The purification ritual for Echo's mark was intricate. Mira used rare herbs, Leyla channeled her new moon-energy to sever the curse's ties, and Kiera provided a stabilizing crystal from her vaults.
They were in a secluded clearing near Whisperwood, the ritual circles drawn in glowing pollen. As the final incantation was spoken, the black mark on Echo's forearm shattered like glass and evaporated.
He sighed in relief. The constant ache was gone.
Then the air froze.
Not with cold. With presence.
From the tree line, the surviving wolf-kin from the gorge emerged, led by the shaman who had placed the mark. But behind them walked a figure that was not beast-kin.
It was tall, slender, and humanoid, but its skin had the translucent, crystalline quality of quartz. It wore no clothes, only shifting patterns of dark light that crawled over its form. Its face was smooth, featureless save for two pits of swirling violet emptiness where eyes should be.
Corrupted Scout.
The word surfaced in Echo's mind from nowhere, carried on a wave of instinctual revulsion.
It raised a hand, and its voice echoed, not from a mouth, but from the space around it, layered with dissonant whispers. "Anomaly located. Signal amplified by curse-break. Begin extraction."
The wolf-kin shaman chanted, throwing a wave of binding energy. Leyla moved to intercept, but the Corrupted Scout was faster. It flickered, appearing beside Mira.
Its touch was a negative image of life. Where its fingers brushed Mira's arm, her skin greyed, withering like a crushed leaf. She cried out, falling back, her life-force draining.
Rage, hot and cosmic, flooded Echo. He charged, but the Scout backhanded him without looking. The impact felt like being hit by a falling star. He crashed into a tree, vision swimming.
The Scout loomed over Mira, its hand extending toward her heart. "Organic component. Useful biomass."
No.
Echo's anomaly-core flared. His Error-Sight didn't just show glitches this time — it showed the Scout's core architecture. A swirling vortex of resentment-energy, a knot of stolen lives and devoured worlds, held together by corrupted logic.
He couldn't fight that. But he could disrupt it.
He reached for Mira through their bond, not to awaken her further, but to connect. He poured his will, his desperation, his own spark of anomalous life into her.
[ Deepening Bond with Mira: Emotional Breakthrough ]
[ Bond: Mira – Level 2 Achieved ]
[ BP +2 ]
Her pain-glazed eyes met his. In that shared look, she understood.
She didn't try to heal herself. She focused on the Scout's core, the chaotic knot his sight showed her through their link. With a gasp of effort, she didn't open a portal away. She opened one inside.
A tiny, perfect rip in space appeared within the Scout's chest.
The effect was instantaneous and horrific. The unstable corrupted energy vortex imploded, trying to fill the spatial void. The Scout froze, its featureless face somehow conveying shock. The violet light in its eye-pits flared, then inverted.
"ERROR. CONTAINMENT BREACH. SELF-ANNIHILATION PROTOCOL—"
It didn't finish. Its crystalline body cracked, then dissolved into a shower of grey ash and a fading scream of a thousand voices.
The silence that followed was deafening.
The wolf-kin shaman stared, his chant dying in his throat. He looked from the pile of ash to Echo, who was struggling to his feet, his eyes burning with unnatural light.
"M-monster…" the shaman whispered, then turned and fled, his warriors scrambling after him.
Echo stumbled to Mira, who was pale but alive, the withering on her arm slowly receding. Leyla was at their side in an instant.
"What… was that?" Leyla asked, her voice trembling.
Before Echo could answer, the pile of ash stirred. A final wisp of violet energy rose, forming a fleeting, hate-filled face. It hissed words that scratched at the mind:
"The Corrupted Legion… has your scent, Anomaly. We are… infinite. We are… hunger. We… are… coming."