Chapter 17

From forest through rocky taiga, the river swiftly ran, its surface white from the rapids. It twisted and turned, from one climate and landscape to the next, until finally it slowed and evened out, a rocky shore forming on one of its bends.

From the clear, cold water a figure dragged itself across the rocky beach, finally free of the river’s clutches. The waterway was barely visible in the night, the sun having gone down hours ago. Only a dim light from the distant moon lit the darkness, reflecting weakly on the water.

The handsome man looked like a drowned rat, bedraggled and drench. His face was pale from the cold water, and his lips were blue.

Shivering, Wil collapsed exhausted onto the ground, thankful to be alive. It had been a close-run thing, his escape from the fire and his subsequent near drowning. He hadn’t ever learned to swim, not that it would help much in the currents. His flailing and dwindling mana supply kept him above the surface, but he was battered and bruised from the journey.

Slowly, he turned onto his back, freeing his face from where he had planted it on the smooth stones of the riverbank. Staring up into the night sky, Wil took in the heavens above.

The night was free of stars, only a strange, silver object lit the void above. Like the candle flame of the sun, this object was familiar to Wil as well. A gigantic, silver coin hung in the sky, slowly turning on its edge, gently spinning. One side had a familiar sight, the symbol of a seven-pointed sun, while the other was three wavy, horizontal lines.

“Primaris and Aruna, hope you’re enjoying the show.” Wil muttered, before closing his eyes and passing out, not even bothering to dry his clothing.

The night passed uneventfully, the ‘moon’ slowing making its way across the sky, spinning slowly as it did so. Hours later, the candle flame sun peeked over the horizon, brightening on Wil’s face.

Groaning, he woke up slowly, his body full of aches and pains. His leather armor felt tight and constricting, the wet leather having dried overnight. Sighing, Wil cast his drying charm to finish the job, before slowly standing, rooting in his bag for some rations.

Gathering a few pieces of driftwood from around the area, a short while later he was sat in front of a merrily burning fire, a boiling pot of tea placed on a conjured, iron tripod.

While he sat and drank his tea, he thought about how to defeat the monster he had just barely survived an encounter with.

This corrupted Dragon Turtle was massive, but clumsy. It could move quickly in a straight line, since its sheer size made it easy to cover ground, despite its stumpy legs. But it couldn’t turn very easily, that was a disadvantage he could exploit.

It also was unable to use magic or enhance its strength any further than it already had, so he didn’t need to worry about any hidden skills or being caught off guard, another advantage he held.

It was also mad, unable to think clearly or plan ahead in its insanity. Whatever he did, it would never see coming.

But that all paled in comparison to the fact that the beast was over a hundred feet tall, skin thick and impenetrable to his magic, and could literally destroy the very land beneath his feet in its rage. He had set an entire forest on fire, and it had done nothing besides concealing his escape.

If this was only one of the three concentrations of corruption, he couldn’t imagine what the other two were going to be. If his theory of the infection was correct, this was undoubtedly, the ‘Body’ corruption, leaving the others as ‘Mind’ and ‘Spirit’.

“So…I can’t fight it, not head on. I can lure it out of the ocean easily, but where can I bring it? I need an edge, something capable of killing it.” Wil mused, sipping his tea. Wincing, he added more cream to the bitter drink from his bag of holding, the glass bottle dripping condensation. The magic of the bag kept it cool and prevented it from spoiling.

He stared at the bottle briefly, thinking. Like the glass container, the black blood was being contained in this realm somehow. The azure ocean he had seen when he had arrived had a clear divide, a cliff leading to the endless void below. But this sea of blood didn’t unless he hadn’t seen it yet. The monster had arrived before he could get a good look around.

“Maybe I can find the barrier, break it and drain the blood away, and hopefully trick that bastard into following it.” Wil mused, thinking. Finishing his tea, he put his cup and supplies back into his bag, before dousing the flames with the remaining boiling water.

Standing and stretching, trying to work his leather armor into its former comfort, he started walking back upstream, following the river to where he had leapt into it.

Wil had lost track of time while he was in the water, and it took him hours to reach the burned forest. Black and charred, little remained of the once healthy trees. What the fire hadn’t burned, the Dragon Turtle had stomped and torn. Large chunks of earth were missing, deep gouges in the blackened ground.

Walking through the destruction, Wil couldn’t spot a single unbroken tree or plant. Massive areas were crushed flat, the splintered trees mashed into the ground.

He could easily follow the trail of the creature, the destruction was marked by great footprints pressed into the soft ground, some as deep as he was tall.

Passing through the forest, he arrived at the beach, wary of disturbing the infected Dragon Turtle again. No sign of the creature remained, save for the large footprints leading across the white sand, heading back into the blood sea.

The beach was less wide than it had been, the black ocean had covered more ground in the time he was away. The rock with the altar that he had been standing on was now far out into the sea, although little remained of it after the monster’s attack.

Not even bothering to walk on the sand, Wil turned to his right and began to hike down the shore, careful to keep to the edge of the beach, picking his way through the charred woods.

The beach stretched into the distance, turning, and bending out of sight. Wil walked from hours as the burned woods changed back to green grassland, then yellow fields of straw grass. From one landscape to another he traveled, always keeping his eye on the black ocean to his left, but careful not the walk on the beach in fear of summoning the insane Dragon Turtle.

It was when he was struggling to climb a hill, waist deep in snow that he spotted it. A shimmering, hazy barrier at the end of the white beach. Cresting the hill, he stopped and stared at it.

The beach ended abruptly, similar to what he had seen at his arrival, one part was white sand beach, the other the endless black void below. Separating the two was a magical field of negative energy, starting from the edge of the beach, into the distant black sea, like a container holding in the infection and preventing it from spilling over into the abyss.

The barrier stopped only a few feet from the blood, the negative energy of the ocean that fueled it stopping the shield for extending onto the unaffected solid ground. Beyond it, the ground simply ended, a sharp cliff into nothingness.

Excided, he pushed through forward, struggling to move through the thick snow to the beach. The snow thinned as he finally pushed through, from one step to the next he went from white snow to white beach, not even questioning the peculiarity and temperature difference between the two.

Dashing down the beach, each step kicking up sand, he ran to end of the shore, stopping at the edge of the black ocean, careful to not let anything disturb the water.

Wil placed his hand on the barrier carefully, gently probing it with his magic. He was correct, the barrier was fueled by the corruption. He could feel a link between it and something deep within the sea, the corrupt Dragon Turtle. The ‘body’ of the three corrupt sources of infection.

Drawing his sword, Wil channeled his mana into the blade, waiting until it was glowing a deep blue. Preparing to take off running at the first sign of the monstrosity’s arrival, he drew back and slammed the blade against the barrier.

The sword struck with a loud ‘gong’ and a ripple of mana spread from the point of impact. His sword was jarred from his hand from the reverberation, as if he had hit a solid metal wall, and landed in the sand with a dull thud.

Wincing in pain, Wil quickly shook his hand, attempting to shake off the stinging discomfort. There was no way in hell he was going to be able to break the barrier on his own. He reached down for his sword, the agony in his hand fading to a dull ache. Inspecting it for damage and finding none, he placed it back in his sheath at his waist, staring at the hazy shield in front of him.

It would take something incredibly powerful to shatter the barrier, magic or strength well beyond his abilities. But something large could easily pierce the barrier, for example, a clumsy, insane creature to enraged to notice where it was charging.

Grinning as a mad plan took shape in his mind, Wil walked away from the beach.