“Why do you say that, Huntress?” I asked, trying to be a bit more straightforward with her now.
“The corruption runs deep in the forest,” she explained, “and probably has roots into the mountain itself. I have no doubt that the place of power is going to be unusable as long as this sickness continues to plague the area. You would be cut off from your followers and eventually get bored of leading an empty place.”
“What exactly is this corruption?” I asked.
“Do you know anything of it so far?” she asked.
“All we know is from the corrupted brown bear we just encountered,” Aphrodite replied. “The beast looked like it should have died, probably from a blow to the head. Not only was it not dead, but its HP was way above its maximum, even though its body clearly wasn’t healed. When did it all start?”
“It started around two months ago,” the goddess of the hunt explained. “It was a warm, starry night and I was hunting with the pack when a bright star fell from the sky and landed on the mountainside with a deafening boom.”
“A star fell on the mountain?” I asked, surprised.
“I assume so,” she said shrugging her shoulders. “I never got the chance to see it up close. When I approached the place where it landed, it had caused a massive landslide and it was buried under tons of boulders.”
“And that’s when the corrupted beasts started appearing?” Aphrodite asked.
“No,” she said, but then reconsidered her reply. “At least, not immediately. In the beginning, I noticed differences in the vegetation around the landing site. Large trees that had not been there before suddenly grew many feet tall. The grass had grown considerably too, and there was lush greenery everywhere. It was as if there was a strong life force feeding everything organic around it.”
“You think it was some kind of life essence that fell from the sky?” I asked.
“I do not know and I did not care,” she continued. “For all I knew, this appeared to be an outstanding gift. The parts of the forests around the crash site were becoming denser to the point of entering jungle territory. But that was when I started noticing changes in some of the beasts indigenous to this ecosystem.”
“They were becoming corrupted?” I asked.
“Not at first,” she replied, and turned to look at the wolves around her. “Many of the beasts would flee to the site when they were feeling sick or injured. Soon after, they would return, their HP having completely restored even though the sickness or injury they had would not have disappeared. Many times I saw deer that were missing parts of their necks and should have been lying dead walking around with their HP bars full as if nothing had happened.”
“Were those beasts corrupted already?” Aphrodite asked her.
“I had no idea until I decided to get closer and try to examine them,” Artemis explained. “Not only did the beasts now have the word ‘corrupted’ in their name, but they had also lost their instincts.”
“Do you mean their killer instincts?” I followed up. “Because that bear looked like it wanted to kill us just fine.”
“That’s all they have left,” she replied, and I thought I saw a hint of sadness in her eyes. “Their hunting spirit has completely left them. They are merely husks of the glorious beasts they used to be, intent only on killing. They just continue fighting and raising their HP until someone takes them down.”
“That bear’s injuries were clearly severe, but its HP was almost four times what its maximum should have been,” I said. “If I hadn’t looked at its HP, I would have thought there was some kind of necromancy spell compelling it to move.”
“I have fought undead before, and this is not the same,” the huntress replied, confirming my own suspicions. “It almost feels like the opposite of it.”
“The opposite of necromancy?” I wondered out loud. “Wouldn’t that be normal healing?”
“But this is clearly not normal healing,” Aphrodite noted. “This is an intrusive life force that takes away the beasts’ individualities and tries to keep them alive without actually taking the limits of their bodies into consideration.”
“You think it’s a sickness or state similar to being undead, only on the other end of the spectrum?” I asked, finally understanding what she meant. “In that case, perhaps we can find a way to harness its power and repurpose it into something we can use.”
“There is no middle ground with this sickness,” Artemis warned, “and I will not sit idle while you try to harness it instead of eradicating it.”
“What is your suggestion then?” I asked. “Because we did not come here expecting to have to cleanse your forest.”
Stolen story; please report.
“I have been fighting the corruption since I understood its invasive nature,” Artemis said. “I know where the core of it still rests, deep within a complex of caves inside the belly of the mountain. The very same mountain you say you want to command. So far I have only been able to contain it in there. Going in there with all of my beasts might prove successful, but it would likely end up a bloodbath.”
“You think that three gods would have a better chance?” Aphrodite asked.
“Exactly. And before you tell me that this is not your problem to solve, think of this,” the huntress continued. “If you are to rule over this whole mountain, how long before it does become your problem? How long before the corruption starts to claim your followers?”
“You do have a point,” I said. “But it’s not a problem we would face for some time. Right now, I’m more concerned about being surrounded by predators.”
“They can be persuaded to leave. Not that it matters,” she said with a sigh, and tilted her head to the side, nodding at the wolves.
