Chapter 15

The grassland ahead of Wil was oddly familiar. He couldn’t place his finger on it, but the gentle rising hills, with low growing, green shrubbery could have been taken straight from Western Illyria.

What was stranger were the umbrella pine trees, growing tall and skinny in clumps everywhere. He had only seen those grow in the south.

It was a mishmash of different environments, as if the Dragon Turtle had picked a few square miles from every part of Illyria and mashed them together without logic. Dry, desert scrubland next to swiftly running rivers and lakes.

He could even see a snow-capped mountain to his left, or what he took to calling west by the way the sun was traveling. The rocky mountain was encircled by eastern Illyrian farmland, wheat and barely making a golden ring around its base.

It was confusing and made finding his bearings nearly impossible. He would have been totally lost if not for the source of corruption ahead, like a marker in the distance, showing him the way.

After leaving the beach, he had walked for miles across hard packed and flat dirt, his boots kicking up clouds of dust with every step. Only the occasional brown and scraggly bush or plant would break up the monotonous travel across this portion of desolate landscape.

After only a couple miles, he left the dry wasteland behind, entering a swamp. Stagnant and brackish water blocked his path, with small ‘islands’ of muskeg leading forward.

These mossy pieces of land were situated to far for him to easily step from one to another. Water could stretch for dozens of feet before he could make it to solid land again.

Conjuring a long pole, he prodded the waters, hopeful they were reasonably shallow. This time, however, he wasn’t in luck, Wil would need to either hop the muskeg, or risk swimming in the water.

Quickly making his decision, his vision turned white as he disappeared from where he stood, teleporting over the patch of water and reappearing on firm ground again. Stumbling a step to regain his foot on the slippery and mossy ground, he looked for his next destination before disappearing again, ‘Misty Stepping’ to the next island of muskeg.

With ‘Misty Step’s’ Wil leapt the swamp in 30-foot jumps, casting them in succession until his mana ran low and he was forced to catch his breath, waiting for the thick ambient mana to refill his core.

Unlike the real world, his mana replenished at an astonishing rate here in the Dragon Turtle’s Inner Realm. In under an hour, he was rested and ready to travel again. His journey through the swamp was only a few miles long, but it took him hours to traverse the tricky terrain.

For the rest of the day, he repeated this process as he traveled from one environment to the next, hopping lengths of swiftly running water, or wide rivers, even a deep, rocky gorge, as he continued to travel to the source of the corruption he felt ahead.

The terrain constantly shifted, from grassland, to arctic tundra, more swamps and even a set of cobblestoned city streets, without the buildings to identify their origin.

He suspected they came from Lund, since they were laid in a design he was unfamiliar with. Rather than horizontal or vertical lines of similar colored stones, these formed swirling patterns of various shades. Flowers, stars, even suns in white, grey and black.

Shrugging at the peculiarity of it all, he traveled on, not stopping long to satisfy his curiosity. If he survived this, he was sure that damned turtle would have some answers for him. His respect for ‘Lord Azure’ had lasted until he left the beach, sand filling his boots uncomfortably. Each new challenge made him swear on the demigod more and more.

Muttering curses under his breath, most of which he had learned from Garman, he trudged on.

The strange, single flame overhead traveled across the sky, until it was low on the horizon, only the tip of its orange flame visible. Wil was now in a forest, with tall, leafy trees that he didn’t recognize, and a dense undergrowth of moss and fallen branches.

After traveling the entire day, using his spells to cross difficult areas, he was exhausted, and looking for a suitable campsite. He was thankful that everything he needed was in his bag of holding, with a tent and rations to last him awhile.

Without seeing a clearing in the woods around him, he continued forward, looking for the first clear area to pitch his tent. Spotting a wide gap in the tightly packed trees ahead, he quickened his pace, eager to rest.

Bursting from the brush and trees, he stopped, stunned by what he was seeing. In front of him was a beach, the white sand ending abruptly in a sea of blackness. For as far as he could see, tar-like, black water extended, until he could no longer make out its end.

The black water was stagnant and calm, not stirring at all, despite the slight breeze that was coming from across it. The wind, even though it did not disturb the water, carried a foul stench from the black ocean. The sweet smell of rot and decay, mixed with cloying smell of sickness and infection.

Wil stood on the edge of the tree line, staring at the waters. He recognized the ocean before him, and the smell on the wind. It was the black, infectious blood that was now infecting the Dragon Turtle’s Inner World. He had come to the one of the sources of the corruption.

But Wil was confused by what he was seeing. He could sense it in the distance, somewhere far out into the ocean before him, a single point radiating negative energy. It wasn’t coming from the entire body of water, but rather something in the water.

Carefully, Wil walked away from the forest, tentatively walking on the beach to assess the blood. The beach was miles long, and just as wide as the one he had arrived on. Unlike the ocean he had seen before, this one stretched far into the distance, it didn’t appear to suddenly end and fall into the void.

Also, unlike the other ocean, this one was gradually getting bigger. Now that he was standing on the white sand, he could see the blood slowly approaching him, inching forward at a steady pace. Unlike a wave, or the tide, this water didn’t retreat. From what he was seeing, given enough time, this ocean would cover the entire inner realm in its foulness.

Looking around, Wil spotted a rock in the distance, just on the edge of the shoreline. Made of black, volcanic rock, it jutted from the beach, towering over the land nearby. At its peak, the rock was flat, and he could make out something white at the edge.

Eyes widening at what he was seeing, Wil dashed forward, slipping and sliding in the fine white sand in his hurry. Not caring, he ran forward, until he was close enough to ‘Misty Step’ to the peak. His vision flashing white, Wil reappeared on top of the rock, staring at the white, beechwood altar on the summit.

It was exactly the same as the one he had been standing on while meeting with the Dragon Turtle. The altar was filled with runes, and writings, matching its appearance in the real world.

Tracing his fingers along the etchings, Wil wondered at the significance of its presence here, at one of the sources of infection.

Around the Altar, baskets of fresh fruit and fish, even the coconuts he had been enjoying, were stacked neatly around it, reflecting the real world exactly.

Reaching down, he picked up a small coconut, bouncing it in his hand lightly as he marveled at how real it looked. And maybe it was real, maybe the Dragon Turtle brought its offerings here, for some reason only a divinity could understand.

Lost in thought, Wil’s lack of focus made him miss catching the coconut, which brushed past his fingertips before bouncing on the rock several times, before rolling off the side and plunging into the ocean below.

Scrambling, he tried to pick it up, but he was too late.

With a splash, the coconut quickly sank from view. Ripples spread out across the ocean of black blood, before the water was calm again.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Wil stood back up from where he was crouched, his hand still outstretched to catch the wayward offering. Relaxing, he went back to studying the altar when the ocean in front of him began to roil and swirl.

Before his eyes, something massive began to surge out of the infectious sea before him.