Even though Damien and Sylph already knew the plan, Gavel had made it sound a lot more exciting than it actually was with his last sentence. Shortly after they finished their food, Volt teleported the two of them out of the village.

They were deposited in a grassy field. Mercifully, the spell didn’t affect them as badly as their latest teleportation. At the very edge of the horizon, Damien could just barely make out what might have been the walls of a large city.

The sun was already starting to set behind them. Sylph rooted around in the supply bag and pulled out a bundle of cloth and several metal sticks.

“Do you know how to set a tent up?” Damien asked, watching Sylph as she laid the tarp out and started fiddling with the sticks.

“Yes. It was one of the things my Master trained me in,” Sylph said. The tent quickly took shape before her. She stomped the last of the stakes into the ground, pulling the tarp taut and stepping back to examine her work.

Sylph nodded to herself and tossed the pack into the tent. It wasn’t particularly large, but they weren’t exactly on vacation. Damien mentally nudged Henry to get his attention.

Any idea what we’re dealing with here? It’s not a void creature, is it?

“It isn’t,” Henry said. “Aside from me, my brethren are single-minded in our goal. They wouldn’t be wasting time killing individual humans. There are a lot of monsters that might try to kill humans, so it’s hard to narrow it down much from what we know. The best we can do is wait around. If there’s something here, I’ll know it’s coming long before you can even see it.”

Well, that’s reassuring. Just make sure Whisp or the others don’t spot you.

“Whisp is nowhere near us,” Henry said. “And the others don’t have the power to spot me. I was observing them while you ate. I suppose they’re strong for human mages, but their strength is nothing compared to that woman.”

Is she really that strong?

“Let’s just hope you don’t ever have to find out.”

Damien shook his head and glanced up at Sylph, who was watching him with a bemused expression. “Talking to your companion?”

“Yep. Nothing too interesting,” Damien said. “Is there anything we should do to prepare?”

“We’re just bait,” Sylph pointed out. “There isn’t even anything near us. Volt clearly set us down somewhere far from the city to avoid civilian casualties, so I suppose all we can do is sit around and see if something happens. Maybe cast a little magic to draw it in?”

“That’s a good idea,” Damien said, drawing Ether through his arm and forming a ball of destructive magic at his palm. It shifted shape to a cube and then a knife before returning to normal. Damien dismissed it a minute later and shrugged. “Now what? This doesn’t even feel like a real quest. We’re just… sitting here.”

“That’s how real quests are,” Sylph replied, sitting down on the grass in front of the tent. “Ninety percent waiting, ten percent action.”

“It sounds as if you’ve done this before,” Damien observed.

“I have,” Sylph replied. “And it isn’t something I want to think about. My early training was not enjoyable.”

“Fair enough,” Damien said, sitting down beside her. They watched the sun creep through the sky in silence. It finally dipped below the horizon. The last orange-red hues in the sky faded to purple and black.

“We should go to bed,” Sylph said. “I’ll take first watch.”

Damien started to nod. Then he paused, drawing Henry’s attention with a mental poke.

Do you think we can trust her?

“You ask me that question, but you’ve already made up your mind,” Henry said, giving him the mental equivalent of a shrug. “As far as humans go, she seems decent. It doesn’t hurt that we’ve got a kill switch over her core. I wouldn’t give her extra information, but she already knows about my presence.”

Could you...

"Already on it," Henry said, cutting him off. A ring of dark energy shot out of Damien's chest, rippling off the walls of the tent. Sylph raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Damien said, giving Henry a small mental nod as his companion slipped back again. “Henry can take care of it.”

“Henry?” Sylph asked, raising an eyebrow. “Your companion? I thought you were keeping it under wraps.”

“Him,” Damien corrected her. “And you already know about him. If you were going to try to rat me out, you would have already done it.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Sylph said. “At this point, I think we’re in the same boat. I’d be in just as much trouble as you if they found out the truth of my companion.”

Damien fought back his curiosity and managed to restrain himself from asking her why. If he wanted to keep his own secrets, he had to respect hers. Sylph rose to her feet and pushed the tent flap open, gesturing for Damien to go first.

