World Filter

Both Mark and Sam broke apart as the spell did. A blinking appeared in Mark's vision, but his head snapped up to the incoming wave of Corrupted.

The Ghast's flight above them had suddenly become erratic. Mark searched the skies for the escaping pair.

The distance made it hard to tell, but Mark was certain the spell had hit her. If the bisected corpses falling out of the sky were anything to go by, then it had to have done damage, if not killed her outright. Mark wouldn't lose any sleep over Grace but the real problem was Donny.

The Ghasts had begun to collect into droves toward where he last saw the two. Suddenly something dropped from the mass of squirming bodies. It only took Mark a second to realize it was Donny falling from the sky. He didn’t have the speed nor the Mana to get there in time.

At the same moment, the Corrupted descended and Mark had to defend himself. At the same moment he saw Jonathan diving head-first into the swarm.

Mark had almost no Mana right now, so he took out his rifle and hunting knife and ended anything that thought it was a good idea to get close, activating his physical limit release. Sam was also almost tapped out after that but by now small spells were almost entirely sustainable to her. The two of them held out.

“Jon!” Sam screamed, calling out to him.

Searching the area Mark couldn’t tell what had happened and things were becoming more urgent as time went on. Each minute they stayed here got worse for them. They needed to regroup or they’d be overwhelmed.

Mark stabbed his knife into the center mass of one of the beasts and turned to fire his rifle at an approaching Corrupted.

Jonathan suddenly broke through a group of Corrupted and landed next to them. He was covered in wounds and had Donny’s arm over his shoulder as he helped him walk. Mark’s shoulders drooped in relief

“Whatever you guys just did worked, but we need to gather up with everyone The Corrupted are pissed!” Jonathan shouted.

He was right of course, Grace had somehow managed to control the creatures, and right now they were in an absolute frenzy.

“What about Grace?!” Mark asked

Jonathan just shook his head.

Slowly they fought their way toward the main group. When they got there they saw that the two parties had already gathered up and were rebuffing the surrounding Corrupted. Chloe led her people and Henry seemed to have taken charge of his once more. Once they got inside the encirclement they had a little more breathing room and Mark had the time to see how they fought. As a whole, he was impressed by the level of their individual strength. Each person could handle themselves and was at least as strong as a soldier on their walls.

One of the interesting things Mark learned was how Chloe fought. Her weapon of choice was a rapier and to watch her fight was incredible. Mana was probably her main attribute but Aura was a definite secondary. She wielded her blade as if she had years of experience under her belt. On top of that Mark was certain she moved as if she knew what was coming. Perhaps she could use her future-seeing abilities in combat too. Her style was one like flowing water, taking the path of least resistance she weaved in and out of combat, all the while being followed by her two guards that seemed to use the same fighting style as her.

Henry was a different story, he used a combination of brutal strength and magic. At some point, he must have swapped his bat out for a Maul because anything that got close to the business end of that thing was pulverized into a mush. When they were out of range he would pelt the enemy with potent bolts of fire. All the while remaining in formation with his party members. Mark remembered their teamwork from his fight with them and it had only improved since. Mark still wasn’t fond of the guy but he could appreciate the hard work they must have put into developing their communication.

The chaos of the battle was intense and drawn out. After two hours, they managed to bring home a win. They killed so many during that time, that the remaining Ghasts retreated, scattering in all directions.

As soon as he was able Mark searched the area for Grace’s corpse but even after a thorough search he couldn’t find it. It was possible that she had dropped somewhere outside their search range, but the was equally possible that she was still out there. He didn’t know how she could have survived that attack but if anyone could slink away, it would be her.

Sam and Jonathan had helped him search for her, Sam was interested in a comment she’d made about possessing an item from a guardian. Which was entirely possible, the power of the item she had used was huge, able to block that many attacks on its own.

They were still looking, when Henry and Chloe made their way over to them, their groups following shortly behind. Cara separated from them and came over to stand by Sam.

Henry looked at Mark. After that disaster, Mark thought the hothead would be pissed but instead, he was grinning triumphantly. In the end, he’d gotten what he wanted. The group had chosen him as their leader once more, at least until they were somewhere safe.

Chloe spoke up.

“Guys we should get moving, there is a place to stop nearby that will house us for the night with a 44% certainty,” Chloe said.

Mark had been just about ready to call it quits but when she spoke, she gave him an idea.

“Chloe, would you be willing to use your abilities for me to find out if Grace is still alive? She has the potential to cause a lot of harm if she’s still out there”

Chloe looked uncomfortable at the question.

Both of the guards next to her looked pissed and he didn’t even know their names yet

“I can… but that type of open-ended check requires a really strenuous spell to see if she factors into distant events. Suffice it to say it's hard and I don’t usually do it for free.”

Mark could understand why she put a cost on this type of magic. The question was, was it worth it?

“What would you want?” he asked

At this stage uncertainty was dangerous, he’d be able to prepare if he knew Grace was still out there.

“An open-ended favor, to redeem when I so choose. I will not ask for anything that goes against your values, but I will ask something of you, and you will have to do your best to help me with it”

‘Wow, she couldn’t have made that sound any more like a deal with the devil if she tried,’ Mark thought.

The fact that he could decline it if it went against his morals was nice, because of that he felt safer accepting the deal, but the open-ended nature of it caused him to pause.

Cara leaned over to Mark when she saw his hesitation. With her voice barely above a whisper, she said.

