17 Lumaki, 891 ED
Oraw, 16:23
Milagre, Empire of Tyrman
The interior of the storeroom was dark, nearly pitch-black. I had to strain my eyes just to see a few feet in front of us, even with the torchlight from the hall outside to help. I could make out the shapes of crates and barrels lining the wall to my left, but nothing on the right or further into the room. The darkness persisted, defying my efforts to see any more detail.
A quiet hiss from behind me made me turn and look at Gogo in some concern. The torches behind him threw his face into shadow, but I could see the lines of his body were stiff. He reminded me of a wild animal who had scented a dangerous predator. “I smell Corruption.”
Corruption. My mind flashed back to the time that we’d been chased out of the Wild Mage’s camp in Zaban. The druids there had said that I smelled of Corruption. “This again? You can’t be getting that from me.”
Gogo shook his head slowly, his eyes narrowed as he focused on something further into the room that I couldn’t see. “I’m not smelling it on you. I smell it on her.”
He pointed then, and, following his arm, I thought I could see a faint flicker of movement. Then, without warning, light flared all throughout the room from more than a dozen torches. I threw one hand up, holding my saber ready with the other. I expected some kind of attack while I was stunned by the light, but nothing came. After a second or two, I could lower my arm and see clearly.
Anya Tokugawa sat on the ground on the other side of the room, leaning comfortably against a crate. She was surrounded by a ring of extinguished candles on the floor. They seemed normal enough, save for the fact that they were a dark grey in color. Now that I’d had time to adjust to the setting, I could pick up a sickly sweet smell, often associated with rotting meat.
“Oh, damn,” I muttered under my breath. “She’s Corrupted.”
At the quiet sound of my voice, Anya’s head lifted. Her skin had turned deathly pale since the last time she’d been seen in public, and her eyes, including the whites, had turned jet-black. When her lips pulled back to smile at me, I could see that her teeth were rotting away as well. She was worse than dead, reduced to nothing more than a puppet for Corruption to play with. Or at least that’s what I thought before she spoke.
“Master warned me you would come,” she said. She kept her eyes focused on me. It was almost as if she were unable to notice the others. “He said you would come, and that I should try to destroy you.”
I felt a cold shiver run down my spine but didn’t let the fear show on my face. Even if I thought I could defeat her, learning that she’d been taken over was something else. Nobody had been Corrupted to this degree in years. Centuries, even. Not since the old wars, when Chaos and Corruption would seize the mortals to use as weapons against the Ancients.
“Gaurse, get those four out of here,” I said quietly. “They won’t be safe where they are.”
“You’re not any safer,” she shot back. “If that woman’s corrupted, then she could infect you.”
“She can’t,” I replied, taking a step forward. As long as I could keep Anya’s attention on me, I could ensure the safety of the others. She might kill me, sure, but she couldn’t corrupt me. Ancients had built-in protection against such things, and Anya was an ordinary mortal, so she couldn’t break through that protection. “Gogo, Felix, you’re with me.”
The two of them stepped forward at once to either side of me. But Anya still looked only at me, ignoring my backup. “Master told me you’d be the perfect warrior for our cause. He told me you were infected, and that you would spread his strength to the rest of the world.”
Raising an eyebrow, I took a step to the side. “That’s not going to happen. I’d have to be Corrupted myself, and I’m afraid there’s no chance of that.”
Turning to the others, I said, “Make sure to use fire. It’s the only thing that will do significant damage to her in this state.”
Anya made no attempt to move, or attack as I walked around the edge of the room. But she did turn to track my movement. Gogo and Felix traced the outside of the room to the other side, watching her closely. I was confident that we all knew the risks of entering combat with a Corrupted enemy, even if we had no experience in the matter.
“Should I summon a blessing of Grimr?” Gogo asked, his lip curled in disgust at Anya. “It should offer us some protection against Corruption.”
“Good idea,” I said. “I’ll channel his influence as well.”
Anya’s head tilted, and she smiled again. “His protection won’t reach you. Master is in your heart already.”
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And sure enough, as soon as Gogo had muttered his prayer, magic flashed out through the room. I caught the scent of fresh, clean air, and words appeared in front of my eyes.
You cannot receive the blessing of Grimr while you are Corrupted.
Anya was on her feet before I’d recovered from the shock of those words appearing before my eyes. With the speed of a striking snake, she lunged toward me. The war staff she’d previously carried was gone, and in its place was a pair of of knives dripping with corrupted energy.
Attack: 18 (+8) = 26 [Success]
3 Damage
You are immune to necrotic damage!
Attack: 20 (+8) = 28 [Success]
8 Damage
You are immune to necrotic damage!
