In_Darkness_Dwells
Date: 3/11/2024,
Categories:
Fiction
Horror,
Non-Erotic,
Author: Sage_of_the_Forlorn_Path
... What form could the fruit of the Tree of Death take other than a monster that exists solely to kill people? They feed on the souls of the living and take the bodies back to the tree to further nourish it. The more bodies it receives, the more fruit it can produce."
"You're saying this thing could take over the country?"
"Not just the country. Each one of those things is just like Danut in the early stages of his transformation. Once they've fed and grown strong enough, they'll go out and begin raiding graveyards, preparing their own soil, and they too will become trees and produce their own fruit. They'll keep spreading and multiplying until they've taken over the entire world. Rathodor isn't just a typical demon, he is Legion, Bringer of Armageddon."
"Great, just fucking great," said Sam, leaning on his knees like he was about to throw up.
"So that's it then? We're witnessing the end of the world?" asked Sorine, her voice cracking as her hope and courage vanished.
"Not yet, we still have a chance to stop this, but our window is closing. Those demons are not yet powerful enough to bear the will and sentience of Rathodor. Right now, they're just marionettes. If we can destroy the tree before the demons reach maturity, they'll all die with it, and Rathodor will be cast back into Hell."
"The whole village couldn't destroy that monster. How do you expect the four—" Sam glanced down at Matei, crying in the fetal position. "How do you expect the three of us ...
... to do that?"
"You said it yourself, trees don't run around attacking people. Now that Rathodor has taken root, he can't move. In those pages was a mentioning of a temple down in the caverns where the devil-worshippers performed their rituals and black masses. That's where Danut become possessed, and that's where he is now. We need to go down into those caves and destroy the tree."
“That still doesn’t change the issue of how we do it. We can’t even kill those monsters.”
“We can with silver. According to these pages, silver and sunlight are Rathodor’s only weakness, same with all the spawn.”
“Ok, so silver, what else? I’m not going down into those caves with just some teaspoons.”
“Tomhelm,” said Matei, drawing everyone’s attention.
“What is that, some kind of Romanian holy spray?” Sam asked.
“It’s a mining town my men and I passed through it on our way here. It’s a few hours away by truck, but they’ll have dynamite.”
“Ok, I’m starting to like the sound of that. We’ll get some dynamite and silver, sneak into the underground temple, and blow Rathodor back to Hell.”
"Doing it now would be suicide,” said Volker, shaking his head. “The caverns are crawling with those monsters. We'd have to do it at night, when they're out hunting. Let’s split up for now. Sam, you and Captain Matei take all the remaining villagers to Tomhelm, and come back with as much dynamite as you can carry. Sorine, I want you to collect all the silver in Runa and see if you can make ...