Upon entering the catacombs, they realized that their team had been separated from the other parties. The strange portal remained, and the Shrine of Delphi could be seen on the other side. It was clear that they could return whenever they wished, though Daphne quickly clarified that it would collapse once used.

The second thing they realized was that their location was eerily familiar. "We're currently in Delphi's slums," Gareth confirmed. "The buildings have changed slightly, but the layout is pretty much identical."

"So we're going to have to work our way in from the outside?" said Lawrence, rubbing his hands. "I was basically made for this place."

"The concentration of corruption in this place is much greater at the center," Sorin warned. "My gut feeling is that things will get more dangerous the deeper we go."

"So the portals are a way out for people who've reached their limit," said Stephan. "That makes sense, as the death toll during Shrine Descents isn't typically high."

The group fell into formation, with Lawrence disappearing into the shadows, where he would monitor for traps or hidden enemies. Gareth threw up a translucent silver sparrow. The bird flew above the rooftops but beneath the strange, star-speckled sky that provided barely enough illumination for their group to see.

This new skill appeared to expand Gareth's awareness; their group was transmitted a live map of their surroundings that complemented Lawrence's vision sharing of the nearest hundred feet. Three powerful groups of enemies were located a short distance away.

Daphne immediately cast a Flame Shield Spell for personal protection and an advanced version of Detect Magic. Stephan transformed into his Pigmy Shadow Bear Form and lurked near their party so as to react quickly to groups of enemies.

Sorin sent Lorimer out to scout alongside Lawrence, then proceeded to cast Patient Viper's Analysis and Veridian Spell Blade on his dagger, Stephan's clawed gauntlets, and Lawrence's short sword. His enchantments could be maintained via passive mana expenditure, while Stephan's and Lawrence's would need to be renewed every hour or so.

Astley was the last member of their team to act. As Gareth asked, she summoned a group of ten demonic rats. They were the weakest of first forging creatures but would buy them at least several seconds against any enemies they encountered.

"How conservative do we have to be with these missions of yours?" asked Stephan as they entered a slow march. "I'd hate for you to run out halfway through the delve."

"I literally have hundreds of these vile creatures bound to my grimoire," Astley said drily. "I also have a bunch of stronger creatures. That's not even counting that I can replenish my stock whenever we slay suitable enemies."

They took their time advancing through the city. According to Lawrence, there weren't many traps, only enemies lurking on the edge of his sphere of perception.

At Gareth's request, Lawerence and Lorimer hunted down one of these weaker enemies. They vaguely resembled dogs beneath, covered with tentacles and horrible eyes.

"These are demons mutated by madness," said Gareth Sorin, dissecting the creature. "They have a passive fear-inducing ability and are a bit stronger than your average first-forging cultivator."

"Fighting them was disgusting," said Lawrence. "Their blood is sticky and gets all over the place."

Sorin sent a stream of poison out to dissolve the black blood and absorbed it back into his body. "Madness-aligned corruption is confirmed. Also, that blood contains a potent neurotoxin that makes you more susceptible to fear and mind-inducing effects."

"Can you treat it?" asked Gareth.

"Naturally," said Sorin. "In fact, it doesn't even cost me any mana to do so."

"The creature isn't overly magical," commented Daphne.

"It's also physically just as weak as Lawrence," added Stephan. "So not a huge threat overall."

"I'm going to try to bind this thing to my grimoire," said Astley. "Myth-Bind!" Her book glowed with a silver light that enveloped the creature's corpse, including its core, then sucked them onto a blank page in the thin book. "I can bind twenty of these lesser horrors at any given time. Stronger variants can also be accommodated on the same page. We shouldn't have any issues with cannon fodder going forward."

Their next order of business involved tracking down twenty of the creatures to build up Astley's forces. Though she could only summon eight at a time instead of ten rats, these creatures were much stronger here as they could draw strength from catacombs. Unlike rats, they could also entangle enemies before dying. They were, in all ways, the superior minion.

"I think we've done enough probing," said Gareth once Astley filled up an entire page of her grimoire. "How about we try hunting down the closest elite?"

"That way," said Sorin, pointing towards the densest blob of corruption. "Don't ask me how I know."

