The army of moon beasts and their human companions continued to venture closer and closer to the Mother Tree. By now, around four hours had passed on their journey. They had yet to take a break, but Kai wasn't sure if they would be at all.
It was now he realised that maybe he should have shifted some stats into Stamina along with Strength. He was like a glass cannon right now. He would be incredibly strong for a short amount of time when he fought, but after that...
He was slowly starting to get tired, which was not a good thing. He had to be in perfect shape to even hope to survive what's to come. In fact, he doesn't even know what's to come. He knew it was a war, sure, but how would the abominations fight? They organised an air ambush on them after all, who knew what else they had planned.
So while it pained Kai to do, he spent some of his unnasigned stat point reserves.
Command received
Stamina: 10 -> 30
Some of his lethargy went away, giving him a small boost of energy, but it wasn't anything major. Still, it was enough to be noticeable.
He still had a lot more unnasigned stat points saved after all, and he knew what he was going to do with them.
They continued their march, slowly getting closer to their final destination.
Failure continued to attempt to keep the morale high. It was comforting to say the least. He gave speeches, told stories, at one point, he even sang a song that he said was popular back in his homeland. That got a few reactions from the army.
It was a lively song, one about a bard trying to seduce a maiden he met one day in a tavern, but it turned out that the maiden was actually a man in a dress that attempted to swindle money out of men who tried to seduce them.
The bard, of course, got swindled and made a song about it.
Of course, Kai had a rough idea of what homeland he was on about. Failure must have been one of the survivors of the kingdom Eye of the Moon destroyed after Princess Ethania left, but as to how Failure survived, Kai had no idea.
After all, the moon killed anything that gazed upon it without discrimination. It wasn't that implausible that a few people survived after seeing people die by looking up, but would that really be that probable? The destruction of that kingdom must have happened a long, long time ago after all.
It was a strange thing to wonder about. What would a kingdom like that have been like? Would it have been as big as a city? Maybe it could have even been the size of a small country, or even bigger.
But there was one unchangeable factor about it.
The whole kingdom was destroyed by one singular being.
And now Kai was traversing through a forest that was technically created by said being.
How times change, litteraly.
But as they got closer and closer to the Mother Tree, the eerier the area surrounding them felt.
The trees stayed the same, but the roots that would normally be hidden underground started to grow larger. They even started appearing overground. The large, wooden ligaments acting like nerves in the human body.
Each root connected one tree to another, and then that tree connected to another tree. It was like all the trees in the forest were connected by their roots.
Almost like a hivemind commanded one single organism.
But that wasn't where the eerie feeling came from, it was something else. Something hidden.
It was as if there was something beyond the confines of the forest, something forbidden.
Kai had a higher affinity to souls than probably anyone else in this tutorial, granted by Soul Sense. There could be someone with a skill that gave them an affinity to souls, but Kai had no way to know.
But there was something gnawing at him. He felt a slight shiver run up him, but it wouldn't go through his spine like a shiver normally would, it came from his chest.
It wasn't giving a warning like Strong Mind did against mind attacks, it was just like there was something telling him what it wanted.
There was something out there that wanted to devour all. To devour Kai, Umbra, Sofia, Noelle, Aldred, Failure, even the whole forest around them.
Something primal that had no limits. Kai couldn't help but swallow when that feeling attacked his soul every once in a while, but the feeling would dissapear just as quick as it appeared.
The feeling only got worse when they got closer to the Mother Tree.
At one point, Kai thought he caught a glimpse of something purple clinging to the bark of one of the trees, but when he tried to focus on it, his whole body screamed out in protest.
His soul, mind, gut, everything warned him against looking at what he thought he saw. No one else seemed to notice it, but Kai knew.
Gazing upon whatever that purple thing was meant certain death.
Kai trembled once more as they continued their march.
While everyone else was completely normal-
Well, about as normal that people going to war could be.
But while they completely normal, Kai was constantly on edge. He was terrified. He thought he knew fear after the unforseen abomination that was the Depth Dweller, but this was true fear.
Even Nonchalance wasn't helping. The now rare skill had helped Kai many times to resist the feeling of fear, but the skill was completely useful. Either the fear was all made up and in his mind...
Or that the thing he felt gnawing at him completely overpowered the skill.
The only ones who had seemed to notice something was off other than Kai was Aldred and Failure. Failure had long stopped his jokes and songs to take on a mode serious approach.
He knew something about what was ahead.
Nervously, Kai picked up the pace to catch up to Failure, who was still dutifully leading the match.
Once he was beside the charismatic man, Kai swallowed and asked:
"What is that? You feel it too, don't you?"
Those words would have sounded like a madman's if Kai said it to anyone other than Failure and maybe Aldred. Well, maybe he was mad and that feeling of primal fear in his soul was fake.
Sadly, that was not to be the case as Failure froze for a moment after hearing Kai's question. He then quickly played it off by asking.
"What do you mean? Do I feel what?"
Kai blinked.
"You know, it's up ahead. I don't know how to describe it. It's just... terrifying."
Failure looked down at Kai before sighing, a pained expression on his attractive face.
"That feeling, my dear Kai, is the border of The Corrosion of this world."
Kai felt his heart rate pick up at that revelation.
"The Corroding? You mean the thing that you said devours worlds no matter what they try and no god can stop it?"
Failure smiled darkly at those words.
"The same indeed."
The feeling of fear that even Nonchalance couldn't wash away grew even larger. They were marching towards The Corrosion. Why the hell would they do that? Was that not just certain death?
"Then why are we still going this way? Should we not fight The Demon somewhere else? Would The Corroding not-"
"Calm down, you're overreacting" Failure hushed. "The Mother Tree is on the very edge of The Corroding's grasp, you would have to venture for at least another month before you make it to the actual body of it.
But it's reach is far. Even if the main source of its power is far behind, it can still corrode a large area around it.
The Mother tree is one of those areas"
The Corroding. Something Kai only knew about from his brief conversation with Failure about it.
It was something primordial, something that's hunger could never be fulfilled. It was something that Kai could not even begun to comprehend.
"But will we be fine?"
Failure smiled softly in response.
"Obviously. The closer we get to The Mother Tree, the weaker the effects of The Corroding will get. Still, be careful not to look upon anything that you shouldn't."
After hearing that, Kai could not have been happier that he did not pick Peerless Sight back in that skill selection.
After that, Kai mentally blocked off anything other than walking. He tried to block off anything external and only focus on what was within.
The feeling in his soul was now confirmed to be coming from The Corroding, but he still had no idea what the feeling was.
So he attempted to chip away at it, to get it to dissapear. The feeling was like a plague, constantly attacking him. It had him terrified, like he was constantly being watched.
Kai didn't want to be terrified.
Still, their journey was not over yet.
Time, which already seemed to be moving slowly throughout their march, only seemed to get slower after Kai realised the true nature of the area they were heading towards.
The feeling attacking his soul did lesser slightly the more they moved forward, but it didn't go away.
Kai focused on his feet, not wanting to catch a glimpse of anything other than his boots and the grass below them.
That was how the remainder of the march played out. Kai scared out of his mind, the rest probably scared about the war but definitely not as scared as Kai, and Aldred and Failure...
Wore no expression on their faces, they were calm. They had the worst job after all, they had all the lives of the army behind them weighing on their shoulders, what could they be if not stalwart.
And finally, after what seemed like an eternity of marching, but in reality was only six hours...
They saw the Mother Tree.
