I move to check on Rav, causing Nate’s scowl to deepen. Fuck him.

The Energy view of Rav’s body indicates that he is mostly intact, but there’s a bit of yellow tingeing in his head. Maybe he strained his mind too much while handling that spell and couldn’t remain conscious. I move some green Energy in and rapidly work away at the yellow. In a matter of moments (and a few more Energy points), the color clears up and Rav starts moving. He instinctively touches his hand to his head, as if anticipating a great headache, but removes his hand, looking more than a little shocked.

-”How…? Ah, of course. It is always you, my friend. My thanks. How did our plan work out?”

“They’re in disarray. Dean didn’t listen to your warning and can’t see anymore, but he’s sleeping it off.”

He winces. -”That is most unfortunate. Could I trouble you to restore his sight?”

I sigh, exasperated. “I would, but he’s resisting my healing the same way you did when I first put your hand back together.”

~”Rav, get back to your post!” The wizard looks momentarily startled, before climbing to his feet, nodding to me, and returning to his position.

~”Resume firing!”

-”I cannot, my Mana has yet to recover full-”

~”Then get it back!”

Rav’s face is a mask of stoicism, but I can’t imagine he appreciated being talked to like that.

I can’t say I like this side of Nate… at all.

It’s only because of Rav’s incredible magical ability that he even has time to yell. The Shades look much less organized, like they’re dazed and confused. The strange one that spoke is hunched over in the back, not moving. I can’t fathom where Nate’s urgency stems from… or his attitude.

“Hey, Marie, I can take over in place of Dean. It’s my fault he’s down, after all.”

She barely turns her head, too focussed on the collection of monsters in front of her. I can’t blame her for not wanting to take her eyes off them. Smart, really.

=”I… yeah, sure. Yell if you need backup.” She doesn’t say it, but she clearly hoped she wouldn’t have to fight. I, however, have accumulated a fair amount of aggression that is best not spent on the ones who deserve it.

For now.

“...left...monsters…”

The speaking shade shudders slightly, saying something… but even with my Perception, I can’t make out the words.

“You… left me… for the monsters… all alone.”

It rises unsteadily to its feet, head bowed, and starts shaking more. That voice… it’s distorted, but some part of it feels familiar…

Lynn strings an arrow, but hesitates, looking confused.

“YOU LEFT ME TO DIE. IT IS NOT I WHO IS A MONSTER, BUT ALL OF YOU. AND I... WILL BE YOUR DELIVERANCE.” Darkness flows, like a living thing, towards the Shade, bleeding off the lesser ones and even making the night itself seem brighter in comparison.

“Now… you will be cleansed as I have.” A missile of pure darkness slams against Tom, knocking him to the ground. He screams and writhes, the concentrated blackness seeming to spread to cover his body even as I yell for support and run to him.

“Join me… JOIN ME. AVAIL YOURSELF, YOU BASE CREATURES, AND SERVE A HIGHER PURPOSE.”

It’s all I can do to control my Energy enough to prepare some green in my hands before I get to Tom’s fallen form. Unthinkingly, I plunge my hands into the center of the pulsing mass. I can feel this evil shit attacking me, as though it has a mind of its own, but I keep struggling to scrape it off Tom. It doesn’t react like normal matter. The Energy in my hands vanishes entirely within a few scrapes, and as soon as I feel it disappear entirely, the darkness stops reacting to my touch. Pieces of it latch onto me instead, burning with an agonizing fire. Self preservation wins over my desire to help Tom and I do what I can to flood the affected areas of my own body with Energy. The green I send still vanishes quickly, and with almost no effect, causing me to panic more. My Energy is moving more sluggishly, responding to my panic with chaotic movement and uneven direction. The darkness spreads. I send everything. Gold, red, green… everything. Something does the trick and the darkness fades, but I only have a quarter of my Energy pool left, and Tom is still screaming. My efforts stopped the darkness from spreading as fast, but his torso is covered, and it’s only getting worse. Silently cursing myself, I shove some of the Energy flowers into my mouth, swallowing as quickly as I can and trying to control the hacking cough that accompanies it. I see a few points added to my Energy pool and take a combination of red and gold Energy and push as hard as I can against Tom’s natural defenses.

[Hostile Domination attempt detected. Initializing… Error, target Domination already in progress. Intervene? (Y/N)]

GET OUT OF MY WAY.

The darkness suffuses almost every corner of Tom’s body. My Energy meets no resistance going through. His defenses have already been destroyed. This thing is attacking with Energy? What the fuck is going on.

The other, darker Energy seems mindless, spreading wherever it can and attacking everything. There are a few bastions where it seems that they can’t access, but they grow smaller by the moment. I inject as much as I can, as fast as possible, aiming to reinforce those small remnants. I try not to ever come into contact with them, as I’m sure that’s Tom’s resistance trying to fight any hostile forces, me included. My timely interference turns the tide, transforming the battlefield from a crushing loss to a serious fight. Gold and red mix freely, binding themselves to each other in a way that is difficult to separate and glowing brighter than before, with a beautiful orange color. These strands individually destroy many more than the red or gold alone, convincing me that this new color is optimal for fighting the dark Energy.

I move a fan of orange Energy out, destroying everything that remains of the encroaching force. Even in my victory, Tom’s defences rush out to fight me, and I hurry to pull out all of my potentially damaging Energy, before returning to reality. My breath comes in heavy pants, and I realize that I almost used up all of my Energy saving him. Story of my life, honestly. Fortunately, no one else was hit by those black projectiles. It seems that when people see one person consumed with pain as a result of being hit once, they tend to take cover or retreat.

I stick my head up to get an idea of what’s happening, only to immediately dive back down as another projectile careens towards me. It ends up smoldering harmlessly against one of the barricades behind me, but I’m way too scared to try that again. I might be able to survive one blast, but I’d be unconscious from Energy deprivation afterwards. This thing has to be dealt with before I go down.

From my quick glimpse, I gathered that all the accompanying Shades had gone, and all that was left was a massive swirling darkness around the lead Shade. The mass which, effectively, serves as ammunition for her ranged corruption shots, which are also Energy? This is a really bad time to be confused.