Aura scurried through the pitch-black tunnel leading to and from the breeding pit's chamber, retracing her path back to the three-way split.
The weight of what they had just seen—the grotesque, ritualistic cycle of Abyssal evolution—hung over Kain and the others like a shroud of unease.
How many blue-grade spiritual creatures had they churned out over the years?
Moreover, how many similar breeding pits were there scattered across various relics and Abyssal entrances throughout the Empire?
They needed more information. Perhaps the center chamber could answer some of their questions.
The right hallway had been a nightmare of living flesh and tormented souls being helplessly fused into a gate.
The left hallway had been a horrifying forge of endless Abyssal warriors formed through cannibalism.
But the center hallway…
The center hallway was normal and quiet.
Too normal.
Aura's tiny form hesitated at the threshold, her nose twitching. The cavernous tunnel stretched forward made of seemingly normal-looking stone, smooth and undisturbed, its walls lacking the grotesque pulsations or ink-like coating of the others.
The tunnel appeared normal until it almost reached its end.
Kain's breath was slow, and controlled, but he couldn't shake the discomfort pooling in his gut.
Kain had anticipated the most important area to the Abyssal creatures being in the center, but…
"Why is this place so… normal?" Clara asked, her voice laced with unease.
"It's not normal," Nadia muttered. "It must be hiding something."
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However, whether she believed that or was saying it to comfort everyone was unknown. After all, they had all been hoping that the center chamber held the answers to their unanswered questions or, better yet, the key to ruining the Abyssal creatures' plans entirely.
Aura continued forward, slipping through the dark, her small frame silent against the lifeless stone. The chamber at the end of the hallway wasn't large—nowhere near the scale of the breeding pit or the flesh-forged Gate.
And yet, something about it felt infinitely more dangerous.
The chamber was simple—almost unassuming.
Three things stood within it. No more. No less.
At the center of the room, a single black stone sat upon an altar of carved bone.
It was small—no larger than a fist. It did not pulse. It did not glow. It simply… sat there.
Aura crept toward it cautiously, her senses stretching, searching for signs of life or danger.
But the stone was lifeless. And yet—Kain and the others felt uneasy.
"What is that?" Benji murmured.
"A rock?" Claudia guessed, though her voice wavered with uncertainty.
Aura got a little closer. But still, nothing happened.
No sudden surge of power. No eerie hum of abyssal corruption. It remained completely unremarkable.
And that, more than anything, worried Kain and the others. The unknown was always more terrifying. And they knew, based on the prominent position of this 'rock' in the center chamber it must be incredibly important.
Something deep within them all screamed that the stone wasn't just a stone.
But there was no way to know.
Aura moved on.
In a corner to the right of the room, almost as if it had been tossed aside on the floor due to its unimportance was a massive, fractured crystal the size of a melon.
But unlike the cold, lifeless black stone, this one was fighting.
The Relic Core.
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It pulsed—slow, laboured, like a heartbeat on the verge of stopping. Its once-pure energy still shone at its core—a brilliant, shifting golden-blue light—but it was trapped, strangled by countless black tendrils that coiled around it like parasitic vines.
The tendrils pulsated, twisting, writhing, slowly digging deeper into the crystal's fractures, infecting it bit by bit. The core shuddered, trying to push back, but its light was flickering.
It was losing. Aura crept closer and suddenly—
A 'voice.' But it wasn't really words nor speech.
Just a whispering presence, brushing against their minds through the connection with Aura to convey a single message.
"Help…"
"The core is still resisting," Benji muttered. "But it won't last. The Abyss is forcing its corruption onto it. Once it's fully controlled, by them, they will likely begin to fuse it into the gate they made and open up a stable channel to the real world."
"Why do they even need the gate if they have the core?" Kain asked. After all, he'd learned something about relic cores while studying to be a Pathfinder. It was typical for relic cores to fight against being controlled, even when the controller wasn't an abyssal creature. However, once it is controlled, they shouldn't need to put the effort into making that gate.
"We haven't been exposed to Abyssal Creatures too often," Benji began to explain his hypothesis, "but my guess is that either the energy they use isn't like spiritual energy and can't be used to efficiently control the core, or this relic has a strength limit on the creatures that can pass through it, and that gate is to help exceed that limit. Perhaps it's both. Either way, we should be grateful that they needed to delay."
Aura backed away from the Relic Core. Stay updated via My Virtual Library Empire
The moment she did, the black tendrils loosened, almost as if they were sensing her presence and had tightened themselves around the core to guard against her. The golden-blue light inside the core continued to dim, a weak, flickering ember in the suffocating dark.
It didn't have much time left.
"We need to find a way to take the core, without question. But first, we should see what else is in here. The more information we obtain the better." Nadia decided against just immediately making a grab for the core and bolting.
Not to mention finishing their exploration of this last chamber shouldn't take too long, there was only 1 unexplored object remaining.
At the far end of the chamber, behind the unidentified crystal in the center a coffin stood upright—a massive, glass-like crystal, carved into the shape of a perfect black monolith.
The thing inside seemed dead at first glance.
Its body was encased in midnight-black armour, etched with markings that seemed to shift when not directly observed. Its limbs were too long, its fingers ending in blade-like claws. A single slit for what Kain assumed to be an eye sat at the center of its forehead, closed—unmoving. Its mouth was slightly open in its rest and they all could see the rows of razor-sharp teeth, not too dissimilar from the rows of teeth of the original Abyssal worms in the breeding pit.
Aura hesitated, but the others felt it too. The pressure in the room had shifted during her approach.
The eye inside the crystal coffin did not open. The limbs did not move. The body did not breathe.
And yet, Aura—tiny, unnoticed, insignificant—felt the crushing weight of awareness.
Aura turned and ran.
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Aura ran.
No conscious thought. No strategy. No hesitation.
Pure, primal terror consumed her tiny body, overriding every instinct, every learned behavior. The moment she had felt the weight of that thing's awareness—the Abyssal being slumbering inside the coffin—her mind had snapped. Not with reason, not with logic, but with the inescapable certainty of death.
Aura had encountered many powerful beings before. Nadia, a 7-star beast-tamer, the indigo-grade Abyssal creatures they'd seen in the other chamber, even the horrifying process of the breeding pit.
But this? She had never faced anything that made her feel so certain of her impending doom before.
It had barely done anything—hadn't moved, hadn't stirred, hadn't even acknowledged her.
Yet that presence had completely overwhelmed her mind with terror.
Her heart pounded, and her tiny paws blurred as she bolted from the chamber, retracing her path blindly down the center hallway, desperate to put distance between herself and that thing before it could open its eyes and see her.
Through the link, the others felt her terror.
"Aura!" Benji's voice snapped through the connection. "Calm down! You need to get the core! Don't forget the core!"
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But she wasn't listening. She was mindless, reduced to nothing but a small creature trying to flee a terrifying predator.
"Shit—" Benji cursed as he felt the overwhelming panic surge from Aura. His bond with her meant that even he was struggling to think straight under the sheer weight of her fear.
"She's not responding!" Clara snapped. "Damn it! Just grab the core and go! You sent a split in there, Aura! It's not even your real body!"
Aura didn't hear her. Didn't care. She had to run.
But Kain, his mind whirling through the possibilities, refused to let this mission fail.
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Aura was too far gone to listen to Benji. Too deep in panic to make rational decisions.
Thankfully, he'd unintentionally kept a backup security measure on her beforehand—Bea.
He immediately drained all of his spiritual power to provide the needed boost of energy and power to her so that she could momentarily control the blue-grade mouse.
For a split second, Aura's world froze.
A foreign presence slipped into her mind. Not in a violent, forceful way, but like a shadow curling around her thoughts. Gentle yet overpowering.
For an instant, Aura felt herself slipping—control of her limbs, her frantic breathing, the sheer animalistic urge to flee.
But unlike most other creatures Bea had influenced before, Aura fought back hard.
Aura's mental strength was stronger than the average blue-grade spiritual creature. Likely due to the unique attributes of her species.
She kicked and thrashed against the influence, her mind screaming in rebellion, refusing to be controlled.
Kain clenched his fists, sweat beading on his temple as he pushed everything he had into Bea, even using elixirs and his equipment to refill his spiritual power and provide additional boosts. Never had he done so before, and he could feel the painful strain of using the spiritual skill so frequently on the same target put on himself and Bea.
However, his efforts paid off. For a brief moment, Aura's body stilled.
Her paws stopped their desperate scrabbling. Her breathing slowed. The blind, mindless terror loosened its grip.
She was still afraid. Terrified beyond measure. But she was thinking again.
She wasn't being chased. Nothing had moved. The coffin hadn't opened.
She was slightly embarrassed to admit that she had panicked over the mere presence of the Abyssal being.
