-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st Person POV
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As I looked over the valley I felt and odd combination or disgust and hunger, like watching someone slurp down a live octopus. Perhaps it was my own draconic instincts telling me to devour the flesh of the fallen Elder Dragons, or maybe it's because I haven't had anything to eat since yesterday.
Come to think of it, it's probably a little of both.
I looked back over my shoulder to see the mane six and my team setting up our makeshift basecamp while AppleJack, Dio, Rarity, and myself were on watch duty. Not wanting to think about eating dead bodies anymore I decide to try and make some small talk with Rarity.
"So, like the view?"
"Hardly, Ugh, what a horrid place." Rarity scoffed
"Yeah no kidding, it's worse for me since I can actually smell it from here."
"And it's only gonna get worse once we get closer to it." Kirin said as he walked up to me. "So you decide who's going down there yet, or did you plan on making us all draw straws?"
"I'll tell you once Rainbow and Kushala get back from scouting."
"You rang." Rainbow said from overhead with Kushala following behind her.
"Well speak of the devil. Come on." After rallying the rest of the group I turned to Kushala and asked "So, what's it look like from up there?"
"Well it's nothing like the Rotten Vale in the New World, but that's obvious just by looking at it." Kushala said as he stepped forward. "From what I could tell the whole thing is divided up into four main regions which each have different monsters living there. Geovores like Uragaan and Dodogama make their homes around the bodies of the Zorah Magdaros and the Hallowed Jhen Mohran, they can't really go anywhere other than that because of how dense the clouds of effluvium are, and other monsters can't get to where they are because of the river of molten lava Zorah creates. The body of the Goldbeard Ceadeus and Jhen Mohran's underbelly is mainly inhabited by Insectoid monsters, mainly Carapaceon and Neopterons, and it looks like the big boss of these bugs is a Shen Gaoren who lives in the head of that Ashen Loa-Shang-Lung."
"Wait, to me it looks like the Loa-Shang-Lung's head is still attached."
"It's still in it's juvenile years, hasn't molted into its full size yet. Anyway, they upper half of Loa-Shang-Lung's body is mainly a roosting point for bird Wyverns, flying Wyverns, and wing-drakes. There's Barnos, Yain Kut-ku, Yain Garuga, Monoblos, Tigrex."
"Alright, I'm getting you saved this one for last since it's the most important right?"
"Straight to the point then, fine. You know how I said that there were dense clouds of effluvium, well the clouds are coming from the Shan Dalamader. There's certain places where it looks like the snake coiled around itself before dying, and those bunched up piles of flesh are the perfect breeding ground for the effluvium bacteria. And to make it even more dangerous the digestive fluids of the snake have been leaking out, making entire lakes of sulfuric acid."
"I see, then that adds yet another level of danger." Twilight added.
"You're talking about the toxic gas right?"
"Yes, Equestria doesn't have that many Volcanoes. But we do know about natural sulfuric lakes from stories about the land Thesus, the homeland of the Minotaurs. The sulfuric acid creates toxic fumes which are extremely deadly, even one breath is enough to kill a healthy adult. Although this varies due to the density gas, which is why Minotaurs have evolved to walk upright, so as to not inhale the gasses closest to the ground."
"Unfortunately." An Ominous voice echoed "That is not a weakness the creatures in that Hellscape have."
I looked down and noticed the my shadow and the others were beginning to not only lengthen but converge actually taking shape. I expected Sombra to appear from the shadowy mass however I did not expect the state he would be in. As Sombra form emerged from the darkness I noticed he had numerous bruise, bite marks, and claw wounds all across his body. The other monsters were on edge but I held up a hand telling them to wait before asking. "Why are you here Sombra."
"To give you a warning."
"A warning of what?" Twilight asked.
