It was a pn.

  She felt good about that, the st thing she needed was to head off into a living swamp without a pn. Toni hated not having a pn, though she could make one on the fly... sort of. Given time. A lot of time sometimes. Look the point was it was better to have a pn then not.

  Toni looked back over her shoulder to find the shadow covered form of Temate, makeshift bde held at the ready. Staying close. That eased the discomfort she felt as she took her next steps forward into the Fallow.

  **Thhhlurp**

  A huge line of the bck, tar like much drooped off a branch nearby, loudly slopping onto the floor. It made her shiver and check for Temate again, who looked at her and nodded. She imagined he smiled too, but she couldn't really make out his face with all the shadows clinging to him.

  [Enshadow], Ren's newest [Power], was so helpful if a bit disturbing. Toni looked to try and spot the small gremlin girl, knowing full well she couldn't. She had to be nearby though, [Enshadow] only worked on allies and friends nearby.

  That was her thing, Toni had figured that out but hadn't really processed it's value. Ren was a sneak, but not just any sneak a *wilderness* sneak. A survivalist who hunted the things which creep at night. She shouldn't have realized that when Ren had suggested the ambush on the wolves.

  So Ren was their observer, on overwatch, while Laurel walked a few dozen paces ahead his paws grasped firmly around the maul he'd formed. He was the fastest of any of them, so if he got jumped he could rush back to them, or up a tree. That would allow Toni to open fire without worrying about hitting anyone, and Temate was on guard to step in the way of anything that came at her.

  Or anything that snuck up on them.

  That was Toni's biggest fear, they weren't burning the pce out, they had to burn the heart. Whatever was at the center of the Fallow feeding on it, in much the same way The Grand Ceil fed their nds. Once that was done, it would all slowly be repurposed by The Grand Ceil and this pce would become a Garden.

  That meant sliding carefully in as deep as they could without getting caught. Which meant at any point something could come from any direction as they were surrounded. Toni's skin crawled at that idea and she turned to check for Temate again.

  Was she maybe *too* reliant on him? Maybe, maybe not. Honestly it was nice to have someone to rely upon. Sure she'd had friends before, but it'd been awhile since she felt like she could trust someone this way. She knew why, it was-

  **Thwump**

  Toni stumbled as she was pushed forward by Temate. She turned back to gre at him only to watch him raise a shield of bone to redirect a rge glob of ichor. The globule, which was as rge ass her head, spshed against the barrier and hit the ground.

  Toni shivered again as she saw the hole half as deep as the thick shield. Right where the ichor had nded. For just a moment. Toni nodded, bowing a little to Temate no longer upset. Though really she hadn't been before, just shocked, surprised.

  She really didn't like having a pn, but she didn't like this either. No words. That was the rule. Unless something engages them, limit the noise as much as possible so that nothing which could hear them, would.

  So Toni set her shoulder and moved onward, and continued onward, ever deeper. Each step felt like a weight pulled on her body. Because every time she lifted her foot, the ground struggled to keep her down.

  When her foot came down, it sucked her right in forcing her to step lightly to avoid being sucked in. Temate had made the mistake multiple times, and Toni heard another grunt of frustration from behind her. She turned to see him ankle deep in the muck they were walking through.

  At least he had boots. She had clogs. Because the Leshy who made her dress, god forgive her forgetting that beauties name, had only made the dress. Not shoes, not even underwear! Though she had made a surprisingly effective strap for her gun. One which also made her feel sexy. It had been Laurel who made her shoes on their way here, after she compined about being barefoot.

  When she wasn't trudging through muck and grime, some of which could strip your flesh in moments. Though that stuff was pretty obvious as it practically oozed death. In apparently a quite literal way as Laurel put it, if it felt dangerous, it probably was.

  The Rot. Basically, zombies but pnts. It cked intelligence, and as a creature of Idea it oozed its desire and intention. So if something here felt like it wanted to kill.

  It wanted to kill.

  So step around this weird patch of mud here, through the almost identical patch of mud which didn't want to kill her next to it. And listen to the sounds of the Fallow, the strange sound of...

  Nothing.

  Nothing at all. Not even bubbling or the whistle of the wind. No rumble of thunder from the dark, strange cloud above. Only the rumble of her stomach from stress and hunger. They should have eaten before they left.