Aura reassured Benji of her well-being, still shaking but aware once more, and Bea's influence faded, retreating as soon as Kain felt her stabilizing.
Benji let out a breath of relief.
But Claudia wasn't nearly as understanding.
"Oh for fuck's sake, Benji," Claudia exhaled sharply. "Your contract nearly lost us everything because it got scared? The core, Aura! The one thing we've been searching for, for days! Stop being a scaredy mouse and grab the core before those tendrils finish corrupting it!"
Benji's entire demeanour snapped.
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"Are you serious right now?" His voice was sharp, uncharacteristically angry. "You felt that thing, Claudia! That wasn't some regular monster! It likely had the strength of a Demigod! Do you think you could think clearly when faced with it?!"
"She sent a split," Claudia countered. "If it dies, she'll recover with time after a period of weakness. The mission is more important than a little fear."
Benji's jaw tightened, his fingers clenching into a fist, but didn't argue further. As the one with the closest connection with Aura, he'd more vividly felt the pressure emanating from that creature. He was also slightly embarrassed to admit, that he almost wanted to bolt from this area as well. He didn't normally react this way to creatures stronger than him, but it was almost as if this creature had the passive ability to drive people crazy from fear.
Kain, meanwhile, took a steadying breath. The argument didn't matter. Not right now.
Aura was calm. That was what mattered.
"Alright, focus," Nadia's voice cut through the air. "We need to figure out how to take the core without setting off any defences."
Aura turned, cautiously re-entering the central chamber and approaching the Relic Core once again.
The black tendrils twitched.
Not from awareness of her—no, they were still focused entirely on strangling the core itself. But that meant if she disturbed them, they might react.
"How do we even grab it?" Kain murmured. "If the tendrils detect movement, they'll tighten around it completely."
"Not if they're distracted," Benji said.
Nadia caught on quickly. "You mean force them to divide their energy?"
Benji nodded. "They're actively corrupting the core. If we feed it energy, the tendrils will be forced to counteract the purification. That could weaken their hold long enough for Aura to grab it."
Kain frowned. "Do we have anything that can purify it?"
A beat of silence.
"Ahem…remember that list of objects I gave you previously, about the must-have objects for Pathfinders in the event of an emergency," Benji began hopefully, "by any chance Kain, did you actually manage to purchase the items on the list…"
"Of course! You emphasized that those were the objects Pathfinders should keep on themselves at all times." Kain confirmed. Benji's words while passing that list had left quite the impression. Otherwise, he definitely wouldn't have used the credits he'd just gained from the mission in the Dragon Territory to purchase a bunch of things he didn't even know how to use. He would have spent it on weapons, evolutionary materials, or other stuff he actually could visualize how it could boost his strength.
Wait…
Kain looked around at the lowered and embarrassed expressions of his teammates. Even their leader Nadia, looked as though she was chastising herself. "Don't tell me that you all didn't bring anything on that list?!"
'If they don't purchase that stuff, why the heck did they ask me to?!'
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Kain folded his arms and let out a slow, judgmental sigh, his gaze sweeping over the more senior members of the Order—Benji, Claudia, Clara, and even Nadia.
The tension in the air was palpable as they all avoided eye contact, suddenly very interested in admiring the surrounding scenery.
Benji, looking increasingly uncomfortable, was the first to break the silence.
"W-Well, Kain, you see… It's not that we didn't want to buy those things, but, uh…" He cleared his throat awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck and desperately trying to shake off the feeling of guilt.
It wasn't like they hadn't wanted the relic supplies. If anything, everyone knew they were essential for Pathfinders operating in relics. But… they were expensive.
Benji sighed, finally relenting. "Look, Kain, you're still a 4-star beast-tamer. You don't understand how astronomical the resource costs become when you reach 6-stars and beyond. Each breakthrough at the higher levels is a life-threatening endeavour. If you don't have the proper resources, you risk permanently damaging your foundation or dying. The safest way to breakthrough requires a rare elixir worth tens of millions of Celestial Dollars or tens of thousands of credits from the Order. And that's just for one attempt! Let's not even talk about advancing our contracts to indigo-grade spiritual creatures!" He threw up his hands in exasperation. "The three of us—Clara, Claudia, and I—have been stuck at 6-stars for years because we just don't have the resources to safely advance! If we ever get a big windfall, do you really think we'd spend it on these so-called essential relic supplies?"
Kain's unimpressed stare remained unwavering.
Clara sighed. "We're not saying the stuff on that list isn't useful—obviously, it is. It's just… when we have to choose between making real progress in our cultivation or stocking up on 'just in case' items, the choice is obvious."
Kain's expression darkened. "So you're saying," he said slowly, "that despite being experienced 6-star beast-tamers, none of you had even a single credit left to buy essentials? Even after insisting that I buy them?"
Benji hesitated before giving an awkward cough. "It, uh, seemed more reasonable for you to get them, y'know? Since you weren't breaking through anytime soon…"
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Kain inhaled deeply through his nose. "Unbelievable."
His gaze shifted to Nadia, expecting her to be the voice of reason.
Surely she had been prepared, right?
But even she avoided his gaze, suddenly looking… bashful?
"…You too?" Kain asked incredulously.
"…It's not like the pursuit of strength stops after becoming a high-level beast-tamer," Nadia mumbled, visibly uncomfortable. "Just because I've reached 7-stars doesn't mean I can just stop investing in my own progress. I might be a long way from 8-stars, but my contracts… out of all of them, only one has reached indigo-grade. Naturally, I want the others to break through as well." She sighed, rubbing her temples. "The cost of high-grade resources is insane. Any spare credits I get are immediately funnelled into my contracts. If they don't improve, even if I one day break through to 8-stars, I wouldn't be much stronger than the average 7-star beast-tamer, or even the top 6-star beast-tamers."
Kain stared at them all.
'Oh, spare me the sob stories! I am the youngest. I am the lowest-ranked. I am the one with the least resources. And yet, I am the only one who actually followed your own damn advice!'
He mentally imagined hammering the heads of all four of his teammates.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Kain exhaled heavily.
"…Fine. Fine. Whatever. There's no point arguing about it now…"
…However, for the sake of group harmony, he decided against screaming at them.
Kain exhaled again, shaking his head. "So, in summary—all of you are broke."
His pointedly dry words hung in the air.
The three 6-stars and their 7-star leader all awkwardly coughed and looked away.
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Kain glanced at his storage ring, feeling both annoyed and relieved that he had actually followed Benji's advice.
"…Let's just focus on the situation at hand," he muttered tiredly. "Which items from the list will actually help here?"
Kain dug into his storage pouch and withdrew a few items.
Under the scrutinizing gaze of his more experienced teammates, they narrowed down the selection to two items that could help with the Relic Core's extraction.
The first was a Vessel of Purification—a small, unassuming crystal vial that, when activated, would release a concentrated burst of purifying energy. Its main purpose is to purify the mind of 'corruption.'
Benji's eyes lit up. "Thank god you managed to get this, Kain!"
Kain raised an eyebrow. "It's that useful?" My Virtual Library Empire
Benji nodded. "It's pure essence from a certain high-grade Light-elemental creature. Typically, it is used to cleanse the minds of Pathfinders who have fallen 'too deep into the act' of a memory echo and snap them out of it. But it also has a unique side effect: it can reverse control progress on a Relic Core as long as it's not completely controlled."
"Although, this function is rarely used, it's an invaluable resource to have when entering relics that may have entrants from other nations. After all, in such cases, the final control of the relic was a matter of national pride and could contribute to the country's strength." Benji finished
"Therefore," Nadia cut in, "when we pour this on the core, it'll force the Abyssal tendrils to react—they'll have to counteract both the purification of their corruption and the weakening of their control.
Kain nodded. "And the second item?"
He pulled out the second item—a Space Severing Nail.
A dark metal spike about the size of his palm, etched with intricate runes pulsing with faint silver light. This unimpressive-looking nail was by far the most expensive item that had been on the list given to him by Benji.
It was the purchase of this nail that had essentially wiped out so much of his credits he couldn't even upgrade his equipment.
'This nail better be damn important, otherwise, I'm going to nail it through Benji's head…'
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This is a good thing! A great thing, actually! Without it, I was only about 10-20% sure of getting the core. Now I can be about 80% sure." Benji exclaimed, his eyes gleaming with excitement.
"Man! I really wasn't expecting you to be able to buy this, Kain. These are ridiculously expensive, and I never thought as a newcomer you'd have enough mission credits to buy one."
'I know it's expensive!' Kain internally yelled at the words from this unreliable senior, 'So it better be damn impressive otherwise, as the person who suggested I buy it…'
Kain began to internally debate with himself which areas of the body would be most painful for this nail to be shoved into.
Kain narrowed his eyes. "So? What exactly does this Space Severing Nail do?"
