Level ? corruption defeated!

This was the fourth monster of its kind that we’d killed, and even the resulting Worldbending and Knifework skill level increases weren’t enough to offset my growing nausea. Corminar had very narrowly escaped being corrupted himself at one point, and if we kept going like this, this possibility would end up an inevitability. With Coldharbour falling around us, we needed to switch up our strategy, or else we were only giving this city a few more hours of life.

‘Styk…’ Arzak grumbled, presumably getting at just the same thing.

‘We gotta find the cause,’ I replied while scanning the streets for more signs of trouble. In the midst of the spreading chaos, it was hard to tell what was threat and what was simply people fleeing in terror.

‘Any thoughts on…’ Val started, then she found the answer herself. ‘Alenna.’

I nodded, opening a portal in front of us that stretched as far in the distance as I could reasonably aim. ‘Come on. Let’s go pay a visit to the good doctor.’

We stepped through the portal into a crowd of people running north, though whether they were fleeing a corruption or simply carried along by the waves of panic was yet to be determined. I had to push through these throngs of people just to make enough space for Val, Corminar and Arzak to come through the portal behind me, then stood on tiptoes to aim another portal down the street.

‘Styk! Val!’ I heard someone shouting through the crowd. Lambkin.

‘Thank the gods we found you. We were just coming back to the portal—the city’s gone mad.’

‘Yes, we see this,’ Arzak replied, her eyes scanning the surroundings for trouble while Lambkin and I spoke.

‘You know what’s happened?’

The ex-captain shook his head. ‘Only that the corruption is spreading fast. We ran into one of those monsters back there. Even the soldiers here took some convincing to fight it rather than running, though I can hardly blame them.’

‘You took it down?’

‘With some trouble, but yes.’

‘We had to put down a few soldiers touched by the corruption,’ Tokas explained, as ever saying the hard part without hesitation.

‘We could do with more of those soldiers,’ I replied.

Lambkin pressed his lips together. ‘You’ll be lucky; they’re fewer and farther between with every second that passes.’

‘Err…’ Val said.

‘Come on,’ I told Tokas and Lambkin. ‘We’re heading to Alenna’s surgery. If we can find the cause of all this, then maybe we can still turn the tide.’

The pair of them nodded, and I turned to open a portal once more. Every second counted. With each—

‘Styk?’ Val said, interrupting my line of thought.

‘Yeah?’ I asked as we stepped through the portal to get us closer to Alenna’s place of work.

‘You want an army? Well…’ she gestured around us, and it took me a second to understand what she was pointing at. The sea of pale orange robes. The Cult of Ascendancy, still in Coldharbour in their thousands. And with their reason to be so recently taken away from them. ‘The city needs a hero, Styk. And you’re right—it’s you. It has to be you.’

These words, coming out of that mouth, almost made me stagger backwards. Wasn’t this at the heart of how Val worried I was changing? Wasn’t it my desire to be a hero that had created that wedge between us? ‘You get it now?’ I asked.

Val nodded. ‘I get it.’

I held her gaze just for a moment before remembering the urgency of the situation, and I got to work. I activated my portal relays, and sent all but one of them soaring off into the city, scattered through the streets as much as I could without losing track of them.

More screaming erupted from down the street, and Tokas, Arzak, Corminar and Lambkin hurried off to deal with its cause—inevitably another local touched by the corruption.

I looked through the portal relay at the views from the nine other relays shimmering in and out of sight, and I… hesitated. The pressure got to me, at least for a moment.

I felt a hand on my arm. ‘You got this,’ Val said.

I nodded. I did, indeed, have this. I looked into the relay, at the hundreds of cultists in orange, and I prepared myself. I wouldn’t be able to get the word to all of them, not even with my relays, but I could spread the word to enough. If I was successful, word would travel, even amongst the chaos.

I took a deep breath, and I prepared myself to speak. Don’t say cultists, don’t say cultists, I told myself.

‘Attention cultists!’ I bellowed through the relays.

Oops.

‘My name is Styk. Some of you may know me, while some of you might have only heard whispers. I am the man that Yusef—the deceiver—wanted dead. A member of the team that exposed him for what he is. But, above all, I am a man with the Architects’ blood in my veins. If you’re heard such rumours, know this: they are true.