  They had been moving for hours at this point... Okay maybe not hours, but it felt like it! Slow, steady progress was what they aimed for and that was good, it was. She just hated the quiet.

  The quiet only broken by the sucking of the ground as they walked. Of ichor and ooze dropping with a slurping thud onto the floor. The distant cttering of something *else* creeping through the woods.

  Hunting.

  Hunting them just as they tried to reach the center of the Fallow which it protected. Toni's eyes caught movement, a shadow slipping down from a tree. Ren, covered in her own [Enshadow] pointed off and away from the noise. Time to loop further.

  It really was a nice [Power], muffling sound and causing creature's attention to drift off of them. Laurel wasn't sure it would really help here, but it seemed to. Nothing had come rushing at them the moment they stepped in like Laurel had cimed it would.

  So either it was helping, or the Fallow Rot was sleeping. Which it didn't do, again Laurel's words.

  **Ctter cnk.**

  Suddenly Toni was pressed quickly around a tree. Held firm by Temate's hands as they were brought low to the ground. Toni recognized now was a bad time to get aroused, but god it was hot when he just... Manhandled her like that.

  **Ctter rattle.**

  The circumstances were quick to remind her and drag her mind away from that... inappropriate line of thought. She tipped her head around the trunk of the tree to look at what Temate was watching. She held her tongue when she saw what was there.

  A deer walked with stuttering, stumbling steps between the trees. Flesh stripped away, repced by sloughing bck ooze. Gleaming white bone, pocked with gaps where the ooze seeped into the bone. Controlling it?

  Toni was more fascinated then upset by the image. A galnt buck, covered in bck ichorish moss like material. It looked as if it had walked right off the cover art of some dark fantasy novel. A true monster.

  For far too long they sat there. Quiet. Watching as the bone deer walked right to where Temate had blocked aside the ichor moments before. It looked around and Toni felt Temate tense when it's gaze lingered on their hiding spot.

  Too long.

  It was looking right at them.

  Toni lifted her gun to get a good aim on the thing, ready to fire pre-emptively.

  **THLURUP THUNK**

  The skeletons head turned sharp, and bolted off chasing after something. A silent, surprisingly graceful, gallop through the muck. Away from them. Toni let out a breath and, after a minute, remembered her position.

  She looked to Temate who was still watching the skeletons path. She let out a soft cough, gd for the shadows which hid her blush. God she'd gotten so... *filthy* since she'd met him. And not just in the muck of this strange marsh.

  Temate waited a moment longer, then helped her up as he stood. He nodded to her, and she nodded back. They continued on. It continued like this for almost fifteen more minutes. Two to three minutes of slow, slurping, plodding through the muck.

  Ten seconds of hiding as an undead creature would come wandering over, or checking out something. Then Ren or Laurel would create a distraction somewhere else leading them off. And onward.

  And onward.

  Around fifteen minutes Ren joined them as they approached Laurel, waiting and waving to them. Laurel pointed further on as they approached, though he didn't need to, Toni saw what she needed. A clearing, covered in bck muck and grime. Glistening bones of various animals id scattered amongst it, probably not as inanimated as they appeared.

  What caught Toni's attention wasn't any of that, not initially. What Toni first saw was the spiraling, twisting mass filling the center of the space. A mocking shadow of the tree's surrounding it, twisting in an invisible breeze. Twinklking lights of red and green dashed amongst it's insides.

  f it were snowing here, Toni would make a comparison to a nightmarish christmas tree.

  Hell she was still doing it, it just made less sense without the snow. Toni looked down at Laurel, remembering their discussion before they entered.

  "So what is it we're looking specifically to do?" Toni asked Laurel who tapped his chin thoughtfully.

  "We're looking to destroy the core of the Rot. It could be many things, but it will be at the center, where the Fallow it spilled out of resides."

  "What'll i' look like?" Pipuck inquired as they double checked their gear, making sure it was all in reach.

  "Some sort of mockery of life, glowing lights flitting inside it. Those are what we need to destroy... Sort of." Laurel replied, then held up a hand to stop Toni's next question. "They're the spirits who've caused the Rot. Destroy the area around them so they're no longer trapped and the thing will fall apart."

  "Without the spirits to control them, what happens to the other things you described, these Marcher things?" Toni asked the next question that came to mind.

