"We're a bit late but that's alright. Now we can start making our way across the corruption planes. As you all know there are hints of a village straight North so I recommend we head there. Any other ideas?"
Lucius looked around bluntly.
"Nice. Then let's get going."
Each member of the group other than Alexander and the twins carried a sack of something. Either precious things like silver cups or wine and bread.
Currently, it was around lunch but since everyone had voted on avoiding more moldy bread and hopefully scavenging something from the village they had decided to skip lunch.
The journey to the village would take no more than an hour and would essentially be harmless.
The group swiftly escaped the village and walked in 2 lines of 3 with Lucius and Dian leading. Eventually, the lines deformed as Dian headed to the back, and Alexander met him there.
The organized lines swiftly turned into one cluster of 6. Lucius shook it off.
The wind was strangely violent and the ground seemed to be constantly shifting ever so slightly.
The corruption was still at large and showed no signs of retreating even with the death of its ruler. Although the Revenant had been killed it still felt dangerous crossing the corruption on the ground that looked no different from when the Revenant was alive.
Julius looked around with flinching eyes.
"If this was all the territory of 1 Revenant... then how many of them are there out there for 40% of a planet to have been corrupted?"
Lucius sighed.
"Far too many it would seem. Especially if a God had to rely on beings out of his own world."
Silence descended subtly until the group was merely trudging through the black mud that had been infested with purple veins in utter solidarity.
Julius cleared his throat abruptly.
"What's the plan for after this?"
Lucius smiled and looked up to the skies.
The village hadn't gotten in sight and a few blurry mirages of ant-like people could be seen shifting.
"We'll start an adventurer's party. And from there we'll conquer and achieve all we need until this world is ours."
Julius coughed suddenly.
"Oh... I see."
A small part of Julius began raging and screeching.
Julius calmed himself.
But a small part of himself, coated in Lucius' shadow still wanted to break free.
And that small part started to form a horde of rebellious thoughts.
An hour or so passed and the party had gotten well into view for the villagers.
Each of the villagers wore basic but comforting clothes. They were all well-fed and crossed from a multitude of ages.
They muttered, bewitched by the sights they were seeing.
"Are those people walking over the corruption? What's wrong with them? The Revenant is going to appear!"
"If not the Revenant then Sarta."
"Someone has to save them. They look like children. Their faces are clean too. They must be of pleasured parents."
"We can't do anything. Unless we want to break capital law."
The villagers cursed bitterly.
All the adolescents that crossed the corruption in sweet hope would soon fall.
Lucius wiped some sweat from his brow.
"I think I might've caught something. I'll stick to the back for now. I don't wanna slow you guys down."
Everyone nodded and accepted the fact.
Julius followed Lucius to the back, feeling that the group's stability would be uneven if he led.
Dian went to the front whilst Alexander traveled on his right like his sidekick. Julius could hear all of Dian and Alexander's conversation from his position.
Dian breathed out heavily.
"That doesn't make sense. Why would they believe us if we said we were from another Planet? Those are just normal villagers. You'd have to talk to a scientist or something."
Alexander pouted in annoyance.
"You wouldn't understand. You're clearly just looking down on those eager villagers. Look how bubbly they look in that little crowd. I bet they would just love to hear that we are heroes summoned from a land far away."
Alexander's eyes shined.
"I think we should do that."
Dian grumbled.
"Not a chance."
Alexander stuck himself into some sort of shower dream whilst Dian contemplated.
After a few deafening minutes of soundless maneuvering, his voice popped out.
"Lucius."
Lucius responded with an ache in his throat. He looked extremely unwell.
"Yes?"
Dian grimaced.
"I'm... sorry. For everything. Every word, every shout, every action. I was being a rattish bastard."
Lucius smirked.
"Don't worry, I've already forgiven you. After all, I need to be a good leader. And no good leader has a bad team. Soon I feel like our team will be complete. I don't feel it. I can... almost envision it."
Dian chuckled.
"Sounds great man."
Dian felt a huge load slide off his back.
Alexander peeped up childishly.
"I knew it. They're all waiting for us!"
He pointed towards the front of the village where a good group of around 40 villagers were on their tiptoes for the group of teenagers.
The twins murmured to each other subtly.
Julius squinted his eyes.
"Weird. They don't look that... excited to see us?"
Dian focused on their expressions.
"Why the hell do they look so concerned?"
Lucius laughed lightly.
"It's because they think the Revenant is still around. But we've killed it so that's no longer a worry."
Dian's face lit up.
"Ha. They're in for a shock."
