Frozen at Rick’s warning, no one dared continue forward for the time being. Instead, the group spaced themselves out as best they could and sat down, sliding down against the stone to the floor below. Leopold had the most trouble with this, his imposing metal frame clattering as he struggled to sit in the cramped confines of the tunnel, but after a moment of lighthearted struggle, he managed to sit with a soft chuckle.

No one spoke after the group was seated. The knots in their stomachs were all too densely tied to allow for peaceful conversation, not with the imposing battle that awaited them mere moments away. Jake found that despite his nerves, his mind was calm. No shakes or tremors ran through him, and his breathing stayed level. He couldn’t help but doubt that he’d stay so calm once the battle broke out, once he was face to face with the flesh. But for now, he stayed calm and collected.

As Jake sat, gathering his breath and trying his best to rest as much as possible while he could, Rick shuffled over awkwardly through the tunnel. He leaned against the wall next to Jake, not bothering to sit down he held out his hand, offering a knife which lay flat in his palm to Jake.

“Here kid, take it. Use it with the others you have if you need to. Your aims improved but being honest, it’ll be so chaotic once we break into Largo that I doubt you’ll be able to find clear targets. And I doubt will be able to help you this time if you get cornered. So just run, run and hide kid. Remember, all that matters is staying alive. How else can you give that knife back?”

Rick kicked himself off from where he leaned on the wall, his head turned from Jake to hide his facial expression. The last words Jake could hear before he moved back were,

“Good Luck, Kid.”

That was it - the last interaction Jake had with any in the group before the call went out simultaneously amongst the trio that it was time to move. The group all hopped up eagerly, none feeling particularly rested after their pitstop as the weight of what lay ahead of them hung too heavy on their shoulder to allow proper rest.

The group fell back into single file quickly, having never really assembled a proper camp, and moved forward allowing Rick to take the lead. At first, it was hard for Jake to notice what Rick had meant before, but the longer they walked the clearer the difference in the tunnels became. He started to notice a pulsing within the gaps of rock that lined the walls and occasionally drips of black viscous blood would leak from fleshy nubs that developed through holes in the rock.

As the group reached the start of the stairs upward, the state of the cavern quickly deteriorated. Mass sections of the wall were missing, yet instead of dirt or rock falling through to act as sealant the stretched grey flesh the group had seen before pooled in. The floor now lay covered in a thin layer of black blood that continually oozed from the walls and the sloped ceiling above, and the further up the group went the more the stones gave way to nothing as they found themselves forced to walk upon the flesh stretched across the floor.

Their feet sunk into the grey of the flesh, intermingled with pools of viscous blood, and suddenly the relatively easy climb up the stairs became a struggle with each step upward to drag their feet forward out of the mass of the creature consuming Largo. Yet as the stone gave way, and they found themselves forced to walk upon the stretched mass of flesh they heard the hoard shrieks and cries, closer than ever before now.

It shattered Jakes eardrums, causing him to stumble forward sinking to his knees as he reached up desperately trying to cover his ears with his hands. He may have been the only one to fall forward, yet the rest of the group was not unaffected as they all stumbled slightly, wincing in pain as the reached up to try and cover their ears from the cacophony ot shrieks that came from above, surrounding them on all sides.

Yet they had no time to stop and recoil in pain from the suddenness of the horrid shrieks as all at once, the tunnel they found themselves in began to rumble. Muscle and flesh contracted as black blood oozed more viciously than ever, and the cavern began to constrict itself, thrashing about as the creature the group walked upon began revolting in an effort to cause a cave-in.

Thrown off balance by the sudden churning of the ground, Jake struggled to rise as the group took off running forward, desperate to climb up from the tunnel before they were crushed to death. Still recoiling from the sudden scream Jake had been unprepared for the ground to move and could find no purchase, only beginning to sink into the fleshy ground below.

“COME ON!” He heard suddenly above, a cry that managed to cut through the rumbling and shrieks as he was hooked under the arm and dragged forward. He fell into a crawl before managing to find his feet with the help of the person dragging him upward. His feet beneath him again Jake broke into a sprint, running alongside Lana who had fallen back to drag him forward.

