[Corruption Wielder] Chapter 102: Tenuous Hold (Patreon)

“You know, I really need a better name to call you than ‘gestalt,’” Will mused, dashing upwards through his own darkness. “Too much of a mouthful.”

Predictably, the gestalt did not give him a verbal response, though a slight shift in its aura indicated that it had heard him.

Will’s next sentence was cut off by Grimle Brooksoul, a Gold 4 with the Overlord class, exploding with power.

An abnormally powerful aura rippled out from Grimle’s body, pushing the hunger phantasm back and preventing it from alighting on either him or Nymlera.

Will contested it with its own, and the gestalt added itself on soon after. Nymlera was late to the party, which Will realized a moment later was because she was creating her summons again.

In a matter of moments, the battlefield warped. Will’s hunger phantasm stormed around all four of them, but Grimle’s aura created a golden eye in that storm, giving Nymlera room to summon her constructs.

As was his norm against unknown threats, Will slowed down time.

He already had a general idea of what Nymlera could do. Even if she’d marginally increased in power since the last time they’d met, he was confident that he could defeat her with relative ease. Her summons had been fragile enough that he’d been able to storm his way through them before he’d upgraded three skills to gold rank and acquired a demonic eye. All of her silver-rank summons were practically highlighted in crimson, showing him the plethora of weak points he could exploit.

Grimle was a different story. The system message that had presumably shown up for all of them had informed them simply that he was gaining strength from the fallen. Will wanted to see what exactly that meant, so he used Pages of the Past, which had proven itself to be a crucial part of going into fights without flying blind.

Skill: [Strength from the Grave]

- Passive (augmentation).

- Cost: none.

- Cooldown: none.

Gold

Your people serve you in life and in death.

Your skills increase in effectivity when a party member dies or is rendered unable to battle. This effect is massively increased when this skill is used against a User or monster that was the cause of death of any party members by an amount proportional to the damage caused.

[Aura from Beyond] (bronze) - This also boosts the strength of your aura.

[Last Man Standing] (silver) - This effect gains another sharp increase if there are no other Users in your party.

[One Last Dance] (gold) - While [Last Man Standing] is active, you can select one skill from your most recently deceased ally. It is temporarily added to your skill list under the appropriate attribute.

The other currently active skill was an aura one that invoked fear in those that couldn’t resist it as well as afflicting them with levels of weakness, which Will recognized as the same affliction that Wail of the Forgotten inflicted. It was beneficial to its allies, granting them a mild regeneration effect as well as increased damage when attacking the same target Grimle was, and most importantly, it eliminated hostile effects in the area, which included the hunger phantasm.

Will let time speed up, marking Nymlera, Grimle, and all of the former’s summons for death. He was about to relay the details of Grimle’s skills to the gestalt when it simply barreled out of the phantasm and into the area Grimle’s aura affected.

The fear effect hit the gestalt immediately, and Will saw it slow down. It had never been terribly resistant to mental effects.

The sheer size and strength of the creature, however, meant that it kept going, and it was fast. Will had noted its terrifying speed in the tournament when it had been against him, and it was running at full tilt, bone shards and whips extending from its body.

Nymlera and Grimle were both forced to evade as the peak gold construct they had built smashed through the former’s constructs, crushing them with raw strength and the esoteric magic infused into its bones.

Grimle recovered from the sudden rush faster than Nymlera, and he conjured a massive battleaxe into his hands. With a burst of gold-rank speed, he slammed it into the side of the gestalt, drawing a spray of blood from its side. Necrotic rot took hold in the gestalt’s bone-like skin.

Will took advantage of the momentary distraction to approach, using the devouring gestalt’s long body as a platform to run on. He dashed up its spine, Eclipse and slayer sword at the ready. The former was now more empowered than the latter, but they were both still formidable weapons.

His hunger phantasm was still shut down in the radius of Grimle’s aura. The Overlord was clearly the greater threat at the moment—even if Nymlera could scale up to be more of a problem during the fight, taking her out first was meaningless if Grimle could use her most effective skill and gain further buffs afterwards.

