“Stop attacking.” Astrid expanded her Mind Barrier to cover the entire wall. The attacks from the survivors, and the brutal mauling from the corrupted battered against it. Even for her, it was quite difficult to maintain–so she had to resolve the current predicant swiftly.
“What do you an stop attacking?” The man at the helm of the wall stood forward as he gazed down at the army of altered humans. “Who are you?” His later words were filled with caution.
Astrid shook her head, and with a thought, the mask on her face disappeared. A trick she had discovered a few days ago.
“I am Astrid Sinwen.” Astrid said with power. Her words caused a stir within the survivors as they all looked up at her with gazes filled with hope.
“Astrid?”
“The mischievous Astrid?”
“The saviour of the lower district!”
“I heard she quit being a Wayfarer!”
Murmured words evolved into distinct chatter as a renewed strength seed to fill their weary bodies.
“Astrid, you brought survivors!” Leena said with happiness as she gazed over the walls.
“What, survivors?” The warriors scrambled to the wall as they gazed down.
“Astrid!” A bunch of familiar voices erged from behind the warriors. Blood covered their fras, as did nurous wounds that were still healing over. Their faces were pale, and deep bags were scored under their eyes–but she could recognise them from anywhere.
Froderick, Mina, Gloria, Nick, and Josh. They were all there. Astrid wanted to go over and see them, talk with them about their experiences while she was gone–but responsibility for nurous lives rested on her shoulders.
She was delighted they were safe, for the most part. Of course, worry was struck across their faces, and she could only imagine the turbulent thoughts swarming within their heads. It all most likely led to their families.
The man in the lead frowned. He could see the corruption on their body–it was no less than any of the ones trying to gnaw their flesh right this instant. Before he acted rash, he inspected them closer, and could see the change within their eyes. They were no different to any of the soldiers around him
It seed a lot of the warriors knew who so of them were as tears stread down their faces as they called for their loved ones. Of course, the corrupted still attempted to rip them apart, but Astrid’s Mind Barrier was like a tunnel as they walked through it toward the earth mage wall.
Then the wall rumbled. Pieces of high density rock crumbled as an entrance opened up. Astrid connected her Mind Barrier to the wall as all the survivors ran forward. So warriors jumped down and wrapped their arms around them, despite the physical changes they had gone through. Of course, there were others that were more cautious. But once the survivors opened their mouths to speak, it was like a flood gate had opened up.
“You can cure the deep ones now?” Daniel asked in surprise. The deep ones were those that had fallen too far into corruption.
Astrid nodded, but instead of explaining, she decided to show. Hoisting one of the deeper corrupted into the air, she imdiately set off to expel the disease riddled within her body.
Everyone’s eyes widened as her eyes were gradually returning to normal, however, Astrid twitched her brows. Sothing was going wrong. The mass within her patient's head was changing, but unlike before when it was trying to run, this one was…becoming empowered.
A wave of mana washed over the corrupted. Astrid had a horrible feeling. The mana passed by the first few corrupted, and in an incredible explosion, the corrupted at the back ruptured. As if they had highly weaponized bombs stuck in their skulls.
Astrid gulped down a deep breath as her psychic mana smashed against the opponents. It was similar to the ti when she faced the monster that had forced her and her team within the jungle dungeon. The body parts had exploded into a ss of mangled flesh, intestines, and bone. Her mind hazed over in wrath as she directly connected to the mana that threatened to detonate the other corrupted in haste.
With Mind Domain activated, the thread of her consciousness shot out like a sharpened weapon. It pierced the veil of mana. The connection was made, but it wasn’t easy. Astrid could feel the might of whatever was contesting against her mind weigh down on her, but with a scoff, her right eye activated. This was her domain. It was her right. Behind the blanket of mana, a pair of eyes made their appearance. They were ghastly, bloodshot…and shocked. With a sinister grin, Astrid connected to them as Mind Domain took them both into a word of her making.
It’s been a while. Astrid thought as the figure in front of her quickly hid his face in panic. Just from his clothes, she could instantly tell he was a high noble.
Was he the one behind everything? Was he the one who corrupted thousands of innocents, all for what? To cause chaos? A broiled fury coursed within her blood as she gazed at his clothes. He was wearing a white shirt with a frilled collar. Tight black pants, and polished shoes. However, his figure was familiar. A brown stained handkerchief hung out of his pocket. She could tell the sight anywhere. It was dried blood.
