Unlike what the name - Merkwood Mountains suggested, there was no wood or Mountain. It was just a baren wasteland with gigantic chunks of risen land.
A little over half a millennia ago , the regional Throne seat had a slight skrimish with an intruding Throne seat.
As a consequence, a deep valley and thousand kilometre long mountain range was terraformed overnight.
Ofcourse to most , it always been there. This story is known only to those who were actually present to witness it. As the Authorities didn't want it to be known, wiping the records clean.
Back to topic , with the mountains came new veins of solarites - negligible amount of embers of sun that seeped into the land upon its fall, forming rare crystals that repels the creatures of Darkness and double down as a good source of light.
Thus a Tier 5 city was stationed here four hundred years ago to mine those solarites.
As for the wood part , those are just an army of formless starving glooms taking the form of trees to allure humans to approach it in their starvation. As humans lose reason when they are hungry and desperate.
If it weren't for the stationed Sanctus keeping them at bay and eradicating them every few so years, they would have already overrun the city.
In a sense, they are mocking humans by taking the form of tree. Which is revered as sacred in the doctrine of Augustus.
———————————————
KROOOOOOLLL
A massive drill the size of a passanger ship rolled through the massive caves of the 'mountains' at a slow pace. Stones crushed to dust beneath it's colossal weight.
Gaurds and miners walked besides it , surrounding it from all directions.
Each of them had a burning lantern in hand and they stayed near the light of solarite Lanterns hanging from the sides of the Drill ship.
Shivers
"Uhhh , No matter how many times I come here, I still can't get use to this damn freezing cold. Can't we atleast have some proper clothes for this environment?" A experienced miner complained as he warned his hands from the lantern's heat.
"Blame the boss for spending money on those homely prostitutes, he gets his bed warmed while we suffer in this freezing cold." Another miner grumbled.
As the group of miners complained to eachother, shadowy hands emerged from the darkness behind them.
It slid silently and cautiously , cleverly avoiding the light through obstacles and shadows.
It was now only a meter away from one of them.
Blaze!
The hands burned due to the exposure to lantern light and swiftly retreated.
"Hehehe, this damn gloom thought it can get us. What a joke!" The miner laughed.
The miners laughed it of and continued there march alongside the drill ship.
BlinkBlink
Unbeknownst to them or anyone, a single eye in darkness was watching them.
Blink
———————————————
In a quite corner of the Drill ship , a room was situated.
This room belonged to Krivos , who was currently seated infront of large stacks of paperwork.
ScribbleScribble
Unlike his con man like face , he was supprisingly a delegent worker. Meticulously examining each paper, doing the appropriate calculations and highlighting important paragraphs.
Rael admired this quality of krivos. Maybe this was the reason why he didn't push him completely out of his life. Though krivos's stubborn tendencies also played a huge part.
After a while , snapping out of his hyperfocused state , krivos noticed Rael leaning against the door frame.
"..are you just going to stand there and be menacing?"
Rael took that as an invitation and let himself in, taking a seat on one of the worn out chairs.
"Did you not find a female 'Helper' to get yourself busy?" Krivos teased Rael with a sly smile , lightening up the mood.
Stare
Rael said nothing but stare at him.
"Ahem! Jezz you are not fun, have some etiquette. It's rude to get straight to business, we have all the time in the world." Krivos made few exaggerated expressions of getting emotionally hurt.
Still not getting to the point.
Sigh
"Come on Rael, you probably have figured it out. The clues are all over the place, why would so many Light Bearers gather for such a low class Expedition?"
Indeed, why? Rael wasn't dull enough to not notice the eyes on him.
Oathless Lightbearsers are always seen has a possible threat, so people being cautious and not being treated well is the norm. But they seem too cautious, watching his every move from the start of expedition.
They are here for something, and they don't want to share it. As for what that something could be-
"Shadow heart" Rael murrmered softly.
"Bingo!" Krivos affirmed, offering his signature grin.
