They trembled instantly.
Shadowed forms quivered in naked anxiety, their silhouettes shaking as though existence itself had turned hostile. Above, the dragons descended in slow, dreadful arcs. Their colossal wings unfolded, blotting out the sun, tearing light from the sky. Darkness cascaded downward like a tide. Even they trembled; those sky-born tyrants, lowering their massive heads in submission.
The beasts followed.
One by one, then all at once, they knelt.
Claws pressed into soil. Knees struck stone. Even the leader bent, his posture collapsing into reverence.
"Lord of the Forest," the shadowed figure said, voice tight with awe and fear, "it is with the favour of Grace and Fate that I am pleased to meet one such as you."He lowered his head further."Please excuse our earlier behaviour."
A breath passed.
"We thank you for liberating us from the hands of Resues."
"No worries," Veldra replied calmly, stepping closer, his presence alone forcing the air to still. "But now you have to explain to me what is happening here."
"Our king is corrupted."
"Corrupted?" Veldra asked.
"Yes. Our king suffers from corruption. And he likely signed a pact with it."
"But why would he sign a pact with the corruption if he calls me the corruption?"
"No," the beast answered carefully. "You are the corruption. But the corruption Resues signed a pact with… was another corruption."
Silence fell like a blade.
"What?" Veldra said. "How on earth am I the corruption?"
He raised an eyebrow, genuinely confused, and turned his head toward Amon and Lucien, but neither spoke.
Silence was the only answer.
"I do not know, Lord of the Forest," the beast said, voice trembling, "but I sense something from you; something beyond this world. Beyond everything I have seen, heard, known, or been for centuries."
He hesitated, then continued.
"But there is an answer I can give you, my Lord."
"And what's that?" Veldra asked.
"You are an anomaly."
"How?" Veldra asked.
The beast shook violently now, panic rippling through him as though he had crossed an unseen taboo.
"I...I do not know!"
Veldra studied him for a moment, then waved the fear away with indifference." Alright. That's fine. Every truth reveals itself at the right moment."
He paused.
"Now answer this. Why did Resues seek a pact with corruption, and what is corruption?"
The beast steadied himself, forcing the words out.
"A corruption is not an entity, nor a being. It is a force of existence; its sole purpose is to unravel existence itself. To unravel everything around it."
The beasts around them shuddered.
"Corruptions are ranked. From Grade Nine, the weakest, to Grade Zero, the absolute end."
"I do not know why our king chose to form a pact, nor which corruption he answered to. But I remember him a month ago."
The beast's voice dropped.
"He summoned me. He was trembling. Black veins had spread across his face. He begged for help, for a way to end his misery. But there was none."
"He called me again days later. The veins had spread across almost his entire body. His eyes were black. His being was etched in darkness. He asked me what was happening."
"There was only one answer."
"A corruption had found him."
"When he fled, he left his wife and child. The corruption followed. It spread to us."
He gestured to the kneeling figures, the warped bodies, the shadowed flesh.
"That is why we look like this."
His voice cracked.
"We killed the child and the mother… because we believed our king had used them to bring disaster upon us."
A deep, crushing silence followed.
"When our king returned with you," the beast continued, "I noticed something strange. The corruption had disappeared."
He lifted his head slowly.
"But another corruption had taken its place."
"And what is that corruption?" Veldra asked.
"I do not know, my Lord," the beast said softly. "But it was far stronger than the previous one."
"Hm. And what about you, Amon, what do you have to say about this?" Veldra asked, turning his head.
Amon stepped forward, his presence quiet yet deliberate, as though each step carried weight unseen.
"I believe Aros was also part of this," he said. "He, too, corrupted us. Perhaps he was the corruption's vessel, or perhaps he signed a pact with it."
"Why would Aros become a vessel?" Veldra replied, his tone measured. "It makes sense for him to have signed a pact, but becoming the vessel itself is another matter entirely."
"Aros was the Lord of Mind and Illusions," Amon answered calmly. "If a corruption sought a vessel, it would choose one with affinity toward entropy, toward distortion, toward the mind. And illusion is the easiest door through which corruption enters."
His gaze hardened.
"Aros was suitable."
Veldra fell silent, assembling the fragments in his thoughts. "So you're saying Aros was a vessel, and that is why he was able to influence the minds of the elves so deeply?"
"Exactly."
"And Resues," Veldra continued, "may have signed a pact with the very same corruption that chose Aros as its vessel."
"That is the most likely explanation."
"But since I killed Aros," Veldra said slowly, "does that mean I killed the corruption as well?"
Amon shook his head. "A vessel can be destroyed. A corruption cannot. If the body dies, the corruption abandons it. Only when the corruption itself is erased does the cycle end. There is no return from that."
Another silence settled, heavy and suffocating.
"One more thing," Veldra said at last. "This corruption, does it reside within the forest?"
"No," Amon replied. "It exists in another dimension entirely. The laws of this world prevent it from descending directly."
"Understood."
Veldra did not press further. Whatever lingered beyond the world was not something to be discussed openly, not yet.
He turned back to the kneeling beasts.
"Stand up," Veldra said.
The command carried no force, yet the air itself seemed to obey. Shadows rippled. The trembling eased.
"You no longer suffer from corruption. Whether you remain in this form, return to your old one, or choose an entirely new existence, that choice is up to you."
Confusion rippled through the gathered beasts.
"What do you mean we no longer suffer from the corrup-"
"Don't worry about it," Veldra interrupted gently.
His gaze drifted past them, toward something none of them could see.
Some truths were not meant to be understood immediately. Some things were already over long before anyone realised they had begun.
And some anomalies did not need explanations at all.