The roars behind Orion multiplied like terrible mathematics. Hundreds, maybe thousands of corrupted creatures following the trail of the core he'd activated. A tide of corruption flowing downward like water seeking the lowest point, filling chambers and corridors with writhing mass that would consu everything in its path.
Dead bodies, tired soldiers, even him… Everything.
He reached the tenth chamber staggering, legs barely supporting his weight anymore. Saw Sirius inside the white light barrier covering the chamber's left half, his brother's eyes widening when seeing Orion pursued by the horde that shouldn't exist here but did anyway.
"We have problems!" Orion shouted desperately, words tumbling out with urgency that demanded imdiate response. "Corrupted beasts are invading us!"
He tried entering with Sirius into the safety that the light barrier promised. But his body bounced against the light as if it were a solid wall rather than luminous energy, the barrier rejecting him completely with a force that suggested his presence was fundantally incompatible.
"DAMNED TRAITOR!" Orion scread, pointing desperately toward the white barrier that refused him entry when he needed it most.
"No, idiot, you can't enter this one!" Sirius shouted back, understanding the problem imdiately. "But I also activated the black one! Try the black barrier!"
Orion spun around with movents made clumsy by exhaustion and injury, seeing the chamber's other half covered by the darkness barrier emanating from the pedestal where Lyzea's heart rested. He threw himself toward it with his last remaining strength, faith and desperation driving him forward.
This ti there was no resistance. The darkness accepted him, wrapping his wounded body in cold protection that felt oddly comforting despite everything. As if Lyzea herself were embracing him despite what he'd done, still deceived by the false image of an exemplary husband he'd always projected superficially.
The corrupted beasts arrived seconds later with a sound like an avalanche made of flesh and fury.
They filled the tenth chamber like a putrid flood, a biological tide that violated every sense simultaneously. Dozens first, then hundreds more pushing behind them, piling on top of each other in a twisted mass of corrupt flesh and deford claws that exemplified what 'evolution' looked like when it went wrong. The sll of their mana was overwhelming to the enhanced senses of the celestial tiger tars, corruption's stench making breathing feel like ingesting poison.
They launched themselves against the barriers with single-minded determination that ca from summoning rather than natural instinct.
The white light blazed intensely where corrupted creatures touched it, pushing them back, rejecting their existence with absolute denial. The darkness was more subtle in its protection, simply denying beasts entry as if space inside it didn't exist for their corrupted forms, as if they were trying to attack sothing in a different dinsion.
Neither barrier yielded even a milliter despite an assault that should have overwheld any conventional defense.
The corrupted beasts tried digging when their direct assault failed, their claws scratching at the ancient stone floor and walls with a fury born from frustration. But the stone here was different from chambers above, reinforced with ancestral mana that resisted their efforts with a durability that modern construction couldn't replicate.
Minutes passed in absolute tension that felt like hours. Orion standing in the darkness, gasping, bleeding from wounds that weren't healing fast enough. Sirius in the light, watching the horde with an expression impossible to read that might have been calculation or horror or so combination of both.
Finally, when it beca clear the beasts couldn't penetrate barriers no matter how they tried, when the assault had continued long enough to confirm defenses would hold, Orion let himself fall sitting against the wall inside his protective darkness.
He looked at the potions on his 5 pedestals, bottles glowing with promise of healing and power. Five on his dark side. Five on Sirius's luminous side, resources divided by ancient builders who couldn't have imagined the context in which they'd be used.
From his side he took all five without hesitation.
One for himself first, the glowing liquid burning as it went down his throat but bringing energy and healing that his body desperately needed. The broken arm straightening with an unpleasant sound that made him grit his teeth, but a necessary pain that ca with the restoration.
"What did you find?" he asked when he could speak again, his voice resonating strangely through the barrier separating them.
Sirius looked at him for a long mont, expression revealing so of the internal debate about how much to reveal. Then began explaining with careful words that omitted certain details.
"The door needs three cores... The pedestals where the hearts rest allow activating their barriers without wear cost. The Platinum spirit's core fits perfectly in the central indentation."
He didn't ntion the black egg that had descended with its pedestal, a secret he kept for himself already hidden in his personal dinsional space where Orion would never find it.
'For Luna,' Sirius thought while explaining surface details. 'When she turns ten, having sothing different from our family's symbol the Celestial Tiger will divert attention for a while. When she's strong enough and older she can have both. This powerful beast at least will be hers, inheritance from her mother who can't give anything else right now...'
But while thinking about his daughter, while corrupted beasts continued filling the chamber outside protective barriers with writhing mass that showed no signs of diminishing, Sirius felt sothing twisting in his chest that made breathing difficult.
Luna... his daughter waiting above in the mansion that might not be safe anymore.
If this wave was here in the depths...
How many more would have erged on the surface? How many corrupted creatures were attacking his territory right now while he was trapped underground with so treasures that suddenly felt worthless compared to his daughter's safety?
He looked at Lykea's white heart resting peacefully on its pedestal, the light barrier emanating from it without effort or wear, protecting him as she'd always done throughout their marriage. Constant protection even in death, even transford into crystal, even reduced to essence rather than person.
Even Orion couldn't touch her or take her now, couldn't steal what had been placed where it belonged...
He made a decision...
"I'm leaving," he said abruptly, interrupting his superficial explanation about the door's requirents. "I have to reach Luna!"
He'd fallen asleep hours after placing the heart on its pedestal. But when he'd woken from that rest that should have been too brief, he'd felt... better. Much better than he should have considering the battles faced and the energy expended.
His dual tar constitution of light and darkness had allowed recovering connection with his beasts in record ti, regeneration enhanced by complentary elents working in harmony. And maybe, just maybe, his wife's warm light emanating constantly from the pedestal had healed him faster than normal, her essence providing succor even in her crystallized form.
He was again in condition to fight, to move, to do what was necessary. And Luna might certainly need him urgently if the surface was under attack while he'd been pursuing uncertain hope underground.
Sirius invoked his black serpent with a ntal command that brought shadows coalescing. The shadow form materialized, coiling around his body with the familiar weight of their partnership spanning years. He looked at the mass of corrupted creatures blocking the exit, calculating odds and paths.
And began jumping between them.
From shadow to shadow, dodging claws and fangs that sought his flesh, moving so fast corrupted beasts could barely track him before he'd already passed. Behind him in the tenth chamber, Orion watched his brother disappear into the horde with an expression combining relief at being left alive with the potions and fear at being alone with nothing but an unknown barrier between him and death that ca in corrupted forms.
He clutched the pedestal with Lyzea's heart, drawing comfort from the protection from a wife he'd never truly deserved, and wondered how long it would take before soone ca to rescue him from the consequences of his own betrayal.
If anyone ca at all.
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