[completed - under editing]
[last chapter edited - 8 | setting a trap for yourself]
"You're told all your life that you're broken, insane, mentally ill. And then you're told that you are going to repair the world."
᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽
Thirteen...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Ari
Vienna sums the situation up perfectly. In shock, we all stare up at the sky. It is gradually getting dark — but night is not arriving. In fact, the sky looks like an inkstain is spreadnig across it, absorbing the blush color of the heavens. Glowing magenta pinpricks light up the sky, evenly spaced in the blackness. And as the sky is swallowed up, I am able to see less and less. In panic, I look next to me, where Nia grabs me by my hand — just in time as the black claims everything, plunging the world into night.
The screech of tires against gravel brings me to realize that drivers can't see anything either. "We have to get away from the road!" Tauren yells in panic, and Nia begins tugging at my hand. I reach my other hand out to feel around me, my hands brushing against tree bark.
All I can see are the magenta pinpricks in the sky; absolutely nothing else. I bring my hand up to my face, but I can't see it, not even when it's touching my nose.
Nia halts, and I almost walk straight into her. The noise of vehicles impacting is distant, so I feel safe. "We should ... wait here," Caprice murmurs hesitantly. "Until it gets light again."
"If it gets light again," Gemi's faint voice is panicked. "It could — stay like this forever."
"It won't," Vienna's voice is certain. "Have you ever seen a Corrupted temple?"
"A, what?" Nervously, I stutter these two words out. Vienna's voice is grim.
"Someone is praying at one of the old Corrupted temples. No one knows where they are. They're scattered across the Seven Worlds, back when people worshipped the Corrupted. Eventually, after the Corrupted's fall, people would go and destroy the temples, caving in the temple entrances. They'd hunt down the temples in order to destroy them. Now they just would look like ruins, or a collapsed mine entrance, and there's plenty of those naturally existing."
"But — praying at a temple wouldn't do anything, right?" Leo prompts, forgetting his rivalry with Vienna as he becomes absorbed in her voice.
"Normally it wouldn't. Corrupted aren't gods, really. But the Corrupted foresaw their fall when the angels started to turn against them. And so they spent their magic in enchanting the temples. When someone not of Corrupted blood performs a certain ritual at the temples, it will awaken the souls of some of the original Corrupted. They will need to be placed in a body, but for a person evil enough to raise the Corrupted, that should be no problem," Vienna explains in the darkness.
No one else speaks. Not even Leo, who enjoys fighting with Vienna over simple, trivial things. Before Vienna finishes her explanation, most of us know what she means. At least, I do, and I hate the chilling reality of it. Despite our understanding, she finishes speaking. "Someone has begun the ritual at one of the temples — only one. This will raise only one of the Corrupted, they have to find more, but if they've found one I know they can find more. When they've finished the ritual ... we'll know."