Benji grinned and lifted the small dark metal spike, his fingers tracing the glowing silver runes. "This thing is loaded with an insane amount of space energy. It can force open a temporary spatial crack between two locations—so long as they share a strong enough connection."
Kain's brow furrowed. "A connection?"
Benji nodded. "Think of it this way—space can't just be ripped apart at random. There has to be a bridge, a resonance of sorts. Fortunately, every single Pathfinder badge is designed with internal sigils that connect us to one another. It's a standard safety measure in case teams get separated in a relic. The sigils naturally sync whenever we enter the same relic, creating a spatial tether between all of us."
Claudia narrowed her eyes. "I've never heard of that function for the badges before."
"Because it's not commonly used," Benji replied. "The channel isn't stable enough for a person to pass through. If we tried, we'd be sliced apart by the spatial turbulence before we even got halfway through."
"However…" Benji continued with a widening grin. "Objects small enough—things around the size of a shoebox—can pass through. Small spiritual creatures that fully suppress their power, messages, rare materials… and most importantly, relic cores."
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A hush fell over the group as the implications sank in.
"This means," Nadia began, "that we don't have to physically carry the core out and risk Aura's split being attacked and failing the mission. We can release it from the tendrils and send it straight to one of us outside the Abyssal stronghold."
Benji grinned. "Bingo. Once the core is in our hands, the Abyssal creatures won't have a chance to react before it's gone."
Kain nodded slowly. "Alright. But considering Aura's split doesn't have a badge, how exactly can we open a space channel to her? What's your plan?"
The other members also looked disappointed when Kain pointed this out. They weren't as familiar with the usage of this item as Benji was, and couldn't think of any solutions.
"No worries. I only said there needs to be an anchor between two locations. As my spiritual contract who is tied to my Star Space, naturally, Aura and her split are both connected to me through space. Therefore, my contract with Aura can serve as an anchor. It may not be as stable as the typical connection between badges due to the lack of stabilizing sigils, but it will do."
"And once the space channel is opened…," Benji took a deep breath, glancing at the vial of purifying energy, and then continued. "Originally, I was planning to just feed the energy from the Vessel of Purification to Aura through our connection—which would greatly weaken its effect and was why I was only 10% sure of success."
"But now, we can use the Space Severing Nail to open a channel and send the entire vial to Aura. As long as we work fast enough, she should be able to take out the core and send it through the channel before it collapses."
—————————–
With the plan in place, the team swiftly took action. Benji held the Space Severing Nail in one hand and focused on opening the channel using his connection with Aura's split, while Kain held the Vessel of Purification.
The others positioned themselves at the perimeter, watching for potential disturbances. They had no way of knowing how the Abyssal creatures might react once the tendrils lost control of the core.
Benji took a steadying breath. "Alright, I'm going to activate the nail. Kain, be ready to throw the vial through the channel the moment it stabilizes."
Kain gave a firm nod, clutching the Vessel of Purification tightly. "Got it."
Benji pressed the Space Severing Nail into his forehead, however instead of the expected gruesome scene, the nail seemed to gradually melt away as it was inserted into his forehead.
'Well, I guess I managed to fulfill my wish in a sense…' Although, Kain had to admit that anticlimactic scene wasn't exactly what he was imagining as he was making mental threats to Benji's well-being.
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Benji didn't show too much discomfort, showing that the nail truly wasn't entering him physically and focused on channelling his spiritual power into the runes. Immediately, the air around them warped, the space distorting as faint silver cracks appeared in the air.
The runes on the nail pulsed, sending ripples into the air that increased in strength as the nail dissolved and resembled heat waves. A faint shimmering portal began forming between them and Aura's split inside the stronghold.
Through the link, they could all sense Aura tensing on the other side. The connection wasn't perfect—fluctuations in space energy caused the portal to shimmer unstably, but it was enough.
"Now!" Benji barked through his clenched teeth as he focused on maintaining the portal.
Kain hurled the vial of purifying energy into the rift. The moment it passed through, the portal flickered dangerously before stabilizing once more.
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On the other side, Aura's tiny form hesitated for only a fraction of a second before snatching the vial in her paws.
'Go, go, go!' Benji urged through their mental link.
Aura wasted no time. She scurried toward the corrupted Relic Core, uncorking the vial with her teeth. A brilliant, golden-blue light spilled out, washing over the dark tendrils constricting the core.
The reaction was immediate.
The tendrils writhed violently, recoiling as the purifying energy seeped into them. The abyssal corruption fought back, but the purification forced them to redirect their focus, struggling to suppress the invading force.
Aura darted forward, her tiny paws gripping the core as tightly as she could. The tendrils spasmed, sensing her movement, but they were weakened—too occupied resisting the purifying force.
Through the flickering portal, the team could see it happening in real-time.
"Hurry!" Nadia barked. "The core is breaking free!"
Aura pulled with all her might, her claws digging into the crystalline surface. The tendrils coiled around it to the best of their ability, desperate to reclaim their prize.
Finally, when it appeared as though Aura was finally going to get it free—
"It looks as though we've got ourselves a little rat infestation." A cold deep voice called out behind her with amusement.
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Everyone's breath hitched. A cold, paralyzing dread gripped their hearts as the deep, amused voice echoed through their minds.
Unfortunately, since the portal was opened up facing the relic core so that it can be easily tossed in and taken away, they weren't able to see who, or what, was behind Aura.
Moreover, since whoever had spoken was behind Aura they couldn't use her perspective to see who the newcomer was either.
Last they had checked, there wasn't anybody behind Aura…she was supposed to be the only living thing in that room—aside from the suspected Demigod-level Abyssal creature in the coffin.
The sudden realization hit like a sledgehammer.
Had it woken up?
Benji's hands trembled, his focus on maintaining the spatial channel wavering for the first time. If that thing had truly awakened, their entire plan was finished before it had even begun.
Kain's entire body tensed. The sheer presence seeping through the portal was overwhelming, suffocating—enough to make even Nadia stiffen.
However, after a few agonizing seconds, he noticed something odd.
While the pressure coming through was enormous, it wasn't as suffocating as what they felt through their connection with Aura when she had first approached the coffin. It was strong—far too strong for comfort—but not enough to be that thing. Not enough to be the slumbering monstrosity they had feared.
Still, it was powerful.
Aura, paws still gripping the Relic Core, turned around slowly, her small body taut with tension.
As she rotated, the team's perspective shifted through their connection with her. The portal itself remained static, fixed on the core, but now, finally, they could see who—or what—had spoken.
And their hearts sank.
Standing there, at the entrance of the chamber, was the lead Abyssal creature from the right hallway.
The one overseeing the construction of the horrifying gate made of fresh bodies.
A being equivalent to an indigo-grade spiritual creature or 7-star beast-tamer. However, likely due to their powers to corrupt others, Abyssal creatures were far more threatening than spiritual creatures and beast-tamers of the same level.
Therefore, although it was only one level higher than Aura on paper, none of them had much hope of Aura defeating it. Especially since fighting wasn't exactly Aura's strong suit.
Kain's mind reeled. That thing had been stationed at the Gate. It wasn't supposed to leave its post.
So why was it here?
The creature loomed over the chamber, its massive frame covered in the same eerie, bone-like armour that shimmered faintly in the dim light. Its single golden eye gleamed with dark amusement as it took in the scene before it…
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Aura, caught mid-theft.
The Relic Core, moments from being stolen.
And an unstable, shimmering spatial rift directly in front of her.
A low, grating chuckle reverberated from its throat. "How very interesting… I was going to merely check on the core's progress, but instead, I find a little rodent trying to steal it."
Aura froze, her fur bristling. The core pulsed in her grip, so close—so damn close—to being free. But now, she had a much bigger problem.
Through the mental link, Kain could feel Benji's panic rising.
"Aura, move," Benji hissed. "Get the core out of there. Now!"
But the Abyssal creature took a slow, deliberate step forward, but somehow this step seemed to shift the space subtly, causing it to leap forward by meters in an instant. Seeing that this thing was either ridiculously fast or was capable of manipulating space, she no longer had the confidence to get the core out.
"There's no need to run, little one," it said smoothly. "You've already done such a fine job, so why don't you hand that over before you get yourself hurt?" Despite its terrifying appearance, the words of the Abyssal creature seemed to have a slight coercive ability to prompt the listener to do as instructed. A mentally weak creature probably would have already dropped the core already.
'High-grade Abyssal creatures are nothing like those mindless lower-grade Abyssal creatures we saw in the breeding pit or the corrupted. Their threat-level was incomparable.'
After all, while the strength and corruptive abilities of creatures related to the Abyss are a huge threat, there was a huge difference between a mindless and intelligent enemy.
If anything, Kain would prefer to face a physically strong idiot, than a cunning, but weaker, genius.