Minutes later, they reached an intersection in the slums. The space between the buildings was cramped. Dozens of horrors, as they called them, had taken up residence in the buildings.

But the greatest horror lay in the intersection itself, too large to fit into the rather tight entrances. "The moment we go in there, they'll swarm us from all directions," said Gareth. "Stephan? Astley? We'll be relying on you two to hold back the tide. Daphne, you mop them up as they cluster together. Sorin, are you comfortable soloing this thing?"

Sorin shrugged. "Worst case, I get badly injured. I've got a poison for that."

"Let's not get complacent," Stephan cut in. "These creatures are weak individually, but we have no way of knowing how they'll interact in larger groups or with the assistance of elites."

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"Agreed," said Gareth. "We've never fought these before, so we need to assume the worst. If things get out of hand, I'll order the retreat. Sorin, will you do the honors?"

"With pleasure," said Sorin. He took out a vial from his Hero Medal and chugged it. The poisonous cocktail filled his flesh and blood with toxic ingredients that were immediately devoured thanks to Toxic Metabolism and converted to poison.

The elite demon at the center of the intersection was a writhing mass of flesh and tentacles. The land it stood on was corrupted, though compared to its flesh, that corruption was lacking.

Sorin used Adder Rush to rapidly close the three-hundred-foot gap between him and the creature. As it detected his approach, thousands of eyes opened on its body. A spiritual attack struck Sorin like a thousand tiny pinpricks.

The surprise attack made him slow to react as several tentacles pierced towards him. He dodged most using his innate flexibility. A few found their mark, but Sorin's blood-bound armor blunted their effects, and he only suffered superficial wounds.

Having gained the advantage in the exchange, Sorin counterattacked with Cobra's Glare, paralyzing the demon just before he reached its main body and began laying on the hurt.

One strike. Two strikes. Three strikes.

Sorin injected three rapid doses of mixed poisons using his Dagger of Amplification and a short poison spear. The potency of his attacks under the effects of his armor startled him, as did the life siphon effect, which immediately fixed the wounds he'd suffered, closing the distance.

"It's going to scream!" Sorin warned. The entire party blocked off its ears with mana, halving the effects of the mental attack that froze them in place.

Daphne and Astley had the strongest souls, aside from Sorin, so they recovered the quickest. The former lobbed a few enhanced Fireballs at a nearby building, incinerating a half-dozen lesser horrors as they rushed past the stunned Stephan—now in Silver Spine Grizzly form—and tried to close in on their group's two spellcasters.

As Daphne obliterated her opponents, Astley focused on buying time. She quickly cast an enhancement spell that boosted the speed of her myth-bound horrors, allowing them to entangle a larger group that was heading straight for Sorin.

When Sorin—who was closest to the elite horror—regained his ability to move, he found himself wrapped up in tentacles that were injecting him with a heavy dose of neurotoxins and corruption. His armor quickly blocked what he couldn't handle and allowed the lesser portion to pass through so that Sorin could devour them with Toxic Metabolism.

The life force he gained allowed him to swiftly regenerate the chunks of flesh that ripped away as he aggressively pulled himself free from the tentacles. As a new round of tentacles came flying in, Sorin activated his Wraith Hair boots and appeared above the elite horror. Hundreds of eyes focused on him as he reappeared.

The creature's key organs were difficult to access with a dagger, so Sorin formed a few quick hand seals. The short spear in his left hand extended to a length of twenty feet and pierced into the horror's body to inject a hefty dose of poison.

Though the creature dodged to try to avoid a direct hit to its vitals, Sorin locked it in with Patient Viper's Analysis. The spear's spell matrix twisted to pierce several core bones into a brain-like organ. Bones shattered, and the brain dissolved, suddenly inundated by a large amount of poison.

Despite losing such an important organ, the horror didn't immediately fall. But deprived of its reasoning, it attacked Sorin without caring about its own survival. The smaller horrors clearly communicated their distress by immediately ignoring Stephan and Astley's minions and rushing toward Sorin in an effort to kill him.

