I Can Purify Corruption Through Intimacy in the Apocalypse

The Hollow's momentum had carried the serrated blade far enough to open a shallow cut before it flashed past him. A sharp sting flared instantly, followed by the warm sensation of blood running over his fingers.

“Tch—!”

Biting back the rest of the hiss, Lucien pivoted immediately, refusing to let the creature disappear into his blind spot.

Just as he'd feared, the Hollow had no intention of stopping. Its footsteps widened into a smooth arc before curving back toward them, already building momentum for another lightning-fast pass. Before it could commit, however, a patch of darkness nearby suddenly erupted.

Fwoosh.

Ava burst from the shadows with her rapier already thrusting forward.

The Hollow twisted away at once, abandoning its approach and darting back out of range rather than risk being skewered.

Lucien let out a quiet breath.

As always... she bailed me out.

"Hey, Lucien!" Ava called without taking her eyes off their opponent. She slid lightly to one side, matching the Hollow's circling movement with practiced footwork. "Don't you have some weird powder that can blind them or something?"

"You want me to use it?" Lucien shot back while instinctively glancing down at his injured hand. Blood stained his fingers, but after tightening and loosening his grip around the dagger once, he confirmed the wound was little more than a shallow cut. It stung, though it wasn't serious enough to affect his fighting.

As he adjusted his grip, his gaze happened to brush against the inside of his cloak.

Wait—

His eyes lit up.

"I've got a better one!" he called, looking back toward Ava. "Can you hold him still for a few seconds? I just need him at roughly five meters away!"

Ava laughed, though her attention never wavered from the Hollow weaving around them.

"That's asking a lot!"

"But can you do it?!"

A grin slowly spread across her face, equal parts confidence and excitement.

"I'll try."

Over the course of the fight, Ava had already identified at least three distinct patterns in the shorter Hollow's movements. The first was its explosive burst of speed, launching itself straight at its target. The second was the wide circling maneuver it used to build momentum before striking again. The third came whenever it was forced onto the defensive—a swift evasive step immediately followed by a coordinated attack with both shortswords. Outside of those habits, its offense was highly instinctive, relying on straightforward slashes and thrusts, while its defensive reactions had become increasingly predictable.

The Hollow lunged again, driving both serrated blades toward Ava in perfect unison.

Clang!

She caught one with her stiletto dagger while her rapier intercepted the other, the two weapons moving independently in her hands. The instant the exchange ended, the Hollow sprang backward, putting several meters between them.

There it is again.

It always retreated after a close exchange.

This time, however, it angled its escape toward the high elf's group.

"Oh, no you don't."

Ava pushed off the ground without hesitation.

Tap!

She closed the gap almost immediately, her rapier darting forward in a sharp thrust that forced the Hollow to stop and twist aside instead of continuing its retreat.

Just what she wanted.

By now, shallow stab wounds littered the Hollow's torso, each one leaking dark blood that stained its tattered clothing. At Stage Three, Hollowed still bled much like living creatures, and judging from everything they'd witnessed so far, the high elf's healing seemed to require both proximity and a relatively stationary target. As long as Ava kept forcing it to react, that healing would never come.

Unfortunately for it, stopping to deal with her meant something else entirely.

It had become so focused on Ava that it had all but forgotten there was another opponent on the battlefield.

A sharp crack echoed through the plaza.

The sound of glass shattering reached Ava's ears, and a knowing grin spread across her face.

Perfect timing.

Hidden beneath both stealth and Shadow Concealment, Lucien had been waiting patiently for exactly this moment. The instant the Hollow's attention settled entirely on Ava, he had stepped in and thrown the Hollowed Disruption Compound.

The creature never even noticed.

Its broad back had been turned toward him in less than five meters away.

The vial burst across its back, spraying the compound over its body.

“...!”

Immediately, its entire body spasmed violently, muscles locking and twitching in erratic convulsions as the compound disrupted the Corruption flowing through it.

"Leave this one to me!"

Lucien burst from concealment at a sprint.

Before the Hollow could recover, he closed the remaining distance in an instant and drove one dagger deep into its throat from the front while the other shot upward into its eye, angling the blade toward the brain in a single, fluid motion.

Just die!

The thought flashed through Lucien's mind as he wrenched both daggers free in one sharp motion and immediately sprang backward.

Dark blood sprayed from the wounds.

The Hollow remained standing for several seconds longer, its body still wracked by violent spasms as the disruption compound continued wreaking havoc inside it. Its limbs jerked uncontrollably before all strength finally abandoned it.

Thud.

It collapsed face-first onto the stone pavement without moving again.

Lucien let out a slow breath, forcing his pulse to settle as the adrenaline gradually ebbed.

