[Corruption Wielder] Chapter 68: Those Deserving

The first session that Ayla and Will had together was less fruitful than he’d hoped it would be, but he knew by now that establishing strong fundamentals was incredibly important when it came to magic. Having a good baseline for his abilities in the Beyond would pay dividends in the future, especially compared to making a grasp for short-term strength only to hamstring himself later down the line—just like most of the other human Users were with their progression and monster cores.

Right now, all he had to do establish control over his chunk of the Beyond.

“A baseline level of soul control will help still your connection,” Ayla said. “At your rank, it’s possible that even a fully stilled connection won’t be able to survive on its own, though.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Will asked. “I have the skill. Why wouldn’t it work?”

“Silver rank is a very tenuous level to attempt an extradimensional soul projection on. In terms that your little primate mind can understand, you don’t have the gas for this trip.”

“Oh, come on. Just because extradimensional has six syllables doesn’t mean I can’t understand basic word combinations.”

“Impressive. Perhaps intelligence has become a stat since the last time ”

“Speaking of, you keep calling me primate and biped. What’s up with that? You look pretty humanoid yourself here… well, sometimes.”

“My physical vessel is a changeling. I’ve been stuck as one of your kind for years, though. It makes me pity your race.”

“Wait, changelings?” Will raised an eyebrow before remembering he was supposed to be separating his perception of self away from his body and towards his isolated soul. “We just had a challenge dealing with them.”

Ayla’s expression couldn’t darken here, but her aura flickered. “Random chance, or perhaps a message to me saying they know I have escaped. Unimportant either way. Focus on your soul, Will.”

They had only been at this for a few subjective minutes, though if what Ayla and Nynn had said about this place was true, no time was passing on the outside at all.

Will’s only purpose right now was to claim the Sanctuary for himself and keep it from fluttering out on his own. Anything fancier would only be possible after he kept the flame alive.

Meditating on the nature of his soul was difficult to maintain at the same time as conversation, but he could always reopen the ritual. He wasn’t sure how much time he would have with Ayla.

“So as I understand it,” he said, “I can use this as a teleportation network? Do I need to activate the ritual every time?”

“Methods of connection vary. How did yours manifest?”

“Ritual skill. Cost me a thousand silver creds.”

“Oh, that is far too small a cost for a stable portal. Better get used to living off the land.”

Will got halfway through a sigh before forcing it into the projection of his soul, which was very closely related to his aura but wasn’t exactly the same. He didn’t fully understand Ayla’s explanation, nor had she expected him to. True comprehension of the soul, she’d said, could only come with time.

“So I’m going to have to cast the ritual again every time.”

“Until your domain here is fully stable and can sustain itself while you are in your body, yes.” A ripple of Ayla’s magic ran through the room, bringing Will’s attention to her soul. He still couldn’t perceive it, not as truly as she could, but he had the advantage of having had his soul and aura be utterly crushed by the Hunger time and time again. “Before I was sealed away, I cast my connection with a ritual that held Lady-rank power.”

“Lady. The worst of the best, huh?”

“Several orders of magnitude more mana went into that one skill than you have used in your entire time as a User. Here’s a tip about talking shit: always punch down. It’s easier that way.”

“Noted. So, if I want to teleport, I’m going to have to do the ritual?”

“Likely. The gates should remain open after you use them, but dealing with the Beyond has always been an inexact science. You should feel a connection to them.”

“I do.” Will’s soul was connected to the point on the trial planet where he’d cast the ritual from. “More rituals, more connection points?”

“Essentially. Once you have it solidified—possibly before, even—you should be able to take others into it.”

“You make it sound like I shouldn’t.”

“You should not, which means you definitely are.”

“Fair. You know me too well.”

“I studied your life for several years prior to the cycle’s beginning. Of course I do.”

“Creep.”

“Silver.”

“Ow, that one hurt.”

“On a more serious note,” Ayla said, noticing that her soul’s connection was growing weaker, “You’re going to have to open this a lot. You can recover mana while within the Beyond, which means that if you can manage a ritual, this can become one of your most important destinations.”

“Noted. I can think of a hundred ways to make use of a private fortress surrounded by unfathomable amounts of magic, but I won’t belabor you with them right now. Will you be able to return?”

“My skills have been heavily restricted, and my mana suppressed,” Ayla said. “Soul travel is difficult. I will make the journey back when I am able to and I sense you here, but it may be days or weeks.”

“Days or weeks mean a lot when the world is gone to shit as it is.”

