Chapter 70: THE SACRIFICE
The vial of golden-red blood pulsed in Shia’s grip like a second heartbeat, its glow illuminating her face in the fractured darkness of the beacon’s core. Time stretched into an excruciating pause as the battle raged around her. The dying screams of soldiers melded with the wet, tearing sounds of corruption taking hold in flesh. Yet all Shia could focus on was Reed’s distorted face—half transformed into something alien, half clinging to humanity—and the impossible choice before her.
"Commander!" Krev shouted, his evolved goblin form holding back two corrupted defenders with inhuman strength. "We have no time! The structure is collapsing!"
As if to emphasize his point, a massive tremor shook the chamber. Crystalline growths shattered from the ceiling, impaling one of her elite guards with jagged, blood-red shards. His screams morphed into gurgles as corruption immediately spread from the wound, transforming his flesh before their eyes.
Decision made, Shia secured the vial in a protected pouch at her hip.
"Fall back!" she commanded. "We take Reed with us!"
Her elite team moved with practiced precision, engaging the remaining defenders while Shia approached Reed’s suspended form. The tendrils connecting him to the structure pulsed and writhed, sensing her approach.
"Cut him down," she ordered.
As blades severed the fleshy connections, a psychic scream tore through their minds—Vrashtor’kaal’s rage manifesting as pure psychic agony. Several soldiers dropped to their knees, blood streaming from their eyes and ears. Reed’s body convulsed violently as the last connections were severed, then went limp.
Krev caught Reed’s transformed body before it could hit the ground. "He still lives," the goblin warrior confirmed. "But what lives within him..."
"Move!" Shia commanded, cutting off further speculation. "The containment team awaits us."
They retreated through the fracturing structure, fighting their way back through waves of increasingly desperate defenders. The corruption seemed to be losing coherence—the creatures attacking with less coordination, more blind fury. Without Reed at its center, the beacon’s purpose had been disrupted.