The moving vine returned an hour after Korr disappeared.
Chris found it coiled at the base of the cloud tree, its red bloom drooping slightly as it seemed to be trying to rehydrate. The little world tree translated for it, telling him how it had followed the demon to a rocky outcropping half a mile south, that it watched him build a small fire and waited until he'd settled before slithering back. He hadn't moved since and seemed to have known it was there.
"He's just... sitting there?" Chris asked, crouching beside the tired vine. The world tree told him he was waiting for something, though it didn't know what, which unsettled Chris more than he wanted to admit.
Sera stood a few feet away; her arms crossed with an unreadable look on her face. "He's not going to leave. Not until he's seen what he came for."
Chris looked at her. "And it's really just to see if this place 'blooms or burns' in his words?"
She didn't answer. Instead, her gaze drifted behind them, to her hut where her pack sat, where the core was tightly wrapped. "We need to deal with that thing first. It's the biggest worry."
The afternoon passed in tense preparation.
Destroy the core, return it and hope for the best, or just throw it as far into the Barrens as possible and hope wherever it wound up bought them enough time to prepare and give them some breathing room. Each option had risks. Each option felt wrong, but he had few others to choose from.
The plants seemed to sense their unease, with only the little world tree seemingly having any energy to talk and try to look on the bright side. Its root had wrapped around Chris's ankle hours ago and hadn't let go, forcing him to walk while slightly dragging it along. Its voice was a constant worried hum in the back of his mind, telling him how the core had begun to stir again, how something had changed and it was calling harder now. Far more desperate than it had that night.
He closed his eyes and decided to try something, resting his hand onto the ground. He began to feel the distant pulse of the core through the earth, through his connection to the plants, and something else, something deeper that he didn't have a name for, something that made his skin crawl and he knew was tied to the voice in his mind. It whispered that he should keep it, that he should use it and make them all listen to him, to dominate the Barrens with an iron fist and become its true ruler. That the core would be the key to overpowering 'IT'.
He shoved it to the back of his mind, refusing to entertain the question of what 'it' was. As he began to sink deeper, the world tree shouted in his mind, telling him that the sad girl was going for the core. He snapped out of it, his head pounding, needing a moment to stop the world from spinning. As soon as it had, he made his way over to her hut, the leather-wrapped core already in her hand.
Chris was beside her before he realized he'd moved. "What are you doing?"
"We can't keep stalling." She pulled back the leather, the black surface of the core catching a few rays of sun as its veins of lightning pulsed faster. A faint roar in the distance told them something was responding. "We're not keeping it and we sure as hell not destroying it. We're going to give it back."
Chris stared at her. "And if that makes things worse? Then what?"
"It could." Her voice was steady as she nodded, accepting her words as a possibility. "But keeping it here is making things worse *now*! The plants are suffering. Something in the dungeon wants this back and might bloody come tonight. This thing is badly affecting you—don't deny it, I could feel something happening to you a few minutes ago! Not to mention that demon is sitting half a mile away, waiting to see what we do with it, since I don't doubt for a second, he knows we have it!" She met his eyes with barely hidden frustration and anger. "I'd rather face whatever's in that dungeon than let it keep tearing apart what you've built here bit by bit to get this thing back! At least this way we might have a brief gap before it does."
He wanted to argue. Wanted to point out all the reasons this was a bad idea, all the ways it could go wrong. But he couldn't. She was right, and he had been too indecisive, trying to find the best option they could take which only led them to wasting time. The core had been here too long already. The first night of it being there was already difficult, and he knew every night it stayed, the worse the attacks would get. The voice in his head got louder the closer he got to it now as well, growing more tempting.
They left at dusk without care for how dangerous it would be to get back, hoping that the return of the core would cause a ripple of disruption that would buy them enough time to get away.
The plants parted for them as they walked through the gate, the bamboo shoots bending aside, the spike balls rolling out of their path, while the rest all but begged for him to be careful, to not put himself at risk, telling him how the world tree's roots would be following as far as it could, the tree in question promising to try and use them to defend him.
The cloud tree's mist swallowed them as they stepped into the Barrens. Behind them, the village faded to a green and brown smudge in the gray. Ahead, the cliffs rose like broken teeth against the darkening sky, making him realize how close the village actually was to the dungeon.
Sera walked beside him, the core in her hand, all but ready to be thrown if needed. Her face was calm, but Chris could see the tension in her shoulders, the way her free hand kept brushing the hilt of her blade.
"You don't have to do this," he said. "I could take it the rest of the way alone."
She snorted. "And leave me to explain to your little tree why you didn't come back? No thanks. Besides, I could see, feel, and faintly hear the reactions this thing was causing. I would rather not see what plant you would grow under this thing's influence."