What once had been polished, regal stonework was gone replaced by nightmarish flesh and sinew that sloped at awkward, unpredictable angles. Working their way upward, fighting through the contracting walls of the cave and the sinking sensation of the ground below, the multitude of shrieks grew ever louder. At last, surrounded by torn flesh and shrieks, the group exploded from the underground passage of flesh, collapsing to the ruined streets of Largo.

What Largo may have once looked like, Jake couldn’t imagine. What remained in his view was a ruined stone and burned house collapsing into each other amidst piles of shattered glass crushed to dull dust and rusted bits of iron and steel unusable by anyone. And connecting all of it was the flesh. More spread out now than when they moved underground it was still ever-present. Sinew and muscle stretched over withered bone packaged in rotted grey flesh which hung and crept around the city in unnatural, twisted ways. It grew like moss up the stone and hung like vines over the city's edges. In the thicker mounds of flesh, Jake could still make out the withered forms of people.

He couldn’t tell if they were alive or not anymore, they were too far from him to see any details in their eyes. What he could see was the looks of agony across their faces, the way they seemed melted together in horrid abominations. How their limbs hung unused swaying in the breeze. It was not just people who melted into the flesh but the forms of cows and pigs and chickens and sheep, domestic livestock merged into mangled.

It sickened Jake and made his knees weak. The glimpse of the flesh they had seen from a distance had not painted half the horrid picture that now overrun the ruins of Largo. As Jake stood frozen, unsure of how to act next he suddenly found himself picked up, cast aside, and flying through the air.

With a grunt of surprise and complaint, Jake landed with a roll, sprawling across the rough stone intermingled with discarded bits of meat and blood. Rising he turned in time to see Leopold, who was still mid-pose from throwing him receive the brunt of the flesh’s attack. A massive mound of tissue crashed into his side, sending him skidding across the stone. A cough escaped his lips a trickle of blood leaking down his chin. He simply stood tall again and let out a slow, pained laugh.

Lana and Rick were not slow to act in response to the flesh’s actions. Rick moved forward, throwing knives forward into the mound that had struck Leopold. The mound recoiled a bit at being impaled, and streams of viscous blood leaked from its wound, but it made no move to stop thrashing as it wound up to slam down upon Leopold again. It was halted in its tracks by Lana.

Her whole body lit up a brilliant electric blue as a pulse of magic erupted from her, and with a scream, she released a massive shockwave. Her pulse of magic shook the entire area and fired up into the sky, releasing flares of magic further amplifying her power. Lana was forced down to her knees, breathing heavily her eyes glazed following the attack. Yet it did its job. The mound of flesh once struck by the magic began flailing more violently than ever before. Black blood oozed from its every joint and orifice before at last it fell unmoving to the ground.

It was not the only piece of flesh to fall, the traveling pulse of magic spread out wide hitting large swaths of piled flesh recoiling and falling limp, oozing blood. As the wave of magic shot out, the flares above shone brightly illuminating the city below. The ruins were massive, perhaps it was the single largest city Jake had ever stood in. Yet any beauty Largo may once have possessed was gone. The flares above revealed that truly every building, every road, and every person had been pulled into the flesh that now snaked throughout the city.

As the pulse of magic traveled and began to peter out, the shrieks that shook the earth below started again, louder than ever before Jake clutched his ears and watched as snaking mounds of flesh began closing in toward the trio yet again. As the pulse of magic dissipated and Lana kneeled, recovering under the flares above Leopold drew his sword and prepared to meet the advancing foes head on.

Yet Jake found his attention not drawn towards Leopold and the fight for survival soon to break out across from him, but away toward his left. Up a rocky hill in a flat clearing sat something glittering, shining bright in response to the magic sent out by Lana. He was not the only one who noticed, both Rick and Leopold had turned towards it yet now they where trapped on all sides by the encroaching flesh.

Jake stared at the glittering. Nothing of value remained in this city, it was all rotted down or destroyed. Nothing remained that could glitter like that, react to the light of magic like that. Only one thing came to mind that could react in such a way. Sliding his beaten pack from his back he inched forward slowly, moving away from the light of the trio and into the dark, toward the glittering of the sky.

