I had to corrupt Charlotte and get her to help me. She was powerful, or she had been, so having her back to shape would be invaluable. But she had told me that the Fourth Division was already on its way, so I had to make sure we were as ready for them as we could.

“Pol, how are our defenses coming?”

He looked beyond exhausted. I knew that he worked with skills and that none of the work he did was actually physical. And even knowing that much, I could have said he did everything manually. His biceps were easily twice the size of my head.

“Ha!” He roared or laughed; I couldn’t tell. “Let me tell you, this is fine work!”

“That it is. But… will it hold against the Fourth?”

He was in the loop; after all the man in charge of our architecture and defense had to know what we would be facing. Otherwise, how was he supposed to design a line of defense that resisted our enemy?

“There is no sword or attack that will break these walls, sir!” He said while puffing and hitting his chest. “Magic, tho?” His hand waved from side to side. “That we’ll have to see.”

“Is there anything we can do already?”

“You can bring in a powerful mage to lay a shield over Core!” He roared again. “Other than that? Not really!”

In a world where magic and the System were the basis of wars, being told that our base would probably not resist magical attacks was bad. I was not expecting the Fourth to knock down our walls with swords and maces, but rather with long-range magic.

I thanked the man, because, being realistic, he had done much more than I was expecting. If he hadn’t been here, we would be in a dramatically worse position, probably without any layer of defense at all. So I had to give him that much.

I walked back to my room, where Charlotte was waiting for me. She was the next piece in the puzzle.

“I have never done this before,” I told her as soon as I entered; there was no need to beat around the bush. “I don't know what will happen, so I need you to talk. You know have to tell me even about the faintest sensation. Ready?”

She nodded with understandable hesitation. There was nothing else to be done aside from starting. She was sitting in one of the chairs, and I stood next to the door.

“Let’s get started then.”

I sent a pulse with the tiniest amount of energy I could manage to control. The command was simple: poke at the confines of her System and tell me what there is. I needed to know exactly how they had manipulated the System.

[Restricted]

That confirmed my suspicion. They hadn't outright removed her from the System—if that was even possible. Rather, they just made it impossible for her to use it.

I sent another pulse, this time with more energy and with the clear intention of corrupting that restriction. I couldn’t invalidate it, but I thought making that an error would work.

[You have lost 329 energy]

The blowback was harsh—the harsher I had ever gotten when trying to do something as simple and theoretically harmless as a pulse. I prodded a bit more, and after losing 289 more energy, it became clear that I couldn’t go that route. Whoever had restricted her access had made sure the restriction stayed in place.

The next vector of attack was the System itself. I had to severe her connection with the System, to untie her from its control without completely taking it away. Essentially, it was the same I had done for every object when spreading my dungeon.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

This time, however, I was afraid that attacking the System itself would make her classes disappear. After all, they had always been System-given.

But there was no other choice.

I sent a pulse the very same way I sent it to any other inanimate object. I wanted to unleash the bugs of corruption so that they ate at the System. And I did.

[You have lost 282 energy]

Once again, however, the effort was reflected back to me in full force.

“Have you felt anything so far?”

To say I was frustrated when she shook her head would be underestimating how close I was to blowing up the whole room in a fit of anger. I breathed deeply and took a moment to think.

I was being too careful. I was assuming that an object and a human had the same relationship with the System. That a simple life like a tree had the same affinity with the System as Charlotte. It was not the System resisting me; it was Charlotte.

“I will have to be drastic, Charlotte. Please accept it, and don’t surrender. Fight for your life.”

My next pulse wouldn’t be gentle. It wouldn’t just have a thin outer layer of solidified energy. Instead, I used [Fusion] to reinforce and compress the energy in it. I put in more and more, and I didn’t stop until only 30 of energy remained in me.

It was reckless. If it backfired, I wouldn’t have enough to take the hit.

I let it go.

The pulse blasted forward in a laser-focused beam that only targeted Charlotte.

It reached her. And I saw the line between corruption and dust appearing right there. Black spots materialized all over her, in amounts, shapes, and sizes that I had never seen before.

They bit and ate like a hungry hyena that had just found a defenseless prey.

Charlotte danced on the line, stepping one step too close to disappearing, just to fall back to the safe side.

“Fight it!” I shouted when she took a bit too long to recover from falling to the other side. “Don’t let it win!”

Every time I yelled, which I was continuously doing, she perked a bit. The bugs recessed, and she became aware of her surroundings. But it didn’t last long. The next thirty minutes were as tense as it could get.

She passed out, and I shook her awake. I yelled and spoke to her. She fainted while trying to smile at me. The bugs went unchecked, and they were winning the battle. They were feeding without anything or anyone to sto-

I can cleanse corruption!

I hadn’t tried it yet, but I should be able to. Maybe not clean corruption itself; that was something I had no idea how to tackle. Once corrupted, I could not undo it. But I could see the little bugs the same way I could see magic and skills.

And like magic and skills, I could destroy them.

I sent blades of energy carefully aimed at the bugs. Most hit the target cleanly, although some did impact Charlotte. Every time one of the little feeders died, Charlotte breathed a bit more peacefully.

Until, eventually, all of them were dead and Charlotte was fully awake.

[Berserk]

“How are you feeling?”

She took too long to answer for it to be good. She was looking at her feet, then touching her arms and inspecting her hands.

“Weird. I have a class, [Corrupted Bane of the Berserk], not at all similar to what I used to have. I was a [Battle Mage], specializing in the lightning element. I can live with a melee class, as that’s what it seems I have. But…”

“But?”

“But I don’t feel powerful. I can’t feel magic. I can tell that if I were to fight, I wouldn’t know how to use my skills. You have to continue. I need more.”

“I can’t do any more of it or yo-”

“I need more! I can’t help like this!”

“Charlotte, you were a few minutes away from dying. If I send the tiniest bit more corruption your way, you will die.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?” She said while falling to her knees.

“Train; learn how to use your new class and magic. Once you are back to your power, you will still have a place with us. And meanwhile, use this dungeon to fight your way back to the top.”

It was cruel, but she didn’t need me to be soft with her. She had been strong, at the top of her Division, and she already knew the truth. What she needed to know was exactly what I said—that she had a home here.

Train. Fight. Get stronger.

I left with the burden of having failed. Knowing that she wouldn’t be the soldier I had expected her to be. She could still be the general of Nova’s army, but right now, in her state, she would simply refuse to do it.

She needed time. And so did I.