Chains of Corruption

What have you done? You curse yourself for letting her fight this man alone and you feel something building up inside you. Regret and rage swirl around inside you as the corrupted champion roars and charges you. Suddenly, your energy becomes visible and surrounds you in an aura of white fire. You notice that the man's movements seem slower, but it's actually you that is perceiving time faster. His attacks are easier to avoid and you let your energy flow into your sword. This new sword seems to almost instantly absorb your energy and it glows with the same white fire that surrounds you.

The corrupted champion tries to stab you, but you sidestep and slash down hard. His arm comes flying off but he just turns and keeps attacking. You look to Astrid again, who is still lying face down and motionless against the rubble, as you parry the man's attack and push him back. You are enraged and charge the corrupted champion, putting even more energy into your sword. He stands motionless until you drive your blade into his ribs, then he returns the favor by stabbing you in the gut. You wince in pain and drag your blade up, causing him to stagger backwards. He lets go of his blade and it dissipates, letting your blood flow freely onto the ground, but you aren't going to give him another chance.

You swing your sword with blinding speed from all angles, releasing your energy with every strike. The energy arcs out past the blade and cuts through the corrupted champion's armor as if it wasn't even there. Caught up in the frenzy, you viciously continue slashing the man until he is nothing more than a bloody torso. You snap back to reality and take a step back from the mutilated body. The black energy around his eyes dissipates and you see his eyes are actually blue.

He trembles in shock from the pain but manages to look over at you and say, "Thank... y-you."

He takes his last breath and then dies with a relieved expression. You slump to the floor, half exhausted and half in shock that you lost control over yourself like that, as the white fire around you dissipates. You make your way over to Astrid and notice she is still breathing, although faintly.

Kira comes over and says, "Are you guys alright?"

"Astrid was wounded, she needs to rest." You say as you pick her up.

"But Mika, you're..." Kira says looking at the trail of blood you are leaving behind you as you carry Astrid to the brothel.

"I'm fine." You say trying not to worry her.

You make it inside and set Astrid down on a couch.

"Mika, you need to rest too, look at your wounds." Kira protests.

You ignore her pleas and focus on healing as much as you can while you catch your breath and then walk back outside to rejoin the fight. Priscilla leaps from one demon to the next, tearing off limbs as she works her way through the horde. Meanwhile, C.C. is throwing black fire at any who get too close to the brothel. Kira fires an arrow and hits a demon in the eye as you rush out to help Priscilla. When you get closer, you see that Priscilla is bleeding, although from her movements, you assume her injuries aren't that bad.

Your blade slices through a demon's chest and you launch flames at another standing nearby, incinerating him. The demons are beginning to thin out as the four of you press on, pushing them deeper into the city. After turning a corner, you see a hooded figure standing atop one of the nearby buildings, raising his bony arms to the sky.

"What is that?" Kira asks.

She coming to a stop when she sees the man's black cloak catching the wind. You look up and see black energy swirling around him and then it shoots out into the corpses scattered around the area. The demons and townspeople that lay slain in the streets begin to move and slowly rise to their feet. The black energy flows into them and a thick, bone like exoskeleton covers their bodies.

"Necros..." C.C. says in disbelief.

"Who is that?" You ask.

C.C. responds, "He's a necromancer, and he's very powerful. We have to take him out first or else he will just resurrect any demons we kill into those, things."

Priscilla smiles and says, "No problem, he can't hide from me up there."

C.C. tries to stop her, but Priscilla runs full speed towards and demons. The rest of you follow, but she quickly jumps onto the side of a building and continues running towards Necros on all fours. Priscilla jumps to another building and lands on the roof. She leaps towards Necros, but hundreds of his undead servants burst out from behind him and pile on top of her mid air, causing her to fall to the ground.

As you charge in Priscilla stands up, knocking back most of the corpses surrounding her, although some remain and one of them bites into her shoulder. It tears off a piece of flesh as Priscilla screams and then smashes its head between her hands.

You and the others make it to her side and she says, "Sorry about that, but there's a lot more of those things on the street behind him. I couldn't see them until it was too late."