The gestalt clearly did not consider any of this. As its fear grew, so too did the speed of its attacks. Grimle hastily backed away, reducing the effect his aura had inflicted upon it, which only caused further problems. The gestalt’s array of attacks using its body was even more diverse than it had been the last time Will had fought it, and he was forced to jump off as it started opening its flesh up to shoot out more boneshard spears.

As he fell, he used Wind Walker to push himself forward. Grimle took the opportunity to fire a bolt of golden magic at him, but that only triggered Escape Artist, allowing him to reposition midair to avoid both the incoming radiant-element damage and the bone spears that outpaced him.

Will was still in the air when the gestalt’s attacks landed, piercing through the remaining summons like they were wet toilet paper.

Nymlera’s aura supplemented Grimle’s as Will drew closer, which actually made it a bit of a problem. Though Will’s aura was abnormally strong for his rank, being able to crush even a gold-ranker’s, Grimle’s aura had no impurities in it and was further boosted by his own skills. Combined with Nymlera’s, it was all Will could do to push it back, never mind overpowering it.

That would be enough, though.

As Grimle and Nymlera spotted him entering, they both shouted obscenities at him, their auras pulsing with their rage.

Will ignored them and teleported right in front of Grimle with Weapons Free.

“Anger makes you sloppy,” he said, clasping his hands around the gold-ranker’s wrists.

You have inflicted a level of silver-rank [Corruption] on [Grimle Brooksoul].

A bell tolled.

Grimle grit his teeth through the pain and broke free of Will’s grip easily, his gold-rank Power outstripping Will’s easily. Nymlera screamed an incantation, and roots rose from the ground, securing Will to his spot.

Will’s teleport still had three seconds of cooldown to go, but that didn’t mean he was helpless. As Grimle drew the axe back for a mighty swing, Will screamed, using Wail of the Forgotten to blast Grimle back.

His gold-rank attack didn’t have a physical manifestation, so he couldn’t use it to cut himself free, but it bought him a precious second as Grimle struggled to resist the wither and weakness afflictions.

Nymlera cast another spell, creating spike growth under Will, but the gestalt arrived at that exact moment.

It was so much larger than the rest of them combined that its presence fundamentally warped how the battle was fought. Just its stomping was enough to destabilize the ground to the point that Will was able to cut himself free of the roots, dashing upward with Wind Walker. Grimle and Nymlera were both just barely able to dodge out of its way, with the former using a speed skill to temporarily increase his ability to flee and the latter teleporting to a nearby tree.

“Grimle is already dead,” Will taunted.

The gold-ranker in question grimaced, dropping to his knees as his movement skill ended. He was clearly struggling with the dual layers of corruption on him, even if he was a rank higher.

Golden energy surrounded him, and a gesture from Nymlera surrounded Grimle in branches.

The gestalt ignored the shield Nymlera created, instead charging for her on its own.

Will could guess what the magic Grimle was using was supposed to do, and he had no intent of letting him cleanse himself.

[Eclipse] has spent the echo of [Osiris Adebayo]. Skill selected: [Burning Shroud].

“You’re not getting out of this one in one piece, buddy,” Will said, his aura shifting to accomodate fire alongside the dark hunger it always possessed.

Skill: [Burning Shroud]

- Aura (power).

- Cost: none.

- Cooldown: none.

Gold

Your aura has been shaped by fire.

[Aflame] - Enemies within the area gradually gain stacking levels of [Burning].

Condition: [Burning]

- Deals ongoing fire damage.

- Reduces the [Power] and [Speed] attribute by 1 level.

[Nuclear] (bronze) - The effects of this aura cannot be resisted by rank differential. The amount of damage this aura does increases exponentially with exposure.

[Deoxygenate] (silver) - By expending extreme mana, you can burn away breathable air in the radius of your aura.

[Ignite] (gold) - You can expend mana to set items in your aura on fire. The cost of this is proportional to the flammability of the item.

As it turned out, wood was very, very flammable.