  "Mmm, depends. Most likely they'll just colpse. The Rot create's and controls them, they're a unique type of Marcher in that regard, not animated by ambient, aimless Abstracts." Laurel expined, nodding sagely as if he'd just passed on the most sage of advice. Toni rolled her eyes, in both annoyance and amusement, the little tree rat was growing on her and she hated that. Sort of. Not really.

  "And if they don't?" Temate continued the line of questioning for Toni.

  "We fight until they do. They'll at least be significantly weaker without the Rot to guide them." Laurel pointed out.

  They all nodded, and Toni had a few other questions but she'd crify as she went through her pn.

  "So here's what we do."

  Five shadows slid quietly from the treeline around It. It did not worry. It had known they were coming, even if It could not follow them. It was ready.

  And It was hungry.

  It reached through Itself to the once living which rested in It's form. It's secret weapon. A trick It had been taught by Them. It could feel Them too. And the Little living things skirting It's home.

  They had taught It much. They had taught It how to grow. How to think. And They had helped It find a true drive. Not just a desire to harm, that was good.

  No.

  They gave It hunger. Now as the tiny shadows shifted right up to the edge of Its self It pushed. The shells lifted from the muck and lurched with great speed toward the four. If It could grin It would. It could not, but It felt the joy of victory.

  The four things shouted. The shadows fell off and together the four threw something. Nuts from trees? Sacrifice?

  It could not ugh, or It would.

  But It was hungry, so It reached out a limb to grasp them. To draw the four things in. Some of It went to explore, to feed.

  It did not know pain. It did not feel as living things did. It could not, that was a function of the living. What It could feel was loss. Thunder.

  At first Temate was worried the pn wouldn't work. The Rot shed out in a blinding motion to grab all of the makeshift incendiary explosives Toni had made. Each one thrown by a part of their group. Even Snowball had flown in and lugged one surprisingly hard.

  All except Surrender's, which made it into the main mass. Right at the base. Perfect. Even more perfect, several of the lights shifted down the main mass towards the other grenades. The Marchers - Laurels name for the skeletal undead creatures leaping and dashing at them - were coming fast.

  Temate stepped in front of Toni, shuffling her back slightly as she focused on the explosives. Temate braced for impact from the first charging marcher, a Laegor like Tharoah or Thares. Then the absurd silence of the clearing broke with a roar of fme and destruction.

  Toni detonated the explosives when she was certain no more of the glimmering lights were coming. Focusing on the small fme she'd carefully held within them and willing it to grow. She felt the power in her swell, rushing out to feed the fmes until they caught the bundle of chemicals.

  That little bundle, made back during the spider infestation with the help of the Bears, roared to life and exploded. The incendiary chemical substance spread in an explosion that tore the mockery of a tree into pieces. It fell, not like a tree should, it simply lost cohesion as the mass lost connection.

  All at once dozens of the lights within it went out. The Laegor marcher, it's strangely fragile looking rabbit-like skeleton, leapt towards Temate and scattered. Yet not all of the marcher's stopped, and not all of the lights went out.

  "Rotting Hells! We missed a few! Brace for a fight!" Laurel shouted, they inched backwards a bit, towards the treeline.

  "Behind!" Surrender warned from nearby, Toni whirled and dodged! A huge, sharp looking branch caught her shoulder as she did, tearing the flesh off with surprising ease.

  Toni froze as she stood, looking down at her shoulder. She screamed, and she did not scream alone. Temate roared as he smmed his bde across another Awakened marcher. How many did Tharoah say had died here? It felt like there were too many for, what, a dozen?

  Temate stepped over Toni and shouted. "**Fight!** Toni you can't freeze, burn those fucking spirits, they're coming!" Toni snapped up and turned, the [Iron Order] snapping her out of her rising panic. She levelled her gun towards the mass. [Eternal Fme] roared into a gathering mass as she focused her [Hunter's Instinct].

  The spirits, sensing some danger, scattered amongst the mass filling the Fallow. Stretching slowly towards them as they retreated closer to a mass of trees which grew thicker by the moment.

  Toni let loose her fmes, foregoing [Hunter's Instinct] to simply mass fire. Quite literally, like a fmethrower she let the gathering fme fan out and scorch everything between her and the nearest spirit as it closed. This did screech, not in pain.

  "No! Must. Feed. Hungry. Let. Us. Feeeeeee-aaaaah!" The raw rage and hunger in it's voice nearly overcame Toni's senses again as she turned to gather and send another gout of fme. A hand touched her shoulder and she felt Temate's [Towering Presence] ward away the fear.

