The black, viscous goo was like a solidified nightmare, easily shattered by Karrion's warhammer.
The hammer's head crushed through what appeared to be a blood-crusted, dried scab on the rocks, revealing a narrow crack beneath.
A more intense and suffocating stench of decay surged from the crack, accompanied by a bone-chilling coldness.
"This is it," Raine's voice rasped, each word pulling at the burning pain in his lungs.
He leaned against Karrion's sturdy arm, feeling as though his bones were about to shatter.
The aftermath of the Starlight backlash felt like thousands of tiny ice needles piercing his veins.
Karrion furrowed his brow, his short, strong frame blocking the crack.
He cautiously tested with the end of his warhammer, confirming there were no immediate traps.
"Ready?" he turned to look at Thalia.
Thalia nodded slightly, her face beneath the hood as pale as paper.
She grasped a twisted tree trunk, her fingers tightening to the point where her knuckles turned white.
Her breathing was shallow, though carefully suppressed.
"I'll go first," Karrion said without hesitation.
He crouched low and squeezed through the crack, his heavy footsteps quickly vanishing into the echo below.
Moments later, his muffled voice came from below, "It's safe! Come down! Not much space, so be careful!"
Thalia took a deep breath and followed.
Her movements remained graceful, but Raine noticed a brief stiffness in her body as she descended the crack.
Now it was Raine's turn.
Karrion extended his arm from below, ready to pull him up.
Raine shook his head, gritting his teeth, and struggled to move his weakened body.
Each movement sent sharp pain through his limbs, as if his body were a worn-out doll, threatening to fall apart.
The crack led to a set of steep stone stairs.
The stairs were rough and etched with ancient runes, just as Raine had seen in his premonition.
Most of the runes were dull, but some, eroded by shadows, flickered with dangerous ghostly green or purple light.
The air was damp and cold, filled with a strong smell of mold and an even deeper layer of corruption.
The stairs were steep, barely wide enough for one person to pass at a time.
Karrion led the way, his lantern casting a flickering light, illuminating only a limited stretch ahead.
Thalia followed close behind, and Raine came last.
He was almost half-relying on the stone wall as he moved, each step a painful struggle.
His left arm, still seared by the Starlight, felt like a branding iron.
"This damned place... where does it lead?" Raine asked, his voice echoing hollowly in the narrow passage.
"I don't know," Karrion's voice came from below, tense.
"But it's definitely not a good place. These runes... they're ancient, Starborn, but they've been heavily tainted."
He paused, the light from his lantern reflecting off a particularly warped rune.
"Feels like... some abandoned or overrun stronghold."
Thalia remained silent, walking steadily.
Raine noticed that she occasionally lifted her hand to her chest, a subtle gesture, but it carried an unmistakable pain.
The descent continued for what felt like an eternity.
The air grew thicker, almost like walking through thin mud.
The stench of decay intensified, now carrying a nauseating sweetness, making each breath more painful.
Dark green, viscous liquid began to seep from the walls of the staircase, oozing out like infected pus from the stone.
Finally, ahead, the darkness seemed to change.
It wasn't pure black anymore, but had a sickly, faint glow.
Karrion halted.
"Up ahead... looks like we're at the end."
They carefully stepped out of the narrow stairway.
Before them opened up into a vast, cavernous space, and the sight made all three of them draw in a sharp breath.
They stood at the edge of a massive, open underground chamber.
Rather than a cavern, it was more like the interior of a gigantic, rotting organism.
The ground was no longer stone, but a fleshy, goo-covered material that quivered with each step.
The air was thick with a faint, pale green toxic mist, floating like a veil that slowly drifted.
Each breath felt like a thousand tiny needles piercing the lungs, causing a searing pain.
The "walls" of the cavern were covered in twisted structures resembling veins and connective tissue, pulsing faintly.
Strange, deformed plants grew from the fleshy ground and walls, lacking leaves, but with twisted, tentacle-like branches.
At their tips were pale or dark purple flowers that exuded a foul stench.
A murky, dark green river flowed from deeper within the cavern, bubbling with some unknown corrupt liquid.
"By the stars..." Karrion's voice was filled with disbelief.
He instinctively raised his warhammer, his face as close to fear as Raine had ever seen from the usually fearless dwarf.
"This place... this place is..."
"The Heart of Venom," Thalia's voice came softly, heavy with a sense of fate.
She seemed to have expected this kind of sight.
"The most corrupted core of the Corrupted Forest. Legend says... it's where a drop of the ancient god's Void-throat venom fell."
Raine's stomach churned.
He fought to suppress the urge to vomit as he scanned the surroundings.
The corruption here was far denser than anywhere else in the forest, nearly solidified into a physical form.
