---
Chapter 3 – Into the Void
The wind in the Dead Zone whistled like a dying echo. Kael and Selis trekked through the cracked canyon, their footsteps leaving faint impressions in the shifting ground. The corrupted atmosphere hummed like static, and every few steps, the world flickered—reality itself bending and warping as if the system couldn't quite decide what was real anymore.
"Do you feel that?" Selis asked quietly, her eyes scanning the horizon.
Kael felt it too. The air was dense, charged with something. His corrupted interface buzzed faintly, trying to scan the surroundings.
"Something's off," he said, his voice low. "This zone doesn't look like it's been touched by normal monsters. Feels like… something smarter is here."
Selis nodded, her face serious.
"The system has its limits in places like this. Dungeons break, monsters mutate, and sometimes... there's something worse. Something that adapts."
They reached the edge of the canyon, where the jagged landscape gave way to a more structured ruin. The remnants of an ancient temple stood half-sunken in the ground, its pillars cracked and broken, the remnants of old magic pulsing weakly through the stone.
"There it is," Selis said, her voice quieter now. "The Ruins of Aetheris. If my map is right, there's a corruption core hidden inside. The only way out of this zone is to cleanse it."
Kael clenched his fist, his new Void Flare skill crackling faintly in his hand. He wasn't sure if it would work—corrupting holy magic didn't exactly seem like something a good guy would use—but right now, he didn't have a choice.
As they stepped forward, Kael noticed something strange.
A low hum echoed from the ruins, like a distant heartbeat. The ground vibrated slightly beneath his feet.
> [Warning: Presence Detected.]
[Corruption Core: High-Level Entity Detected.]
[Alert: Combat Readiness Recommended.]
Kael's interface flashed a warning.
"No turning back now," he muttered, looking at Selis.
She unslung her staff from her back and nodded. "Stay close. I've seen this before. The core might be dormant, but there's always something guarding it."
They entered the temple, the massive stone doors creaking as they pushed them open. The air inside was thick, heavy with stagnant energy. Strange, twisting glyphs lined the walls, flickering like dying embers, feeding off the corruption like parasites. Kael could feel it, too—a pressure in the air that made it hard to breathe.
Selis led the way, her staff glowing faintly, illuminating the dark corridors ahead.
The deeper they ventured, the more the world seemed to shift. The floor beneath their feet became soft, spongy, like the ground itself was slowly being consumed by the corruption.
Then—an explosion of sound.
From the shadows, something moved.
Kael spun, instinctively reaching for the nearest weapon. The rusted blade vibrated in his grip as something massive emerged from the dark—a creature with long, segmented limbs and an enormous maw full of glistening fangs. Its body was an unstable mass of corrupted data, glitching and pulsing erratically.
> [Corrupted Entity Detected: Void Devourer – Lv. 25]
[Warning: High-Probability Threat.]
Selis raised her staff, summoning a radiant shield of light. "Kael, get ready! We'll need to work together!"
The Void Devourer screeched, its body flickering in and out of focus like a bad video feed. It lunged at them, its jaws snapping.
Without thinking, Kael raised his hand.
> [Skill Activated: Void Flare – Lv. 1]
A bolt of purple flame shot from his fingertips, tearing through the creature's body. The monster screeched in agony as the flame burned its data, destabilizing the corrupted code within it. But the creature didn't die.
It simply adapted.
Its wounds quickly healed, the data reforming like a liquid glitch, and it grew even larger.
"Damn it!" Kael swore. "It's not going down!"
"It doesn't go down," Selis said grimly. "You need to hit its core—where the corruption is the strongest. I'll hold it off!"
She raised her staff, summoning an orb of radiant energy that floated above her head, crackling with pure light.
> [Skill Activated: Lightbind Barrage – Lv. 3]
A barrage of light projectiles shot forward, striking the Void Devourer in its face. The monster shrieked, but still, it didn't stop.
Kael's heart raced. He could feel his Void Flare glitching, its power waning with every shot. The monster's adaptation was too fast.
Suddenly, something clicked.
Kael's Corruption Protocol flared in his mind, the corrupted lines of code twisting in his interface like a spider's web. He wasn't just using skills anymore. He could break the rules.
His vision blurred. A flood of broken data filled his mind, fragments of countless corrupted creatures, skills, and glitches. The Void Devourer's core was hidden—layered within the corrupted mass.
Kael's hand trembled.
> [Skill Activated: Data Hijack – Lv. 1]
[Corruption Cost: 5 MP]
[Initiating Core Disruption.]
Kael's body convulsed as data flooded through him, the Void Devourer's core now visible in his mind. It was nothing like he'd expected. Instead of a solid core, it was a patchwork of corrupted code—disjointed and unstable.
With a grunt, Kael ripped it from the monster's form.
The Void Devourer's body shrieked, its mass destabilizing. The creature froze mid-lunge, its body breaking apart as corrupted data scrambled, unable to stabilize.
> [Void Devourer Defeated.]
[EXP Gained: 500]
[Level Up: 1 → 2]
[Skill Fragment Acquired: Void Lash – Tier 2]
Kael collapsed to his knees, breathless. The power drained him more than he expected, the corruption in his system growing harder to control with each use.
But he was alive.
Selis lowered her staff, a relieved smile crossing her face. "Nice job," she said, her voice filled with respect.
Kael wiped sweat from his brow, trying to ignore the strange sensation pulsing in his chest. "You weren't too bad yourself."
She raised an eyebrow. "You know, you didn't tell me you could break monsters like that."
He shrugged, a wry grin on his face. "I didn't think it would work."
But as the remnants of the Void Devourer's body dissolved into the air, Kael couldn't help but feel a sense of unease.
What if this corruption wasn't just affecting the monsters?
What if it was starting to change him, too?
---
End of Chapter 3
---