Will had begun to grow accustomed to the sounds of screaming elves begging for their lives. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

#

Nymlera was fighting a defensive battle for the second time in many, many decades. She was not used to being the one forced to retreat against a superior threat, having had control over a relatively high-power nation for the duration of a century, especially not one she’d made.

The backdoor that had opened when the sigil of the lake had interfered with the gestalt’s mind was now closed. It had already been a tenuous thing beforehand. The gestalt had had a significant amount of work put into it, including into its control mechanisms, but that had all gone awry when its neural paths and magical connections had been modified first by a sigil and then by the broken transportation into the trial of the champion.

Corruption had never been a major concern in Nymlera’s life beyond what the elves of the Abyss could manage, but even that was relatively minor. It had not been until William Li-Brown and the events of the tournament that she had realized just how much it could devastate her plans.

Decades of work had been flushed away like soil in a flash flood by a single man brimming with the affliction. He had forced the gestalt into the tournament, tortured Nymlera’s soul to the brink of death, and torn away her control over her greatest weapon.

Once, she would have sworn to kill him, but now, all she could hope to do was run. She had thought that with the combined forces of herself, her primary consort, and the entirety of her expedition, she would have had the power to eliminate or cripple him, but she had been proven to be wildly incorrect.

Her tenuous hold over the gestalt had slipped, and it did not look like it was coming back.

She was able to avoid its attacks, if only barely. After all, she was the one who had slaved away for hours a day building the pathways it would use to attack, and she had picked the final target for the gestalt project the moment the new cycle had started. Nymlera knew its patterns more than anyone else alive, and she had spent time in its body as well.

That said, she was also not able to damage it. Most of her skills were meant to be used with her as a puppetmaster, hiding herself away while operating through the use of summons. The gestalt had broken through the summons before she had even managed to get them to take five steps, and now all she could do was run and hope Grimle managed to defeat Will.

Nymlera was not meant for single combat. Her only hope was to continue attempting to retake control of the gestalt, which was much harder now that it had successfully forced her out.

Again, it had been Will. Again, the corruption wielder had ruined her.

Attempt after attempt to regain control was fruitless, and she began to turn her attention fully to fleeing.

She couldn’t outpace the gestalt in a marathon, but in a sprint, she could attempt to hide herself from its senses. Nymlera cloaked herself with the nature around her, hiding her aura as she fled through it and camouflaging herself with the trees.

Iridescent eyes ignited around her and above her, so bright that they would be clearly visible for miles around.

Warning: contact [Grimle Brooksoul] has died. Messaging has been frozen.

Nymlera closed her eyes, steeling herself against the loss, and continued running.

Will: Where do you think you’re going?

She ignored the message.

Will: I see you.

She had to keep running. The future of her nation could depend on it.

Will: Behind you.

Nymlera wanted to keep going, but her senses alerted her to a deadly presence behind her.

It didn’t even feel like a human anymore. She knew humans inside and out—after all, she’d experimented on them for quite some time. There had been humans brought to her world from others, and when Arcadia had collided with Earth, she had been gifted the opportunity to work with many more.

This was no human aura. She struggled to even categorize it as a mortal aura.

The sheer destructive arrogance of it told Nymlera that even though she was a rank higher, she was hopelessly outmatched.

She turned around slowly.

The sky had darkened. A burning, shadowy shroud enveloped a familiar human riding atop the gestalt she’d created and he’d subdued.

Nymlera sank to her knees, all hope lost.

“So that’s it, then? No last stand?” The corruption wielder’s voice was as snide and irritating as it always was, but now, there was malice in it that promised an eternity of torment.

Heat suddenly washed over Nymlera, and she realized that Will had teleported mid-sentence. He sauntered over towards her, the grass beneath his feet igniting with terrible flame with each step.

“You know, I considered letting you live,” Will said. “I could have kept an eye on you. Literally.”

As if to accentuate his point, the colorful flying eyes that had been Nymlera’s company and tormentor throughout her attempt to flee burst into appearance once more, surrounding Will in an eldritch pattern.

“I could have used you to take control of the life elves. Controlled them and come to punish you like the hand of god if you ever did anything I didn’t let you. Doesn’t that sound nice?”

