Victor felt his thoughts fragnting, his consciousness slipping as mories that were not his own clawed at his sanity.
Screams.
Fire.
The desperate cries of unborn lives extinguished before they ever saw the sky.
Victor cried out, clutching his head as his Nascent Soul flickered violently. It's glow dimd under the overwhelming pressure. His vision blurred as his ntal battlefield shook.
'I'm losing…'
He knew it instinctively.
The bond was failing.
The corrupt entity's hatred was deeper than he had imagined... deeper than reason, deeper than logic, deeper even than vengeance. It wasn't simply rage; it was an identity forged from suffering. To strip it away ant stripping away the very thing that defined its existence.
The entity's voice thundered through Victor's mind.
"You cannot contain ," it roared. "Your compassion is weakness. Your rcy is an insult to the dead!"
Victor scread as another ntal blow crashed into him, fracturing his soul bond further. Cracks spread across the spiritual frawork he had built, glowing ominously.
If it shattered—
Everyone here would die.
The battlefield beyond blurred at the edges of his perception. He felt the terror of the Kahr'uun warriors, their fear bleeding through the bond. He felt Rhozan's despair, the desperate hope clinging to his heart like a dying ember.
Victor's teeth clenched.
Think.
Through the agony, through the screaming hatred, Victor forced his mind to function.
Reason hadn't worked.
Power alone wasn't enough.
Then... like a spark igniting in darkness, an idea took shape.
It was ugly.
It was cruel.
But it was true.
Victor's eyes snapped open.
He dragged his battered body upright just enough to turn his head, locking his gaze onto Rhozan, who stood several paces away, barely holding himself upright with the aid of his staff.
"Rhozan!" Victor barked hoarsely.
The Kahr'uun leader flinched, startled by the sudden intensity.
Victor's voice trembled from urgency.
"Is anyone still alive from that ti?" he demanded. "The leaders. The ones who ordered it. The ones who participated."
Rhozan hesitated.
His eyes darted around as uncertainty and dread warred across his face.
"Iruhun, why—"
"Answer !" Victor roared.
The sound echoed across the battlefield, silencing even the distant clash of magic.
Rhozan swallowed hard.
"…Yes," he admitted quietly. "There are a few. Elders from that era. They still live… protected, deep within the underground ice city."
Victor closed his eyes.
That was all he needed.
He plunged his consciousness back into the collapsing soul bond.
The corrupt entity surged forward instantly, sensing weakness.
"Your struggle ends now!" it howled with its hatred spiking as it prepared to tear Victor's soul bond apart completely.
"No," Victor growled, forcing himself upright within the soulscape despite the pain. "It doesn't."
The entity faltered as Victor's intent shifted.
Sothing changed.
Victor spoke clearly, forging each word from resolve rather than desperation.
"What if I give you what you want," he said slowly, "without condemning those who had no part in your creation?"
The entity stilled.
Silence spread through the soulscape like a held breath.
Victor pressed on.
"There are still Kahr'uun alive from that ti. So of the ones who ordered the sacrifice. The ones who turned you into this." His voice hardened. "If you allow to complete this bond… I will not stop you from taking them."
The hatred wavered.
Just slightly.
Victor felt the crushing pressure ease by a fraction.
The entity's voice returned with a lower and conflicted tone.
"And the others?" it asked. "What of the children? The descendants? Their blood flows from the sa source."
Victor t the entity head-on.
"They didn't choose this," he said. "They weren't alive. They didn't raise the knife."
The corrupt entity snarled.
"My pain does not disappear just because they are innocent."
"I know," Victor said softly.
That admission carried weight.
For the first ti, Victor did not argue against the entity's hatred.
Instead, he acknowledged it.
"I won't erase your hatred," he continued. "I won't pretend it's unjustified. But I won't let it consu everything either."
The entity recoiled as confusion rippled through its essence.
"Then what becos of it?" it demanded. "What becos of ?"
Victor took a trembling breath.
"I'll bear it with you," he said. "I'll carry it. We'll cleanse it—together. Not by denial. Not by forgetting. But by letting it end where it should have ended long ago."
The soul bond flared.
Victor felt resistance weakening.
The entity hesitated. It's form flickered as uncertainty crept into its being.
