"Okay, I'll go first," Kaito grumbled, limping away from the shiny barrier of the first Reality Anchor.
The ancient guardian inside, now just a faint flicker, had pointed them to the next Anchor.
"This place officially sucks. Hard. At least the air back home only smelled like pollution and desperation. Here it smells like… evil flowers and regret." He shivered, pulling his worn jacket tighter. "And my board's still busted. So much for style points."
Elara, her face etched with exhaustion, gave a weak smile.
"I suppose 'regret' is a surprisingly accurate description of the pervasive despair. My light feels… constantly under assault. It's like trying to sing against a monstrous roar."
She looked at the distant, swirling green and purple sky, then at the undulating ground.
"And this terrain… It's alive. In a deeply unsettling way."
Kenji adjusted his trench coat. The Heart of the Eclipse weighed heavily on his chest, pressing down like a constant burden.
His System showed the next Reality Anchor as a dim blue pulse far away, across a strange landscape.
His Corruption Influence meter was a persistent, angry red, hovering precariously at [CRITICAL! Sustained exposure degrades vessel integrity. Caution Advised!].
He had to be careful. Every burst of power here felt like tearing a piece of himself off.
They moved.
Kaito, with his limp, led the way. His sharp eyes scanned the damaged land. The ground itself was a nightmare.
It wasn't flat. It pulsed and undulated. Sometimes, it opened into deep pits filled with glowing, toxic sludge.
It was sickening. Walls of pulsating, sticky blight stuck up from the ground. They looked like grotesque organic coral. This forced them to take winding paths.
"Watch your step, healer-girl!" Kaito yelled, pointing with a gloved hand.
"That patch? It's not solid. It's a Blight-mimic! Sink into that and you'll be dissolving faster than my social life."
He sprang onto a crumbling spire of hardened blight. He used surprising agility, despite his limp. Then, he looked back expectantly.
"There's a clear path up here! No giant acid flowers, promise!"
Elara sighed, but followed, her steps careful. Her direct offensive light was still weak.
However, her sensitivity to the Blight had sharpened. She'd flinch when she saw a dangerous patch of ground or a mimic-blight hiding in the twisting landscape. Warning shimmers glowed around her.
"The energy… It's radiating from beneath us. A concentrated pocket of malevolence. Don't walk on that, Kenji! My light feels… repulsed by it!"
Kenji trusted her. He shifted his weight, Shadow Stepping around the indicated patch of ground.
He was a silent, lethal guardian for them, his senses tuned to the threats that emerged from the twisted landscape. The creatures here were a new kind of horror.
They faced Mimic-Blights, strange shapes of chitin and flesh. They mixed well with the plants around them.
You could only see them when they lunged, their forms shifting like shadows. Kenji made quick, sharp Dark Slashes. He aimed for vital points to save energy.
Each swing felt like a drain.
Then came the Gravity-Twisters. Shimmering, formless masses floated above the damaged land. They caused strange changes in gravity.
One moment, Kenji felt weightless. His footing was unsure as he floated over a deep chasm.
Next, he'd be slammed down by immense gravity, making movement agonizing.
"They're messing with the physics of this place!" Kaito yelled and flailed as he floated up.
Then he dropped hard, barely catching himself on a sharp spire.
"This isn't fair! My tech was not designed for zero-G combat against… whatever that is!"
Elara concentrated. A faint shield of Lumina light surrounded Kaito, softening his fall a bit.
"I can provide some stabilization! But it drains me rapidly! Kenji, target the center of their mass! Their control seems to be weakest there!"
Her voice was strained, her light flickering from the effort.
Kenji nodded, focusing his will. The Heart of the Eclipse roared. It offered great power and promised to tear apart gravity's fabric itself.
He pushed it down. He couldn't afford to lose control here. He used a concentrated Void Bolt, not to annihilate, but to disrupt the Gravity-Twister's core.
The creature shrieked. Its shimmering form twisted, and then gravity returned to normal. Kaito tumbled to the ground with a grunt.
They pressed on, exhaustion gnawing at them.
The landscape seemed endless, each new section presenting a fresh nightmare. The air felt thicker and heavier.
The distant, pulsing core of the Blight seemed closer now, its evil almost tangible.
They arrived at a huge canyon. Its walls were marked with glowing green runes. Raw blight energy flowed through them.
A huge, multi-limbed creature stood on the chasm's floor. It was easily twice their size, and its powerful form rippled with energy.
It was a Blight-Construct, a guardian of the dimension's depths, made of corrupted energy.
"That thing looks like it ate a few mountains for breakfast," Kaito said, his sarcasm fading to pure awe.
"And it's between us and… that next Anchor. Of course."
As they went down into the canyon, the Blight-Construct roared. Its many limbs stretched out, with tentacles that had sharp claws at the ends. It was a direct, intelligent threat.
Kenji felt the pull from the Blight, a primal, violent urge to meet force with overwhelming force.
His Corruption Influence meter slammed into red. [WARNING! CORRUPTION CRITICAL!]
"Elara, Kaito, hold it off!" Kenji yelled, his voice raw.
He had to go in close, had to find a weakness. He dodged a sweeping claw, feeling the wind of its passage.
"It's too strong to fight head-on! There has to be a weakness!"
He activated Shadow Step, appearing directly on the construct's massive, blighted arm.
"I'm trying, ghost-boy! But this thing hits like a freight train made of broken dreams!"
Kaito shouted and fired a bunch of explosive charges. They hit the construct's hide but barely made it flinch.
Elara fired a strong beam of Lumina light at the construct's chest. There, a faint, green core pulsed.
Her light, though weak, seemed to cause the construct immense pain.
"It's core! It's a weakness! My light… it feels like it's binding to the core's resonance!" she yelled, her voice strained.
Kenji saw it. The core pulsed, a visible vulnerability. He ignored the agonizing pain in his Shadow Brand, ignored the roaring whispers.
He channeled everything he had, not into a destructive blast, but into a single, focused point.
Dark Slash! He brought Shadowfang down, aiming for the core. The blade sank deep, piercing the blighted heart.
The Blight-Construct shrieked, a sound that made the very air vibrate. Its huge shape shuddered.
Then it started to break apart, turning into a swirling mix of black smoke and foul green liquid.
Kenji stumbled back, panting. His body shook from the effort and the inner fight. His Corruption Influence meter slowly began to drop from critical.
A thin line of green appeared at the bottom. He had pushed it. Too far.
He looked at the exhausted faces of Elara and Kaito. They had made it. Barely. The next Reality Anchor, a faint blue shimmer, was visible in the distance.
"We made it," Kaito breathed, collapsing onto the blighted ground.
"Don't ask me how. My guts are still trying to rearrange themselves. And my new jacket is ruined."
Elara, her hands pressed to her temples, swayed slightly.
"The guardian… its energy is almost gone. What happened here? This place… It's a living nightmare."
Kenji, still affected by the Corruption Influence, pushed away the insidious whispers. He looked at the next, even more distant blue dot on his blank map.
"We're here. Barely. But this isn't over. Not by a long shot."
A low, guttural growl came from the wasteland beyond the Anchor's weak barrier.
"Looks like our welcome wagon decided to stick around."