"I'm just glad you're alright." Kira says as she tries to use her magic to heal Priscilla's wound.

You and C.C. fend off a few demons until Priscilla says, "That's good enough, I'm alright."

C.C. looks to her and says, "We have to work together, one lands the killing blow, and the rest clear a path and protect her."

Priscilla slams her fist into her other hand and says, "Alright then, back me up!"

You nod and charge ahead of Priscilla, quickly cutting down the walking corpses shambling towards you. C.C. and Kira move to either side of Priscilla and begin throwing fire as they follow you towards Necros. The corpses aren't hard to put down, but they rise up again after only a short time and soon they have you completely surrounded as you push deeper into the mob.

When you are close, Priscilla jumps high into the air towards Necros, as Kira and C.C. also fly up, dealing with any corpses that jump up at them. Suddenly, more corpses burst out of the surrounding buildings and jump toward Priscilla. C.C. quickly unleashes a wave of black fire and vaporizes most of them and Kira takes care of the few that survived. Priscilla is almost at the top of the building when you notice Necros raising his arms again.

You remember how badly Astrid was hurt and you feel a familiar surge of energy course through you. Necros points a bony finger at Priscilla and a flood of corpses comes piling onto the roof behind him and straight towards Priscilla. She can't stop and there are too many for Kira and C.C. to handle. You leap through the air and turn towards the corpses, unleashing deadly arcs of energy that slice through the crowd and easily dismember them.

Priscilla now has a clear path and tackles Necros. They tumble across the rooftop and Priscilla comes to rest on top of him. She raises her arms and puts her hands together, interlacing her fingers to form one big fist. Necros raises his hands as if to block her strike, but Priscilla screams and slams her fists down so hard that it crushes both his arms and his head. The corpses stand still for a moment before they begin to fall down. The bony exoskeletons start dissolving as well, leaving leaving only an indistinguishable mess of gore behind. You can't even tell if they were demons or townspeople.

"Thanks for the assist." Priscilla says and as you laugh you begin to feel lightheaded.

You almost lose your footing and sit down before saying, "Maybe I used too much energy, I feel really tired all of a sudden."

"That was pretty cool though!" Kira jokes.

You can hear everyone laugh but the world feels like it's spinning to you. You lose consciousness, still sitting on the rooftop.

Chapter 27: Practice Makes Perfect

You wake up in a bedroom in C.C.'s brothel. Your wounds seem to have mostly healed and you get out of bed and head downstairs.

"Morning, sleepy head. Feel better?" C.C. jokes.

You nod and say, "Yeah, what happened?"

C.C. smiles and says, "What do you think? We cleaned up the rest of the demons and patched you and Astrid up."

"Where is everyone?" You ask, noticing you and C.C. seem to be the only people in the brothel.

"You were asleep for a day and a half, but your wounds weren't life threatening, so all we could do was let you rest. The others are out looking for survivors and I sent my girls home so they could check on their families." C.C. says looking out the window at the city.

"How bad is it?" You ask, thinking about how many people must have died.

"About a third of the city has been damaged beyond repair. I guess they figured out I've been helping you because Priscilla said they came straight for the brothel this time." C.C. says.

You walk over and say, "I'm sorry, I never meant for this to happen."

C.C. smiles and says, "You don't have to apologize, I'm the one who wanted to fight back against them. Don't worry, not even the townspeople think of you like that. They see you out there doing everything you can to fight the demons and it gives them courage. They also heard Iliya refer to you as the champion, so I wouldn't be surprised if they start treating you like Mara herself."

C.C. laughs and you say, "Great, that's going to make things complicated if word gets around."

The front doors open and Priscilla and Astrid walk in.

"Oh, you finally decided to get out of bed? Everyone's been waiting on you." Astrid says with a smile.

You're relieved that she's back on her feet and say, "You could have put me on the ship you know, we'd probably be in Valen City already."

"Actually, Farah asked us to wait one more day. She said a few of her ships were on their way to deliver aid to the townspeople. She wanted us to stay in case the demons showed up again, but thankfully, they haven't." Priscilla says.

So while the battle was going on, Farah thought ahead and called in help?

