The trees gave way to more brushes, taller and thicker than the ones before, surrounding something as if to protect it, as if to hide it.

Dave felt his senses pointing him behind the facade of nature, something huge has to be hidden behind it.

He took out Pointy Stick With Leaf, his trusty stabbing device and started poking away at the thickest parts of the brushes. He went through the arduous process of stabbing and ripping brushes apart to slowly create a semblance of a path or a hole.

Dave meticulously stabbed and ripped a small hole through the overgrowth, close to the ground and just barely big enough for him to crawl through it. Since he was already the incarnation of a mud or nature spirit, he wasn't shy about getting a little more dirt on himself.

He took out Ropey out of his satchel and looked deep into its eyes, or where he thought they should be.

"Ropey buddy, remember our last adventure? I know you are the bravest of worms I've ever met, so I have another mission for you." Dave tried to motivate Ropey, who in turn wiggled happily towards the sound of his voice.

"Behind this beast!" he gestured towards the overgrowth, "lies lands I haven't traveled before. It will be your mission to go through this hole. If there is any sign of danger, you have to come back as quickly as possible, Ropey. I value your life more than a stupid information gathering mission." he continued, gazing deeply into Ropeys 'eyes', "so make me proud Ropey, it's going to be a quick joint through the overgrowth, in and out just five minutes. If there is anything dangerous I hope you will wiggle very strongly to tell me about it, alright?"

Dave gave Ropey his most charming smile and pet him gently, while Ropey wiggled in determination as if it was saying "Don't worry boss, I promise I got your back!", before it went to the ground and slowly wiggled through the hole.

Dave sat down next to it, gently wiping away a tear at the loyalty and bravery Ropey was already showing.

A few minutes passed and Ropey came back in one piece, wiggling gently into forms trying to convey its findings through charade. Dave praised it for his heroic actions and showed it how proud he was. As a reward he dripped out a small amount of tree nourishing liquid which Ropey imbibed with relish, before going back into the satchel.

Doing his best imitation of Ropey, Dave wiggled through the hole to be greeted by a small Chapel, with its door busted wide open. The thick wood of the door seemed splintered and ripped at some parts and the only way to identify it as an actual door, were parts of a metal beam on the outside of the building. Usually such a heavy slog of metal was used to barricade the doors from the inside, to keep everyone inside safe from anything which wasn't a powerful slam by a battering ram. In this case the metal was on the outside of the door, trying to keep whatever was behind them inside the chapel.

Sadly it was for naught, the metal was ripped in half. The door barely hung off the hinges, while the metal was deformed and stuck in the wall on both sides of the chapel walls.

Whatever was kept inside, had broken through all oppositions in the end.

Dave saw the small guiding light flickering on and off, trying to lead him into the chapel. Gazing towards the surroundings of the chapel, he noted everything was in pristine condition. Beautiful small shrubs, with evergreen leaves and white bell shaped flowers decorated the chapel in a pattern circling and surrounding it. Not a single weed marred the surroundings. The last layer of defense was the overgrown bush he called nature's barricade.

Looking at it from this side, he realized it was the same plant as the small shrubs, only magnified. The Chapel was surrounded from all sides by a protective layer of white heather.

Slowly circling around the Chapel, Dave noted that there were no windows. The only way in and out from here seemed to be through the busted front door.

Filing that discovery away for later thought, he approached the chapel and entered through the door. As soon as his first step inside of the building hit the ground, lights lit up overhead, brightening the inside.

He was surprised to be greeted by a seemingly endless corridor, with murals painting the wall on both sides. The murals on the left looked inviting, almost whispering to him to read them, to look and remember them, while the ones on the right just seemed wrong. They didn't seem to make sense to his eyes in any way shape or form, as if they were distorted to be backwards and inside out at the same time.

Dave walked along the corridor, putting most of his attention into reading and deciphering the murals, while a small part tried to keep a look on his surroundings.