With the latter, you may not even know how you died…
Aura's tiny paws clenched around the core as she tried to resist the coercion in the opponent's words.
She knew she couldn't fight this thing. Not alone.
Benji, voice tense, whispered through the link. "Aura… you have to toss it into the portal. Now."
Aura didn't need to be told twice.
With every ounce of her strength, she wrenched the core from the weakened tendrils.
The Abyssal creature's eye flickered.
It lunged.
Aura spun, hurling the core toward the waiting portal. At the same time, she also dove in between the lunging abyssal creature and the core, using her body as a shield.
For a split second, the world seemed to freeze.
The core tumbled through the air, the space rift flickering, unstable from the sudden rush of movement.
Then—
A blur of motion.
The Abyssal creature moved faster than anything Aura had ever seen.
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Its clawed hand slashed toward the core—
And missed.
The core passed cleanly through the portal, vanishing into the waiting hands of the team outside.
Benji gasped as he felt the weight of the core land in his grasp. "Got it!"
But there was no time to celebrate.
The Abyssal creature's eye flared with fury. Its attack hadn't stopped when the core disappeared—
It was still coming.
Straight for Aura.
"AURA, COME TO THE PORTAL!" Benji roared.
But the spatial portal was collapsing. The large amount of energy in the core had caused the connection to begin to destabilize.
Through the flickering link, they could all see Aura, her tiny form scrambling backward, desperately trying to evade the massive, clawed hand slamming down toward her.
The portal snapped shut.
Cutting off their connection.
Silence.
The team was left standing in the ruins, the Relic Core safely in their hands, but their hearts pounding with terror.
But after a second of stunned silence, everyone, aside from Benji, let out a cheer. The mission wasn't a perfect success since Aura's split had had to be sacrificed. But Aura's strength could be recovered with enough time. What was really important was that they'd gotten the core!
Nadia approached Benji who was still in a daze and appeared to be frozen due to his distress. She patted him on the back and comforted him, "I know you must be sad since losing the split must be painful to Aura and will cause a temporary loss of strength, but the most important thing was that we stopped their plan. I will make sure to report your contributions to the order and they will definitely arrange proper compensation."
However, Benji still did not reply to Nadia's words of comfort, still staring blankly into the air. Suddenly, his body began to tremble slightly, barely perceptible, before his shaking and convulsions grew greater and greater.
Then Benji collapsed as his eyes rolled to the back of his head, convulsing violently. His body spasmed, his breath coming in short, ragged gasps, before he coughed up a thick mixture of blood and foam. His entire form trembled as if he had just suffered a catastrophic backlash.
Kain, Claudia, and Clara all stopped their celebration after hearing Nadia scream and seeing the current state of Benji.
Seeing Benji's state, they all immediately checked on Aura's main body which hadn't moved from the corner since its split was being controlled by its consciousness.
But what they saw made their blood run cold.
Aura's real body lay curled in on itself, her golden fur matted with sweat and black patches of what looked like corrosion. Her tiny frame twitched sporadically, as if locked in an invisible battle, her whiskers flicking as she gasped for air. Unlike Benji, whose backlash was severe but didn't seem to be life-threatening, Aura's condition did not look promising and the black spots were spreading by the second.
"Damn it," Kain hissed under his breath. His hands clenched into fists as he helplessly watched Aura and Benji, the person he was closest to on the team, writhe about in pain. "We need to do something—fast."
Nadia immediately knelt beside Aura, and after wearing a pair of gloves that glowed with sigils, she pressed two fingers to the soft fur on the creature's side. Her expression darkened. "Her energy flow is completely erratic. Whatever corruption this is… it's sinking deeper by the second."
"Can we purify it?" Claudia asked. At her words, Kain was already reaching for a small vial of cleansing elixir, a weaker version of the Vessel of Purification, from his space ring. "If we act fast—"
"No," Nadia cut in, shaking her head. "It's unlikely that anything we'd have on hand would be effective enough to treat this. Not to mention that this doesn't seem like ordinary corruption. Usually, when a contract gets injured or corrupted, it doesn't affect the beast-tamer like this. There should be no backlash from injury, only death. But Aura isn't dead yet…I don't know. If we use the wrong method, we could make it worse."
Any lingering joy they may have had about obtaining the core was now gone. Their plan had succeeded, but at what cost?
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Looking around at the expressions of helplessness on everyone's face, Kain knew that they couldn't come up with any decent solutions.
Healing her didn't seem possible under the current circumstances, the best they could do was find a way to keep her alive and repress any further spread of the corruption.
'Looks like it's up to me again…' Kain thought helplessly, already mourning the large amount of credits this was about to cost him. Again.
With a sigh of resignation, he reached into his space ring and pulled out one of the other (extremely expensive) essential items from the purchase list he had been given. The moment it appeared, the temperature in the surrounding air plummeted, sending a biting chill through everyone's bones.
A translucent sphere, swirling with deep blue and white energy, hovered in his palm—the Cryostasis Nexus.
A device utilizing a combination of spatial, temporal, and ice-attribute energies, it was capable of preserving the state of any living being beneath the indigo-grade threshold.
As long as someone still had a breath of life left, they could be stabilized inside and transported back to the Order for treatment.
Such an advanced lifesaving tool was naturally rare and extremely expensive, nearly impossible to obtain had he not been a member of the empire's most elite organization.
Thankfully, its limitations meant that it could only contain low to mid-tier spiritual creatures and beast-tamers—if it worked on high-level individuals, Kain wouldn't have been able to afford it even if he sold a kidney, a lung, and his last shred of dignity.
Claudia whistled lowly, the earlier panic and sadness at Aura's state being forgotten as Kain flaunted an item many of them weren't even able to afford without giving up on making any further progress in their strength for a long period of time. "Damn, Kain, you've really been holding out on us. You should have let us know you had this thing earlier."
Kain shot her a look, already feeling a pang in his heart at having to use two of the most expensive items he'd purchased, just within a couple of hours. "I was saving it. You know, for emergencies? Like the current 'our tiny teammate is rotting from Abyssal corruption' kind of situation?"
Claudia snorted. "A real tragedy. Your wallet, I mean. I doubt you even have any credits left to purchase resources for you and your contacts."
'And whose fault is that?!'
Ignoring her, Kain turned his attention to Aura's trembling body. The black patches had spread further, dark veins pulsing beneath her golden fur. He had to act fast.
Taking a deep breath, Kain activated the Cryostasis Nexus. The swirling energy inside the sphere flared to life, and a thin, frost-like mist spread outward, wrapping around Aura's prone form. The temperature dropped even further as faint lines of glowing sigils appeared along the surface of the orb.
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"Alright, let's hope this works," Kain muttered, placing his palm against the orb's surface.
A complex array of symbols illuminated beneath his hand, and in the next moment, the mist surged forward, enveloping Aura completely. The black corruption visibly slowed, the spread freezing in place as if time had been momentarily halted around her.
A soft, pulsing glow settled over Aura's body, and then, with a final pulse of icy light, she vanished—her form completely absorbed into the Cryostasis Nexus.
The orb, now containing Aura's suspended state, hovered slightly before settling back into Kain's palm. The temperature around them slowly returned to normal, though the air still felt unnaturally crisp.
Kain exhaled, letting go of tension he hadn't even realized he was holding. "Well… that should keep her alive for now."
After the spread of the Abyssal corruption was halted and Aura was absorbed into the Cryostasis Nexus, Benji's condition noticeably improved. After only a couple more minutes he even regained consciousness and was able to sit up with some assistance from Nadia.
Benji, still visibly shaken but slightly steadier than before, looked at the orb with a complicated expression. "Thank you, Kain. I promise that I'll pay you back once we leave here."
At the promise from Benji, Kain's expression noticeably brightened. Thankfully Benji still has a conscience. To avoid having to use his own credits to purchase items that he felt would be useful, he'd essentially scammed Kain to carry the costs of these items alone, while he used his credits to buy a rare item his sixth contract needed to evolve.
With the promise from Benji, Kain released much of the discontent he felt. "There's no rush. Once we get back you should focus on getting treatment for Aura."
With Aura and Benji momentarily stabilized the mood of the group noticeably improved. Clara nudged Kain with a smirk. "Guess that means we need to finish this mission quickly so we can get our credits and get you reimbursed before you cry."
"Too late. I'm already crying. On the inside." Kain sighed, putting the Cryostasis Nexus back into System Laboratory but pretending as though it was put into his space ring. Since the Nexus now contained a living creature, only special, far more expensive, space rings would be able to contain it. However, with the System, Kain had never felt the need to buy one and instead just pretended as though he possessed one of those high-end space rings.
———————–
The urgency of the situation didn't allow them to linger. After all, they did technically just steal the relic core. They had only remained in their current location due to the suddenly bad states of Benji and Aura.
