Chapter 85: Mallko's Resolve and the Abyss Lector's Arrival
Lumine swiped her hand through the air, dismissing the holographic group chat interface. A quiet sigh slipped past her lips, the tight knot of tension in her chest finally loosening. The unwavering support of her multiversal companions felt like a steady anchor, lifting the invisible weight that had been pressing down on her shoulders.
She turned her golden gaze toward Kachina. "How are you holding up?" she asked softly. "Can you still keep going?"
Kachina drew in a deep, shuddering breath and forced herself to stand tall. The sickly pallor that had previously clung to her cheeks was fading, replaced by a faint, healthy flush. The familiar, burning resolve of a true warrior reignited within her wide eyes.
"I'm fine," the young girl declared, her voice steadying. "Let's go save the Wayob right now!"
Before they could take another step, Mallko stepped into their path. The ancient warrior had been silently guarding their flank, but now, his spectral form flickered violently. His spirit body had grown dangerously translucent. Faint, glowing specks of golden light drifted away from the edges of his silhouette, dissolving into the cold cavern air like embers in the wind.
"I will see you off here," Mallko announced. His voice was low, carrying a calm, quiet relief that echoed through the hollow space.
"Mallko?" Mualani blinked, her eyes widening in alarm as she took in his fading form. "You... your body..."
The spectral warrior simply shook his head. A gentle, ethereal smile touched his lips.
"My time has come," he said softly. "Forcibly awakening from the slumber of the earth and maintaining my consciousness just to help you find Kachina... it has exhausted whatever strength I had left."
He cast a brief glance over his shoulder, peering into the suffocating darkness of the cavern. "Worse still, the Abyss Lector that has been hunting this child is still lurking in the shadows. The danger has not passed. Someone must stay behind to hold the line and buy you the time you need."
Lumine stared at Mallko's disintegrating soul, a sudden pang tightening her chest. Her mind raced, flashing back to the peculiar item she had recently pulled from the system's lottery—the Human Emperor Flag. The system description had explicitly stated it possessed the power to shelter heroic spirits and nourish shattered souls.
Without a second thought, she reached her hand into the empty air. A brilliant flash of light erupted from her palm, and an ancient, majestic war banner materialized in her grasp.
The heavy fabric of the flag unfurled on its own, snapping sharply despite the lack of wind. A faint, warm golden radiance bled from the material. Countless microscopic runes flowed across its surface like liquid gold, radiating a deep, ancient power that instantly soothed the turbulent spiritual energy in the cave.
"Mallko!" Lumine stepped forward, presenting the towering banner before the fading warrior.
"If you are willing, you can enter this flag. It will protect your soul and stop you from dissipating completely. Once we fight our way out of here and return to a safe place..."
She didn't need to finish the sentence. Her intent was crystal clear. Beside her, Mualani and Wise watched with bated breath, their eyes filled with desperate hope.
Mallko's gaze locked onto the Human Emperor Flag. As the golden light washed over his translucent face, a look of deep peace settled over his features. The artifact's aura seemed to wrap him in a long-lost warmth, a tranquility he had not felt since his mortal days.
A flurry of complex emotions danced in his spectral eyes—deep gratitude, a bitter-sweet nostalgia, and finally, absolute clarity.
He gently shook his head. His smile remained warm, but it was now tempered with the unbreakable resolve of a veteran warrior who had long since made his peace with death.
"Thank you, Lumine," he murmured. "This banner... it embodies the purest will of protection. I can feel its warmth. It is a magnificent artifact. But... there is no need."
Ignoring their stunned, anxious expressions, Mallko offered a calm explanation.
"I died in battle a very long time ago. My body has already returned to the dust of Natlan. To be granted this brief awakening, to have the chance to say a final farewell to Vichama... that alone is a mercy from fate I never expected."
He looked toward the young, teary-eyed warrior. "More, I was able to personally help you pull Kachina back from the clutches of the Abyss. That is my greatest fortune. My heart is completely satisfied. My mission ends here."
His glowing eyes shifted back to Lumine, burning with quiet intensity. "My path has reached its natural end. To be able to hold the line for you, to protect Kachina's retreat one last time on my final journey... this is my ultimate glory as a warrior. It is the best farewell I could ever ask for."
Lumine's fingers tightened around the shaft of the Human Emperor Flag. Through the smooth metal, she could feel a faint, pulsing yearning radiating from the artifact itself. The banner instinctively wanted to shelter this pure, unyielding heroic spirit.
Yet, Mallko's refusal was absolute. It was the final, conscious choice of a proud soul, a decision that commanded absolute respect and allowed no interference.
"There is no time to hesitate!" Mallko's voice suddenly boomed through the cavern, echoing with ironclad authority.
A razor-sharp aura erupted from his fading silhouette. It was the terrifying, indomitable pressure of a true hero, burning just as fiercely as it had when he walked the earth. The golden specks of light that had been drifting away from his body suddenly reversed, forcibly condensing back into his spectral form through sheer, stubborn willpower.
"Leave the rear to me!"