"That valley is far more dangerous than you can even believe. I ventured there in hopes of forming an army, but all I found there was a land seemingly crafted by the Four Thoroughbreds of the Apocalypse. Chaos, famine, pestilence, and death permeated from everywhere. What little plants I found were covered in volcanic ash and this 'Effluvium' the dragon speaks of, and yet in this seemingly barren wasteland there is an entire ecosystem of creatures which have evolved to not only survive but thrive in these impossible conditions. There are giant fish and sea-serpents that can swim through the acid and lava like it's simple water, enormous creatures that cover themselves in bones as for self defense, and creatures that can seemingly create explosions with their own bodies. And then there are the Four Kings."
"Four kings? What do you mean?"
"The Pegasus and Steel Dragon saw one of them, the giant crab you call Shen Gaoren. There are three others. First, A Silver plated dragon with the speed of falling star, who lives at the peak of the mountain dragon's back. Secondly, a massive tusked Behemoth covered in black boney spikes with a set of jaws that can crush boulders, He has made his home within the broken shell of the volcano turtle. Lastly, a dragon that I can only describe as a rotting corpse, it may be hard to explain he command the very Effluvium that chokes out the lives of others."
"Val Hazak."
"You know of it."
"I know about every monster. I had a feeling that we would run into a Val Hazak here, after all the rotten vale is the only place that Val Hazak can be found. And another thing, you weren't exactly wrong about his abilities, but it's more accurate to say it has a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria. It allows the Effluvium to feed on dead skin, damaged or rotting tissue, and anything else that could be hazardous to the dragon's health, this can be poisons, tumors, other kinds of infections, and so on. It's not an exaggeration to say there's probably more Effluvium in a Val Hazak's body then there is blood. However in exchange for this, the Val Hazak species has become immune to the negative effects of the effluvium, and are even able to expel great gouts of it in a breath attack, or subsequently absorb it back into it's body by draining it from the very air itself or siphoning it off from other living things with effluvium in their body. The other two kings are called Valstrax and Akantor, Valstrax is undoubtably the fastest creature alive in my world and has been given the nickname "Red Comet." And Akantor, while not an elder dragon, is one of the only wyverns capable of dominating them in battle. Akantor is an apex predator so powerful that it's been given the nickname "The Black God." The only other monster equal to it in power is "The White God." Ukanlos.
"Great." Rainbow said sarcastically. "So we're up against a Zombie Dragon, a giant crab, a rocket powered dragon, and a creature so powerful that it's considered a god. Yeah, we're totally not gonna die if we go in there."
"There one thing I don't understand." Twilight added. "Why tell us all of this? Why not simply let us go in there and learn these things ourselves?"
"I'm merely repaying you for freeing me from Tirek, It would be poor form to go to war with someone I am indebted to."
I had to give him one thing, he did have some integrity. Even if it was the integrity of a tyrant.
"I have given you my warning and all information pertaining to that hazardous hellscape. It is yours to do with as you will, I take my leave of both you and this retched place. Farewell." With that, Sombra dissolved back in to the darkness from whence he came, and slinked off somewhere else.
"Well that's not entirely unexpected." Twilight said in a deadpan tone. "So what now?"
"Let me think." I said before thinking through what our best plan could be. Once I had everything down in my head I faced the team began to explain my plan. "Alright, I think our best chance is to try and make the Val Hazak our ally first."
"Wait hold on." Rainbow said. "So of all four of them, you want to team up with the zombie dragon first."
"Yeah well, that's probably our best option. Akantor are extremely territorial and aggressive, It's a wonder this one even lets other monsters share it's environment. Shen Gaoren and other Carapaceon are creatures of instinct, the most we'll manage to do is get them to stay in their territory until the food runs out, and seeing as how their territory consists of essentially a pair of enormous whales, I'm not exactly worried about that happening any time soon. And as for Valstrax, I doubt he actually has any sway over the flying wyverns since his kind are primarily solitary by nature, at most he's got some good reputation. Val Hazak is frankly our best starting point since if we get him on our side we could have a way to bypass the effluvium entirely."
"Can we just wait a moment?" Twilight asked. "Before we head into an extremely dangerous environment, does anyone else have a plan to deal with this."
FlutterShy and Rarity raised their hooves in unison.
"Ones that don't involve going home."
They simply lowered their hooves.
"Alright then, if that's our only plan let's see how it works out." I said as I looked out over the land.