Chapter 483 - Corrupt Tamers against the Golden Light
The tunnel had transformed into something unrecognizable.
What had once been a passage infested with golden spores was now a nightmare highway, gradually expanded by the constant flow of abyssal creatures spilling through it like a living river of self-destruction.
The walls had been scraped and eroded by thousands of claws, teeth, and appendages seeking to carve their way toward their objective.
Hagen clung to a rocky protrusion as another wave of beasts passed by him.
"This is insane!" he shouted over the constant roar of moving creatures. "They're going to crush us!"
Bloodwyn, however, seemed strangely comfortable amid the chaos. His enhanced form glided between the beasts with grace, using the abyssal flow currents like an expert navigator would use ocean currents.
"Just stay close!" he responded, his voice amplified by the power flowing through him. "They're too focused on their objective to worry about not hurting us!"
It was true. The abyssal creatures moved with a singular purpose, pushing each other in their haste to reach whatever was calling them from the depths. Those that lagged were literally dragged by those coming behind, creating a transportation system that was both efficient and brutal.
As they moved deeper, Hagen began to notice changes in the tunnel itself.
Despite being small and in this low level ring of mana, it was extremely resistant. An ancient creation of very high quality.
The tunnel walls gradually narrowed, forcing the abyssal creatures to compact more densely. The result was a writhing mass of corrupt flesh that constantly scraped against the surfaces, slowly removing material and expanding the passage resistant to magic and erosion through pure brute force.
"Look at that poor thing!" Hagen pointed, watching how a particularly large beast got stuck between the walls.
Instead of stopping, the creatures behind simply pushed it forward, using its body as a living battering ram. The stuck beast roared in pain as it was forced through the too-small space, its exoskeleton creaking and cracking under pressure.
But it didn't die because of the pressure.
Instead, it began to dissolve, its form breaking down into basic components that were absorbed by the abundant moss covering the tunnel walls. Some of the moss also vanished on contact, creating clean space for the beasts behind to continue their advance.
"They're consuming each other to open the way!" shouted one of the soldiers in Hagen's group.
The creatures digging at the front were constantly renewed, replaced by new beasts emerging from the constant flow. It was an organizational sacrifice system that allowed continuous progress regardless of casualties.
It was both admirable and horrifying. No individual creature mattered; only the collective advance toward their mysterious objective held any significance.
"Enmity!" Bloodwyn responded, his eyes shining with artistic appreciation. "Beautiful in its brutality!"
♢♢♢♢
The sound changed before they saw the destination.
The constant scraping of moving creatures transformed into something different, a hissing, like air being sucked through a small opening. The flow of beasts accelerated, like water approaching a drain.
"Something ahead!" Hagen shouted, struggling to stay stable as the current dragged him forward.
It appeared almost suddenly in front… a chamber with a relatively small entrance, barely large enough for the abyssal creatures to pass through one at a time. But what captured Hagen's attention wasn't the size of the opening, but what happened when the beasts crossed it.
They disappeared.
They didn't fall, didn't run somewhere out of sight. They simply ceased to exist the moment they crossed the threshold, as if they had encountered an invisible wall of annihilation.
"Must be the objective," Hagen murmured.
The entrance was a silent slaughterhouse, but the beasts continued pushing toward it with suicidal determination. They showed no fear, made no attempt to escape. They simply threw themselves one after another toward instant destruction.
The behavior defied every survival instinct of these creatures. Whatever was compelling them was stronger than their most basic self-preservation programming.
"It's just a chamber," Bloodwyn explained, pointing toward places that formed a circle. "I can sense the dense mana walls... And it's smaller than I thought..."
They couldn't see through the opening due to the constant flow. Hagen failed to glimpse the chamber's interior even though he got quite close and was almost dragged in.
The walls were formed by crystals of a density they couldn't destroy at their level. But what really caught attention was the saturation of golden energy that filled the small space like thick fog.
"That golden thing..." Hagen analyzed. "It's so concentrated inside there that it disintegrates the beasts on contact... it could damage us if we get too close."
It was a perfect stalemate. The abyssal creatures had numbers and determination to continue their assault almost indefinitely, but the concentration of golden energy in the chamber destroyed them faster than they could advance.