He gave her an appreciative nod and slipped inside it. Sylph followed after him. The inside of the tent was cramped, but there was enough space for both of them to lie on the ground. There were even two small pillows at the far end.

As the two of them laid down, Henry shifted down into Damien’s shadow. It peeled away from him and rose up from the ground. For an instant, dozens of eyes blinked down at them. Then Henry slipped through the tent flap and vanished into the night.

“Seven planes. What is he?” Sylph’s eyes widened as she got her first look at Henry. She shook her head and sighed. “Rhetorical question, sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Damien responded. He laid back on his pillow and stared up at the tarp above him. He heard Sylph do the same beside him.

They lapsed into silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Damien tossed and turned for several minutes, desperately trying to calm his nerves enough to fall asleep. The rhythmic breathing from beside him proved that Sylph had no such issues. After nearly an hour of fitfully tossing, Damien finally slipped into a dreamless sleep.

When Damien awoke, his chest was on fire. He jerked upright with a gasp, his hand flying to the searing runes. Sylph snapped awake as well.

“What is it?” Sylph asked.

Damien pulled his shirt back and looked at the runes. There was no blood, but it felt like his chest was trying to split apart. The pain faded, but the adrenaline coursing through his veins didn’t. An alien presence that he knew all to well brushed across his thoughts.

“Be wary,” Herald whispered. “And observe.”

The tent flap flew open and Henry slipped in, melting back into Damien’s shadow.

“It’s here,” Henry said. “And you need to run. Now.”

What? Why? What is it?

“No time to explain. Call your mage friends.”

“Pickles,” Damien said loudly. Sylph’s eyes widened as Damien grabbed her arm and dragged the girl out of the tent. The sun had just barely started to rise, and the world was cast in grey and orange hues.

“What’s going on? Is it here?” Sylph asked.

“Apparently,” Damien replied. The air crackled as Volt and the other mages popped into existence around them.

“Where is it?” Gavel asked.

Where is it?

“Southeast, coming quickly. It’s in the air,” Henry said. “Start running.”

Damien relayed the information to the mages. The four of them swung their gazes up to the air. It took them a moment, but Tenbi called out as a small black dot appeared in the sky.

“Run!” Henry snapped.

“Get out of here,” Gavel ordered them. Earth rose up around the man and formed into a massive great sword in his hands. “You’ve done your job. Whisp is securing the perimeter from a distance that it can’t notice her. We’ll find you once this is done.”

Damien and Sylph nodded. They sprinted in the opposite direction, putting as much distance between them and the monster as they could. Magic crackled and flew through the air behind them with enough force to shake the ground.

“What is that thing?” Sylph yelled, glancing over her shoulder. Damien snuck his own peek and nearly tripped over his own feet.

A massive gargoyle the size of a two story building flew in the air above the mages. Its eyes crackled with marvelment green energy and it was covered with pockmarks. Acid dripped from the creature, drawing smoke from where it touched the earth. The monster’s claws were nearly as long as a human body.

“No idea,” Damien replied. “We just need to put as much distance between ourselves and that thing as possible.”

They continued sprinting away from the fight as fast as their feet could carry them. Damien found himself thankful for all the training Sylph and Delph had put him through. Had he tried to do this a few weeks ago, his legs would have turned to jelly already.

The sounds of battle grew more and more distant as they ran. However, they didn’t stop, even after nearly an hour of running. The two of them skidded to a stop, the echoes of the fight still tickling their ears.

“How are they still fighting that thing?” Sylph asked.

“At least it means they haven’t lost yet,” Damien pointed out, pausing in between sentences to catch his breath. “I’m sure they can handle it. They’re professionals. I need to talk to Henry. Give me one second.”

Sylph nodded as Damien reached within his mind.

Henry, what was that? Why were you so worried about it?

“A Corruption Seed,” Henry said.

The thing that Herald said would destroy the world permanently?

“A seed of it,” Henry corrected defensively. “Still dangerous, but not world ending. Yet.”

Can those mages even do anything about it? They’re going to get killed!

