Dawn graced a nameless little mountain valley.

It chased away the Darkness and signaled the coming of another relatively peaceful Day for the forest inhabitants inhabiting the sides of the river coursing through the valley of the mountain.

At least, it should have been if things had been as usual. Only things have not been as usual for a few days since a new inhabitant had come into the territory. Not only had the stranger been something very seldomly seen by the Beast inhabiting this forest community, but it was even stranger than the occasional stranger that passed by.

One squirrel colony was the most disturbed and adamant about its presence because the stranger radiated a presence no Beast liked. Hence, the Beasts stayed away from the stranger for quite some distance, if possible. Only that was not possible for the squirrel colony as their central nesting place was an ancient walnut tree, and hence, they would not abandon their home, no matter how close anything came near it. Therefore, when the stranger came and vandalized their home, they showed up despite their dislike and made their stance unmistakable to the stranger.

That the stranger had then chosen to retreat was only par the course for the squirrels, for they were the rulers in that place.

Today, however, the squirrel colony witnessed a different spectacle.

The disliked presence radiated even stronger than before. Only that was not all. Instead, the radiated presence moved with speed, causing many creatures to panic with the desire to get away from it.

On top of that, the stranger cried out in its high yet deep voice loudly announcing his displeasure to all who could hear him when he passed by the squirrel colony.

“FUCK… FUCK… FUCK… FUCK… FUCK…”

Truly.

It was a terrible cry that grated on the ears of the squirrel colony and everything else that heard it when the stranger rushed by the now familiar walnut tree as if madness had ignited his mind.

Only that was indeed what happened.

Rushing through the forest, Adamu had no time to consider the low-hanging branches vying for his face and upper body. Nor had he the time to complain at the bushes blocking his rush to his destination.

In fact, Adamu’s mind was barely registering anything right this moment.

Instead, all of its attention settled on the memory of tentacles reaching for Adamu, reaching out to corrupt him in ways he'd never experienced before. Not even close. Especially not when he was this weak to everything and this impressionable because he was so feebleminded because of being weak, thereby being unable to fight off the degradation causing it in the first place.

Honestly, Adamu was 50% mad, 25% awake, and 25% groggy from the forceful waking. That being the case, Adamu rushed toward the first thing that came to mind when he desired to rid himself of dirty things.

Water.

And since Adamu currently knew of only one safe water source, that was where he went unconsciously with as much speed as he could.

Even when he tripped on something, even when he slipped due to the cumbersome footwear he made, and even when the branches and bushes blocked his vision, hence causing him to smash into trees, Adamu did not stop.

No, the only constant aside from the rushing was the cursing coming out of Adamu’s mouth.

Did it help stave off corruption? No.

Did it help get rid of the corruption? Not even close.

Did it help settle his wild emotions? Somewhat. But something was better than nothing.

Soon enough, the bending river bank was in sight, and Adamu rushed straight at it before jumping right into the middle of the river when he was close.

SPLASH

Luckily, it was not too deep in this part of the river, so it was easy to bounce from the soft/hard and muddy/stone-covered river bed. Then Adamu swam a few meters and stood back on his feet. Then, without any conscious input of his own, Adamu began scrubbing his hands on his wrists, his ankles, his thighs, and then his throat, only to repeat the motions because the feelings causing his behavior simply would not vanish.

“FUCK… FUCK… FUCK” Adamu cursed as he rubbed, barely conscious of the words echoing him his mouth. “FUCK… FUCK… FUCKING HELL… STOP… STOP… STOP THIS… STOP IT, ADAM.” Then, as if remembering something very consequential, Adamu ceased rubbing at his skin. Only the urges were too great, compelling him to sideline it again and begin rubbing again. Only this time, his nails joined to the equation, and within seconds, lines of skin got peeled off.

