4.11: Corrupted Connections
As my ice shards flew at Aetheros, he suddenly unleashed a powerful vortex with the flick of his wrist, not only blocking my attack, but redirecting it back at me.
Wait…. What? Why am I suddenly the {Main Character}? Allie said there wouldn’t be any more chapters from others’ perspectives for awhile…
A sudden wrenching feeling tore through my gut like a barbed fishhook, and my mind was immediately filled with a sense that something was wrong with Allie. In my completely distracted state, the shards of ice that had been deflected towards me struck me with significant force, knocking me back and taking a huge chunk of my HP along with it. Fortunately the ice shards themselves absorbed directly into my body, which sent my HP and MP regeneration skyrocketing. I opened my character menu with one of my hands and clicked the icon to forfeit my current match. I looked up where my opponent was still floating in the air and gave him an apologetic look.
“Sorry about this, something is wrong with my fiancée! I’ll make sure you’re awarded full points for this match. Again... Sorry!”
I was teleported to the clan respawn zone where I was met by Tifa and Tesrif. The tall warrior woman moved over to me with a look of trepidation obvious on her face.
"Something's wrong with Lady Allexus. Judging from the expressions you both have, you felt it too. We need to—”
Hana suddenly appeared at our side, extreme distress showing through her normally controlled emotional state.
“The last thing I saw before my feed to the throne room cut out was that weird NPC entering through the door. Since then, I haven’t been able to either see inside or project a copy of myself into the room. It’s like there’s something blocking me. I… Em-Emelia… We need to get to her.”
I tried to put on a brave face for the other women standing near me, but I knew they could see the fear worming its way through my mind. I grabbed Hana’s hand in mine and turned towards Tifa.
“Tif, Tesrif, let’s go find Gehenna. If she doesn’t already know what’s happening, I’m sure she at least has a solution for what to do. Hana, can you direct us to where she is?”
Hana pursed her lips slightly and let out a long sigh.
“I had to convince her not to attempt to force her way into the throne room. She is waiting just outside. Scythe, Jade, Judas, Areandra, and Nialla are also on their way.”
It didn’t take me long to figure out that everyone Hana had mentioned was someone Allie had a [Bond of Corruption] with or some sort of connection through her corruption ability. It seemed that those of us who shared a connection to her could sense that she was in grave danger. As we drew closer to the throne room, the foreboding feeling in my chest grew more and more intense. Normally I could feel a swell in my power the closer I was to Allie, but now it felt like a void where that warm glow should have been. After turning the last corner, my eyes locked onto Gehenna’s and she rushed over in an absolute panic.
“Emelia. What do we do? I can’t get through the doors. I can’t lose her, Emelia. This isn’t like when she logs off. It feels like my connection to her has been entirely severed. Do you… do you feel anything? I know you have that ability that connects you to her.”
Instead of answering the desperate woman’s pleas, I took both of her hands into mine and gave her a reassuring smile.
“Hey, we’re gonna figure this out. Panicking won’t do us any good. We need to figure out a way to get inside first. Let’s focus on doing that and we’ll go from there, yeah?”
Gehenna drew in a steadying breath and nodded several times before adopting a look of determination.
“You’re right. You’re right. Well… How can I help? Hana, any suggestions?”
Hana moved from behind me up to the large door that was the entrance to Allie’s PvP room and studied it intently. She tilted her head to the side and let out several irritated grunts before turning back towards us. Her eyes drifted to someone coming down the hall, and I turned to see the others she had mentioned coming this way.
“Areandra and Scythe, can you come here? I need your assistance studying these enchantments. It seems as if they’ve been… for lack of a better word… corrupted. Not like Allie’s kind of corruption. Like… some kind of bug in the actual coding of the game.”
That immediately piqued my interest and I also moved closer to the door to inspect whatever it was that Hana was referring to. She gave me an inquisitive look as I closed the distance between us.
“Writing code for video games is... kinda my thing. I may not be able to help with the enchantment side of things, but if there’s a bug in the software I can definitely take a look.”
Hana immediately nodded and pointed to a small glowing circle I hadn’t noticed before. As I looked at the strange runic circle I began to see what Hana was talking about. Lines of odd text written in computer code were interspersed with symbols that were unfamiliar to me. The longer I studied the peculiar coding, the more my head began to swim. After a few moments I heard one of the others say something to me, but everything seemed distant and muffled. I looked over at Areandra, who was standing next to me, and shook my head to clear it.
“Sorry, what?”
“I can’t make heads or tails with the enchantment side of things… any luck with the coding aspect? I definitely recognized a few lines of code that… honestly made no sense. The more I looked at it the more I felt… off.”
I nodded at Areandra and knitted my brows before standing up straight and turning back to Gehenna.
“Gehenna, do you know of any being able to literally fuck with the coding of the game?”