The villager's muffled shouts finally came into audibility as the group got closer.
"Sarta."
They weren't shouting.
Julius tousled his sticky black hair in confusion.
All the villagers were murmuring the same words over and over again.
"Sarta is coming."
"Run for your life. Sarta will arrive."
"You must sprint. Sarta is coming."
"Sarta is-."
"Sarta."
Dian proudly announced with raised eyebrows and arms spread wide.
"DO NOT FEAR VILLAGERS. SARTA IS NO MORE."
Alexander cowered.
"B-but what if they don't speak English?"
Dian looked back in confusion.
"It's fine. They can already pronounce this Sarta fella. Plus..."
"There's no way they won't reward us for defeating their local monster."
Lucius let out a subtle wry smile.
"Well I'm sure-."
A loud villager interrupted him.
"RUN AWAY. SARTA IS HUNTING FOR AN OFFERING TODAY."
Dian scoffed as he strode towards the villagers harmlessly, changing his direction so that he could walk diagonally left. They clearly weren't understanding much here so he decided to slightly split from the group to announce what Revenants were to the unfortunate dull-minded villagers.
He shouted with his hands cupping around his mouth.
"REVENANTS DON'T NEED OFFERINGS-."
Julius shouted out in concern, overriding Dian.
"Dian come back. We need to stick together. You're too far from the group. Come right-."
The sound of a train passing resounded in the air which vibrated wildly.
The ground below the group trembled before being opened up by a huge force.
A huge geyser of mud blasted upwards before splattering all over the front of the group.
A huge brown worm covered in thick hazel scales that could easily rival the length and width of an industrial train tore through the air above before diving into the Earth below once more. For a few moments, a constantly moving overturned U shape was present in the Earth before the worm finally slipped down for the last time.
It had no eyes and no bodily features other than its hard scales.
It had arrived unpredictably and left tamely.
Alexander stuttered, his figure drenched from head to toe in mud. Only the whites of his eyes were visible.
"UGH. What the hell was that?"
The twins were somehow completely clear of the mud despite being in the middle of the group whilst Lucius and Julius only had a minimal amount on themselves.
The villagers had all laid themselves down in praying positions.
"Sarta."
They murmured ominously. Their kneeling figures flinched and twitched.
"Sarta."
"Sarta."
Julius sighed.
"I guess there's more to worry about than just Revenants."
Lucius nodded, his complexion had gotten slightly better.
His voice had gotten slightly clearer, it looked like he had finally overcome his mana sickness.
"This mud stinks."
Lucius called out to his group.
"EVERYONE GATHER UP."
He shouted as he washed his face with his dry hands.
The group passed through the now mud-covered planes and reached the outskirts of the village.
Alexander looked around in confusion.
"Hey... where's Dian?"
Lucius looked around as well.
"What? Did he slip into the villagers?"
The twins had their lips sealed shut.
Julius too searched for Dian momentarily before mutters cursed through his lips beyond his control.
"One will die and 5 will be right."
Julius put a hand over his head.
"Fuck."
His thoughts whirred magnificently.
'One will die and 5 will be right. Dian separated from the group by going left towards the villagers. The other 5 of us were on the right. And that means that Dian...'
A deafening boom sounded from the mud behind the group.
A strange white construct flew from the hole up into the air, covered in a strange green liquid that looked similar to acid.
It descended downwards.
Swiftly, it landed right in the middle of the group of villagers on the ground where it seethed. Wispy lines of smoke rose from it.
Julius peeped his head forwards in unacceptance.
"S-shit."
A bony skeleton corpse was present on the ground.
"That's Dian's."
Julius felt the words spoken to him no more than a day ago coming to light.
Julius started hyperventilating.
"It doesn't make sense. What kind of Procephy has a one-day expire date?"
Julius' thoughts connected and conspired.
"I see."
"He was the offering."
The villagers kneeling down wept.
Julius felt like jumping into an endless hole.
It took a few moments for the rest of the group to realize whose body the skeleton had once belonged to. And then it hit.
A clocktower rang out.
Even the over-confident Lucius had been stuck in a state of speechlessness.
He murmured weakly.
"It was that fast? That subtle? It doesn't-."
He looked up to the skies in desperation whilst his ears blocked out the prayers of the foolish Villagers.
"It doesn't make any sense."
And it was at that moment that the realization that death had descended struck.
Dian, the boy who had gradually climbed along people's likings. Had fallen and been melted into nothing more than bones.
He had died.
Authors note: Ok i really hated writing this chapter so if it's hard to follow along then that's that. It's because I wrote this way too tired.