It was easy to tell when they'd reached the edge of Beetle territory. There were fewer normal mushrooms, for one thing. More undergrowth and vines. The most obvious tell, however, was the pond of glowing purple water less than a hundred yards away.
Null paused. He was far from eager to venture into the toxic bog. They'd managed to avoid it so far through sheer luck; although whether the affair with the Boread had been fortunate or not was debatable. Encountering the Beetles was certainly good luck, though. Learning that there was a whole civilization of people in the depths of one of the most inhospitable environments in the realms was… inspiring. He almost didn't want to leave.
But… if he was honest, he didn't trust the Mycego. The Beetles were alien to him, but he could learn to trust them with time. The Mycego, though, was an elemental. He didn't trust a creature with no body.
"Well." Apex walked up next to Null, swallowing. "Are we ready to do this?"
"I see no way to be more prepared," Null replied, sighing, "But it's not like things haven't been pretty bad so far. Let's go."
As Null started off, Apex cleared his throat. Null turned to see that Apex's eyes had glazed over, the sign that the Mycego was speaking. "I wish you well, young dragons. Be very careful in the gorgon's domain. It has been a long time since I talked to her last, and I fear for her mental state."
"I'm planning on avoiding her anyways," Null said, shrugging, "We might be able to cross over top of the hydra if we catch it sleeping anyways."
"If that is your plan, then may the Ancestors protect you." And just like that, Apex was back to normal. The Mycego was gone.
"Let's get going." Null turned and started off, Apex following behind.
Off into the toxic marsh they went.
So. The hydra. A creature as old as the Grove itself, or so the rumors went. A thing that had survived the world's destruction and reassembly. According to some rumors, it was a mutant dragon created by Malefor centuries ago, before the Dark Master had been sealed away within Convexity. It was supposedly deposited in the toxic grove, the only place its venom wouldn't destroy everything around it. That theory fell flat when Null considered what the Beetles had said: that the hydra purified or at least diluted the toxins around it.
Others claimed that it was older than even Malefor, being the progenitor of the Grove in the first place. Those tales held just a bit more credence than those of experimental mutation through magic. For one, some rare accounts told of the creature existing more than a thousand years ago, before Malefor was even born. But once again, the purifying effect the hydra had on the waters was too big of an anomaly to consider that story the truth.
As Null stepped around a sizable puddle of poison, he considered the facts. The Beetles were trustworthy; even considering every possible reason he could think of, they had zero reason to lie to him and Apex. That meant that the hydra certainly did purify the water. It was also massive, big enough to cover a substantial stretch of the river on its own. Those were the facts.
Then there were the common factors among all of the stories. Attributes of the hydra that were too widespread to be wrong. Features like its multitude of heads – although reports differed on the exact number, its acidic venom, and its ability to regenerate injuries rapidly. Perhaps the first and last of these features were the same? A creature with a dozen identical heads would be able to swap an uninjured head with a damaged one, and nobody would be able to tell the difference.
Null almost didn't notice a grove worm rising from a nearby pool of poison. It reared back to spit a glob of sizzling poison, only for a blade of wind to suddenly slice the worm in two, lengthwise.
Null nodded to Apex. "Thanks. I was thinking."
"What about?" Apex asked.
"The hydra," Null answered, "We know very little about it. It's dangerous, sure, but all we really know is that it's big, it has a lot of heads, and it spits acid."
"That's terrifying." Apex shuddered. "So what's our plan?"
"Right now?" Null jumped up onto a fallen log. "We want to try and go over it. I think we should be able to sneak past while it sleeps if you use your wind to keep our wings from causing air disturbance."
"I think I can do that." Apex jumped onto the log and flapped his wings, causing the air around the duo to still suddenly. The globe of silence was a neat trick that Null could think of several uses for. This was one of them.
"Can you pair the silence orb with your air shields?" Null asked, wincing at how loud his voice sounded in the absolute silence.
"Maybe? Dolus can, and he always says he invented the globe." Apex spat his father's name, clawing at the log with a frown. He released the globe of silence, and a loud crack echoed through the Grove. "He made sure I could do either one, but I don't know if I can do both."
"We'll see. If it doesn't work out we'll-," Null paused. The air was still silent. For a moment he thought his ears were still adjusting after Apex's globe, but he quickly realized that something was wrong. "Apex..."