You remind yourself to thank her later and say, "Where's Kira?"

"She's been helping Farah's crew distribute food and medicine." Priscilla replies.

Astrid folds her arms and says, "Are we ready yet or what?"

You nod and make your way outside following Astrid.

C.C. glides over and whispers, "She was a little upset that she was carried here by you. Don't worry though, she'll get over it."

She laughs and soon you arrive at the Ashstep. People have gathered around the cargo hold, where Farah's crew are handing out crates of supplies to the people. You make your way past the crowd and into the ship where you see Diedra giving orders to a few crewmen.

"Go check the medical tent and see if they need more help down there, and you, get the rest of these crates down there, those people need... Mika? Is that you?" Diedra says. You smile and wave and she immediately salutes you and says, "I misjudged you Mika. I heard about what happened after I was injured and I want to apologize for my actions."

You smile and say, "You don't have to salute me, I'm not even part of the crew."

You laugh but Diedra says, "Even so, if it weren't for you, the captain would have died. You have my respect."

Diedra extends her small green hand and you shake it and say, "Thank you, I appreciate it."

Diedra tells you that Kira and Farah are on the bridge and you make your way up there.

Farah says, "Ah good you're here. I was starting to get bored. You ready now?"

You nod and Farah begins speaking over the intercom, "Listen up! Get the last of the supplies on the ground, we're taking off in ten! All medical crew are to stay here and help the wounded, there's another ship that should be here within the hour to help as well. All flight and battle crew report to your stations immediately and check your equipment."

Farah turns to you and says, "Give 'em a few minutes to offload the rest of the crates and I'll start up the engines. I think Kira went out onto the deck, why don't you go let her know you're awake?"

You agree and on your way out you see Priscilla making herself comfortable at a console while Astrid asks Farah about the ship's cannons. C.C. follows you out onto the deck where you see Kira, who is transformed and seems to be concentrating on her hands. There is a small amount of fire in her palms but when she notices you, it fizzles out.

"Sorry for interrupting you." You say.

Kira shakes her head and says, "It's ok, I.. uh, hold on." She returns to her normal self with a puff of smoke and continues, "I've been trying to practice, but it uses so much energy to cast anything while I'm transformed."

Kira looks down but C.C. says, "I thought you were doing just fine in that last battle. You don't have to push yourself."

Kira thanks her and the three of you go back to the bridge. You and C.C. take a seat near the back wall as the room slowly fills with Farah's crew. Astrid joins you but it looks like Priscilla is enjoying herself at the console, and after a few minutes a crewman reports that they are finished unloading the crates.

Farah dismisses him and says, "All right, take us up slowly, we don't want to injure those people even more."

The ship begins gaining altitude and before long it is above the city.

"Valen City set as destination captain!" A crewman reports.

Farah yells, "Fire up the engines!"

The ship gains speed quickly and and soon Ardent City is over the horizon.

"Sorry, but we're not gonna get back as fast as we got here. Those damn magicores are expensive as hell." Farah says.

"That's fine, I could use a little training." You reply.

Farah smiles and says, "Just don't break anything, or I'm gonna have to charge you."

You smile and turn to leave when Priscilla gets up and follows you out onto the deck.

"I was looking over this ship's internal systems and something dawned on me. They have a complex system that takes information from all areas of the ship and sends it directly to the bridge in real time. It got me thinking about the black slime on the island. What if it was collecting anything it could pollute, and sending those nutrients somewhere else? That would explain why the island is barren now, but then why are they injecting it into Mara? There are still too many things I don't understand, but I have a theory. If Iliya wanted to, she could have wiped out the population long ago, but instead she has never left the island and rarely ever shows her face." Priscilla thinks aloud.

"I assume Mara was on the island when the meteor fell and she was most likely injured, perhaps even unconscious when Iliya found her. Even with her strength, she would no doubt be interested in a goddesses power, and she probably took advantage of Mara's weakened condition and chained her up where you found her. If she experimented on Mara she would find herself unable to use Mara's blessing like you do. Only those Mara chooses can wield her power, that's what I've heard anyway, but what if she found a way to make her demonic energy synchronize with Mara's? We know Iliya has created demons in the past, so it's reasonable to think she could create a creature naturally infused with Mara's energy and her own. She would be able to control it and wield the power just the same as you. Perhaps that is where the slime comes in. As a way to maintain a single cell until it becomes a new life form. I may not be entirely correct, but Iliya has definitely been working on something for a long time now." Priscilla says.