“It does. If I could manage more, I would.”

“You’re managing plenty. Thank you for the lessons.”

“Thank me by surviving.”

And with that, Ayla disappeared, taking her magic with her.

The Sanctuary started destabilizing immediately, the temporary slice of reality degrading into nothing within moments.

Will did his best to hold on, but even with his newly learned soul control, he couldn’t hold on for long, and his silver-rank magic quickly petered out into nothing.

You have lost your connection to the Beyond.

#

Will blinked. He’d returned to his body in the exact same space he’d left it—right in the center of the Sanctuary ritual circle, the credits he’d used to activate it consumed for the skill. A small, oscillating sphere of darkness floating at eye level above the ritual circle was the only sign of the connection to the Beyond.

He touched it.

Your soul cannot currently process this link into the Beyond.

That tracked. Ayla and Nynn had both mentioned that he wouldn’t be able to immediately return to the Beyond due to soul fatigue. Will didn’t feel it in the same way that he did with traditional physical or mana depletion, but his newfound awareness of his soul told him that there was a deep part of him that had expended itself during his time in the other space.

His mana, however, had recovered already. The meditation techniques that he’d learned for soul control seamlessly integrated into the meditation cycle he’d used to restore his mana and regulate his aura. The area of perception they dealt with was different, but he was slowly growing in his understanding of both.

Just like he’d been promised, no time at all had passed when he returned. The people he’d been messaging continued to reply to the messages he’d sent just before disappearing, and the system time was exactly the same.

Unlike the other waiting rooms, there were no people to network with here, no shops where Will could level his shit up. He considered using some of his monster cores to upgrade his items, but he now knew that familiars could consume monster cores, not only to be summoned but also to be repaired.

Sen had lost a few eyes during the turbulent battle against the gold-rank cultists, and a system prompt had appeared, informing him that he could pay silver-rank monster cores to restore eyes at a rate of five eyes per core. He’d had a few spare, so he’d completely restored Sen back to its full, thousand-eyed glory.

That left the new sigil skill as the only thing to be explored. The Crown had been none too happy about being forced to give a skill to the champion it had accepted, but Vyx was a proud god. He wouldn’t give one of his champions a terrible skill—unlike Caiyeri, whose sigil was a high-level god and could afford for its champions to gain little assistance, the Crown needed him to perform well.

However, it wouldn’t allow itself to be taken for everything it was worth, unlike the Hunger. Pride cut both ways, and mouthing off to a god didn’t come without consequences.

Skill: [Eternal Throne]

- Spell (sigil).

- Cost: [0/1,000].

- Cooldown: varies.

Silver

To obtain the Crown is to rule. To rule is to stand on a thousand lives.

This skill grants the ability to return from death after you have killed and absorbed the essence of 1,000 Users of your rank. Each rank above you counts ten times more than the rank below. Each rank beneath you counts ten times less than the rank above.

Subsequent uses will require more fuel.

It was… a horrifying skill, to be honest. Will was no stranger to killing. He’d gone through dozens if not hundreds of goblins, quite a few monsters and elves, and a handful of other humans.

Will didn’t know what kind of situation would result in him having literally a thousand kills against other sapients. In self-defense, he’d cut down the elves that attacked him, but a thousand?

“You want me to become a monster,” Will said. “I get the sentiment, but I’d rather not.”

He wasn’t going to lose sleep over the potential that he could, though. If he got to the point where he was an active detriment to humanity, someone would put him down. There were enough powerful people to do it.

If he ever did get to the point where he’d amassed enough kills to trigger this skill, he hoped he was still in his own mind. The Crown had given him an incredibly powerful skill, just not one that worked with how he wanted to progress.

Asshole. The god was doing this because Will had defied him, he was sure.

“Speaking of asshole gods,” Will said aloud, “I think I have a way to train my soul.”

With the meditation techniques that Caiyeri and Ayla had passed down to him, he calmed his aura and his body. He was asleep in moments.

#

Kadael could not believe his senses.

“The human is trying to connect with me.”

Sadareth’s smile was vicious, but not unkind. “This one has proved surprising in ways I have not seen since… you, perhaps.”

“I was not this defiant of the heavens. Not even I thought I could call upon a god like they were my servant, especially not as a metal.”

“Mortals have a tendency to surprise,” the Elven Mother said. “You should see what this one has to offer.”

“You say that, and yet you refuse his companion.”

“Merit earned through the efforts of others is no merit at all. The clone will need to prove herself worthy before I offer her a fragment of my power.”