Before the wind drake could respond, there was a thunderous creak of wood. The world rumbled for a brief moment, and then the log beneath Apex and Null began to move. Null dug in his claws, clinging to the log as it lifted into the air. Apex did the exact opposite, leaping off of the log to the other side. Wind whipped up, and Null knew that Apex was using his wind-sense to try and figure out what was going on.
It took a fraction of a second for Null to realize that his instinctive reaction was objectively the wrong course of action. He was clinging to an object that might very well be sliding into a pit of poison. Null pulled his right forepaw from the wood, claws sliding from the log with ease. When he attempted to do the same with his left, he hit a problem.
His claws were stuck.
Null's eyes widened as the log lifted further. The tortured screams of wood twisting abnormally and the heavy thuds of something massive hitting the ground echoed through the Grove. Null looked around frantically before he eventually located the source of the sound.
It had seemed to be part of the forest itself at first, even to Null's observant eyes. But now that it was awake, the treant was unmistakable. A massive head of branches and tree trunk with glowing green orbs in eye-shaped hollows. It rose, towering above Apex as its massive arms moved. Null was dragged along with the treant's left forearm, lifted into the air and dangled sideways by one leg.
Null hissed in pain as his foreleg was yanked upwards, and he quickly scrabbled to latch on with his other legs. He was sprawled out on the log, limbs splayed in all directions as the treant rose.
The log suddenly tilted to horizontal, and Null swallowed heavily as the treant's purple eyes locked onto him. He was stuck. Unable to run. Unable to fight this monstrous creature. Completely and utterly at its mercy. The treant's other hand lifted, moving towards Null to pluck him from the plant monster's arm.
"Hey blockhead!" A massive blast of wind hit the treant in the chest, causing it to stumble back a single step. Apex followed up by releasing slashing gusts of air, slicing the treant's torso a thousand different ways in less than a second.
Needless to say, that got the treant's attention.
The beast ignored Null for the moment, seeing him as the lesser threat as it lifted its right arm to try and smash Apex. Predictably, the wind dragon slipped out of the way and retaliated with a large wind blade. It turned out that wood was a good defense against wind magic, as the treant ignored Apex's assault and lifted its left arm to try again to slam Apex.
A voice rang out through the forest as the treant reared back. A female, Null noticed distractedly. Rough, as though barely used. Only a moment later, when something glass shattered on the treant's face, did the actual words register.
"Do NOT look over here!"
With that strange battlecry lingering in the air, the treant's face burst into flames.
As the treant batted out the flames with its right hand, Null followed the trajectory of the bottled fire backwards. He quickly calculated the arc of the projectile as his crimson eyes swept the trees.
"DON'T!"
The voice shouted again, and Null obeyed for two reasons. The first was instinct; he never liked shouting much, especially aimed at him. The second was because he suspected he knew exactly why a mysterious female didn't want him looking in her general direction.
Unfortunately for the treant, it didn't seem to understand the common language. Nor would it have obeyed if it did. Its glowing orbs looked out into the trees, ignoring Null's scrabbling claws and Apex's wind blasts. Null saw its leafy brow furrow as it leaned over Apex. The treant extended its left arm, twisting and leaving Null dangling by his foreclaws. The treant's eye-orbs grew larger for a moment, locked on something in the trees.
And then, the treant froze entirely. Its eyes darkened to nothing as its wooden body began to turn gray. Bark cracked and broke off of the stiffening treant. Its leaves began to fall off or turn stone gray. In seconds its entire body was turned to stone, frozen eternally in an attempt to grab something.
Which was about when Null lost grip with his right paw, his claws no longer able to dig into the treant's arm. The claws on his left paw were dug deep within the log, and now that it was stone he was unable to pull his claws free. That left him dangling by one leg, not able to slip free.
"Null? You okay?" Null looked down to see Apex below him, looking up with a concerned look.
"I'm fine just-," Null scowled, looking back up at the stone above him. "Stuck. Give me a moment."
So. Null clearly wasn't able to pull free with brute force. He wasn't an Earth dragon. After a bit of wriggling, he found he couldn't slip himself out either. His options exhausted, Null dangled by his claws, feeling frustrated.
As if waiting for him to give up, there was a quiet snick as he suddenly fell to the ground.
Null got up from his unceremonious heap, shaking his head. He looked up at the treant's limb, frowning. The arm hadn't completely turned to stone yet, with the forearm past where Null was clinging still being wood. But the spot where he had been dangling was surprising. His eyes widened as he realized what he had left behind.