Shadow heart is the heart of Creature of darkness. Every Darkness incarnate has them. It is where light eaten by them is stored and digested. It's there fuel , if it runs out - they die.
Of course most creature of darkness - mostly glooms - are starved and haven't eaten any light from living, let alone that of Lightbearsers. So their heart is almost useless.
This changes as we go higher in ranks , the capacity and potency of light in heart increases.For example - a Defiler's shadow heart can be used as an main ingredient for Ascension to Tier 6 : Acolyte!
For Most Lightbearsers, unless you have great affinity with light or got support from the church of Augustus, you will be stuck in same rank for decades or centuries, maybe even forever. So to forcefully breakthrough the rank , one must fuel their flames to grown to next step.
Though it's one of countless little steps , it's one of the most critical steps.
And for an Oathless Light bearer like Rael , it's a necessity. As unlike Lightbearsers of Augustus, Oathless use their own hopes , desires ,soul and body as a fuel.
Unlike the self sufficient flames of Augustus, if they aren't fed in time , they burn your soul and body as a fuel to sustain, till nothing remains of you.
If not fed in time ,they will burn your desires and slowly your humanity. Untill what left of you will be an lunatic that doesn't care or remembers why they started anymore.
This is one of the reasons why Oathless are frowned upon , they mostly consist of lunatics , seen as a walking time bomb. A distributor of order, a Defiler of Doctrine.
"Where did you get this information from?" Rael asked sceptical of the source.
"Trust me! I got reliable source, though I can't say there name due to an agreement. These Lightbearsers here proves the legitimacy. " Krivos declared confidently.
"But why would a Defiler be this close to city? They should be in the great valley, not the mountains. Not when the sanctus cleansed the mountains just a year ago."
"Maybe they lost there way and stumbled inside the mountains, it's none of our business. What we are here for is to find and kill it. Glooms are not a threat ,the Defiler is. We don't know it's sin. But I am confident you can kill it , and I can sell its body and make the money I needed for that startup."
Sins was what a Creature of darkness will have upon Ascending to Defiler, they can have more than one sin. They are a direct counterpart to the Acolyte's Virtue.
Krivos took out a map and started detailing his crazy plan to snatch the Defiler from the hands of the lightbearsers.
"...."
"You are crazy." Rael said in an deadpan tone.
"Not as much as you my dear friend." Krivos replied with a chuckle.
———————————————
Yawnnnnn
"Feeling sleepy already? We still got to mine few more tons before we can rest." A miner said while wiping sweat off his brows.
The tired miner simply shook his head, slightly dazed-
"Yawnnn , damn this work. I am going to pee, I been holding it back for a while"
"Just pee here." Replied he in a matter of fact tone.
"...." Sending him and deadpan stare ,the tired miner took hold of the lantern and went to a secluded corner.
WhistleWhistle
"The king feeellll~ As the Goddessss Roooose~" As he he peed , he sang and whistle - simigly enjoying his little time of privacy.
BlinkBlink
"Huh?" The tired worker rubbed his eyes , thinking he is hallucinating - why is he hallucinating seeing a eye.
Blink Blink Blink
There were 3 eyes now....
Blink Blink Blink Blink Blink Blink Blink
Now hundreds...
"AHHH-" The miner screemed in fear as he stumbled back ,falling on his buttocks.
There were countless eyes now watching him from all directions.
From the darkness, from the floor , from the ceiling, from his ...hand.
"Ahhhhhhh!!!" He screemed louder as he saw eyes growing on his arms, but his screems fell on deaf ears.
"Hahahahahahaha!" A laughter erupted from the darkness.
"W-wha- AHHHHHHHHHH!!.... Hahaha-" small mouths tore opened around his body , laughing like this is a comedy, the pain was unbearable.
"AHHHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-"
The screem soon turned into a Chorus of unending laughters and joy, echoing but unheard. A joke without a punchline, a plea for help.