STRANGE ENERGY...
Victor saw it forming in the passage ahead with growing dread.
Light and darkness as before. Intertwining together. Concentrating into a devastating attack.
But there was sothing more this ti.
A purple energy mixing with the other two elents in ways that shouldn't be possible. Tinting the beam with color that shouldn't exist in mana's nature. That felt wrong on a fundantal level that made his instincts scream warnings.
The beam launched toward him with malevolent intent.
Victor positioned his horns to the front again to receive it in a defensive posture that had worked before.
The impact was stronger than any previous attack by a significant margin.
The force knocked him down despite his huge enhanced strength. His legs gave out under the impossible weight. His knees struck the stone floor with a sound that echoed through the passage like thunder.
But his horns remained elevated despite the half fall. Still receiving the attack… Still dispersing the energy away from vital areas.
And Victor maintained his position without yielding.
He didn't retreat backward. Wasn't pushed away from the ground he'd gained.
Fell to his knees, yes. But didn't lose even a single centiter of hard-won territory.
The new beam pressed against his defenses with sustained pressure. The purple energy burning differently than light and darkness had. More insidious in how it worked. More penetrating through the standard defenses.
And Victor recognized the sensation with growing horror.
'Corruption?'
Not exactly matching what he knew...
It was similar but not identical to standard corruption. Like the energy the mutants used, what he'd faced so many tis recently in the new frontiers during expansion missions.
That corruption that was modified sohow... Adapted into sothing new that defied his understanding.
And to his growing alarm, Victor realized that the purification the mushroom beast of Ren had activated in him accidentally that day...
Wasn't very effective against this modified form of corruption.
The purification worked against standard corruption patterns. Could cleanse it... Neutralize it almost completely through natural resistance.
But this variant...
This was different in so way.
The purple energy combined more easily with the common elents, filtered through the attack flow and also through his defenses despite his passive purification.
Not rapidly in ways he couldn't track.
Not overwhelmingly to disable him imdiately.
But constantly... Persistently accumulating despite resistance.
It seed to be finding cracks in his defenses, exploiting weaknesses in his system... Infecting him slowly with each mont of contact.
The beam finally dissipated after what felt like an eternity of sustained assault.
Victor remained on his knees for three seconds. Breathing heavily with exertion. His fused body trembling from the effort of resisting.
Then forced himself to stand again despite the exhaustion.
And saw sothing that made his blood run cold with realization.
His arms.
Where the first beam had struck him, where the burns had been most severe...
There were small crystalline formations. So tiny they were almost unnoticeable at first glance. But definitely present.
Growing on his skin. In his flesh. On his golden scales.
Victor raised a trembling hand to touch his forehead with growing dread. His fingers brushed against his horns where beams had impacted.
And felt a texture that was wrong.
Rough where it should be smooth...
Irregular instead of the perfect surface he knew.
Small crystal fragnts adhered to them.
He ran his hand more completely across his horns. Feeling with increasing horror the small networks of crystal forming even until his forehead. Patterns that extended from where the beams had impacted repeatedly.
Not much yet. Barely perceptible to casual examination. But definitely there.
Growing with each passing second.
'It's crystallizing .'
The thought struck with a weight of absolute certainty that couldn't be denied.
This wasn't just damage from energy attacks. It wasn't just mutated corruption that could be cleansed.
It was similar to the process that had converted his father and the corrupted Yino people into statues of dense crystal in that chamber.
He then also thought about the statues he had just seen as he was thinking of their similars…
And then the pieces clicked together in his mind with a weird clarity.
The statues below in the terminal chamber. The woman from Yino specifically with her distinctive features.
The two crystallized hearts that should had been in the initial door's indentations. That were now missing from their pedestals or their initial owners. That maybe soone still possessed sowhere.
What if...?
What if those artifacts had belonged to the Yino kingdom and had helped with their rapid developnt of that crystal of corruption and its fast growing power before Dragarion had stopped their expansion?
What if before Dragarion could completely halt the corruption and that crystal... the corruption from the artifacts had already begun or even succeeded in creating sothing different?
What if whoever possessed those artifacts now...
Was using them to attempt finishing Victor in this ambush?
The purple energy. The crystallization process. The way his natural purification wasn't working appropriately against it.
Everything pointed to the sa horrible conclusion that he couldn't escape.
He was being converted into a statue like those below.
Slowly but inexorably unless he found a way to stop the process or escape before it completed.
And he was trapped in a narrow passage with an enemy who could keep launching these corrupted beams who knows how many tis while he crystallized from repeated exposure.
The situation had gone from dangerous to potentially fatal.
Victor looked up the passage toward where the attacks originated.
He still had only one choice.
Advance and fight his way through while risking complete crystallization before reaching the enemy.
It wasn't really a choice at all.
Victor Dravenholm was many things, but he wasn't a coward who abandoned those under his command.
He would advance.
And either he would reach his enemy and end this...
Or he would beco a statue standing guard over his soldiers' escape route.
But he wouldn't retreat.
Not while n who trusted him still needed protection.
His wings spread despite their flickering energy.
And Victor began walking forward again with steps that grew heavier as crystallization spread.
Toward an enemy who'd made a fatal error.
They'd given him a goal to reach.
And Victor Dravenholm didn't stop once he had a goal.
Even if he had to do it as a living statue.
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