World Filter

Mark hadn’t known what to expect the next time he saw Donny, -he had never given up hope- but it was not this.

Donny stood next to Grace on the stage with a blank look and glassy eyes. His injured legs seemed to be struggling to hold him up and one of his arms dangled to his side uselessly.

Anger bloomed in his chest like a star. Anger at her, at himself, for his indecisiveness and inability to protect Donny.

There was a curse under her breath as Sam must have heard what he said and put the pieces together. Jonathan hadn’t moved but he was staring at Grace as if assessing her.

Everything had been going so well too, Henry and Chloe were ahead of them getting ready to make the challenge, but as Mark looked up at her everything she’d done came rushing back.

In that moment, the vow he’d made to himself if he ever saw her again, came back to him.

Grace wore a bemused smile as she looked at Henry. The Mana that had come from the tent before was edging towards their group, the same kind that seemed to suffuse everyone here. It wanted to push down people's will and weaken their mental resistance. It was definitely hers, and it was all Mark needed to see to tell she had not changed. Mark's plan to let the challenge play out went out the window.

Grace needed to be dealt with before she could cause any more harm, by the looks of it, she had already taken hold of this group.

All of that Mark could have endured but it was the look of absolute oblivion in Donny’s eyes that sent Mark over the edge.

His were eyes open, yet unseeing, unaware of anything around him.

As if by its own accord, Mark’s energies began to bubble up, rushing toward the staff, he didn’t even attempt to stop it, throwing the surrounding Mana into chaos.

Sam had been studying Grace’s foul Mana with narrowed eyes, when she looked over at Mark's Mana. Leaning into Jonathan she whispered something.

At the same time, Grace's eyes were drawn to the disturbance. When their eyes locked, her face froze into a look of shock, which slowly morphed into one of disgust.

Mark wasn’t sure what she saw in his eyes, but in her’s he could see no remorse or shame for what she’d done, only twisted hatred.

For a second, the two were locked in their own world.

Then all at once, they made their moves.

Mana exploded around Grace as lightning arced through the air toward Mark. In turn, his construct rushed ahead, batting the spell aside. Using the opening, Mark cast [Earth control], creating a golfball-sized rock and shooting it at her skull.

And that would have been the end of things if she didn’t scream his name in panic.

“Donny!”

Donny broke from his daze and dashed infront of Grace, taking out a warped-looking ax, and smacking the projectile out of the air, causing Mark to pause.

Shouts of fear and confusion went up from both sides.

“Mark?!” Sam screamed as a spell flickered to her fingertips.

Seeing Donny step in to defend her caused Mark to pause for a second, but Sam’s voice snapped him out of it.

Realization hit, he wasn’t alone anymore, he had people he could rely on. Glancing back for just a second he saw Sam and Jonathan ready to back him up.

Their expressions focused on Grace.

Mark's voice then rose into the air.

“They are using Mental magic, defend yourselves!”

Unfortunately, Mark’s hesitation to attack Donny bought Grace the time she needed to cast another spell. Only it was massive, whatever she did, Mark had never managed to get Mana to move as swiftly as it did now. It whipped about as if alive, funneling into her spell. Neither Sam nor Mark were able to react in time.

As she released the spell, she spoke, infusing the spell into her words.

“That man is trying to kill us! Protect me!”

Her shout was shrill and grating as she pointed to Mark. The scream echoed across the area, carrying the foul Mana with it, digging into the surrounding minds. The whole area was plunged into confusion and chaos, as people struggled against whatever spell Grace just used.

The Prophet's people seemed to throw off the effect after some confusion but the same could not be said for those who had been close to Grace for a while.

Eyes clouded over as they turned to look at Mark with hate in their eyes.

Spells, attacks, and charging bodies rushed toward Mark's location.

Chloe shouted.

“Stop them!”

Her fighters reacted fast, even as they still struggled with the spell clawing at their minds.

Pearls of laughter bubbled up out of Grace as she grinned at Mark with a dark light in her eyes. Black veins had become visible across her skin and Mark knew right away what was going on. The idiot had tapped straight into Corruption, no wonder the spell had such speed and strength.

Donny had not moved away from Grace and seemed content to protect her from them.

Though she was fast, Mark had not been idle either.

Taking all of his bottled-up frustration, Mark poured everything he had into his construct.

Mana and Prana flowed into the staff as he channeled massive amounts of energy into it. The Staff hummed as the small symbols along its length began to glow.