The Hunger sighed. It had not felt this frustrated since… well, since the last time the corruption wielder had dealt with him.

“Very well.”

#

“Hey there,” Will greeted his sigil.

“You,” the Hunger said.

“Is it just me, or is there less hate and more of a grudging acceptance every time I meet you? You’re growing on me, I’m not going to lie.”

“Do not tempt me into showing you the might of a god once more.”

“Actually,” Will said with a grin. “About that.”

The Hunger’s manifestation—which Will now recognized as similar to the projection of a soul in the Beyond—did not have eyes, but he got the impression that the god was looking at him like he’d grown a second head.

“I’ll check ‘leave a god speechless’ off of my bucket list, then.”

“You want me to crush your soul until you feel the greatest pain in your life,” the Hunger said. “Is that correct?”

“Yep. That’s about it.”

“Why?”

“Training. I assume I’ll wake up in time for the next round.”

“Have you lost your mind?”

“I get that a lot. Just get to it, will you? I’m sure you want the opportunity to let off some steam, anyway.”

As it turned out, in fact, the Hunger did.

It was not pleasant.

#

Main Challenge #3: Chain of Combat

The tournament has been sufficiently culled. Those who remain are truly worthy of the title of champion, sigil-holder or not.

The remainder of the tournament will be held through a series of one-on-one battles. Those who have not yet lost will face each other, while those who have lost one battle will be in a separate bracket.

Due to the abnormalities in this cycle’s first trial, restrictions have been placed upon this challenge. All Users will receive an item that will automatically restricts their mana to ensure finishing blows result in a knockout, not death.

You are in the winner’s bracket. The minimum number of duels you have to win is 8.

Difficulty: Varies

- Win your duel. [0/?]

Reward: decided after each round.

Penalty for Failure: ???

Time until challenge start: [1 minute]

Just as Will had predicted, the challenge knocked him out of the dream-space with the Hunger mid-torture session. Though he knew that going through it would benefit his soul’s development, that didn’t mean much when he was experiencing the worst pain in his life. He had never been more grateful to be interrupted in the middle of something.

One minute was much less starting time than he’d gotten before the previous trial, but that didn’t bother him. With Sen ready, his weapons charged, and his mana at full, there was nothing more that Will could do to prepare.

His hunger phantasm expanded out from him. Every teleport so far had taken him, all of the magic he’d cast, and his weapons. It stood to reason that the phantasm would join him too.

Round 1 starts in [3].

[2].

[1].

Initiating teleportation.

[Limiter] has been attuned to your body.

Your opponent is: [Fan Yang].

#

Your opponent is: [William Li-Brown].

Fan Yang, known affectionately as “Little Yang” by his peers in the Sichuan Provisional Government, recognized the name of the overconfident boy who had dared to question Lu Jie during the first trial.

Lu Jie had entered the tournament with an entourage comprised of both sigil-holders and those who used the Champion’s Pass. Little Yang had been the latter, but during the first challenge, he had the fortune and skill to prey on a dying sigil-holder, gaining the approving Traitor as his sigil and ranking up to silver.

With the assistance of the monster cores he’d come by, Little Yang was not so little anymore. He was looking at a promotion to the innermost circle of Lu Jie’s clan.

An officer of the government could not bear insult taken against it, of course, and especially not when it was to a man who was said officer’s good friend.

The teleportation landed him in a featureless white dome, similar to the training facilities that had been established in the heart of Sichuan. Yang quickly realized that he was in the same forcefield protection that had restrained him during the challenge he had just won.

Across from him, William Li-Brown stood in a cloud of darkness.

“Surrender,” the half-breed said, voice echoing ominously. “I don’t know if the system can stop my corruption from annihilating someone, and I’d prefer not to take an innocent life.”

Yang’s armor had been silver-rank since he’d received it as part of the goods from his personal sponsor. It granted him doubled strength, functionally making him a physical combatant that was a rank higher than he actually was. With his powerful grip, he tore the limiter off his neck, where it had bound itself in a tight collar. The construction was durable, but not enough to prevent gold-rank strength from removing it.

He had come too far to let a mere object restrict him.

Between them, white pillars rose from the ground at varying heights, obscuring them from vision and creating a semblance of an environment, cover appearing throughout the battlefield at irregular intervals.

“You can’t even speak your native tongue,” Yang thundered. “You are a disgrace, spitting in the face of your superiors.”

Will sighed deeply enough that Yang could hear it even through the cover. “Your hot head is going to get you killed. Will you at least hear me out?”

