The tendrils hanging from the trees writhed in ecstasy, and from the trees writhed in ecstasy, and from the dark woods. More shapes began to emerge, dozens of them. Misshapen guardians, stitched from the living and the dead
Aelric clinched his fist. He could not waste time-fighting here. The Grove wood kept birthing defenders until it overwhelmed them through sheer attrition.
"Veyra!" He shouted. "Cover me. I am going for the Heart!" She nodded once, her hands weaving intricate patterns in the air. Illusions sprang to life, burning serpents, spectral wolves, and shrieking banshees all charging at the guardians, buying him precious seconds.
Without hesitation, Aelric sprinted towards the pulsing core. But Each step closer to the Heart, the heavier it becomes as if the Grove itself were trying to pin him down. Roots erupted beneath his feet, attempting to trip and ensnare him, but he moved like a phantom, weaving through them with precision.
Chains lashed out ahead of him, clearing the path, and tearing down barriers before they could fully form. He extracted every bit of power in his body. The power of the Abyss thrumming through his veins.
Finally, he stood before the Heart. It was very large up close. A grotesque amalgam of muscle and root, its surface slick with glistening sap. Faces shifted just beneath the skin, their mouths open in eternal, soundless screams.
Aelric hesitated for a moment, to attack this is the same as provoking the entire Grove into madness. But hesitation was death here.
He summoned every ounce of his will and drove his hand into the Heart, and Gluttony was activated. The reaction was instantaneous. The Grove screamed.
The sound was indescribable, not heard with ears but also felt with every fiber of his being. It was the scream of a wounded god, of a predator that had suddenly become the prey of the being it was hunting.
Roots lashed out violently, battering Aelric defenses. Branches clawed at him, leaving deep gashes along his arms and sides. Even the ground convulsed, trying to throw him off.
But he held on, grinding his teeth, draining every bit of Heart's essence into himself. The Heart resisted, its will immense and ancient. Roaring at him furiously. Visions assaulted his mind, images of past victims of despair and surrender of bodies broken and devoured.
"Submit," thousands of voices whispered in his head. "Become one with us." "You would be free of all suffering." "No need to fear death."
He roared in defiance, focusing entirely on Gluttony. Tendrils of corrupted energy funneled into him, painful and burning, threatening to tear him apart from within. The Voice of the Abyss immediately gives a warning to him.
[Alert: Soul structure destabilizing. Recommend immediate cessation of absorption.]
But Aelric ignored the warning. He could not stop now. If he let go, the Grove would consume him, body and soul. And it would be the end of his journey. So he pushed even harder.
The Heart began to either, its glow dimming. The roots slowed, weakening. The guardians faltered, their forms unraveling into formless heaps.
Veyra, bleeding and battered, appeared at his side, slashing apart the last of the guardians trying to reach him. Her illusions flickered erratically, her magic was nearly depleted. See that Heart is near its end. She shouted above the cacophony. "You are killing it, Finish it!"
A final surge of strength, a bellow from the depths of his soul, and the Heart ruptured.
A shockwave of corrupted energy blasted outward, flattening the first around them. The flesh trees shuddered, convulsed and then collapsed into themselves, shriveling into blackened husks.
The ground groaned and split, vast fissures opening where the Grove's roots once anchored.
Aelric stumbled back, panting heavily, feeling as if he had just wrestled with a god and barely survived. His skin steamed where the heart energies had scorched him, and his hands trembled badly from the aftershock.
[New Ability Acquired: Devourer's Bloom.
Function: Life Drajn upon physical contact. Efficiency scales with proximity to Abyss sources.]
The words echoed through his mind like distant bells, but he barely registered them. His vision started to blur. The world tilted dangerously.
Veyra caught him before he could collapse, her grip was surprisingly strong for her battered frame. She stared at, her face a complex tangle of emotions, see, fears, respect. "You….you actually did it," she said.
Before he could answer, the ground beneath them shook violently once more. Not from the dying throes of the Grove, but from something asking up.
From deep beneath the ruined forest, a low, rhythmic pounding began to resonate. Not the heartbeat of the Grove. It was some things different. Something deeper. Maybe more older than Grove.
The Voice of the Abyss quickly alerted him.
[Alert: Entity Awakening. Classification: Cataclysm grade threat.]
"Fuck" Aelric curved under his breath, forcing himself to sit. They had killed the Grove, but in doing so they had also broken a seal and waked up a slumbering horror meant to stay buried.
"Move," he says to Veyra. "We can't stay here anymore, let get out of here fast."
The cavern trembled around them, chunks of fleshy ceiling breaking loose and crashing down. The ruined trees twisted and writhed desperate to escape the approaching presence.
Together, Aelric and Veyra sprinted into the depths of the collapsing biome, the echoes of the ancient heartbeat growing louder behind them. Each beat sent shockwaves through the very air, a grin herald of the nightmare rising from the abyss.
And somewhere in the distance, unseen and untouched by the destruction, a pair of eyes opened in the dark ess, watching and waiting for the right moment.
The path through the dying Grove was chaos incarnate. Roots that had once been towering sentinels now flailed blindly, severed from their guiding will.
The ground beneath Aelric's feet cracked and heaved, exhaling noxious gas with every shift. The air shimmered with the aftermath of the Heart's death, dense and oppressive, choking with the scent of rot and burning life.