Looking down at the realm stone in my hand, I had trouble believing the memory that Bas had shown me. When the undead basilisk had finally finished killing his target, the creature had dropped a realm stone while it was disintegrating. If a regular mana stone was like an AAA battery used for disposable magic items, then a realm stone was like an industrial UPS with a built in charger, that was the very foundation of permanent, magical enchantments. There were only a handful of sources of the stone, but being dropped from a dying monster like it was trash was not one.

It made me once again doubt the very memories and knowledge that had sustained my confidence up until now. Ever since I had entered the red barrier, it was like the rule book for magic was being broken left and right. That wasn't all as emotions that didn't seem to be my own had also been clouding my judgment, making it difficult to trust my own motivations for this venture.

I stood, hesitating, at the entrance to the short tunnel that led to my final goal. In the distance, I could make out a red, crystalline pillar of some sort, but my focus was not on it. The reverberating echoes of the Soul Focus held my attention. It... no, her mechanical voice stuttered and seemed as fragile as before, but she still relentlessly repeated her words, almost like she could not allow herself to forget them. I had my doubts about her sanity after everything I had seen so far, but my roiling emotions were not allowing me to disregard her voice. In the end, it seemed that forward was the only direction left for me to go.

Behind me, my summons were busy cowering, like they had been doing the entire time since the massive doors had opened. I didn't blame them, considering the 'pressure' I felt coming from the chaotic maelstrom of mana up ahead. Any 'unawakened' creature would have died a dozen times over by now, their bodies withering away from mana poisoning.

However, my empathy for their terror did not mean I intended to appease them. Yanking on their metal leashes, I pulled them behind me as I strode into the tunnel, while beginning to cast [Float] and review my battle spells. After everything that had happened so far, I wasn't stupid enough to think that I was walking into Disney World.

My vision slowly broadened as I finally floated out of the tunnel, and my anxiety turned to disbelief, then to horror as a scene out of my nightmares revealed itself. Neduzar's memories had warned me of the splendor and solid manifestation of power that I would find. However, that splendor had now turned into a twisted amalgam of something monstrous, that was emitting terror and intimidation on a scale Neduzar had only faced a handful of times before.

The floor of the massive dome like space was covered in red and blue crystalline veins, writhing and twisting together as they resisted the black web coating them. In the center of the chaotic floor, a red pillar, about a story tall, jutted out of a squirming crimson mound. In the semitransparent pillar, I could make out a bizarre, humanoid figure, and my tension ratcheted up a notch as I felt a threatening presence encased in the crystalline coffin.

Forcing myself to look away, my vision was drawn to what was above the pillar, and I finally found my goal. The Soul Focus floated midair in the center of a dark web that extended in all directions from her. The once resplendent, spherical construct looked like she had been hammered, leaving her structure twisted and shattered in places. Of the hundreds of realm stones that had once formed her outer spell array, less than half seemed to have their dark glow. The remaining flashed a dull, red glow, clearly indicating their corruption. Worse yet, the massive realm stone forming the core of the Soul Focus alternated between black and red, making my nonexistent heart sink.

The red corruption had reached the very core of the Soul Focus, and that meant that her undead soul was more than likely corrupted. “Traiiiitooor... Deeeefennnd... Guaaaaard... Endddd... Looooyaaaltyyyy...” The stuttering, brittle voice hammered my soul, and I felt the leash on my emotions slipping and an elusive anger rising. Memories flashed through my mind of her creation, of her centuries of service, and of her loyalty. This fortress had been built around her, she had guided its construction, and she had been its ultimate guardian, trusted beyond all. There had been few things I... no... that Neduzar had cherished, and she had been supreme among them. For her to have fallen to this state was almost impossible to accept.

Clenching my first tightly, I reigned in the turmoil within me and forced myself to finally look at the ceiling at the source of her corruption. The massive whirlpool of red and blue that greeted me was the very definition of a gateway to hell. Massive mana surges pummeled dozens of jagged, red pillars that branched out from the turbulent Mana Pool. Each of the twisted pillars writhed midair as they grasped large, realm stones interspersed equidistantly around the walls of the dome. The red color of the realm stones told me that they too had been corrupted, explaining why the Mana Pool was no longer the placid, blue vortex that had once powered most of the magic constructs in the fortress.

I finally realized why the Soul Focus had been corrupted, why the fortress had fallen apart, and why the red corruption was so persistent. Logic told me there was no other choice now. The entire spell array maintaining the Mana Pool needed to be shut down, no matter how much it cost me here. Leaving it alone was like leaving a malfunctioning nuclear power plant in my cellar. However, logic was not all that I was facing.

Looking back down at the Soul Focus, I steeled myself against the rage and regret suddenly railing against me for my decision, but I did not waiver. I was not Neduzar. His memories were not my life. His past would not stop me. “No matter the cost...”

Before I could move forward, a screeching sound echoed in the surroundings, and I saw large clumps of red mana falling from the corrupted Mana Pool above me. As the crimson meteors crashed onto the floor, they unfurled themselves, slowly morphing into aberrant golems. However, my focus was on the shock wave of rage suddenly emanating from the crumbling, red pillar. Ordering my summons forward, I rose into the air as I began buffing myself, knowing I was about to face my first true challenge since coming to his world.

“So be it...”