“Earl Kamron?” Astrid asked. Her voice was choked. She found it difficult to believe that a high noble that held so much respect, could fall so far from grace. So far in fact, he found himself in the pit of degeneracy–and terrorism.
A sigh left his mouth as he moved his hand from his half smiling face. “Astrid, you have grown into a mighty woman. To think you could impede my control as a first year awakened.”
“Why?” Astrid asked. Clenching her fists, she had to hold herself back from erasing the man in front of her. However, it was evident he wasn’t weak. Just his title told her this would be a hell of a fight; so she wanted answers first. “Did you corrupt them? Was it your doing sending the rest of the noble families down into Apocrypha?”
Astrid was aware she was being naive, but she couldn’t grasp her head around the situation surrounding her.
“It’s quite an interesting domain you have,” Earl Kamron said, as if he wasn’t worried in the slightest now that he already had his identity brought forward. Astrid had a sinking feeling. It was as if he was certain he could silence her. “I can feel it tugging on my mind. It ans you’ve done well to climb to where you are right now. But how have you done it so fast?”
“Even for a Sinwen, it is quite the remarkable feat.”
“Why?” Astrid said, and the psychic mana radiating from her caused her hair to raise into the air.
Earl Kamron’s eyes flashed a nasty light. Astrid prepared herself, but they reverted in the next mont as he said, “Why? Oh.” A tear of blood fell from the corner of his eye. He brought out the handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed it away. However, the blood just sared into his skin–creating even more of a ss. He didn’t seem satisfied, and made sure to lick the cloth before completely ridding his face from the red sar.
“Sorry about my appearance. Unlike you, I seem to be having so troubles assimilating with the symbiotes. The order said it shouldn’t be a problem, but honestly, how can I trust them? Now that would be foolish?”
Astrid could understand the symbiotes part of his sentence. She called them black blobs, but they were all the sa. Just like the people she had t in the jungle dungeon, they also had problems with them. As if their powers didn’t belong. However, it was the so-called ‘order’ that caused her to click her tongue.
If she was right, then those people also were within the order. And judging by Earl Kamron’s words–he wasn’t directly a part of them.
“So you work for them? What is their purpose?” Astrid asked, her mind was working overti thinking of all the possibilities. Not just about their order, but about the safety of those outside her Domain.
In a second, she split her attention to her clone outside and turned to Daniel. Her eyes were filled with warning, but before she could say anything, her connection with the clone was severed, and she returned back within her domain.
“It’s rude to leave your guest with nothing but your consciousness.” He warned, before he began walking in the blank world. He paced around Astrid, making sure there was around twenty tres of distance. It seed no matter his confidence, he was also cautious.
“Do you know of the rumours about ?” he asked.
Astrid was confused. Why was he telling her about this? But she played along. She needed to understand why he would do such a thing, or what the purpose of the order was. She had a guess, wanton terrorism for one, but sothing told her it was more than that. Besides, maybe if she caught him with his guard down, she could get word out to Daniel for a retreat.
After the fight with Avemoth, she realised there was always a possibility for her to lose. If she was defeated here, he would murder all the corrupted in the area, then most likely move onto the survivors. Astrid wouldn’t have that.
“I know that you fell to the wayside twenty years ago,” Astrid said with a hint of mockery.
“But for a good reason!” Earl Kamron said with excitent, instead of anger. “I discovered that there was more to life. Twenty years ago exactly on this date, to be exact.”
Twenty years ago…Astrid thought, then her eyes widened. “The corruption–”
“They are not corrupted!” His excitent transford into anger as he jolted a step forward. From the sudden movent, the collar of his shirt opened ever so slightly, showcasing an imnse amount of corruption underneath. “They are improved lifeforms. Better in every single way! They are the future! Twenty years ago, I was t with another path. Unlike my ice bloodline, I decided on another direction–just like you Astrid.”
“After my son died to the spawn, I decided to take a risk, and I walked on a path none had gone before. I took the evolution–Disaster Affliction. At first I could only alter flesh, but after close scrutinisation of the spawn, I realised there was another way. I could bypass human weakness, and improve them. Mages can have the bodies of a warrior, warriors can use natural poisons of their bodies, or I can even make their beings into weapons.”
Astrid recalled the explosion tyrant. So it was all his doing.
“So you–decided to do all of this–for what?” Astrid grit her teeth.
“Where else could I obtain all the warriors I desire for my grand revenge against the Leviathan who took my son away from .” Earl Kamron’s eyes shone a disgusting light. He was ready to attack.
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