Chapter 387: Looming Death...
Back at the zone guardian’s end...
The shapeless mass of the zone guardian broiled, its spectre-like frame congealing into the atmosphere, taking the form of a grotesque mesh of wailing, eyeless faces, almost formless by nature.
A pair of eyes glowing bright like ghost lanterns illuminating the darkness of the core, a furious wail and roar peeling through the skies!
It was so close!
The priceless prey, wafting that spiteful energy, had been at its mercy, right on its platter ready to be served, yet now its prey was gone!
The monster seethed, a beast of corruption always plagued with dark emotions of rage and endless hunger, but this time it was different.
Every wailing face twisted tighter, and its formless heart dripped with spite...
That prey was its and there was no way it was going to give up!
The horrendous screech rippled through the atmosphere, shaking the surroundings and stirring every corrupted within its domain, its influence digging into the mind of all of its brethren, filling them with a piece of its hate, a piece of its reluctance.
Countless crimson eyes pierced through the darkness of the zone, every corrupt beast, defiled, charmed and even those below, stirring to life with one organized purpose.
The already rabid corrupted were flooded with a berserk frenzy, their cores blistered by a vile force, their might amplifying by magnitudes.
All eyes shifting towards a singular direction, the area where Seth and the other unconscious three resided...
...
Uriel’s sight was flooded with a rush of receding color, before settling, everything losing luster and dimming to the grey hue of the zone.
Uriel pulled on his steed’s reins, coming to a skidding halt, his eyes slowly adjusting back to reality.
A familiar chill sinking into his body, as his sight focused on his friend standing before him.
Uriel blinked, seeing Elaine armed with her mage staff cocked his way, the dangerous black ice shards spiraling behind her.
He raised his hands in mock surrender, wearing a smile, "I come in peace..."
Elaine’s lips curled upwards, her staff lowering, her shoulders loosening. "You arrived faster than I anticipated."
Uriel nodded, "We were fortunate to find someone with a space gate-type gene skill..."
He let his gaze drift from hers, settling on the ice constructs behind her holding the unconscious bodies of four figures.
He went still, his lips sinking into a frown, "You didn’t tell me there were other casualties..."
Elaine looked back at the unconscious four, her jaw working, and sighed, her shoulders drooping. "Time didn’t allow it, and besides, the others are fine, I think they are only suffering from some degree of mental damage... But as for Seth, his own situation seems to be deteriorating on both a physical level and mental level."
Pausing, Uriel hopped down off his steed, dismissing it back into his mental space, and walked towards the others to examine their conditions for himself.
Uriel’s gaze grew grim as he got a clearer look at the unconscious frames of Brandon, Jack and Seth.
His chest tightened at the sight of his friends in such a state, and feeling Seth’s pulse for himself, he didn’t even need to channel his energy through his friend’s essence nodes to see how bad his situation was growing.
Then finally his eyes settled on Zoan, she was in the same category as Brandon and Jack, her physical condition ruddy and healthy, though he could feel only a weak fluctuation of will left in her.
This was clear evidence that she couldn’t be the culprit behind Seth’s situation.
"Did Brandon and Jack also head to the seed?" he asked without turning back.
Elaine nodded, "Brandon had sensed Seth in danger and had left to reinforce him with Jack, leaving me to lead the soldiers..."
While she spoke and Uriel listened, the portal behind them began to flicker as figure after figure plopped out of the space gate.
The first batch was the shackled realm group of ten, led by the elder, staggering out of the portal, blinking and swaying for a good few seconds.
The portal still flickering as the division soldiers popped out one after the other.
"Huh?! Captain!" Skinny Greg was the first to catch sight of Zoan, rushing her way, his voice cracking.
The other members of their pirate crew snapping out of their daze and rushing after him.
"Oh my god, what happened to her?" a member of the crew called Clark asked, their voice shaking, their face going pale.
Elder Lenny sighed, rubbing his brow, "I think the correct question is what happened to them?"
Neither Uriel nor Elaine responded, only glancing at one another as Elaine raised a questioning brow.
And Uriel just shrugged, seeing through the question she was trying to relay, he explained, "We just found them a while back and decided to take them in for the time being..."
Elaine’s brows stayed raised as she stared at the group, muttering, "But they are in the shackled realm, why are they still alive?"
Uriel shrugged once again, palms turning up.
Though he could explain why they could survive the abyssal zone debuff, he couldn’t explain how the group of eleven shackled realm evolvers had tracked them all the way from the shore to so deep into the zone without dying to the corrupted.
After all, even if they followed the path the soldiers had cleared, that still didn’t mean shit.
This was a corruption zone, beasts spawned endlessly, even a cleared path was never safe!
Just then a figure walked into their midst, it was Lara Stadium, an acquaintance Uriel knew well.
The captain of team alpha, if he wasn’t mistaken she was meant to be in Seth’s division.
"Captain Elaine, Captain Uriel," she greeted with a respectful nod.
Elaine turned her way, her tone even, "What is it?"
"Sorry for the intrusion, but I had to inform you about the abnormalities we were noticing..." Lara started with a weary frown.
Elaine and Uriel’s interest was piqued instantly, "Go on?"
Lara nodded, "It’s the corrupted, they have gone scant, after the batch slain by our forces we have yet to encounter another. The corrupted are meant to be drawn by the hunger for pure untainted flesh and energy, yet the whole area is deserted, I even sent some men to scout and they came back empty-handed."
Hearing this, Elaine’s fingers tightened around her staff, and Uriel’s hand drifted towards his lance.
No abnormality in a corruption zone was a good one, even the absence of a beast, especially in a zone as accursed as this one.
A prickle of imminent doom crawled up both their spines.
Both sides glanced at one another, a single nod passing between them, the same conclusion shared.
"We leave now!" their voices overlapped in a stern, wary tone.
Just as both declared, the portal flickered for the last time as the frames of Lucas, followed by Dorian, popped out...