"And if it isn't enough?" it whispered. "What if I am still empty?"
"Then at least you won't be alone anymore," Victor replied.
That response shattered sothing.
The entity's soul defenses collapsed.
Victor was pulled forward violently, plunging deeper until the raging soulscape dissolved entirely.
He found himself standing in a vast and empty space.
The space was initially dark but the mont he stepped it, the surroundings turned blindingly white.
Against the far wall, curled in on herself, sat a humanoid looking girl.
She looked no older than sixteen. She was petite and fragile with a thick pointy horn protruding from the middle of her forehead which curved towards the back.
Her skin was covered in dark, rough markings that crawled across her body like living tattoos. There was technically no single spot on her body that wasn't dark.
Her long hair spilled ssily around her shoulders, and her eyes, reaching the floor below.
Her eyes were filled with confusion, fear, and exhaustion beyond asure.
She was unclad, yet there was nothing seductive about her form... only vulnerability.
This was the corrupt entity's core.
The truth beneath the monster.
Victor froze.
Slowly, he lowered himself to one knee, careful not to startle her.
She flinched anyway, shrinking further into the wall as he approached.
"Please…" she whispered. "Don't hurt ."
Victor's chest ached.
"I won't," he said gently. "I promise."
She stared at him with a look of mistrust and pain.
"You say that," she murmured, "but everyone does."
Victor stopped a few steps away.
"I know," he said quietly. "And I'm sorry."
Her breath hitched.
Victor extended a hand.
"I'm Victor," he said. "I can't undo what was done to you. But I can make sure it doesn't define everything you'll ever be."
For a long mont, she didn't move.
Then, she hesitantly reached out.
The mont their fingers touched, tne world exploded in light.
Dark markings surged from her body, flowing into Victor like liquid shadow, burning as they carved themselves into his soul. At the sa ti, brilliant white radiance poured from Victor into her, washing over her trembling form.
Pain.
Relief.
Sorrow.
Hope.
All at once.
The soul bond snapped into place.
Perfect.
Complete.
Outside—
The battlefield shook.
The corrupt entity's massive form convulsed violently as the darkness surrounding it peeled away like burning ash. Black mist scread as it dissipated into nothingness.
Kahr'uun warriors stared in stunned silence.
Where once stood a towering monster, now knelt a girl.
Bare knees pressed into the bloodstained snow, long dark hair cascading down her back, black markings etched across her pale skin.
Her head bowed.
The hatred was no longer overwhelming.
It was contained.
Bound.
Shared.
Victor collapsed fully to the ground, letting out shallow breaths. His body was utterly spent.
The world returned in fragnts.
Cold bit into Victor's skin first rcilessly. He hadn't felt this much cold since before Gojo.
Then ca sound: the distant howling wind, the crackle of unstable mana still dissipating in the air, the muffled gasps of warriors who hadn't yet dared to breathe too loudly.
A translucent blue panel blood before Victor's eyes.
Bonded Entity: Corruption (True Na Sealed)
Relationship: Master–Bound Companion
[Warning]
< You have acquired: Corruption ter >
Victor's pupils constricted.
Another panel slid in beneath it, darker in hue.
(( Effects unknown. Progression ongoing. ))
Victor's clenched his jaw...
So there was a price.
He looked down at his hands.
At first glance, nothing seed wrong but then he saw it. Thin, faint black markings traced along his forearms, like veins of ink beneath his skin. They were subtle, almost invisible unless one looked closely, but Victor felt them.
As though sothing heavy now rested inside his soul, coiled and waiting.
He rembered the girl in the white room.
Her body was once completely shrouded in darkness and now...
Victor lifted his gaze.
She stood several steps away, no longer a towering monstrosity nor a storm of black hatred, but a young girl with pale skin and long dark hair that fluttered gently in the wind.
Black markings still adorned her body, crawling across her arms, neck, thighs but there were gaps now.
So patches of clear, untainted skin.
Proof of what had been shared.
'So I took part of it…' Victor realized. 'And gave part of myself in return.'
The bond throbbed softly between them.
It was stable.
'Not the ti,' he told himself. 'I'll figure out what this did to later.'
Because right now... he had a promise to keep.
The corrupt entity girl got to her feet and took a step forward.
Instantly, panic rippled through the battlefield.
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