Unfortunately for these minions, they didn't get far before Stephan blinked onto the battlefield just like Sorin had and used his trademark skill, Natural Selection. Even in their crazed states, they were unable to resist Stephan's taunting skill.

As Daphne lobbed ball after ball of acidic green flames to burn up the crowd if diverted horrors and

Gareth and Lorimer killed any stragglers, while Sorin focused on the elite and brought it down as quickly as possible. As for Lawrence, the horror didn't even see the rogue before he suddenly emerged from its shadow, unleashed all the potential he'd accumulated in the battle upon its three poisoned hearts, and instantly slayed it.

"Looks like I still got it," said Lawrence, wiping his short sword and dagger. "Feel free to take credit for the smaller ones; this one is mine."

"Can you get any more shameless? " said Sorin, sticking his hand on the melting mess of flesh and pulling out a pulsing demon core. It was much larger than a normal demon core and contained several times as much corruption. "I think this is what a Core of Madness looks like," he said, tossing it to Stephan.

"Your fighting style's grown extremely aggressive," noted Stephan. "I like it."

"This armor's making it much easier," said Sorin, feeling at the scale-pattern leather. Any damage that had been caused to the armor had already healed over. And thanks to the armor's defensive and life-siphoning properties, he'd already regenerated most of his lost health and mana."

"On a scale of one to ten, how difficult was that?" asked Gareth.

Sorin shrugged. "Maybe a three? I could probably fight two or three at once if I had to. Especially if Lawrence is there to help me take one down quickly."

"Reee!" said Lorimer.

"Yes, you'd be a lot of help, too," agreed Sorin. "Either Lawrence's or Lorimer's will suffice. With both, I think we can deal a lot of damage to these creatures in a short amount of time. Assuming you can spare him."

"What's your backup plan if they break past our defenses and swarm you with elites?" Gareth asked.

Sorin shrugged. "In that case, I'll just cast a Five Poison Apocalypse using all of my mana. I might not manage to kill the elites, but I should be able to severely weaken them and kill off everything within thirty feet of me."

"If that happens, I can easily divert a few spells to finish the elite off," suggested Daphne.

"I've also got a difficult-to-use trump card in my grimoire," added Astley. "By abandoning my summoned creatures, I can temporarily gain the ability to paralyze our enemies."

"Oh, like the gorgon in Chelsea?" asked Lawrence.

"Exactly like the gorgon in Chelsea," said Astley.

"I think we have a lot to fall back on," Stephan said to Gareth. "If Lorimer and Lawrence team up with Sorin, I see no reason why we can't be more aggressive."

Gareth nodded. "I can also help finish off any horrors that survive your Five Poison Apocalypse. I've never experienced the spell personally, hover, so we'll need to test it out on a small group."

"Not a problem," said Sorin. "I also happen to lack experience casting it while surrounded by enemies."

"Then it's settled," said Gareth. "Now I just have one last thing to test: how will those creatures react if I shoot them from a mile away?"

He released an arrow from his bow into the starry sky, then shot another arrow in another direction. A few seconds passed before two screams tore through the corruption-filled air. A map transmission confirmed that enemies were closing in from both directions.

"The groups are bigger this time, and the elites move fast," said Gareth. "Do you have any thoughts on how to best deal with them?"

"I can probably stall an entire group on my own, barring the elite," said Stephan.

"If they're as stupid as the last lot, I think maintaining a well-placed Corrosive Flame Wall will prove quite effective," said Daphne.

"Do it," said Gareth. "Astley, keep your minions back and direct them to minimize interference with Sorin and Daphne. As for you three…" He looked at Sorin, Lawrence, and Lorimer. "You have three minutes to kill two elites. Think you can do it?"

"It'll be tough," said Sorin. "But I love a challenge. Lorimer and Lawrence, are you two interested in a race? I'll wager a plate of those delicious arena cookies."

"You're wagering cookies?!" exclaimed Lawrence. "That's blasphemy. But yes, count me in. The last hit is all that matters, agreed?"

Sorin nodded. "The tiebreaker is total damage dealt since the last hit rule gives you two the advantage."

"Sounds fair," said Lawrence.

"Reeee!" said Lorimer, charging at the nearest elite, closing in on them with bloodshot eyes.