“Well, that seems like it went well,” Sylph said, shooting a glance around the room before leaning against one of the walls.

“Perfectly,” Damien said. He heaved a sigh and ran a hand through his hair. “We killed the Corruption here, but it feels like things just got worse instead of better.”

“There are four remaining Void creatures left on this plane,” Henry said, his voice troubled. “It’s possible the Corruption is targeting us. In fact, it’s quite likely. No Void – no stopping the Corruption.”

“So we should go find your friends?” Sylph asked. “Are you sure that they won’t just kill us? If I’m not mistaken, the only reason Herald hasn’t offed the Mortal Plane yet is because he’s bound by Damien’s contract.”

“I would have said that they were bound and unable to do anything about an hour ago,” Henry said. “But something had partially broken Harriot’s chains. There’s no way to know if it was the Corruption that did it or not, so we have to assume that there’s a chance they aren’t as bound as I originally thought.”

“So what do we do?” Damien sat down, clenching his fists as he tried to piece together some semblance of a plan that wasn’t just ‘blindly follow Herald’s runes until they all got killed or the Corruption gave up’.

“Working on it,” Henry said, rubbing his shadow wreathed chin. “There are too many possibilities and we’re missing too many key pieces. Herald is content with us just hunting the Corruption like idiots, but he’s also trying to convince Damien that it’s hopeless to save the Mortal Plane without restarting the cycle.”

“You were talking about a traitor,” Sylph said slowly. “I don’t think I have the entire story for that particular part. I know Damien summoned you on accident and there are a bunch of other Void things around the world, bound in some form or another.”

“It wasn’t exactly an accident,” Damien explained. “Someone messed with my rune circle. I didn’t know until Herald gave me back some of my memories and I saw a spell modify some of the runes.”

“So it was all completely planned by someone,” Sylph said. “It makes sense, I suppose. Somehow managing to summon Henry on accident seems like such an incredibly unlikely scenario. And all you saw of whatever modified the rune circle was the spell?”

“Dark tendrils,” Damien confirmed.

“Like the ones on your chest?”

“Not exactly,” Damien said, shaking his head and pulling his shirt up slightly to reveal the rune circle. It squirmed for a moment before freezing as if it had realized that someone was watching it. “These are flat. The spell that messed with my rune circle looked like a tentacle more than anything. So they’re similar, but not the same.”

“Henry, you’ve got Damien’s memories, right?”

“Some of them,” Henry said. “And I can read some very slight things from the front of his thoughts. I know what the tendrils look like.”

“Do you know what form of magic they are?”

“Dark,” Henry said. “Nothing special about them. The spell didn’t seem to be particularly high level either. They could have been cast by a first year student in your college.”

Sylph crossed her arms and frowned. “Damn. I was hoping you might be able to identify if the magic was Void or not.”

“No such luck,” Henry said. “Damien’s memories of our original meeting are still heavily scrambled. His mind can’t handle them, so even if there was something else there to see, we’ve got no way of finding it without turning him into a vegetable.”

“Which I would certainly prefer to avoid,” Damien put in. “I honestly don’t think we’ve got enough information to figure out who the traitor is yet. But if they’re this involved with whatever’s going on, the traitor is probably watching us to some degree, right?”

“It’s likely,” Sylph agreed.

“So what if we baited them out? Whatever they’re working towards, all we have to do is exactly the opposite of what they want and we might be able to force their hand.”

“That’s a decent idea – but do you have any idea what this person is playing at?” Sylph asked. “All we know is that they’ve had something to do with you summoning Henry. Honestly, if they were really working with the Corruption, wouldn’t they just have killed you? Henry goes back to the Void and then there’s nobody in the Corruption’s way.”

“That’s a good point. But if they were on our side, why not just show themselves? It doesn’t make sense.” Damien said, frowning. “Henry, how did you normally get to the Mortal Plane to restart the cycle? You can’t tell me you got accidentally summoned each time.”

