The name hit Chris like a punch to the chest. He'd heard that name before in Sera's stories, in the way she talked about the war she'd fought in before ending up there. The Butcher of the Eastern Front. A man who'd been dead for years, according to the Empire yet would still show up on battlefields.
Korr's lips curved into something that might have been a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Sera, the bloody shadow. I heard you were dead."
She didn't lower her blade, instead narrowing her eyes. "I guess that makes two of us then."
Her remark had him let out a harsh laugh. "Fair enough I suppose." His gaze moved past her and back to Chris. "I came to see what grew in the ashes out here."
Chris forced himself to meet those red eyes, trying to keep his voice steady. "How did you even hear of this place?"
Korr studied him for a long moment. Those eyes moved across Chris's face, lingering on his hands, his arms, the faint bark-like ridges that caught the light. Then he looked past him, at the village, the plants, the walls that had held against beasts that should have overwhelmed them.
"Tsk, just boy who doesn't know what he's built. And yet." He gestured at the broken gate, noting with clear interest how the bamboo was already regrowing and would be done soon. "He is learning."
Sera seemed to be growing angry now. "Why are you here, Korr! The last I heard, you were leading the Demon Lord's armies and vanished along with them! People said you all died."
His voice was flat as he gave his response. "That 'army' was a set up, I was to be framed to have led them to their death and then killed alongside them. Luckily, I had all but expected it already and always try to be prepared, as I had my suspicions that the Demon Lord planned to throw me away, I had long since stopped being useful after all, I would imagine it was possibly in a similar way the Empire threw you away. Or was it they felt you had become too great a threat to them?"
Chris saw Sera's jaw tighten at his remarks, but she also didn't deny any of it.
Korr took a step forward, ignoring the gympie plant crawling over. He stopped when the strangle vines drew closer, flanking Chris on either side as their flower needles moved threateningly. That caused him to pause and look at them with something akin to interest. "The dungeon's been screaming for over a week now. The whole damn Barrens been feeling it. Something's wrong down there, well worse than usual." His eyes found Chris again. "And then I heard about a village in the middle of nowhere. Where plants move and a grower who makes things bloom in a land that's been dead for centuries."
He took another step, ignoring the vines now as his gaze fixed entirely on Chris with undisguised interest. "I wanted to see if it was true. If someone was actually wasting their time in trying to build something out here."
"And?" Chris's voice came out steadier than he felt.
"You're not the first person who's tried to make something grow in the Barrens. Others came before and they all died or they left in failure, well if they didn't become something worse than what they were fighting." He paused for a moment, looking at Sera before gesturing at the village around them. "But this? This is different. You've built something that wants to survive. The plants aren't just growing here, I can see they're fighting to stay. Even the strongest plant magic can't accomplish something like this."
Chris didn't know how to respond to that so he simply remained silent.
Sera finally lowered her sword, just slightly before speaking for him, "If the Demon Lord threw you away, why come here? Why not find somewhere else? Somewhere easier? It couldn't be simple interest."
Korr's smile faded, becoming something, that Chris found to be a mix of a growl and a snarl for just a moment, something that then looked almost human, tired and old.
"Because I've been watching for the last few days," he said quietly. "Watching what he's been through and noticing how its grown. I want to see if it will grow or burn."
"What if it does both?" Chris couldn't stop himself from asked.
Korr's eyes flickered as something shifted in his expression at the question. "Then it'll still be worth watching." He inclined his head, a gesture that might have been a bow or a challenge. "I'm not here to fight, grower. If I wanted your village dead, I wouldn't have walked up to the front gate but rather have struck from a distance or stormed my way in with the goal of taking you down."
"You walked up because you wanted to see our faces when you killed us!" Sera Demanded, her blade once more raised as he moved a half step in front of Chris.
"I walked up because I wanted to see what kind of man builds a garden in hell little girl."
He stepped back after that, his hand moving away from his sword as his posture shifted from coiled tension to something almost relaxed. The strangle vines had lowered slightly, their needle-flowers still tracking him but no longer raised to strike now.
Chris let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, realizing Korr wasn't hostile, at least for now as he seemed more interest than hostile, reminding him a bit too much of the one who had sent him here. "You said the dungeon's been screaming? What does that even mean? What the hell is happening over there?"