The murals looked ancient, depicting a tale of plague spreading along the lands. The drawings which looked like scrawlings at first, came to life. They told a tale of woes and suffering.

It seemed like it was truly a dark age for the people depicted in the murals with monsters coming forth to feast on the weakened sentients. No matter where Dave looked he only saw despair, with animals and monsters feasting on the people, with sickness plaguing them and reducing them to nothing more than a husk of their former self.

Before Dave even noticed, he reached the end of the hallway, directly leading him into a round room. A chandelier hung in the middle of the ceiling, lighting the room up in soft azure colors.

Six smaller paintings were spread out around the room, as if to highlight the much bigger painting opposite to the entrance.

The biggest painting depicted six people warring against a gruesome entity. The more Dave concentrated on the picture, the more enthralled he became. It slowly started changing with different scenes melting into each other and creating a novel rendition of a still film.

The six people used all their power to fight off a bubbling and shuffling mass of horror. It waved around it's multiple different limbs ranging from sharp protrusions, humanoid limbs and towards goopy tentacle-like appendages to defend and attack. Multiple eyes marred it's body, looking in all directions and six gushing wounds filled with teeth. From time to time the wounds rip open, turning into gaping maws silently screaming at the fighters. The longer the fight went on the more distressed and hopeless they became.

One of the people, dressed in a robe made out of bark, roots and leaves, stopped controlling the surrounding vegetation to restrict the monster and charged it ferociously with a deranged smile. All the plants moved towards his arm and morphed into a giant spiked drill on his fist. Endless arrays of teeth greeted his heroic charge.

Dave felt his blood run cold, the pure insanity of the act rattling something deep inside of him.

The other 5 people had different maniacal reactions to the act, watching as the monster's previously cut limbs slowly started growing back again after it's impromptu snack. The only consolation being a giant hole left by the druid's attack, which wasn't able to grow back thanks to the roots and wood growing out of it, preventing it from regenerating.

The battle scene abruptly cut to the end, with only one out of the original six standing against the mass of madness. They were dressed ambiguously in gaudy colored cloth, bells and tassels hanging off of it. A hat spreading into three directions with single bells hanging off the end covered their head and a white mask with all it's features smudged and indecipherable, covered their face.

The being unleashed a final silent scream as the jester gave it an over dramatic bow, as if they just finished a grand performance. It bubbled angrily and slowly dissolved into a massive goopy heap.

Dave was brought out of his trance by a gentle azure light coming off the side. The room's light, as if condensed, moved to light up a single picture out of the six smaller ones in the room. Instead of walking towards it, Dave put up his guard and looked around the room in detail. While it looked like the room was plunged into darkness with only one place lit up, he realized that the light actually didn't shift. The painting seemed to have a magical effect trying to pull all of his attention towards it and putting him into a state of tunnel vision.

Dave stepped back from the biggest picture and started looking at the other paintings which weren't illuminated. The very first one to the right of the entrance, was a ripped up picture depicting a seed, with a small and empty space behind it.

Turning towards the next picture he saw a giant tower shield embellished on it. Concentrating his attention on all the other paintings, Dave realized they were symbols honoring the six people in the big painting.

The plant controller's symbol had to be the seed, while the tower shield should stand for the guy who was covered in heavy armor. During the battle the first one used his plants to control and restrict the abomination while the other barked commands and coordinated the group of people while defending them from heavy hits.

Dave connected the painting of a mace basking in holy light to the healer of the team, even if he saw her using said mace more often than her healing ability.

The next picture depicted the head of a wild beast, which changed to whatever animal Dave thought of at the time of looking at it. It melted seamlessly between a wolf, a shark, a lion and a hawk. Satiating his curiosity by playing around with that feature, he turned to the last painting not illuminated by light.

It was a painting of a rotting corpse bleeding green ichor. While Dave saw a person commanding and fighting side by side with it's wolf, he didn't get a clear view of the last person's abilities.

Looking back to the painting illuminated by the light, Dave understood what the next course of action should be and what was expected of him but he hesitated.