World Filter

Crowds of bystanders lined the streets, staring at the spire’s light with looks of wonder. As it pressed through the grey clouds, snow fell from the sky, dusting the city in a fine white powder. The delicate snowflakes melted before coming into contact with the spire, almost as though it were radiating warmth.

When the Loyalists departed, this seemed to signal the end of the show as more than half the observers began scrambling for the comfort of indoors.

Amongst the chaos of scattering crowds, a single limousine remained parked down one of the more inconspicuous alleys.

Shadows pressed up from beneath the limousine, rushing to cover the already tinted windows.

Inside, Mark gripped Patrica’s hand as he siphoned off her Corruption, drawing it into his core.

The automatic blub did its best to light up the small cabin containing the seven of them. Lisa looked on nervously as she watched Patrica’s head lull against the car door, her eyes watching the process with a sense of unease and interest.

“We found her amongst the rubble two hours ago. She was the only survivor of her congregation.”

Sam watched the black veins spread down Mark's arms with pressed lips.

“What about the rest of her church, surely you could have taken her there to get assistance.”

Lisa turned to look at the rest of them.

“That was our first move, but it would seem a new high priest has come into the picture in her absence. He would neither see us nor grant her entry. Tensions are high, so we decided to take Patrica’s advice and find you before breaking down the doors.”

This caused the cabin to ignite into conversation, but Mark kept his focus on Patrica. Her Corruption was pressing against her core about to consume her. The fact she had held on for this long was impressive, and it could only be the presence of her Ideal keeping the energies at bay.

As this was the first time he was drawing such a large amount of Corruption without the staff, Mark worked slowly to make sure he didn’t take on too much. In doing so, he realized his core was condensing her Corruption, yet it was nowhere near as potent as the stuff festering in his abdomen. For every two percent of her Cv, Mark's only rose by one. By the time he had taken on all her Corruption, his own value had risen by forty percent. Yet Mark could feel no changes in himself, as the Corruption remained locked in his core. The dark energy had twisted Patrica’s form, but ichor no longer dripped from her open wounds.

Rapidly switching to channel Prana into her, Mark focused on repairing the damage the Corruption had done.

Her breathing had stabilized and Mark switched over to [Nature control] to help him reform the growths. Ever so slowly her skin began to look more human, but the damage was extensive, and it would take some time to remove the calcified pockets of scaring.

Only when he was certain she was stable, did Mark’s tunnel vision fall away, and he refocused on the conversation.

Karter was currently talking to Lisa.

“I hear you, but force won’t work on zealots, your best bet is to hope for Patrica to regain control of the situation on her own.”

Lisa nodded absent-mindedly, and when she saw Patrica's complexion rising from that of a ghost she smiled, but then got more serious.

“Thank you, Mark. This means a lot. At the same time, there's something you should know… Patrica isn’t the only one suffering like this. Although she's the worst case I’ve seen so far.”

Mark suddenly got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, but Lisa pressed on.

“The rumor mills are calling it the ‘weeping fever’, the number of cases is still low, but so far I’ve found several of my strongest fighters suffering with similar mutations. Heightened aggression and wracking pain for those that have pushed themselves too hard.”

A lump lodged itself in Mark's throat, he knew firsthand hand just how painful the Corruption could make it if you resisted.

Jonathan frowned as he stared at her.

“We appreciate the heads up, but I have to wonder if there is not another motivation behind this.”

Lisa glanced at Jonathan and nodded.

“I’ll come right out with it, with the uncertainty of the Church of Brilliance. We were hoping you had some way to help us prepare. Nathan is convinced this is only the beginning and if we’re to survive this, we need a treatment.”

She looked worried and Mark spotted bandages higher up her arms.

Sam looked over at Mark with worry, like he’d volunteer to heal everyone they put in front of him. Unfortunately, as much as he’d like to, Cv was a different story. Mark could not deal with the Corruption that would build up in a whole faction, at least not alone.

The problem they had, right now was one of a frog in a pot of slow boiling water.

The symptoms began by attacking the mind, making its hosts cranky and aggressive. If one was able to ignore the symptoms for long enough, it then morphed into a dull ache that spread across the whole body, after that the addiction and mutations started. Black veins and pale complexion were the most common signs someone had reached this stage, but over time they too had been ignored in favor of survival. It was only now that people were starting to exhibit more drastic mutations that notice was being taken. But by now it was almost too late.

The cabin had fallen into silence and Mark realized everyone was looking to him for an answer. He’d already tried to drive home the importance of [Corruption recovery] as a spell, but by now that might be a plaster on a knife wound.

“Lisa, I can’t make any promises, but I will attempt to find us an answer. In the meantime…”

Mark reached forward and rested a hand on top of hers, swallowing the Corruption he found there. Instantly causing his own core to rise to 66%.

“I’ll help in a private capacity, send Nathan our way when you have the chance.”

Lisa's shoulders straightened as she nodded.

“Alright, I’ll trust you. With that said what about the spire?”

The heavy air in the limo shifted as people jumped on a topic they could do something about. Sam gave Lisa the full rundown of what they had discovered and a plan was slowly hatched as to how they would proceed.

