The sun was all but set, beginning to sink across the horizon, when they arrived at the fissure, finding it exactly where Korr said it would be. The little world tree surprised him by still having its root with them. When he asked how far it had really spread, it simply said very far.
The fissure entrance was narrow—extremely narrow. Barely wide enough for Chris to squeeze through, his shoulders scraping against the rough stone as he pressed himself forward. Sera followed behind him and barely managed to squeeze in, making comments under her breath about missing the protection her armor gave her, the core lightly pulsing through the leather wrapping as she held it at her side. Behind them both, Korr stood unseen at the entrance, having secretly followed them.
The tunnel sloped downward, deeper into the cliff but not steep enough that they couldn't get out. The walls felt damp and slick with something that might have been water or something else. The air was cold, far colder than it should have been with a faint breeze that carried a smell that made Chris's stomach turn before he froze up. The little world tree whispered that something scary was here, just below them.
His heart was pounding so hard he could hear it in his ears. Every instinct screamed at him to turn around, to run, to get as far from this place as possible, screaming that they had walked into a trap. Even the core was pulsing faster now, a frantic rhythm that soon began to match his heartbeat before something in the darkness below seemed to gaze up with a sickly yellow eye.
"Sera." His voice came out steadier than he felt, a hushed whisper. "We can't go any further than this." She seemed confused for a brief moment before narrowing her eyes, trying to control her own breathing at seeing the eye. "A trap?" She whispered questioningly.
"I don't know. I don't think so. Regardless, we can make this work." He said, holding out his hand. "Give me the core."
She hesitated for just a moment, then carefully began to unwrap the leather and placed the stone in his palm. Her gaze now entirely on him.
The moment his skin touched it, the greedy voice screamed within his mind, almost making him stumble. His lips moved on their own volition as it seemed to speak through him. "Yessss, take what is yours! Use it! Use that power and make all of the—"
That was all it could say before Chris ripped back control, forcing the voice down while waving away Sera's clear concern, telling her it was still him, that he had regained control before looking at the core in his hand with anger and hate. He felt it pulse against his fingers, felt it try to reach into him, try to find something to hold onto.
"I can understand better than anyone about wanting to go home," he said, his voice low and steady. "I would most probably take such an opportunity if it were presented to me. But you? You say you want to go home, but that's a lie. You want to corrupt, to control, to sink your roots into whatever you touch."
He stepped forward, to the edge of where the tunnel opened into darkness, where the sickly yellow eye seemed to be the only light besides the core. "I won't let you get to me or what is mine."
And with those words, he threw it as hard as he could.
The core arced through the air, its light spinning while the veins of lightning flared in bright bursts, seemingly angry at his words. Chris saw walls of black stone. A floor littered with bones. And something moving in the shadows, doing what it could to avoid the core's light. It was something huge, something clearly old, and yet he couldn't make it out. Didn't want to see it.
The core hit the ground with a dull thud. Its light slowly went out as a slime-like limb slammed onto it and dragged it deeper.
What followed wasn't a sound but instead an echoing pressure as the dungeon began to scream. A presence that slammed into Chris's mind and drove him to his knees as he gripped his head, letting out a pained scream of his own. He heard Sera shout something, felt her grab his arm and drag him out. Even as the last rays of sun hit him, he felt chilled to his core as the world tree whispered into his mind how it was truly awake now. That it had its core back but was still angry. That it was changed. That something had infected and broken it.
That was when he noticed Korr was there on his other side, his hand closed around Chris's wrist as he felt something flowing into him, the pressure steadily lessening—not gone, but far more bearable now.
"We need to move," he growled out, not letting Sera have an opportunity to speak. "Now!"
They ran. Or rather, Sera and Korr ran with Chris thrown over Korr's shoulder.
Behind them, the dungeon began to howl in a way he had never heard before. He noticed how Sera went deathly pale, her teeth gritted as she clearly tried to force something down.
As the sky turned dark, his gaze was firmly on the distance. He realized rather quickly how much he had slowed Sera down with how quick they had arrived back at the village. The cloud tree seemed to have let out a thick mist around the place, and as they burst through it and into the village proper, he could hear the gate audibly seal behind them. The bamboo shoots weaving tightly together, layer after layer, sealing the entrance. The strangle vines rose from their hut and slithered over, their needle-flowers raised toward the cliffs with their purrs going from hunger to anger in his mind. Even the scream flowers had opened, letting out echoes across the area around his village.
As soon as Chris was put down, he wobbled forward and collapsed against the cloud tree, his chest heaving, his ears ringing, and his mind a mess. The core's pulse was gone. The greedy voice was silent, but he could feel something else in its place. It was gentle, but he knew it didn't belong in his mind. He tried to stop his hands shaking with little success, instead finding the bark-like ridges he had thought was a trick of the light slightly more pronounced now across the back of his hands and faintly up his arms as if they had spread, far more visible now under the scant light of the moon.
He would be demanding answers from Korr later. It was supposed to be a means to stall whatever lay within the dungeon, to buy them some time, but instead they had returned the core.
