The Forest of Twin Disasters had never been a quiet place and Damien was certain it never would be.
Even in the sections where the demon presence had been heaviest, the forest had maintained its own underlying noise — the continuous sound of an ancient ecosystem going about its business beneath the layer of demonic corruption that had been imposed on it.
Now that most of the corruption's source had been eliminated, three strongholds dismantled and their occupants removed from the equation, the forest's own voice had room to be heard more clearly.
It was loud.
Not dangerously loud. The loud of a living place that had been partially suppressed for a period and was now reestablishing its natural volume. Creatures moved in the undergrowth. Things called from the canopy.
The ambient essence in the air carried the particular richness of a forest that had not been this free of demonic interference for whatever length of time the demons had been stationed here.
