World Filter

Calcified Corruption slammed into Mark’s barrier, breaking into chunks that fell back to the ground. The sudden interference of the creature below pissed Mark off to no end. Grace was right there and this thing was getting in his way. It was attempting to encompass him and probably crush him to death, but there was no way he was going to let that happen.

Instead, Mark used the newly condensed Corruption as fuel and expanded the construct up and out. Crashing through the now delicate ceiling and continuing up into the night sky.

Grace never stopped sending waves of Corruption crashing against Mark's spell, but he ignored it in favor of drawing on more power.

The very act of pulling in more Corruption sent waves of pain ricocheting down his spine, but it would be worth it if he could hurt her.

She did something else down there and two more sets of attacks came from opposite directions. They were so weak that Mark didn't notice them, but it was during one of these attacks that a familiar face came into view. Mark’s brain registered it was Donny, but all Mark could feel was anger and confusion. The Corruption fed him these feelings as though it wanted him to refocus on Grace.

Mark shook his head, trying unsuccessfully to clear the mental image of Donny. Grace then unleashed a devastating beam of black light. The Corruption was so condensed that it easily cut through, and calcified, everything it came into contact with. Mark created and angled a secondary construct which deflected a majority of it, but it still ended up breaking through. Mark caught the remainer on his main shield, but when he looked down he saw Grace staring up at him as though she was proud.

“Do you remember how you left Grace the last time you met? You almost carved her in two. She spent hours slowly bleeding out. Smothered so tightly she could bearly breathe, let alone see. Now I’m going to make sure you suffer and choke just the same.”

Mark wanted to retort. To say that he hoped she’d suffered greatly, and a part of him meant that. However, an equal part hoped she was lying. The Corruption snarled and tried to get Mark to bury these emotions, but he cupped his hands around them and pulled them out of reach.

A second beam of Corruption smacked into his construct and the little piece of himself slipped away. This only caused Mark to stare down at the woman with more hate. Layering a secondary shield helped to disperse the attack, but Grace sustained this one longer.

The blackened energy ray bounced off Mark’s shield, crashing into the walls and floors. Burning and calcifying everything it touched with a chittering hiss.

When Grace’s attack finally faded out, Mark could tell that even as powerful as she was, she couldn’t sustain continuously channeling Corruption. The toll it took on her body was obvious by the way her arms became dried and emaciated.

Seeing his chance, Mark tore the chains of his construct from the crumbling walls and sharpened the lowermost point of the shield. Turning it into one gigantic stake which he let fall around him, as he remained fixed in the air.

Grace screamed in frustration as she gathered the Corruption in an attempt to block it. Unprepared to bar a construct of this size, her defense failed as Mark drove the spike downward.

The blunt tip sank past the balloon of her power and broke through the tiles. Plunging into the creature below. There was a screech from beneath them, that sounded like it came from thousands of mouths, but Mark pressed it deeper. Grace clutched her chest as though she were the one just struck. Screaming in tune with the creature. Smiling at the sweet sound, Mark began to send out spikes through its flesh like the roots of a tree. Burrowing into the abomination a little at a time.

At the same time, Mark began to reap energy from the creature, drawing in power through his construct and pulling it under his control.

Another mind, which Mark identified as Grace, tried to pull the energy back, however, it was too late. Mark began pulling the Corruption out through its wound, and while she slowed him down, it was impossible to stop him from siphoning the creature's strength. With the two of them now on an equal playing field, Mark began to wrestle for control of the beast.

Before he could make any headway though, Grace recovered and desperately launched herself into the air. Covering her body in a burning shadow of Corruption. The flames acted as a coating, as she punctured her way into the Construct. Mark attempted to capture her there, but it was like griping onto an oiled eel, she slipped through his grip and tackled Mark in the chest. Sending them both spiraling towards the ground.

Grace tried to disengage, but Mark refused to let go and their wings twisted up as they spiraled downward. Smashing into the ground was painful, but also prevented her from leaving as they fell into a mass of writhing limbs and claws. Mark urged the Corruption to fix and improve, so muscles rebuilt themselves stronger and veins pumped his thickened blood all over his body.

All the while Mark’s construct remained stable and growing like a tick.

Mark extended his jaws and sunk his fangs into Grace’s neck, as she plunged a sharp thumbnail into Mark's eyesocket. Bursting his eyeball and crushing the surrounding bone, just as he tore out her windpipe.

Mark was still reeling when Grace got a foot in his gut and kicked him into the nearby wall causing his brain to shake in his skull. Mark scrambled up just as she did, their wounds already closing.

All the while Mark was pulling more and more at the reins of the beast, jostling for dominance. Something was helping her, but Mark was slowly eroding it. Finally, neither he nor Grace had any reason left to spare, so when they both dove for one another again. It was like two rabid dogs ripping into one another.

She broke his arms, he tore off one of her wings with his teeth.

She crushed his heart, her tore out her lung.

Grace was unable to retreat and get some distance because if she ever did Mark would focus on the beast and she would have to close the distance once more. Their physical strengths were about even with the assistance of corruption, and as they were both casters, Mark had the advantage as he regenerated far faster than her.

Mark’s movements held no forethought or hesitation, only primal rage. Their black blood splattered and mixed on the ground until Mark managed to straddle Grace. Once he was on top, he began to claw her to pieces. His feral cry was lost behind the haze of red.

