The silhouettes of towering trees writhed in the toxic mist like creatures spawned from the depths of nightmare.
They were not trees.
They were ancient wills twisted by corruption—the very malignant heartbeat of this "Heart of Venom."
Two points of ghostly green fire, like eyes peering from the abyss, fixated on them.
The air froze, thick and viscous as swamp mud.
Raine felt every contraction of his lungs punctured by poisoned needles; the agony of Starlight backlash amplified tenfold by this filth, his mind flickering on the edge of darkness.
"By the forge's beard…" Karrion's hoarse voice gritted between clenched teeth as he gripped his runed warhammer.
"This thing… far stronger than the texts describe!"
His stocky frame shielded Raine and Thalia, every muscle coiled like granite.
The runic glow on his armor had dimmed; lower-tier wards flickered, crackling as they neared collapse.
Thalia braced Raine's arm, her fingertips ice-cold.
Her face, pale as death beneath her hood, lips a lifeless line—no trace of color.
He could feel her body trembling, not merely from fear but from an intense internal struggle.
The Corrupted Tree Spirit stirred.
No roar, no hiss—only the sickening sound of wood fibers grinding and twisting.
Those arm-like branches slowly lifted, their poison-tipped ends flickering with dark green malice, pointing straight at them.
The ground surged, thick roots like awakened serpents ripping through the flesh-like soil, sealing off their only escape—the narrow stone stair they had descended.
The great maw at the trunk's heart, slick with viscous saliva, yawned open.
A fetid gale blasted forth, carrying a soul-freezing chill.
"Run!" Karrion bellowed, his voice echoing through the cavern.
He made no attempt to stand and fight—they were nowhere near strong enough.
With a powerful swing of his hammer, Karrion shattered a tangle of grotesque fungi and vines to one side, rune-etched energies bursting in a harsh crackle as a corridor was forcibly cleared.
"This way—hurry!"
Thalia practically dragged Raine behind her.
Raine's legs felt leaden; each step drained what little strength remained.
His left arm throbbed, as though molten rock flowed through his veins.
Behind them, the Tree Spirit struck.
Dozens of spear-like roots exploded into the newly cleared path, slamming into the spot they'd just abandoned.
Corrupted mud splattered everywhere, and the roots, relentless as vipers, lunged for Raine's back.
"Watch out!" Thalia shoved Raine aside.
She twisted her body with impossible grace as dark tendrils of shadow unfurled from beneath her cloak, ensnaring the oncoming roots.
The collision hissed with corrosive fury; the roots slowed, but the shadow thinned.
Thalia gasped, staggering for a moment.
"Well done!" Karrion roared, hammer swinging in sweeping arcs to clear a path.
His lantern beam cut through the chaos—revealing sickly green ooze seeping from the walls, and now and then bulging pustules erupted, spewing poisonous spores.
Everything here radiated malice.
Not only the Tree Spirit but the very cavern itself fought to consume them.
"Up ahead! An opening!" Karrion's voice rang with sudden hope.
His lantern lit upon a barely visible fissure low in the rocky wall—wide enough for one.
The Tree Spirit's attack surged again—poisoned branches raining down like deadly arrows.
Acidic drips hissed as they burned pits into the floor.
"I'll cover you—go!" Karrion shouted, planting his hammer in the ground to raise a trembling, rune-lit shield. Though dimming, it deflected the first volley.
"Go!" he urged, voice urgent.
Thalia wasted no time, hauling Raine through the narrow gap.
Raine glanced back—only to see Karrion's squat frame, shield raised, holding back the storm of roots and thorns.
Inside the fissure, a tighter, downward-sloping corridor awaited.
Cold, damp, the air choking with mold and earth stench.
Thalia half-carried, half-dragged Raine down the passage, her breath ragged—evidence of the shadow magic she'd just expended.
"Karrion…" Raine rasped.
"He'll follow," Thalia said with quiet certainty.
Dwarves did not fall easily.
The corridor ended in a small natural chamber.
Though no fresher air reached them, it was still a few degrees less abhorrent than the Heart itself.
Thalia released Raine; he slid to the floor, every breath lancing him with pain.
He looked to the entrance as Karrion stumbled out moments later, battered and bleeding—roots impaled his shoulder, runes extinguished.
"Nearly became fertilizer," Karrion spat, plopping down to tend his wound.
He rifled out stout tools and salves, working with grim efficiency, sweat beading on his brow.
The chamber fell silent save for three labored breaths and the scrape of Karrion's bandages.
Outside, the Tree Spirit's muffled, thunderous blows shook the stone.
"We're safe… for now?" Raine managed, voice hollow.
Karrion glowered. "For now. These walls… something about this rock seems to block corruption. That thing can't get in."
"But we can't linger. We must escape the Heart of Venom."
Raine glanced at Thalia.
She still leaned against the wall, trembling.
Even through her cloak, Raine saw a faint, unstable glow at her chest—something within her pulsed, battling the vile corruption outside.
Raine struggled to his feet; every joint felt ready to collapse.
His visions remained suppressed—his mind a fog of dread, fragments of twisted shadow and his sister's once–familiar face mocking him.
"Don't move," Thalia ordered, crouching beside him and lifting a gloved hand as if to check his pulse.
But before she could touch him, Raine's precognitive sense flared—a cold, viscous danger from behind.
"Watch out!" Raine lunged, shoving Thalia free.
Above them, an inconspicuous crack in the chamber wall widened.
Dark green, slimy shadow-vines shot forth like vipers, aiming directly for Thalia!
This assault did not come from the Tree Spirit but from the chamber itself—a final trap in this cursed forest.
The very walls conspired to devour them.
Thalia reacted instantly, toppling backward as she slashed out shadow-blades.
Roots hissed as they met the ethereal steel-like shadows.
Karrion roared, hammer smashing into the advancing tendrils.
Chaos erupted once more—poisonous vines, corrosive drips, crackling runic energy.
Raine tried to assist but found himself too weak even to stand.
He watched in helpless dread as his comrades battled on.
The Heart of Venom's whispers were no illusion.
They lurked in every crevice, waiting to consume any who dared enter.
They had escaped the Tree Spirit's maw only to fall into another layer of the forest's malice.
Ahead lay ever deeper darkness—and possibly the gateway to Dreadfall—or a deadlier abyss.
Behind, the insatiable corruption.
There was nowhere left to run.
The only choice: brace themselves, steel their wills, and press onward into the forest's poisoned heart—where destiny, dread, and the price of survival awaited in grim embrace.