Leor took a deep breath, holding it in his lungs for a moment as he stood at the threshold of the ancient forest. At least now that he was down from the hill the corrupted mist was much thinner, allowing him to see more clearly, and lowering the suppression on his will, though he still could not manage to open a portal home.
The interior of the forest before him was dark and thick with foliage that would make it difficult to move with any measure of stealth. Still, there was little choice left. With a nod of determination, Leor released the heavy breath that he'd been holding and stepped forward, out of the light of the red Beastial sun, into the gloomy shade of the canopy.
It was a funny thing that plants were some of the only living things that had a natural immunity to the defilement. Not all of them, by any means. Any plant species with a higher willpower or mental functions would be susceptible. It was ironically the very thing that put plants at such a disadvantage against beasts and men that made them strong against defilement. Their lack of a mind was both their greatest strength and weakness at the same time.
This was welcome knowledge to anyone who was forced to step inside a forest on a defiled world, which was why Leor was repeating it to himself again and again to calm his nerves. Yet even if the trees had not been corrupted, the multitude of beasts and lesser beasts that had called this forest home certainly had. The stench of defiled will was ubiquitous in the forest. There were so many defiled beings in every direction that their wills blended together into one wide and constant feeling of threat in Leor's chest.
Thankfully most of them were incredibly weak. Defiled rabbits, squirrels, and birds did not pose much of a threat. Like all creatures, defiled had some semblance of survival instinct. Even though they typically felt the strong urge to attack and consume anyone with a willpower or beastly body, they would not do so completely suicidally. Most of the time anyway. So with any luck, the small defiled critters of the forest would leave him alone.
Just as Leor had that thought, a soft and quiet rumbling rose up from his stomach, reminding him that could not remember the last time he had eaten.
Gazing down at his own empty belly, a half grin stretched across his face. "Well, even if they decided to leave me alone, that doesn't mean that I must leave them alone in return!"
Defiled meat was no different than normal meat afterall. Even Twisted ones could be eaten, as long as you could suppress your own disgust long enough to force it down. The meat itself was not a source of corruption, after all.
Leor focused his will as he tore a path through the dense forest entrance. It was difficult to single out one creature among the constantly moving swarm of defiled wills all around him, but not impossible. Hopping over a thick patch of thorny briars, Leor took a few steps forward before turning his gaze toward the root covered earth below his feet, just at the base of a particularly large tree.
The young man pulled his sword from his sheath with all the stealth that he could muster, slowly stepping closer to a small hole among the roots. Once he was standing directly above the burrow, his thick shoulder, arm, and abdomen muscles snapped into action like a spring, driving the sharp sword down into the earthy floor.
"SQUEEEE—crunch" The blade had missed the mark, leaving a small gash in the side of the doomed creature. Thankfully, Leor was swift enough to finish the job with his boot, stomping down with all his might as the critter attempted to escape the burrow.
The tiny defiled will below him quietly extinguished, and Leor felt the gentlest spark of power fill his chest from the kill. Lifting his boot, he observed his prize with an increasing grimace on his face. The creature was a dark brown color with a single stripe of grey running down its head, back, and tail. What was more apparent though, was the awful stench being released from the crushed body.
"Some manner of defiled skunk species… I'm not that hungry yet, thank the light."
Leor repeated his hunting method two more times over the next half hour as he made his way deeper into the forest. Killing a mouse that was far too small to fill his belly in his second hunt, before finally collecting the body of a large black rabbit on his final try.
He gutted the small animal right away, burying the entrails as best he could before setting forth again. He walked until he found a tiny clearing large enough at least for a single campfire, and set about making a fire to cook his meal. It didn't take long, every initiate of the house of flame was well trained in natural survival. Afterall, fallen realms could hardly maintain proper infrastructure most of the time.
As the rabbit flesh slowly cooked above the fire, Leor's mind wandered back to his home. Well, as much of a home as he had ever known, at least. Leor had been collected as an infant by the warriors of the house of flame, from a fallen world of the most dreadful corruption. Any family he might have had was long dead. The warriors brought him back to the realm of light with them and gave him to the sisters of the fallen to raise with the other orphaned children and children of warriors who never made it home.
Many times the people brought back from defiled realms were not suited to become warriors, so a place was established to give these people a home and a purpose. Their job was to support the House of flame and care for those who could not care for themselves. Over time, and because of the nature of things, a virtuous collection of mostly elderly women were the ones who ended up maintaining the establishment and caring for the orphaned children. Thus they came to be known as the sisters of the fallen. The only thing resembling a childhood home that children like Leor would ever know.
What they lacked in familial love, however, the sisters made up for in tremendous culinary skill. Every meal the sisters served was of the highest quality. Well, to an orphaned child it felt that way at least. In fact, even the warriors of the house of flame would come by to eat with the children on a regular occasion. That was how Leor came to know what it was to serve the light, and where his dreams of becoming a sworn son began.
As Leor found himself lost in warm memories, he reached forward to flip the rabbit meat over. By now the pungent smell of burning oil and cooked flesh was all the young man could smell. As he carefully placed the meat back down to cook the other side, a feeling of danger began to rise up inside of him.
Releasing the meat from his hand, Leor slowly rose to his feet, a subtle frown pulling at the corner of his lips. Something was wrong, but he wasn't sure what. He carefully inspected his surroundings as the feeling of unease inside him grew, but no matter how hard he searched he could not discover the source of the feeling.
After a few minutes of heavy vigilance, Leor let his shoulders slowly relax.
"I guess it was nothing." He spoke the words in a tone that was unusually loud, as if trying to project the words into the forest around him. Leor slowly lowered his body back down towards his seat, but as soon as his bottom was about to make contact with the large stone that he was using for a chair, he suddenly jumped to his feet, launching himself forward in a full sprint, and rushed into the forest with all the speed his legs could muster.
As Leor broke past the perimeter of the campsite, the forest around him seemed to suddenly come alive, as five powerful figures revealed themselves from their hiding places and gave chase all at the same time. He had been almost completely surrounded, another few seconds and the figures would have closed in enough to trap him from every direction.
"Damn! What fresh calamity is this?" Leor shouted the words aloud at his pursuers as he rushed through the forest, trying his best to escape the approaching figures. It wasn't working though. The forest floor was thick with plants, briars, thorns and trees of all kinds. While these things destroyed Leor's ability to move swiftly, the same was not true for the figures chasing him.
Gazing back over his shoulders, Leor saw cloaked figures moving through the forest around him with great agility. Some swung through the trees, others rushed toward him on all fours like predatory cats, sliding under thorn bushes and nimbly dashing between trees.
The problem was, Leor could not feel any defilement coming from the figures, nor did he feel the willpower common in human warriors, but the figures were moving far too swiftly to be common humans. That only left Leor with one guess for who his pursuers could be.
Just as Leor turned his gaze forward to continue his escape, a sixth cloaked and hooded figure fell from the canopy above him, blocking his path forward. This new figure was a head larger than the rest, with muscled arms so thick that they were tightly outlined against the inside of the large cloak.
Coming to a stop, Leor swiftly pulled his sword from its sheath, watching the figure in front of him warily. Instead of approaching him, the cloaked figure slowly removed their hood, exposing a distinctly humanoid face covered in thick black fur, with a protruding mouth like an ape and thick canine-like teeth sticking out the front of his lips.
"I knew it! You're a beas—"
Before the words could even finish leaving Leor's mouth, a loud cracking sound could be heard echoing through the forest around him. It was strange, the sound seemed to originate from the back of his own head. As he had that thought, darkness crept into the edges of the young man's vision, and he fell forward into the dirt, unconscious.