“Mark, from what I’ve seen, she offers deals to everybody, trading in favors is how she works”

Thinking about it, Mark realized he didn't have much choice. He needed to know if she was still out there.

“Fine, one favor in exchange for all the information on Grace you can get”

Chloe nodded, and even though a deal had been struck she didn’t look particularly excited or disappointed.

Closing her eyes, a subtle Mana began to suffuse their surroundings. Then all at once it turned inward and crashed into Chloe's mind, her body tensed slightly and when she opened her eyes they were glowing vibrant cyan light. She remained locked in that position for five minutes, eyes darting back and forth, finally, she spoke in a cold emotionless voice.

“Probability of the entity Grace Winter's current survival is 17%, permanent injuries 82%. Interaction between hers and Mark Young’s fate lines, 56%. Location pinpointed to Queens with a 34% probability for sixteen day-night cycles, after which probability will drop by 7% per cycle. Beware should either hound the other, only pain and grief follow for both”

Mark felt an unsettling lurch in his chest. In all the movies and stories he’d heard of, prophets gave riddles as their answers but she spoke in direct, understandable language. Even giving him the exact chances.

Chloe stopped speaking but the spell seemed to have run its course. A small trickle of blood ran down her nose.

Mark cursed and stepped forward but the two women guarding her blocked his path.

Chloe then spoke.

“Right now Grace Winters is still alive but I can tell you a 17% chance at survival is low, she probably won’t make it”

Mark frowned. Grace having any chance at survival was too much for him.

“Then what was all that about her being in Queens?” he asked

Chloe nodded.

“The dual nature of the prediction is based on her death, should she survive, that's where she’ll be. However, I’m aware you are looking for a certain answer, so as part of this exchange, I’ll take a look again tomorrow and confirm her death or continued life”

Apparently, the spell she had just used was both strenuous and had a cooldown until she could safely use it again.

Mark was grateful she would use it again but in the meantime, the fact that Grace was still out there pissed him off.

Everything Chloe had said was pretty understandable, with the exception of her last line.

Chloe's warning niggled at the back of his mind. One thing was for sure, if she survived seeking her out was a bad idea, but even so, he still wasn’t ready to just leave her alone. If what he saw was true, her being out there was still an incredible danger, to anyone she came into contact with, even more so now that it looked like she could control the Corrupted.

After things had calmed down Mark offered to heal Chloe, which she accepted. When he sent [Prana pulse] in, he found the damage to her was extreme mental fatigue. It was reminiscent of overusing his limit release and he knew that there was little he could do to heal the mind rapidly.

Setting a [Regenerate] going should help to lessen the pain and improve her healing speed but he couldn’t really do much more for her.

Afterward, they began to discuss the next move. Once Grace’s influence had been cleared out Henry's people had come to their senses and realized what Grace had been doing to them. It did not take much convincing on his part to get them to leave, as the battle had completely exposed their settlement.

Henry kept his word and after a short talk, his people were willing to follow them, though it was probably the promise of a safer location that got them moving.

As he was waiting for everyone to pack up Mark finally got some time to address the elephant in the room.

Donny was finally safe, or at least free from Grace.

During the fight, Donny had sat down in what Mark thought was exhaustion but when he came to check on the guy again he realized it was something else.

Placing a hand on Donny’s shoulder he shook the guy, but still he didn’t respond. That same Glassey look never left his face.

Mark was certain he’d hit him with the [Cleansing surge] earlier, but now he was worried.

Sending in Prana, Mark searched for the problem. The first thing he noticed was the huge amount of Corruption in his system. The guy was at around 63%. Next was the absolute mass of Mana in his mind, lingering like a fetid cloud.

Hitting it with another dose of [Cleansing surge] the thing slowly began to burn away. Like the lifting of a fog, Mark got a better look at his mind. When he saw what had happened to Donny's mind, the only feeling he could compare it to was when they lost Jaya.

His physical brain was not damaged, but his mental landscape looked like a battlefield. Crateres and missing pieces riddled his mind, this wasn’t something he could just throw Prana at and heal.

There were huge blanks in what Mark thought were Donny’s working memory, bridged only by thin, flimsy pieces. He couldn’t fix what wasn't there to begin with. Donny's mind had turned in on itself to protect what was left of his personality. The basics were still there, so he wasn’t in danger of becoming a vegetable. He could still function, but right now he was more like a living puppet than anything else. Donny may heal, but it would take time, if he ever did.

Then Mark ran into another problem. He noticed that even though he had burned away the spell covering Donny’s mind, it was returning slowly. Taking a closer look, he saw that the Corruption began to rebuild the spell at a constant rate. Mark tried to remove it again but no matter how many times he did, it came back. Somehow Grace had coaxed the Corruption into sustaining her mental spell. As long as the guy had any Corruption in his system the spell would continue to build back up.

This meant that before he could even start treating the guy he had to remove all of his Cv, otherwise it was a pointless endeavor.

It was too much corruption to draw off all at once but Mark took on 10% and saw it took slightly longer for the spell to reform, confirming his theory.

“Shit man, I’m sorry this happened to you, but don’t worry we’ll get you back on track.”

Donny just sat there staring off into space.

When they began to move Mark got him up and pulled him along. The guy seemed to understand what Mark wanted and followed without hesitation. Verbal commands seemed to work too, tell him to eat, and he would eat. To stop moving, and he would stop, but all the while the guy may as well be a zombie. Mark thought he saw a flicker of understanding every now and then, but it may have been the light. Whatever guilt he harbored towards Donny for his situation, was eclipsed by the anger he felt for Grace.