“This was the first,” Henry said. “Generally, as the Corruption eats away at the Mortal Plane, the barriers that keep the planes separated start to weaken. It’s the first indication that the Corruption has arrived in the Mortal Plane. When they grow weak enough, we push our way through and restart the cycle. That’s how it’s always happened. And, before you ask, I’ve got no clue where the Corruption comes from. It’s always been there.”

Damien started to pace around the room, stepping around the fallen chains as he tried to jog his brain into motion. “Okay. So we know there are two possibilities: either they’re working against us and need me alive for some reason, or they’re on our side and can’t show themselves for another unknown reason.”

“Very conclusive,” Sylph said. “And, unfortunately, entirely useless. Henry, how attached are you to the other Void creatures?”

“Not particularly,” Henry said. “You want to destroy them, then?”

“The way I see it, the other Void is against us no matter what,” Sylph said, shrugging. “Either they’re trying to restart this cycle or they’re Corrupted. We get nothing from leaving them alive.”

“A wise assessment. I think it might be our only true choice. I’m unsure how strong their bindings currently are, but none of them have broken free yet. The problem is that none of them are particularly close.”

“We’ll find them, then,” Damien said. His palm tingled, presumably pointing him in the direction of the next piece of Corruption. It didn’t seem like Herald was particularly interested in their new plan. Damien ignored it. “They’re on this continent, right?”

“I’ll check again. Depending on how they were bound, it’s possible they moved.”

The tingle in his palm grew stronger. Damien frowned and he stopped pacing. “I think the Corruption is getting closer. Either that or Herald is messing with me.”

Sylph tensed and Henry gathered energy around him. The room fell into silence as they waited with bated breath. Nothing moved.

“Are you sure it’s coming closer?” Sylph whispered.

“The rune feels weird,” Damien said back in the same hushed tones. “Henry, you’ve been here before. Where exactly are we?”

“Underneath a village,” Henry replied. “They were almost certainly unaware of Harriot’s presence here. The magic keeping her here was untouched when I first arrived.”

Damien’s palm grew even warmer. “Is it possible the Corruption might have taken a side mission to the town before dropping by to visit Harriot?”

“That would be awful bold of it,” Henry said. “Revealing itself to mortals would mean more resistance. They can’t do much, but it’s still a stupid play.”

I’ve got it, Herald. Turn it off before you burn my hand off.

The rune circle grew hotter for another moment before blinking off. The ceiling shuddered. Small chunks of dirt and stone started to rain down from above it.

“We need to get outside,” Henry said, purple energy hissing up around him like a small vortex. “The exit is on the roof. I’ll be hiding as soon as we get out – I don’t know who might be watching us once we get outside. Get ready.”

Sylph and Damien nodded. The energy around Henry condensed around him for a moment before erupting forward with a roar. A bolt tore through the air and slammed into the center of the ceiling with a loud crash.

Light flooded into the room as wood and stone sprayed upwards and away from them. Henry shot back into Damien, returning the boy’s shadow to him as he activated Warp Step upwards.

The world shifted and Damien shot through the room, appearing in what remained of the house above them. It looked like a tornado had torn through it. Wood and stone had been cast everywhere, tearing through the walls and ripping multiple holes through the walls and ceiling.

Something large snarled from outside the house. Damien’s body moved on instinct, drawing the runes for Devour and bringing forth the disk of dark energy right before a green orb sailed through one of the house walls.

It vanished into the spell and vanished. Sylph pulled herself out of the hole a moment later, two scythes retracting back into her shoulders. She grabbed a chunk of beef jerky and stuffed it into her mouth.

The walls of the house exploded. Damien stepped in front of Sylph and hardened his mage armor, raising his hands as stone and wood peppered against them. A stone humanoid figure the size of a two story building crouched before them, acid dribbling down its rocky skin.

Its features were two hollow holes for eyes and a gaping, dark oval for a mouth. A wailing scream escaped the monster’s mouth and it reached towards them, four disturbingly long fingers unfurling like the maw of beast.

Damien formed a gravity sphere, overloading it before hurling it straight into the monster’s hand. It exploded with a loud bang and sent cracks racing down the monster’s palm. It flinched backward, buying time for Damien and Sylph to sprint out of a hole on the other side of the house.

