THE BLACKTHORN CODEX
Episode 58 — The Storm of Flesh and Shadows
Date: November 18, 2023 — Time: 2:45 PM
At the center of the horde, a different body emerged: larger, with incandescent eyes, and a dark aura. Sorcerers were beginning to manifest through this body. The real fight was about to begin, and Leander and Clarisse understood that killing these victims was not enough: they must learn to understand Selerion's law and the powers of the sorcerers behind them.
The air was saturated with black smoke and the smell of blood. The Selerion Abyss had no sky, but a burning fog hung above the heroes, heavy with the screams of previous victims. Leander and Clarisse gasped for breath, their bodies still scarred by past attacks.
Suddenly, a series of figures emerged from the void. This time, there were more of them, their bodies distorted by possession and the sorcerers' magic. Their faces were twisted, their flesh ripped open as if the insides of their bodies were rebelling against the surface. Some had extra limbs, others eyes popping out of impossible places.
The first assault struck with unexpected violence: a group of four bodies leaped toward Léandre and Clarisse, each striking with disordered but rapid movements, sharp claws, monstrous jaws. Léandre launched arcs of electricity to create a barrier, but the lightning struck the bodies and scattered across the surrounding surfaces, briefly illuminating the victims' twisted faces.
Clarisse responded with fire, sending a fiery shower over three of them. The flesh melted, consuming itself in a cloud of black smoke, but immediately, the same bodies reformed a few meters away, their eyes turning red, their voices a grating, terrifying rasp:
"You are weak... you are... dead before you were born."
The sorcerers behind these possessed bodies sneered, invisible, orchestrating every movement with precision. Léandre and Clarisse understood that each victim killed was merely a pretext to generate new horrors.
A body lunged at Léandre. Its arms extended like blades, striking his torso with a force capable of shattering rocks. Léandre barely dodged and retaliated with a concentrated bolt of lightning that pierced the body like a blade of light, but he felt an evil presence penetrate his mind, an icy, violent pressure.
Clarisse, sensing the threat, concentrated her combined powers: fire and ice fused into a tornado of heat and cold that swept across the area, destroying several bodies. But black fragments remained suspended in the air, clumping together to form new creatures, faster, more aggressive.
The fight transformed into a danse macabre. Each attack by Leander and Clarisse was measured: one body was struck by lightning, another frozen and then exploded, a third launched into the air by a breath of fire. But for every victim annihilated, two or three more appeared behind them, as if Selerion were regenerating his horrors every moment.
The massacre became psychological: familiar faces appeared in the possessed bodies—friends, captured strangers, their eyes full of terror and hatred. The fusion with Borax allowed the heroes to repel some mental attacks, but the pain and horror were palpable. Clarisse screamed as one of the bodies clawed at a former comrade she thought long dead.
At the center of the storm, a larger body rose, its endless arms and multiple eyes reflecting ancient and cruel knowledge. A voice spoke in their heads:
"You cannot understand Selerion. You are already prisoners of his laws."
The heroes understood then that the fight would not be just physical, but mental and strategic. Each possessed body was a lesson, a key to understanding the sorcerers who pulled the strings. Each horrible death became a warning: they must learn or perish.
As the episode ended, Clarisse and Leander, exhausted but still alive, stood up, ready to anticipate the next wave of victims. The screams of the possessed echoed, and Selerion seemed to stretch, like a living monster, preparing for the next attack.