Drip-Fed

“A final service? To us and the world? A last favour?” The Jitter swayed side to side as he contemplated the question the party had just posed. “Lord of Discord mine, Fabian, will hear of your goodness, yes. You are strong enough. I can ask you without strengthening the Parasytes.”

“Ya can stop with the winding demon speech and just give it to us straight,” Reysha remarked.

“Blessedly, I cannot, my thoughts wind around, different from yours, unsteady, leaping, considering things in different orders, yes.” Bulubu tapped the bottom of his maw with a freshly grown hand. The limb disappeared inside his body within a few more seconds. “When a world falls ill, when the Leaf’s veins turn black, there is always a source, a stem, near the Stem.”

“There is?” Korith asked, “Why didn’t we go there first?”

“Danger to our souls. Deep beneath the earth. Useless task alone. Part played only by mighty roles.” The Jitter’s grey-tinted skin stretched. Seven eyes blinked open. Five closed, disappearing back into the semi-liquid core of the demon. “Easy to find but difficult to find people that can kill it. Parasytes there, many, Spark Eaters too. Failure will turn you to fuel, the basis for more Black Roots. Safer and easier to rip out Black Roots. Corruption’s Stem will return, in time.”

“It won’t be a cure, just an aid only we are powerful enough to give,” Apexus translated.

“Correct, correct, correct,” Bulubu nodded thrice.

‘We have reached a level at which we can offer rare favours,’ Aclysia thought. If they were above level 40, they were impressively powerful. If they were at the cusp of level 50, then they were almost in the realm of true heroes, as far as power went. ‘In most places, we shall be an influence even more unbalancing than we were on Harbaemayim. Our will can tilt polities.’

There was no polity to influence here, only the final favour Bulubu asked for. “You will find the Corruption’s Stem at the bottom of the Dungeon closest to the Stem. Rip it out, rip it out, and we will continue our work. This Leaf shall survive many years more. The angels will have to do their job.”

“Any idea where that Dungeon is?” Apexus asked.

“Find the Stem, then turn towards the rising sun. Beneath what was a giant tree you will find the entrance.”

“Understood,” Apexus answered and looked to Aclysia, who was already readying her journal to write down the instructions. They were far from complicated, but one could never be too careful. As she did, the rest of the party took in the ravine for a final time.

The base of operations of the demons was as horrific to them now as it had been the first time. Though they had gotten somewhat used to the stench of torn, raw, rotting meat and spilt organs. Flames filled the stagnant air with heat and ash. It was a little slice of hell, created by the intersecting tastes of the creatures from the roots.

The Inevitable party would not miss working with these creatures. All the same, they had fruitfully defended their little part of the Omniverse from the only thing worse than casual cruelty: nothing at all.

“I wish you the greatest of fortune,” the leader of the party said. “May you be as swift as an inhaling axolotl and as deadly as salt to slugs.”

“Weird references those, very weird references,” Bulubu responded with a many-mouth giggle. “May chaos cross our paths again. Lord of Discord will know of your aid to his kind and your annoyance of the Empress of Blood. I shall let him know.”

They did not part as friends, but they did not part as mere allies of convenience either. If one could say to have made friendly acquaintances with a demon, then they had managed to do so with Bulubu.

____________________________________________________________________________

The journey back to the Stem was simple and dull. Aclysia had kept diligent track of where they had gone and even created a rudimentary map of the changed world. They considered climbing up the Stem quickly to report to the Church camp but decided that it could wait until they were done properly. Bringing bad news was easier done at that time.

Thus, they turned towards the rising sun and walked. It did not take them long to find the great tree that they were supposed to find.

It once must have been an impressive sight. Giant trees were a favourite of many gods to mark locations of great importance. Echoes of the Omniverse always had a calming aura to them, which made this great perversion all the more upsetting.

The reduction of this tree had advanced further than any others. Its trunk was a vertical pillar of smooth brown, the wood undone to a state that it more closely resembled stone. The branches were unnervingly symmetrical, their fractal layout broken down to a mathematical precision. Leaves no longer existed. In its entirety, it looked like a cyclopean torch the height of a small mountain.

The ground beneath it was a smooth indent. Travelling down that bowl was odd the entire way, the unnatural smoothness of the ground made every step unsteady and the slope was long indeed. Five days after departing from the demons, they stood at the entrance of the Dungeon. The once ornate entry, a stone arch surrounded by winding roots, had also been reduced. All that was left behind was a grey trim in a low-polygon up and down of brown.

“Wonder what horrific shit we’re about to see,” Reysha said. “Can’t imagine the Dungeon’s monsters haven’t been affected by the proximity to this Corruption’s Stem.“

“Yeah, but also… Shapeforms are Shapeforms. They’d just be as reduced, right?” Korith suggested. “Stronger, maybe, but still just undetailed, sharp-toothed things.”

“Most likely,” Aclysia agreed. “It is the empowered Parasytes that worry me.”

“Whatever lies ahead, we will face it together,” Apexus declared.

The trio of women loved his sincerity. Smiling at him and each other, they formed up into a battle formation. Korith took point, Apexus moved to the back, Aclysia between them and Reysha dropping into Stealth, sticking near them. It was what had worked before and what would surely work now.

It was the last preparation they could make before descending.