Corruption

If the map was correct, we would reach our destination shortly.

My foot sank where I stepped.

The ground had started rotting to mush.

Pulling her boots free, Finn made a face like she'd bitten into something sour.

"Ugh. My feet sink and the smell is awful. This is the worst terrain for me…"

"It would be hard to move quickly here."

We were now quite far from the barrier entrance.

Along the way, we hadn't seen a single living creature other than Mosquito Monsters.

The trees had also had their sap sucked by the Mosquito Monsters, leaving only dried-out husks here and there.

The phrase "land of death" came to mind.

There was nothing that could be called life here.

If no one intervened, how long would it take for this place to recover?

I understood why Evalin… why the elf was so wary.

This monster was pure harm, devouring everything in its path.

Even the notorious locust plagues were better than the Mosquito Monsters. At least they didn't kill the land itself.

It had been hot when we entered the barrier, but now it was cold.

I felt chilled to the bone.

Yet the sweat wouldn't stop.

My breathing was ragged too. Had I become fatigued?

"Aren't you cold?"

"No. It's a bit muggy with all the humidity… Sir, please stop. Your color is terrible."

Orleans's voice made me stop walking.

Everyone turned to look at me.

Everyone except Evalin looked alarmed.

"You're deathly pale!"

"Your breathing is heavy. Excuse me."

Elza placed her hand on my forehead and healed me.

The chill eased and I felt somewhat better.

Apparently I'd been more drained than I thought.

"I've only done first aid. When did this happen…? The detoxification miracle isn't responding."

"Let me see."

Finn moved close to my face.

She removed her gloves and stared intently at my tongue, under my eyelids, inside my mouth.

She seemed to be checking for something.

"It's definitely poison. If the cleric's miracle isn't responding, then it's not ordinary poison."

"Was it when the blood was sucked?"

"Can't think of anything else. If the air was poisoned, it wouldn't make sense that only he got affected."

Finn unwrapped the bandage on the bite wound.

It should have been thoroughly disinfected… but the skin around the wound had turned purple.

"Heat this up."

She drew a short blade and had Alexia heat it.

"This is going to hurt. Bite down on this towel."

I did as told and bit down on the towel.

I could predict what was coming from this sequence.

I closed my eyes and clenched hard.

The next moment, a searing, sharp pain shot through the bitten area.

Extremely painful.

After a sensation like flesh being carved out, a warm feeling wrapped around the wound.

Elza must have used her healing miracle.

When I opened my eyes, Finn had her mouth pressed to the wound.

She sucked the blood and spat it out.

"My tongue is tingling. You got hit with some seriously nasty poison."

"Is Finn going to be okay taking blood into her mouth?"

"I'm used to poisons. Besides, I didn't ingest it directly."

She rinsed her mouth with water and rewrapped the bandage for me.

With Elza's treatment too, I wasn't as bad off as I looked for now.

But the poison already in my system was another matter.

When I became aware of it, my body suddenly felt heavy.

"… What do you want to do? We're almost there, so I'd like to keep going."

"Unfortunately, this guy is our top priority. We're pulling back. Azu, Alexia, you agree, right?"

"Of course. That goes without saying. It's a pain, but we'll just have to try again another time."

"Let's head back. Master's life is what matters most."

"It would have been safer if you'd stayed at the cottage. Whatever. I'll go check on my own."

"Hey, wait!"

Since I could no longer move, Elza carried me on her back.

Utterly pathetic, but I accepted her kindness.

Evalin gave up on us and headed deeper in.

Letting her go alone was dangerous.

"Follow her. We should at least see what appears. And if she goes down, we'll have no options left."

"But…"

"I'll be fine. I'm feeling much better."

I wasn't lying.

And my consciousness was clear.

I persuaded the reluctant group, and we followed Evalin.

Since we'd come this far, it would be best if we could resolve this.

"… Is this a river?"

"But what's flowing in it isn't water."

A black liquid flowed where the river used to be.

Bubbles formed and popped intermittently.

This black liquid seemed to be the source of the rotting smell.

This was apparently the cause of the land's corruption.

Evalin stood further ahead.

"This is terrible corruption. Even I rarely come across something like this. Even if you piled up loads of monster corpses and left them for years, it wouldn't get this bad."

"There were plenty of monsters in this forest, but other monsters were eating the corpses properly."

"Something must have happened. I thought it was the human town, but…"

"Can you hurry up? I want to get out of here already."

"If we destroy this black liquid, it should fix things. Stand back."

Evalin raised her wooden staff toward the sky and began chanting a spell.

"After using that much magic, she still has this much power… Get further back. We'll get caught in it here."

Following Alexia's words, we retreated a good distance.

Even from far away, I could feel the aftereffects of Evalin's magic.

"She's preparing fire magic, but… the magical power she's putting in is enormous. And the spell formula is completely different from mine."

"When it comes to magic, elves are the strongest of all races."

A massive sphere of fire hovered above Evalin's head.

She dropped it directly onto the black liquid.

With the sound of water evaporating, the black liquid began boiling all at once.

Just when I thought the fire magic would settle things, the remaining black liquid engulfed the flames.

It moved as if the liquid had a will of its own.

It evaporated and shrank.

But then it stopped.

It seemed to have absorbed the fire magic.

The remaining liquid began taking shape.

What appeared was a Dryad, a spirit of the forest.

Though it had only the form. The substance was still the black liquid.

The smile on its lips was somehow terrifying.

"… So a forest spirit being corrupted was the cause."

"Just do that thing again."

"I can't. I've used up all my magical power."

"What!?"

At Finn's shout, Mosquito Monsters began pouring out of the Dryad's body en masse.

"We're running!"

At Azu's declaration, we fled the scene.