The Path of Ruin

Chapter 26: Deep in the Forest

Its legs could barely hold its body up. Blood covered its entire body, and it could feel every grain dripping from its fur. Despite the huge gash in its torso, it took one last glance around and saw the lifeless bodies of its kindred. The fresh, warm blood spattered on the grass was almost highlighted in its eyes.

But... it felt nothing. It couldn't feel anything, anyway. It didn't have the mental capacity for that. Until now, it had relied solely on instinct. It had hunted, torn, killed, and eaten.

And yet, even though it couldn't feel anything... it was shivering. Not because of the state of its body, not because of the coldness of death. It was trembling from fear. The instincts that had always told it to attack, to kill, were now telling him to run. But... it was afraid.

And soon, the voice of the source of that fear filled its ears.

"Oh, did I miss another one?"

It felt a sharp pain in the back of its neck, its last connection to the world severed as its body slumped to the ground.

Its killer was a scrawny fifteen-year-old boy... Kael himself. He was busy wiping his dagger clean on the fur of one of the wolves. He had a broad smile on his face.

'With this... I should have almost two days.'

Two days had passed since the night he first fed the curse. And during those two days, he had killed wolves non-stop. In fact... he had killed too many. So much so that whereas before he could encounter a group of two or three wolves every half hour, now it was up to two hours.

The number of wolves was decreasing. Even if they weren't, they were getting really scared of him and hiding.

This was not a good sign, of course. Fewer wolves meant fewer enemies to kill in order to survive, after all.

But after the events of the last two days, he had come to a new decision and that was the reason for the smile on his face.

'Two days should be enough.'

His determined eyes turned to his left, looking through the trees.

The wolves were really easy to kill. They hardly ever challenged him at all. Occasionally, if they were lucky, they could cause only minimal wounds... but that was it.

'I can fight stronger animals. Or maybe creatures.'

He was thinking of moving deeper into the forest. The main goal was to encounter something stronger than these wolves and satisfy the curse in a more appropriate way. Because it was certain that it would not be with wolves.

'I'd better be careful, though.'

He nodded to himself, not letting his guard down as he moved slowly through the forest again, dagger in his left hand. He was not going to get arrogant because he had managed to kill the wolves with ease, he knew that making a mistake could mean death. That was why he had wanted to kill enough wolves to sustain the curse for at least two or three days before moving deeper into the forest.

And now... there was nothing in his way.

'Let's go!'

*******

The outer parts of the forest were usually dominated by shades of green. The trees were normal, the leaves were as they should be... even the air felt fresh and pleasant.

But when starting to move a little further inwards from the outer parts, this began to change. All the greenery became darker in color, the grass grew taller than normal, and the trees became... strange. Their branches and trunks started to curve.

And as someone went further and further inside, for example, to where Kael was now... a completely different change took place.

Instead of the grass on the ground growing taller and wilder, it was becoming... sparse. There were fewer of them. In the same way, the trees, like the grass, became less and less. Most of their leaves had fallen, and those that hadn't were yellow and would soon fall off. The air he used to enjoy inhaling was now heavy. It was not the smell of trees and plants that came to his nose anymore... but something else.

He was alert, he couldn't shake the ominous feeling inside him. It was as if something bad could happen at any moment.

'I wonder if coming here... was a mistake?'

Four hours of walking had brought him here, or at least to the area where the changes had taken place. Only an hour or two ago, he was still in parts of the forest that could still be considered normal.

After a while, he frowned. As his eyes darted back and forth to avoid a possible attack, he mentally scolded himself.

'No! There is no mistake, I have no choice...'

He resolutely pushed aside the ominous feeling. He didn't ignore it, of course... he couldn't. In fact, he didn't even push it aside, he was just... going to stop focusing on it for a while, so as not to confuse himself.

But then, something occurred to him.

'Now that I think about it... I haven't seen any creatures yet.'

As he continued to move through the wolves' territory, he found animals in abundance. Squirrels, deer, rabbits... all kinds! And of course, he had tried to kill them.

The squirrels were too agile. It was almost impossible to catch one unless it got close without them realizing it. And yet he succeeded! And what he got... was only about fifteen or twenty minutes. The rabbits gave him the same amount of time. The deer... about half an hour.

He was beginning to understand how satisfied the curse was with what he killed. It didn't matter how big or small the animals were. What mattered, at least in his estimation, was their fighting ability. The more deadly an animal was, the more time it bought him.

'So... it must be the same for creatures, right?'

The more dangerous, and therefore powerful, creatures he killed, the more he could satisfy his curse. Probably the 'power' he gained by killing someone increased accordingly. He still didn't understand what that power was, though... he didn't feel empowered at all.

Just then, he paused, his eyebrows raised slightly as something caught his eye.

'Oh, wait... This is useful!'

He quickened his pace, getting closer to what he saw. When he stopped, there was a... plant in front of him. Or rather, several of them.

Despite this part of the forest, it had lost very little of its greenery, reaching almost to its knees. It had no flowers, it looked like a completely normal plant... and in fact, it was. Just... a normal herb with a few peculiarities.

With a smile on his face, he bent down and used his dagger to separate the plants from the soil as carefully and professionally as possible.

If he had his stuff from the greenhouse with him, he could have made some very useful mixtures from them. But that was the keyword, stuff... Without them, he was limited in what he could do.

Still, it wasn't bad!

Even if he ate it as it was, it would retain some of its potency, and that was the important thing. This plant had the effect of replenishing the energy of the person consuming it and delaying sleep a little. As someone who had been walking for four hours straight, its first effect was certainly not something he would ignore!

And so, he took the herbs and put them in his mouth without a second thought. It tasted bitter, too bitter even... but he didn't care. As he continued chewing the herbs, he stood up again and started walking once more, his lips slightly curled upwards.

After only a few minutes, though, he stopped again.

But this time it wasn't because he had seen a plant, nor was there a smile on his face. On the contrary, his eyes twitched. And his expression turned ugly.

'This...'

The view in front of him was... not very pleasant.

The earth was dyed red, as was the bark of the trees. On the ground... were lifeless bodies. Some were animals, others... things he had never seen or heard of in his life. Some of them were disembodied, others had been mutilated.

'Who- No, 'what' could have done this...?

Animals were not so important. But... creatures had been killed here too. Creatures whose fangs were sharp, creatures that he could sense with just one glance were more dangerous than wolves.

'I'll... move away from here, I think...'

He was no longer sure he wanted to go deeper into the forest... It seemed a better option to turn back a bit and go around without getting too far into these parts.

And so, he turned around.

Instead of seeing the way he had come, the familiar trees... what he found in front of his eyes was the palm of something with three fingers covering his entire vision.