Chapter 43: What Lurks Beneath

July, 2, year 0 guardian calendar

Deep within the dark forest roamed twelve goblins, an ogre, and a Tiefling. She, on Scitus's orders, was to make an alliance with the east side of the oasis. Unlike Hera's mission, however, allies came secondary. Under the façade of alliances, she would investigate possible future threats and oasis natural dangers. Sia knew most of these dangers as she had lived in the oasis for a good part of her life, but she never bothered to investigate the smaller details.

She knew what could kill a monster and what could poison the populace, but she didn't know the political landscape, her true purpose. She only knew the most notable of tensions, like the Lamia and Medusa blood war, and the eternal elemental war to the north of her. Then there were the lizardfolk, rumored to worship an actual dragon. Sia had heard stories, but they were before her time.

Arriving at a patch of interwinding vines and bushes, Sia rose her fist to stop the troop.

Near them was thick grove whose trees came in assortments, unlike anything the goblins had ever seen. From large to small, every tree came with unique leaf and bark. Turning back to their true mission, they open their ears and listen passed the odd echoes and strange crunching of leaves in search of enemy movement. When none was discovered, they continued their trek through the green thicket that climbed to their knees and appeared as if desiring to swallow them.

Rationality brought on their overwhelming paranoia, they were in the most dangerous place in the Oasis. The home of the corrupted core. A place spoken of in the mortal kingdoms to children to improve their behavior. The overgrown trees and vines the spread beneath were signs that no living creature had dared enter the place for generations.

As the story goes, when Onias, Sia clenched her fist as if remembering something awful. He was part of a past she wished to forget, but the brutal hollowness that experience carved inside her would forever haunt her. She tightens her eyes and erased the complication out of her mind, but only for the moment. The story spoke of Onias's arrival in the oasis, it took him an entire year to claim a single spot in the oasis as it resisted becoming his almost like a living organism fighting for its life. When he had finally taken over a piece, he began his experiments on the populace. The monsters, even the most savage, did not forget those days and often tell children to always be wary of the dark forest for nothing good dwells there. The experiments were said to have involved corruption and its many uses. How much could a creature absorb while still retaining their sanity? If one could find equilibrium, Onias believed, their power could rival even the dragons, or in the case of gods, rival even the true gods.

It had been nearly month since his experiments began when his land had nearly forsaken life in place of burning gold grain whose expanse began to desire the surrounding regions. During those last days, he created the corrupted core by sheer misfortune. The core that he created terrified him to point of fleeing the oasis the very moment of its inception, he never returned and rarely spoke of it, sometimes even claiming that the corrupted core had always existed even before he had arrived.

Many years later Sia had nearly been tricked into becoming one of his many victims but my by some miracle she escaped with nothing left to her name. She cursed the naivety of her youth and pressed through the thicket further as she told herself that she was no longer that frightened little girl that called for her father every night. "I AM THE RED WITCH THE MOST FEARED TIEFLING!!" She wanted to scream to the world but held it to hide her fear for she must never reveal the name of the demons that kept her prisoner.

Behind her was Robin, the ever-vigilant goblin who loyally obeyed his god. He always kept a close eye on Sia, something she noticed long ago. Oddly, It took her mind off the dark subject she always avoided.

The troop halted at the sound of crunching leaves in the far distance. Sia raised a finger to her lips before lowering herself behind a thick bush. Her eyes widened at sight of a creature they never thought would dare approach their master.

"This is very bad." Sia whispered to herself, confused as to how what she was seeing could be real. Both Robin and William tighten the grip on their weapons as they turned to see a beauty rivaling Hera and Sia. Unlike Heras playful beauty and Sia's more burning attractiveness, the woman they saw had a sense of pure beauty, the kind of which no man dared touch for fear of disgracing her. She had long blonde her hair and white skin that almost seemed to glow. On her back was a most suspicious thing, that made the goblins wary, two angelic wings graced her back gently moving the leaves around them.

As their gaze grew longer they began to realize that she too was gazing at them.

"COME ON OUT!!!" Her voice, even in anger, sounded kind in a strange way. "cover your ears, she has the ability to enchant lesser beings with her voice." Sia whispered as the woman walked closer, she raised her mighty sword and with a single swipe cleaved dozens of trees that blocked her path. By this poiny, the goblins had heeded Sias warning. "What are you doing in a place like this? Shouldn't you be drinking champagne somewhere."Sia mocked as she waved the goblins to move awat from her. The fight began to climb itself into reality, "inevitable" she thought as she raised her casting hand. The other party was unlikely to let Sia live, for its mission was to kill beings like her.

