The forest no longer felt like a forest.
It felt like a memory.
The man walked beneath towering pines that had stood for centuries, their branches whispering in the wind like old ghosts. Snow clung to the earth in thin patches, crunching softly beneath his boots.
He moved slowly.
Not because he was tired.
Because every step stirred something buried deep inside his mind.
Fragments.
Broken pieces of a life so old the world itself had forgotten it.
A distant mountain appeared through the trees.
Jagged.
Familiar.
His gaze lingered on it.
And suddenly
Fire.
Screaming.
Steel crashing against steel.
The memory hit him like a blade sliding between ribs.
Thousands of warriors beneath a burning sky.
Creatures with glowing eyes tearing through armies.
Immortals fighting immortals.
