Gigantomothia

The pools of ichor began to boil and steam, and an intense blast of heat arose from the moth’s body. They shield themselves with their arms as the searing heat nearly dries their eyes.

“The game really didn’t do this heat justice!” Leo thought.

The moth shot into the air and crashed back down into the ground, causing a giant wave of flame to shoot out from its body. Leo and Arte jumped over the attack, but the ground beneath their feet crumbled away.

“This never happened in the game.” She thought, remembering what she did before against Norn. “Right, if I can make use of it, why can’t they?”
Arte began to fall into the void below. Leo jumped off the wall with his catlike reflexes and leapt across the gap, grabbing her and one of the roots above them. The two of them now dangled from the wall together.

“You always come up with some crazy ideas.” She sighed in relief.

“It’s just what I do.” He says.

She takes her opportunity to grab a root and hangs from it, giving Leo’s arm a rest. They stared into the abyss below, but saw no signs of the monster.

“You think it died from the fall?” He asks.

“Don’t go after it, even if it did.” She says.

“Even I know not to leap into the void!” He exclaims. “Either way, this is a bit anticlimactic, don’t you think?”

The walls began to shake. The last bits of the ceiling fell apart. The shaking in the walls became rhythmic, like steps. A small light appeared at the edge of the darkness they could see.

The disgustingly sweet and rotting smell of the ichor grew strong as the light grew brighter. It was long before it was in full view. Gigantomothia was covered in ichor, and flames. Appearing like a ball of tar covered in flames. When it spotted the two of them, it sped up. Climbing the wall like a seasoned veteran, eyes locked on its prey.

“Climb!” Leo shouted.

They both started climbing as fast as possible. Rocks fell from the wall where they climbed, loosening the roots they grabbed. Leo steadily began to outpace Arte due to his superior stamina and his skill, which improved his agility. Gigantomothia fired a wide beam from its mouth, causing Leo to throw his body to the side to avoid it as it burned through the trees hanging from the crumbling entrance. He barely hung on with one arm as he flipped back onto the wall to continue the climb. With his speed, he managed to finish climbing and reached his hand off the edge. Noticing she was bleeding from her previous wounds. With the additional blood lost, she grew stronger and began climbing faster than before. Leo took a look at the flaming creature below and then the forest of Siladhi.

Leo gripped his daggers and took a deep breath, and resolved himself. Leo jumped into the hole, falling past Arte. She quickly turned when she saw a shadow pass by her.

“Leo?!” She questioned.

Gigantomothia fired several beams at him as he descended toward it. Leo adjusted his position and dodged the beams. Then, he jammed both his daggers into its large eyes. It roared from the pain. Its flaming body burned his legs, but he endured the pain and ripped his daggers from its eyes and started slashing the moth with a long string of horizontal and vertical slashes.

“Ahhh!” He shouted like a war cry to endure the burning pain.

The burning ichor crept up his leg, causing more of his body to burn. He shouts, but continues hacking away through the tar as more and more of his lower body begins to burn. The creature shook as another impact hit its body. Arte landed beside him, stabbing into the tar. The tar was so thick around it, it was practically a shell. They began cutting through it together, with their combined speed and strength, and they bored a hole straight through to the creature’s body. They both grabbed Arte’s sword with one hand and raised it high. Leo and Arte raise their middle fingers at it before jamming the sword straight through Gigantomothia’s head.

“Get lost!” They shout simultaneously.

The blow causes its body to release from the wall. Arte jumps up, catching a root extending from the wall, but Leo remains, trapped by the tar that runs up his lower body. The beast falls from the wall, leaving Leo to fall with it. Arte reached her hand out. Leo reached for it as well.

He couldn’t reach it.

Leo descended rapidly into the hole, and Arte’s visage vanished in seconds.

“Leo!” She exclaimed.

A shadow flew past Arte once more, diving straight into the darkness.

“Sky?” She questioned.

Leo could still feel his lower body burning from the Ichor. He used his dagger to try and slice it off its body, but it had already melted into the fibers of his clothes.

“Well, crap.” He sighed.