But Aura's condition was stabilized for now, and they still had to deal with the ever-present danger of being pursued by Abyssal creatures.
They had stayed in the ruins longer than they should have, and it was only a matter of time before the creatures started tracking them to here.
Nadia wasted no time giving the order. "We're moving out. Now."
With swift coordination, they departed, heading back toward the city at their fastest possible pace.
As expected, they encountered resistance. Several Abyssal creatures, equivalent to blue-grade spiritual creatures blocked their path several times throughout the journey.
But this time, they weren't the ones at a disadvantage.
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Nadia, as a 7-star beast tamer, had several spiritual creatures either equal in strength or stronger than them.
Meanwhile, as elites of the empire Benji, Claudia, Clara, and even Kain, were all capable of taking down a blue-grade spiritual creature alone, much less when in a group with others of similar strength.
Therefore, the encounters on the way back to the city couldn't really be called "a battle." It was an execution.
Thankfully, it seemed like high-level abyssal creatures like the one who had attacked Aura or the one inside of that crystal coffin, did not seem to be that common. Otherwise with the powerful corruptive abilities they had shown, even as a group they would struggle to defeat it without devastating casualties
———————–
By the time they finally reached the city, exhaustion weighed on all of them. But before they could even begin to breathe a sigh of relief, an urgent message reached Nadia.
A scout had reported something unsettling.
Several Abyssal creatures had been spotted just outside the city walls—watching. Not attacking, not moving, just… observing.
The implications sent a chill down everyone's spine.
"They're gathering intelligence," Nadia murmured darkly. "Or worse… waiting for reinforcements to take down the city."
If the Abyssal creatures were planning an attack, the city needed to prepare. Immediately, Nadia began organizing defences. Patrols were doubled, anti-siege weapons moved to the walls, and the entire city was placed on lockdown. In addition, now civilians could only consume a set number of rations, after all, there was no telling when the attack of the Abyssal creatures would end and they couldn't have the soldiers crumbling from hunger before the city walls did.
In addition, in the event of a worse-case scenario, emergency evacuation procedures were reviewed for civilians. Maybe a handful of them could escape and survive if the Abyssal creatures broke through the city walls.
As the preparations were in full swing, tension hung thick in the air. The city's defenders, while experienced, were all too aware of how devastating an Abyssal siege could be. After all, several far more powerful city-states have gone extinct under their raids in the past. The creatures didn't just conquer—they corrupted, turning allies into enemies, leaving nothing but twisted husks in their wake.
Then, just as final defences were being put into place, the first tremors shook the ground.
A distant, guttural roar echoed through the night air, followed by the heavy thud of countless feet running enthusiastically toward the city. The horizon darkened, shifting like a writhing mass of shadows. Then, as the first Abyssal creatures crested the distant hills—the army came into view.
Thousands of grotesque figures, their twisted forms illuminated by the dim glow of the city's outer lanterns, advanced at a horrifying pace, their scarlet eyes gleaming hungrily as they gazed fixedly at the city.
The city wasn't ready. They weren't ready.
Kain felt the blood drain from his face.
"…We might be screwed."
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"However," she continued. "This may just be what we need."
'How can an approaching army that resembles a never ending black tsunami be exactly what we need?' Kain thinks in confusion. Clearly he and Nadia have very different perspective on what they need.
Likely seeing Kain's skepticism, Nadia elaborated. "Obtaining the Relic Core is only one aspect of clearing a Historical Echo relic. Nobody knows how Historical Echoes are formed, since unlike trial and habitat relics humans are not able to make them, but one thing is for certain—they all present a unique event in human history."
Benji, still looking pale but steadying himself, chimed in. "Indeed. Even the most innocuous-looking historical echoes eventually reveal themselves to be a pivotal turning point in human history."
Taking a breath, he recounted, "A couple of decades ago, another group entered a Historical Echo relic that was set in a small, unassuming village right before the Celestial Ascension period. It was just a rural settlement, barely worth mentioning. There weren't even any beast tamers among its people, and for the longest time, there were no clues on the clearing conditions of such a mundane setting. It was frustrating. People were stuck in that relic for months to even years with no progress.".
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"But then, guess what they discovered?," Benji paused for dramatic effect, not really expecting them to answer, "it was discovered that this small village was the birthplace of Calista Eyera, one of the five founders of the Empire."
Claudia let out a low whistle. "Damn. That must have been incredible. You could actually meet her?"
Clara nodded eagerly. "Eyera was the only female founder and was famous for her beauty. Imagine how adorable she must have been as a child!"
Benji shrugged. "She was only twelve or thirteen at the time of the Historical Echo. But despite not even having awakened as a beast tamer yet, she already possessed the gift of prophecy."
Kain raised a brow. "Prophecy? You mean like divination? Those types of abilities are usually vague at best and unreliable at worst."
"That's what most thought at first," Benji admitted. "But in her case, it was real. From practically the time she was born, she had innate foresight abilities. The problem was, the things she saw were never good. Every prophecy she made foretold tragedies that could rarely be changed. That kind of thing makes people uncomfortable. Terrified, even."
Nadia frowned. "They turned on her." She said as if she already knew the outcome with a bitter smile on her face. "People tend to react to the unknown with fear and hatred rather than just trying to understand."
Kain couldn't help but give a side glance to her. She seemed as though she was speaking from practical experience.
Benji nodded. "Some of the villagers spread rumors. That she was a jinx, a demon, or worse—that she was causing the tragedies herself just to make her 'gift' seem real. There were even suggestions to cast her out or kill her. She probably would have been if not for the village chief taking pity on her. He protected her from the shadows, but he couldn't shield her from the fear, contempt, and isolation of the rest of the villagers. So, to survive, she stopped speaking aloud many of her prophecies. Instead, she internalized them."
"So a bunch of her visions were lost to history," Kain guessed.
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"Exactly," Benji confirmed. "When she suddenly disappeared one day, she took all that knowledge of the future with her. That relic's clearing condition wasn't a battle, but rather gaining her trust and retrieving the prophecies she never spoke of to others, or at least the ones she made in her youth. The information they uncovered was so valuable that it changed the trajectory of the Empire, cementing its long reign of power and influence."
"And what exactly were those prophecies?" Claudia asked in interest.
Benji shook his head. "Only the highest-ranked individuals and those who cleared the relic know. It's classified."
Kain scoffed. "Figures."
Returning to the present matter at hand, Nadia gestured toward the approaching Abyssal horde. "Anyways, what I was trying to say is that this army may not necessarily be a bad thing." Benji said, "Not to mention that this city getting besieged and destroyed—whether by a tide of Abyssal creatures or spiritual beasts—must be a fixed plot event. It's likely the clearing condition of this relic. Therefore, there's no reason to feel guilty about bringing the abyssal creatures to the city or feel as though you caused this attack-it would have happened regardless. If anything it is probably a little weaker now since the Abyssal creatures also had much less time to prepare too."
Claudia furrowed her brows. "So this was always going to happen? Even if we weren't here?"
"Yes, since it is likely the clearing condition," Nadia affirmed. "The Abyssal creatures likely planned to use that flesh gate to bypass the clearing condition and claim the core without following the relic's rules. But we don't have that option. If we can successfully defend this city against the attack, not only will we clear the relic, but we'll also gain full control over the Relic Core. If we completely assimilate it with our spiritual power, we take ownership of this Historical Echo relic."
Kain pinched the bridge of his nose. "So, to summarize: we have to stop a doomsday-level siege, prevent history from repeating itself, and claim the core… all before we end up like the original citizens of this place."
Nadia smirked. "Now you're getting it."
Clara exhaled sharply. "No pressure, then."
Benji let out a dry laugh. "We might as well start preparing now. The way that horde is moving, we don't have much time."
Kain sighed. "Alright. Since this city is destined to be destroyed, let's see if we can defy fate."
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The first wave hit like a crashing tide, an endless swarm of grotesque forms clawing their way toward the city walls. The air filled with the deafening screeches of the abyssal creatures, their twisted bodies shifting and writhing as they advanced. Some bore jagged, bladed limbs, others had grotesquely elongated arms ending in serrated claws that snapped hungrily at the guards above.
Their hungry red eyes glowed terrifyingly as they stared at the city, while the few high-grade ones among them, marked by their golden eyes, observed the battlefield with a terrifying calm. Kain and the others were certain that they must be plotting something bigger.
Kain stood at the front lines, hundreds to thousands of Bea's threads of mental energy were lashing out like whips, but instead of slicing through the abyssal creatures as they surged forward, they seemed to just harmlessly touch the approaching creatures.
Unfortunately, the abyssal creatures seemed to be extremely resistant to her control, but she was able to break up the rhythm of the approaching army. Some of the abyssal creatures she managed to briefly stall at the front were quickly heartlessly trampled by their comrades.