  "[Falling Acorn]!"

  **SLAM**

  Laurel smmed down once, twice, three times he darted up the tree, dodging and deflecting its blows. He regretted bringing a mallet now. He should have expected the trees! Rot's roots he should have expected it! But he just thought it'd be marchers and some ooze!

  With a fury he reserved for only the most vile of unnatural monsters Laurel fell upon the tree a fourth time, splintering it into chunks that ceased it's movement. Without rest he darted to the next one, checking only once as he ran to see how the others faired.

  He was worried until he saw them fighting. Temate shielded Toni well, he'd taken Laurel's advice with that [Bone Salt] [Power] and pushed it further. It had been a small bit of advice he'd given before he even knew the [Power]'s exact function. From one knight to another, to fill the air while they travelled to the Grand Ceil.

  One of many. He couldn't see Surrender, the little gremlin seemed able to hide even in the midst of this, even to his trained eyes. A remarkable skill and supported by the [Powers] she had described? His specialty wasn't in spotting hiding things though, most Warden's cked that ability. After all, the Grand Ceil saw all in It's domain, so anything trying to hide would be outed by the environment.

  What he could see was her impact. Here and there a marcher would stumble in a way that was slightly different to the way they normally would. Or a lunging mass of the ichor would split and fall as her cws cut it. Once he even saw a spirit which got a bit too bold trying to slip behind them, wink out.

  Impressive. Truly impressive. Pipuck had already used [Living Earth] to patch Toni up, and a few scrapes Temate took as well. Mixing a poultice into it wass an incredibly effective technique the spiras had described in their meeting. Quite clever that spiras, Laurel was quite impressed. Especially as the lights began.

  The light which surrounded the group was a soft orange-white. Even looking at it emboldened Laurel, he couldn't imagine how it must feel to be sheltered by the growing sphere. The marchers stumbled as they stepped into it, some even faltered and fell apart altogether.

  Even the weird bird, Snowball, seemed to be helping. In ways that gave Laurel a certainty it was no normal bird. He watched it circling above Toni, then dipping down as she sprayed another gout of fire. It seemed to catch the fire with it's wind and pull on it, extending the fme further.

  Occassionally it would dart, faster then it should be capable of, to Temate's side, or to a spot out of Laurels view. The wind would flow with it and the strike Temate was making, or the strike of a marcher against him, would speed up, or slow. Depending on which the bird would release the wind to.

  That. That was [Power], Laurel knew. But he didn't think it was one of the Grand Ceils Awakened kinds. He knew of some bird like Awakened, he saw some of them here as marchers. But most Awakened gained some humanoid traits, Squarel were rare in that they simply became bigger and stronger.

  It's all they needed.

  The brief gnces Laurel took as he broke tree after tree that crept closer to the fighting team, showed him the battle. He let out a whoop of excitement as Toni burned the st spirit!

  "Huzzah! That's the st one madame Toni! We're home clea-"

  *Thump*

  The bde of a tree smmed into his side, cutting sharply into his armor enough to cut his body. Laurel cursed as he dipped back towards the group. He looked around, confused. The marcher's had stopped moving, but they weren't falling apart?

  The tree's had stopped moving as well, but that one had still swung at him. The group slowly moved together, Pipuck grabbing Laurel as he stumbled to the group.

  "'old on mate. I go' ya." Pipuck's hands flicked and Power whisked some mud to grab poultice and apply it to the wound. Pipuck pced hands on Laurel and whistled.

  "Nasty cu', what's 'appenin'?" The question stumped Laurel.

  "I- I don't know, they're not moving but-"

  **Ctter**

  One marcher fell over as Temate smmed it with his bde.

  "Hmm, it tried to swing as I got closer. I thought you said they'd fall apart?" Temate looked to Laurel curiousity on his face.

  "They would. Were I not keeping them stable. Can't have my new toys falling apart so quickly now can I?"

  That voice was not one of theirs. Even under the protection of Temate's [Towering Presence] they all felt a shiver of pure terror strike them. The voice was hollow, distant, emanating from everywhere all at once. From everything all at once. Each marcher's mouth opened wide and the cold, hollow voice filled the air again.

  "A shame. The Rot was a powerful servant, yet it's weakness is clear now. I suppose I must take over from here."