With Erika still unconscious after a day of their plans failing, Amedith and the others returned to the forest. Running into their first horror for the day, the hero looked the lantern-bearing woman in the eye. Summoning a collection of swords behind him made from pure holy magic, he had them encircle his back as he pulled up his shield.
'No heals, be careful.' He told himself, slowly shortening the distance between him and the many-eyed woman. Like a colony of bugs feasting on a carcass, her slanted red eyes wriggled like worms over her face. Lifting her lantern towards Amedith, her slitted mouth opened wide revealing a long centipede for a tongue.
"If you touch her, your body will be infected, steer clear of her attacks too!" Warning the ground from a tree top as always, Helga bit down on a ripe grapefruit right through its peels.
Following Helga's warnings, the monster raised its lamp higher and screeched like a banshee. Forced to cover their ears, the party still managed to keep a stern gaze at the monster, and when bugs the size of ants began flying out of her cloaks, Raven and Mel were both ready.
"I'll get that lamp!" Drawing out an explosive arrow, Mel shot it at the lantern.
The moment it hit the flame of the magic item invoking the bugs, it blasted the horror's hand as well as thrashed half of its face. However, with the bugs still propelling forward, Raven swiftly moved in and conjured a net to keep them from reaching Amedith. Using that opportunity to blast them with a fireball, the mage turned the monster's attack useless.
"GO!" With only the horror left to deal with, Amedith held his hand forward and the swords behind him flew and stabbed into the creature's flesh. Closing his fist, he made them burst like bombs, making the horror's body thrash in all directions with every blast.
Once the blasts came to an end, only the shattered head of the horror remained, but the moment it tried to screech in retaliation, Aria descended on it from the air and smashed it into a pulp with her new gloves. Having killed the horror so effectively, a moment of quiet fell over the entire party.
And since none of them directly touched the shade, there was no need for them to worry about being infected.
But the hunt for today was yet to be over, as Helga had something special to show to all of them. The lair of the mind horror, the place where it kept its statued victims. It was only a few miles from their camp and yet it had taken them an entire week to get there.
'They're getting better.' Helga thought, leading the group forward. "Though I wonder how they would fare against the region's keeper."
A keeper, the custodian of a corrupted region. The most powerful entity whose influence was the very reason for the growing population of horrors. From what little Helga knew, the horror she killed could not have been the keeper, ultimately leading her to question exactly what kind of monster was still waiting for them at the very edge of this forest.
'Hopefully not a demon general. I may still be sharp, but fighting one head-on with no preparations, that's just suicide for me, the kids, and the city as well.' Remembering back to a time when Helga was simply an outpost for military operations, she knew how brutal the generals were, much less the demon lord himself.
Just the thought of his might, his mind-numbing form, and that aura of dread, even to this day chilled her blood. 'Stop thinking, you idiot.'
Shaking her head, Helga led the group further until they reached the eventual spot they needed to be around.
"It would've been great to have the priestess here for this, but let her rest with Kara we'll try and get her back into the field later," walking into an open region with the tree branches curving into a dome, the Valkyrie brought the group to a sight that reminded them of their encounter with the mind horror.
Laying before them were countless people, some turned to stone, some to bark, and the remainder simply a puddle of maggots left on the ground. The horror had not only eaten away at their mind but also taken their bodies as trophies or even feed for his pets. Had it not been for Helga pulling them out of the forest, this could've been their fate as well.
"This is why you show them no mercy," moving closer to an elven man, Helga pulled out a knife and with great force stuck it into the man's head. "These people are still conscious, but they can't move, speak, or be cured by any magic. Their souls have been consumed by the monster, so no amount of magic can help cure them."
As proof of her words, she pulled out the knife and along with it dripped a trail of blood through the elven man's cranium. Wiping the blood on her thighs, the Valkyrie threw the knife at the party, still paralyzed with fear of what could've happened to them as well.
"Pick that up and take turns killing these poor souls, it's the only mercy we can grant them now," though she spoke loud and clear, her words fell on deaf ears, but after a while, as Helga got no response, she summoned her spear of ice and stomped it on the ground. "KILL THEM NOW!"
Pulled right out of their thoughts after the scream, the party picked up the knife and reluctantly began the killing. Leaving them to take their time killing innocent people for once, Helga kept a keen eye on the horror, still eyeing them from all around them.
Winged pixies with golden eyes the size of humans, druidic monsters with their spines arched all the way in a circle and their ribs spread wide like the blooming of a flower, shapeshifting creatures blending into the background with eyes opening and closing the moment someone looks at them, that was just the start of what lived in a corrupted region.
The worst were enigmas, unique in their appearance and abilities. Even Helga barely had any grasp of how they would attack and what kind of horrendous acts they could commit on their victims. But the one thing she was sure about was that they all deserved to die.
"Just like you, you bastard," grabbing her arm as an eye popped up on her skin, Helga squeezed that part of her flesh and tore it off without anyone else even realizing what had happened. Too busy struggling with their moral compass, the party members fidgeted around trying to kill the innocent.
In the meantime, an enigma decided to get Helga's attention more than the others. Tugging at her legs, a dark-skinned girl with bright poppy eyes was looking up at the Valkyrie. Dorned in a dark robe, the girl appeared no different than a dark elf child, yet not letting its deception affect her, Helga drew her spear up to strike.
"Mommy?" Hearing those words uttered with innocence, her hand stopped in its tracks in a moment of hesitance.
"I'm sorry, I'm not your mother and I won't pretend to be," heaving a sigh, she ran the spear right through its body.
'No mercy, for they will have none.'