“Other than Allie herself… no.”
I was about to let out an exasperated sigh when the sound of a door handle turning and the creak of hinges opening drew everyone’s attention. Areandra and Scythe gave each other a confused look before looking back at the rest of us.
“We didn’t do that. It just… opened on its own.”
While the event of the previously inaccessible door being suddenly opened without explanation should have been concerning, I was far more worried about the state of my fiancée. The others seem to share my sentiment as we all rushed inside the room. As we made our way down the long walkway that led up to the throne platform, I was able to see the unconscious form of the love of my life. Without thinking I floated up into the air and flew over to her at top speed. Gehenna must have done the same thing, as she landed softly next to me. Nialla, who, of course, moved faster than anyone was able to follow, was already crouched over Allie and looking her over from head to toe as Gehenna and I moved closer to them.
As I studied my fiancée’s face intently, she wore an expression of intense pain. I looked back towards Jade who was rapidly making her way up the stairs. As one of our clan’s healers and a nursing student, I knew that she would help Allie in any way she could. Instead of moving over to help her, however, I saw Jade’s entire body suddenly stiffen up. Her red eyes began to glow an even more intense crimson and her elongated fangs extended even further. The nails on her hands turned into claws, and a primal expression of predatory hunger filled her face. Tifa immediately sensed the change in her girlfriend, and with a pair of large scaly muscular arms she attempted to pull her away from the area. Spears of blood erupted from the ground and impaled Tifa from multiple angles, and Jade easily slipped out from her grasp. She took three steps towards Allie before a sudden eruption of red fire struck her like a bomb. The force of the explosion knocked me off my feet, and I turned back towards Gehenna as I floated back to the ground slowly. The blonde demon woman was standing with her hand outstretched and a look of fierce determination on her face.
“We do not have time for… whatever that was. Hopefully the respawn enchantments are still active… but even if they are not… she should not be at any risk of reset as long as she stays away from here.”
I wanted to remark about the harshness of Gehenna’s actions and words, but what she did had resolved whatever was happening before it got out of control. I locked eyes with the shapeshifter who was still reeling from the sudden attack, and subsequent blast of fire. As she freed herself from the solidified blood spears, she looked back at me with a flurry of emotions.
“Tifa, go check on Jade. Make sure she’s alright, but also… keep her there. We don’t want a repeat of… that.”
I could tell she wanted to argue, but Tifa took one look at Gehenna and merely nodded, her form shifting to a lithe demon wolf as she jumped off the throne platform. She hit the ground running, and quickly exited the room. Gehenna moved back to Allie’s side and held her hand over her body. A faint golden light poured from her palm and flowed into Allie, who stirred slightly.
“It seems she just passed out from whatever was causing her so much pain. She appears to be in perfect health… but something about her blood is… off. When I study it closer with my magic I get the same strange sensations that I got from the enchantments on the door.”
I nodded my head slowly as I considered everything and knelt down next to Nialla and Allie. I scooted on my butt so that I was near Allie’s head, and Nialla helped me lift it into my lap. I bent down and kissed her forehead softly and began to slowly caress her cheek.
“Come back to me, baby. You got everyone really worried, Allison. Please come back to me, my love.”
I repeated these words over and over again like a mantra, hoping that they could break through whatever unconscious state my fiancée was in and bring her back to me.
==========
“Holy fucking shitballs, Batman!”
As I sat up suddenly, the last memory I had was of something that caused me to… black out? I looked around and found that I was laying in the huge bed in my room next to Gehenna and Emelia, while Nialla was spooning Em from behind. As the others felt me stir and heard my sudden exclamation, they all sat up and began showering me with hugs and kisses.
“I’m OK. I’m—oomph! Too much… tit! Can’t breathe!”
We all giggled as my lovers slowly released me from their death grips, and I looked at each of them in turn. My brows knitted slightly as I saw that Hana was not with us, and I was just about to open my mouth to call for her when she suddenly appeared on the bed right in front of me. While her appearance should have startled me, I somehow knew that she was going to appear right then. She gave me an uncharacteristically large smile and shifted on the bed so that she could embrace me tightly. She surprised me by planting soft kisses all over my face before kissing me passionately on the lips. As she pulled away, I saw tears in her heterochromatic eyes.
“I was so scared, Allie. As soon as I felt something blocking me from the room, I knew something was wrong. Are… are you OK?”
I let out a deep sigh as I tried to recall the events that led up to me losing consciousness. I remember telling Hana to send in the strange NPC, I remember a plain looking woman’s face. Strange symbols… and then… pain. As I struggled to recall more than that, a memory of something appearing on my screen before I passed out popped into my mind. I quickly opened my character menu and flipped over to the character skill screen. I scrolled through the lengthy list until I came across one I had never seen before. I clicked on it and read the incredibly vague and cryptic description.
