The moment his final wound knit itself shut, Ulfar's eyes burst open like trapdoors in the night. Surprised and disoriented, he reached instinctively for his groin, releasing a sigh filled with the authenticity of relief as he discovered that his manhood hadn't gone the way of his old skin.
Jake, witnessing this absurdity, rolled his eyes, then greeted him, "Welcome back to the land of the living, Ulfar. How are you feeling?"
The Beskyrian's face creased in contemplation, his expression heavy. "Honestly... I feel strangely good. That's the problem." He responded after a moment's hesitation.
"Explain," Jake pressed.
"Fearless. Confident. At peace," Ulfar supplied.
Jake didn't like the sound of this. "And...?" he prodded, bracing himself for the worst.
Ulfar deliberated for another second, stroking his chin thoughtfully before admitting, "Hungry. Or angry. Maybe both."
Jake's fears were confirmed. "You're Corrupted," he stated matter-of-factly, maintaining a calm demeanor for his freshly healed friend's sake.
Ulfar forced a sardonic smile onto his face, but the light in his eyes had noticeably dimmed. His expression soon soured into something resembling a bulldog gnawing on a wasp. "It's that bad, isn't it?" The King of Beskyr grimaced.
"I'm afraid so," Jake didn't sugarcoat. Honesty was a currency he valued highly amongst his friends. They weren't children after all.
"Still, I feel fine. I can distinguish between the Corruption and my own self. I'll just eat more meat, work out a little harder every day to vent my aggression. Sex with my wives could be a solution too," Ulfar rationalized, a lascivious grin spreading across his face at the thought of Nyx and Eris attending to him together.
Jake's forehead pulsed with a vein at his friend's unsettling smile. He shouldn't have worried about this debauchee. Ulfar might have lost his harem from his former planet as the King of Beskyr, but he was clearly on track to rebuild it here. Besides Nyx and Eris, the Beskyrian had brought back with him two other conquests from his fourth Ordeal.
His love life was thriving, but sadly, Jake was about to burst his bubble. In line with his motto, he didn't believe in coddling his companions. "Whatever you're fantasizing about, forget it," Jake berated, a stern expression on his face. "We can't jump the gun until we know how far your Corruption has advanced."
A pallor swept over Ulfar as he remembered what happened when Corruption exceeded 50% in most individuals. Jake, seeing the understanding dawn on his friend's face, nodded in confirmation.
"Exactly. Corruption isn't all that dangerous as long as you're around Digestors or other Corrupted. If Siri and I were ordinary Evolvers, who knows what would have happened? You might already be trying to kill us, driven by a relentless bloodlust."
Ulfar turned a shade paler, his eyes wide with the realization of a very likely possibility. He hadn't even made a comment about Siri's new alluring form.
"What will we do if that's the case?" he asked somberly. As Jake was about to answer, Ulfar cut him off, "No, that's not important right now. You should know that they got Lucia and Hade. We've been betrayed."
Jake's heart lurched upon discovering that Hade, too, had fallen prey to the enemy. Earlier, among these Sinewshades, he had only recognized Lucia.
"Are you entirely certain about Hade?" He asked grimly, his voice a steady undercurrent of controlled panic. "According to Siri's records, you weren't on the same team. Can you confirm your claim?"
"I can't..." Ulfar admitted reluctantly. "I fled before I could verify his fate. However, among those who assailed me during my escape were Rigel, Epsilom, and Drakon. Hade and Lyra were conspicuously absent. If they didn't manage to escape, then they're either dead or infected by the Sinewshades."
"May I see your records from the last few hours?" Jake asked, his manner courteous.
"Sure."
Having nothing to hide, Ulfar transferred the contents of his bracelet's log from the past 24 hours. Jake bypassed the part following their return from Ordeal, focusing on the section starting with Ulfar's entrance into the vortex.
While viewing the lengthy video recording as Ulfar recounted his experiences, Jake swiftly pieced together a comprehensive understanding of the events by cross-referencing Siri's version. The silver lining was that both accounts corroborated each other, largely eliminating the possibility of either being a traitorous deceiver.
However, the gloomier truth was that the likelihood of Hade having survived was indeed close to nil. When the Fluid Grandmaster had been caught in a pincer attack for the second time by Epsilom, Drakon, and Nigel, Ulfar had been nearby.
He himself had been fleeing Syrbarun, Lucia, and the other Sinewshades hot on his heels. His initial impulse had been to warn Hade and the others before succumbing to despair and taking flight.
He had nearly reached Hade when a surge of unprecedented danger urged him to retreat.
The experience had been abrupt, giving Ulfar scant time to think. All he knew was that a microsecond longer and he would have met the same fate as Hade.
Jake's expression grew solemn after viewing his friend's video recording. One of the final clips showed Hade's body sprawled at a distance in a pool of his own blood, his brain matter splattered on the
ground.
The clip was brief, but his honed senses had captured his comrade's Spirit Body shooting out from his unsalvageable carcass. The sight was even more fleeting, but Jake had also glimpsed the entity that had ensnared Hade in his spirit form.
The creature was blurry, its speed remarkable, but the fuzziness was more due to its indistinct appearance than velocity. Unlike Ulfar, Jake initially felt no apprehension as he sized up the unknown monster.
However, his expression changed upon seeing Hade's frozen face at the moment of capture.
At first, he thought the creature had used some kind of mind freeze spell to petrify his friend, but using his Lucid Aetherdreamer vision, Jake observed something that made his skin crawl.
The currents of Aether around Hade had slowed to a crawl, including those corresponding to light emissions. It wasn't a spell preventing him from moving, but time was passing so slowly in his vicinity that he appeared immobile.
"Now we have a real problem," Jake said, a bitter, hollow laugh escaping his lips. 'Xi, do you know what it is?'
[I am not sure... Wait a moment.] Xi didn't respond immediately, instead accessing the available archives.
Fortunately, after connecting to the Mirror World for information on the Sinewshades, Xi had anticipated such a scenario and had already downloaded all data related to Digestors spawning near black holes. She didn't take long to find several matching descriptions.After further screening, Xi managed to narrow down the potential candidates to one particular category of Digestor: The Voidshifters. Or in this case, its humanoid variant.
[Voidshifter - Humanoid Variant: Belongs to a sub-category of Space Digestors and Void Digestors. It stands taller than an average human, its silhouette a distorted reflection of the human form. In terms of
abilities, these Digestors are attuned with Time, Void, and Space. Little is known about them, except that they are born under extreme conditions where the physical laws involving these three elements
behave abnormally enough to affect the ambient Aether. These three concepts are among the most difficult to understand and master, and as a result, all Voidshifters, regardless of their morphology, are extremely intelligent.
Given their nature and the environment in which they thrive, they are less subject to their instincts than other Digestors, with their individuality outweighing their sense of group belonging. What they think and feel is an enigma as very few have had the chance to communicate with one. Their behavior varies greatly from one Voidshifter to another, from indifference to sight-based attack, but it is highly recommended to not provoke them. Even if confrontation is inevitable, absolutely avoid close combat unless you're prepared to squander months, if not years of your life.
As for their strength, Voidshifters are born at least as Rank 6 Digestors, and their humanoid variant is considered one of their most promising evolutions, with the potential to reach the apex of their food chain.
Many Digestors at the pinnacle of their hierarchy, who are now treated as absolute apocalyptic threats across all Mirror Universes, carry the bloodline of a Voidshifter in their genome, whether they were born that way or devoured one. Digestors are not beyond hunting their own kind in pursuit of optimal evolution, making newborn Voidshifters vulnerable prey and solitary creatures.]
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