Author's Note: We haven't heard from Ivan/Russia or Vozrozhdeniye in a long time. Well, here we are. I wrote about this a few seasons back. So, I decided to come back here to this land. I had to remember which member of Vozrozhdeniye went to the damned village with their father when they were younger. I will come back to this village inspired by a video I saw on the Miracle Forest's channel. I don't know what I am doing next week. Maybe go back to Europe and the Dark Circus again. You will have to stick around and see. For now, enjoy this week's match.


Match Nine: Village of the Damned:

This happened before Vozrozhdeniye went to Japan. There was something that Ivan had to see. He managed to get Adrik alone for a moment.

"What's on your mind?" Adrik asked.

"That dark village your father took you," Ivan said. "Is it still around?" The Russian scientist paused.

"Why?" he asked. Ivan had a stoic look on his face.

"There is something that I need to see, he said. "Take me there." Adrik had a stoic look on his face as well.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked.

"Yes," Ivan said. The men didn't speak at first.

"Alright," Adrik said. "How long do you plan to stay out there?"

"Just for a day," Ivan said. "There is something that I have to see."

"Okay," the other man said.

"When are we going to go?"

"Tonight."

"Tonight?"

"Yes."

Ivan bowed his head. "Fine."


Adrik had to be the one to drive. His car was better and he knew the way. Ivan sat in the passenger seat. The other man climbed into the driver's side.

"Ready?" he asked. Ivan nodded once. Adrik said nothing as he started up the ignition. No one was going to be following them. Neither man spoke on the drive. They didn't play the radio. Ivan had to know.

Three days ago, he got a strange email with a dummy address. There was no message. Just one video. Normally, Ivan would've deleted the email and moved on. But this felt different. So he opened the link and hit play. The video lasted for one minute.

Someone was walking through the snow. They didn't talk as they kept walking. The crunching of the snow filled the silence. This footage was taken in broad daylight. There were what looked like houses in the distance.

"Look," someone, maybe the cameraman, whispered. They started walking again. The buildings came closer into view.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

The houses all looked burned out and ruined. There was no one in sight. The wind blew heavily over the walking. The cameraman just looked around with the camera. Toward the end, something caught Ivan's attention. He rewound back twenty seconds. The Russian man hit pause. Ivan narrowed his eyes.

Wait a second…

There was a figure peeking out from behind one of the houses. He couldn't make out the features, but something inside of him knew. But was it really what he thought it was?

He was going to have to find out.

"What are we looking for?" Adrik asked in the car. Ivan looked out the car window.

"I saw something in a video," he muttered. The driver didn't speak at first.

"You mean…" he began.

"Yes," Ivan said. Adrik turned off onto a narrow dirt road. Ivan rested back in his chair.


The men pulled up into the woods. Adrik stopped the car.

"We walk from here," he said. Ivan unlocked the door and got out. The other man followed behind. He walked around to the back and pulled out a duffle bag. He pulled out a second and tossed it to his companion.

"You will need this," he said.

"Lead the way," Ivan said. Adrik began the walk. The other man followed behind. There wasn't any snow around. Still, this forest looked so dead. There wasn't even any sound around them. Their feet were on the ground but still no sounds. Ivan and Adrik were the only ones in these woods. The former looked up at the sky for a moment.

"You are going to have to be careful as we go down this path," Adrik said.

"Is there a demon out here?" Ivan asked.

"No, it's just easy to get lost in these woods," the other Russian man said. His companion nodded once. They started walking up the narrow path on a small hill. Adrik was going on memory alone. His father led him by the hand through the woods back then. He didn't know why his father took him to that village. Maybe he saw something that Ivan wanted to see for himself. If this was what he thought it was…

They came up to the clearing. Adrik looked out among the trees.

"There it is," he said, pointing down to the burnt-out houses below. Ivan came to his side for a look. From the top, it looked like the village he saw in the video. Adrik walked down the hill as if in a trance. Ivan followed behind. The dull sounds of the wind came back. Adrik mapped out everything in his head. It was almost like he was a teenage boy again. Meanwhile, Ivan looked around. He knew they were getting closer.

The men stood at the entrance to the dead village. Adrik could feel his legs trembling. He took in heavy breaths. The men looked up at the sky. There were those shadows lingering in the air. They can never leave. There is nothing left to them. Adrik sank to his knees at the sight of them. However, Ivan's attention went elsewhere.

He looked around at the houses still standing. Which one was it? Ivan looked over to his left and then his right. It felt like the windows of the houses were watching them. Maybe somebody was inside actually watching them. It wouldn't surprise him if they were. Then again, who would still be out here in this damned village in the middle of nowhere?

"Ivan!" Adrik whispered. The Russian man turned his head.

"Hm?" he asked.

"Look," the other man whispered as he pointed to the house up ahead of them. Ivan turned his head for a look.

There it was.

A blackened figure peeked out from behind the house. From a distance, Ivan could see the glowing white eyes. It was in that instance the men remembered something crucial about the game. Adrik turned to Ivan.

"What should we do?" he whispered. The other Russian man held up his hand.

"Leave it," he said. The fire-obsessed scientist stared at him with big eyes. He was about to speak but Ivan shook his head.

"It's not time yet," he said. Adrik looked around them. There was no snow here. Come to think of it, his father took him here when it was snowing too.

"Understood, comrade," Adrik said. Ivan put his hand on his head.

"When winter comes, we will come back here and then we will let it come to us," he said. Adrik had heard this before this from his father. Ivan removed his hand.

"Let us head back," he said. "The sun is about to set."

"Right," Adrik said. He walked ahead of Ivan and led him back to his car.


Now, Ivan looked at the winter sky in Ikebukuro. They would be going back to Russia in a few days. By then, he and Adrik would be going back to that damned village. That creature would be waiting for them again.