1 Prologue

Sarah ran for her life, her copper brown hair flowing in the wind.

Contrary to what could be expected from a maiden running away from horrible monsters, she was not panicking. An Aura Master never panics. But that didn't mean they can't be scared, angry or swearing against everything and everyone that came to their mind.

Right now, she was swearing mostly against Karl. Using his charms and promises of treasures and fame, the old adventurer had convinced a lot of people, herself included, to take part in that damned expedition in the Dark Heart, the unknown and mysterious center of the Caligare Forest.

The result was that now Sarah was the only survivor and had those hungry, disgusting creatures chasing her.

Using the Flash Step aura technique, the girl empowered her stride, running at the speed of a galloping horse. She could have gone faster, but the terrain was too treacherous to allow for that — an unpleasant mix of dead plants, slimy mud, and a weird, thick mold similar to gray wax that covered the ground in every direction, occasionally rising into weird pillars. There were no animals or insects, nor any living plants or even mushrooms to be found apart from the mold. The whole place was dead, and the only sounds that could be heard were Sarah's footsteps and the chittering noises of the horrors chasing her.

Sarah had known that something was deadly wrong with that place the very moment they stepped out of the jungle into that weird clearing, and her suspicions had only grown when she failed to pick the aura of any living thing inside the clearing. More than simply being empty of any life, it felt like an hungry hole that was syphoning life from its surroundings.

But despite this Karl, the old fool, had convinced them to march on. At worst, he had said, the dead zone would have marked the presence of a colony of undead. And their group had a lot of veteran clerics to deal with them.

He ignored the weird wax mold covering the ground and the stench in the air. He ignored everything, as he was completely obsessed by the legends of the golden temple ahead.

To be fair, though, the legends were true. The golden temple did exist.

Too bad it was occupied by something far worse than a colony of undead.

After half a day of marching in that horrible clearing, the expedition arrived at the temple. They had been on the lookout for potential monsters the entire time, but they found nothing. Even spells specifically made to detect hostile auras did not find anything, not even the worms in the dirt.

And finally, the temple was in front of them. Most of its golden walls had been covered by that weird wax looking substance, but for the rest it was exactly like Karl had promised it would have been.

It was at that moment that everything went to hell.

Chitin covered horrors had emerged from the temple and the ground around them. Thousands upon thousands of horrible creatures were in hiding, ready to ambush them, and not even the Aura Scan spell had managed to find them out. It was as if they were soulless.

But even if that was the case, they were still smart. As if guided by a malevolent intelligence, they struck with surgical precision and coordination, taking advantage of the element of surprise to kill the casters first.

After that, it had been a slow but methodical massacre.

The group of adventurers had been an elite one, and posed a strenuous resistance. Karl had convinced the king of Medelan to finance the expedition, and expecting to meet dangerous creatures in the Caligare Forest, the old explorer had only taken veterans. At the departure, the group counted 10 casters, one hundred between scouts and soldiers, and 5 aura masters, including Sarah. It was a group big enough to defend themselves against the occasional attack from the wild beasts and savage tribes of the forest while still being small enough to avoid the biggest threats. With the casters acting as artillery and support and the aura users in the frontlines they would have been able to defeat most enemies.

But, taken by surprise, outnumbered and with their casters killed, they were doomed from the start.

The monsters were at least ten thousand. For each creature they killed, three more took its place. At the end, Sarah, the last surviving Aura Master, had spearheaded one last desperate attack to breach the encirclement and escape, and against all odds it had worked.

But the monsters were fast and they eventually caught all the others, leaving only Sarah alive.

So now the girl was alone, but if she managed to reach the forest she would have a chance to lose her pursuers in the thick undergrowth and escape with her life. The way back to civilization was dangerous, but an Aura Master like her could make it.

Hope and fear urged her to go even faster. The forest was in sight, just a few hundreds meters away. But then, a couple of shadows emerged from the ground, putting themself between her and the relative safety of the trees.

Chitin covered bodies hurled themselves at her, raising scythe-like appendages to intercept her.

Sarah didn't even slow down.

"Flowing Flower Slash!" she cried, moving past the monsters like a gale of petals carried by the wind.

The monsters' heads fell, leaving their serpentine bodies to squirm in the dirt.

Sarah had to stop herself from sneering. Apparently, the strength of these creatures resided in their numbers and ability to not be picked up by the Aura Scan, but in a fair fight they were nothing compared to her.

She picked up her pace. She could really see the forest's trees now. If she managed to reach them, she could lose the monsters there...

And then she realized something, there was a horrible buzzing noise coming from over her head. She saw a shadow clawing at her from the sky, and she had barely the time to dive sideways before a new horror, similar to a wasp, dropped where she was standing a second ago.

But she had been just a second too late. One of the creature's clawed limbs had cut her legs deeply, and when she tried to pick herself up, she collapsed on the ground.

Instantly, the flying monster was upon her, trying to eviscerate her with its scythe shaped appendages. But Sarah lunged at it with her sword, piercing it from side to side.

The creature let out a shriek of pain before collapsing on her.

Sarah tried to move it to escape, but before she could do that, the pursuers reached her.

She was swallowed in a sea of dark, chittering chitin, and she lost consciousness.

Slowly, Sarah regained her senses.

Her whole body was numb, and her thoughts were confused.

She tried moving, but her limbs didn't answer.

So she opened her eyes, and immediately regretted this decision.

She was in a large chamber made entirely by that wax like substance, which was glowing ominously in the dark, and in front of her, there was one of those chitin covered monsters.

But this one was different.

First of all, it was huge. Even crouching over her, it was at least 3 meters tall. Its lower body was similar to that of a bloated lizard, with a chitin armour covering its skin, but its torso was vaguely humanoid, only it had scythe-shaped limbs, like those of a humongous mantis. And finally, looming over Sarah, there was a huge insectoid head, with an unnaturally large mouth filled with needle-like teeth.

Unlike the other monsters, Sarah could feel this one's aura, it made her shudder to her core. It was overwhelmingly powerful and utterly alien.

A voice echoed in the girl's mind... a feral, instinctive voice filled with hunger, which left no doubt to what would be the fate of the captured warrior.

Strong Strong. You make good nourishment for new queen. The Vex will grow big and strong with you.