Divine System: Land of the Abominations

A light drizzle sifted through the leaves.

Wiping the mud from his face, Nero carefully pulled leaves from a particular vine. He wasn't the only one doing this too.

According to Lucy, the leaves of this vine were medical, and although not quite edible, when processed properly, could be used as materials to create Elixirs.

They were sure to make a pretty penny from it if they were sold in Liedenstorm.

Nero's gaze moved slightly as he noticed a band of three with shifty gazes quietly placed a whole bundle of the leaves away secretly.

The greed of humans was sure to shine through, even in the worst of circumstances.

He huffed and continued plucking the leaves.

They had already been in the Southern Bogs for two days.

The danger was there, but it was manageable. Most of the creatures within the edges of the Southern Quadrant dwelled deep within the bogs. By sticking to the paths, they were able to avoid the worst of them.

At least for now.

But the danger was not completely gone. Far from it.

Enticed and attracted to the scent of human souls and blood, they had to fend off more than a dozen attacks a day.

Thankfully, those Abominations that did come for them were not very strong. Only three more people had died. Still, things didn't look too good. Everyone was tired, mostly due to a lack of food to eat. Since the flesh of Abominations couldn't be eaten, they had to tough it out.

Nero on the other hand didn't have to worry about food. At least for the moment.

His... sessions with Aisha took care of his Ein Sof needs, while he coul go a fairly long time without eating anything, although the hunger still gnawed at his stomach.

If things got too terrible, he even considered purchasing Ashbread from the Oracle.

However, the more he thought about it, the less inclined he was to eat something like that.

It sounded even worse than eating the flesh of the abominable monsters of the earth.

Thinking about Aisha, he couldn't help but feel bad of taking advantage of the girl in such way.

His brows furrowed. Declan had once told him that kissing was only meant to be done between people who loved one another.

He couldn't help but think...

If he lived her at all?

Love was definitely a strong word. One he didn't think applied to this case.

He huffed then his nose crinkled up.

The scent of the sap owhen the leaves were broken from the vine was especially terrible. Like mold and rotting carcasses. Still, there wasn't much he could do about it.

He paused for a moment then activated Heretic Eyes.

He could see it. A concentrated stream of Ein Sof flowing through the veins of the leaves and then the vine as a whole made a completed path.

However, every time he plucked a leave, the path was broken and a little bit of the Ein Sof leaked.

He grimaced, 'Does it really smell so bad?'

He shook his head. There had to b another explanation.

With every leaf that was broken off, a new cyclic path as created within the individual leaves. They were all very identical, if not the same.

Nero slowly examined the dark green leaf seated between his fingers.

Then he looked around.

Everything that existed around him and even himself...

They all had different patterns of energy flow within them.

In the cases of more complex organisms, they were made up of multiple of such patterns. Hecoild only see the patterns when he made use of Heretic Eyes, but they were striking enough.

And with most of the patterns being very faint, he couldn't quite make them out.

Hence, the world always seemed to be in perpetual darkness whenever he made use of the Heretic Eyes skill.

Not a physical darkness. It was more of a general lack of something and not an absence.

The darker the surrounding was, the brighter the things with light seemed.

Like the humans surrounding him.

And the leaf in his palm.

And the creature that had been stalking them for a few hours now.

He had just recently discovered another boon of the Heretic Eye.

So long as it had Ein Sof within it, it was nearly impossible to lay down an ambush for him.

Thankfully, the creature didn't seem too powerful.

It had also been hesitant on engaging them so Nero assumed it would leave on its own very soon.

He shook his head and tund his focus back to the leaf.

The patterns were quite strange. Quite enigmatic.

They looked like runes, but they weren't quite. If the lines that made up the runes were rigid and dense, these were more willowy and loose.

The lines of flow were fine, finer than even the hairs of his head.

Nero couldn't help but make up a theory in his head.

These lines were the secrets of the strange, austere nature of this world.

Of course, he had already consulted the Oracle on the validity of his theory, but he had gotten the usual invalid response.

As such, he could only ponder on it for now.

Pondering was good.

It would take its mind off the madness clanging within his skull.

Nero let out another sigh.

Very soon, Obed called out,

"That's about it. We should move on to the next path."

In his hand was an open map.

He turned around, his face a scrunched up mess of frown lines,

"In a few minutes, we should approach the bog the Golems were last seen."

All this time, they had generally avoided the main bog areas, instead sticking to the paths with generally drier land. Now, it was finally time to head into the danger.

Nero huffed and rose to his feet.

Depending on the invincible grace that hung on all their heads, they were all going to acquire the special edible fungus, or they were all going to die.

There was no in-between.

Perhaps this was what the prophecy had meant by "Everyone will die."

He chuckled bitterly,

"Today does seem like a good day to die, doesn't it?"