The night was long, and despite their best efforts none of the group could fall asleep. They would lay back against the rock resting to replenish their strength, yet sleep eluded all of them. Throughout the night Leopold and Rick stayed separated, never exchanging a word. They left their argument buried behind them, no apologies or further vitriolic remarks escaping the two. Though they both tried to play off the heated moment they shared, it was clear to Jake tensions were still high.

Rick spent his time simply staring over the edge of the rock, gazing out into the black void they all would soon be braving. Every time Jake looked over at him, his face was filled with pure concentration. Yet occasionally, he could see his brow break into a look of worry. It was clear even he doubted what lay ahead of them beyond in the lake of blood.

Leopold never once moved away from Lana’s side following her emotional outburst. Occasionally Jake could hear him make little jokes or try to start a story to soothe her. His efforts seemed to be bearing fruit, as time went on she slowly uncurled herself more and more. Eventually Jake could see a small smile return to her face as she joined in joking with Leopold. She looked better to Jake, but he could tell she was still incredibly shaken. Her body had a slight tremble and though she smiled and laughed with Leopold, her eyes looked sunken and lifeless.

Jake himself also spent the night in a restless haze. The group remained on the rock thus far even after having decided on their next course of action in order to hopefully recuperate their strength, however, it felt the longer they delayed the more drained they became. Their wills were slowly sapped away, drained into the blood below till they were left like husks doubting and dreading the continuation of their journey.

Their restless retreat continued till at last Rick stood up with a shout and began packing. He said nothing to anyone else, but his meaning was clear to everyone gathered. They all began to move as well, a shared sentiment of resentment for the rock had grown between them. Whatever happened now, it would be better than staying trapped on the cliffside, waiting to die.

Jake’s stuff was packed quickly, he never really bothered unpacking in the first place save for his now-ruined blanket. He’d avoided digging through his bag purposefully, he didn’t relish the idea of seeing the few possessions he still had coated and destroyed in blood. His bag settled back onto his back Jake walked over to where Lana was sitting. He sat across from her. Her bag sat packed next to her, once massive and oversized it looked deflated now and packed without any real care.

“Are you sure you’ll be ok?” Jake asked as he glanced around, Leopold had moved away to pack his own supplies leaving Lana alone for the first time in a while. Jake was a bit worried she might backslide into a panic attack when left alone. She simply smiled up at Jake at his question and nodded, her voice quiet and tired escaping in a whisper.

“I thought about it for a while… I would rather die trying out there than sitting here. I’m fine… more than fine with moving forward. If I had to stay on this rock any longer, I might have peeled my skin off.” She let out a light chuckle after that last statement, as if she was sharing a hilarious joke with him but in Jake’s eyes it sounded more like a threat.

Jake stood up and offered her his hand to help her up. She took it and stood up on shaky legs. He helped her steady herself for a few minutes before she managed to stabilize her legs beneath her. With Lana on her feet and Jake and Rick finished packing, the group headed toward the sloped edge of the rock, where the sloshing waves of dark blood beckoned them.

Leopold led the way first, reentering the blood by swinging himself over the edge of the rock. He struggled for a moment, nearly sinking below the surface of the lake as his armor broke the surface of the blood all at once, the weight dragging him down combined with the already viscous nature of the blood. Thankfully he still held on to the rock as he sang into the blood, so he didn’t need to worry about falling below the surface again.

Rick followed after him, and though he didn’t have nearly as much trouble because he lacked the weight Leopold did since he didn’t carry any armor he struggled at first when first entering the lake. Lana followed and Jake brought up the rear.

Swimming through the blood was as horrid as Jake remembered it to be. It soaked through his clothes as soon as he sunk into it, chilling Jake to the bones. With grunts of effort, he struggled to pull his arms and legs upward, resisting the effort of the blood to drag him downward. They hadn’t even begun moving forward yet. Still, they clung to the rock for support. Yet hanging there treading blood Jake was already beginning to feel exhausted just from the effort of fighting the viscous fluid surrounding him.

Yet it grew even worse when the time finally came for the group to push off from the rock and forward onward through the blood. Jake remembered breaking through the surface of the blood to be an exhaustive task but it felt even worse now. His lack of any real meaningful rest was hitting him hard. Constantly he expended mass amounts of effort and energy only to feel like he hardly moved forward at all, or worse sometimes felt like he sunk backwards.

He wasn’t the only one, the entirety of the group struggled to swim. Though he avoided sinking before, Leopold wasn’t so lucky to maintain this streak as the group moved forward. Despite his best efforts, multiple times he’d find his head sinking beneath the waves of blood only to have to desperately struggle back up.

Jake moved forward, straining his neck upward, and scoured below the surface of the blood with his foot for any hint of solid ground, but none came. This desperate search not only grew more frustrating the longer it went on, as it failed to produce any sort of results, but also dangerous as Jake found himself falling behind from the already slowed group. Worst of all was when his head would dip below the waves, following after his bobbing legs. Most of the time he could close his mouth tight, and deny the blood any entry into his body. But not every time was he so lucky.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

He’d expected the blood to still taste of iron, as the meat of animals he’d eaten influenced by The Corruption had still tasted normal enough. That had not been the taste. The taste of pure rot flowed across his tongue and filled his mouth. A horrid sensation of ruin and death his brain struggled to process, caused his tongue to shrivel and curl back down his throat. This first time it invaded his mouth he’d been so off guard he’d lost all control, sputtering and coughing floundering about the place in the lake. He only survived because one of the trio, who exactly he hadn’t been able to see, had managed to catch hold of his arm and hold him upright above the water till he recovered.