“On the contrary,” Henry replied. “They’ll probably kill it. It’ll be hard, and one or two of them might die, but they’ll kill it. A Seed that hasn’t sprouted isn’t that much of a threat to them. That would explain why it was seeking out hosts, though.”

Hosts?

“The missing kids,” Henry said. “The seed is looking for a host. If it’s incompatible, the person or animal its in transforms into a grotesque form of itself and then the seed seeks out a new host until it finds one that it can live in.”

It sounds like this has happened before.

“It has,” Henry said. “At the end of every cycle. The seeds set out to find a host, but it usually takes them hundreds of years to find one that they can control properly.”

And then?

“We don’t tend to let it get much past that,” Henry said. “We restart the cycle.”

I’m not particularly partial to that. You said that the Seed controls the host. What if the host is in control?

“That’s never happened. Humans can’t overpower it. That’s why the void exists.”

Right then. How many of them are there? Can we kill them all? That would stop the corruption completely, right?

“Not exactly,” Henry replied, letting out a sigh. “There are six Seeds. If we managed to kill them all, it would slow the Corruption significantly. However, the Seeds are just the overt signs. It would creep through the crust of the world, slowly infecting more and more of it over the course of the next thousand or so years.”

A thousand is better than a few hundred. All we have to do is find the other five and kill them, right? You can do that, can’t you?

“If I had to,” Henry said. “Look, Damien. You can’t seek these things out. They exist to fight the void. If it gets wind of you, it’ll do everything in its power to kill you. I can defeat it, but I can’t keep your mortal flesh intact. You just aren’t strong enough yet. Don’t worry – I’m still on your side. There’s a lot left to do in this cycle. Just stay away from the Corruption for now. We can deal with it–”

Damien’s chest erupted in searing pain. At the same time, Sylph slammed into him. They both fell to the ground, narrowly avoiding the massive, curved blade that erupted from the earth where they’d been standing.

The earth parted and a chittering hiss rose up as an insectoid looking creature pulled itself up from beneath them. It looked vaguely like a praying mantis made of stone, but each of its limbs ended in a sharp claw longer than Damien. Just like the gargoyle, it was covered in pockmarks and green acid dripped from its body.

“Shit! It has some form of stealth technique. I can’t pick it up at all!” Henry said. “Give me control. I can teleport us out.”

No, you cant. Whisp is locking the area down.

Henry swore in a language that Damien didn’t know. Sylph leapt to her feet and Damien hopped up after her. The monster let out a chittering laugh and started to circle around them, its beady eyes focused on Damien.

“Another one?” Sylph asked, her tone wavering. A blade made of dark energy flickered into her hands.

“Sylph, we need to run,” Damien said, channeling Ether through his limbs and forming two Gravity Spheres. “This thing is way above our paygrade.”

“I don’t think it’s going to let us run,” Sylph said, taking a step back. The mantis lashed out with a claw. Sylph dropped into a roll as it blurred through the air, howling through the space where she’d been standing. “We need to fight it.”

Any chance we can hold it off until the mages finish the other one?

“Minimal,” Henry said. “Syph has no way to fight this thing. She’s going to get slaughtered.”

The mantis blurred forward again. Sylph hurled herself out of the way, shimmering and fading into the background. The mantis spun, lashing out towards an empty space in the air. Damien’s hand rose of its own accord. A rune sprang to life and a purple shield formed in the mantis’ path.

Its claw slammed against it with a loud crash. Sylph flickered back into vision on the other side of the shield, her eyes wide. Damien’s body went stiff as Henry surged forward, taking control of the boy’s body.

The air crackled as Damien thrust a hand forward. A glowing purple lance shot out of his hand. It slammed into the Seed’s chest with a loud crunch, shattering some of the stone that made it up and forcing the creature several steps back.

A wave of dark energy erupted out from Damien’s chest. It washed across the field, leaving motes of darkness in its wake. They all morphed, forming into floating eyes that tracked the Seed. Energy sparked and crackled between them.

“Time to go, Sylph,” Henry said, his voice coming out from Damien’s mouth. “This is my fight.”