Adrian reappeared close to one of the broken pillars in the hall and looked towards his attacker, who was recalling the strings.
What stood in Marion’s place was sothing eerily similar to the spirit king, but entirely different.
Like a human, it stood on two feet, but that was where all similarities with humans stopped.
Marion’s body was now completely black, a sign that he had been fully taken over by the corruption, or at least that’s what it seed like.
His skin seed to have developed a carapace above it, one with cracks on it, and in those cracks was a red glow.
His facial features were now completely gone, replaced by only two horns where his eye sockets were ant to be.
He looked at his own hands and almost impossibly, spoke, "So this is what it feels like to let it take over."
His voice also sounded nothing human anymore....
"I hate it," he muttered again, "it feels like I’m actively trying not to fade away and every second that passes makes that impossible."
Marion, or rather, the monster he had beco, raised its head towards Adrian before speaking again.
"I guess this is what those people felt."
Adrian understood that it was talking about the people back in that village, the ones they had to put out of their misery.
"But unlike them," it continued, "I will be free of this curse, by taking over your body."
A mont after its words, it lifted its clawed hand towards Adrian again, and the strings launched towards him again.
But this ti, halfway through, they seed to disappear.
Completely.
Fortunately, Adrian imdiately crossed both arms in front of himself as sothing slamd into him hard enough to launch him through one of the broken pillars.
Expecting himself to be launched into a pillar again, he had coated his back with shadow, so he didn’t feel that much pain.
It seems the hungry shadow was having a harder ti trying to absorb the corruption from these strings, so Adrian had to find another way to deal with them.
Glancing down at his arm, Adrian realized that there were strings attached to it, and before he could do anything about them, he was violently yanked forward.
BOOM!
His body slamd through the remains of another pillar before Marion’s clawed hand suddenly grabbed him by the face and slamd him into the ground.
The entire temple shook again,
Cracks spread across the floor beneath Adrian.
Marion imdiately raised another hand and countless invisible strings wrapped around Adrian’s limbs before tightening all at once.
CRACK!
His bones imdiately snapped, and yet Adrian’s expression barely changed.
"You don’t feel pain anymore?" the monster muttered in question.
Adrian slowly raised his head from the crater and looked directly at it.
"I do," he answered calmly.
Black shadows suddenly wrapped around his broken arms and the next second,
CRACK!
The limbs forced themselves back in place.
Marion instinctively leapt backward just as a wave of darkness erupted from Adrian’s body and swallowed the area where he had been standing monts earlier.
As if a corpse, Adrian rose from the floor his void blank eyes locked on Marion and that’s when the monster understood one thing,
Even this form wasn’t enough to deal with the damn butler right now, so he made a decision.
BOOOOM!!!
A horrifying amount of corrupted mana exploded out from him.
The temple trembled harder than before, so much so that even the sea outside reacted.
The black water slamd repeatedly against the outer walls as though responding to the corruption inside.
Marion’s body expanded slightly, becoming even less human.
Additional arms ripped out from beneath his ribs while countless strings spread from his back like spider legs.
"You know," Marion muttered while breathing heavily, "I truly didn’t want to use this much."
His voice distorted midway through the sentence as though another being was speaking alongside him.
"But you’re too stubborn to stay dead, and you gave no other option either.
The mont those words left Marion’s mouth, the countless strings spreading from his back suddenly vanished.
Completely.
Even Adrian’s mana senses lost track of them.
And then, the next second, deep bloody cuts suddenly appeared across Adrian’s torso and shoulders as though sothing invisible had sliced through him multiple tis.
Adrian imdiately spread shadows around himself, creating a do of darkness just as dozens of invisible strings slamd into it from every direction.
BOOOOM!!!
The temple shook violently.
The shadows trembled under the barrage of strings filled with corrupted mana.
Even with the Oroborus’ influence devouring the corruption coating the strings, there was simply too much of it now.
Marion had completely abandoned his stability for raw power.
The monster slowly stepped forward afterward, its distorted breathing echoing throughout the temple.
Adrian suddenly erged from the shadows behind it and attacked at a terrifying speed, but Marion seed to already expect that.
The additional arms growing from Marion’s ribs suddenly grabbed Adrian and at the sa ti, invisible strings pierced through his stomach from behind, causing blood to splatter across the floor.
Marion leaned closer toward him and muttered, "Now, die again."
More strings began forming around Adrian’s neck.
But Adrian only stared at him silently and the next second....he was gone, replaced by a clone.
Marion frowned, but before it had the chance to release the clone, it exploded into shadow spikes, launching it backwards.
But Adrian wasn’t done yet.
The monster barely crossed its arms before Adrian’s fist slamd into it with enough force to send it flying into the temple wall.
The corrupted monster crashed into the wall, leaving an imprint of itself within it before falling to the floor.
"You see," Adrian appeared above him imdiately after and his black eyes stared down as he spoke, "not only am I immune to corrupted mana."
He crouched towards the monster, "I can also absorb it and use it as mine."
"Which ans you have been powering up all this while."
Marion tried standing but it imdiately froze, realizing that the shadows beneath it had wrapped around its limbs.
No.
They were not shadows.
Strings.
Black strings.
Its very own ability was being used against him.
Marion slowly lifted toward Adrian.
"You..." It muttered, but then paused before it suddenly laughed again despite its condition.
"You monster," it said with genuine delight, "this truly was fun."
Adrian looked down at it before a shadow sword ford in his hand and he slowly lowered it towards where he sensed the core had ford the monster.
Like a knife through butter, the sword sank through its carapace without leaving any damage behind, and easily destroyed the core.
With that, a wave of corrupted mana suddenly rushed into him as Marion reverted to his human form, the light lost in his eyes.
He was dead.
Strangely though, just after his death, Adrian’s shadow suddenly extended and without his command, a clone rose from it.
Sohow, he knew that it was the sa clone that had stayed on watch whilst he was breaking through.
The clone looked at Marion’s corpse and then at Adrian, communicating its intention.
Since his tir was almost up and he had one more thing to accomplish, he just replied, "Go ahead."
The next second, shadow wings ford on his back, and he launched himself upwards, blasting a hole through the ceiling.
But whilst doing that, both he and the clone failed to notice a small, unassuming mouse run towards a certain corner of the hall before disappearing.
Unlike what he expected, he wasn’t in the black sea anymore; instead, the temple was now floating above it....and it was now completely devoid of all its corruption.
Continuing upwards, Adrian stopped the mont he was high in the sky before saying, "Noctis."
«Are you sure?» the cat asked, «You might need them when the draw back hits.»
"It’s fine," he muttered with a smile, "besides, it’s my lady’s wish."
«Fine,» the cat replied, reappearing on his head and opening its mouth.
Within, small orbs of light appeared.
The stars that Oroborus had swallowed, but never truly digested.
Countless orbs ca from its mouth and floated in the dark sky, providing a bit of light.... Though Noctis didn’t appreciate the waste of perfectly good mana.
Mana he would’ve used for a breakthrough.
By the ti they were done, Adrian looked towards the temple again, finally about to go fetch his lady but he then noticed it was crumbling.
And as if a magnet, his eyes were pulled towards a certain direction, and they locked with a pair of icy blue ones.
"My lady?"
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