After the Gold 3 depth, everything else had been quite easy.
When they broke through to the surface, the first thing that struck Hagen was the silence.
"Where are we exactly?" Bloodwyn asked, his enhanced senses scanning the horizon.
Hagen consulted his ntal map, cross-referencing their ergence point with the landmarks he could see through the near forest and the plains.
"Near the edge of the iron forest, at the end of Goldcrest territory," he admitted with slight embarrassnt.
The war had indeed emptied this area. Where normally there would be patrols, border guards, or at least so signs of human habitation, now there were only the natural sounds of the forest.
They had erged quite near Ren’s old house, but they didn’t know it.
"The new abyssal formations confused my navigation more than I expected. But we’re not too far off course..."
"But you the ’best explorer’ got lost down there," Bloodwyn finished, though his tone carried amusent rather than anger.
"The underground ecosystem changed completely," Hagen defended himself. "Those ’standardized’ creatures we encountered... it’s like they invaded the entire deeps network. My old reference points there are all useless now."
It was true. In years of underground travel, Hagen had never encountered such big changes to the abyssal environnt. Such widespread transformation made him wonder what other modifications were occurring in other territories.
The thought was deeply unsettling. If the abyss itself was being restructured on such a massive scale... What other changes were occurring in places no one had thought to explore?
Bloodwyn seed unconcerned by the navigation error. If anything, he appeared pleased by their current location.
"Actually, this is fine," he mused, his eyes scanning the forest. "We are still close, and not erging directly in the infected zone ans fewer surprises."
They moved deeper into the forest. Bloodwyn’s corruption seed to intimidate the forest creatures, creating a bubble of unnatural quiet around their advance.
The trees here were almost normal, with very little mana.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been a relaxed trip.
But Bloodwyn suddenly went rigid, his head tilting as if feeling sothing.
"What do you sense?" Hagen asked, imdiately alert to the change in his companion’s deanor.
The question hung in the air for several seconds before Bloodwyn responded, his voice carrying a note of cautious worry.
"Yano King," he said finally. "Still at the castle, doing sothing weird with his energy, but..."
"Can you tell if he’s coming for us?" Hagen pressed, anxiety creeping into his voice.
Bloodwyn was quiet for a long mont, his expression thoughtful as he processed the information his senses were providing.
"Doesn’t seem to be moving from what I can tell... Why? Hard to say," he admitted. "Either our forces are well-matched enough that he’s not confident about winning now, or..."
He paused, his frown deepening.
"Or he doesn’t want to leave the castle alone to attack us because of our King Coleoran’s mana signature. I can sense it too, even from here."
The risks seed significant for Yano. If Dragarion decided to co, Coleoran could take the castle and enter the door under it...
So Yano’s king was being forced to remain at the castle due to the presence of two powerful forces in different directions, it created a window of opportunity that might not last long.
Perhaps Dragarion was even thinking that was exactly Yino’s strategy... to make him co out by dividing their forces.
But it also suggested that the balance of power was more unclear than they had assud.
How strong was the king if he decided to wait for them to 1 vs 2 him in the castle instead of attacking now?
Though the truth was that Dragarion was dead tired and they were the ones losing a great chance.
"Either way," Bloodwyn continued, "it works in our favor that he’s not coming to stop us from completing the mission."
They continued their advance through the forest.
♢♢♢♢
Finally, they reached it.
The claw-shaped tree stood exactly as described by the survivors, its twisted form unmistakable against the forest backdrop. The ancient oak’s branches stretched like gnarled fingers covered in tons of golden dots.
All around it, pulsing gently between the twisted branches and roots, was their objective.
The light of the World Dragon.
Every mushroom was smaller than Hagen had expected, no larger than a child’s fist, but the power emanating from them was unmistakable.
The sight was beautiful and deeply unsettling. The mushrooms created patterns of light that seed to dance in rhythm with so unheard music, their golden glow casting everything in warm, inviting radiance that sohow felt wrong.
"Finally," Bloodwyn breathed the disgusting sll, his enhanced senses analyzing the pulsing light that emanated from the countless mushrooms scattered throughout the forest floor.
"The infamous ’World Dragon’s Light’ nad by the princess," Hagen murmured, rembering. "Though it looks to more like..."
"Infection," Bloodwyn finished. "It’s spreading slowly, but always following the bigger mana concentrations. Look..."
The vampire was right. The mushrooms weren’t randomly distributed, they followed clear expansion routes, consuming whatever crossed their advance and leaving behind more of their kind. The first infected zone stretched in a rough circle around the ancient oak, with tendrils of golden fungi reaching toward the iron ring boundary.
"They’re barely entering the silver ring according to the reports," observed one of the 15 remaining soldiers. "We’re ahead of schedule."
Bloodwyn nodded, but his expression remained cautious. "Easy to eliminate, according to the briefing. We’ll see about that."
As they approached the infected zone, Hagen felt an imdiate and visceral reaction. His skin crawled with revulsion, as if every cell in his body was screaming warnings. The abyssal energy that flowed through him seed to recoil from the golden light, creating an internal conflict that made him nauseous.
The sensation was like trying to force two opposing magnets together, his corruption-enhanced biology rejecting the purifying influence of the light aggressively.
"Anyone else feeling that?" he asked, noting similar expressions of discomfort on his companions’ faces.
"Like oil and water," muttered another soldier, his beast trembling anxiously at his side before imdiately retreating back into fusion. "My beast doesn’t want to get close."
Bloodwyn seed less affected, but even he maintained a respectful distance from the mushroom periter.
Hagen rembered Selthia’s warnings about the light, her instructions to avoid direct contact.
"We activate the crystals from here," he announced, pulling out the remaining corruption crystals from his pack, those that they hadn’t lost in Dragarion’s involuntary attack. "No need to get closer than necessary."
The other soldiers followed suit. The abyssal artifacts humd with purple energy, eager to fulfill their purpose.
The activation was simultaneous and a bit dramatic.
Ten corruption crystals erupted with dark light, their combined energy creating a beacon that pierced through the dirt. The call went out into the abyss.
The response was imdiate.
Deep below, sothing stirred. The ground began to vibrate with a strength that spoke of massive movent, of countless forms answering the summons.
"They’re coming," he announced unnecessarily, as the tremors intensified.
"Good," Bloodwyn smiled, his fangs gleaming in the crystalline light. "But while we wait..."
He gestured toward the mushroom-covered clearing, where the claw-shaped tree stood like a gnarled monunt.
"I think we can make so progress on our own."
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