Three white protrusions, tipped with just a hint of red. When Null looked down at his paw to check, he saw that his claws were gone. Removed from their respective digits. "What in the world…?"
"Null, what happened to your paw?" Apex asked, swallowing.
"I'm fine. Didn't hurt at all. It's just… weird." Null flexed his paw, frowning as he looked at the sockets where his claws used to be. There was just the faintest hint of red, not nearly as much as expected after his claws ripping out. "Hardly any blood. Maybe they're supposed to be detachable?"
"Like your tailblade?"
"Yeah…" Null furrowed his brow. Apex had a point. There was no way that it was a coincidence that both his claws and his tailblade could detach without hurting him.
His rumination was interrupted by the voice from before. "Look, um, I need you two dragons to close your eyes."
Apex looked up and started to look around the surrounding forest. "Why? Who are you?"
Null reached out and pulled Apex's head away from the source of the female's voice. Forcing the wind drake to look at him. "Did you notice how she saved us from the treant?"
"By t-," Apex went silent, eyes widening in horror.
"Exactly. Now close your eyes." Null waited until Apex had his eyes closed before doing so himself. "Alright. We have our eyes closed."
"Good." The voice was slightly closer now. Null could hear her moving closer, something sliding through the dirt as she approached. "You're crossing the Grove, right?"
"Why else would we be here?" Null answered her question with one of his own.
"Right. Sorry." She cleared her throat. "I can, uh, help. I know where the safest spot to cross is. The river, I mean. I can take you there, I just need to blindfold you."
"Go right ahead. miss gorgon." Apex spoke for both dragons, as Null nodded to let her know that he was fine with it too.
The gorgon approached Null first, and he felt soft fabric wrap around his head and over his eyes. The gorgon tied the strip of fabric behind his head before moving away to presumably do the same to Apex. "You can- um. My name's Yuri."
"I'm Null."
"Apex."
"So, um. Null, Apex. I'm going to guide you to the quietest part of the river. Then I can take your blindfolds and you can go to – uh. Wherever you were going." Yuri paused for a moment before speaking again. "I'm going to wrap some rope around each of you, and then we can, uh. We can get going."
As the gorgon set to work, Null opened his eyes. Sure enough, he could see exactly nothing. That was probably for the best. He didn't want to accidentally be turned to stone by looking in the wrong direction at the wrong time.
Null felt rope pull against his front paws, and immediately after Yuri's first 'um' he stepped forwards over the rope. Shortly after, he felt rope loop around his torso. Yuri mumbled under her breath for a moment – reciting how to tie a knot, from what Null could hear – before pulling the rope tight. She moved away, presumably tying a rope around Apex.
After a few moments, Null felt a light tug on his rope, and Yuri spoke, "Okay. We can go."
Null followed the pull on the rope, moving carefully to avoid any debris. While he walked in silence, he put his brain to use. What could the gorgon be? Like many other well-known monsters, Malefor was often blamed for her creation. That didn't sound right, though. If she was a monster created by Malefor then wouldn't she be, well, monstrous? Perhaps in appearance she was. Nobody knew what she looked like, for obvious reasons. But appearance didn't make the monster – Null would be a hypocrite if he judged based upon looks – and Yuri had saved them from the treant. She had also ensured that neither he nor Apex had accidentally gotten themselves turned into statues, which counted for a lot in his opinion. It would have been far easier to just let him die to his curiosity.
So what exactly was she? Not a dragon, that was for sure. She had thrown a vial, and had tied the blindfolds and the rope far too fast to have paws. One of the bipedal races, then. Something with hands. Not a Beetle or any of their related species, since she spoke common. But there were no sounds of footsteps, just the shuffling of rotting leaves and dirt.
In the end, he couldn't come to a conclusion.
And they walked.
Moving while blind was mildly annoying, to be sure. He occasionally tripped on roots, or had to scramble over a boulder or something. But there was never any risk of being attacked. Yuri ensured that much. She also stopped them every now and then to make sure they went around any puddles of toxic water. He wasn't sure how long they were walking before he could hear the sound of rushing water.
"So at this time of day," Yuri said quietly, "The hydra should be asleep. It's at its most active at dawn and dusk, and tends to be alert during the night. Just be careful not to make too much noise or it might awaken."
