Ruel stared at the contaminated sky, contemplating how it all began.
The sky used to be so beautiful back then, even in this place, the rivers, the forest, and even the animals, it just...just all used to be so captivating.
Now all of that is lost. The records of such a place are historical artifacts now.
Nature's degradation wasn't stopping, but carried on with more fervor, some of the parts deep inside the calamity zone weren't even salvageable now.
The more he stared at the sky, the more he tightened his hands. He began to question himself.
'Was what I did even worth it?'
'Was the world meant to be like this? Was I meant to redo this?'
'Is this my destiny?'
With the dripping sound of his blood, Ruel woke up from his trance. He had been clenching his hand so hard that his nails dug into his flesh. He noticed his body's condition.
He already had many small cuts all over his body, but none deep enough to endanger his life.
The fight with the lesser horncreepers wasn't without loss, he had lost much blood in this fight.
His flesh without any blemishes was filled with cuts all over and his stamina had hit rock bottom.
The aftermath of the fight was devastating. The casualties from the camp were relatively low despite the element of surprise. However, the fact that every single person had sustained injuries couldn't be ignored.
All around the battlefield was covered with blood and gore, with guts and bodies of red imps laying everywhere.
Splashes of red and green blood soaked the ground, dying it in its color.
As Ruel left his place and walked forward, it had only taken him a few meters to notice some people to his left, the atmosphere surrounding them was dark and full of sorrow.
They cremated the corpses of the dead disciples of their sect by burning their remains as if they buried or left them, then blood would attract more beasts.
They took out the memorials of the deceased and wrapped them up in a cloth while putting them away.
No one cried about it, the young ones of this world had to mature early, maybe...if maybe it wasn't like this then they would have had a pleasant childhood.
Ruel was part of the same group of people like this in his previous life, just that the losses were far more significant than this, yet they didn't give up and kept defending this area until someone came to their rescue.
Averting his eyes from this scene, he looked towards a group of people gathered ahead of him.
On his way to them, he noticed the people all around him sitting in a large circle, vigilant of threats inside the forest.
There was a depressing and hopeless aura coming out of some while some gave ferocious and unyielding expressions.
One thing was true though, everyone was on the edge because of what had happened before.
Just as he tried to step inside the circle, people made their way for him. It was a common sight for him in his younger days.
Just as he looked for Agon, he found him with some other people discussing something.
Treading over to them with faint steps, he reached them. Noticing Ruel's presence they gave him a short nod, and he in response did the same.
Nobody asked Ruel how his side went as they could guess from his condition, multiple cuts on his body, fully soaked in lesser horncreepers blood, and none of the cheerfulness he always showed.
Ruel asked calmly while sitting on a tree that was uprooted because of the fight.
"How did your side turn out? Did you find a way out of here?"
"We did find one out of this but there is good news and bad news" uncertainty in his voice, said a young boy around Ruel's own age.
He had big stature and domineering muscles for his age and an average face. His name was Steve.
"The path we found is straight way out of the twilight forest but...the path is being occupied by a baleful creeper. We believe all the lesser horncreepers we fought were coming from it." he added with uncertainty in his voice.
The baleful creeper was the monster that gave birth to lesser horncreepers, its purpose was to endlessly produce lesser horncreepers, it ate and digested the dead bodies lesser horncreepers brought and spawned them from those nutrients.
It was a monster ranked above everyone else here but was easy to kill, as it was just a spawner for lesser horncreepers. The problem was its size and the hordes surrounding it.
Baleful creeper would be surrounded by at least the number of lesser horncreepers that invaded the camp, which in itself numbered in the hundreds, and the strength of people here was just around forty.
With a serious tone, Ruel said, "This is going to be tough, we have only two options right now.".
"Either we push through or we wait for reinforcement which may or may not come, in addition to that, we have fewer supplies right now."
"He is right...most of the supplies were destroyed by lesser horncreepers, we only have enough for 2 days." Everyone's face darkened after hearing Steve say that.
"That leaves us with the only choice, we will commence an attack on them tomorrow morning, tell everyone to prepare for it, this is our only chance out of this situation right now."
Everyone acknowledged that suggestion, feeling a mix of determination and fear.
They knew that this battle would be one of the toughest they had ever faced as this was their first time experiencing a real group battle, but they also knew that they couldn't afford to wait any longer.
If they stood idle more than that then the baleful creeper would replenish the lesser horncreepers more. This in turn would make the fight harder.
As the group dispersed to make preparations, Agon stayed behind to speak with Ruel.
"Are you sure about this?" he asked, his eyes filled with concern.
Ruel nodded. "We don't have any other options. If we wait any longer, we might as well give up now. We have to take the fight to them."
Agon took a deep breath and nodded in agreement. "Alright then. We'll do it but how are you doing?"
"I am fine, no need to worry about me," said Ruel with a reassuring smile on his face.
The two of them stood there for a moment longer, lost in their own thoughts, before finally turning to leave. As they walked away, the weight of their decision hung heavily in the air, a constant reminder of the danger that lay ahead.