Soulwielder Book Two: Corruption

Perspective Retrospective

The man who had saved us insisted we come with him to the temple. I had no idea how to react. We were told that the Corrupted were mindless bringers of destruction and yet, here one was inviting us inside the Soulwielder Temple.

Lily and Dustin looked to me for guidance but I just shrugged and followed the man through the woods and toward the massive stone structure.

The cloud funnel moved down through the open roof of the temple and I assumed it was inside of the temple as well.

The man hurried ahead of us and went to the door. He had purple skin with bulging veins and his body was practically that of a skeleton's.

The Corrupted had white hair around the rim of his bald hair and was wearing cream-colored robes that looked like they would be worn by a Priest.

"Unity, any clue what's going on?" I whispered.

Unity stared at the man. "No idea. But I can sense that what makes up most of my memory is located inside of this temple."

I looked at Lily, Kipp, and Dustin. "Alright guys stay on guard. We need to go in there if I'm going to get the answers I need."

Dustin sighed. "Alright. But this feels like a certain trap."

"It probably is," Lily agreed. "But why would the Corrupted even try to trap us? I thought they were well... corrupted."

I shrugged and turned back around to see the door swing open. "Come in! Come in!" He gestured at us and we went up the stone stairs and into the temple.

The ancient Soulwielder domain was in disrepair as parts of the walls were missing and plants had cropped up everywhere. "It's so nice to finally have some diplomats be sent down here! Forgive the state of our home, we didn't know guests were coming."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Diplomats? What do you mean?"

He nervously tapped his fingers together as he led us down a hallway. "I'm Geolus, the leader of the Corrupted Peoples. Were you looking for a specific faction?"

"Uh, what are you talking about?" I asked. "We didn't even know you guys existed, we came here to help me with my Soulwielding."

Geolus looked down. "Don't know we exist? Come! Come! We will discuss this at the dinner table!" The Corrupted man bustled through the remaining hallways until we got to a room with a massive stone table.

The cloud funnel was located in this room and stopped up in the high ceiling. I noticed a few Corrupted people peering at us from around corners.

Geolus took a seat and we all followed suit. "So you all have no knowledge of Corrupted people?" He confirmed.

"Well we know about Corrupted people," Dustin clarified. "But as far as I knew you were all still corrupted."

Geolus tilted his head. "That is... strange. We've sent multiple communications to the north that we've regained control of our minds but usually, we only received bombings in response..."

I sat up. "Bombings?"

Geolus nodded. "Indeed. The life energy attacks were highly concerning and they continued for so long... sometimes when they were really brutal we would lose control again and send retaliation attacks. I had hoped that your arrival signified all this wouldn't escalate into a war but I suppose that was a pipe dream."

"Back up," Lily said. "What do you mean by lose control?"

Geolus sighed. "The Corruption is only able to keep its hold on us when absorbing life energy, so it's able to briefly regain control during these bombings at times."