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Chapter 39 - Purifying Flames

When your travelling hundreds of kilometres a day on foot your bound to develop some astounding speed and stamina.

[Agility: 798 --> 811]

[Stamina: 535 --> 552]

Throughout the course of the next few days, I did little more than run north, kill and eat what I came across, and sleep in trees or abandoned buildings.

[Your soul is excited]

[You have slain a 442 Corrupt Lamia]

[You have slain a Corrupt Warbull]

[You have slain 21 Corrupt Bombardier Brother]

[…]

Standard stuff.

I've been considering how to develop some kind of heat sense as well as I travel. Although I haven't come across anything that has the ability to sense heat, the bombardiers I killed had something similar.

Those short, dwarfish shits carried what I can only describe as a small portable hand cannons.

They were slow, fat, ugly, bearded fuckers that looked like they came straight out of the fiery pits of hell.

All of them had bright red hair and stubby legs.

They were also butt naked, so I had the great displeasure of learning their under growth is as long as their top growth.

These impish demons had the uncanny ability to know where I was at all times.

It was as if they could sense my presence, or perhaps something about me.

They always knew where I was before I knew where they were.

And they shot those cannons at me from long range which was incredibly annoying.

No one likes being woken up by a cannon ball to the stomach. Hardly harmed me at all but still unpleasant.

So, although I haven't found an example of thermal sensing to study, I can try and figure out the secrets to these bombardier brother's scouting ability. There must be some mechanism to how it operates. Like how my flames burn mana.

Anyway, that's a goal for when I come across the shits someday in the future.

The right now goal is to get to the archipelagos first island which should be about another day's travel from here. But as you may have guessed I've come across a problem.

And that problem is quite the unexpected discovery.

The ground is purple.

Standing on top of a small mountain I can see the city on the horizon which makes the trading and travel hub between this continent, Auralia, and the archipelago's first island, Mahagi.

And everything in front of me is purple.

The ground is light purple with dark purple rocks…

The tree trunks are dark purple with light purple leaves…

The sky is light purple with dark purple clouds…

It's all purple.

I can't see the water but I'm sure it's purple too.

That alone isn't the weirdest thing, given my experiences with death, corruption and the undead, but at the same time is the purpleness contagious?

As a simple test I approach the purple realms border and snap a twig off a nearby tree.

Tossing it into the purple zone I wait to see if it becomes purple.

As you might expect, it did, in less than 5 minutes.

That could cause some problems.

Studying the purple border closely I notice some familiarities. It's definitely of corrupted nature as it's similar to the goop and grime that comes out of the corrupt creatures, but it also reminds me of the portal zones I've seen.

Which would mean there could be a portal in at the centre of this zone.

The portal isn't something I can stand to worry about until I become stronger but the fact that it's infecting the land like this makes it different from the other ones. Or perhaps it's not a portal at all but instead something else entirely?

But whether or not I can stand to find out depends on if this stuff would affect me or not.

I have [Corrupt Resistance] which allows me to eat corrupt creatures and even gain temporary attributes from them, but would it protect me from this?

The goop burns well when I cook the creatures that are infected with it so maybe I can burn the lands too?

Determined to discover the nature of the purple lands I blast a wide area of the land in front of me with [Incarnat].

As I rose the temperature the land began to melt into molten rock. The grass and trees burnt and sizzled as the flames spread. Black smoke rose into the air with the familiar scent of burning corruption.

Although the corruption seeped deep into the ground, all the burning rock was purified of it giving me normal ground to walk on.

If this corruption has been spreading, then it would be prudent to get rid of as much of it as possible before leaving Auralia.

Walking through the burning landscape I continued to hurl large swaths of flames at the land around me.

Rising the temperature higher and higher the volume of smoke in the air started to make it difficult to see and breathe.

Using convection currents, I moved fresh air to myself and forced the smoke higher into the air so that I can see more easily.

A number of corrupt creatures had noticed the disturbance, and I could see then fleeing in the distance. Even monsters hate fire.

I moved through the land and into the city like an incandescent demon, burning everything in my path. This continued well into the night as I purified everything around me.

On my way to the coast, I discovered signs of the corruptions source. Amongst my flames there was a small, black orb that wouldn't burn no matter how hot the flames became.

The corruptive nature of it was immense and it didn't take a genius to figure out what was spreading the corruption.

However, I couldn't destroy it.

Inspecting the small orb, I pondered how to get rid of it when an unusual thought occurred to me.

I could eat it.

It was small enough and I have [Corrupt Resistance].

