As Leor crested the top of the hill for the second time, the great star of this realmworld finally reached up over the distant horizon, above the large stretch of forest before him. The star was a prominent red, menacing and primal. A common star of a beast realm. It was a stark contrast to the gentle white light of Leor's home.
Still, the light was a welcome thing. Leor hastily snuffed out his torch and stuffed it back into his pack. Unlike real fire, the flame of will did not burn hot, so the torch was cool to the touch even now. The morning sun did a great deal to improve Leor's ability to see. The corruption was still thick, especially this high up the hillside, but the red light of the Beastial star was bright enough to cut through even the thickest layers of corruption.
Taking a deep breath, Leor stood for a moment to enjoy the warmth on his skin. While he did so, he tried to get a good look at the stretch of forest he would soon be entering. The feather had directed him straight down into the center of the thick foliage. He couldn't make out much from here, the canopy was too dense, so it was impossible to see what was happening underneath.
Feeling that he had wasted enough time, Leor made ready to set forth once again. That was when his heart sunk into the pit of his stomach. All at once, the brightened world around him seemed to grow heavy and dreadful, like a wave of pure condensed fear had swept across the defiled world. The change was so fast and powerful that it took Leor a moment to recognize the feeling for what it was. A vast and powerful willpower had just awoken along with the rising sun, somewhere behind him.
Dropping to the ground on instinct, Leor did his best to retract his own willpower to as small a profile as he could manage, then turned his increasingly pale face toward the encroaching flood of will. Having learned his lesson from his previous encounter, he refused to look directly at the source of will, instead using his peripheral vision to try to catch a glimpse of whatever dreadful being had released such a monstrous power.
The flood of overwhelming will was coming from quite far away. Dozens of miles in fact, from the very heart of the great sprawling city ruins. Leor tilted his head as he followed the feeling right up the great towering smokestack at the city center. Then, his chest tightened as if a ghostly apparition had reached right in to clasp its icy hands around his heart.
Leor beheld the gargantuan head of a great defiled dragon, rising up from the center of the smokestack.
"D-Dragon!" He quickly clasped his hand over his mouth to prevent himself from making another sound as he watched the beast crawl out of the tower. The Dragon was projecting its formidable will far and wide on purpose, like a king laying claim to his domain.
Only now did Leor realize that the tower was never a smokestack, it was a nest. The great mist of corruption that it was releasing was not coming from the tower itself, it was coming from the defiled dragon. Even now, as Leor stared in petrified terror at the massive beast, a steady stream of corrupted mist was constantly flowing out the sides of the creature's massive jaws, and from the two wide nostrils at the tip of its snout..
The defiled dragon looked both beautiful and terrible at the same time. The creature was nearly half a mile long from head to tail, filling a full half of the tower's great opening with its body. When it perched on the edge and spread its wings in the morning sun, it covered the entire peak of the tower. Its gargantuan body glistened with gorgeous green scales that shone brightly in the red morning light. It would have almost looked like a healthy dragon if not for the corruption pouring from its face, as well as the strange black web of defilement growing around one of the beast's front claws.
Dragons were considered one of the most noble creatures of the beast realms, being of the high blood rank even from birth. It was incredibly rare for a dragon to be corrupted, basically unheard of in fact, because dragons possessed both the ability to develop their willpower like a human, and the powerful body of a beast.
There were six ranks of beast bodies, just like there were six ranks of human willpower, and six ranks of defiled. For the beasts, it started with Ferals. Most wild beasts would be born at this rank. Beasts could develop their bodies by consuming the flesh of other beasts, or ingesting powerful spiritual herbs. When the flesh of a beast became powerful enough to resist a sword swung by a normal man, untrained in the will, it would be considered a Dire beast.
From there the beasts would need to overcome their low natures to evolve further. Any beast that awakened its intellect and learned to communicate as humans do would be considered a Highblood. This was why all dragons were considered Highblood from birth, born with innate intelligence and a natural affinity to the use of will. After the Highblood came the Elder beasts, then the Sovereigns, and finally the Titans. Like the higher ranks of defiled and even humans, the knowledge about such things was tightly guarded, so Leor would need to grow much stronger before he could learn about such things.
Like human willpower, the bodies of beasts could resist defilement. The more powerful they became, the harder it would be for the defilement to corrupt them. Dragons had both a powerful beastly body, and the willpower of a man. They weren't just twice as resistant to defilement though, because combined the will and body of a beast became much greater than the sum of its parts. To defeat a dragon, you would need to enlist dozens of humans of equal rank.
Leor watched in awe as the great defiled beast rose up to its full height at the top of the tower, casting a massive shadow on the city. Then, like a graceful bird of prey, the massive form of the dragon dove from its perch, diving headlong down toward the earth below, only spreading its magnificent wings when it had nearly struck the ground. A huge maelstrom of dust and debris was kicked up as the mighty beast flapped hard to push itself forward and arrest its fall. Then, spreading its wings out wide, the dragon soared across the sky at incredible speed, leaving a great cloud of corruption behind it in its wake.
Leor stayed perfectly still until the beast had disappeared over the distant horizon. Refusing to so much as take a breath until he could no longer feel the oppressive will of the creature. As soon as the coast was clear, he sat down and began to wipe the sweat from his brow with a shaky hand.
"Light above me, what in the cursed realms is going on in this place!"
Leor took a minute to calm his shattered nerves as he considered what he had just witnessed. It was clear from a glance that the dragon had fallen to the defilement. A defiled will was like a pungent odor, it would not be mistaken for anything else. But while its will had surely fallen, it almost appeared as if the great beast's body was still resisting. That should be possible, given the power of beastly bodies. After all, there were no signs of it beginning the process of becoming Twisted. It still resembled a normal dragon in form, its magnificent armor of scales appeared resplendent and pristine. There was something strange happening to the front paw of the beast though, as if a thorn of defilement had been lodged within its very flesh.
Leor began to mumble to himself as he tried to clear his doubts about the nature of the massive monster.
"It's got the body of a Highblood beast at the very least, though considering it's fully grown it's likely already an Elder, and a corrupted will more powerful than anything I've ever felt. But even so, it would still technically be classed as a simple Defiled, right? Well, I guess it would actually be a Elder-Defiled. But it's got the willpower of a human too, so would it be a Elder-Defiled-Master perhaps? No, I don't think that's right. Defiled have willpower too, but they don't get human classifications. The Defiled rank takes the place of the human rank, so even though that Dragon has such massive willpower, it's still just a Defiled because it's powerful beastly body seems to be preventing the process of defilement from continuing. If the dragon's body ever loses the fight completely, the creature would likely become a Profaned in the very next instant!"
Leor couldn't help but grimace at the thought of such a thing, a shiver of fear creeping up the back of his spine all the way to his neck.
"Light defend us…" He whispered as he tried to shake off the chilling feeling in his chest. " I cannot afford to delay. Alina might be in any manner of danger. I should just focus on the task at hand, and avoid thinking about the things that I have no power over… Like the half mile long cursed death lizard that is flying around the skies of this world."
With that, Leor set off down the far side of the hill, making his way toward the vast forest below. It was time to find Alina.