Aegis had already raised a stone wall to slow their approach, but the creatures climbed over it with unnatural agility, their hunger for destruction driving them forward.
The Vespid guards tried their best to destroy the never ending tide of abyssal creatures, and would occasionally block attacks for the other guards using well-placed ejected stinger or their own bodies—after all, their Queen was healing them as a support from behind. Queen was also healing other wounded, but by far the effectiveness of her healing was greatest on her own guards.
"Keep them off the barricades!" Nadia's voice rang out as her contracts unleashed a barrage of star-attribute infused attacks. The star-attribute was incredibly rare and previously the only star-attribute spiritual creature Kain had seen, either in person or in video, was Serena's Starweaver. However, Nadia's affinity seemed to be exclusively for creatures of that attribute.
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Her main contract, the indigo-grade griffin, unlike most griffins that only had the wind-attribute, Nadia's was dual attributed and had the star attribute—was it a mutant? Or a species Kain had never heard of?
Nadia's other contracts were also either suspected mutants or star-attributed species Kain had either never heard of or only heard about in rumours.
Each blast from these star-attributed creatures seemed to be coated with the brilliance of starlight, carving through the abyssal army, but for every creature that fell, another one took its place.
Benji summoned 4 more of his contracts Kain had never seen before. Since Aura was incapacitated and his more recent contract was too low in level to be of use, he only had 4 to use.
Interestingly, like Aura that seemed to possess a secondary time-attribute, so did all of his other contracts. Kain wasn't sure if it was his choice to have spiritual creatures that didn't specialize in the time-attribute, but rather had it as a weaker secondary attribute to power a couple very unique skills, or a limitation of his affinity.
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One of his contracts, was likely capable of warping time subtlety as it travelled. Its blurred figure was cleaving through the abyssal creatures with precision, its sword like arm was crackling with energy. Its strikes sent limbs and black abyssal 'blood' flying, but the abyssal creatures did not falter. One lunged at it from the side, its bladed arm moving toward its neck. Before it could land the blow, Clara's contract, a light-attribute fox, intercepted with a sweeping strike, severing its head from its body.
"Watch your flanks!" she warned as she drove her own weapon into another creature's chest.
Then came the first screams.
A soldier fell, his leg mangled beyond recognition by the serrated jaws of an abyssal creature. The black corruption spread from the wound, consuming flesh and bone. His screams soon turned into guttural, inhuman growls as his body darkened with thick black smoke pouring from his body. His comrades hesitated, horror-stricken as he rose to his feet—his eyes now a bright, soulless red. A newly turned Corrupted.
"Damn it!" Claudia cursed, severing the creature's head before it could attack, but more followed. Each injured defender twisted and contorted, their bodies warping into nightmarish forms, their souls lost to the abyss.
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The corruption spread faster than expected. Every slash, every bite, every drop of abyssal blood splattered onto human flesh risked turning another ally.
And despite being physically weaker in the same level than the born abyssal creatures, in a way the corrupted were even worse than the abyssal creatures—their attacks carried an overwhelming taint of corruption that spread on contact much faster than the corruptive abilities of abyssal creatures.
A high-grade abyssal creature stepped forward, its golden eyes gleaming with malice. Unlike its mindless kin, this one observed, analyzed. Then, with terrifying speed, it moved. A single sweep of its bladed arm cleaved through three warriors, the abyssal energy in their wounds consuming them almost instantly. It turned toward Kain and his teammates on the wall, tilting its head in eerie amusement.
"You think you can stop us?" It spoke, its voice like a chorus of overlapping tones, each more grating than the last. "You will join us. It is inevitable."
"Like hell we will," Kain spat, Bea's threads headed toward the high-grade abyssal creature, as did the contracts of most of his allies. Since this high-grade abyssal had taken the lead of approaching the city in order to intimidate them, they may as well not allow it to return.
The abyssal lord deflected them effortlessly, countering with a brutal strike—toward Kain who he perceived to be the weakest. Kain barely managed to evade, the force of the attack shattering the section of the wall where he had stood moments ago.
The battlefield erupted into chaos as the golden-eyed ones joined the fray, their superior intellect making them deadlier than the mindless corrupted pawns they were using as meat shields.
Everyone defending quickly used their strongest skills and a myriad of abilities rained down on the approaching creatures like divine judgement.
But still, the tide did not slow.
One by one, warriors fell. One by one, their allies turned. Eventually, the city defenders were not just fighting an army, they were fighting against their own increasing feelings of hopelessness and desires to flee—the fear that any wound, any misstep, would lead to their own conversion into the enemy was impacting many of them mentally, making their attacks less sharp.
The battle, both the physical and mental one, was just beginningr.
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The battle raged, an unrelenting onslaught of blood and desperation.
The defenders fought like animals backed into a corner, their bodies pushed beyond their limits as the abyssal tide surged forward. Some clung to their weapons with white-knuckled grips, their breath ragged, their eyes wild with fear. Others collapsed where they stood, their wills breaking beneath the weight of hopelessness. Those who lost themselves to despair crumbled to their knees, sobbing, their contracts succumbing moments later—either turning against them or perishing outright.
The ranks of the corrupted swelled with each fallen soldier. Twisted bodies rose once more, their grotesque forms turning against former comrades. Progress was an illusion, and the defenders could feel it. The sinking realization gnawed at their resolve, feeding the very despair that threatened to unravel their resistance.
Stopping this collapse was paramount. Kain might not have been the strongest among his team, but his contracts were best suited for this moment.
He had almost forgotten about the auxiliary effect of status effects for Queen's ability, instead focusing on the healing aspect:
A-Rejuvenating Wind: Releases a restorative breeze that dispels negative status effects and mends minor wounds within its radius.
The defenders' spirits were wearing down faster than their bodies, so Kain made a choice. Instead of directing Queen to inject potent life-attribute energy toward grievously wounded guards, he had her continuously cast Rejuvenating Wind. It wasn't a perfect solution, but there were many others capable of healing physical wounds, but only Queen could strengthen the minds of these soldiers.
Meanwhile, Bea also shifted priorities. Her infection ability had proven ineffective against the abyssal creatures, her mental threads consuming too much of Kain's spiritual power just to maintain control. Rather than wasting energy on the enemy, she turned her influence inward. After all, there were many times in the history of the Empire where the ultimate victory wasn't determined by the physical strength of the enemy, but rather by the internal cohesion of the Empire's civilians.
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Subtly, carefully, Bea extended her reach. Nearly every soldier atop the walls soon carried a fragment of her within their minds. The moment she sensed the inclination to surrender, she acted—seizing control of their bodies before they could back away, forcing them to keep fighting.
At first, Kain had worried about whether diverting the efforts of Bea and Queen would put a strain on the defensive line, but the defensive line became more stable after Bea abandoned controlling more of the enemy and instead focused on preventing some idiotic actions of their allies.
However, despite the immediate possibility of the city collapsing decreased, the odds of victory were still not in their favour.
Vauleth descended from the sky, his wings churning the air into a violent storm. Streams of searing flame erupted from his mouth, engulfing abyssal creatures in an inferno that burned impossibly bright. Yet, for every foe incinerated, another surged forth to take its place. The crowd opposite of Kain never thinned.
"We're making no progress!" Clara shouted. Her light-attribute fox darted between enemies, blinding them with bursts of radiance before tearing into their bodies with claws sharp as crescent moons. Above, her golden hawk carved through the air, its wings slicing abyssal flesh like divine blades.
Then came the screams.
The abyssal creatures breached the line, landing devastating blows before the defenders could react. The weaker beast-tamers were the first to lose their contracts. Black corruption spread like wildfire, their spiritual creatures twisting and warping, howling as their bodies became something monstrous.
One by one, the bonds shattered. The severance struck the tamers like a blade to the soul. Blood sprayed from their lips as they crumpled, unconscious, their ability to fight lost. Those who could still stand dragged the fallen away from the frontlines lest they contribute the enemies' actions.
Even among Kain's allies, the corruption was spreading. Another of Benji's contracts, a bear whose attacks seemed to be imbued with time-attributed energy that caused the target's flesh to quickly rot as though speeding up the rate of decay, staggered back, its powerful frame marred by seeping black wounds. The corruption spread rapidly, forcing Benji to recall it before the infection could take hold completely.
Likewise, Clara's hawk faltered mid-flight, its brilliant feathers darkening as it let out a piercing cry. With a flash of light, Clara dismissed it, her face pale as she sent spiritual power to her contract to help it combat the corruption in its body.
Clara's hawk faltered mid-flight. She recalled it in a flash, her face pale, channeling spiritual power to halt the infection.
The burden on those who remained grew heavier with every retreating ally.
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Vauleth bore the brunt of it. He tore through the abyssal hordes without hesitation, his scaled body riddled with deep gashes. Though his True Dragon nature rendered him immune to corruption, it did not make him invincible. He could still be broken. He could still die.
