The end of the wasteland was not a cliff, but an invisible yet strikingly clear boundary. It was as if an enormous spectral axe had cleaved the still-breathing world (even if barely clinging to life) from complete distortion. One moment underfoot lay parched, cracked earth scattered with withered yellow weeds, the air thick with grit and desert winds; the next step into the shadowed forest edge transformed everything.
The air abruptly turned viscous and clammy, carrying an indescribable stench blending rot with nauseating sweetness. Each breath felt like phantom maggots squirming in lungs. Light itself warped here - even noon sunlight filtering through grotesque canopies became sickly gray-green stains upon equally unnatural terrain.
"By the celestial host..." Leon muttered, fighting nausea. He'd never imagined the legendary Corrupted Forest's edge would present such... infernal spectacle.
The sight shook even steadfast souls. The ground showed bruise-like black-purple hues, spongy like rotting flesh. Trees contorted unnaturally, trunks oozing luminous black sap from pustules. Branches writhed like spasming limbs, metallic gray leaves edged razor-sharp. Python-thick vines coiled trunks, blooming flowers with petal-layered eyes emitting a sinister glow.
More horrifying were woodland remnants. A half-petrified deer carcass - front half stone-gray, rear putrid with black ichor feeding fungal tendrils. Nearby lay a massive avian skeleton with violet-tinged bones, and hollow sockets faintly glowing as if still watching intruders.
"This... is the Corrupted Forest?" Leon's throat tightened around his sword hilt. Meteor visions had fueled his urgency for Falling Star City, but now he grasped their true peril.
Selene stood motionless, ice-blue eyes mirroring the distortion. Her gloved finger touched a metallic leaf, registering its cold sliminess. The corruption here pulsed stronger, more virulent than any she'd sensed. Her star-fragment heartstone throbbed - repelled yet drawn to this dark polarity.
Karian Ironanvil's face hardened with visceral disgust. His spit sizzled on corrupted soil. "Bah! This cesspit curdles guts worse than dwarven rotgut." He adjusted his battle-axe, its edge glinting cold defiance.
"Watch your footing," the dwarf growled. "Even dirt kills here. Avoid glowing things. Ignore the whispers."
Leon then noticed it - faint buzzing whispers permeating his skull, malicious susurrations prodding primal fears. Only through fierce concentration could he block them, yet gooseflesh rose unbidden.
They advanced cautiously. Karian led with axe-cleared paths. Selene followed her heightened senses detecting invisible threats, occasionally scattering ash powder to mute the whispers. Leon guarded the rear, blade ever-ready.
Half an hour deeper, the forest grew more grotesque. They passed half-rotted, half-petrified humanoid remains frozen in agonized contortions. The cloying stench intensified.
Suddenly Karian halted, axe raised. "Contact! Combat stance!"
Grey shapes burst from twisted foliage - wolf-like but wrong. Patchy fur revealed raw crimson flesh veined with squirming black moss. Milky eyes stared pupil-less from jaws unhinged impossibly wide. They moved with jerky, relentless fury.
"Corrupted wolves," Selene warned coldly. "Bites transmit taint."
Combat erupted. Leon's sword pierced a wolf's chest to no effect - black ooze seeped as wounds regenerated. "Aim for heads! Spines!" Karian roared, crushing limbs with his axe. Even crippled, the beasts kept attacking.
Selene danced through battle, daggers finding eye sockets and vertebrae. Yet killing each wolf required multiple precise strikes.
"Damned things won't die!" Leon kicked off an ankle-biter, his arm stinging where claws grazed. Icy tendrils probed the contact point.
Karian suddenly planted a rune-carved stone, chanting guttural syllables. A golden halo pulsed outward. Wolves within faltered, their corruption recoiling. "Now! Finish them!"
Seizing the advantage, Leon and Selene dispatched the pack. The runestone dimmed as the last wolf fell.
"Dwarven craft," Karian explained, wiping sweat. "Purification rune - suppresses minor corruption. Useless against real threats."
As they regrouped, faint weeping echoed through trees. "Help... please..."
Following a cautious investigation, they found refugees - eight malnourished souls huddled together. A woman clutched an unconscious child. Their initial terror softened to fragile hope upon seeing Leon's group.
"You... live?" croaked their elder.
"Travelers," Leon answered. "What happened?"
"Escaped... from inside..." The elder trembled. "Monsters... trees alive... bitten become monsters..."
A younger man interjected, face claw-ravaged: "My husband... dragged by twisted stags... eyes turned black..." The refugees' fragmented tales painted hellscape visions - corrupted ecosystems, loved ones transformed.
"We logged these woods generations..." The elder lamented. "Divine punishment..."
Leon's jaw tightened. This was no punishment - it was an all-consuming catastrophe.
Suddenly the wounded youth noticed Karian. "A dwarf! I've seen your kin at Stoneheart Fortress! They said... it fell..."
Karian froze. The name burned through him like a branding iron.
"Stoneheart..." The dwarf's voice cracked. "Was my home."
All fell silent but the forest's whispers.
"As he said," Karian continued hoarsely, "consumed. My clan... siblings... king... dead or... transformed." His white-knuckled grip creaked the axe haft. "That's why I wonder. Why I'll find a way to smash these void-spawned filth back to their grandmother's womb!"
He turned abruptly, marching deeper into darkness. His broad back bore newfound weight - each step crushing past ashes, striding toward thorn-veiled destiny.
Leon and Selene followed silently. Corrupted whispers intensified, Karian's shadow merging with the forest's own gloom, draping their journey in somber resolve.
The corrupted boundary lay far behind. Ahead waited for deeper darkness, unimaginable horrors.