Blighted Edge

Chapter 2. Executioner

The sun shone bright this day, some clouds however would linger high in the heavens. The burning and a grotesque stench would linger as well, waking many within the town square. A charred body was found, but a worse murder had been committed.

"Why?!?! WHY WOULD SOMEONE DO THIS!?!!" A maiden cried out in the streets, holding the head of the white statue which was so neatly crafted. It was done so well before it chipped heavily after toppling and even the neck where it was severed was so profound, it was nearly clean, but from the stone and force used, it broke and seemed to be that someone brutally forced it off with raw strength and a wedge. Women wept over the statue of a famous town hero. "Our poor Volero! We will have justice!" a man cried out, raising his arms in anger.

No longer a forest in which the two traveled on, but instead plains outreaching far and wide and a solitary road which continued off in the distance with very few others to connect and carry on their way to far off places aside from the main city they are headed next. This was truly their first stop together, for their main quest.

Boots hit the dirt path with vigor, and the flowing of tattered cloth from a cloak and baggy clothing underneath sullied armor would wave about as Vivex walked with a sort of stomp. He did this ceaselessly towards the city which would take a while on foot. Occasionally a horse-drawn carriage would wander along and pass by. No matter what, Vivex didn't care for his armor. He occasionally looked at it- but something occurred to the girl who traveled alongside him as she skipped with a happy tone and hummed, passing him and turning to him. There were many questions she had only recently been swept up by the man and dragged saying stuff about her future. Her golden hair would flow softly, and her dress which she managed to clean at any point she could get. She stopped for a moment, her hazel eyes glancing up and down. The armor would gleam in certain spots- but it was rusted, worn, dented, dirty. There were many ways to describe it.
"Do you...ever take off your armor?" She blurted in thought. He continued straight on his path.

"No-" he spoke in reply.

"You haven't eaten, or drank anything either, I suppose you do that at some point?" She continued to question, skipping backward whilst still ahead. He only continued forward as he tried to recall the last time he ate.

"Hmm.." he mumbled to himself for a moment. "About last week" he replied. Her expression changed.

"You are human...right?" She questioned, now confused about his true nature even more. "You had to have been, but I can't exactly imagine that being something a human suffers through, and even if they did....you don't seem to suffer-" it was that last sentence that made him stop dead in his tracks. He looked down at his feet, and the girl stopped before walking towards him.

"You speak of suffering like I do not experience or haven't. But I suppose you don't know the whole story. Your words-" he paused for a second before his gaze met hers. Again, a flash of white under his metal helmet would meet with her eyes. "Your words piss me off, greatly. I will continue with my tale- where did I leave off?"

"I believe you were telling me of the corruption, and how you planned to enter it? Or more of what it is?" Riel replies, standing before him. He looked at her and nodded recalling that from his past.

"March forward, and I will continue to tell" he spoke, and without hesitation, she nodded and continued to skip forward.

A visualization would appear in his mind of the events that continued to unfold like a map on a table of the travel points from country and continent, to ocean and road. Going from place to place as fast as they could to track down this corruption. "It was on an opposing continent, but getting there wasn't too difficult-" he said. "The actual place it leaked through was large, it should be even bigger and mostly no one ever dares get near it. To the point where the country has built walls and gotten as far from it as possible. But dangers are lurking even if it isn't that- The Beyond some refer to it. In the book- they never called it "The Corruption" they phrased it as some dimension or realm aside from ours. But you may say "Hey Vivex...isn't there a spiritual realm? Or maybe more?" And to that I could say sure, I've encountered spirits, but that's not in my profession..." he paused for a moment. "The Beyond is just one of these realms, it is a realm of blight, corruption is how we put it for the way it transforms, contorts, and eats living beings. It's...." he paused and thought more about it, then shook his head. "The earth around the actual leak is a deep purple or bright greenish-yellow, sometimes grey, or black and ashen. It is many colors, but natural it isn't- anyone looking at it could tell, and when you step on it...it feels wrong. We eventually found the leak, the opening to The Beyond. And we managed to open it further. Entering it is easy, you'd be surprised, but getting out?" He paused and then took a deep breath.