As Jake moved forward, he did his best to move without touching the flesh surrounding him yet he found this to be a near impossible task. The cold, clammy flesh would brush his foot or his hand as he navigated by touch blindly through the dark. The light the flares provided long went out after he started his journey towards the glittering sun and the only light provided came in flashing bursts as the trio moved around, desperately fighting to fend the flesh off.

The flesh paid Jake little to no mind as he moved forward, rather instead all the small tendrils or lumps of meat he’d come across on his journey through the ruins would be pulled away from him, toward the trio. Glancing over his shoulder he could see that the trio were slowly inching their way forward toward where the glittering was as well, but unlike Jake, the flesh didn’t ignore their presence. It crashed against them in endless droves, slowly whittling away at their stamina and defenses.

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Lana still kneeled, panting heavily no longer in any condition to fight as they slowly inched forward. Jake could not see her eyes now as he was too far away, but still, she looked out of it. Leopold made up the majority of the force fighting the flesh back. His armored body shone in the light, drawing the ire of the flesh. Now given time to prepare before their attack he faced them smiling and laughing, cutting through the mounds with his sword. Rick stood to his side, throwing his knife forward to sever the smaller connections of flesh that acted as veins supporting the larger mounds.

Yet still they came endlessly. Rick and Leopold would cut down mound after mound, tendril after tendril. Yet as the rotted blood of the flesh flowed out, coating the ground black, more sinewy attacks of grey rotting flesh would slam into them. Intermingled with pure muscle that drove the flesh forward were shattered bones, rotting and jagged that splintered out from the mounds desperate to impale their foes. These sudden spears of bone forced the two to stay on guard and keep on the defensive, especially as they worked to keep Lana safe given the state she was in.

Still, the trio seemed to be in no immediate danger. They continued to hold the flesh at bay, allowing Jake to move forward silently in the dark. Eventually, he reached the hilled incline he’d seen from afar. From a distance, the hill had looked sloped, but now up close it was a shear cliff face. Fortunately, it was jagged and scratched which gave Jake plenty of footholds to use as he began his ascent up the cliff. Unfortunately, his views of the cliffside came in brief flashes of light as the trio’s battle raged onward.

Gritting his teeth, Jagged struggled blindly in the dark searching for the next handhold to grasp. When he’d finally found it, he’d hauled himself upward unsteadily before finally finding balance only to repeat the same process to continue moving upward. It was a long process; one he didn’t revel in. Yet finally he reached the top, rolling out with a grunt onto the flat stone.

Preparing to move forward toward where he remembered the glittering to be he was stopped by a horrid sound that filled the air. More horrid even than the shrieks of the flesh that had filled the air and driven him to his knees. Turning in a panic, Jake met the sound of splintering and creaking metal behind him with dread.

Jake had a perfect view to watch as the mounds of flesh converged all at once, shooting forward and enveloping Leopold's right arm. Leopold let out a grunt but he couldn’t pull himself free of the flesh’s grasp. The sound of splintering metal filled the air as rotted teeth and bone plunged into his armor, sawing their way through as Leopold sat, trapped in a vice. It didn’t last long. Rick had only just turned to try and help when, with a scream, Leopold was freed from the mound's embrace falling to his knees with a splatter of blood. His arm missing, and torrents of blood gushed from his unclean wound. The splintered teeth and bones of the mound had not sawn through Leopold gently, leaving behind shattered bone and torn flesh.

Leopold sat in shock, the pain overwhelming. He tried to calm himself, tried to react in time to avoid being overrun but he was too late. With the fall of Leopold, the trio's defense shattered as the swarm of flesh rushed forward. Tendrils of disgusting rotted bone and tooth and shattered hoof came forth, wrapping around his chest and legs and dragging him forward to the ground. Leopold let out a pained scream as once again the splintering sounds of metal filled the air.

