[ System alert: Corrupted Entity Re-Manifested. It is surrounded by a strange mana. Behavioral pattern unknown. Prepare for engagement. ]
His breath caught.
He wasn't ready.
The air had changed.
Elias stood in the throne room's silence. The echoes of blood filled the atmosphere. The collapsed statue loomed beside him like a fallen god. His breath fogged in the cold. But deeper still, something pulsed.
Elias took a step forward. The sword vibrated faintly in his grip like a thing repulsed.
"Who… who are you?" he asked.
No answer.
The monster stood still for a moment. Then its claws curled inward. It was preparing.
"Do you know me? Please… let me know… what are you?"
Still nothing. No language. No sign of thought. Only breathing. Wet, irregular, animalistic breathing.
[ Warning: Hostile aura detected. ]
The System's cold voice shattered any remaining hope.
The walls began to hum.
The air collapsed inward.
Then the monster leapt.
It was on him in seconds. Elias barely raised the sword in time. The monster's corrupted claws scraped across the glowing blade with a screech that sent sparks flying. The force of impact knocked him back. He rolled across the stone. His ribs cried out from the pressure.
He staggered to his feet.
The monster moved erratically, like a marionette with cut strings. The mana in the room warped around it, flickering like broken glass. Each step it took shifted the walls, collapsing the room in on itself.
[ Spatial distortion intensifying. Enemy techniques do not conform to standard codified sigil flow. Proceed with adaptive engagement. ]
"Not helpful!" Elias barked, swinging the blade forward.
The sword was heavy, too heavy. Not in weight – but in pressure. Each time he swung, something inside him recoiled. The mana in the blade wasn't his. It was older. Angrier. The sword moved in sharp, erratic arcs, cleaving stone but refusing to flow.
The monster countered fast. It slid under his swing and twisted through the air, its claws whistling through the air. Elias ducked and slammed the flat of the blade upward. A crack rang out as bone collided with steel. The creature hissed and tumbled backward.
But the floor wasn't the same anymore.
Runes had begun glowing across the walls, forming into jagged spirals. The room was becoming a sealed field. A cage.
"System! What the hell is this!?"
[ The enemy is manipulating the domain. The surrounding space is turning aggressive. You have been designated as the target. ]
"Then is there no way to stop it!? Can't you do something?"
[ Impossible. Interference is beyond my limits. ]
The monster charged again.
This time, Elias met it. His blade clashed with its claws, the sparks of corrupted mana bursting like dying stars. For a brief moment, he was locked against it. The sharpness of its breath filled his ears while the stench of rot and blood felt heavy on his nose. Then it dropped low and kicked off the floor.
Elias flew back again, smashing into a fractured pillar. The wind left his lungs. The sword skittered from his grip.
[ Retrieving weapon is recommended. Your body may desynchronize if it's separated for a prolonged duration. ]
Elias gasped and scrambled forward. The blade hummed as his fingers touched it again. The connection snapped back into place like a jolt to his soul.
Then came the shriek.
It was like listening to grief given voice.
The monster flared with corrupted energy. Threads of twisted gold and black began spiraling around its limbs. The floor cracked. The ceiling moaned.
And the fight resumed.
Everything blurred.
They moved between the pillars, through dust and broken stone. Elias was constantly on the defensive. He parried wide swipes, ducked under unholy lashes of tendrils, and dodged rolling shockwaves sent from distorted sigils bursts the creature threw towards him.
[ Recommended maneuver: Redirect force via downward cleave. The timing is critical. ]
Elias obeyed. He ducked low and slashed diagonally, catching a tendril mid-surge. The backlash shattered the ice behind them.
But the monster didn't stop.
It moved like a memory on fire. Unstoppable, burning. Its face twisted between pain and hunger. It fought as if trying to reach him through violence.
The monster wrenched free, its body burning with gold-back veins. The throne room's runes flares. It felt as if the space itself had begun to attack, the floor surging upward in jagged spikes. Elias barely dodged, but one grazed his thigh.
[ Recommended maneuver: Sigil Sync. Channel Vitality into the blade for 3-second mana burst. ]
The System forced his Sigil of Vitality to flare. Golden veins shot down his arm into the sword, and for a heartbeat, the sword glowed white-hot. Elias swung at the distorted runes on the floor.
The blade struck stone.
A pulse of corrupted-gold energy erupted, shattering the runes. The backlash sent the monster skidding backwards, its limbs spasming as the disrupted mana burned its corrupted flesh.
However, this move took a serious toll on Elias and his nose started to bleed.
Even then, the monster didn't stop. It got back up. It learned. It stopped charging headfirst. Instead, it began phasing through the shadows, appearing and vanishing like a ghost. Each strike came from a new angle.
Suddenly, a claw from behind. Elias parried it in just the nick of time. But the shockwave bruised his ribs.
Then –
A tendril from below. He leapt as fast as he could, but it wrapped his ankle, nearly yanking him down.
The System's warnings became frantic:
[ Pattern unrecognizable. Adjust— ]
Too late.
The monster feinted left and then slammed its full weight into Elias' chest. He flew back, crashing into the throne. The sword clattered from his grip.
Elias gasped, scrambling. But the monster was faster. It pounced, throwing him against the bloodstained throne.
He was now backed into a corner.
Sweat poured down his face. His muscles burned. His heart pounded like war drums. The sword weighed heavier with every swing.
The throne loomed behind him. Dead end.
"Please!" Elias shouted. "You don't have to do this!"
Then, the monster paused.
Just for a heartbeat.
Its claws trembled. Its back arched.
Elias gasped, taking a step forward. "You're not just a thing! I'll help you!"
He took another step.
But the creature leaned forward.
Then, it screamed. And lunged.
Elias reacted.
He thrust his sword forward. Eyes closed.
He expected it to doge. To claw him from the sides.
But it didn't.
The blade passed through.
Straight through.
The resistance was soft. Horribly soft. Like stabbing a rotting flower.
A sound escaped it. Not pain. Not fury.
A sigh.
Its body slumped forward onto the blade. Its hands twitched once, then fell. Its face collided gently with his shoulder. A breath – a final breath – grazed his ear.
"…Solane..."
Then, the monster's body shuddered once. And began to dissolve.
Flesh clumped into a melted black sludge. Bones cracked inward, curling like leaves under flame. A grotesque mass slumped to the floor, twitching.
Then silence.
And nothing.
Gone.
Not a corpse. No remains. Just a memory, and the blood on his hands, that wasn't his.
"Solane?" he whispered? It clung to his tongue like ash.
[ The surroundings have stabilized. Combat complete. Please rest to restore energy. ]
But Elias fell to his knees.
A pressure shifted.
Behind the throne, the wall groaned. Gears turned. The structure retracted inward, grinding open to reveal a path: narrow, dark, lined with flickering blue torches.
Elias turned towards it slowly.
The word still echoed.
The path waited.
He stood up, and with an empty heart, walked forward. One step. Then two.
The light vanished behind him.