‘But I’ll make no promises about an Ascended World. You heard it straight from Yusef’s mouth; the Ascended World is dead. There is no divine destination for you. There is only this world, just this world that you see around you. A flawed world, full of flawed people’ — I glanced at Val — ‘but one that’s beautiful nonetheless. And this world needs saving.

‘I call on you—each and every one of you—not to run, not to flee this threat that spreads through Coldharbour, but to stand and fight. Save not just this city, but this world. Be the heroes that you’ve always wanted to find in the Players. Stand, and fight.’ I took in one last deep breath as I bellowed my final instruction. ‘Burn the corruption wherever it takes hold!’

There was a moment of near-silence, at least as much as there could be in this falling city, but then… someone roared. It wasn’t the roar of anger, of frustration, but a battle cry. A battle cry that spreads through the ranks of the orange sea, that stopped them in their tracks, that had them pick up weapons and stand their ground. My words had had their desired effect. We had ourselves an army.

Seizing upon the opportunity of the emboldened cult, I charged into the already-raging battle of Slayers versus corruption.

And dozens of cultists charged with me.

* * *

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

We amassed hundreds of cultists as we fought our way across the city of Coldharbour. With so many on our side, so many following my bellowed commands, we could defeat the corrupted quickly. It almost felt like we were turning the tide, eliminating the enemy fast enough that we might still triumph. But we could only speak for the streets we fought down—elsewhere in the city, the corruption was likely still winning. We could hurry to Alenna’s surgery all we wanted, but even if we found and eliminated the cause, if enough of the corruption was left to spread elsewhere, our fight would be lost.

We needed to split our attention.

‘Corminar!’ I shouted, summoning the elf to my side. He appeared near instantly. ‘Take some of the cultists west. Destroy any corruption that’s festering there. Understand?’

But Corminar had paled. ‘It shouldn’t be me,’ he replied.

‘What? Why? Now’s not the time for you to suddenly get humble.’

‘You want me to lead. I am no leader. Sunalor proved that.’

I clipped him around the ear.

‘What on Alterra are you—’

‘Sunalor wasn’t your fault, alright? Nobody could’ve saved that city; the locals were too outnumbered. Anyone could have led Sunalor to its defeat.’

‘Anyone, perhaps. But it was me. I cannot—’

I ignored him, then repositioned two of my portal relays to echo my voice over part of the amassed cultist force. ‘Forty of you, with him!’ I shouted, pointing to Corminar’s head.

‘Styk, as I have said, I cannot—’

‘Learn from your mistakes.’ With that, I turned, leaving him with a crowd of those in orange robes. He could either flounder, or he could do his job. I knew him well enough to be sure he’d do the latter. I didn’t look back.

We charged across the city, our horde pouring through portals and into the next, even before the last had closed. We battled the corruptions as much as we could, doing our best to end them quickly—because for every minute that passed, another seemed to crop up in its place. As we neared Alenna’s surgery, I took a glance down a main road to my right, and saw that chaos had taken hold.

‘Tokas!’ I shouted. I would have asked for Arzak, but without Lore, I needed her brawn. I was going to have to trust the woman who’d betrayed us. ‘Take more of them,’ I told her.

The tiefling nodded.

‘Head east. Do as I told Corminar; eliminate all—’

‘No,’ Lambkin interrupted. ‘I’ll take them. Tokas, get the children safe.’

I considered him for a moment. He’d been a captain, once. He knew how to lead, at least a small unit. He was no worse a choice than Tokas. I nodded.

‘Soldiers!’ I shouted once more through the portal relays. ‘Another forty of you—with this man here!’

Lambkin raised his blade in the air in salute, to signal that he was the man I was referring to. Tokas, meanwhile, turned away, heading back towards where her children were hiding, hopefully still safe. It had to have been duty—or, no, guilt—that had kept her with us for so long. She began to run, then dithered for a moment, turning back to Lambkin just as he looked back at her. She took another few seconds away from her kids to run back and kiss the man, planting as passionate a kiss on his lips as ever I’d seen. I’d never expected this to happen when I’d agreed that Lambkin could watch over her.

But there was no time for these kinds of thoughts. I turned and led our remaining contingent of fifty or so on, spreading the remaining eight relays between myself, Arzak, Val and the cultists.

Even someone who didn’t know our destination could have realised we were getting close. The devastation in this part of the city was greater than any we’d seen; buildings crumbled by unseen forces, fires blazing in the ruins, but above all else, it was… quiet. All those but the few trying to fight the corruptions had long since fled this part of Coldharbour. I tried to ignore the uncomfortable feeling in my gut, and I pressed on; if anyone would know the truth of what happened here—and how to stop it—it was Alenna.