Rick moved forward fast, desperate to reach Leopold, but he was stopped as lumps of flesh rushed toward him. Sticking to his legs and crawling his chest he was forced to stop and hunt the mounds clinging to him as the flesh slowly began to saw into Leopold. His pained cries wrung out, through the air, raising someone from her stupor.

She was in a daze, overusing her magic past its limit already. Her body was desperate to recharge. When all at once the pained screams of her brother reached her ears. Her body seized up and clarity returned to her. The principles of proper magic control, proper magic manipulation, and proper magic storage all flew from her head as she dug into herself, drawing every ounce of magic left in her exhausted body. When all that was left in her was gone, she continued drawing from the very atmosphere around her.

Her hands cracked and hardened, splitting apart slowly as veins-like cuts appeared across her arms as she forced more and more magical power to fill her. Well past her natural limit, she let out a scream. As the flesh rushed toward her desperate to stop her from unleashing what she’d built up she slammed her destroyed hands to the floor.

A shockwave more brilliant than what had been cast before shot forth consuming the trio and beyond. Flares shot into the air exploding so violently and powerfully it nearly drowned the screams of the flesh below. Collapsing back with pained breaths, blood beginning to drip from the scars cut across her arms. Yet she ignored those focusing only on Leopold.

He lay face down, his armor in shambles cuts across his torso and back. A deep scratch ran down his leg, yet it was still attached. His arm though was completely severed, gone forever. His blood flowed freely, mixing with the viscous blood of the flesh that stained the floor. He seemed barely conscious. Rushing toward him as quickly as she could Lana felt his face, finding it to be cold and clammy, quickly turning pale. Fear gripping hold of her heart, a desperate plea of,

“NO!” Escaped her as she drew even more power toward herself. The splitting pain as more scars ripped through her flesh was ignored as she focused solely on Leopold, slowly casting magic upon him to damn the flood of blood.

From on high, Jake watched in horror as the trio’s defense rapidly crumbled in less than a minute, leaving only Rick standing. The shockwave of magic Lana unleashed had been powerful, more powerful than anything he’d seen her do yet, but still, screams of madness and fury shook Largo as the flesh once again moved ever closer toward the trio. Jake quickly turned from the horrid scene below and began sprinting across the flat top of the cliff. While Lana’s flares still flashed and burned above he had to find the sky. It was the only thing that could potentially stop the flesh, stop the Corruption. The only thing that could save the Trio.

Yet he didn’t have to travel far. He barely moved a few meters when he came across an odd sight. A kneeling skeleton clothed in black robes sat surrounded on all sides by a massive wall of flesh. The features of the people composing this wall of flesh were all still noticeable, all stacked and layered atop one another in a perfectly circular wall around the skeleton. From what Jake could tell, the skeleton and the area around it were the only piece of land in all of Largo devoid of the flesh’s influence.

Running toward the skeleton he saw the same glitter again, sparkling within the skeleton’s clasped hands. An object roughly the size of a softball sat shrouded by the grip of the skeleton. Looking into what he could see of the object, Jake was suddenly met with a brilliantly shining view. Clasped in the skeletons hand the orb sparkled full of glittering stars, far away yet so close. A blue moon hung low, flittering in its orbit. Constellations Jake had never seen danced and sparkled right before his eyes.

Gulping, Jake rushed forward toward the skeleton, yet as he passed the fall of flesh it began to writhe and squirm letting out wails of displeasure. The flesh had not reacted towards him in any way till he got close to the skeleton. Jake had wondered if the flesh even knew he was there at all. Yet now it definitely knew he was there, and though it made no effort to come closer it wailed and squirmed in a horrid display.

Reaching the skeleton, Jake began trying to pull the orb loose from its grasp yet found it held tight. The dilapidated skeleton in no way collapsed under the weight Jake subjected it to. Looking around at the wiggling mass of flesh and towards the cloaked skeleton Jake felt a desperate need to move far away, now. Pulling one of his knives out, he drove the blade into the skeleton’s hand and with significant effort managed to pry its grasp apart.

