The Eternal Night Swamp breathed.
Thick fluorescent mist coiled around gnarled cypress trees, their roots clawing at brackish water that shimmered with the sickly glow of half-dissolved source-shards. Eldrin waded through the muck, his boots sinking into the silt with each step.
The sigils beneath his skin pulsed in rhythm with the swamp's dissonant heartbeata-thrum that made his teeth ache and his blood simmer. Beside him, Liora strode untouched by the sludge, her emerald cloak pristine, while Nim's spider-mech legs clicked nervously behind them, slicing through curtains of hanging moss.
Stay vigilant,"Liora warned, her voice sharp as her crystalline dagger. The shard here isnt dormant. It *feeds*."
Nim adjusted her grease-streaked goggles, scanning the murk. Feeds on what? Rotting fish?"
On doubt. On fear."Liora paused, her gaze fixed on a shard fragment floating in the waterits edges jagged, its light corroded into a predatory glow. This swamp *is* the shard. Corrupted. Hungry."
Eldrin clenched his fists. The chaos in his veins stirred, drawn to the shard's siren call. He forced the sigils to dim. *Control. You have to control it.*
A splash shattered the silence.
Tira emerged from the water, her soaked dress clinging to skeletal limbs. One hand clutched her chest, where a faint blue glow seeped through the fabric. Her eyesone hazel, the other streaked with shard-lightlocked onto Eldrin.
it's·'fighting me,"she rasped, her voice splitting into dual tones: onetrembling, the other guttural. Like worms in my skull."
Liora stepped forward, dagger glinting. The corruption's accelerating. We need to extract the shard"
*No!*" Tira recoiled. Mud erupted as thorned vines burst from the water, lashing at the team. She promised me sugar! Candied lies and pretty chains!" The second voicea growl laced with malicewarped her lips into a grin too wide for her face.
Nim's mech-legs stabbed into the ground, anchoring her as vines coiled around her waist. Kid's got a split personality *and* a death wish!"
Eldrin lunged, chaos-fire igniting in his palms. Tira, *stop*!"
The flames died as Tira's shadow stretched unnaturally, pinning him against a tree. Her corrupted eye blazed. You think you can save her?"the feral voice sneered. She's already mine."
Liora's dagger flashed, severing the shadow-tendrils. Distract her! Ill force the shard out!"
Eldrin gritted his teeth. The sigils flared, liquid shadow pooling in his hands. But Tira*no, the thing wearing her face*taughed. Burn me, and she burns too."
The swamp shuddered. Rotting shard-fragments rose from the water, orbiting Tira like a macabre halo. Her human eye pleaded. Please"make it stop"
A whip-crack split the air.
Ophira's shadow materialized atop a skeletal tree, her form flickering between smoke and flesh. Such delicate work, brother," she purred, her voice honeyed poison. Let me show you how its done."
She snapped her fingers.
Tira *screamed* as the shard-fragments drove into her flesh, stitching her to the swamp. Her body convulsed, the corruption spreading like ink through water.
*No!*" Eldrin roared. The sigils erupted, dark fire engulfing his arms. He charged, but Ophira's shadow dissolved, reappearing behind him.
Pathetic," she whispered, her breath freezing his neck. You cling to weakness. To *her*."A skeletal hand gripped his wrist, forcing his chaos-fire toward Tira's heart. *This* is power."
Tira's dual voices merged into a shriek. The swamp *heaved*, water boiling into a vortex of shard-energy.
Liora lunged, slamming a vial of glowing liquid into the maelstrom. Now, Eldrin! *Break the bond!*"
He didnt hesitate.
Channeling every ounce of will, Eldrin thrust his hands into the vortex. The sigils *screamed*,chaos-fire intertwining with the shard's corruption. For a heartbeat, he saw itthe shard's core, a pulsing knot of Ophira's influence.
*Destroy it.*
His fire surged.
The vortex imploded, hurling everyone backward. Eldrin crashed into a gnarled root, his vision swimming. When the mist cleared, Tira lay gasping in the mud, the shard's glow dimmed but still embedded in her chest.
Ophira's laughter echoed through the trees. A valiant effort. But the game is far from over."
Tira's human hand trembled as she gripped the shard. Take it·before she"
Her body *twisted*, the feral voice snarling. Too late!"
With a guttural cry, Tira bit down on the shard. Blood and azure light spilled from her lips as she ripped it freeand *leaped* at Ophira's shadow.
The swamp exploded.
Eldrin shielded his face as shard-energy tore through the air, reality itself warping. When the light faded, Ophira was gone. Tira knelt in the epicenter, the shard clutched in her bleeding fist. Her eyesboth human now- met Eldrin's.
ft's quiet,"she whispered. For now."
Liora hauled Eldrin upright, her grip bruising. We need to move. That tantrum just rang every bell on the continent."
As they fled the disintegrating swamp, Eldrin glanced back. The water still churned, forming a spiral that mirrored the sigils on his skin.
Somewhere in the dark, Ophira's whisper followed.
*Well played, brother. But the next move is mine.*"
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