Nymlera didn’t know how to respond, so she didn’t.

“All that yapping about how you were going to kill me during the tournament, and this is how it ends, huh. I suppose you would have been a decent figurehead.”

She could already see where this was going. The gold-rank elf hung her head. What use was a puppetmaster without her puppets?

“Here’s the thing. I thought about it some more, and I realized that I might be willing to compromise on some things—a lot of things, really.”

The heat was growing to be unbearable now. Nymlera was fairly sure that at least one of the garments she wore was on fire.

A shadowy hand gripped her throught, and she looked up at Will, who was now close enough that she could see the depths of his eyes. One of them was an inhuman azure, marked with…

Nymlera’s eyes widened.

“Demon,” she hissed.

“Not quite,” Will said. “See, there are some things I still can’t compromise on.”

The elf’s hair lit on fire. She grit her teeth, determined not to give him the pleasure of hearing her scream.

“There are some evils I can’t let stand. Through your own power and your creations, you have killed and tortured so many people that even the system lost count some hundreds ago.”

Will’s aura intensified, and Nymlera’s eyes widened further as he attacked her soul.

She had thought that she’d grown stronger. She had thought his last attack had been enough for her to develop the proper protections.

But Will had been growing the entire time, and she hadn’t kept up. She hadn’t even come close.

He leaned next to her as her mind began to fracture, whispering just loud enough that her fading senses could hear.

“I’m no executor,” he said quietly. “Not yet. What I am is a Reaper, and I can tell you this: you are out of chances.”

She barely felt the sword pierce her heart.

You have been afflicted by a level of [Corruption].

“Jessie!” Will shouted, lifting Nymlera like a skewer of meat.

The elf’s energy was fading fast, her mind sinking into despair, but all she could think was, Jessie?

Then the gestalt’s rows of teeth closed around her, and she thought nothing at all.

#

Progress to [Eternal Throne]: [74/1000].

Will hadn’t actually expected to receive the kill credit for Nymlera, but he had. He supposed she must have died from the wounds he’d inflicted instead of the gestalt’s teeth, though he wasn’t sure how the system quantified that.

“Does Jessie work?” Will asked aloud. “I dunno how I’d be spelling it, but I’m pretty sure the actual pronunciation is gender neutral enough. I’m not going to guess what you’re supposed to be when you’re made up of like… how many people now? A thousand or so? It’s also pretty easy to remember, given your name… you know what? I called the demon Richard. You’re Jessie now.”

The gestalt didn’t look too pleased with that—well, to be fair, Will had no idea what “pleased” meant.

Actually, maybe it was pleased. Its aura was less violent and turbulent than it had been before, which Will chose to interpret it being at peace.

Granted, the closest thing it had to a face was currently covered in the blood of one of its creators and its primary tormentor, so it probably wasn’t him that was responsible for its current state.

It wasn’t trying to attack him, though, so he decided the name change was 

“Alright, Jessie,” Will said. “What the hell am I supposed to do with you?”

For the time being, he decided that he could wander for a while. Fighting alongside the gestalt had been ridiculously awkward, and he wanted to understand it more. And, obviously, direct it away from civilians as much as possible.

It was hard to get a real fight, though. Jessie had a real penchant for violence, and once it figured out how to get into a silver-rank dungeon, it was basically over for that dungeon. Will took the cores that the monsters dropped, but there was no challenge in the grind right now.

After a few hours of this, a message notification slid into view, then another. Natalie, Hua, Liam, Casey—basically everyone Will wasn’t actively enemies with that was high up on one or another nation’s ladder.

Will opened the first one.

Natalie: Not sure why you dropped off the map for a week, but there’s a summit happening soon. World leaders gathering to assess the damage and figure out our next steps as a species. I figure you’d be interested. Get to Geneva in the next twenty-four hours if you are.

The messages from the others were much the same.

“Huh,” Will said. “This could be interesting. You mind staying put for a while?”

Jessie’s answer, as usual, was little more than a crunch as it bit through the poor silver-rank solo boss it had killed in three clean hits.

“Fantastic. I’ll catch you in a few days.”