The sun dipped low behind the jagged horizon as Kael and Rei moved cautiously through the twisted trees of the Rot Path. The air was thick and heavy, carrying a faint scent of decay that clung to their skin like a shadow. Every step they took seemed to press deeper into the heart of something ancient and broken.
Kael's eyes scanned the blackened veins snaking across the ground and climbing the gnarled trunks. "What happened here?" His voice was barely more than a whisper, swallowed by the eerie silence.
Rei glanced sideways, her expression tight. "This place wasn't always like this. Before the Vein Wars, this was fertile land quiet villages, traders moving freely. But then the core was found, and everything changed."
Kael frowned, stepping over a twisted root pulsing faintly with dark energy. "The core?"
She nodded, her gaze distant. "The Veinfire core the source of all that power, and all this ruin. The greed for it tore the land apart. Battles raged for years, and what's left is this… Rot Path."
A chill crept along Kael's spine as he looked around. The trees, once towering and proud, now writhed in unnatural shapes, their bark cracked and blackened. Strange shadows flickered at the edges of his vision, vanishing when he turned to look.
"It's like the land itself is sick," Kael said, swallowing hard.
Rei's voice lowered. "It is. The black veins you see they pulse with decaying energy, spreading corruption like a disease. Creatures born from the blight lurk here. They're not just monsters they're twisted minds and broken souls."
Kael clenched his fists, feeling the weight of the Veinfire core at his side. It throbbed faintly, a heartbeat out of sync with his own. "And the voices? Sometimes I hear whispers when I'm alone."
Rei's eyes narrowed. "The Rot Path plays tricks on your mind. Whispers of regret, fear, memories you thought buried. It feeds on your soul as much as your body."
Kael exhaled slowly, trying to steady the storm inside him. He had always known this journey would be dangerous, but the reality was far worse than he imagined.
"Keep your guard up," Rei said, her hand resting on the hilt of her blade. "This place tests everything."
A sudden rustle echoed nearby. Both froze. From the shadows, a pack of Feral Veinborn emerged creatures warped by the Rot Path's corruption. Their eyes glowed with feral hunger as they advanced.
Kael's heart pounded. The time for talk was over.
Kael took a slow step back as the Feral Veinborn crept into view. Their limbs were too long, too bent, like someone had taken the idea of a man and twisted it into something hungry. Veins of black fire ran beneath their cracked gray skin, pulsing in time with the Rot Path's sick heartbeat.
"There's three," Kael muttered, his voice low.
"Four," Rei corrected. "One's behind that stump."
Kael's hand hovered over the Veinfire core strapped to his side. He felt it pulse, not in alarm but anticipation. Like it wanted out.
"No," Rei snapped, reading his hesitation. "Not yet. You don't control it."
Kael swallowed. "Then what do we do?"
Rei drew her blade. It wasn't polished or ceremonial. It was scratched, slightly nicked, and honed to a merciless edge. "We move. Quick, clean, quiet if possible."
One of the Veinborn hissed, the sound more like metal scraping bone than any real breath. It leapt first, and Rei moved before Kael could blink. Her blade sang as it sliced the thing mid-air, landing cleanly in the dirt with a thud.
Kael barely had time to process before the second charged him. He ducked low, grabbed a thick stick from the ground, and swung wildly. The creature stumbled but didn't fall.
"Rei" he shouted, just as she spun and drove her dagger through its chest. It screeched, twitching violently, before crumpling beside him.
Kael looked down at the twitching corpse, breath ragged. "Why aren't they burning up or bleeding?"
"They don't die like us," Rei said. "They rot and keep going until the core leaves them nothing."
The third lunged at her, and this time Kael reacted. He stepped forward and slammed the stick against its leg, knocking it off balance just long enough for Rei to sweep it down and finish it.
The last one didn't attack. It stood at the edge of the path, head twitching unnaturally to the side. Its eyes locked on Kael not Rei, not both of them only Kael.
"What's it doing?" he asked.
Rei didn't answer.
The creature took a single step forward. Kael felt the core at his side shudder. It wasn't reacting to danger. It was reaching.
"I think it knows," he whispered.
"Move," Rei barked. "Now."
Kael didn't argue. They backed away slowly. The Veinborn didn't follow. It just watched, head tilted, like it was listening to something Kael couldn't hear.
They moved deeper into the Rot Path, faster now, cutting through underbrush and ducking beneath warped branches that dripped sap like black oil. The silence returned, but it felt wrong like the forest was holding its breath.
Minutes passed before either of them spoke.
"That last one," Kael said, "it knew I had the core."
"It's drawn to it," Rei muttered. "Everything in this place is. That core pulses with the same energy that's poisoning this land. But yours isn't wild. It's pure. Unclaimed. That makes it… interesting."
Kael stared at the dirt beneath his feet. Black veins shimmered just beneath the surface, like a second bloodstream. "You said this place was once alive. What happened to the people?"
"Some fled," Rei said. "Most stayed. Fought. Lost. Some became like those things. Not all transformations are fast. Some take years. A slow decay. Like dying with your eyes open."
Kael shivered.
"This path leads to the Hollows," Rei continued. "The rot is thickest there. It's where the Veins converge where this corruption started. If we're going to learn how to control your power, that's where we go."
Kael didn't answer. The core thrummed against his side again, faint and curious.
He looked up at the trees above. They didn't move with the wind. They didn't move at all. Frozen in twisted agony, as if reaching for something long gone.
"We're going into the heart of all this," he said quietly.
Rei's tone was cold but firm. "No choice now."
And with that, they kept walking. The whispers of the Rot Path crept in behind them once more.