You don't quite understand how she came to these conclusions, but it does sort of make sense.

"I guess we'll find out in a few days." You say, thinking of how fierce the battle with Iliya is going to be.

"Yes, I just hope we can stop her before things get out of hand." Priscilla responds.

"Hey, do you want to spar a little, Astrid kind of goes overboard." You ask and Priscilla laughs.

"I suppose she does, but don't think I'm going to go easy on you." Priscilla says.

You and Priscilla spend a few hours sparring and she teaches you how to better defend yourself without a weapon. C.C. eventually calls you and Priscilla to join the crew for dinner. She has prepared another feast for the remaining crew and as you enter, you hear a crewman praising her.

"Miss C.C. your cooking is the best, I think I love you, but don't tell the captain!" He declares.

C.C. smiles and shakes her head while saying, "I think you've been hanging around me for too long, you should get some rest and you'll feel like yourself again. And it's mistress, I thought I told you that already?"

The man is embarrassed and says, "Y- yes, mistress C.C."

You join Astrid and Kira at the table and C.C. hands you a plate. After the meal you decide to rest up and get an early start tomorrow, so you go to your room and lay in bed. You aren't quite tired yet, so you idly conjure fire from your hand and try changing it to ice. You practice until you can almost instantly switch between elements and yawn. You lay back and a short while later you fall asleep. You wake up in the morning and find Kira asleep on your pillow, right next to your face. You smile and shake your head as you get up and head out of the room.

You run into Farah on the way down the hall and she says, "Someone's getting an early start. Care to join me for coffee?" You agree and follow her to the bridge. Farah hands you a cup and says, "That whole mess in Ardent City was pretty crazy huh? But something tells me the worst has yet to come."

You nod and say, "Yeah, it seems like we've been winning so far, but who knows what's going to happen once we get to the island."

Farah smiles and says, "I'm glad you're taking this seriously, you aren't invincible after all."

"I know that, I've only been a champion for a few weeks. I lived my life as a normal person before I ended up here, I know better than anyone how easily I could die if I'm not careful." You say before taking a drink.

"Well there's a whole ship full of people ready to make sure that doesn't happen, so cheer up, it can't all be bad news, right?" Farah says with a smile.

You agree and finish your coffee as Farah sits in her chair. Out on the deck, the air rushing by makes the morning air a bit chilly, but it's alright, you were planning to train hard and work up a sweat anyways. You practice using magic for a while and you have an idea. You try to combine fire and ice magic into a single attack, but they keep canceling each other out and nothing really happens. You try swapping lightning for ice, thinking maybe those two elements are just naturally opposed to each other, but the same thing happens.

"That won't work no matter what elements you use." You look over and see Astrid leaning against the railing. She walks over while saying, "All magic has its own frequency so trying to combine two different wavelengths just ends up scrambling both of them. Now, if you were to use fire in both hands, they would resonate, and create a more powerful blast."

You look at your hands and then conjure fire in both of them. You extend your arms over the railing with your palms outstretched and release your energy. Fire swirls out of your palms like a tornado and roars into the air. You cut the flow of magic and look at your hands again, wondering why you didn't think of this sooner.

"That was pretty good, just remember, you expend twice the energy if you use it like that." You thank Astrid and she says, "So I saw you were training with Priscilla yesterday, huh?"

You nod and say, "Yeah, we just sparred a little."

"And why wasn't I invited? I was all bored in the bridge thinking everyone else was just gonna rest until we got there." Astrid says impatiently.

"Sorry, I just wanted to train and she happened to be there." You reply.

"Well I'm here now, so let's go!" Astrid smiles and throws a left hook. You quickly duck and back away as she advances and says, "I saw how well that blade of yours works, come on let's play a little."