Even as both of the daggers slashed at me, drawing blood, I could feel my body reject the sickly magic of Corruption. That might have comforted others, but I felt the opposite. The only way I could be immune to the necrotic damage was if I was indeed already Corrupted. How the hell had I gained Corruption? No time to wonder about that, I told myself. I had to put this woman down. I cast Arcane Weapon, coating my blade in flames, and went on the attack.
Attack: 11 (+7) = 18 [Success]
23 Damage (11 Slashing, 12 Fire)
Attack: 14 (+7) = 21 [Success]
10 Damage (8 Slashing, 2 Fire)
She let out an eerie screech as my sword cut her, and recoiled at the touch of the flames. The shoulder of her tunic had caught ablaze with the first cut, but it quickly turned black, then extinguished, and she glared her hatred at me. I bared my teeth in a grin and swished the sword through the air in a threatening way.
“The issue with being Corrupted,” I said, taking a step closer, “Is that while it gives you plenty of strength, you’re more than a little vulnerable to fire.”
Behind her, Gogo advanced with a thrust of his spear, surrounded by the greenish-white energy of Grimr’s blessing. Anya ducked the first jab, then the second, but it had clearly been a distraction, as a thin tongue of flame flashed into view, wrapping around Gogo’s extended arm and striking her in the center of the chest. There was another great flash of fire, and she let out a piercing scream.
All of a sudden, it seemed unlikely that she could have ever posed a significant threat to us. Once the fire was extinguished, Her body was covered in scorch marks, and she seemed to be moving more slowly than before. Of course, she was quickly healed by Corruption magick a second later, but it wasn’t nearly enough to counteract what we’d done to her in a single round.
Anya rounded on Gogo with her knives now, slashing wildly to try and wound him. He blocked the first strike well enough with his shield, but she inflicted a light wound on his spear arm with the second cut. He bashed her away with his shield, but the damage had been done. Instead of blood, some kind of black liquid was oozing slowly out of the wound. Not a lethal injury, but certainly a serious one. As Gogo stepped back, looking pale with fear, I advanced.
Attack: 1 (+7) = 8 [Critical Failure]
Your opponent parries your blow and counterattacks!
Attack: 10 (+8) = 18 [Failure]
Gritting my teeth as she parried my sword to the side and swiped, I ducked low just in time. I could actually hear the blade whistle past my ear. But then I was standing again, bringing my sword into an upward slash across her chest.
Attack: 19 (+7) = 26 [Critical Success]
37 Damage (13 Slashing, 24 Fire)
Gogo muttered something quietly, covering his arm in a green light. With a burst of energy, the black ooze vanished, and his tiny wound was now just leaking ordinary blood. Felix appeared beside him, one hand reaching out, coated in flames. He barely touched Anya as she recoiled, trying to escape his grasp, but that small contact was enough.
She let out a scream of anger and agony so loud that we all leaned away, covering our ears. Unlike before, the flames didn’t turn black and fade. Instead, they continued to burn, hungrily spreading across her body as she writhed away, crashing into one of the crates that lined the wall. Then suddenly, the scream died away, and she collapsed to the ground and moved no more.
In the crackling sound of the flames that continued to burn on the body, I thought I heard a faint roar of frustration. Corruption had lost a strong minion today, I thought. Doubtless, he was furious. But he couldn’t do anything about it now. Or so I thought.
“Well,” Gogo said, still looking a bit pale, but certainly healthier than when he’d been wounded. “That was… easier than I’d expected.”
I nodded in agreement, too shocked by the surprising ending to form a coherent sentence. It had certainly been easier than expected. But it also wasn’t that great of a surprise to me. Corruption had always fled before the fire when it took over a mortal’s body. It was the most effective method of damage we had against it. And in the hands of three strong characters like ourselves, it was always going to be a short fight either way. We were just lucky that she’d only managed on the very small wound on Gogo, as she’d spent too much time trying to wound me.
“If she’d been smarter, she could have stood a better chance,” I muttered, finally gathering the strength to speak. “But Corruption eats away at more than the body. A week or two ago, she would have been a much more formidable opponent.”
‘Why wasn’t she now?” Gogo asked, taking a cautious step closer. “I thought Corruption made a being stronger. She should have been able to corrupt a lot of people in the city.”
I shook my head slowly. “She couldn’t infect the city unless she was willing to risk destruction by much stronger people than us. She would have been killed quickly if she’d hidden anywhere else.”
“That’s certainly true,” Felix put in. “There aren’t as many druids in the city as there are in the forest, but she still would have been discovered quickly and burned.”
I retrieved the spellstone from my pocket and muttered Captain Ciayol’s name. After a second, the stone grew warm, and I knew he’d pulled out his own. “Captain, we found the one responsible. It was Anya Tokugawa.”
“Was?”
“It’s a long story,” I said. “I’ll explain it on the surface. We’re coming back up now.”