The Corruption was loving this, and Mark could not agree more. Each hit unwound some of that knot of guilt sitting in his stomach. Mark found himself wondering why he had resisted this at all, why he’d fought to keep these emotions when he could just give them all to the Corruption.

Grace was slowly reduced to feeble spasms, she was alive, but just barely.

Jeffrey and Donny suddenly came from either direction in an attempt to pin him, but Mark had sensed their Corruption coming. So he ducked under Donny’s swing and used a secondary construct to cut Jeffrey’s barb from his back.

In the same motion, Donny grabbed Grace and dragged her away, but Mark took it similarly to a lion getting its kill stolen. He bashed Jeffrey aside, making sure to wrap a construct around his neck and twist it until it popped several times.

Then he lifted a clawed arm and flattened both Donny and Grace under a construct. When he had them in his grasp Mark dragged them back towards himself. Crushing Donny into unconsciousness, Mark looked at Grace and reached up to wring the last life out of her.

The monarch in turn looked at Mark with her one remaining eye, and that was when Mark felt her Corruption flare one last time. A majority of it came from the now-exposed disk that rested against her spine. It called to every Corrupted in-range to come to her aid, and at the same time stalled Mark to a standstill. Power raged from the disk in an attempt to force Mark under, but he refused to let her have her way. So taking the majority of his remaining power Mark slammed it into hers. The two collided for a brief but intense second and at first, her power dwarfed him, but Mark would not yield, and called to his construct, connecting with all the power it had been amassing. Even with all that they were neck and neck, in the most literal sense, for whoever failed here, would lose theirs.

And at that point, the Corruption could have sided with either of them, but it came down to who had the higher compatibility. The Monache was born from Grace's own Corruption and had warped her form to suit the dark energy's needs. Mark, on the other hand, had rejected and snubbed the power at every turn, and yet, when the two both called for its aid. It flowed toward Mark without a second thought, leaving Grace's body to her freefall. It had found a new host.

Freed from her influence Mark plunged his hand into her healing chest and took hold of the disk, wrenching it free from her, rending the connection as he did so.

Grace didn’t have a throat to scream but the creature below them did, and somehow Mark could hear Grace's agony from all directions.

Mark smiled. He had nothing to say to her, no gloating words, nor would he hear any of hers, he just wanted her dead.

So without even a pause, Mark tore her body to shreds. Ripping her apart bit by bit, until all that remained around Mark was a mass of torn flesh, broken bones, and black blood. Triumph sang in Mark’s veins and his energy agreed with him.

Grace was finally dead, for real this time.

The Corruption in his system burned out leaving Mark's body dried and weak, but he still turned his eyes to Donny. Mark stared at the unconscious man who had betrayed him and rose to kill him too, but as he brought him closer, he paused. The smallest sense that something was wrong had lodged itself between Mark's brows. He had the comatose man trapped, all he needed to do was kill him, and yet he paused for some reason.

A growing sensation in his chest begged him to stop.

Frowning, Mark stared into Donny’s face and realized he was feeling sorrow. Or at least he would feel it if he killed this man. The Corruption tried to consume the rising emotion, but there was too much for it to handle right now, Mark needed more Corruption to get the job done.

Widening the connection to the construct buried in the creature, Mark was about to pull in more energy. But before he could a force of nature hit him from the side. Severing his connection to the construct at the same time. It came from Mark's blind spot, easily crushing every bone in the right half of his body, all the way up to his first vertebra. But that was not all, a band of muscle wrapped around his neck and crushed the regenerating bones with enough force to, prevent them from reforming.

The disk was ripped from his grip and Mark caught sight of Sam floating just out of reach as Mark spun through the air.

Light surrounded her like that of the heavens, as a spear made from condensed starlight and revolving constellations shot from her hand like a javelin.

In the middle of the air, Mark could only call on his remaining Corruption to block the attack. Feelings of betrayal fueling it, and for some reason, this hurt as much as seeing Grace again. Because he knew it had to be Jonathan beside him, locking him in place. They were trying to kill him.

A thick plate of force manifested, and when the spear hit, it seemed as though it would block it, but then, as though he were trying to stop causality itself. The spear broke through the numerous layers and shot through the center of his abdomen.

Whether by luck or precision, the spear bore a hole directly through the core in his abdomen. Where it passed, it not only destroyed, it erased.

For just a moment the connection to Mark's Corruption wavered and the remaining portion of his power dissipated from his control.

In response, Mark snarled and twisted in Jonathan’s chokehold in an attempt to claw his face. The strike connected but the man didn’t budge, in fact, Mark wasn’t even certain if he drew blood. Strength wise Jonathan outclassed him.

Freaking out Mark tried to draw his construct towards himself again, but Jonathan didn’t take hits lying down. So before he could even react, Mark found himself being smacked into the tiles, cracking the floor with concussive force.

Managing to gather a bolt of Corruption, he tried to force Jonathan off himself, only to have Sam detonate it before it could do any harm. She closed the distance and Jonathan trapped Mark’s wings and claws to prevent him from attacking her. Or at least that's what he thought before Sam knelt and shoved a ring on his finger, causing the burning in his chest to climb several degrees of pain.

At the same time, urgent voices tumbled into his mind.

‘Mark stop. Get yourself together you complete moron!’

‘Pull the crest from the system. It's your only chance, please Mark!’