Hagen shouted to be heard by everyone in the stampede of abyssal noise. "We need to establish an observation position! To see if the balance changes soon!"
Hagen began excavating a side chamber near the main entrance. He just had to avoid being dragged by the constant flow of beasts while creating a space large enough for his group and Bloodwyn to observe comfortably.
"Ingenious!" Bloodwyn commented, helping stabilize the walls of the new chamber.
From their new position, they could observe the annihilation process in greater detail. The abyssal beasts didn't just disappear; they disintegrated.
"It's like acid, but for corrupt existence itself," Hagen murmured, taking mental notes about what he was witnessing.
♢♢♢♢
Hours passed with hypnotic monotony.
Beast after beast threw itself toward annihilation, each disappearing at the same instant it crossed the threshold. The flow seemed endless, as if the entire abyss was determined to empty itself into this particular chamber.
Hagen had begun keeping a mental count, but had lost track after the next thousand. The numbers were simply too big not to fall asleep.
"The advance is going to take forever at this rate!" Bloodwyn observed, evaluating the situation with impatience.
Bloodwyn had remained silent during most of the observation, his eyes studying the chamber with growing frustration.
"Be careful, Lord Bloodwyn," Hagen said immediately. "Whatever your idea is, don't go in there..."
"Just a little help from outside!" Bloodwyn responded with an exasperated smile. "To speed up the process!"
"As long as it's from outside... But I don't know what you could accomplish that thousands of abyssals haven't achieved yet..."
"I'm not a common abyssal creature!" Bloodwyn interrupted, his eyes shining with confidence that bordered on arrogance. "I'm something much more refined!"
Before Hagen could add more, Bloodwyn launched himself from their observation chamber toward the main entrance.
His first attack was cautious, a pulse of corrupt energy that extended toward the chamber's interior like an exploratory signal. The result was immediate and dramatic.
A reverberation of golden light burst from within, creating energy waves that completely canceled Bloodwyn's power. The pulse disintegrated as if it had never existed.
"Interesting!" Bloodwyn shouted, far from being dissuaded by the failure. "But not unexpected!"
His second attack was more powerful, a spear of concentrated corruption that would have pierced the defenses of most common Platinum 1 creatures. But the chamber's response was proportionally more intense.
The vibration that followed shook the entire tunnel structure, creating small cracks in the crystalline walls that Hagen had thought were indestructible. But more importantly, the balance at the entrance had changed.
The abyssal beasts now passed more quickly through the threshold, and disintegrated more slowly. The process that had been instantaneous now took several seconds, allowing some creatures to advance a few steps inside before being consumed.
The change was subtle but significant. What had been perfect defense was now showing stress fractures, gaps in the defensive system that suggested eventual collapse.
"It's working!" Hagen shouted, disbelief and terror mixing in his voice. "But those pulses look dangerous!"
Bloodwyn didn't hear or chose to ignore the warning. If you're not on M*VLEM*PYR, you're viewing a copy.
His third attack was everything he could muster, an explosion of corrupt power he had accumulated since his transformation, fed by the energy of all the creatures he had drained during the journey.
The chamber responded with a resonance that went beyond sound or vibration. It was as if reality itself was protesting, waves of force that traveled not only through the tunnel but through frequencies Hagen couldn't perceive or understand.
Everyone received a small hit to their abyssal energy, but it wasn't anything serious.
It worked...
The stalemate shattered like crystal under pressure. The concentration of golden energy that had protected the chamber for who knows how long finally yielded, allowing the abyssal creatures to spill inside like a flood of pure hunger.
The final resonance traveled much farther than the previous ones, creating echoes that were lost in the distance.
♢♢♢♢
The silence that followed was more disturbing than all the previous chaos.
The abyssal creatures stopped abruptly. Many began to retreat, returning toward the depths or changing their direction toward the surface.
"Their objective has been fulfilled!" Hagen realized, observing the massive exodus. "It seems they're going to finish the cleanup in other parts!"
Finally, they could enter the chamber that had been their objective for so long.
Only one creature remained still on one side of the chamber, a small one of the new type that Hagen hadn't recognized, but they decided to leave it since they didn't know if the crystal had some specific use for it.