Here, the trees grew closer together, their trunks gnarled into grotesque shapes resembling weeping faces and teaching hands. The tension grew with every step.
Suddenly, Veyra grabbed his arms. Her fingers were icy even through the material of his armor. "Don't move" she whispered. He did as she said. Tendrils, almost invisible against the blood-colored air, had descended from one of the nearby trees, mere inches from his face.
It swayed gently, sensing and seeking something. The tendrils were tipped with a barbed stinger, glistening with somewhat viscous and shimmering fluid.
Very slowly, Aelric shifted his weight back. The tendrils twitched, looked confused and withdrew with a soft hiss into the canopy. Veyra exhaled shkiky. "They are feeders," she said. "Touch one, and you will be drained dry in seconds. No magic, no strength. Just an empty vessel."
Aelric nodded with a serious expression and moved forward, more cautious now. The deeper they ventured, the stranger the Grove became. The trees started to sing.
Low, melodic tones vibrated through the fleshy ground, threading through the very soul of a being. The song was beautiful, it was like a mournful melody that promised rest, peace and an end to all this suffering.
Veyra faltered, her eyes lost focus slightly, seeing this without hesitation, Aelric grabbed her shoulder and shook her hard. "Focus," he said, his voice cutting through the enchantment. "Its a bait."
Veyra shuddered, blinking rapidly, her illusionary glamour sputtering before reasserting itself. "I….I know," she muttered, "But it was too loud, to resist."
The Voice of the Abyss interrupted saying.
[Auditory manipulation detecte. Deploying countermeasure.]]
Aelric felt a prickling sensation behind his ears, and suddenly the song muted, reduced to a little human. He tightened his grip on Veyra's wrist. "Stay close," he said. She didn't resist.
The Grove grew even more hostile as they advanced. Tendrils lashed towards them when they moved too slowly or stopped, roots writhed underfoot, trying to entangle their ankles. Veyra's illusions masked some of their movements, but the Grove seemed to always keep improving like it was learning from each failed attempt and growing sharper and faster.
They fought back where they could. Aelric unleashed his chains when roots surged towards them, the spectral bindings snapping the parasitic vines mid-strike. Veyra conjured phantoms of flames, forcing tendrils and feeders to recoil, buying them a few seconds, from time to time.
As they went further deep in the Grove, it changed more. The tree started to take on more human forms, torsos twisted into trunks arms reaching upwards, faces froze in eternal screams. They are very realistic. It was clear, no, it wasn't that Grove was alive, but it was made of the dead.
The realization struck Aelric like a physical blow. Each tree has once been a living being, absorbed into the Groves's endless hunger, reshaped and repurposed for its sick ecosystem. He clenched his fist, an unknown anger simmering beneath his calm exterior.
The Abyss devoured. But this? This was a desecration. A flash of movement caught his eye. It was very different from the tendril. He
He motioned for Veyra to stop and crouched low, peering through the blood-misted air. There was something ahead, perhaps more than fifty meters ahead of them, a clear area. At its center, a massive pulsating node of flesh and roots glows faintly with inner light. It beast like a heart, sending slow, seismic tremors through the ground. The Heart of the Grove.
The Voice spoke, its tone was almost reverent.
[Source of corruption identified. Caution: Guardian entity presence probable.]
Aelric bared his teeth in a predatory grin. Finally, something he could kill. Veyra stepped closer, her expression wary. "The Heart is alive and it also knows we are here."
As if in response, the clearing erupted into activity. Roots tore free from the ground. Figures began to emerge from the pulsing node. Twisted amalgamations of wood, flesh and bone, shrieking silently as they formed. They are Guardians.
Aelric flexed his hands, chains materializing in crackling bursts of dark light. Veyra conjured a series of illusory doubles, spreading them out to draw fire. The Heartbeat quickened. The entire Grove seemed to learn towards them hungrily.
There would be no escape. Not until the Heart was destroyed. Aelric cracked his neck and advanced, the first of the guardians charging towards him with bladed limbs whirling.
"Time to feed the forest its own death," he said. And with a roar that shook the flesh trees to their roots, he leaped into the fray.
The first guardian crashed towards Aelric with a guttural screech, its body a horror of fused bark and sinew. Its arms were elongated into blades, crude and jagged, dripping with black ichor that hissed as it splattered against the ground.
Aelric sidestepped the initial lunge, the beast's momentum carrying it forward. With a flick of his wrist, spectral chains burst from the air, coiling around the creature's midsection. Before it could react, Aelric twisted sharply with his full strength. The chains tightened with a sickening crack, splitting the guardian in two.
Its halves hit the fleshy ground with a wet slap, spasming weakly before going still. Another guardian was already upon him. This one was slightly larger, its torso bloated and pulsating, its limbs jointed backward like a spider's. It scuttled unnaturally fast, leaving deep gouges in the ground as it came.
Veyra's illusions danced between them, creating phantom copies of Aelric that darted left and right. The guardian hesitated and was confused for a critical second. It was all the opening Aelric needed.
He lashed out with an uppercut and punched with his fish through the wound. Gluttony flares through his fist. The impact collapsed the creature's chest inward, releasing a cloud of noxious spores that the Voice immediately shielded him against.
[Spore toxins neutralized. Immunity granted: Temporary]
The fight was not going unnoticed by the Heart of the Grove, it shuddered visibly and started to accelerate the throbbing rhythm. Sending waves through the ground, all over the Grove.