---
The wind rustled through the leaves above her, as if the forest itself were holding its breath.
Karli took a step forward — her legs a bit too steady, her balance too perfect for someone who just woke up in a different world. Her body… it felt lighter, faster. Alive in a way her old one never was.
She flexed her fingers.
No tremble.
No weakness.
She knelt and pressed her palm against the damp earth. The moment her skin met the soil, a warm pulse surged up her arm — like a heartbeat not her own. She gasped, yanking her hand back.
A tiny sprout broke through the ground where her hand had been.
Instantly. Effortlessly.
Karli stared, wide-eyed. "That's not normal."
Her heart raced, but not in fear — in awe. Something deep within her stirred, ancient and unnameable.
She reached out again, this time to a wilting patch of herbs nearby. The leaves were dry, their stems bowed low. She gently whispered, unsure why:
"You're not done yet, are you?"
A shimmer.
A faint light, green and golden, curled from her fingertips — like soft breath on glass.
The herbs began to lift, their color brightening, their scent blooming into the air.
She stumbled back. "I… healed it?"
More than that. She had communed with it. Felt its exhaustion. Its will to live. It had spoken in something older than words — and she had answered.
She held up her hands. They looked the same. But they weren't.
"Magic…?"
But this wasn't the world's typical fireball-and-lightning magic. No — this was deeper. Raw. Elemental. Something the original character never had.
And then, almost as if in response to her rising heartbeat, the ground beneath her cracked — ever so slightly — and a nearby rock split in two with a faint, humming sound.
She flinched.
"…Strength too?"
Her mind reeled.
The girl who was supposed to die quietly in the background… was standing in a forgotten forest with enough magic to talk to nature and enough strength to crack stone with her presence.
"What is this? Some kind of… glitch in the story?" she whispered.
Or was it fate's apology?
Or its greatest trick?
She took a deep breath, steadying her thoughts. She didn't have time to be scared.
This world wasn't a game. She knew what came next. Monsters in the woods. Nobles hungry for power. And demons who didn't always look like monsters.
And still—
A soft sound reached her ears. A rustle that wasn't wind.
Karli's gaze snapped up. Her instincts sharpened.
She wasn't alone.
The trees around her fell eerily still.
No wind.
No bird call.
Even the insects had gone silent.
Karli's spine stiffened. That silence was unnatural. Predatory.
She turned slowly — and that's when she heard it.
A low growl. Wet, throaty.
Too close.
From between two gnarled tree trunks, it emerged — crawling on knotted limbs, bones too long, skin stretched taut like worn leather. Its eyes glowed like sickly lanterns.
A feral hound, but warped — corrupted by demonic energy.
"A corrupted beast…" she muttered, a memory from the manga snapping into place.
They were once normal animals, twisted by demonic residue — maddened, aggressive, insatiable. A single bite could cripple a trained knight.
And it was staring straight at her.
She had no weapon. No armor. Just instinct and untested power.
The beast lunged.
Karli dove to the side, barely dodging as claws sliced through the air where her head had been. She rolled across the forest floor and landed hard on her elbow, biting back a hiss.
Not the time to panic. Not the time to think. Move.
The creature snarled, circling. It was fast — faster than anything she had faced before, even in her old life's imagination.
She raised her hand without knowing what to do — and suddenly, the air around her rippled.
Vines erupted from the ground beneath the creature, wrapping around its limbs like iron chains. It howled and attack, but the forest answered her call again, holding fast.
Karli's eyes widened. "I didn't even cast a spell…"
Her power moved with her will.
But the beast wasn't done. It snapped its jaws and broke free, charging again, enraged.
Karli planted her feet.
If instinct was her magic's source… then she'd trust it.
She drew her hand into a fist — and slammed it down into the earth.
A shockwave burst outward. The ground trembled. A burst of glowing roots surged upward, stab the beast mid-lunge. It let out one final shriek before collapsing, limp, its corrupted form dissolving into ash.
Silence returned to the forest — but not the same kind.
This time, the silence respected her.
She stood, chest heaving, eyes wide with the realization of what she'd just done.
"I could've… died," she whispered.
And yet—she had survived. No, more than that.
She had won.
---
Then, it hit her — a tingling along the back of her neck. Not from the beast. From someone else.
Someone watching.
Her gaze snapped toward the shadows.
There, half-concealed behind an ancient tree, stood a figure.
Tall. Hooded. Barely human.
Eyes like shattered silver glowed beneath the cowl.
He studied her, unblinking, unmoving — not as a predator, but as something older. Something curious.
Karli instinctively stepped back, her hand raised again, power ready to answer.
The figure tilted their head. Slowly, they stepped into view.
And for a moment — just a moment — the world held its breath again.
His voice was calm, soft, but deep as twilight.
"You shouldn't be alive."
Karli narrowed her eyes. "Neither should you be watching."
A flicker of something — amusement? Recognition? — passed across his face.
She didn't know who he was yet. Not fully.
But her soul whispered something ancien
t. Something fated.
And though she didn't know it yet, this was the moment that would unravel the lines of destiny — not just hers, but the world's.
---