Eternal Malediction (RE)

They got to the end of the corridor, finally.

The massive stone door stood before them like the entrance to something ancient and unwilling to be disturbed. It stretched all the way to the ceiling; its surface, covered in deep cracks and faded engravings, was almost completely swallowed by vines.

Everyone stopped walking, and nobody spoke immediately because they could hear it: absolute destruction. A violent crash echoed faintly from beyond the door, followed by another sharp impact that shook dust loose from the ceiling above them.

Then... A distorted scream. Not of human but of wood.

Splintering, Victor frowned immediately. ”There’s something fighting in there.”

Another impact slammed through the chamber walls, which was louder this time.

Daniel swallowed slightly. ”...That doesn’t sound small.”

Roy’s eyes looked toward the door. No. It definitely wasn’t, while the sounds continued with heavy movement and stone cracking. Something smashing through multiple bodies at once. Marcus adjusted his injured arm carefully.

”Well. Standing here isn’t helping.”

Reasonable.

The broad man from earlier stepped forward first. ”Together.”

The group gathered around the edges of the massive door before pressing against it. For a moment, and nothing happened. Then slowly, the stone groaned, and the door began moving inward inch by inch as dust spilt from the cracks around it, and the noise from inside immediately grew louder.

Another violent crash.

Then a body slammed against the far wall hard enough to crater the stone; the group finally forced the door open enough to step through.

And froze from what they saw.

Bodies. Wooden bodies. Dozens of them.

Broken wooden limbs and shattered bark covered the floor of the enormous chamber like a battlefield after slaughter. Some were split cleanly in half, while others had been crushed so completely, they barely resembled humanoid forms anymore.

At the centre of the destruction, a woman stood surrounded by them; she had black hair and a long fur coat, even though weirdly she was wearing tights with heels and also with a cigarette resting loosely between two fingers.

And directly in front of her... Orion, a member of the Celestial Watch.

No. Not Orion. A wooden imitation. The creature wore the exact face and uniform of a member of the Celestial Watch, though its body was distorted slightly beneath the bark-like texture spreading across its skin.

Even standing still, it radiated pressure.

The wooden Orion lunged first. It was fast. Its body exploded forward with terrifying force, the sword carving downward toward the woman’s head, and she stepped sideways casually.

Too casually.

The blade slammed into the stone floor hard enough to split it apart. Before the imitation could recover... She moved with a sharp pivot. Her knee drove directly into the creature’s ribs with enough force to launch it sideways through two wooden bodies behind it.

The chamber shook violently. The group near the doorway stared silently.

Sophia’s eyes widened and she whispered. ”...What the hell?”

The wooden Orion recovered instantly; it twisted mid-air unnaturally before planting its feet against the wall, then it kicked off with the wall cracked behind it as the creature accelerated forward again.

Faster this time.

Its sword blurred through the air in a series of rapid strikes aimed directly at the woman’s throat, chest, and abdomen. They were all precise and lethal, yet she dodged all of them with minimal movement. Small shifts and barely any wasted energy.

Steel scraped against her lighter as she flicked it shut calmly.

Then... She grabbed the imitation’s wrist. The wooden Orion reacted immediately, twisting its body sharply to counter.

However, it was already too late. The woman spun with the momentum instead of resisting it and drove the creature directly into the ground.

The impact cratered the stone beneath them. Before it could move, her heel slammed into its face. Once. Twice. The third strike shattered half the wooden skull apart.

The imitation screeched violently. Not human, something more heinous.

Wood burst outward from its damaged face as vines spread rapidly across the missing sections, regenerating instantly.

Daniel took an unconscious step backward. ”It’s regenerating...”

Roy remained silent, watching carefully. The woman finally spoke for the first time. ”Tch.”

Annoyed, that was all.

The wooden Orion lunged again. This time both arms twisted unnaturally into sharpened wooden blades as it rushed forward in a frenzy of attacks.

The chamber erupted into motion. Splinters exploded into the air as the creature carved through everything around it. The stone pillars, the wooden corpses and even the floor tiles. The woman weaved through every strike with frightening precision.

Then suddenly... She disappeared. The wooden Orion froze for half a second. She appeared behind it instantly, and a sharp crack echoed through the chamber.

The imitation’s left leg bent the wrong direction. Then she grabbed its head and slammed it downward. Again, and again, and again. Each impact crushed the creature deeper into the pile of broken wooden bodies beneath them. The room shook repeatedly from the shockwaves it created.

The group near the doorway could only watch silently now not because they wanted to but because interrupting this felt suicidal.

The imitation tried regenerating again, with branches erupting wildly from its torso, aiming toward her from every direction.

She clicked her tongue and then drove her fist directly through the creature’s chest. Everything stopped. Her arm remained buried inside the wooden Orion for a brief second.

Then slowly, she pulled something out. A cube. A deep brown, and she crushed it with her bare hands, not caring about the splinters.

The imitation twitched violently, with its body destabilised immediately.

The woman stepped forward onto the creature’s chest casually while raising the cigarette back toward her lips.

The wooden Orion froze. Its body cracked apart silently before disintegrating into dust-like fragments that scattered into the air and vanished completely, and silence filled the chamber.

The woman inhaled calmly from the cigarette.

She then exhaled smoke slowly while standing atop the mountain of broken wooden corpses.