Without waiting a single second, all of the black beasts stood up and turned their backs on us, disappearing into the darkness around us. We could not know how far they had retreated, of course, and I guessed this was what Artemis had meant when she said that it did not matter.
“Regardless, I appreciate the gesture,” I told her. “It seems that you would require assistance to cleanse these lands of the corruption without having to sacrifice those magnificent beasts of yours.”
“They are not mine,” she said dryly, “and they would gladly die fighting this sickness. But I would indeed much rather do this without them spilling their blood. It’s one thing to get killed in a hunt, but quite another to throw their lives into something as evil as this.”
“And of course you would want to continue hunting here afterward?” Aphrodite added.
“You might become masters of the mountain, but the wilds belong to nobody,” Artemis said, though her resolve was focused more on me than Aphrodite who was the one to insinuate this. “I will hunt wherever I please and woe betide those who try to forbid me from doing so.”
“I would never consider such a thing. It seems to me that we can help each other in this situation,” I suggested.
“How would you help me, and what would you require of me in return?” she said, now finally putting her bow into her extra-dimensional inventory.
“I have no doubt three gods would be able to take care of whatever is the source of this corruption,” I said, starting with what I knew she wanted to hear. “This way, the lands will be cleared for you, and your beasts will no longer be in danger. All this, without any of your wolves getting hurt.”
“I would argue that this would be an advantage to you as well,” she interjected, “seeing how you plan to rule over this whole mountain.”
“She is right,” Aphrodite said.
I turned and raised my eyebrows at her for siding with the huntress. “While that is somewhat true, we’re not the ones who care about this issue right now. We have much more pressing issues to address. We would only be doing this for you. In order to help you.”
“And what would you want in return?” Artemis asked again.
“If we succeed, I want you to join us,” I said.
Both of them looked at me in surprise.
“I want you to join my guild and protect these lands with us,” I continued.
“We have not discussed adding more people so soon,” Aphrodite said, a hint of annoyance coloring her voice.
“It is okay,” Artemis replied, waving her hand dismissively. “I do not care about divine politics and have absolutely no interest in the machinations of other gods.”
“I was not assuming you did,” I said calmly. “What is it you really want?”
“I have expressed my wishes and intentions clearly. I wish to protect the wilds and its creatures from outside interference,” she said, and paused to think the next part for a couple of seconds. “Above all, I care about the hunt.”
“What if I guaranteed that you would never be involved in politics?” I said, taking a step closer to her. “But more importantly, I can promise that you will get to hunt things you have never even heard of.”
I could see in her eyes that the last part had caught her attention. She had made it perfectly clear that she cared about the hunt more than anything else, but how diverse could hunting really be if all she ever did was stay on this mountain? There were only a limited number of beasts to hunt here.
“My father is a titan,” I explained. “A type of god that is older than myself and probably older than you too. If we are to go up against him, you can be sure that your hunting and fighting skills will be challenged to their limits.”
“And this titan father of yours is powerful and has more beasts?” she asked, though it was pretty obvious she had already made her decision.
“From monsters with gigantic horns to quick and stealthy feline beasts and flying behemoths,” I said, thinking through some of the monsters my father had tried to train or hunt for sport over the centuries. “Your hunting game can only profit from this.”
“Hunting is not a game, Zeus,” she said, her voice serious now. “It is a way of life. I will join your guild and your cause under one condition.”
“I will help you eradicate whatever this thing is so that no more of these lands are corrupted,” I agreed.
“That, and I want you to promise to protect this mountain and all the creatures around it from outside dangers to the very best of your abilities,” she said and paused for a moment, “even if I am not around to see it.”
I had no idea what reason she could possibly have for being afraid that she would not be around to protect these lands anymore, and why this place was particularly important to her. Come to think of it, she had never mentioned what brought her to live and hunt here in the first place. Judging by her demeanor so far, I doubted I would be able to get any information out of her just yet, so I decided to leave the questions for another time.
What was important now was that she had agreed to join my guild and help me in my fight against my father. I wasn’t sure if she had quite realized what she was getting herself into, or whether she just thought that what was underneath the mountain was so dangerous that it was worth her pledging her allegiance to me.
Regardless, I sent her a guild invite and she looked up at me, eyes wide and expectant.
“I promise to protect this mountain and all things living here from any outside dangers to the very best of my abilities,” I said verbatim, “even if you, Artemis, are not around to see it.”
* * *
Artemis has accepted your guild invitation.
You can view the status of all available guild members through the guild menu.
* * *
“Welcome to the guild, Artemis,” I said.