"Well, sneaking past was our original plan," Null replied. He kept his voice low, to keep from making too much noise. "We just didn't realize you were in this area."
"Usually I'm not, but… something weird is happening where my home is. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to live there."
So even the enigmatic and terrifying gorgon had to deal with the changing times. Interesting.
"Here we are," Yuri called them to a stop. The water was much louder now, the full flow of a river audible. "I'll need to make some distance before you can remove your blindfolds, just to be safe. I -,"
Whatever she was about to say, Null never got to hear it. She gasped, and he heard a massive splash. Wings fluttered nearby - probably Apex flying backwards using his wind sense. Yuri shouted something, but the words were impossible to make out over the splashing and the horrible hissing sound coming from the river. Null started to backpedal, but he was already too late.
Something splashed against his head, sticky, viscous, and clinging. It burned horribly for a few moments, making his scales feel like they were on fire. Then the burn downgraded to a dull itch - probably the nerves dying - and that was how it remained. The blindfold around his eyes practically disintegrated, falling to pieces and allowing him to see the monster that had attacked him.
It was enormous, with far too many sprouting vines to count. The hydra, as it turned out, was a plant. A monstrous, many-stalked kelp-thing. Each of its stalks ended in a vibrant purple flower, and the petals of those flowers were edged with protrusions that made them look like horrific jaws. One of the flowers dripped a thick, green liquid that sizzled as it came into contact with the soil - the same liquid that was currently dripping from Null's muzzle.
He staggered backwards, surprised at how not-dissolved he was feeling. His whole head itched, which sucked, and his eyes burned just a little, but he was alive.
A vial of fire slammed into the head that had spat at him, causing the flower to let out a horrific rattling sound as it shriveled and the entire stalk it was attached to died. The hydra retreated back underwater, but it was still there. Just beneath the surface of the very faintly purple water. Even from here, Null could see that its stalks went all the way up- and downstream, until the river bent too much to see further.
"Oh no, no no no no," Yuri began repeating to herself as she moved over to Null. He wiped the goo from his eyes just in time to actually see her worried face enter his vision. He immediately closed his eyes right after, only to realize a moment later that he should already be dead twice over. He opened his eyes again, just as she reached him. "No, no no no no…"
"I'm okay," He tried to say, only to spit a bunch of hydra goo onto the ground. It hit the soil with a wet splat and sat there, inert. "I'm fine. Somehow."
"Y-you're…" She stopped, staring at him. Now that he could actually look at her, he realized that he knew exactly what Yuri was: a naga. Her lower body consisted of a massive, green-scaled serpent tail - the reason he hadn't heard her footsteps - while her upper body was that of a bipedal species. Still covered from the top of her head to the tip of her tail in dark green scales. Also adorning her body was a series of straps, holding various bottles and vials, no doubt some of them more of those exploding flasks. But it was above the shoulders that drew his attention. Her features were flattened, snakelike - as would be expected of a naga - but the top of her head was covered in tiny tendrils, all scaled in their own way and ending in tiny mouths. Like eyeless snakes. Her eyes glowed a faint green, indicative of the magic they possessed. "You're alive?!"
"Yeah. Shocked me too." He wiped more of the goo off of his snout. It was going to itch for days but at least he wasn't reduced to a smoldering puddle.
"Oh. Oh no." She quickly turned away, putting her hands over her face. "And now I've doomed you."
"Null?! What's happening?" Apex asked. It took a moment to locate him, but he was clinging to a tree. It was kind of amusing, actually.
"Hydra's retreated. Probably going to try and kill us if we cross the river, though," Null answered. He looked at Yuri. "I'm not going to turn to stone, either. At least, if my hypothesis is correct."
"You don't know. You don't know," Yuri whispered to herself.
"I do, actually. This is the third time something should have killed me and then didn't." Null, let out a mirthless chuckle. "It explains a lot, actually."
"Null, what are you talking about?" Apex slowly climbed down from his tree.
"Well," Null said, looking at the puddle of inert acid on the ground. "I'm immune to magic."
A/N:
Yeah I'm back. Three years isn't the longest I've left a story before returning, but it isn't exactly my goal. Either way, here we are.
I've got up to chapter 30 already written, so you can expect steady uploads every Friday until we've reached that point. Stay tuned.
In other notes, this chapter finally states something that I've hinted at several times already: Null is immune to magic. It's not his only peculiarity, but it's one of the most important.