The night was quiet after that. No beasts assaulting the village. No howls carrying through the air. Just a silence that felt heavy and waiting, like the whole Barrens was holding its breath for something to happen.
Chris spent most of the night under the cloud tree, feeling far too exhausted and drained to move and yet too wired to sleep. Sera was on the Ent wall, determined to keep watch. Korr had seemingly vanished, having jumped from the ramparts and disappeared into the Barrens' darkness. The little world tree told him a vine was keeping close to him, that he was just outside the village and muttering about how the cavern was supposed to be empty.
Chris didn't care much about that, instead simply closing his eyes as he rested against the tree. "We ended up giving it back," he said quietly. "And it feels like doing that just made things far worse. Is this peace a good thing or not, though? Is it preparing some kind of large attack now? Needing time to prepare?"
The answer he got was a root wrapping around him and dragging him to the Ancient Ent, placing him onto a branch near its face.
"It's because the core was not the source of the wound or the real problem. Only a symptom infected by something else it is now attempting to purge. What you felt earlier was its anger. It needs to heal from what has now happened to it in its greed and haste. But by the same vein, it now knows you are a risk towards it," the Ancient Ent told him, speaking aloud rather than in his mind.
Chris looked up at the old tree questioningly. Its barked face was shadowed in the moonlight, its branches silhouetted against the stars. "How do you even know that? How do any of you know the things you do?" He asked softly.
A long pause followed that question, and when the Ancient Ent spoke again, its voice was far softer and almost... human.
"I can't speak for the others. Perhaps they pick up echoes of those who have faded? But for me, it is because I was once a soldier. Before this land was broken and the dungeon was twisted and the Barrens became a grave, I fought in the war that made this place what it is today. And I watched what crawled out of the wound in the aftermath of the last desperate strike against that horrible creature."
Chris stared at it with clear surprise before asking in a shocked whisper, "You... you were a person?"
"A person. A man. A general. I led soldiers into battle against something we didn't understand. I had thought we won. That the cost was worth losing everything so that the rest of the world would be safe. That the land dying as the life was drained away was a fair price to pay. Instead, it slunk into the dungeon that was forming and began corrupting it. I had thought I was the only one who had been denied rest, but I have come to learn that the men who followed me... they didn't get to walk away like I had first thought." The Ent's branches rustled, a sound like old armor shifting. "An Ent is simply a spirit who has possessed a tree under the right conditions to continue their life after passing but in a gentle nature using life rather than death like lich's prefer, often done by the elves to preserve their knowledge so future generations may continue their teachings. But your seed, the one I sprouted from, allowed me to do so in a similar yet far faster manner. And from my own seeds, my men once more joined me. Lesser than they were, but still as loyal and strong."
Chris didn't know what to say to that. His gaze passed over the wall, solid and patient, now knowing it was actual soldiers forgotten to time yet still standing stalwart as they watched over the village. He could easily imagine what each looked like—all in solid armor and disciplined. His thoughts went to the way the Ancient Ent had conducted the battle. It made far more sense now.
"You never told me," he finally said, barely a whisper.
"You never asked." It replied with a small, warm laugh filled with clear amusement. "And some wounds don't need to be shared until they need to be healed," it added gently.
"That thing down there... is it like you?" He questioned, feeling the presence in the dungeon faintly echo through his mind.
"No." The Ancient Ent finally said. "While my spirit after my death was bound to the land and only regained itself when this tree was grown, much like my men, what's in that dungeon was forged from death and anger, the fragments of what we had slain using it to bind itself onto the dungeon without us knowing it. Perhaps it was smart enough to do so as a means to return if it was killed? Regardless, all it wants is to corrupt and consume."
Chris's stomach tightened. "How much stronger will it grow now that it's got the dungeon's core? I know its corruption and absorption of the dungeon was deep enough that it didn't need it anymore to spawn beasts, but how bad will it be now that it's got it back?"
"Once it has integrated its core once more and removed the harm, it will be strong enough to rise once more. But it will require time and enough death and fear to feed it." The Ent's voice was heavy. "Your actions, regardless of whether you know it or not, have bought some time. Maybe days. Maybe months. But the thing in the dark is fully aware of you now and what you are doing out here. It will see it as both a challenge and as something to corrupt and devour."
"You were a general," Chris finally said after a long silence. "What would you have done in my place? If you could do what I could?"
The Ancient Ent's leaves rustled, carrying with them a sound almost like laughter.
"I would have fortified first and grown stronger, holding myself up with more and more defenses and protections as I waited for the enemy to make the first move." It said before pausing. "And I would have happily accepted help from anyone willing to give it. Be they wandering demons with red eyes, lost blades with no home to return to, elves cast out for not agreeing with their teachings, or dwarves wishing to improve old inventions over innovating new ones. I would have even allowed beasts who no longer wished to be hunted."
He simply nodded at that but still wasn't sure if he could trust the demon after what had happened. Not even sure if he wanted to. But the Ent was right about one thing: whatever was coming, he couldn't face it alone.