Korr looked toward the cliffs, where the dungeon lay hidden. "I don't really know, all I can say is something's waking up. Or something's changed again. The beasts have been acting far more aggressive and organized than ever before. The ones that usually fight each other are working together now. And whatever is at the bottom of that dungeon..." He paused. "There's something old down there, something hungry in ways our own records refused to detail."
Chris thought about the core hidden in Sera's pack. About the way it pulsed, the way it called to the dungeon and about the voice in his head that had screamed at him to touch it and use it for himself. Wondering if that voice wasn't guilt or greed like he had thought but rather whatever was down there working through him.
"And what would happen if someone managed to take the dungeon's core? What would happen to the dungeon then?"
Korr's eyes narrowed almost dangerously. "You know something?"
"A dead adventurer. He bragged about stealing it and passing it on before I killed him." The lie came easier than it should have. Chris didn't know why he was hiding it but rationalized it as Korr being a stranger, a demon general who'd fought in wars Chris couldn't imagine and Sera's own reaction towards him.
Korr studied him for a moment, then shrugged. "Without its core, a dungeon is supposed to go dormant, it's like a seed that if moved and intact could cause it to spawn in a new location under the right conditions. As for the old dungeon? After it goes dormant the beasts stop spawning. It's influence stops spreading. But this one..." He looked back at the cliffs. "This one's been wrong for many many years now. I doubt a missing core would change much or manage to stop it. Whatever is in there doesn't need to rely on the core to keep spawning beasts."
He turned back to Chris, those red eyes unreadable. "You want my advice? Leave the dungeon alone. Focus on your walls, your plants, your people and leave whatever is down there to do whatever it wants, dealing with its cast offs well trying to build a good enough defense to keep alive when whatever is down there erupts. But to do so you're going to need far more than what's here. You're going to need things that are far deadlier."
Without waiting for a response, he stepped back from the gate, his hand dropping to his sword. The strangle vines tensed and rose back up, but he didn't draw his blade, instead he just stood there, watching and waiting.
"I'll be nearby," he eventually said when neither reacted to his movements. "If you need me just call me." He continued as he began to walk off to the side before stopping, casting one final look back at the pair. "You should know though that if the dungeon decides you're a threat." A pause. "You will need someone who knows how to fight what's coming. I can't say I have experience in this but I did enjoy reading history before the war, learning all I could so I could, in theory be of aid in a situation such as that when the time comes."
"We don't need you." Sera all but spat, getting a knowing smile in return. "Not yet. But you will." And with that continued to walk away.
Chris stood at the gate for a long time after he was gone, staring at the space where Korr stood, the plants were slowly starting to relax, the strangle vines lowering, the bamboo resuming its regrowth with renewed vigor as a moving vine tried to stealthily follow after him.
"He's not wrong," Sera finally said quietly with clear reluctance as she sheathed her sword, but her hand resting on its hilt. "About the dungeon at the very least and what is more than likely coming. After last night I've begun to feel it too. Something's changed."
Chris looked at her, understanding her words but wanting to know more about there new visitor, how he managed to hide form the world tree who claimed it couldn't feel him. "You knew him? In that war you all are waging with the demons?"
"I knew 'of' him." Her voice was flat as she corrected him. "He was the Demon Lord's best general. He won battles he should have lost. Held ground he should have abandoned. The Empire threw everything they had at him a few years ago when they wanted to take a border fort and he just... kept fighting." She paused. "Then a few months he disappeared. No one knew why and the spies in the Demon Lord's forces reported that he had died."
Her words, either intentionally or unintentionally revealed that she used to be rather high up in the empire. "And now he's here?"
"And now he's here." She echoed as she looked at him. "He's dangerous, Chris. Whatever he says, whatever he offers, remember what his a demon."
Chris nodded slowly, choosing better than to comment how she was as well and yet he trusted her. He remembered the way Korr had looked at the village though, his casual remark of wanting to see if it burns or blooms. The hints of tiredness in his voice when he talked about being thrown away.
"I will," Chris said. "But he's not wrong about the dungeon either. And if something's coming... we need to be ready for it. For now though, we need to deal with this damn core."
Sera didn't argue. She just stood beside him, her hand on her sword, watching the mist where the demon had vanished, her face unreadable.
In the distance, the dungeon rumbled once, a deep rumble they couldn't ignore. Somewhere in its darkness, something began to move more violently. Three pairs of eyes locked there gazes towards the noise, even the plants had begun to writhe in response to the noise, clearly agitated.