The death of the Keeper marked the fall of the corrupted forest. Bit by bit the remaining horrors were hunted down until there was near to none left. And it all happened thanks to the hero party's renewed strengths.
Being able to control darkness like a semi-solid extension of his body–Raven's skills were buffed tenfold. Aria was the same with her now being able to control more clones and charge more powers into her blows. Mel's control of woodland magic was no longer limited to trees, vines, and other vegetation, but she could also summon bugs, vipers, and plenty of carnivores.
As for Amedith, his holy magic and defense were growing surprisingly quickly. Pillars of light to defend a nearby ally, ethereal wings made of pure magic that gave him a much-needed boost in agility, not to mention an even higher resistance to status effects and attacks that may try to debuff him.
Erika, the priestess's heart had only submitted to her internal corruption further–something the devil in her heart enjoyed quite a bit. Then there were even more spells unlocked in her status screen as well as a boost in her mana to add more usage of her powers.
Lastly, Mino–the spirit mage, much like the priestess was now able to cast more spells like a barrage of spirit minotaurs that rushed the enemies with their horns.
"A fine specimen you brought me last week," coming out of the back of the shop, Linkle the opportunistic witch pulled Raven out of his thoughts about everything that has happened since they killed the keeper. "Just half of its core was enough to make you what you wanted, obviously I kept the rest–It was part of the deal so don't dare backtrack anymore."
Floating over to her desk, she placed a small oakwood box on the counter. Pushing it towards Raven, she looked him in the eye. Getting him to follow her gaze, she had him gently pick the box in the front and bring it up to his face.
"A Keeper, they grow stronger the more their influence increases, the corruption they spread, and most importantly the more souls they consume from their victims," lifting her right hand, she urged Raven to open the box. And as he did so, she continued to talk. "With time those souls get crystallized in their bodies, physical or ethereal.
They turned into crystal-like balls full of pure unadulterated magic."
Revealed inside the box was a crystal eye. As pure in color as in its nature, it almost seemed like a dark illusion with a dead iris lacking all color, yet it oozed mana like vapor from hot water. Picking up the eye between his fingers, Raven looked it all over. Lacking any nerve endings the eye was supposed to simply sit in his socket and work without any problems.
"How does this work?" He asked, glancing down at Linkle's wrinkled body.
"It cuts the need to connect to your body by directing the visual straight to your mind, hells, you can use it for much more than just what your last eye was capable of," wearing a cheeky smile, Linkle showed no intentions of hiding her excitement about the ordeal.
She wanted to see what would happen when Raven put it on. How his body would react and what new powers it would grant him. After all, one-fourth of the same material was still resting inside her workshop.
'This bitch…' Despite knowing she was using him as a test subject, Raven used his newfound power to grow a muscle-like substance from within his empty eye socket. Coiling around itself like sentient muscle fibres, the darkness made an extension of his body, grabbed the crystal eye from his hand, and retreated it into his eye socket.
Closing his eyelid as he managed to suck the crystal in, Raven could feel an intense migraine rattling his whole cranium.
Holding onto the desk, he grunted in pain as his body struggled to accept the new optical organ in its system. Gradually as the pain began to dissipate, Raven opened his eyes, both of which now looked nearly identical. Looking around through blurry vision, he blinked a few times until he could finally see properly.
"Did it work?" Asked Linkle, her eyebrows raised in curiosity.
"Looks like it…Fucking thing hurts like hell though," still struggling with the pain, he decided not to waste too much time with the witch and returned to the rest of his allies back at their camp. "I'll come back when I have something interesting to trade, and you better start working on more of those rings, the crystal ball is enough payment for both this eye and at least a couple of rings."
"Ahahaha! Fine, be stingy, I'll make you a few more things, now bugger off and use that thing then tell me how it went later," with those words, Raven clutched his teleportation necklace and got back to their forest outpost.
Looking at where the dark flames of the corrupted forest used to be, he felt a sense of calm in watching nothing but a long clearing with shriveled trees with nowhere for the horrors to hide. As far as his vision stretched that was all there was, a dead forest grazed by their own hands, because not even the smallest speck of corruption could be allowed to live or else it'll return with time.
'A day or two more and we'll be on the other end.' He couldn't have imagined a day would come when even without Helga, he and his party would be fighting horrors like it was nothing. Sure the place was meant to be a start, but their overwhelming victory had started to inspire more confidence.
"Haaaa~" Walking out of her tent with a yawn, Kara the high priestess waved at the dark mage. "You're back already, huh? Your friends told me to have you stay here until they get back."
"Why?" He asked, slightly confused by the request.
"Everyone wanna know how they'd fare against the now gone horrors, they wanna do a before and after if you will," with that explained, she stretched her arms upwards and began walking up to the teapot bubbling on a makeshift mud stove.
Grabbing its handle, she casually conjured two glasses that floated in the air. Filling both of them up, she let the pot down and grabbed the tea cups instead.
"Until then, want me to take a look at that new eye of yours?" Kara suggested smiling, her left hand offering Raven one of the cups.
Walking up close, Raven grabbed the tea but rejected her offer.
"I'm not gonna be a toy for your amusement priestess, find another lamb," even though his words were harsh, Kara's smile only grew further.
"Seems like Helga's blood bled into her apprentice." Unable to convince him, she sat on a log and enjoyed her cup of tea alongside him.