A teaser for the next chapter of Shadows Everfree. Viewer discretion is advised.

I pulled the door further from its latch, peeking through the gap to find nary a change in the scenery from last I saw.
Ava slipped out first, and after a few seconds, waiting to see if anything would come out, I caught up with her. Side by side, we resumed our trek down the root-ridden roads.
A cold wind howled softly in my ear as it brushed over the city. All else was quiet as we were.
Small white mushroom caps poked out from the tarnished stretch in moderate count. Not so far off in the distance was what remained of the building Helltide had thrown, pressed against another and overtaking a straight shot out of here. Thankfully, I had a flying sword. Bypassing the obstacle should've been easy. Ava was likely thinking the same thing, as neither of us protested as we proceeded on.
A crow caught my attention at the sound of its wings working, just before landing atop a branch. Its beak was cracked ajar as it spectated us behind beady black eyes. There was no calling from it.
A sense of urgency came over me at the sight of it. Only then, did it spread its wings once more and fly to a destination that escaped my knowing.
You're not taking her...
"Ava, we ne-"
I was interrupted by a gasping cry and a sudden motion in the corner of my eye, a short distance away from us.
Both of us stopped; Ava pointed the blade at a figure to our left. She lied in the street, arching her back as she wheezed, gagged and gurgled. Pain in her mutilated voice with every breath her lungs worked. Through all this came a chittering no natural voice could muster.
Covering her form and the area surrounding was a bed of pale mushrooms, each sweating the same fungal secretion that bubbled out from betwixt her lips and the lacerations the shrooms made in their growth.
Ava and I both stayed our distance as the mare pulled herself up from the earth. Mushroom stems pulled from her back as she wailed, keeping her tethered to the ground. They stretched from her in great, surreal lengths, like an elastic band of rubber before inevitably, one by one, they snapped like cables, spraying the substance about in throbbing bursts in what the mind easily conjured as an obscene fashion.
She tore her limbs free of the growth, and upon all fours, she immediately began to stumble toward us.
"Hey, stop." I said, taking a few steps back.
Not did she listen, but instead began to go faster as the chittering grew louder and more grotesque. White drool spilled from her as she accelerated to a broken canter. Her voice spoke to me, plea to end her suffering.
"Get back!" I shouted, jumping back myself to keep a safe distance. Still, she persisted.
Ava was about to advance, when the mare tripped over a root. Upon her stomach striking the ground, she let out a cry that only spoke immense pain as she curled up, sheltering her gut with both forehooves.
Something was inside her... Building, growing, breeding and taking control of the original mind, but leaving just enough of the host to feel the pain it sought - and evidently succeeded - to deliver upon her.
I took another few steps back as the hide of her upper half began to bubble and inflate. Only then, did the other various deformed noises match the volume of her torment. Her body swelled and puffed rapidly, far worse than any allergic reaction I've seen.
Her voice shrieked just as the expansion increased drastically, like bubble gum being blown before the pressure became too much and popped. Pus lactated from the tearing hide... and just like that, her body burst in a cloud of white and pale pink... Intestines and organs spilled out from what little remained of her lower half almost in what I perceived as a liquid form... like a cup being knocked over, once housing rice pudding. Odorless at this distance, which as far as I knew, was for the better, upon looking back at the same cloud my company and I had witnessed back in Plymouth.
"Holy shit..." I muttered, finding my brow knit and my jaw agape.
My eyes soon wandered the land around us, where I caught faint figures of the fallen in the same predicament as she. They did not awaken, for to my fortune, they were distant.
Though now a mortal fear I worried, finding myself standing amidst a sentient minefield...