Sky landed on the creature and, using her raw strength, ripped Leo straight out of the ichor by the bag’s strap and threw him over her shoulders before jumping off the creature’s head. The corpse slammed into the ichor below and sank beneath the surface. Sky and Leo landed back in the forest of Siladhi. She set Leo on the ground and stared back into the hole.

“That ichor… It’s Malady’s doing.” She spoke.

“I remember that the last hero sealed her within the earth. Is she breaking free or something?” Leo asks.

“That ichor is like her essence. It corrupts and eventually warps you into something like her.” Sky continued. “Had you been fully engulfed, you’d have become…”

“An abomination.” Arte finished.

“Powerful creatures twisted by her desire to destroy the very planet. Even now, her ichor is attempting to do just that. You both saw for yourselves, right? The rotting ichor-filled roots.” She says.

They nod.

“I needed you to see what was happening. If she isn’t stopped, then all life on the planet will be consumed by ichor.”

“How do we stop it?” Leo asks, already aware of the answer in his head.

“You need to gather allies. It's not something the two of you can do alone.” She states. “Then you need something to purify her essence and destroy her for good.”

“Then, what will we need?” Arte asks.

“Honestly, I’m not sure. Finding something capable of purifying and destroying such a mass of hatred and contempt is going to be difficult.” She admitted.

“But that’s part of the journey!” Sky exclaimed. “Now then.”

She turned her attention to Leo.

“Were you trying to get yourself killed?” She questioned.

“She’s right, there had to be a better way,” Arte adds. “You can’t keep doing reckless things like this.”

“I kinda felt like I had to.” He admits.

She sighs deeply and tries helping Leo to his feet. He tightly shut his eyes and grit his teeth while attempting to stand.

“Are you okay?” Arte asks.

Sky peers at his legs.

“Come on, take them off,” Sky ordered.

“Huh?” He questioned.

“Take off your pants.” She specified.

Arte’s eyes shot over to Sky, but she quickly understood.

“Yeah… Just take them off.” Arte agreed.

Leo removed his pants, groaning in pain the whole time. His pants were practically stuck to his legs, and removing them proved difficult. After a few minutes, he got them off, revealing tendril-like reddish markings that spiralled up his legs. Arte poked one, and his leg tremored.

“Ouch! Why’d you do that?” He exclaims.

“Why were you so reckless back there?” Sky asks. “Your legs are burned. If Arte didn’t jump down there, you’d have been much worse off.”

Sky looked over to Arte and down to her legs.

“Take’em off,” Sky asks.

Arte threw up both her hands in defense.

“I wasn’t in it as long as he was, and it didn’t even burn me. I lost enough blood to be capable of withstanding the heat.” Arte says.

“Either way, I want to check, there are always those who try to hide their injuries only to die later. Take them off.” Sky states.

“Leo’s right here.” Arte points out.

“You don’t think he’s embarrassed being half naked next to two women?” She questions.

“...”

She silently removes her pants, and like she mentioned earlier, her skin has no traces of burns.

“Welcome to the club,” Leo says.

“It's kinda drafty out.” She said while trying to hide her embarrassment.

“I can’t really tell.” He says.

“You can put them back on Arte.” Sky pauses. “I said it to tease you; I didn’t expect that you would actually do it.”

Arte sighs.

“I’m too tired to even get angry at this point,” Arte admitted, while throwing her hands up.

“But what I want to know is why you jumped, Leo.” Sky questions.

“I didn’t want it to burn down the forest. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for burning down my mentor’s home.” He said. “I did what I thought I had to.”

She plucked him in the head.

“Again?!”

“You see these ears, right?” She pointed. “I’m elven. I live for far longer than you both; I could’ve taken my time regrowing this forest from scratch. You only have one life. If it were the forest or either of you, I’d pick either of you each time. I do appreciate your honesty, willingness to sacrifice for my sake, but you need to be more mindful of your own life and the people who’d miss you.”

“Alright.” He agreed.

“Come on, Arte, let's help him to the cabin.” Sky suggested.

They each took an arm and threw it over their shoulders, then helped him back to the cabin.

“By the way, how would you both like to attend the Valmanhyn School of Blades?” Sky asks.