Catching the orb as it fell in his hand, Jake watched the skeleton’s cloaked head fall back and heard a ghostly wail slip from its lips. Then all at once the skeleton collapsed down under its own weight. The wall of flesh surrounding him, however, began closing in at rapid speeds. Surrounded Jake shot forward clutching the Orb and beelining toward the only opening apparent in the surrounding wall of flesh.

He wasn’t fast enough to move, however, and soon a horrid figure stood before him to block his path. Melted and merged with the rest of the wall around him, Jake looked into its eyes and found life. Begging and pleading looking back at him. It lunged at him with a feral cry, tackling Jake as its rotted hands began pawing toward the Orb. It was only held at bay for a moment from the pain getting close to the orb caused it. The pain seemed so overwhelming that mass chunks of its skin began to slough off revealing the rotted remains beneath.

Jake struggled, pushing the mound of flesh back as it cried in pain. From all around he could hear it rest of the flesh encroaching on him. With a desperate cry, Jake drove the knife he still clutched into the skull of the figure in front of him and forced his way forward. He left the flesh behind to struggle and burn for a moment as he ran forward, yet reaching the edge of the cliff he found no way down.

The flesh was still advancing behind and looking over the cliff the tendrils of skin and muscle that had ignored him before had changed course, snaking toward him now leaving nowhere to escape to. In a panic, Jake turned and threw one of his knives behind him without thinking in a desperate attempt to slow the advancing flesh down. He heard it make contact with its target in the dark, yet heard no sign of its advance slowing.

Looking over the edge he saw the snaking tendrils and knew he had no chance of cutting them away with his knife, especially not in the dark. Looking over the edge, he began to consider if jumping was possible when he caught sight of Rick. The trio was still safe for the time being. Lana’s blast had cleared a large swath of the flesh immediately around them, and now the attention of the flesh was being drawn toward Jake.

Looking at the orb in his hands, Jake gulped before screaming,

“RICK!”

And throwing the orb out across the vast distance between himself and Rick. Rick turned and saw the orb sailing through the air and took off running towards it. Jake watched with bated breath as he suddenly felt something clammy grasp around his ankle and drag him downward, pulling him first to his knees and then flat to his back. The tendrils of flesh had finished their climb up the cliff. Jake paid them no mind, even as they began to snake around his neck. There was little he could do to them. He simply watched as the orb sailed through the air, down the cliff, past the distance he struggled to crawl through in the dark and safely into the hand of Rick who dived forward to catch it.

As soon as the orb landed in his hands small cracks began to appear across its surface. Rick looked at the orb, confused at first before understanding dawned on his face. He turned, hurrying back toward Lana, and letting out gruff laughter that filled the air. His laughter carried, intermingled with the now panicked-sounding shrieks of the flesh as he called out,

“I’m so glad we didn’t let you die, kid!”

Reaching Lana, he tossed to orb into her hands. She looked dazed, confused as she still tended toward Leopold's injuries till sudden excitement and understanding dawned on her as she felt the strength of the artifact she held. Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself and began to channel magic into herself, screaming in pain as her arms split apart and blood splashed freely to the ground. Yet the orb shook, and cracks deepened as she forced her magic into it. At last, with a popping sound, the orb split into two.

A blinding sequence of lights filled the air as a swirling cosmos of stars surrounded the trio. Slowly they watched as the cosmos turned into a shining daytime with fluffy clouds and a roaring sun suspended in miniature. Rapidly the two sceneries would change in blurring intensity as the scene began to grow, larger and larger as it spread out beyond the trio to fill the space they stood in. The scene kept changing faster and fast growing more and more rapidly till soon all of Largo was engulfed in the scene.

The pained screams of the flesh filled the air, yet the scenery playing out gave no notice. Flashing through picturesque views of day and night the scene grew and grew. It soon covered the lake of blood past Largo, then the ruined plains beyond, then the rotted forest, then the Largo Mountain shelf, then finally the Largo mountains in their entirety. The growing scene was not lost to the world at large.

People looked up to the sky above in wonder for the first time in years. All over the world, from the lands beyond what was known to Morsel people gathered and watched the swirling scene above as the sky grew and grew till finally, it stopped. The sky returned to its proper place, and the stars twinkled above for the first time in years.