Some even began bleeding. “STOP… STOP… STOP, ADAM… YOU HAVE TO STOP.” Rubbing and scratching without any input, all while Adamu’s mouth kept pleading to cease doing it, would have instantly alerted any other human had they been nearby to see Adamu’s behavior. Then, as if the rubbing and scratching had dented the feeling inside him, with the help of the pain, Adamu stopped and began to punch the river water. “USELESS… USELESS… ALL OF IT IS USELESS… I know it's useless. I KNOW… I KNOW… I KNOW IT IS USELESS. FUCK…”

“FUCK… I need a mental distraction. Otherwise, I will scratch too deep and clip something important and bleed to death.” Adamu recognized in the moment of clarity. “One moment… One moment… That is all… Concentrate… Concentrate Adam… Concentrate…” As if repeating the words worked its wonders, Adamu managed to wrench the controls of his rogue body to cease all movements.

All but those of his golden eyes as they urgently stared around the river bank. Then, his golden eyes settled on one set of stones. With them as goals, Adamu urged his body to walk towards them through the ankle-deep water. Once by their side, he bent down and picked up the remarkably round stones and began to squeeze them with both hands.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Keeping the hands and the fingers occupied, even though it hurt from the amount of strength used, Adamu finally wrenched more control of himself. Unfortunately, even half mad from exposure to an Eldritch Aura of Corruption, Adamu knew he had very little time before the corruption set inside him and thus became permanent.

Then, even if he managed to cleanse it somehow, which he doubted he would be able to for quite a long while, side effects would be the least of his problems.

“Think… Think… Think…” Adamu voiced. “Without Magic, I can't stave it off. Without Magic, I can’t cleanse it off either. Thus… Thus… Thus, I am not the solution… No… It has to be external. No… The Realm Grid is corrupted… Corrupted? Why am I sure that it's corrupted? Because my future self told me?” Nodding with acknowledgment, Adamu continued the line of thought. ” Yes… Yes, because I can trust myself… That's it… He went through this… Yes, that means there is a way out of this… So… So… Even if the Realm Grid is truly corrupted? It should not mean all Magic is corrupted, right?… No… Yes… Maybe… Need to test it to know for sure… But even if it's not all, attempting an Internal Mana draw should be an instant no-go zone.”

“Soo… External Magic? Items? Useless!… Rituals?” Thinking and considering it, Adamu shook his head in denial. “Even if Rituals work, I don't have the time to set up. Neither do I know any friendly Deity to seek help from… Wait… Deity... ” Almost instantly, Adamu’s head whipped into the sky, only to remember a moment later why he should not be doing so.

Luckily, the sun had yet to reach high enough to be visible from his current position.

“Fight poison with poison?” Three seconds of consideration and Adamu knew he was on the right track, but then, as he glanced around the river, he knew he was in real trouble. The Source of True Light would not be in a position to help him for quite some time. Maybe even hours. And that was already too much vested time. No… he needed the poison now. “SHIT… I need direct exposure to the True Light, and there can't be any shadows nearby. I can't trust the current me to not mess it up by ditching the pain. SHIT… The forest won't do. Need to be higher up.” Then, a memory flashed through Adamu’s mind. A memory of the cave entrance leading to his ‘birthing place’. Beside the cave entrance, a relatively decent little rocky path existed that led higher up the mountain valley, and best of all it faced the incoming sunrise.

“SHIT…” Realizing the dilemma, Adamu cursed himself for not being more sane and running that way in the first place.

Then he rushed out of the water and back to the river bank and then back into the forest.

While rushing through the forest, Adamu realized that his hands were still clamping on the round stones. Stopping for one moment, he spent a few moments unclasping his stiff fingers from the muscle strain before rushing back to his cave entrance. However, with the hands unoccupied, it was much easier since he could use his hands to propel himself forward by grabbing onto trees when needed.

Once more, the stranger came and emanated his disliked aura for all to notice. On top of the ancient walnut tree, the squirrel colony ceased fidgeting around and instead chose to cautiously stare at the stranger's hissing cry, only differently, while running past their great home.