Her surgery remained standing, for the most part. If she had any control over the creatures, it wouldn’t have been damaged at all, so the fact that it was still largely intact was surely down to luck. I wasted no time in kicking the door open and bellowing out her name.

‘Alenna!’ I roared.

But I saw no Alenna. I saw only the broad frame of my friend, kneeled in the centre of the floor, crying and clutching… Ah. There was Alenna. Guilt blossomed forth in my stomach; I’d assured Lore that the visions of Alenna’s death had been planted by Yusef, a means to control him. They might well have been a means to control him, but my mistake was thinking that meant they couldn’t be real. Lore’s betrayal of the Player—as I’d encouraged—had led to this moment.

Lore looked up at me, meeting my eyes. But there was no accusation in those eyes, no blame, at least not directed at me. ‘I should have known,’ he croaked. ‘I should have known.’

Shouting erupted outside the premises, followed by the inevitable scuffle of a fight.

‘Mourn later. Survive now,’ Arzak said, before disappearing through the doorway once more to join the cultists in battle.

Val approached Lore, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. ‘She’s right. I’m sorry, but she’s right. We have a city to save.’

‘A world,’ I added. ‘Who did this, Lore? What happened here?’

But as it turned out, the barbarian didn’t need to answer. A man stepped forth from the shadows, covered in dust, debris, blood, and… the ooze of corruption. A man we should have killed when we had the chance.

‘I did,’ the Councilman said. ‘I happened.’

And then I understood. All that was happening outside? All the chaos, all the death? It was nothing more than bait. The Councilman didn’t care what happened to this city, or to the people in it. He just wanted us here.

Because in those otherwise cold, dead eyes, I still saw the hunger for vengeance.

"Styk"

Level 20 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 54

Intelligence — 251

Dexterity — 144

Strength — 89

Wisdom — 76

Charisma — 50

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 67

Knifework — Level 49

Stealth — Level 26

Identification — Level 18

Needlework — Level 18

Abilities:

Stab III — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 50%.

Execution III — Attack a target while undetected for +300% damage.

Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.

Mana-Fuelled — Passive. Optionally, use mana in place of stamina to activate Knifework abilities.

Knifestorm — Lash out at all surrounding enemies in a tornado of blades, using either one or two daggers. All enemies with arm’s reach receive physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].

Throw III — Throw blades at great speed towards your enemy. Deal considerable damage to armourless area, with addition damage scaling with [DEX] and [STR].

Enhanced Portals — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a thirty yard radius. Support up to two pairs of portals at once. Uses mana to open portals only.

Portal Slice — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects that are not reinforced by magic.

Tamed Portals — Passive. Increased efficiency of portal magicks means that your portal glow is reduced by 50%, making them less likely to be detected by enemies.

Titan Husk — Warp your flesh to withstand all physical damage effects, including fire, frost, lightning, poison, and corruption.

Shrill Perimeter — Create a perimeter wall of 20 foot radius, invisible to all but those adept in magicks. If an enemy crosses this perimeter, this spell releases the shriek of a banshee.

Warped Shield — Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a low-level melee weapon, Warp Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.

Pocket Worlds — Open and access pocket dimensions. Storage capacity of summoned pocket worlds scales with [INT] of creator.

Silence III — Create a bubble of 20 yard radius in which sound is eradicated. Uses mana to cast, zero mana to maintain. You may only have one bubble active at any one time.

Saved Portals II — Select a location to “save” for future portals. Until your save point is moved, you may always open a portal here, even if it is beyond your current Local Portal range. Mana is used only upon opening the portal.

Portal Relay II - Up to ten small-scale portals can now be positioned stationary to an entity, and used to communicate sound. In addition, your standard portals may be used to communicate sound.

Stealth Attack III — Passive. 200% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.

In Plain Sight — When activated, you have a heightened abilitiy to hide in plain sight, and are able to spot opportunities to break from combat at a higher rate. Scales on [WIS].

Gentle Step — Passive. Your footsteps are dampened on even the hardest of surfaces. Reduce noise of movement by 80%.

Stitch — Create a basic stitch in common fabrics. Ability scales on [CHA].

Improved Cloth Armour — Craft a cloth armour of significantly higher quality, dependent on materials, time and skill level.

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +1,400%