Kain could feel it—his companion's pain, his exhaustion. He urged him to fall back, but Vauleth ignored him. Pride, instinct, and the desire to embody the unyielding will of a True Dragon drove him forward. Even if he wasn't yet a True Dragon, that doesn't mean he couldn't act in accordance with the values embedded in him by the elder dragon.
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Unfortunately, if things continued like this, Kain was certain that he would soon be facing the pain of a broken contract due to death.
Then it happened.
A shadow moved—an indigo-grade abyssal creature lunging straight for Clara. She had stepped too far from the defensive line, focused on finishing a group of enemies.
Her instincts screamed. She knew she wouldn't be able to dodge it in time.
A blur of stone intercepted the strike.
Aegis had chosen to withstand the attack with his body, considering raising a shield would take too long.
The corrupted blade carved into him, cleaving through solid rock with sickening ease. A leg was severed. Black veins spread rapidly from the wound, tendrils of corruption sinking deep into his being.
Kain's breath caught. "Aegis!"
The golem rumbled in defiance, trembling as he fought to stabilize himself. His massive arms braced against the ground as he tried to regrow his severed limb. But the corruption did not stop. It burrowed deeper, insidious and relentless, threatening to consume him from within.
The battle roared on, but for Kain, the world had narrowed to this single moment.
Aegis—his immovable shield, his guardian—had fallen.
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Kain's breath caught in his throat as he watched the black corruption spread across Aegis' massive stone body.
The earthen texture and sandy colour of the golem darkened, the once sturdy and familiar surface now appearing slick, as though coated in black oil or tar.
Fissures broke out along his rocky body that emitted black smoke, and his massive form trembled. Then, his eyes—his once unwavering, sandy-yellow eyes—began to bleed into a haunting, soulless red.
"No…" Kain whispered, his voice barely audible over the battle's din, dread settling like a vice around his chest.
The moment a contracted creature succumbed to corruption, the contract itself would shatter, sending a backlash of pain deep into the beast tamer's soul.
Worse still, the turned contract would immediately become another enemy, no different from the abyssal creatures they had been fighting.
And Aegis, who had been acting as the final protector for many of the defending guards, was standing mere steps from the defensive line. Now, the position he had taken to better defend his allies would prove to have disastrous consequences once the change was completed. If he turned completely, he would become a huge threat to their already dwindling forces.
Kain braced himself, his body tense, waiting for the unbearable agony of a severed bond.
He also recalled his other contracts from their various tasks and told them to focus on guarding his body in the inevitable event that his defenceless body was attacked by the nearby Aegis while he was coping with the backlash.
But the backlash never came. His breath remained steady, his mind unpierced by the soul-shattering pain of losing a contract.
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Moreover…
Aegis didn't move.
The golem's massive figure remained still. Save for a faint, almost imperceptible tremor, Kain would have thought that Aegis was a silent statue. His massive fists clenched and unclenched, as if wrestling with something.
And his eyes that had almost fully shifted to red, were now changing. Between pulses of crimson (the sign of the corrupted), streaks of sandy-yellow flickered desperately, as though waging a battle of their own.
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Kain's heart pounded. Corrupted creatures didn't hesitate. They didn't struggle. They simply turned and attacked their former allies like mindless creatures with no memories of their former selves.
But Aegis… Aegis wasn't attacking.
He wasn't lunging at Kain or the others, nor did he let out the twisted, otherworldly screeches of the fully turned. Instead, he stood frozen, his entire body wracked with violent tremors.
The corrupted abyssal energy surged through him like a storm, but something—some part of Aegis—was resisting it.
A spark of hope flared in Kain's chest. "Aegis?" he called out hesitantly, stepping forward, despite every instinct screaming at him to stay back.
Aegis' head twitched in his direction, but the motion was sluggish, unnatural. His mouth, which rarely ever moved beyond speaking a few words to Kain occasionally, opened slightly as if he wanted to respond. Instead, a deep, guttural sound rumbled from within him, a cross between a groan of pain and a growl of a hungry beast.
The battlefield continued to rage around them—abyssal creatures swarmed the walls, corrupted humans and beasts alike turned on their former comrades, and Vauleth, as an immune 'True' dragon, fought tooth and claw to hold the line. But for Kain, all of it became background noise. His focus remained entirely on Aegis.
Aegis let out another strangled sound, his body convulsing as if trying to shake off an unseen force. The corruption on his body pulsed violently, spreading in jagged lines across his stone form, but then—
A single patch of his body lightened.
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Just slightly. Just barely.
But Kain saw it.
The corruption wasn't advancing as fast as it should have—in fact, it was the opposite. It seemed more like it was losing ground. It was as though Aegis was holding it back, gradually adapting to the invasion and fighting against it, resisting it with every ounce of his being.
Kain's mind raced. Could it be possible? Could Aegis… withstand the corruption?
If Aegis was truly fighting back, then Kain couldn't just stand there. He had to act.
He reached out through their bond, pushing past the distortion, searching for any trace of Aegis beneath the abyssal taint. The connection was muddled, unstable, but there—deep beneath layers of encroaching darkness—Kain sensed something familiar. A presence that had not yet been consumed and turned.
"Aegis," Kain said, his voice carrying over the chaos. "You can fight this."
The smoke that escaped from the cracks on his body seemed to be escaping from within him, as though being expelled by Aegis himself. With each new fissure, more of his body reclaimed its original colour and texture.
The black spots signifying his corruption were continuing to spread while being simultaneously expelled. Kain now had hope of not losing Aegis.
But it still wasn't enough. Aegis' body was now in a balanced equilibrium that may tilt against them at any time once Aegis lost the energy to resist.
Kain stepped closer, placing a hand against Aegis' shaking arm. He poured all of his remaining spiritual power into their bond, reinforcing the connection between them and channelling as much spiritual power as possible to support Aegis' internal battle. Unfortunately, due to his constant refuels of Bea, he was practically an empty tank.
Therefore, Kain actually overdrafted his own life force, converting it into spiritual power—a last-ditch life-saving means possessed by all beast-tamers but is scarcely used due to the long-lasting and potentially permanent negative effects doing so could have to their potential.
Receiving the last of Kain's energy, a deep tremor ran through Aegis' body. But before Kain could see the effect, see if Aegis was saved, the side-effects of burning his lifeforce caught up to him.
His vision blurred, his knees buckling as exhaustion clawed at his very core. Aegis' form flickered between corruption and resistance, the battle waging on inside him far from over. But Kain had no strength left to watch the outcome. As darkness overtook his mind, a single thought lingered—had he done enough?
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Kain drifted in nothingness. A weightless, formless void pressed in from all sides, an oppressive lightless space that stretched infinitely in every direction. There was no ground beneath him, no sky above, only a vast, consuming darkness. It was as if the world had forgotten him, leaving him adrift in a realm without sound, without light, without time.
He didn't know how long he had been there—seconds? Hours? Years? His thoughts felt sluggish, muffled by the all-consuming darkness. But then, finally, he felt solid ground beneath him again. He had never realized how reassuring being grounded was before.
Kain took a cautious step forward. At least, he thought he did. He couldn't see. Couldn't feel where he was stepping. Only the unsettling sensation of shifting pressure beneath his feet gave any indication that he had moved at all.
The ground was… wrong. It wasn't solid, nor liquid, nor anything he could name. It squished underfoot with a sickening give and a faint squelching noise, pulsing, undulating, as though something beneath the surface moved with his every step.
If he had to compare it to something, it'd be like trying to walk steadily on a perpetually moving waterbed.
A deep unease settled in his stomach as he moved forward, the ground writhing subtly beneath him, pressing back against his weight.
A shudder crawled up his spine as he reached out, searching blindly for something—anything—to orient himself. His fingers brushed against a surface, and immediately, a wet, crawling sensation spread across his hand. It wasn't stone, nor wood, nor metal. It felt alive.
Slimy, wriggling bodies coiled around his fingers, shifting beneath his touch, clinging to his skin like living filth. A nauseating squelch filled the silence as his hand sank slightly into the mass. The things beneath his fingers twisted and pulsed, some tiny and slick, others thicker, their movements slow and deliberate, pressing against him as if responding to his presence. But after a brief moment of contact, none attempted to recontact or pursue him further—his presence already forgotten.
A horrified shiver ran through him, and he yanked his hand back with a sharp breath, shaking it furiously. The sensation lingered, phantom squirming worms crawling along his skin.
Kain had probably never been more horrified by a lack of sight in his life. He needed to see.
Gathering what little strength he could muster, Kain reached inward, grasping at the remnants of his dwindling spiritual power. He activated a simple spiritual skill to increase his eyesight in the dark. However, the darkness was so thick it barely was cut through with the assistance of the skill.
