Vampire Nightlife

[Corrupted Tree Blending Insect]

A herbivore and docile insect that protects itself from its predators from blending with trees and its environment. Encountering the ******** has led to its transformation to a far scarier existence that seeks to inhabit other hosts.

Corruption: 35% (inactive)

"The… the hell is this." Lukas muttered as he tried not to touch his face and simply noticed the description given to the now dead insect.

As much as Lukas wanted to get feedback from Drusilla, it seemed like he was on his own right now. There was a certain ringing in his ear that was caused by the wailing thing earlier and it now rendered his connection terrible.

"It's now inactive, and the corruption is just at 35%—so that means there are far more corrupted things within this forest. Some are maybe inactive, others active?" Lukas glanced at the tree and checked its status.

[Corrupted Everdark Tree]

The Dark Forest is home to its native host of varying flora and fauna, the most common of all is the Everdark species that are able to absorb a great amount of sunlight to be stored for future purposes which also provides great shades of darkness.

As the power of ******** spread itself across the entire scope of the Dark Forest, this tree has become affected by its powers.

Corruption: 13% (inactive)

"Again, inactive and less corruption." Lukas frowned and noticed how the tree itself seemed safe and didn't went out of its way to attack him. "That's a good thing, but then there's this unreadable word now. That… that really isn't a good sign. Think Lukas, think."

The reason why there had been a thick veil in the Veiled Forest was once presumed to be due to the Heart of the Forest's choice to protect its inhabitants from the outside world, and things turned out differently when it was the Water Nymph trying to hide the Dryad from everyone else.

"Obviously, there's something in the forest now—and if the Dryad wasn't friendly before, this one… well this one is certainly way more worse than it if it goes around corrupting everything." Lukas muttered. "But the thing is, it's inactive—at least, if the Durand girl said that the forest was safe before, then I believe that. So something has changed since the last time that led to whatever's behind everything to start waking up and turning its host of corrupted things into active hostile things."

Lukas' heart didn't exactly skip, but after a heartbeat—the conclusion came in of itself.

"Rhea? Even though she's changed, she's still a Dream Eater and maybe that's got something to do with this thing waking up and everything. And if that's the case, then it really isn't a good thing at all. There's Rhea and then there's this. How am I going to stop something like that while also trying to save Rhea?" Lukas asked, slowly getting back up to his feet.

"Ideas? Anything? Drusilla—anyone?"

"—l—h." Drusilla's voice faintly came back.

"Yeah, this isn't really helpful." Lukas took a deep breath and glanced around his surroundings. "…about this time, here's me hoping that Matthew and the other two returned to Nyx and still warned everyone about what's happening here in the Dark Forest."

Lukas held the dagger tightly in his hand but somehow, even the relic from ages ago didn't comfort him at all.

Whatever this thing was, it was enough to block a connection between two Vampires who were bound together by blood and agreement… and if that wasn't anything more dangerous than Lukas' previous encounters, then he didn't know what was.

"At least Chaerin and everyone's back at Nyx. Everyone's safe there—they have to be safe. Surely, a Vampire city has its stronghold and protection against cases like this one, so all I have to do is step forward and then I'll…"

"—If you don't take another move, you'll just end up standing there and getting yourself killed, you know that?" a familiar voice said.

Lukas froze and immediately looked up to see the three people that he wanted to see the least. Matthew, Anthony and even Philip were there and watching him.

How exactly long had they been there?

Why hadn't he noticed them?

"Are you okay, Lukas?" Matthew approached him and then his eyes widened. "He's bleeding. His ears are bleeding, Anthony—?"

"Got it. Brought the first aid kit. Well, Philip did." Anthony turned to the other Vampire.

"We leave him for like a couple of minutes and then he goes on and destroys his eardrums, incredible." Philip muttered as he opened the box and looked at the contents. "Uh… I don't know what to give."

"Just give me that." Matthew said. "What happened?"

"Ears bursting remember?" Philip said.

"—can hear properly, thanks." Lukas said and wiped the blood away from his ears before Matthew could do it for him. "My regenerative ability is pretty good, so I think it's easy to say that I'm fine now. I just don't know what the heck you guys are doing here. Didn't I tell you to leave? If anything—I'm surprised that Philip is still here too."

"Don't ask too many questions, just be happy that we came back. I don't think this is something that you can handle alone." Philip replied.

"Yeah, I know that you said that you were strong—but ah, it's probably better if there were more people right?" Anthony said then jerked his head to corrupted insect. "That's uh, I haven't seen that before."

"We just couldn't leave you behind like that, even if you ask. Even if it makes sense for us to leave." Matthew said as he pored over the first aid kit then finally closed it.

"How long have you guys been standing behind me?" Lukas asked. He didn't like the fact that he had lost his hearing for a substantial amount of time that they were able to sneak up to him.

"…just a good amount of time."

"I don't like the sound of that." Lukas said. "But this isn't great either way, go back now. There's something even more dangerous than Rhea."