“SHIT… SHIT… SHIT… SHIT… SHIT… SHIT”

After the stranger passed and his presence retreated, the squirrels relaxed, but somehow, they knew it was only a matter of time before the stranger was back to bother them.

Soon enough, Adamu reached his cave, veered off course, and took the relatively rough path of stones to climb higher on the mountain. Only after he found a good place, with a wide enough platform to trash around yet not fall down the mountainside, had Admu ceased moving.

However, the moment he ceased moving, the somewhat familiar urge to rub and scratch his skin returned. Realizing he was out of time and further options, Adamu gazed at the rising sun over the mountains.

At the same time that he did what he had to do to remain who he was at his core, Adamu, in that single moment of visual contact, focused on his Spirit and opened himself to the glory shining in the sky.

An instant of pure golden glory filled his Spirit.

A glory that would not be hindered nor diminished till the end of days.

A glory that penetrated everything and anything to fulfill its purpose of existence.

A glory that would purify everything and anything that stood in the way of its grand purpose of existence. In the wake of purification, everything that survived the purification would follow in its steps to spread its grand purpose of existence, whether it wanted to or not.

Just such a purpose of existence filled and spread inside Adamu’s Spirit, and when it came upon something that denied its purpose, it was first illuminated of its presence and form to be purified by concentrated True Light washing over it.

The problem was that those who ought to be purified also liked to resist such purification.

Thus, then, the True Light met the Eldritch stain upon his Spirit, and a battle for dominance ensued.

One side brought forth True Light and Heat to burn away the corruption in the form of corrosive -corrupting liquid. If there was one factor that determined who would win, then it was quantity. As such, the corrosive-corruptive liquid was destined to lose since it was cut off from its source, unlike the True Light and Heat.

However, just because the conflict was bound to end did not mean it would be pleasant while it lasted. As such, ethereal pain engulfed Adamu’s Spirit while it endured two Divine Ranked powers fighting for dominance over his Spirit.

Thankfully, as they fought each other, they did not have the time to instill themselves into him. Though, the pain was such that very few would be able to endure the hardship while filled with some profound power to buffer and negate most of the damage caused by the conflict.

However, without such profound powers, Adamu was fully immersed in the experience. Yet, worst of all, he could not allow himself to blackout because he had to keep his eyes open, or the True Light and Heat would lose the needed ethereal connection from the Source, unlike the Eldritch corruption already within him.

Therefore, the pain was all Adamu knew, yet it was the same pain that kept him lucid enough to propagate the pain in the first place.

When did it end? How did it end?

Adamu knew none of that. All he knew when everything ceased burning, one way or the other, was that he had to return to safety.

A few memory flashes reached Adamu’s awareness before even those vanished. Only when a tiny feeling of safety reached, some deep part of his subconscious, had Adamu allowed himself to relax.

When he did, he didn't even feel the hard stone beneath him when his body collapsed. At that point, any worries had long since ceased to exist. Indeed, once in a coma-induced state, Adamu did not need to worry about anything, much less the dangers of the Dreamscape, for there was nothing to summon when nothing responded to the call.

Indeed, even dreaming would not be a concern because Adamu’s Spirit was unresponsive to his Mind to connect to the Plane of Dreams or Plane of Nightmares on Ina’Ani.

For two days, better said on the seventh day of Adamu’s arrival on Ina’Ani, his Spirit recovered from the self-induced comatose state. However, that did not mean that Adamu was awake. No, all it meant was that Adamu Spirit was stimulative enough to respond to Ani’s Summon. As such, when the call came, and Adamu unconsciously accepted, a small boy of five years of age once again found himself inside a small cave, with his arms hugging his knees and his head resting on his forearms, all while his golden eyes stared at nothing.

For a while, nothing significant occurred to the little boy. Only it seemed not to be destined when clicking sounds echoed from the dark passage outside the small cave he found himself in.

Click… Click… Click