Still, it was enough.
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His faintly glowing eyes took in his surroundings—or rather, what lay within them. And Kain almost wished he had remained blind.
They were everywhere.
Writhing, churning, an unfathomably dense mass of abyssal worms stretched beyond sight. Their slick, segmented forms twisting and slithering in a ceaseless, sickening rhythm.
There was no end to them. No space between them. No escape from them. They pulsed like a singular, living thing, a disgusting 'ocean' of worms too vast for Kain to comprehend just how many of them were present.
A chill far deeper than fear rooted Kain in place. His breath came in ragged, uneven gasps. The sheer magnitude of what he was seeing threatened to unravel him, to consume what little remained of his reason.
Then, he felt it.
A pull. Subtle. Faint. But it felt remarkably similar to the pull from his affinity, but slightly different, more dull.
Somewhere beyond the writhing mass, something was pulling him in a certain direction.
Kain moved before he could think better of it. The worms did not react to him, their undulations unaffected by his presence. He drifted past them, practically weightless. Even the worms he stepped on directly only paused briefly, unsquished and still alive, before continuing on with their low-level lives.
As he moved further out of (or into—it was hard to tell) the tunnel, the scenery changed. He left the portion of the dark tunnel filled with worms and entered a slightly wider portion that branched out into several narrower tunnel openings that led who knows where.
As he continued forward, he saw more.
The horrors of this place were not limited to the churning worms. Monstrosities lurked in the shadows just beyond his limited vision—things that defiled normal aesthetics. Hulking beasts made of solid black muscle or chitin, elongated figures with too many limbs, too many mouths, or too many eyes that glowed like red embers in the darkness.
Eventually, Kain saw a source of light in the distance—an exit?—and instead of picking up the pace, he slowed down out of caution. He still had no idea where this was. Discover more content at My Virtual Library Empire
Gradually, he approached the mouth of what looked like the opening to the tunnel he arrived in.
It opened out to the 'outside.' But Kain wasn't strictly sure he could consider this outside. At least it didn't resemble an outdoor environment he'd ever seen.
The 'sky' was solid black without a single constellation or celestial body.
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The ground lacked any kind of vegetation and was just solid black stone. And built onto, and likely from, this black stone was what looked like a 'town' that appeared to have abyssal creatures and the corrupted as its inhabitants.
Then Kain saw the others.
They were not abyssal creatures or the corrupted.
People—living beings—trapped, used, and abused.
Kain's stomach twisted as he saw them. Humans, but not ones from the Empire. Their clothes, their features appeared foreign.
And others too. A lithe figure with long, pointed ears and bright silver hair. A stout being with heavy chains binding his limbs, his face gaunt, hollow. The long-lost Elves and Dwarves. Even creatures Kain could not name.
They were not simply killed. They were made to suffer.
Some were hung in writhing translucent cocoons, their bodies pierced through with wriggling tendrils siphoning something Kain couldn't identify.
Others were forced into torture shows for the amusement of the watching high-level abyssal creatures, their limbs reshaped, their body parts stolen, their minds shattered. Some still clung to life, their eyes wide, their souls intact but barely holding on. Others had become soulless shells—mentally dead from the horrors they'd suffered.
A convoy passed through the town, abyssal creatures dragging captives from this small town toward an unknown destination.
Kain barely had the sense to hide, pressing himself into the shadows of a large boulder as they moved. His breath hitched as he watched, heart hammering. Thankfully, none of them seemed to sense his presence.
Then, it came.
A creature among the convoy unlike the others. Its form was not monstrous, not in the way of the other abyssal creatures.
It was tall, eerily elegant, draped in black silks that wove and unwove themselves with each movement. But its eyes—
Gold and violet flecks, a rare source of beauty among the hideous surrounding—an Abyssal Demigod.
Kain didn't need it confirmed, he knew instinctively that that was what it was.
And it was looking right in his direction.
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A terror unlike any Kain had known before rooted him in place. Every fiber of his being screamed to run, to hide, to do anything but remain where he stood. But he did not move. Could not move.
After staring in his direction for what felt like an eternity, it turned its eyes back forward and continued on its way.
The Demigod being passed him.
'Did it not see me?'
Kain remained frozen long after it was gone, his breath shallow, his body rigid. Then, slowly, he straightened from the rock he hid behind.
Could they not see him?
A realization settled over him. His presence here didn't seem to be detected by the abyssal natives.
With this realization, his fear did not fade. But now, it warred with something else:
Curiosity.
Steeling himself, Kain stepped forward.
If they could not see him, then he would watch. And he would learn more about these creatures who hadn't been seen in centuries.
—————————–
Kain followed at a measured pace, keeping his distance as he trailed behind the convoy. If there was any place worth seeing in this wretched place, surely it was wherever a Demigod was headed. After all, no matter where it was, Demigods represented the peak of power and status. How could they be bothered with completing trivial tasks?
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The procession travelled from the abyssal town for a few hours to an area more densely populated with abyssal creatures and buildings. A city.
However, unlike the cities Kain was familiar with since being reborn from earth, this city had no walls—likely because it had never been at risk of being attacked by enemies or a beast tide before.
The convoy continued into the city, winding through streets paved with smooth, obsidian-like stone. Find more adventures on My Virtual Library Empire
Strange, towering structures flanked the roads—some appearing sculpted from bone, others pulsating as if alive, their surfaces shifting with a sickening organic rhythm.
Shadowy figures lurked within the buildings, their indistinct shapes pressing against warped windows, watching with hollow, lidless eyes as the convoy passed.
Kain felt no wind, no warmth or cold, just the unnatural stillness of a world unbound by natural laws. The only sounds were the shuffling feet of the prisoners, the guttural murmurs of abyssal creatures, and the occasional gut-wrenching scream ringing out in the distance.
Kain noted that the city was built in a ring. A massive, circular void stretched at its center and Kain could only barely see the city on the other side of it. The extremely wide pit was also seemingly bottomless and seemed to swallow all light.
At the edges of this pit were many of what Kain could only describe as "altars".
They looked like obsidian spires rising along the pit. The structures pulsed with a deep, internal glow—violet, red, and gold light flickering in uneven intervals. Suspended above each altar were bodies, or at least what had once been bodies.
Humanoid figures hung high in midair, their limbs stretched unnaturally, as if something invisible was pulling them in multiple directions at once. They twitched sporadically, their mouths open as if to scream, but no sound came out. Their skin was fracturing, tiny pieces of it lifting into the air like dust was being brushed off of them and then carried away by an unseen current, dissolving into raw energy that funneled into the altar below.
On one altar, an elf with silver hair had its emaciated body drained beyond recognition—and after the absorption of its blood, gold and violet lights began to flicker on its body and then move to the alter below.
Kain looked at the innumerable altars that held up creatures all in different stages of decay, their bodies unwinding as their blood and souls were slowly, methodically harvested.
After a while, Kain noticed a pattern. Early on, as mostly blood and flesh were harvested by the altar, it flickered mostly with red light. When there was much less blood to absorb, golden lights seemed to be painfully yanked from the body—which Kain assumed to be their souls.
But what did the absorbed purple lights represent?
As Kain was watching and analyzing the altars, so too were the abyssal creatures—although for a different purpose.
They gathered at the edges, their red and gold eyes gleaming with grotesque fascination, their expressions twisted with something akin to reverence.
All of the lights seemed to funnel into the impossibly deep pit that the altars lined. Kain, at the first quick glance of the pit, didn't notice anything unique about it besides its width and depth, but he decided to take a closer look.
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Kain approached the edge cautiously, peering down into the darkness.
Nothing.
Not even the faintest glimmer of depth. It was as if the world simply ceased to exist beyond the pit's threshold. His instincts recoiled, warning him of some fundamental wrongness, but curiosity overpowered caution.
He reached inward, drawing on his limited amount of spiritual power, pushing it into his eyes to enhance his vision once more.
And then, he saw it.
His breath caught in his throat.
The darkness wasn't just an empty void. It had shape. It had form.
It was an eye.
A closed, massive eye.
Then, it opened.
A slow, deliberate motion, as if something ancient and unfathomable had been disturbed from an aeons-long rest.
A terrible, gut-wrenching wrongness slammed into Kain, freezing him in place as a pupil of impossible size revealed itself beneath the lid.
The eye was a deep, cosmic purple flecked with shifting specks of gold and red.
And it was staring right at him.
He should not have looked. Yet he had, despite all of his instincts screaming not to.
And now, that thing—whatever it was—was aware of him. Not just as a passing anomaly, not just as an unnoticed speck in its domain. It was looking at him. Studying him.
Kain stumbled backward, his heart hammering. The abyss, the city, the Demigod, the rituals—it all faded into background noise at the wake of the horror now staring back at him.
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