His conviction was an impenetrable wall. The words of persuasion died in Mualani's throat. Wise offered a solemn nod of respect.
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Lumine dismissed the Human Emperor Flag. The warm golden glow vanished, plunging the cavern back into its oppressive gloom.
Without looking back, Lumine and the others sprinted down the dark, twisting tunnels, following Kachina's frantic directions toward the trapped Wayob's manifestation.
Their boots slammed against the rocky floor, echoing through the mountain passages until the narrow tunnel finally opened up into a massive, hollowed-out cavern.
In the dead center of the chamber stood a colossal obsidian totem.
Under normal circumstances, the Wayob's totem would have been a solemn, sacred symbol of Natlan's enduring spirit. Now, it was a horrifying sight. Viscous, inky tendrils of Abyssal energy wrapped tightly around the smooth black stone like parasitic vines.
Dense clouds of suffocating black mist billowed from the corrupted surface, flooding the cavern with a bone-chilling malice and the rancid, metallic stench of decay.
"Wayob..."
Kachina stared up at the desecrated monument, her voice cracking with raw sorrow and desperate urgency.
Through her connection to the Night Kingdom, she could feel it. The warm, guiding consciousness that had always protected her tribe was drowning. It was buried deep beneath an ocean of endless agony and suffocating darkness, so suppressed that it could not even muster the strength to send back a single flicker of response.
"The Abyssal erosion has dug too deep," Lumine said, her expression hardening into a mask of cold focus. She summoned her blade, the metal ringing sharply in the damp air. "We have to purify it right now!"
Mualani was already moving. She summoned her shark surfboard, the Hydro element condensing around her in a swirling, high-pressure vortex. "Right! There is no time to lose, we need to—"
Before the Hydro catalyst could finish her sentence, the air pressure in the cavern violently collapsed.
Directly behind the corrupted totem, the fabric of reality tore open. Two jagged, ominous purple spatial rifts slashed through the air, bleeding a toxic, violet light into the gloom.
The suffocating pressure of the Abyss crashed over them like a tidal wave as two figures stepped out from the void.
Leading the charge was a towering Abyss Lector. His dark, ornate robes billowed around his floating form, radiating a repulsive, suffocating aura of absolute arrogance.
The moment he materialized, his glowing, hollow eyes locked dead onto Kachina. A sharp, grating cackle ripped from his throat, echoing off the cavern walls like scraping metal.
"Heh... well, well, well. Look who we have here," the Lector sneered, his voice dripping with venom. "If it isn't our little Kachina. What? Did you really think clinging to life under that pathetic, fragile little shield would actually change anything?"
The monster drifted closer, his tone swelling with mocking superiority. "And that weak, pathetic soul you left behind! Overestimating its own worth, actually believing that burning away its last miserable remnants could stall the inevitable advance of the Abyss!"
He threw his head back. "Utterly ridiculous! It didn't even leave a ripple in the dark! He was crushed like an insect, completely and utterly... vanished into thin air! Hahahahaha!"
Comonqui's deranged laughter bounced around the cavern, thick with sadistic malice.
He completely ignored Lumine, Wise, and Mualani, his twisted attention entirely focused on driving verbal daggers into the young warrior's heart.
"Look at your pathetic, trembling self!" Comonqui mocked, gesturing wildly with his clawed hands. "So what if you inherited an Ancient Name? What did Mavuika, your precious Pyro Archon, actually give you? Nothing but a hollow title destined for the grave, and a sickeningly false sense of hope!"
Dark energy crackled around the Lector's fingertips as he spat the words. "She is merely using you! Throwing you so-called heroes into the meat grinder to fuel her unreachable pipe dream! A selfish, delusional god, and a cowardly, weeping successor... truly a match made in the heavens!"
Kachina's small frame trembled violently beneath the weight of Comonqui's hysterical laughter. But it wasn't fear shaking her bones. It was pure, unadulterated fury. It was the agonizing sorrow of hearing a noble sacrifice desecrated by a monster.
'Mr. Mallko burned his very soul to give us this chance...!'
Before the darkness could take root in her mind, a warm, steady hand clamped down firmly on her shoulder.
Mualani stepped up beside her. The usually cheerful and breezy Hydro user was gone. In her place stood a fierce warrior of the People of the Springs, her eyes narrowed into dangerous, razor-sharp slits as she glared daggers at the Abyss Lector.
"Shut your rotting mouth!" Mualani's voice cracked like a whip, echoing with unyielding power. "A filthy creature crawling in the dark has no right to speculate on the will of Natlan, nor the convictions of the Pyro Archon!"
She shifted her gaze to the trembling girl beside her. The lethal edge in her voice melted away instantly, replaced by an overwhelming, unshakable warmth.
"Kachina," Mualani said softly, squeezing her shoulder. "The path you have walked, the sheer grit and persistence you have shown... we have all witnessed it. Do not let this abyssal filth poison your heart."
Mualani raised her catalyst, the Hydro energy roaring to life around her in a brilliant, glowing halo. "Stand tall. Let us show this monster our true strength!"
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