He almost smiled at that.
They were halfway to the cliffs when Korr seemed to step into their path, a wide, knowing smile plastered across his face.
Chris's hand tightened on his staff while Sera's sword was out in an instant, the core tucked against her chest with her other hand as she moved to stand between them.
"So," he said quietly. "That's what you were hiding? You actually had the core,"
Sera's blade didn't waver. "Step aside."
Instead of moving, he looked at Chris. "You said a dead adventurer bragged about stealing the dungeon's core, but it seems you neglected to mention you had it."
Chris forced himself to meet those red eyes. "Would you have believed me if I told you I had it?"
A long pause. Then Korr's lips curved into something that wasn't quite a smile. "Maybe. Probably not though. You don't strike me as a fighter." He looked at the core again, his expression unreadable. "You're taking it back?"
"We're taking it back," Sera corrected. Her sword was still raised, but her voice had lost some of its edge. "Whatever's in that dungeon, it wants this thing and will no doubt keep escalating till it gets it. This will hopefully buy us some time to face whatever it is later."
Korr was quiet for a moment. Then, slowly, he stepped aside.
"You won't make it to the entrance," he said. "Whatever's waiting for that core? It's not going to just let you walk in and drop it at the door and let you walk away as if everything's suddenly forgiven. The beasts are organized now to a far greater degree than before—you should have seen it last night. The second you get close, they'll tear you apart and take the core back to whatever is down there."
Sera's grip on her blade tightened. "Then we fight through."
"Then you'll die like idiots."
"And we'll die in a destroyed village if we do nothing!" Her voice grew heated. "Whatever's in that dungeon is not going to stop until it gets what it wants! So we give it what it wants, and we deal with what comes after, enjoying the breathing room it hopefully gives us!"
Korr studied her for a long moment. Then his gaze shifted to Chris.
"And you actually agree with this?"
Chris thought about the way his plants had been acting. The Critic's forced silence. The scream flowers pulsing warnings every time he got close. The voice in his head that had been growing slightly more forceful since he came in contact with the core, urging him to take and dominate it.
"We can't keep it," he said firmly. "That's not a choice. So we give it back, or we throw it as far as we can towards the dungeon itself and hope something else finds it before it finds us."
Korr's eyes narrowed. "And if throwing it just makes the dungeon angrier?"
"Then at least it's not acting like a goddamn beacon anymore!" Chris met his gaze. "At least my plants will stop being its target. They'll be at less risk, and the voice will—" He stopped before finishing, nails digging into his palms as he tried to get his breathing back under control.
Then Korr did something unexpected. He began to laugh.
It wasn't a warm sound—it was rough, scraping, like rocks grinding together. But there was something in it that wasn't mockery. Something that might have been respect.
"You're both utter idiots! Is it some kind of trait you humans share? A collective idiocy?" He remarked before shaking his head. "But by the dark gods, you're at least not cowards." His gaze fell onto the core in Sera's grip. "If you're going to give it back, give it back properly and make sure the dungeon works for it."
Sera's sword lowered a fraction, interest flashing across her eyes. "What do you mean?"
Korr pointed toward the cliffs. "There's a fissure about a quarter mile east of the main entrance to the dungeon—an old mining tunnel that collapsed years ago. The beasts can't use it as a den since it's far too winding and the tunnel itself is rather unstable." He looked at Chris. "The core could be dropped deep enough that whatever wants that stone would have to dig for it. That would buy you a bit of time."
Chris frowned as he narrowed his eyes. "Why are you helping us?"
Korr seemed to weigh his words, clearly deciding how much he wanted to share. "Because I'm tired of watching things burn when they don't have to. I want to see the opposite for once and hopefully be a part of it rather than the end to it."
With that, he stepped back, his hand dropping from his sword as his posture shifted from coiled tension to something almost... relaxed.
"The fissure is unguarded for now. The beasts are massing at the main entrance—they could feel your approach and are now waiting for you to walk into them. Take the side route, drop the core as far in as you can, and you might get back before they realize what's happening." He looked at Sera. "That is what you call a plan rather than handing whatever your enemy wants over to them and hoping they let you walk away in gratitude."
She sheathed her sword. Slowly, deliberately. "If this is a trap—"
"It's not." Korr's voice was flat as he cut her off. "If I wanted you dead, I wouldn't need a trap and would have done so myself. Especially as you're far from the village and the protection of your plants."
Chris didn't let himself think about what that meant. Instead, his gaze fell onto the core faintly pulsing in her grip. "It's a safer method than what we were planning, and if he's right, it would give us the time we were wanting."
She sent one last glare at Korr, who simply smiled back and walked in the opposite direction.