A fetid, sickly-sweet stench assaulted their nostrils, so thick it seemed to cling to their very breaths.
Before them lay an endless expanse of acid-green mire, a festering wound carved across the landscape.
The muddy water was littered with slick bubbles that burst and reformed in a nauseating dance, each puff releasing spores so toxic even a single inhalation could mean death.
Worse still, thick vines—slick with slime and festering blisters—wormed their way up from the marsh's depths, writhing in mad convulsions to form an almost impenetrable barrier.
Each twitch of those vines brought a revolting suction sound, and here and there one could glimpse the bones of nameless creatures, bound and dissolving in the muck.
"Blast it!" Karrion spat, his thick beard quivering with disgust.
He swung his rune-etched axe experimentally, the blade sinking into a vine with a dull, elastic thwack. Black ichor spattered, sizzling with corrosive fury on the steel.
The vine paused only a fraction before its severed end squirmed, birthing dozens of finer tendrils that lashed at him.
Karrion jerked the axe free, expression grimacing with revulsion.
"This cursed swamp…no wonder those Radiant Sun bastards dared not cross it. And yet here it traps us!"
Raine knit his brows, eyes sharp as he took in the hopeless terrain.
The backlash of star-magic still throbbed in his veins, and each breath of marsh fumes left him dizzy and queasy.
Behind him he sensed shifting energies and the faint thunder of hooves—his pursuers drawing near.
The Radiant Sun Knights were closing in.
They advanced faster than Raine had dared imagine.
"We have to go through," Raine rasped. "Detours will only let them catch us."
"How?" Karrion snapped, pacing restlessly. "Unless we sprout wings or set the swamp ablaze!"
He glared at Thalia. "Sorceress, any shadow tricks to clear us a path?"
Thalia had stood silent, half-shrouded by her cloak. Only her ashen jaw and thin, pressed lips were visible.
Her gaze pierced the roiling mists, fixed on some point deep within, as though she were listening to a distant call.
Behind them, the Knights' presence grew clearer—bells of steel, shouts of command drifting on the stagnant air.
They could wait no longer.
Raine and Karrion hissed over options, searching for even the smallest gap in the tangled barrier.
In Thalia's eyes flickered a cold resolution.
With ghostly silence, she stepped back beneath a twisted, dead tree—her movements as light as falling leaves.
Too focused on the swamp—and the knights' menacing pursuit—to notice her shift in position.
Thalia raised a hand and pressed it to her chest.
Through layers of cloth and her carefully sustained shadow barrier, a faint, impossibly pure light pulsed from her star-shard heart.
Her star-core fragment.
It burned like a dying flame, yet carried the essence of the heavens—utterly at odds with the corruption around them.
She closed her eyes, lashes fluttering, and began to channel that inner power.
This was no mere shadow trick.
It was a burning born of sacrifice.
An unseen field of pure light bloomed around her, spreading like a tide of starfire.
The toxic spores faltered as though struck by holy water; the suffocating stench receded, leaving only a hint of its former rankness.
Even more astonishing, the writhing vines convulsed as if scalded by flame.
They recoiled and writhed, carving a narrow corridor through the once impenetrable wall—just wide enough for one desperate soul to slip through.
Though those vines still twitched ominously, none dared to close the gap.
At the corridor's end lay solid ground, a rare patch of firm earth rising above the poisoned swamp.
"Go!"
Thalia's voice rang out—weak yet insistent.
Raine and Karrion whirled around, stunned by the miracle before them.
"This… what sorcery is this?" Karrion gasped, disbelief etched across his broad features.
Raine shared the shock—and then snapped back to urgency.
This was no moment for questions.
He glanced at Thalia: pale as death, trembling from the effort.
"Move!" Raine barked, yanking a stunned Karrion to his feet.
Without hesitation, they sprinted into the slender corridor wrought by Thalia's magic.
The ground underfoot was slick as ice, and the vines on either side writhed with hostile intent.
They slipped and scrambled, racing through the deadly mire in a desperate blur.
Thalia lingered at the passage's mouth, sustaining the shimmering conduit.
With each breath like jagged knives, she felt her own life force ebb as the star-fragment's power drained away.
Her vision swam, knees buckled from exhaustion.
Yet she gritted her teeth, refusing to collapse.
Only when Raine and Karrion vanished into the forest's shadows did she drop her hand from her heart.
In an instant, the corridor collapsed.
The vines snapped back together like enraged beasts, lashing and roaring their ire.
The lethal spores surged back, cloaking the swamp in its former despair.
Thud.
Thalia staggered, one knee hitting the ground as she panted violently, cold sweat beading her brow.
"Thalia!"
Raine and Karrion charged back, alarm etched on their faces.
"How are you?" Raine pressed, steadying her trembling form.
His hand found hers, ice-cold to the touch.
She felt far weaker than he had feared.
Thalia forced her head up, managing a wan, tremulous smile.
"I'm… all right," she croaked. "Used an… ancient ward. It cost me… dear."
She forced herself upright, striving for calm resolve.
"One-shot charm. Once used, it's gone"—her attempt at reassurance trembled in her voice.
Karrion eyed her warily, then the swamp pulsing behind her in malevolent stillness.
"What ward could carve that corridor through this hell?" he muttered—though pressed for details, he said no more.
After all, that charm had just saved them from certain doom.
Raine supported her, feeling the faint tremor and ghostlike lightness in her arm.
His heart sank.
Her exhaustion ran deeper than any mundane spell; no simple talisman could exact such a toll.
It felt like her very lifeblood had been thrust into that corridor's creation.
He recalled her earlier bouts of wane health, her odd sensitivity to blood, and the faint, starlike purity she exuded—then recoiled at what must lie beneath.
A dark suspicion took shape in his mind.
He kept it unspoken.
Their pursuers would soon sniff out a crossing; now was no time for conjecture.
"We must move—now," Raine said sternly, urging Thalia on as he quickened his pace.
Karrion nodded, stepping back to guard their retreat.
Together they vanished once more into the twisted shadows of the Corrupted Forest.
Yet this time, Raine's doubt sprouted like the swamp's vines—thickening and binding his heart ever tighter.