
Jaehwan did not know how to calm a crying child. He did not know how to weep together either.
"Don't cry."
He used [Suspicion] on everyone and [Understood] everything. But he couldn't sympathize with this child's feeling. He couldn't even guess the gravity of the loss the boy faced.
To Jaehwan, Runald was even more difficult than Catastrophe.
All he could do was watch him shed tears.
"So… in you… she's…"
Jaehwan looked up to the sky. It was a clear blue sky, not knowing one bit of the disaster that had befallen them. Jaehwan regretted saying what he had heard.
Just like then, and now.
Regret always came after.

[Hey! Get it together!]
It was minutes after the first attack from Machina, that Jaehwan came back to his senses. He felt pain all over his body and found that he was covered by dirt, holding a small boy. It was Runald.

'What is going on…'
Heavy stones were pus.h.i.+ng down on him. He tried to move, but he couldn't. The damage his spirit had sustained was too severe for him to use his world power. And then-
[HEY! Wake up!]
With that voice, light shone through the rocks. Jaehwan felt a force pulling him and Runald out of the dirt. With the feeling of the cold ground beneath him, he was pulled out back into the world.
[We have to run now! Get up!]
The voice was coming from the small Gigantes body. Jaehwan asked, "…Andersen?"
As he heard Andersen's voice coming from X's body, Jaehwan quickly remembered what had happened.
'…Yeah... I was attacked by him.'
X unleashed the 'Destruction of Linkage' and the Vicegerents all collapsing as their links to the G.o.ds were forcefully disconnected. Then, Myad subdued all the Vicegerents and Jaehwan, before pulling out the core from X. He then walked up to the Machina of Daeus powered it with the core. After that came the giant explosion.
Jaehwan felt his head spin from everything that happened. Then, the anger kicked in.
'Myad, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d…'
It was because he was swept by Yoonhwan. Everything had been very suspicious from the beginning, but he trusted Myad. No- he did not trust him. It wasn't due to Jaehwan trusting Myad that led to this event. He lacked information and everything was against him. And the result was the worst possible outcome.
"But why are you in there?" Jaehwan asked and Andersen shrugged. Jaehwan could actually 'see' Andersen shrugging as she was inside X's body.
[…I think this happened when the [Link Destroy] was activated.]
"Wasn't it supposed to cut the link between G.o.ds and Vicegerents?" Jaehwan asked as he thought about what he heard before he fainted. Frankly, Jaehwan and Andersen relations.h.i.+p wasn't of a G.o.d and Vicegerent. Andersen was absorbed into Jaehwan's world with her mind intact, and was a bit of a [Part] after all.
[Yeah, that's what I thought it was also. …But I don't know what happened there.]
There was no way to know what exactly the power did, other than the dead Daeus at this point. Whatever the case, the power had divided Jaehwan and Andersen, and she was removed from Jaehwan.
[This guy was lying around at that point so…]
And then Andersen went into the empty X's body. Jaehwan decided to leave it at that for the moment.
The explosions were still happening around, but increasing in scale.
[The 3rd World Federation is fighting against the forces of high-ranking G.o.ds.]
It seemed easy to understand what had happened then.
'The followers of those high-ranking G.o.ds had also come in large numbers.'
There was no way that the high-ranking G.o.ds would stay put when their Vicegerents were killed. They sent their Followers to the place and now the war had begun. But Myad wasn't alone either.