Is this a Seed?

“No,” Henry said. “Something else. I can’t get a good read on it, but you can’t rely on me doing very much unless you want to purge everyone that lives here. If things go badly, I’ll step in with or without your permission.”

Understood.

He could see the monster start towards them through the ruins of the house. Damien sent Ether into the disk of dark energy still within the crumbling building, casting Expunge. The blob of acid shot back out and struck the monster in the side. Green liquid sprayed across the ground as the creature staggered backwards, uninjured but off balance.

Sylph faded into the background as she activated her camouflage and Damien threw out his net of mental energy. Sure enough, the Ether surrounding the large Corrupted monster was fizzling and fading away.

Wait – can you rip this thing away from the Ether without alerting people?

“No. That’s your problem as well, unless you don’t plan to leave witnesses.”

Damien gritted his teeth. He darted into the street, drawing Ether into both of his hands and thrusting them forward. Twin gravity drills spiraled out, churning into the monster’s chest with enough force to send fragments of stone and splashes of acid flying across the street.

A wail escaped the creature’s mouth and it unfolded to its full height, towering above Damien. It reached out towards him with surprising dexterity. Sylph blurred into vision at the monster’s legs, slashing into it with a burning black blade.

The Corrupted monster wailed, lashing out and kicking Sylph in the chest. She rolled with the kick, flipping to her feet a short distance away from it as acid gushed onto the ground from the wound.

Screams rose up from the small buildings around them, but Damien tuned them out. If they knew what was good for them, they’d stay far away from the Corruption. The towering monster’s wound quickly sealed shut and it lunged for him.

Damien Warp Stepped to the side and it crashed through a house, demolishing it like a tower of cards. It spun, eyeless sockets tracking Damien’s motion with eerie precision. He formed a gravity sphere and hurled it into the creature’s face.

The orb of darkness enveloped the tall monster’s head and a loud crack rang out. A few droplets of acid rained down as the spell faded, leaving it largely unharmed. It wailed again, rearing back and spitting a thick blob of acid towards him.

Damien used Warp Step once more, appearing on a building a short distance to the side. He pressed his hand against the roof and expanded a grain of dirt into a thick pillar. The monster batted it aside with the snarl and Damien let the spell drop before he inadvertently destroyed even more of the poor town.

He blinked out of the way moments before an acid blast burned through the roof where he’d been standing. Damien landed on the street and thrust his hands into the ground, using Enlarge but binding it in place with his mental energy.

The monster lumbered towards him with a wail. Sylph slashed at its ankles as it ran past her. Her sharp blade carved through the stone and sent it crashing to the ground before Damien. He darted to the side, casting enlarge on the stone of the building to the side of the fallen creature.

It started to rise, its wounds sealing over. Damien released all of the spells at once. Six pillars shot forth on either side of the monster, slamming into it and pinning it in place. It let out a wail and reached back to grab one of the pillars.

As its grip tightened around the magically grown rock, Damien reached out with his mental energy. He enveloped the strands of Ether connecting to the monster and tugged on them with all his might.

A powerful force resisted him. Unlike controlling his own Ether, handling the energy flowing into the monster was like trying to pull a boat out of an ocean. He gritted his teeth, throwing more force behind his attack.

The monster snapped the pillar. The spell gave way, freeing it enough for it to rotate and smash another with the same hand. With another ear piercing wail, the lanky creature threw itself forward and scrambled towards Damien. He was barely able to blink out of the way in time to avoid its enormous hands.

“Nothing?” Sylph asked, appearing beside Damien and nearly making him jump.

“I can’t get a good grasp on the Ether that’s flowing into it,” Damien said, casting Devour and absorbing a blast of acid before it could hit them. “I think it’s resisting me. Might be stronger than Harriot since she was bound or it could just be that I’m weaker than Henry.”

“So we need to beat the shit out of it until it’s not able to hold onto its Ether as much?” Sylph asked, cracking her knuckles. “That can be arranged.”