Sam was convinced the ‘Unbound’, the spire was searching for had to have something in common. Meaning she wanted to put together rosters of different people to test against the structure. Lisa heard this and agreed to put together her own teams to test. The fact that their crests counted didn’t help them narrow it down a whole lot, but Sam was enthusiastic and no one wanted to dredge up the serious topics again.

Eventually, they left the vehicle. Throughout the ordeal, Patricia had yet to wake up, but Mark had used a lot of Prana on her, so she should be awake within the day. He told Lisa as much just before they drove away. They then took their car back to their territory.

The first thing Mark did on arrival was to build a team of his beast healers.

Sam got working on the list. While Karter, Jonathan, and Ethel continued with cataloging damage and reorganizing the chain of command. Gibby had been handling things in their absence with his usual efficiency.

When Mark had put the call out, he had only requested those who had managed to learn [Corruption recovery] to show up. With their numbers so low, and the sudden expansion of their Order, they were struggling to cope with the demand for healing. So he only stole away those he needed to begin brainstorming ideas.

What gathered was two dozen of Mark's strongest and most capable healers. After discussing it for a while and spending time bringing them up to speed on the ‘weeping fever’, Mark decided to let them disperse. He then scheduled a meeting for early the next morning so they would have some time to think things over and perhaps come up with things to try.

With the remaining afternoon, Mark went through their new intakes and earmarked people for logistics to hire. He would need to begin building up his full team again, luckily he had help this time. More teachers meant he could take on more healers. A lot of which already had their own techniques.

Working into the evening, Mark set plans for a new clinic. Even after all they had been through, he still intended to reopen it when they were ready.

At some point, a knock came at his door and Mark jumped off the bed to answer it. Jonathan stood out in the hallway with crossed arms and a slightly guarded expression. Mark was a little surprised to see him, the guy had been avoiding him whenever possible.

Mark nodded a greeting and waited for him to speak. When Jonathan looked down the hallway as though looking for someone Mark cocked his head.

“Sammy should be on her way here now, one of Gibby’s contacts discovered something about Chloe so I wanted to pass the information along.”

Mark froze and opened the door wider for Jonathan to enter. They had put out feelers for Chloe at the first opportunity. But trying to find someone that didn’t want to be found was difficult in this situation. Doubly so for a woman who could literally tell the future. None of the rocks they had overturned as of yet had been even remotely helpful, she had just vanished on that day. Along with a couple of her closest aids.

Jonathan checked the empty halls one more time before stepping into the room. Mark wasn’t sure why, this floor was empty, and they could both feel Sam was still in the stairwell a level down.

Deciding to take the opportunity, Mark sighed.

“Alright, what's going on?”

Jonathan’s brows knitted together.

“I told you, it's about Chloe, Sam will be here in two, wait till then.”

Mark felt his frustration rising.

“No man, not that. You’re pissed at me and I want to know why.”

Mark saw Jonathan's mask crack, which may have worked on other people but Mark had known the guy for long enough now. When he saw Jonathan's eyes narrow he knew he was right. Mark had mistakenly thought Jonathan was avoiding him because of what was going on in his body, but now he could see the anger below the surface.

His voice was steady and cold, but in the quiet room, it came out as a growl.

“You want to know why? You shouldn't need to ask.”

Mark clenched his jaw.

“Do you want an apology for leaving you two there?”

Jonathan's voice came out from behind gritted teeth

“Got it in one.”

Mark was stunned silent by the amount of venom in his voice.

“You took it upon yourself to do whatever you fucking pleased. Sam may not be mad with you but I am, we figure this shit out together. Not run off on some suicide mission.”

Mark had been too grief-stricken the last couple of days to notice any of this in Jonathan, but his own anger rose.

“You were dying, are you telling me you would not have done the same thing in my situation?!”

Their voices continued to rise bouncing off the walls.

“I don’t care! You don’t mess with your life like that! If I was going to die then you should have grabbed Sam and run! I’ve always counted on you to save her if I couldn’t!”

“So you’re the only one that's allowed to die fighting?!”

“Yes!”

The final word shook what little furniture was in the room, Aura spilling into the space. Jonathan's eyes flashed a sickly pale light before quiet descended on the room.

“... Mark. You and Sam will figure out this new world. This isn’t me being self-deprecating, I’m going to survive till the end, but the next time you feel the need to try something so fucking stupid. Give us a heads-up so we can stop you.”

Silence descended and Mark didn’t know what to say. He’d almost gotten lost in the Corruption, but it was worth it, right? They had come out on top.

That's when the door to Mark’s room opened again and Sam walked in.

“You know I can hear you two down the hall? And who said I’m not angry?”

Sam strolled in and took a spot up on the edge of the bed as though she were relaxing by the pool. When she was sure she had both of their attentions she continued.

“... I say this only once, after this you two had better put an end to this. Mark, you need to stop this, you’re pushing yourself too hard, grasping beyond your means.

And Jonathan, any of us could die at a moment's notice, it's his job to keep us alive. Forget about the how, focus on the fact that you are.”

No one spoke for a long time after that until Sam had to be the one to brake the silence again.

“Jonathan, what did you call us here for in the first place.”

The fight had left Jonathan’s body and he glanced over at Sam and then Mark.

“...One of the factions near the east river supplied Chloe with a vehicle and enough weaponry to arm a small force. The last they saw of her, she was leaving the city with the flood of Corrupted, heading inland”