The echoes of their battle still rang in their bones. Smoke from their shattered doubles drifted upward, dissolving into the crystalline canopy like black stars fading into the night.
Carlos barely had time to steady his breath when the ground trembled again.
"No," Lys whispered, her bow snapping back into her hand. "It isn't over."
The fissure they thought had closed shuddered, its edges glowing a sickly green. From the depths of the Expanse, a sound rose — not whispers, not words, but a heartbeat. Slow. Heavy. Wrong.
Thoom.Thoom.Thoom.
Each pulse made the ground ripple, the crystalline canopy flicker, the companions' very bones ache.
Then the fissure split wide, roots snapping and curling outward like claws. And from the wound rose not a reflection, but something far worse.
The Verdant Maw
It emerged slowly, impossibly vast. A mass of roots, vines, and flesh, writhing together into a colossal form. Its body was made of the Expanse itself, as though the land had decided to awaken — and hate.
Where a face might have been, there was only a vast maw lined with jagged thorns dripping black resin. From within its depths echoed a hundred stolen voices, layered over each other in a chorus of despair:
"WE… ARE… HUNGER."
The companions staggered back, weapons raised.
"It's feeding on the corruption," Maren gasped, her staff trembling in her hands. "It is the corruption."
The Maw's vines lashed outward, slamming into the ground with the force of hammers. One tore through a crystal tree, shattering it into deadly shards that rained like glass knives.
Carlos raised his blade. "This thing… it's the Heart of the Expanse."
The Battle Ignites
The Maw struck first. Vines whipped through the air, forcing the companions apart. Thalor raised his shield, deflecting one lashing root, but the impact sent him skidding across the grass.
Lys rolled, arrows flying in rapid succession. Her shots sank into the Maw's vines, but each one was swallowed by writhing tendrils, black resin sealing the wounds instantly. "It's healing!" she cried.
Rina darted between strikes, her daggers flashing as she severed a vine — only for two more to sprout in its place. "There's no end to it!"
Maren raised her staff, unleashing a torrent of flame. The fire engulfed part of the Maw, shriveling its roots — but the flames twisted, turning green, then black, before exploding outward. The backlash threw her to the ground, gasping.
Carlos leapt forward, the Blade of Ascension blazing golden as he carved through a vine thicker than a tree trunk. For a heartbeat, the Maw recoiled, screeching in a chorus of voices.
But then the wound closed. And from its gaping maw came a roar that shook the entire Expanse.
The Corruption's Will
The Maw's many voices merged into one, booming, resonant, dripping with malice:
"YOUR SHADOWS WERE ONLY THE BEGINNING. YOU ARE FRACTURED. YOU ARE WEAK. YOU ARE… OURS."
The ground split further, and from the fissures burst smaller creatures — resin-born beasts shaped like wolves, serpents, and winged horrors, all dripping black ichor. They poured across the battlefield, swarming toward the companions.
Thalor roared, slamming his shield into the ground to form a barrier. "Stay behind me!"
"No!" Carlos countered, his voice sharp. "We can't just defend — we'll be overrun!"
He looked up at the Maw, its writhing vines blotting out the crystalline canopy like storm clouds. His chest burned with fear — and something fiercer.
"This thing is the Expanse itself. If we don't cut it out at the root, it'll consume everything."
No Time to Breathe
The companions formed a circle, backs pressed together, as the Maw's horrors closed in. Resin wolves lunged, wings blotted out the skies, vines lashed in from every angle.
Their weapons clashed, their magic burned, their bodies strained with every movement. And yet, for every creature they struck down, two more seemed to rise.
Lys loosed arrow after arrow, her breath ragged.Thalor stood unshaken, his shield absorbing blow after blow.Rina danced with deadly precision, though sweat stung her eyes.Maren's staff blazed, but her voice cracked with the effort.Carlos's blade shone like a star, but even he felt the weight pressing in.
The Maw's laughter rolled through the battlefield, cruel and triumphant.
"WE WILL BREAK YOU FROM WITHIN. AND THEN… WE WILL CONSUME YOUR WORLD."
The companions had survived their reflections. They had faced the Dominion. But the true heart of the corruption was here, now, and it would not let them leave the Verdant Expanse alive.