The spear was just a few meters away, and yet it felt so far. My entire body was aching in dull pain, but now; now that I felt like I had a way to get out of this, I no longer felt dread, instead an intense sense of desperate urgency replaced it.

I grunted in severe pain, trying to get my legs to work but it was futile. I didn’t know how, but breaking through the wall had made me lose all control of my lower body. And so, I clawed across the ground, all of my muscles aching as I strained them to drag my worn down body. The injury I had received from the Twisted Thing along with this one had been too much.

I gritted my teeth hearing the nearby distorted footsteps. The air began to flicker, static echoing in my ears as I moved my mana across my body. And then, with a slam of my palm and ice block hit me. I was propelled forward, landing past as ice enveloped my legs, forcing them to listen to me as I slowly stood up.

I had to live.

I gritted my teeth using an ice staff to move forward towards the ice spear.

I had to get out of this place alive.

I nearly fell over as I arrived at the pedestal where the weapon was.

I had to see Ceylon again.

Its corruption was so strong that being nearby made my skin hurt, but knowing what I had to fight made me resolute. I enveloped my arms and hands on ice, and I grabbed the spear. I immediately felt as if needles pierced through my hands, as I let out a suppressed cry of pain. But a single nearby footstep gave me all the resolution I needed as I gripped it tightly and⁠— flicked.

The ground shattered as a distorted cry resounded, a flickering tentacle flew through the air and hit the wall, cracking it. I turned seeing the corrupted being standing before me.

⁠[̵̧̞̎͋̎⁠̵̢̟̲̗̟͇͊⁠̸̨̨͎̦̂̄͜͠—̴̧̥̬̺̈́́͑̆͜͠⁠̵̧̥̰̩̳̱̊—̶̛̤̮̪̰̗̞͌̓⁠̸̠̦̞́͂ͅ—̶̡̤͇̺̞̾̊̐̀̕.̶͓̫̖̑̿͜ͅ ̴̢͚̩͐͋̇̓͝T̸̙͉̺͖̯͌̓̒̒i̶͉͙͍͚̔̄́e̴̱̍͋́̈͗r̶̠͙̺̤̤̋͜:̸̟̥̅̈́̾͠ ̷̳͑̀̏͂̈́⁠̴̝̲̄͘—̵͕̖͎͎͒̀͑́]̷̧̞̤͔̀̂͛͝

While I was sure this thing was a different one from the one I met in the basement⁠— namely this one being smaller. It was still just as corrupted, it’s mere presence made me fearful for my life, but right now I suppressed that feeling to the bottom of my heart as I tightly clenched into the blackened spear.

It was so corrupted, so beyond the limits of the world that the spear was nothing but a dark abyss, somehow lightly illuminating its surroundings with its presence. Flakes of darkness flickered in its immediate vicinity, lightly corrupting anything that it came in touch with, but at this moment, I didn’t care. My hand was actively burning as I held it, but even then, I only cared about one thing and one thing only.

My eyes were fixated on the corrupted being, and a moment later it screeched. A barrage of tentacles came my way and without hesitation I used one of my many spear skills⁠— [Frenzied Whirlwind].

The spear blurred, and with flashes it pierced through every single tentacle, the air breaking as the beast screamed unleashing a broken sound. But I didn’t care. I used [Quick Step], appearing behind it and through gritted teeth and holding it by the bottom of its shaft I called.

“[Deathblow]!”

I swung⁠⁠— the ice coating my hands shattered as the spear collided with the broken being. The wall instantly shattered as the thing was thrown away like a ragdoll, a painful screech resounding through the air as the ground quaked.

I watched the hole in the wall, corruption permeating it as I took a very deep breath. The spear within my hands was… strong. Somehow or in some way it enhanced every single attack I made, but at the same time⁠— I flinched feeling a burst of pain on my palm. I switched hands only to see my hand fully coated in darkness.

⁠— using this spear was power at a price.

And tentacles exploded from the wall. I turned; switching back to my dominant hand and braced myself, making sure to still protect my left hand with ice. And then, a moment later the incarnation of corruption showed back up with a terrible roar. I flinched, fear gripping me for a moment before I tightened my hands around the spear⁠— the pain sobering me up in an instant.

The corrupted being screeched and⁠— charged. I frowned, my gaze narrowing and then I immediately used my first skill⁠⁠—

“[Blessing of the⁠]⁠— ouch.” I flinched, pain shooting through my whole being before the breaking of the ground in front of me snapped me out of my stupor. My eyes widened and I braced myself, lifting the spear up. And the being⁠— punched.

My arms trembled in severe pain and I was sent flying back, hitting the wall dully. Pain flaring throughout my entire body as my consciousness drifted. I watched the black shadow of corruption begin to rush in my direction, and in spite of my protests my vision became increasingly more blurry.

I had to hold on…

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I had to fight for my life…

lest I was going to die…

And at that moment, my vision went black as I lost consciousness, succumbing to my injuries. I found myself in an eternal abyss with no end, all I could see was a large expanse of floating particles of nothingness. They ebbed and flowed ⁠— up and down ⁠— side to side; their directions seemed to change every so often; they weren’t erratic, nor were they fast; they were rather slow and methodical.

