The lush jungle that surrounded the Xibalban royal palace was now emaciated. What used to be a path filled with thick foliage almost too full to pass was now littered with the rotting trunks of diseased trees. The once rich fertile soil now muddy and rancid squelched under Sahn's feet. He thought he went the wrong way due to not having visited in a while until he found the clearing the palace sat in. The palace seemed to emanate the corruption that infected the area. A dark aura radiated from the top of the structure and a black tar like substance oozed from the mortar between the stones. The soldiers that would normally patrol the perimeter were littered throughout the clearing kneeled in the mud, their heads tilted back unconscious, their faces frozen in terror. Sahn crept closer to one of the guards and curiously poked him causing him to stiffly topple over into the mud. Amused by his own antics, Sahn chuckled while he looked around and tried to figure out what was going on. Suddenly a pained wail came from inside the palace, Sahn recognized the voice and rushed inside. The scene inside the palace mimicked what was going on outside. All the palace staff were unconscious in the same position as the guards in the clearing. Sahn ignored them and made his way up the staircase but stopped at the top not knowing which of the three hallways to take when another pained scream filled the otherwise eerily silent palace. He dashed down the right most hallway and busted through the doors at the end of it, unprepared for what he discovered on the other side. Kasella in labor screamed in agony as Sahn burst through the doors of the delivery room. The midwife was knelt down beside the bed unconscious like everyone else only she held an infant in her arms. Sahn quickly realized that the dark aura belonged to the child. Her cry produced a numbing sensation throughout Sahn's body which he figured is what rendered everyone unconscious. "Sahn? Help me!" Kasella cried. "What do I do?" Sahn asked nervously. "Pull it out!" Kasella screamed. A second baby began to emerge from Kasella and when it crowned a corrosive aura began to pour out from the infant. The aura didn't affect Kasella and Sahn was strong enough to withstand it but the midwife's flesh began to melt like acid was being poured on her. It ate away at her quickly leaving the first baby resting atop a pile of bones. "Do you want me to just yank it out?" Sahn asked. "No! Guide it out as I push!" Kasella answered through pained breaths. Sahn did as he was told and Kasella painfully gave birth to her second child.

Sahn placed both infants in separate bassinets beside Kasella's bed. She had somehow suppressed both their auras which put them to sleep. "Do you need anything?" Sahn asked. Kasella ignored him and strained to sit up and get out of bed. "I don't think you should be getting up so soon." "My body is already healing. It's a side effect of this fucked up pregnancy." She replied, making her way to a nearby cabinet. "Now help me kill them." She added, pulling a knife from the cabinet and holding it out for Sahn to take. Sahn stepped away from her. "What do you mean kill them? I'm not killing your babies Kasella." "Argh, dammit Sahn." She groaned and looked at her sleeping daughters while gripping the knife tightly. "Fuck!" She yelled, dropping the knife. "Take me to Lucian." She ordered, pushing past Sahn and leaving the room. Sahn followed after her. "What about the babies?" He asked. "Leave them, hopefully they'll die on their own before he gets back." She replied. The two made their way past multiple piles of bones to get to where the vehicles were kept. Kasella hopped in the driver seat of one of the larger all terrain vehicles and pressed a button that opened the large door to the room. "Get in Sahn, I'll explain everything on the way." Sahn got in the vehicle and they sped off leaving the babies all alone. It wasn't until the pair reached the desert that Kasella felt comfortable enough to talk, Sahn recognized her anxiety and had remained silent. "There's something wrong with him." Kasella broke the silence, Sahn didn't reply, he just listened. "All those blooms since that night the tablet cracked it was like he'd switch between the Thuren we know and someone else. And when his parents mysteriously died, in the back of my head I knew it was him but I didn't want to believe it. It was like something was compelling me to stay around him..." The vehicle drove off a dune and slammed back into the sand but their speed only increased as Kasella spoke. "But when I got pregnant I could see it Sahn, some...form coiled around him. I think whatever it is isn't fully here with us, just an influence and I think it corrupted me through those little monsters." She pulled her shirt up and revealed what looked like black scars streaked across her stomach that secreted a black ooze. She wiped the ooze away and returned her focus to driving leaving Sahn to absorb all that she told him. "He sent soldiers to attack home. Where is he?" Is all he said in response. Kasella looked at him and for the first time in their lives Sahn's face was emotionless. "I didn't know he did that, is everyone alright?" She asked. "No one died. He should of known better than to send weaklings like that to our home." Sahn's voice was filled with a quiet rage. The negative energy that radiated from Sahn fed Kasella's corruption causing it to spread and ignite searing pain throughout her body. Kasella screamed and her body began to seize, the ATV swerved out of control and began to tumble over the sands. Their vehicle came to a stop upended. Sahn lifted the ATV off of them and tossed it to the side with one hand. He carried Kasella's limp body away from the wreckage and laid her down in the sand, her left arm was twisted around and broken in several places. Sahn sat in the sand next to her and watched her arm snap and pop as it healed on its own. The desert was eerily silent while Sahn sat waiting next to an unconscious Kasella. Suddenly the silence was broken by the sound of grinding stone. "Finally." Said Sahn as he gently picked up Kasella and turned to face the giant tower that appeared behind them. He walked closer to the tower and waited for a door to appear and when it did he carried Kasella through it into the same white room he woke up in all those blooms ago. "What happened to her?" Lucian asked, entering through a door that appeared on the other side of the room. "She gave birth hours ago and mentioned that she thought she was corrupted by the babies, then she passed out while driving." Sahn answered. "Hmmmm. I'll examine her." Suddenly Kasella sat up in the bed. "They're here!" She claimed. "Who?" Asked Sahn. Lucian waved his hand and the wall behind Sahn shifted into a window that revealed that they were much higher up in the tower than when they entered. Outside the window down in the sand stood Thuren Bahn holding both his daughters in his arms as his army amassed behind him. When Kasella saw her twisted family waiting to take her home something inside her snapped and the corruption began to spread once again, only it didn't affect her body, instead it vitiated her mind.

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