Three Days Later – South of Virewood
The southern forest was nothing like the eastern stretch they had cleansed.
No mana-sickened birds. No half-melted treants. No corrupted wildlife.
Nothing.
The forest was quiet.
Too quiet.
Luka crouched near the edge of a stream, eyes scanning the reflection.
The water here flowed unnaturally clear—no rot, no sediment, no fish. Just empty current. Serene stood uphill, her shield on her back, scanning the tree line with narrowed eyes.
"Still nothing?" she asked.
Luka shook his head. "Not even a mana pulse."
Snow gave a soft chirp, circling twice overhead before landing on Luka's shoulder, tail flicking anxiously.
"That's worse, right?" Serene muttered. "It means whatever did this already cleaned up after itself."
"Or it's watching," Luka replied.
He drew a small compass-like device from his belt. A gift from the Artificer's Guild—tuned to leyline fractures.
It didn't spin. It didn't shake.
It was still.
Dead.
Luka's jaw tightened.
They weren't hunting corruption anymore. They were chasing a ghost.
.
.
.
Meanwhile – Back in the Capital
Arthur stormed through the training yard like a kicked hornet. He slashed wildly at a practice dummy, blade carving grooves into the straw man's chest.
He had been mocked.
Laughed at.
Overlooked.
That damn ranger—Luka—walks in with a baby dragon and a half-smile and suddenly he's a hero?
Never mind that Arthur was the one meant to be the chosen one. The game world practically revolved around him!
Or it was supposed to.
Not anymore.
"Again!" he roared.
The squire hesitated, already sweating. "S-Sir, you've already—"
Arthur hurled a dagger at the dummy's head. "I said again!"
A sharp whistle cut through the yard.
The squire scrambled back as an older knight stepped forward, removing her helmet—Captain Ryelle, one of the senior guild trainers.
"That's enough," she said flatly.
Arthur turned, sneering. "You want to stop me from training?"
"No," she said. "I want to stop you from embarrassing yourself. You've been slashing the same dummy for an hour and still can't land a clean blow."
Gasps echoed from the sidelines. A few young trainees winced.
Arthur stepped forward, voice low. "I could beat Luka in my sleep."
"Maybe," Ryelle said, eyes narrowing. "If you trained instead of whining."
The entire yard went silent.
Arthur turned red. Then pale.
And then, without a word, he turned and stormed out.
.
.
.
Back in the South – Twilight
Luka and Serene followed the stream deeper into the woods.
The trees here grew thinner, their bark paler. Each footstep crunched on white grass—bleached from the roots up.
"We're close," Luka said, unsheathing his blades.
"Based on what?" Serene asked, drawing her shield.
He pointed ahead.
There, at the base of a rocky hill, a cave entrance yawned open—circular, smooth, too perfect to be natural. And from it came a strange, rhythmic thump. Like a heartbeat, deep underground.
"Found the pulse," Luka murmured.
They descended slowly, blades at the ready. Inside, the walls pulsed faintly with an internal glow—bioluminescent moss, but corrupted, red like old blood.
And then—
A figure.
Standing alone.
At the heart of the cave, by a second, smaller obelisk—this one more elegant than the last—was a robed woman with long white hair and skin like marble.
She turned slowly as they entered, her eyes glowing with a faint red light.
"You came," she said. "I was hoping you would."
Luka stopped.
Serene stepped forward. "Identify yourself."
The woman smiled faintly. "My name is Eira. I am… was… a forest warden. Now? I am a gardener. I tend to rot."
She placed a hand on the obelisk. It pulsed beneath her fingers.
"I plant seeds. One already bore fruit in the east. But this one?" Her smile widened. "This one will bloom beautifully."
Luka drew a dagger.
"Then we're pulling it out by the roots."
Eira raised her hand—and from the walls, the floor, the shadows, corrupted shapes began to emerge. Silent. Twisted. Dozens of them.
A trap.
A test.
And Luka had walked right into it.
The corrupted shapes crawled from the shadows like living shadows made of tangled roots and cracked bark.
They hissed with unnatural voices, twisting limbs reaching out for Luka and Serene.
Luka tightened his grip on his daggers, blue mana humming faintly along their edges. Serene raised her shield, eyes scanning for openings.
"Don't give them a chance to surround us!" she warned.
Eira's smile grew colder as she stepped back to the obelisk, chanting softly in a language that warped the air itself.
The glowing runes flared brighter, and the cave shook with a sudden pulse of raw mana.
One of the corrupted beasts lunged at Serene, claws snapping. With a powerful swing, she blocked it and slammed her shield into its face, sending it crashing to the ground.
Luka darted forward, blades flashing as he sliced through another creature's twisting vines. The air thickened with the scent of decay and magic gone wrong.
"We have to stop her!" Luka shouted, dodging a sweeping strike from a massive root-beast.
Serene gritted her teeth, parrying and countering with precision. "I'll keep them off you—go for the obelisk!"
With a nod, Luka dashed toward the glowing obelisk, careful to avoid tendrils snaking up from the floor. His dagger pulsed with mana as he prepared to strike.
Suddenly, a wave of corrupted energy slammed into him. He staggered, vision blurring.
Eira's voice echoed, cold and mocking. "You cannot stop the rot. It is inevitable."
Shaking off the impact, Luka launched himself at the obelisk, plunging both daggers deep into its glowing core.
A high-pitched scream tore through the cave.
The corrupted beasts froze, their bodies cracking and splintering as the obelisk shattered in a burst of crimson light.
Eira screamed, the glow fading from her eyes as the magic binding her power unraveled.
The creatures collapsed into piles of brittle ash.
Silence fell.
Luka collapsed to one knee, breathing hard.
Serene approached cautiously, keeping her shield raised.
Eira slumped against the shattered obelisk, her voice barely a whisper. "This is not the end... the rot will find another way."
Luka looked down at her, eyes steely.
"We'll be ready."