Shock rippled across the battlefield in a single silent wave. Every pair of eyes, Alen’s, Kelly’s, Londo’s, the remaining Dark Guild mbers, had locked on the sa sight. Harvey’s puppet had driven its limbs straight through the bodies of his own people.
Most already believed Harvey was unhinged. Many thought he was capable of cruelty. But very few had imagined he would slaughter the Dark Guild mbers so openly, without hesitation, without remorse, without the slightest attempt to hide what he was doing.
"Did he really just, ?" one mage whispered, unable to finish the sentence.
Alen’s jaw tightened. His rage, already simring, now threatened to erupt.
"If he’s willing to do this in front of his own forces, the ones who were already questioning him, does he honestly expect anyone to keep following him?"
Kelly’s expression was grim as she stepped forward. There was no surprise in her tone, only a cold acceptance.
"I think Harvey crossed that line a long ti ago. He’s never seen people as people. To him, the Dark Guild is just a tool... a will he’s shaping, and if breaking that tool gives him what he wants, he won’t hesitate."
Her words struck deeper than she intended.
Because part of her, a quiet part she had tried to bury, wondered if things might have been different.
What if she had confronted Harvey when he first began to unravel?
What if she had warned him?
Told him to stop?
Forced him to face reason?
She rembered the mont he reached out to her earlier in their ti with the Dark Guild. The look in his eyes had suggested loneliness... or desperation.
But now she questioned everything.
Had he always been like this, hiding his true nature until the mask finally cracked?
Or had the chaos around them, the pressure, the violence, the Dark Guild’s twisted rise, pushed him into madness piece by piece?
Her answer waited for no reflection.
The puppet’s tentacles lashed out again, stabbing through several more unsuspecting Dark Guild mbers. Their bodies collapsed instantly, cores shattered, Dark Magic extinguished in an instant.
A few survivors reacted on instinct, unleashing desperate blasts of Dark Magic toward the massive puppet. But their attacks dissolved the mont they struck its surface, erased so completely it was as if they had never cast anything at all.
Before they could retreat, a single whip of the puppet’s limb tore through the air and struck them down just as rcilessly.
"All of you were pathetic!" Harvey’s voice bood over the screams and collapsing stone. "You stood there doing nothing while they attacked . If you’re this useless alive, then I’ll make better use of you dead!"
His words were venomous, each syllable dripping with contempt.
And then sothing even more terrifying occurred.
As the bodies of Dark Guild mbers hit the ground, threads of darkness, too thin for normal eyes, but unmistakable to those who wielded magic, began drifting from the corpses, flowing directly into Harvey’s core.
His Dark Affinity surged.
Not gradually.
Not increntally.
Violently.
Kelly’s breath caught. Londo felt bile rise in his throat. Even Sophie stumbled backward.
They understood the principle: Dark Magic grew stronger through death. The more a person killed, the more their affinity expanded. But the increase Harvey was experiencing wasn’t normal. It wasn’t gradual. It wasn’t a simple strengthening of his own abilities.
This was exponential.
Because Harvey wasn’t absorbing his own victims’ contributions,
he was absorbing everything they had ever accumulated.
Every Dark Guild mber he killed passed their entire lifeti’s worth of affinity directly to him.
Kelly whispered under her breath, horrified, "Is this... is this how he beca so strong? Has he been killing our own mbers in secret?"
The mory hit her with sickening clarity.
The Dark Guild mber who had asked Harvey for permission to leave.
The man who wanted to protect soone he loved.
Harvey had agreed, but only on the condition that the person could no longer live.
She’d assud Harvey killed him to protect the Guild’s secrecy.
But now she knew the truth.
Harvey had done it to take everything the man had built, to claim his entire Dark Affinity for himself.
And he was doing the sa now.
One after another, threads of darkness poured into Harvey. His aura thickened. His presence warped the air. Even his Shadow Puppet was evolving, the limbs stretching wider, growing heavier, its shape expanding until it towered above all of them.
The puppet’s transformation did not pause. Dark spheres ford at the tips of its limbs, compressing into solid masses of magic. The air vibrated as an overwhelming number of Dark Pulses charged simultaneously.
Kelly froze.
"Move, !"
Her warning ca too late.
The puppet unleashed the barrage.
Dark Pulses rained down in a relentless storm. So slamd into Alen’s reinforced walls, shattering them instantly. Others tore through the ground, carving trenches of destruction across the Underside. Several shots pierced through the nearby Shelter’s outer walls, collapsing parts of the structure entirely.
Screams echoed from within.
People, noncombatants, civilians, families hiding inside, were struck by the pulses. They didn’t stand a chance. One hit was enough to kill them instantly.
And every death fed Harvey.
He grew stronger with every second.
Londo’s heart pounded in his ears as he shielded his face from the dust. He watched Harvey with wide, terrified eyes.
"We can’t beat him... we can’t beat that thing. We need to leave, we have to run!"
No one argued.
No one even considered standing their ground.
Because in that mont, it beca painfully clear:
Harvey was no longer a man.
He wasn’t even a mage.
He was sothing else entirely, sothing monstrous, fueled by a cycle of death he had created himself.
A monster that grew every ti he killed. And he wasn’t finished. Not even close.
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