Pulling the energy through, his construct erupted beyond himself, stretching to cover the whole area. It grew to the size of an Olympic swimming pool and then further still, drawing everyone into it, but he wasn’t done there. It grew to fill the whole street and the houses beyond, then without a pause, he charged 100 Prana directly into [Cleansing Surge]. Waves expanded throughout his dome crashing into everyone present.

Mark burned her Corrupted energy out of the air and every mind present.

Those affected by Grace's spell, stagger as if punched in the gut. Grace screamed in pain and released a string of curses while clutching her head.

She looked up at Mark with such hate in her eyes.

“You self-righteous bastard! You couldn’t just leave us alone!”

“You only get what you give, Grace!”

Mark reached out and began to apply force to her, increasing the weight as he layered constructs onto her, in an attempt to crush her.

Suddenly it was as if a knife had been stabbed into Mark's heart as Grace pulled out something.

There floating about her palm was some kind of metal disk, that shone black in the light. It was a system item and a powerful one at that. Mark felt, as it forcefully claimed the space surrounding Grace, from him. A small pillar shot up through his construct, forcing his energies back.

Mana drained from both Mark and his construct in seconds, he had to pull back as he lost more than 80% of his Mana in one go, and cracks spread through out the gargantuan Construct.

Grace grinned viciously.

“Do you like it? Got it as a gift from one of those Guardain bastards.”

The area the item created was not large at all, probably only three meters in diameter, but Mark couldn't force his way in. The space was entirely under her control, she pulled Donny by his shirt back into her range. Mark could almost see as she reestablished the connection to Donny. Who had shown no reaction to anything that had gone on since he blocked Marks stone. Simply watching them with hallow eyes.

All around now people were waking up and shaking off her spell, even those that had been part of this settlement turned to look at Grace with murder in their eyes.

Grace’s head flicked about like a trapped animal and snarled at Mark.

“You and this damned system always acting like you’re better than me! Well, I’m sick of it, you can all rot in hell!”

Panting she pulled a rotting piece of fruit from her inventory. Mark recognized it as one of those pod-like things from before. Then Mark's eyes widened in disgust as she shoved the thing into her mouth, barely chewing it and swallowing it down.

Her skin became many shapes paler in an instant, black veins spread further across her body, and when she looked back at Mark her eyes mirrored the hungry yellow light he saw in the Corrupteds.

An ecstatic smile cracked across her face as she lift her index finger towards the sky.

“Stop her!” Mark shouted using [Light Control] to send an orb forward with the last of his Mana.

Sam’s ball of fire was already halfway there as he got the words out, while Jonathan arrived right next to the pair and brought his blade straight down on her neck.

The disk in Grace's hand hummed and Sam's spell just fell apart as it hit the zone. As did Marks, when his Mana was simply sucked from the spell causing it to fall apart.

Donny moved with incredible speed and blocked Jonathan’s blade. A cord of Corruption connected Grace and Donny, spreading up his neck.

Jonathan attacked again and each time Donny would just barely manage to block it somehow.

All at once a wave of Corruption shot up into the air from Grace and as if to answer her, distant voices of the Corrupted flooded the area.

Laughing Grace turned to Mark and another spell took shape above her hand.

“Oh god, I should have done this sooner!”

A bolt of sickly purple energy shot at him.

Gritting his teeth he summoned his failing construct to block, the moment the bolt made contact it exploded against his barrier. The spell held, but only just. Corruption leaked in trying to invade his body.

Another bolt formed in her palm but she swore and changed it into a black shield just as a spear of rock crashed through her zone. It looked like the disk was able to block pure energy spells but it couldn't dismantle the physical stone. So even if the magic driving the rock forward stopped, the force carried it on unimpeded. Sam must have figured it out after her last attack and sent the spear.

The rock crashed against Grace's shield. At the same time, Jonathan managed to unleash his Aura and it crashed against the zone too. The disk drank this energy in too.

The disk hovering in her hand had begun to glow a dull red as if heating up from within. It had begun to wobble and Mark knew the protection it offered was failing. Whatever it was meant to do, it wasn’t meant to be used like this.

Suddenly a spell flew from Mark's right, and he noticed one of the people Grace had once controlled threw it. Like someone had opened the floodgates the crowd's fury turned on Grace. Skills and spells crashed into the zone.

“You’re all turning on me just like that? You people are pathetic! I kept you alive!”

