Chapter 241: The Black Corruption Surge
Time passed as I sat there, waiting for the two of them to wake up. My thoughts kept circling back to the black smoke, to the way it had drained Steve’s arm and Ana’s wing like they were nothing. I didn’t understand it completely yet, but I knew one thing—it was dangerous. Real dangerous.
Eventually, Steve stirred.
His eyelids twitched, then slowly fluttered open. He blinked a few times, his eyes adjusting to the dim light inside the tunnel. The moment he saw me, then Ana resting in his arms, he let out a deep breath.
“I thought I dreamed that you were here,” he said, voice rough and tired.
I chuckled lightly. “I’m glad you dream about me.”
He scoffed at that, the corner of his mouth twitching.
He raised his hand in front of his face, flexing his fingers slowly like he wasn’t sure they still worked. “You know, I really thought this hand was done for.”
His arm had recovered faster than I expected. The dull brown color was almost gone, and I could already see muscle returning beneath the skin. The veins were no longer dark, and life was coming back into it.
“That damn black smoke really scared the shit out of me,” he muttered.
I leaned forward to ask more—what it was, how he came in contact with it—but before I could say a word, he cut me off.
“What time is it?” he asked, looking toward the tunnel ceiling.
I tilted my head, then used my perception to check the sun’s position. “It’s evening.”
His face tightened.
“Shit.”
“What happened?” I asked, my tone sharp.
“We need to get out of the mountain range. Fast. The black surge happens every night here.”
I blinked. “The what?”
“The black smoke,” he said. “It’s not just some random thing. It comes every night, like clockwork. Fills the mountains.”
The pieces clicked into place. That explained a lot. Why the Holts hadn’t secured this place. Why no outpost was built here despite the strategic value. No one wanted to live in a place haunted by that kind of corruption.
I stood quickly, nodding. “Let me take care of Ana.”
I reached over and gently took Ana from Steve. She was still unconscious, her body light in my arms. Her breathing was stable, but her face was pale. I held her close as I asked, “So we need to leave the entire mountain range?”
Steve gave a firm nod. “Yeah. All of it.”
“Alright. Let’s go.”
I took a few steps away from him and blasted a hole in the roof of the tunnel using a concentrated burst of Essence. Stones cracked and scattered as light streamed in. We jumped up and out into the open, the cold mountain air hitting my face immediately.
I called out mentally, and Silver surged out from my core through a wave of crimson mist, his large wings beating powerfully as he rose into the sky.
We climbed onto his back, and the moment we were secure, he took off.
Wind rushed past as we soared through the sky, the jagged peaks of the mountains falling away beneath us. I didn’t speak the entire way, too lost in thought.
The black smoke wasn’t natural. Something else was at play here. A Phantom? A creature? A failed experiment? Whatever it was, it explained why this region had been left untouched. Even the Holts wouldn’t mess with something they couldn’t control.
Once we were clear of the range, I gave Silver a gentle nudge and he landed on a soft clearing near a tree line.
I stretched out my perception across a two-kilometer radius, scanning for threats—no sign of Holts, no dangerous abominations either. We were safe. For now.
I jumped down with Ana still in my arms and landed gently. I laid her down with care, placing her near the base of a thick tree. Her wing was tucked beside her. I sat beside her.
Steve did the same on her other side, his breath still a little ragged.
I turned to him, my voice calm but serious. “Now I want you to tell me in detail… what the fuck happened?”
Steve leaned against the tree trunk, his face lit faintly by the orange hue of the setting sun. He looked tired—more tired than I’d ever seen him. Still, when I asked what had happened, he didn’t hesitate.
He took a deep breath and began.
“Right after you disappeared into that strange place… Ana finished her evolution. It was fast—probably just a few hours after you were gone. She looked stronger. Her wing had changed a little, and her aura felt sharper. But we had no clue where you went, or when you’d return.”
He glanced at Ana, lying unconscious beside us.
“So we waited. We stayed inside the cave, figuring you’d come out soon. But the day went by. Evening came… and you didn’t return.”
He rubbed his hand through his hair, sighing.
“What did show up was the black smoke. And worse—those damn abominations that seemed to thrive in that stuff. They weren’t like the ones we’d fought before. They were twisted, aggressive… like they’d grown used to the corruption.”
My eyes narrowed. I could imagine what kind of pressure they faced.
“The smoke seeped into the cave,” Steve continued. “Thick, heavy… we couldn’t breathe right, and our bodies started to feel sluggish. Ana didn’t wait. She grabbed me, took to the sky, and carried us above the thick layer of smoke. I don’t know what we would’ve done if she couldn’t fly.”
He paused, flexing his recovering arm.
“We didn’t get away clean. That smoke—it clung to us. Slowed us down. But it wasn’t as bad as what happened to me later. Still… we knew we had to escape the mountains. We flew as far as we could, fighting off a few of those corrupted freaks along the way.”
A breeze rustled the leaves around us.
“The next morning came. Still no sign of you. So we waited again. And while we waited, we trained. Hunted abominations.
Gained a couple levels. Days turned into a week. A week turned into two. By the third week, we were starting to lose hope.”
Steve’s voice lowered, more serious now.
“That’s when the Holts showed up.”
My jaw clenched, but I didn’t interrupt.
“There were three of them. All Masters. Strong—stronger than both of us combined.
The fight was brutal from the start. We barely had time to react. Ana took the lead, forcing them back with everything she had. In the end… she sacrificed half her wing to kill two of them. It was the only way to turn the tide.”
He held up the recovering limb with a faint grimace.
“We didn’t have a choice. We retreated back into the mountain range, hoping the remaining Holt wouldn’t follow. And surprisingly… he didn’t.”
“Because of the black surge,” I muttered.
Steve nodded. “Yeah. He knew about it. That’s why he stopped chasing us and ran the other way.”
He went quiet for a second.
“That night was the worst. The black smoke came down like a flood. Ana was bleeding, barely able to walk. My arm was already turning to bark. The corruption hit us both hard. We couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. I really thought we were dead.”
“Then, just before we passed out, I found the tunnel entrance. Don’t know how—I was barely conscious—but we crawled in and shut the entrance. The smoke couldn’t reach us there. That’s where we’ve been since… waiting.”
His eyes met mine.
“Then today, I opened my eyes… and saw you standing there.”
I didn’t respond right away. My chest was tight with guilt. While I had been evolving, they had gone through hell.
Creation is hard, cheer me up!