Since then, Jake dreaded the thought of even a single drop of blood finding its way onto his tongue, the horrid taste still sharp in his throat. But he couldn’t help but search the depth below for some sign of ground he could walk across. It had been hours upon hours since the group had left the rock yet how far they progressed was impossible to tell. The rock that had served as both prison and salvation the past few days had faded into the distance long ago. Now all that remained was the unending sight of blood.

Pushing onwards on their exhaustive journey, Jake paused as he felt his toe touch the ground below. It wasn’t much, barely a fleeting feeling of ground but something solid definitely lurked below in the dark. Moving forward with more determination, his fatigue almost melting away, he soon found himself able to balance on his toes. It wasn’t a comfortable way to stand, nor was it easy to shuffle forward but it did offer some sort of hope.

Continuing forward on his toes, slowly but surely the ground below lengthened till at last he could stand flat-footed, his head bobbing above the surface of the lake. He wasn’t the only one, all the group stood still now bobbing in the water. They faced each other in an awkward circle catching their breaths. Looking around they could still make out nothing save for the endless pool of blood, but the rising of the shore beneath them was a good sign. It marked they were leaving the deeper parts of the plains that once surrounded Largo and hopefully meant they would be approaching the city soon.

The group stood in silence, save for the heavy panting breaths that escaped each of them for an unknown amount of time. When a decent amount of time had passed and the collective stamina of the group had seemed to recover somewhat, Lana raised her arm up from the blood far above her head. Her face looked calm, calmer now than Jake had seen it the past few days despite the endless toil through the blood.

A beat of silence followed after she raised her arm before another spark and a flare of magic was sent flying into the sky. It exploded up into the air, as she kept her hand up exertion clear on her face. However, soon a gasp escaped her lips as her attention was drawn away from the exertion pulling at her body. Similar gasps would escape the rest of the collected group.

Hidden in the dark now exposed by Lana’s flares were several small islands made of towering rocks or boulders, though the depth of blood surrounding these misshapen bits of rock was unclear. What drew the eye was to the right of the group, a crumbling wall made of a mix of steel and carved stone. Ramparts lay deserted while torches were long extinguished and the only sign of what once laid behind it where in the ruined banners hanging limply from its sides. The wall of Largo stood ruined, unknown to Jake, and unrecognizable to those who’d seen it before.

But the ruined state of the wall was not what drew shocked cries from the group. Their collective shock came from the way the wall pulsated in the light. The way the dull grey of stone gave way to dull grey flesh which pulsed rhythmically. Soon as the light hit the sky shrieks could be heard, collective and revolting from the wall and beyond. The shrieks were awe-inspiring in their volume and magnitude. What looked like the remains of arms and legs, shriveled and unused, hung from the flesh like hair. They could see not only human remains but also animals collected into the mound of flesh.

It pushed through the wall, oozing through its mortar and the ruined gate that still stood separating its mass from the outside. From it, black blood flowed in unending quantities downward into the lake below, an unending source of decay and rot. What remained of the people of Largo, the bare minimum the group could see in the flare’s light beyond the city wall pulsed as a true Swarm, mutated and bounded together in eternal torment and madness.

It was disgusting, Jake felt nothing but horror and despair when he looked upon the mound of flesh. He struggled not to vomit, succeeding only by virtue of the fact he’d had nothing to eat but some disgusting dried beef the last few days. It wasn’t too far from them. Since they could walk now within the lake of blood, they could probably reach it within an hour. Maybe less. Yet he felt no desire to pull himself closer to the flesh of Largo. Even from a distance, he could tell it was massive. Jake remembered what Rick had said about Largo, he imagined the flesh stretching and spanning to cover the whole of the city.

Presently, as it sat pressed against the walls and gate of the city, he could see no other way into the city. Uncertain of what to do next, Jake looked around the group to see they were showing similar faces to his. None of them wanted to approach the flesh, none of them saw a way inside anymore.

Looking around at the endless blood flowing around him, as the shrieks and cries from the flesh began to grow louder Jake began to worry that he might have been the deciding vote that led all of them to a dead end, nowhere to go.

Suddenly, Lana surprised everyone by interrupting the brooding silence that settled upon the group after they caught sight of Largo,

“We can get in there. What it’ll be like inside I don’t know, but we can get in over there.”

The group turned to see Lana pointing with her other hand toward a massive island in the blood to the left a decent way away from where the gate of Largo stood. Her face held a look of grim determination on it. Jake looked at the island with confusion while Leopold and Rick only gasped and nodded in understanding before leading the group forward. Lana kept her hand held high, the flare burning overhead. Jake came beside her to help her walk, not wanting to break her focus. However, his curiosity got the best of him as asked,

“What’s over there on the island?”

“It's not an island, Jake. It’s the entrance to the Emergency Tunnel and the last time I passed through it they left it open. Should give us a direct path towards the heart of Largo.”