Picking up the orb I tuck it into my pocket before continuing my exorcism.

I'll decide later if I want to eat it. For now I need to reach the coast.

At this point the city that once was, has been reduced to little more than molten rock. All the creatures are either dead or gone and not even a corpse remains to feed me.

I'll have to find food soon after I reach Mahagi.

Reaching the coast, I can see Mahagi in the distance. Steam is rising from the ocean edges as the sandy beach melts, forming pockets of glass.

The water is also infected with corruption, but it seems to have remained isolated to the immediate area, not spreading through the ocean.

That's undoubtably good news.

Placing my artificial hand in the water I raise the temperature as bubbles of steam start to explode from the surface. Before long the entire area around me is boiling as the corruption dissipates.

Once the purple sheen of the water is no longer visible, I prepare to swim to the other shore. It's in sight but it will still take some time to get there.

Tying my peasants robe around my waste I move back, preparing to leap as far as I can.

With my strength a running jump can take me at least 100 meters without infusing mana in my legs. If I use mana and the convection currents caused by the heat, I could make it up to 500 meters which would reduce my travel time to the other shore significantly.

With a burst of power and spike in temperature I leap as high and far as I can, soring through the air of a burning wasteland towards safety.

If someone else could see me they'd think I'm trying to escape the flames, not that I lit them.

Flying through the air I make it at least a tenth of the way to Mahagi. Changing form into a swan dive I smoothly transition from a bird to a fish as I kick with all my might and propel myself forward with the currents caused by boiling water.

It barely took fifteen minutes to reach the shore, and leave Auralia behind as a burning mess.

Climbing onto a port jetty as there are no beaches nearby, I dry myself of by setting myself a light.

It is insanely convenient that my own flames don't harm me or damage my equipment.

Perhaps I should be more destructive with my flames more often. Seems effective.

All the creatures in that city either died or fled, leaving the only thing to lament being that I couldn't get any food out of it. But it was a safe way to travel, if not mana exhaustive.

[Mana: 10 486 / 28 930]

That's going to leave me starving.

Once I'm dry I wrap my peasant cloth back around me and head inland from the jetty, however, it's not long before I freeze and draw my sword in front of me.

In front of me, just up the hill, are an army of corrupt creatures.

They're on top of the buildings, filling the roads, in the trees, climbing the walls and a top the mountain on the other side of the town.

All of them are staring at the flames still burning in Auralia. None of them seem to care that I am here. I don't think they've even noticed me.

Inspecting the unusual sight, I slowly creep forward towards the town. If they suddenly attack, I'll cook the town and flee.

But as I moved closer none of them cared that I was here. They just kept staring at the flames in the distance.

Some of them, seeming losing interest, left town entirely, returning to wherever they came from.

As I creeped forward, I entered the town and literally walked past the creatures in the street. It was as if we were just pedestrians in town minding our own business.

Entirely creeped out I walked through town until I found an empty and suitable place to rest. It's around mid-day but I'm exhausted after being up all-night expending mana.

I need food but I'm afraid if I attack one of the creatures the rest will retaliate.

The room I found is a one-bedroom apartment on the third floor of a building near the base of the mountain. I'm not going to be able to rest well with the creatures just outside climbing the walls and standing on my roof but it's better than nothing.

Remembering the orb, I take it out of my fastened pocket and inspect it more closely. This thing spreads corruption but perhaps that's not the only thing it does.

I've never come across a creature that didn't attack me before but if they are confusing me for one of them because of the dense corruption this thing is releasing then that would make sense.

They attack each other over disputes in territory or food but the rest of the time they are quite amiable to each other's presence.

Like here for example, they are all happy to investigate the burning country in the distance together and in harmony.

It's almost like some kind of messed up community.

And if these creatures are going to mistake me as one of them because of this orb then it would be best to put off eating it for now.

Assuming I survive, [Corrupt Resistance] would surely lap up the power in this orb but that doesn't mean I have to eat it immediately.

For now, I'll keep it on me to make traveling easier.

But that does leave the problem of food. Corrupt creatures have a survival of the fittest mindset so they wouldn't find it unusual for one creature to be eating another, but, if I don't obey the social queues of their 'community' they might retaliate as a group.

For example, in this peaceful environment where they are all happily sightseeing together, what would the rest do if one of them suddenly jumped on and started eating one of them.

Would they flee? Ignore it? Or kill the disruptor?

Gods, this is a weird thing to think about.

I never thought I'd have to try and understand why these things do what they do.

Perhaps I need to start taking notes.

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