“This….what is this?”

Itsuki muttered, his black hair fluttering in the thick winds of the forest.

The forest was ravaged. Trees lay uprooted, their roots sticking in the air. The leaves were all around, and huge gashes cut the trees. Some were left in halves, other trees missing most of its whole, scattered in the area. The region looked as if a tornado had passed through it. A disheveled mess of nature. The ground was gouged with huge holes, like giant claws had torn through them. The area was lifeless, without a sound. The only that moved there was the wind that blew.

But that was not the truly horrifying thing.

The curse.

“Is this… even a curse anymore?”

No one could correct the words Ssriel spoke, for that was what the land had become.

Dark black fumes rose up from the pitch black trees. The entire area was filled with air that had a dark tinge to it. It was a strong curse, for it had corrupted the very air.

“I’ll cast a barrier to protect us”

The third draconian spoke, waving her hands. A blue light left her hands, branching into four, covering each of them in a faint blue aura.

“Thanks, Sstia”

Sstia lowered her head, in a show of humbleness. But that doesn’t change the current situation.

They began walking into the corrupted lands, cautious. The land was odd, like a different space. The sky above the space was tinged with a red glow, signifying the strength and potency of the curse.

“Sstia, you stay here, and set up a purification barrier. We don’t need the curse to spread anymore. We’ll try to find the cause, and return. This seems really bad.

As soon as the three stepped into the depraved area, the fumes which rose from the ground assaulted them, covering them up, in order to corrupt and consume. It had an unholy nature, one that would make someone sick, and throw up.

The fumes clashed against the blue aura, but it was repelled completely. The dark gas coiled around them, trying to find a weakness. They kept walking, quicker than before, in order ascertain the cause as soon as possible.

The trees were releasing an excessive amount of the smoke. Itsuki used his sword to cut down the trees, In order to prevent the chances of propagation of the cursed trees.

The area of effect of the curse was quite small, compared to the slum’s cursed lands. But it compensated for the lack of area in its abnormal potency.

“The earth is dead here. Even the Vein has no effect. It truly is like an isolated space.”

Ssral commented, pulling his robe closer to himself. Beastkin are influenced by their natural instincts, and Ssral was no exception. It would be weirder for him to not feel cautious in this area, where even Dragons would tremble.

“Heuk! Is that the root of the curse?”

Ssriel gasped, drawing in breath, shocked from the site before him.

There was blood.

Lots of blood.

It lay all around, dying the ground in its dark red dye. In the middle of it, there were bones.

White bones, that were releasing the same dark fumes, except this being much thicker than the one’s surrounding the area. It had the aura of killing anything that touched it. Some blonde hair could be seen in the midst of all the torn flesh.

They walked closer to the mangled corpse, minding their surroundings. Itsuki held in his desire to puke from the sight. The draconian were calm, as to be expected from experts trained by Albion, but even they felt a bit intimidated by the cursed atmosphere.

It was a woman.

That much was obvious. The long hair already hinted at her gender, but her hourglass like figure, for she was well endowed, made it obvious.

Ssral bent down, and examined the mangled corpse.

“Hm… A monster? The neck was bitten into, quite forcefully. No, it seems to be humanoid. The teeth are more humanoid like. It crushed the larynx, taking away her breath. Well, that’s not a matter anyways.”

Even Itsuki could tell that much. The woman’s head was squeezed, and the top was cracked like a broken fruit. The eyes, were no more than bloody holes, and the body was ravaged.

The fumes from the body kept trying to eat away at Ssral’s guard, but to no avail. The barrier was quite sturdy, so much so that even such a strong curse was rendered useless.

“These gashes on the flesh, they seem to be… from human hands? But some of these were made from something else, and these are cursed, without a doubt. Her hand was torn away, and chewed on”

He said, gesturing at the tattered branch like thing that was at quite a distance.

“Is this the demon we were supposed to kill? Pegasus?”

Itsuki, questioned, doubt welling up in him. If the boss was already killed, and the kill created such a strong curse, then what kind of monster would the cause be?

“Hm.. Her ‘features’ match the description, to an extent.”

True, for a corpse in such a condition, it would be a surprise for him to confirm it.

“But ,that would be the case, if the body was real”

What?!

************************

A cloaked figure stared back at the group of three who were examining the cause of the curse. But it was sure, that in a short amount of time, they would figure out the true nature of the ‘corpse’.

It began moving, the cloak it wore fluttering as it moved heading east, to where the Cradle was.

It had been by pure chance that the person had heard about Pegasus appearing here, when it was at the Kingdom, bored by the daily life at the palace. The moment the news reached the ears of the person, about the appearance of the demon, he/she had already left, intrigued and excited.

The figure moved across the forest, following the trail. The trail was not something a normal human, or beastkin could see, the mana trail. The cause of the curse had moved this way, with the person that fought her. Were they in cahoots, or did she kidnap him, was unknown.

The figure had kept following the hero’s party, since it was best to keep at a distance, and intrude when necessary.

But now, it had sensed a huge group of enemies approaching, right from where the Cradle was supposed to be. The figure decided to eliminate them, so that the heroes didn’t need to face them.

As the force of a 200 demons, a formidable unit marched out of the woods, they were met with an unexpected figure.

A person stood before them, a huge cloak fluttering behind them. The person stood there, arms crossed as if waiting for them. The demons raised their guards, with their hands at the hilt of their weapons, ready to strike down this possible enemy.

The commander of the demons, Sir Ichirok stepped forwards, wary of the stranger.

“Who might you be, stranger? What is you-“

It occurred in a flash, that the group was not able to comprehend it.

Their commander, a valiant person who had lived and breathed in battle, was dead.

His headless corpse flopped to the ground, and they turned their eyes towards the stranger.

There was something at his foot. Their commander’s head, frozen with an expression as if he were about to speak something.

Pure terror captured them. It crawled up their spines, and every instinct told them to run from this, this monster. That they would never survive.

Yet they stood their ground, not because they were brave, but simply because they couldn’t. Because the figure had released their killing intent.

A raw killing intent, like that of an animal waiting to eat them up. They could almost see their surroundings warping, their visions fading. The stranger had completely overpowered them, merely with his presence.

And finally, the figure stepped forward.

An absolute massacre.

Those were the most apt words to describe what surrounded the stranger. A graveyard, splattered with blood. A horde of corpses surrounded the person, and they stood unmoving, brushing the blood off of its clothes.

Every face, every head that could be seen was warped with terror, with misery. At the powerlessness before such a foe. Calling them inferior to it would be an exaggeration, for the person was in a completely different world from them.

“Tch, I should clean this up before the hero comes around”

The stranger had wiped out the forces from the Cradle, a formidable force with enough strength to war with an army ten times its size, within 10 minutes.

************************