It was no longer an invisible corruption, but a living, malicious entity.
An invisible pressure weighed down on them.
It felt as if countless eyes were watching from behind the mist, countless invisible tendrils wriggling in the air, trying to burrow into their bodies and drain their life force.
Raine felt his Starlight power melting like snow under the scorching sun, rapidly evaporating.
The backlash pain intensified tenfold, and his consciousness began to blur, his vision turning black at the edges.
Thalia's condition wasn't much better.
She clutched her chest tightly, her body trembling faintly.
Under the shadow of her hood, her lips had lost their color, and beads of cold sweat dotted her forehead.
The shards of her Star core seemed to be reacting violently to the area, rapidly draining her life force in an attempt to resist the external corruption.
Even Karrion, usually the epitome of resilience, seemed affected.
The glow from his rune armor dimmed, and lower-tier protective runes began to flicker, crackling before finally extinguishing.
"Damn it!" Karrion growled, stomping on the fleshy ground beneath.
"The corruption energy here is too strong! My runes can't hold much longer!"
He quickly retrieved some spare rune stones from his bag, his hands trembling.
"We… we have to leave this place..." Raine managed to speak, his lungs feeling as if filled with poison.
Each breath felt like a knife cutting into him.
"Leave? Where to?" Karrion looked around, his face filled with impatience.
"We just came down the only path! What the hell's ahead?"
His lantern's light stretched out toward the dark depths of the cavern.
Beyond the dense mist and twisted plants, a massive, vague silhouette began to emerge.
It appeared to be a giant archway, made of some bone-like material and twisted vines.
Beyond it, there was even deeper darkness, like it led to another world.
But the arch wasn't still.
It seemed to be... breathing?
With a deep, grinding sound like a millstone, the mist in the area was disturbed.
A massive, terrifying figure slowly began to emerge from the shadows.
It was a tree?
Or rather, it had been a tree.
Its trunk was enormous but decayed and twisted, its bark resembling burnt corpses, covered in boils and holes leaking viscous liquid.
Countless thick, spear-like roots rose from the ground, deeply embedded into the "fleshy" earth, drawing the corrupt energy.
Its branches didn't grow upward but hung down like twisted arms, covered in broken bones and dried flesh.
At the center of the trunk, there was no tree ring but a huge, gaping mouth, constantly opening and closing, dripping with viscous saliva.
Within the gaping hole, two points of ghostly green flame burned, like malicious eyes.
The Corrupted Ancient Tree Spirit!
The name flashed in Raine's mind.
He had read about these terrifying creatures in his family's ancient texts.
They were the ancient forest guardians, but after being corrupted by shadows, they became monsters that only knew how to devour and destroy.
The one before them radiated a pressure and malice far beyond any description in the texts.
The Corrupted Tree Spirit seemed to sense their presence.
Its two ghostly green flames shifted toward them, and a cold, murderous intent immediately locked onto the three of them.
The air around them seemed to freeze.
The twisted plants stopped swaying, emitting a faint, fearful hiss.
The ground beneath their feet trembled slightly.
"It… it guards that gate..." Thalia's voice trembled slightly.
Karrion gripped his warhammer tightly, his short, stocky frame shielding Raine and Thalia.
"Damn it... I knew it wouldn't be that easy!" He spat.
"This is bad!"
The Corrupted Tree Spirit didn't make any sound, but its movements spoke volumes.
Its branch-like arms began to slowly rise, pointing directly at them.
The sharp tips of the branches flickered with ghostly green poison.
The massive roots on the ground began to writhe like giant serpents, blocking their path of retreat.
The mouth in the center of the trunk slowly opened, revealing rows of wooden teeth, exuding a nauseating stench.
A warning?
No, this was more like... the stance of a hunter preparing to strike.
Raine felt a wave of despair.
In his current condition, he was barely able to stand, let alone fight.
Thalia was on the verge of collapse.
Karrion was full of spirit, but his runic protections were weakening against such a powerful corrupted creature...
They were trapped at the edge of the Heart of Venom.
Ahead lay a terrifying guardian and the unknown dark gateway.
Behind, the relentless corruption devoured their life force, and there was no way back.
Every second spent here drained their vitality.
What should they do next?
Should they make a desperate dash, trying to break through the Corrupted Tree Spirit's defenses?
Or... find another way?
But in this dead-end, was there another route to take?
Raine's gaze shifted from Thalia's pale face to Karrion's tense back.
He gripped the handle of his still-inactive Starfire Blade.
The cold metal didn't dissipate the chill in his heart.
The challenges ahead were far greater than anything they had ever imagined.
Their choices now would decide their fate, and whether they could uncover the truth shrouded in layers of mist.
And at this moment, the scythe of death was already hanging over their heads.