The Turning Wood · The Living Buffer
The Cursed Forest is not merely adjacent to Hell’s Gate.
It exists for it.
Stretching across the approaches to the Blood Court, the forest forms a natural barrier so dense, hostile, and disorienting that conventional invasion is functionally impossible. Paths curve back upon themselves. Landmarks shift. Sounds echo from the wrong directions. Travelers who enter with hostile intent rarely reach the far side.
Most never realize they have failed.
The Cursed Forest is not uniformly malevolent.
It is selective.
Those welcomed by Hell’s Gate—envoys, traders, bound guests—report the forest as merely oppressive: dark canopies, thick roots, watchful silence. Those unwelcome experience something else entirely.
Trails loop endlessly
Directions invert without warning
Compasses and magic disagree
Fatigue accelerates unnaturally
Eventually, hunger, panic, or monsters intervene.
The forest does not need walls.
It decides who advances.
The creatures that dwell in the Cursed Forest are not random predators.
They are:
territorial
patient
disturbingly familiar with intruders
Some are native.
Some are rumored to be former invaders who never found their way out.
Monsters do not pursue travelers fleeing away from Hell’s Gate.
They pursue those pressing toward it.
This pattern has been observed too often to dismiss.
Hell’s Gate does not claim ownership of the forest.
It does not garrison it.
It does not patrol it.
It does not clear it.
And yet, the forest has never turned against the Blood Court.
Whether the forest is bound by ancient pact, divine blood rite, or something far older is unknown. The God of Blood has never acknowledged the forest publicly.
Alucard Xanthe has never needed to.
The existence of the Cursed Forest explains several long-standing truths:
Why the Sun-Kissed Crown has never successfully marched on Hell’s Gate
Why crusades vanish without battle
Why no siege records exist
Why Hell’s Gate can remain neutral without appearing weak
Armies cannot fight what they cannot reach.
Among the people of Hell’s Gate, the forest is referred to simply as:
“The First Judgment.”
Those who pass through it were meant to arrive.
Those who do not were not welcome.
No effort is made to correct outsiders who call it cursed.
The forest does not mind the name.
The Cursed Forest is not a wall.
It is not a weapon.
It is a filter.
And in a world where Demon Lords can rise quietly and gods do not announce their favors, a land that chooses who survives the journey may be the most powerful defense of all.