“No.”

“Alright, then.”

There was silence for a bit, and then the forcefield dropped.

Yang’s silver-rank spear, Skybreaker, was a legendary growth item that his sponsors had granted him after he’d been instrumental in taking down a clan boss. It had an extremely potent effect that scaled with his strength, synergizing with his armor, that allowed him to charge it so much that he could throw it through walls and it would cleave through them like hot butter before returning to his hands.

The Traitor’s sigil skills made his combination even more deadly. With a pulse of his new perception skill, Shadows in the Night, Yang detected everyone trying to hide from him in the area. 

“You will regret your arrogance,” he announced, taking glee in the fear he knew he had to be striking into the upstart’s heart. “Power is open for the taking, and you grew lazy. Your like deserve no respect.”

He lined up a shot through three walls, targeting Will through it, and hurled the spear. It practically melted through the strange material that the arena had put up, smashing straight through every barrier before piercing the boy straight through the chest.

Then, his skill detected nothing at all.

“That quickly?” Yang asked aloud. “I had hoped to make him suffer more.”

“Wow,” Will said, “real mature.”

Yang whipped around to see the darkness-surrounded man leaning against a pillar, arm outstretched.

A flash of spatial magic distorted the air, and suddenly, Will was holding Skybreaker.

“You—“ Yang’s proclamation devolved into a feral snarl, and he activated his second sigil skill.

Betrayal was an aura skill. The closer someone was to him in terms of rank, elements, and background, the more effective it would be. Against another silver-rank of Han descent who matched his Death, Space, and Balance elements, it would project an aura that would crush his will, making Will exceedingly vulnerable to his next attack.

Yang rushed forward, commanding Skybreaker back to his hand as he flexed his aura out, knowing Will would be too weak to resist it.

Except, as it turned out, what he knew and what reality turned out to be were not so similar after all.

In a flash of crimson magic, Skybreaker simply disappeared, dissolving into the ether. The aura that was meant to crush Will instead passed around him, like he was a boulder that could single-handedly ford a stream.

“You’re right that power’s open for the taking,” Will said. “I wouldn’t say it’s me that’s lazy, though.”

He extended his aura out, and Yang experienced true power.

When Yang had been sixteen years old, he had missed a bus in the dead of winter and had waited out in the cold for six entire hours for the next to come. By the time he’d been picked up, he had been half dead, all his strength and color sapped by the chill. Yang had never forgotten it.

That experience paled in comparison to what Will’s aura did to him. Yang was superhuman now, and yet in the face of Will’s overwhelming intensity, he was nothing more than that little boy again.

“Also, for all your talk about respect, you kind of suck at showing it to your fellow man.”

Paralyzed by the aura, Yang could do nothing as Will took two steps forward and punched him in the face. It was not enhanced beyond the other man’s silver-rank strength, but it was enough to knock him to the ground in his current state.

Will pointed at Yang, and suddenly, the entire world seemed to be staring at him. Eyes opened in the air around him, boring down on him.

“Last chance. Surrender.”

Yang felt every bit like the weakling he’d once been… but he wasn’t that boy anymore.

With the last of the mana in his tank, he used his Resurgence skill, granting him all the strength he’d expended, and he charged forward with a defiant roar.

“I will find you,” he swore, taking Will by surprise as he charged towards him. “If you don’t die here today, then I will find you, and I will bring you to your knees.”

“Is that a threat?” Will asked quietly.

In his rage, Yang didn’t realize that Will was avoiding every single attack he made, letting the hunger phantasm tank the brunt of the gold-rank strength that Yang exerted.

“It’s a promise,” Yang hissed.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Will said, his voice cold and empty. “Congratulations, Yang. You get to be the first.”

The first.

“I hope you’re happy, Vyx,” Will said.

Yang’s fists suddenly found only air.

“Behind you.”

He wheeled around, but it was too late.

You have been afflicted with one level of [Corruption].

A bell tolled.

You have been afflicted with a second level of [Corruption].

You have been afflicted with one level of [Wither].

Lightning exploded on Yang’s face where Will had punched the man, Thunder Wraith’s Grasp taking effect.

Will charged forward, slayer sword materializing in hand. Yang was so dazed from the corruption that he never saw the slash that took his head off.

His head tumbled to the ground, his consciousness rapidly fading but intact enough that he could see his armored body spurting blood from where it fell.

“I’m sorry,” Will repeated, sheathing his sword in Yang’s face. “But I only give second chances to people who deserve it.”