She aimed a spell at them but at that point, the item gave out. Donny disengaged from Jonathan and grabbed Grace, putting distance between the crowd and them. Attacks whizzed past. Grace released the spell even as they fell, and dark purple lightning tore through the area, arcing at anyone nearby. Shields and defensive skills went up.

The smell of ozone hadn’t even faded when the area became dark. Shadows blotted out the sun. Tuning Mark watched as hundreds of Ghasts fell from the sky.

Pandemonium struck as everyone tried to fend off the swarm. Grace had somehow called them here.

Through the chaos, Mark could make out Grace getting up. They saw one another from across the stage, both still ready to tear one another apart, but then her eyes flickered to the people behind Mark and a hint of hesitation crept onto her face.

The whole area had turned against her and even though she had that energy on her side, sooner or later one of them was going to get through.

Lifting her hand Ghasts seemed to swarm around her and through their combined effort lift her off the ground. She was running away.

“Fuck no, Jonathan! Stop her” Mark shouted. He was the closest and Mark was in the single digits of Mana.

Mark released a stream of [Force bolts] at her but Ghasts charged to block them, dying as a consequence, but with so many in the air, it mattered little.

Jonathan charged her but Donny shoulder tackled him and sent him flying into the stage, destroying a portion of it in the process. Mark was certain Jonathan had more Aura but whatever Grace had done to herself was strengthening Donny as well. The Ghasts surrounded him too, lifting him towards Grace's quickly retreating form.

Frustration and anger churned in Mark’s stomach, he had zero Mana with which to follow them and Prana wasn’t going to be able to help him here.

“Mark!” Sam ran towards him, she was unable to lift into the air as the swarms flowed through the area.

“Mark listen to me! My spells aren't getting to them! More are coming through the gate! We need to retreat”

“I can’t let them get away, Sam! I let her do this to Donny, I won’t leave him alone with her again!”

Sam looked at the approaching horde and then seemed to make a decision.

“Then we won’t, alright…Give me your hand”

Mark wanted to tell her they didn’t have time, but her look told him this was important, she wanted him to trust her, so he did.

Glancing once more towards Donny’s retreating figure he turned and clasped her outstretched hand.

The next second her Mana charged into Mark through their connected arms. It moved with her will, but it didn’t fight him. She was trying to transfer Mana to him. They had already tested this and found that neither was willing to give up control and to an extent, they still weren’t, but when he moved her Mana, she obliged, rather than surrendering, it was a combined effort. Huge quantities of Mana flowed into Mark. As their wills moved, they began to fall into sync.

“Listen to me Mark, we need to match our Mana perfectly if this is going to work. Now, light is more than just an orb to throw around the battlefield. If you sequence it and provide a suitable amplifier, you can achieve stimulated emission. Basically, photons can be focused to greater effect”

Mark couldn’t understand what she was saying, but he could follow what her Mana was showing him.

He cast [Light Control] with Sam’s Mana, she mimicked his will and a spell began to form. Each movement of their will had to be done in time with one another. Huge amounts of Mana coursed through him and the area started to fill with light.

This attracted Ghasts, which Mark blocked out by moving a small construct over them.

Sam then activated [Earth control] and his will bent to match hers. They both held the spell together, working in unison as the spell drank in the Mana.

So much so that it actually burned through Mark, Sam had a lot more than him and its intensity was leagues ahead of what he was used to, to the point where it was actually hurting his mind to wield it, but Mark pushed past that and triggered his mental release skill.

They both followed and led at the same time.

The spell came together like many interlocking pieces, each of them providing half. When Mark focused his eyes to look at the spell he expected some massive ball of light that could clear them all away at once, god only knows there was enough Mana in it.

But instead, a small oblong light hovered just in reach, no bigger than his normal light spell and shaped like a soft cylinder, no thicker than a quarter.

“Mark aim!” Sam shouted as the magic shook to be released.

His eyes narrowed as he searched the frenzied sky, spotting her far in the distance. Donny had just arrived near Grace and she grabbed hold of his arm to bring him into her embrace.

Matching Sam’s will he directed the spell and fired.

Mark didn’t expect what happened next though.

There was no travel time or explosion of brilliant light, just a sudden perfectly straight beam of focused energy adorning the sky, it divided the air above them in a line. Dropping like the falling of a guillotine. The only sound was the hissing of disintegrating flesh as a literal laser burned straight through the air. Passing through the swarm of Ghasts and directly through Grace. It lasted less than a second but nothing was left in its path as it cleaved through the clouds beyond.