"Do not mock me Tiefling. I have no time for your antics." Sia reached for the third pouch on her left waist side. Reaching inside, she found a soft sand-like material and took a handful out with her. She craned neck wondering if she should use that ability in a forest.

"why do you gotta be like that, aren't we basically cousins?" The angelic being raised her head in spite, "I? cousins with you? The thought makes me want to puke?" she held on to the fine glittery dust tightly, waiting for the most opportune moment to use it, then…

"Michelle where are you?!!" a new voice emerged from within the thicket, the Aasimar, turned her head and flew away yelling, "Stay there!!! I'm coming to you now!!!" The tension in her muscles was still too strong, preventing her from releasing her grip on the dust.

When she finally calmed, she shoved the dust back into the pouch and sighed, "what the hell is an Aasimar doing here?" If they fought, death would be inevitable, and it wouldn't be hers. But killing an Aasimar would push her into that war, a war she wanted nothing to do with for it would mean allying with her mother.

Sia took note of the second voice, "it was distinctly male and he is probably incapable of defending himself judging by that Aasimars reaction." Whoever they were would most likely cause a problem for Scitus. "why do I care what happens to the little kingdom" She thought to herself with a small grin as she waved the others to continue their trek and noting the event for Scitus.

The walk afterword had no unexpected encounters and felt almost terrifyingly quiet the closer they got to their destination almost as if the world had died and all that remained were fictitious green trees that devoured all who approached. It was obvious when one was close to the laboratory because everything in a five-mile radius was dead, it had corroded into a black almost slime like substance on the ground. Even the goblins and ogre who had little experience with the arcane could feel the unnerving presence of corruption. The thickness was almost suffocating and made it difficult to walk, this was evem after Sia's protection from corruption spell. Normally it would be unnecessary and for Sia, it mostly was; but to monsters and certain magical beings, the thick presence of corruption was enough to corrupt their sanity and transform them into Nilbogs, creatures so heinous that death is a most fortunate outcome for those who meet one.

Her mission here was to obtain a certain artifact left behind by Onias when he fled, the Book of monsters. She told herself she would never for any reason go to that laboratory but there she was. She was going by her volition to a most dreadful place that held within the acts of that odious being she once called King. The laboratory now visible, she closed her eyes and remembered the trust that was placed with her to find allies in the east. The thought of trust made her heart jitter with an emotion she had not felt since she was a child for trust had long been something foreign and forgotten to her. In her moment of glee, she decided to herself that she would do one kindness for Scitus and ask for nothing in return. She would give him the book of monsters.

She and her troop entered the dark delipidated stone laboratory. A memory suddenly flooded her senses, a memory of when she felt the most comfort.

A little girl stood in the center of a small plaza. The adults took the longest path to avoid her. In their eyes, she held a most disgusting red pigmentation of skin and worse yet were her horns and tail that signified her lineage. Their hatred for her was only suppressed by fear of the pain she may cause them. The children were different, they were far more cruel tp the little girl whose only wish was to play alongside them. Those few children threw eggs at her and mocked that if she was demon she had to smell like one.

She ran home ran home that day with a fiery speed that left a small black trail behind her. Her father at that time had been working in his shop. Preparing a brand new sword for a valuable customer. She creaked the open the door to his shop and with a face that desperately held a mans tears he forsook his work and opened his arms wide for her. She remembered herself running into his arms as her tears stained the brick floor and she remembered her father's warmth when he held tightly and whispered that everything was okay.

"why didn't we teleport in?" William asked jostling Sia back into reality. "because teleportation leaves a signature that certain beasts are able to travel through, I don't want to risk it going back with us, or worming its way backwards the way we came. " Normally she wouldn't worry about such creatures, but the corrupted core was said to be a much bigger threat than just some lowly corrupted beasts. That is why she was surprised that not a single sign of its existance remained. While the air was toxic with corrupted mana, it wasn't near strong enough to instill such great fear in a god like Onias.

Little did she know of what lurked beneath was a terrifying beast, slowly gnawing its way out of its prison. Soon it would tear through its bindings and be unleashed upon the world and on that day the world would know why Onias fled the Oasis like a frightened mouse.