[Corrupted Essence]
Passive †̸̨̨͇̳̳̥͈̘̻̳̈̔̀̋̀̂̂͝ͅͅͅ ̸̛̳̘͖̻̩͕̿̈́̃͝ɣ̵̢͈̲̼͗̐̓̌̿̔̔̍̇̕͝ͅϙ̴̧̡̧̡̫̮͍͉̬̟̟̪͙̬̖͕̮̇̽͒̀͒̀̀̑͆̐̀͘̚Ψ̷̧̨̡̛͖͚̙̜̝̺͙̺̙̣̤̲̀͊͒̉̂̎̌̔̋̓͑̀͆̚ Ability: Your blood is the wellspring of corruption itself.
I swiped my hand to swing the screen around towards the others, and they all read it several times before looking back up at me.
“OK… that’s… fucking weird. And… cryptic as all fuck.”
I turned towards Nialla as she spoke and nodded my head. I opened my mouth to reply, but Emily cut me off.
“That explains why Jade suddenly went berserk!”
I cocked an eyebrow and gave my fiancée an inquisitive glance.
“When we first got into the room, as Jade approached you, she suddenly went… full vampire. Like… completely uncontrollable. She even attacked Tifa. Gehenna sorta… smote her.”
I gaped at Gehenna who shrugged at me nonchalantly.
“I had more pressing concerns than dealing with an out of control blood demon. I took the quickest action to resolve the situation so I could keep my focus on you, Allie.”
I let out a stuttered breath and inhaled sharply. I shook my head a few times before shrugging and throwing up my hands slightly.
“That… does make sense. Thank you for handling it, babe.”
I stared at my fiery blonde lover for a moment and felt a surge of heat bloom in my core like someone had filled my belly with actual fire. It wasn’t painful, just… not something I was used to feeling. After a moment the feeling faded and I gave Gehenna a happy grin. I could practically feel the love and adoration flowing off of her as she returned my smile. As my brain finally shook off the last of the fog that had persisted after I awoke, I suddenly remembered there should have still been a tournament going on.
“Uh… wait. What happened to the tournament? Is it still happening?”
Nialla ran a hand up my back and traced her fingers through my hair softly.
“It’s OK babe. We wrapped up everything a couple hours ago. We sent clan invites to the Demonspawn players we planned to recruit, unofficial invites to the Angelspawn ones, and gave out prizes to everyone who was able to get enough points to challenge you but couldn’t due to your... absence. All you need to do is figure out what the hell happened to you, what that skill does, and just… take it easy for the rest of the day.”
I leaned back into my taller lover’s touch and hummed my approval. I breathed in a huge sigh of relief before fluttering my eyes open and looking over at Em.
“I get that I passed out, but why are you all so concerned? It’s not like I haven’t passed out before. After the whole Allexus berserk ordeal with the giant colossus that I nearly blew up, I was out for awhile, right?”
Emily shook her head slowly and looked at me with a pained expression.
“Babe… this wasn’t like before. Not only could we sense you were in distress, but the strange mental connection we all share with you was… missing. For me specifically, it felt like a part of my body had suddenly been severed.”
“What about now? I mean… I can feel you all even stronger than I could before. Is it the same on your end?”
My future wife gave me a relieved smile and nodded her head slowly.
“Once you woke up I felt everything hit me all at once. It was like getting feeling back in a limb that’s fallen asleep. But… you’re right… It does feel stronger than it did before. Nialla? Hana? Is it the same for you?”
I couldn’t see Nialla, but I felt her body shift slightly as she nodded along with Hana. My newest demon wife turned towards me and gave me a huge smile that looked completely out of place on her lips. Again, it was as if just a simple smile somehow conveyed the deep love and connection we shared in a way I couldn’t put into words. I did my best to bask in the warmth of Hana’s love while trying to keep focused on the task at hand.
“OK. So… my immediate thoughts are that my blood somehow has my corruption magic in it. Normally this would be the exact thing Jade would be good at helping us figure out, but her reaction also solidifies my theory even further. I think we need to have Kyra take a look at it to see if she can’t use some sort of alchemy or something to study it more.”
The other’s hummed their agreement or nodded in approval as I started to shift on the bed in order to get up. Several strong hands held me in place, however, and I let out a soft laugh as I looked back at Nialla and Gehenna.
“None of you are gonna let me leave this bed anytime soon, are you?”
Gehenna seemed to practically glide across the plush comforter as she pushed herself against me.
“We just got you back. We aren’t letting you go for a long, long time. Right ladies?”
Enthusiastic cheers erupted around me as I rolled my eyes and pulled my blonde lover into a deep, passionate kiss. If the price for worrying my lovers was being smothered in love, lust, and affection, I’d happily take that punishment all day long.