"What was that thing you threw?" Ava asked, flicking a glance toward the corpse before looking back at him.

"A Hollowed-stun vial Seren made," Lucien replied, catching his breath. "I've only got one left."

He wished he carried more.

Unfortunately, the compound was expensive to produce, and after wasting one during the fight against the Hollow Knight, he hadn't wanted to risk throwing another away unless he was confident it would land.

"If you're done over there, help us!"

Isolde's voice rang across the plaza, clear enough to cut through the sounds of battle.

"I'll be right there!" Lucien shouted back.

Ava let out an amused sigh as she turned on her heel.

"She's really loud, isn't she?"

With that, she was already sprinting toward Kira's position.

Lucien's attention followed.

The Inferni had somehow regained the initiative.

It shifted its weight onto its front foot, lowering one shoulder while drawing its broadsword low behind its back. Its posture coiled like a spring before it exploded forward.

WHOOSH!

The massive blade carved through the air in a sweeping one-hundred-eighty-degree slash. Although the broadsword itself was shorter than Kira's bastard sword, the Inferni compensated by lunging aggressively into the swing, extending its entire upper body and forcing the Wolfkin to hop backward with an irritated click of his tongue.

The pressure didn't stop there.

The Inferni pulled its free fist back against its chest and flowed into another sequence without the slightest hesitation.

Clang!

A brutal overhead chop crashed down first, and Kira managed to catch it with his own blade.

The moment the weapons rebounded, the Inferni twisted its wrists, turning the ricochet into a rising diagonal slash.

Shhk!

The edge tore across Kira's side before he could fully recover his stance.

"Gh—!"

Before the Wolfkin could even react to the wound, a thick crimson fist shot forward.

Thump!

The punch slammed squarely into his face, snapping his head backward.

"Hey!"

Ava's voice cut across the plaza as she burst into the exchange.

"Don't die just yet, Wolf Kid!"

She slipped into range impossibly fast, her rapier becoming little more than silver flashes.

Shhk! Shhk! Shhk!

One thrust darted toward the Inferni's thigh.

The next shot toward its armpit.

The third lunged straight for its throat.

Lucien had watched Ava fight a couple of times now, yet the speed of her thrusts still amazed him. She could unleash three precise attacks in barely a second, each one flowing seamlessly into the next without sacrificing accuracy.

Despite taking a thrust squarely through the neck, the Inferni showed no sign of faltering. Instead, it planted its feet and immediately launched into the same brutal three-hit sequence it had used against Kira.

The broadsword came crashing down in a heavy overhead chop.

Ava slipped to the side before it could reach her.

The blade smashed into the stone with a deafening—

BOOM!

Fragments of rock scattered across the plaza.

The Inferni wrenched the sword free and, using the recoil, whipped it into a rising diagonal slash.

Whoosh!

Ava leaned back for the edge to slice harmlessly through the air in front of her face before gliding another step away, her expression as relaxed as ever.

Watching from Kira's left, Lucien's attention flicked past the duel and landed on the high elf.

She was moving.

"Ava!" he shouted. "Watch out for the elf!"

The warning reached her just as the high elf raised her staff.

This time, the crystal didn't glow.

Instead, it darkened.

The deep blue gem turned pitch-black, swallowing the surrounding light until it resembled a tiny hole carved into reality itself.

Ava reacted instantly.

Fwoosh.

Her body dissolved into shadow, disappearing from where she stood before reappearing beside Lucien in the blink of an eye.

Not even half a second later—

Crack!

A cluster of jagged black threads lashed across the ground where she'd been standing. They spread over the stone like thin, invisible wires before suddenly snapping upward into a dense web of thorn-like strands that twisted through the air, leaving a deadly snare hanging in empty space.

Ava clicked her tongue.

"You know, I don't have enough energy to keep throwing around these shadow skills forever."

Lucien kept his eyes on the battlefield.

"Can't you use that to attack the elf from inside the shadows?"

Ava gave him a flat look.

"And lose my arm to the bearkin? No, thank you."

She gestured subtly toward the towering Hollow without taking her eyes off it.

"Besides, I'd have to materialize completely before I could merge into the shadows again. That leaves me exposed."

"...Sounds rough."

Lucien let out a quiet sigh.

His gaze shifted back across the plaza just in time to see the Inferni retreat behind the beastkin once more.

The high elf immediately planted her staff into the ground.

Golden and obsidian Threads spiraled around the crystal as soft elven humming drifted through the plaza, and the wounds covering the Inferni's body began knitting together again.

Lucien's jaw tightened.

Not far away, Isolde clenched her teeth hard enough for the muscles along her jaw to tense for some reason, while Sylphie was already channeling healing magic over Kira's battered face.

They need to change their situation.