It was a peaceful sight; almost too peaceful; peaceful enough for one simple thought to pop into my head:

Did I die?

Last I remembered the corrupted monster was coming my way and now I was… here. My thoughts did not last, for something interesting happened: the abyss parted. A white line emerged, and then: it expanded. The block of white traveled far and wide, reaching every corner of my vision and then for the first time I felt a physical body. I stood there, and the sound of dropping water called to me.

I turned only to see a blue sphere, it was no bigger than a fist. For some reason, I instinctively recognized it, it was mana⁠— my mana. But also, it was the mana I had first started with when I first came to this world? Then I watched as the world around me shifted⁠— as the white expanse changed as if indicating the passage of time, and with it the sphere also changed.

It grew, bigger and bigger ⁠— it quickly became the size of a small house ⁠— until finally I saw a gigantic shadow topple in the distance: the overlord died at this point in time and with it; the sphere doubled. And it didn’t stop there, I watched it slowly grow until I saw a small mountain in the white canvas and with it⁠— it expanded once more.

At this point it was probably over one-hundred meters in diameter. And then it remained static for a few seconds before I saw something that instantly made me frown: corruption.

It started with a small dot, and in a single blink the entire sphere became a black mass of writhing darkness. My eyes widened, having a small realization.

If the mana sphere represented me then that meant⁠—

And I groaned in severe pain. I opened my bleary eyes only to see the shadow of corruption about to pounce on me, and with a grunt I slammed my hand. A pillar of ice erupted to my side and knocked me just in time for the monster to arrive⁠— slamming the ground where I had once been.

I rolled with heavy breaths as I stood up, using the corrupted spear as support. I stared at the rising cloud of dust with a frown. I could feel it inside me; the mana sphere that I had seen in my visions. It was much smaller comparatively, but its vastness was very much evident and just like in the visions, part of it was…

Being nibbled at by the corruption.

I frowned, calling back to the moment I tried to use the System’s magic on the spear. It had hurt. I turned to the corrupted object in my hand; perhaps I was wrong, but I was sure that it was responsible for the corruption being present on my mana. And that was… infuriating. I didn’t know what exactly it meant for me, but I was sure of something: best case scenario my mana capacity would be permanently reduced.

I gnashed my teeth.

There were so many things I was angry about, so many damn things that I didn’t have control over in this damn forsaken place; so many damn things I just did not fucking comprehend. So. Many. Things. It was beyond frustrating; it was infuriating. At this point I felt like I had reached my breaking point.

Back in training, I had a steady goal and things were relatively predictable, but here? None of that was the case. The ice encompassing my left hand cracked and in a single second, I swung. The ground shattered, corruption flaked on the air as the monster screeched⁠ on the ground before me. It had happened in a blink; I had reacted by sheer instinct.

I had no room in my mind for anything. Anything other than beating the fuck out of the corruption monster.

There was no room in my mind that it was much stronger than me in every single way, but right now I had something that allowed me to fight on equal footing. With a swipe, I swung the monster upwards, shattering my surroundings by the sheer strength of the hit and then I stabbed⁠—pierced forward. [Skullpiercer] was used as a harrowing screech echoed through the air.

Then, I swung ⁠— slammed the wretched thing onto the ground before doing it again, and again, and again. It tried to attack me with tentacles, but they were quickly cut down by the blade of the spear and my skills.

At this moment I didn’t care for anything other than making the corrupted beast suffer. I stomped on the ground, an ice pillar hitting the monster. I removed my spear from its throat as it was launched towards the ceiling, and then holding it in my hand I pulled my arm back, tensing it with all my strength.

“How did it go?” I tilted my head.

There were no thoughts, there was only instinct.

“Right⁠— [Titanic Strength], [Deadly Impalement], and⁠— [Throw of Death].”

My hand blurred, and in a single moment the room exploded with corruption. The ceiling shattered as a multiple meter wide hole was punctured through the ceiling. The pained cry of the monster echoing in the distance as I took a deep breath.

This was just the beginning.

“[Armament Recall],” I said in a whisper.

I flinched for a moment before I felt something coming towards me⁠— the spear broke through the ceiling and landed on my hand, the ground shattering as flakes of corruption contaminated everything like a deadly infection. And of course, I was no exception, but I didn’t care as I simply stepped forward.

[Quick Step].

In a single moment I appeared before the vast gray sand within a large valley. The corrupted pyramid was next to me, and where I stood was where the Twisted Thing had landed. Then, a moment later an object fell from the air, the sand in front of me exploding. I watched in silence as the dust cleared, and finally the corrupted being stood up.

Half of its body was missing as it stared at me, and then it raised its arm.

Corrupted gibberish echoing through the air. I sighed and kicked⁠— an ice pillar hit it from behind, throwing it towards me and I stabbed forward with my spear piercing it through the chest.

“You think I’d let you use a skill?” I shook my head. “Though not like normal laws apply to you.”

Then, it lowered its hand as tentacles of corruption exploded all around me. With a sigh I threw the monster away, sending it crashing towards the black pyramid as more and more tentacles emerged all around me. Hundreds if not thousands of them.

“Bring it on then…” I breathed. “I don’t have all day.”

And the tentacles attacked.