Forsaken By The Gods, I Made A Contract With the Demon King

The portal spat me out onto soft earth, my body rolling instinctively to absorb the impact. Paradise's chaos was instantly replaced by an eerie silence, broken only by my heavy breathing. As I pushed myself up, leaves and damp soil clinging to my torn uniform, I took in my new surroundings.

This place was... different. The trees stretched impossibly tall, their trunks wider than buildings. The canopy above was so thick it turned daylight into a green twilight. Strange luminescent fungi dotted the bark, casting a faint bluish glow that made shadows dance.

[Evergreen Hell - Sanctum of the Corrupted Forest]

"Great," I muttered, brushing dirt from my clothes. "Just great." The name wasn't exactly reassuring, but at least it was better than certain death back in Paradise.

I did a quick inventory of what I had left. My essence reserves were about three-quarters full - the portal transit hadn't drained as much as I'd expected. My uniform was torn but serviceable. No supplies, no weapons except my essence manipulation. Not ideal, but I'd trained for worse.

The air here felt thick with corruption, but it was different from Paradise's wild essence. This corruption felt... older. More settled. Like it had become part of the natural order rather than fighting against it.

Moving carefully, I began exploring my immediate surroundings. Training kicked in - check sightlines, note potential cover, identify escape routes. The massive tree roots created natural pathways between areas, some large enough to walk through standing upright.

That's when I heard it - a sound like wet leather being dragged across stone.

I dropped into a defensive stance instantly, calling up my essence. Through the gaps in the ancient trees, I saw something move. At first, I thought it was just another tree trunk, but then it shifted, and I realized I was looking at my first sanctum monster.

The creature that emerged made me question everything I knew about corrupted beings. It moved with an unnatural fluidity, its body a grotesque fusion of plant and flesh. Vines thick as my arm writhed from its core like tentacles, each one tipped with what looked disturbingly like a human hand. Its main body resembled a massive flower bud, but instead of petals, layers of translucent flesh pulsed with internal light.

[Little Corrupted Treant]

"Little?" I whispered in disbelief. The thing was easily twice my height.

It noticed me immediately. Three vines whipped toward my position with devastating speed, their human hands reaching with grotesque eagerness. I dove sideways, feeling the displacement of air as they missed by inches. Where they struck the ground, the vegetation instantly withered and died.

"Okay, definitely don't let those touch me."

I called up my essence, focusing it into the patterns I'd practiced countless times. Golden light began to gather around my hands - not as bright as Sara's chains had been, but it was what I had. The Treant recoiled slightly from the radiance, its flesh-petals contracting.

"Don't like light, do you?"

I formed the essence into a spear and launched it at the monster's center mass. The light pierced its outer layer, drawing a sound that was part screech, part rustle. But the wound sealed almost instantly, corrupted plant matter knitting back together.

The Treant's response was immediate and violent. More vines erupted from its body, creating a forest of grasping hands that threatened to surround me. I kept moving, using the massive tree roots for cover. Each time a vine got too close, I'd slash it with a blade of light essence, but it was like trying to cut water - the wounds healed almost as fast as I made them.

"There has to be a weak point," I muttered, dodging another grab attempt. My essence reserves were dropping faster than I'd like, and this thing showed no signs of tiring.

That's when I noticed something. Each time I used light essence, the creature's flesh-petals contracted, protecting its central bud. And in those moments of contraction, the corruption patterns across its body shifted, concentrating around what looked like a core.

"Got you."

I changed tactics. Instead of attacking directly, I began creating bursts of light essence around the Treant's periphery. Each flash forced it to contract, protecting its sensitive areas. The monster's movements became more erratic, less coordinated, as it tried to track multiple threats.

When I saw my opening, I took it. Concentrating my remaining essence into a single point, I created the brightest burst yet - right in front of its flesh-petals. As they contracted violently, I circled behind and drove a spear of pure light essence into the briefly exposed core.

The Treant's death cry shook leaves from the nearby trees. Its vines thrashed wildly before dissolving into puddles of corrupt matter. The main body collapsed in on itself, the flesh-petals withering and crumbling away to reveal a glowing core.

[You have defeated a Little Corrupted Treant]

[Essence Core obtained]

I approached the core cautiously, ready to jump back at the slightest movement. But the corruption was already fading from it, leaving behind a crystal that pulsed with clean essence.

"Not bad for a first sanctum fight," I said to myself, picking up the core. It felt warm in my hand, like a piece of captured sunlight.

But as I caught my breath, looking at the destruction around me - withered vegetation, scored tree bark, and patches of corrupted matter slowly dissolving - reality set in. This was just one monster, and judging by its name, probably one of the weaker ones in this place.

I needed to find shelter, somewhere defensible where I could rest and process what had happened. The fight had taught me something valuable though - these creatures could be killed. They had weaknesses. I just had to be smart enough to find them and survive long enough to exploit them.

As I moved deeper into the eternal twilight of Evergreen Hell, I couldn't help but wonder - how many more of these things would I have to face before I found a way out? And more importantly, had anyone else from the academy made it to safety?

The sanctum's strange silence offered no answers, but the weight of the essence core in my pocket reminded me that at least I wasn't defenseless. One fight down, who knew how many more to go.

"Don't like light, do you?"

I formed the essence into a spear and launched it at the monster's center mass. The light pierced its outer layer, drawing a sound that was part screech, part rustle. But the wound sealed almost instantly, corrupted plant matter knitting back together.

The Treant's response was immediate and violent. More vines erupted from its body, creating a forest of grasping hands that threatened to surround me. I kept moving, using the massive tree roots for cover. Each time a vine got too close, I'd slash it with a blade of light essence, but it was like trying to cut water - the wounds healed almost as fast as I made them.

"There has to be a weak point," I muttered, dodging another grab attempt. My essence reserves were dropping faster than I'd like, and this thing showed no signs of tiring.

That's when I noticed something. Each time I used light essence, the creature's flesh-petals contracted, protecting its central bud. And in those moments of contraction, the corruption patterns across its body shifted, concentrating around what looked like a core.

"Got you."

I changed tactics. Instead of attacking directly, I began creating bursts of light essence around the Treant's periphery. Each flash forced it to contract, protecting its sensitive areas. The monster's movements became more erratic, less coordinated, as it tried to track multiple threats.

When I saw my opening, I took it. Concentrating my remaining essence into a single point, I created the brightest burst yet - right in front of its flesh-petals. As they contracted violently, I circled behind and drove a spear of pure light essence into the briefly exposed core.

The Treant's death cry shook leaves from the nearby trees. Its vines thrashed wildly before dissolving into puddles of corrupt matter. The main body collapsed in on itself, the flesh-petals withering and crumbling away to reveal a glowing core.

[You have defeated a Little Corrupted Treant]

[Essence Core obtained]

I approached the core cautiously, ready to jump back at the slightest movement. But the corruption was already fading from it, leaving behind a crystal that pulsed with clean essence.

"Not bad for a first sanctum fight," I said to myself, picking up the core. It felt warm in my hand, like a piece of captured sunlight.

But as I caught my breath, looking at the destruction around me - withered vegetation, scored tree bark, and patches of corrupted matter slowly dissolving - reality set in. This was just one monster, and judging by its name, probably one of the weaker ones in this place.

I needed to find shelter, somewhere defensible where I could rest and process what had happened. The fight had taught me something valuable though - these creatures could be killed. They had weaknesses. I just had to be smart enough to find them and survive long enough to exploit them.

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