Chapter 426:Spread.

Chapter 426: 426:Spread.

Lilith stood beside him.

"This happened overnight."

Atheline crouched and touched the soil. Earth Law moved faintly through his Aether as he studied it since the ground remembered disturbance.

Atheline closed his eyes.

Something had moved through here but it hadn’t traveled across the ground; it had just appeared.

His eyes opened.

"They didn’t come from outside."

Lilith looked at him.

"I know."

"No." Atheline stood. "I mean they literally didn’t enter the village."

Lilith’s expression changed.

"They appeared here."

"That’s what the evidence suggests."

Atheline looked around.

"Corruption doesn’t do that."

"Apparently it does now."

"No." He shook his head. "Something using corruption does."

Lilith became quiet.

That distinction remained with him. A disease and contamination spread, even magic needed a path unless someone deliberately created one. This wasn’t spreading anymore, it was being placed.

The final confirmation came twelve days later.

Atheline and Lilith were called to the southern forest after a patrol encountered a group of corrupted creatures less than fifty kilometers from a protected settlement.

Atheline arrived first.

The battle had already begun. Dark Elven soldiers formed a defensive line while corrupted creatures rushed them.

Atheline drew his bow. Six arrows appeared between his fingers before he released.

Wind carried them.

The arrows separated; one curved around a tree, another dropped, and two accelerated as lightning flashed. Six corrupted beasts died almost simultaneously.

Several soldiers turned.

"Your Majesty!"

"Maintain formation."

Atheline landed.

Lilith emerged from darkness beside him seconds later. She raised one hand and darkness spread. Three corrupted creatures disappeared inside it. When the darkness withdrew, nothing remained standing.

Atheline glanced at her.

"Still terrifying."

"Focus."

"Right."

More creatures emerged. He frowned at that. They weren’t particularly powerful,mostly S to SS but their movements were strangely organised.

Corrupted creatures usually possessed aggression without discipline but these moved in groups; one attacked, while another circled,and a third waited for an opening.

"They’re coordinating."

Lilith had noticed too.

Atheline fired and a creature fell. Then something stepped from between the trees.

He stopped.

It had once been humanoid, perhaps a Beastman ir Human. It was difficult to tell anymore since black veins covered most of its exposed skin.

One arm had grown unnaturally long. Corrupted growths protruded from its shoulder. Its eyes were completely black.

Atheline raised his bow.

The creature looked at him, then smiled.

He froze.

Corrupted creatures didn’t smile, not like that like it knew something.

Its mouth opened.

"Almost..."

Atheline’s expression changed.

"What?"

Lilith immediately appeared beside him.

The creature tilted its head.

"Almost time."

He felt cold.

Those were the same words the Unaspected Ruin had used. He aimed directly at the creature’s head.

"Who are you?"

The corrupted being laughed, its voice sounding wrong. Multiple tones seemed to overlap.

"He returns."

Atheline’s fingers tightened around the bowstring.

"Who?"

The creature’s smile widened.

"Our Lord."

Lilith’s darkness immediately restrained it. Black bindings wrapped around its arms, legs and throat. The creature didn’t resist.

He approached.

"Who is returning?"

Its black eyes stared at him. For one moment, Atheline had the horrible sensation that something else was looking through them.

"He who was denied." The creature laughed again. "He who was betrayed."

Atheline’s heart began beating faster.

"Name him."

The corrupted being’s body convulsed.

Lilith strengthened the bindings.

"Atheline."

"I know."

The creature screamed, then laughed, then screamed again. Its body began collapsing.

Atheline stepped forward.

"Don’t let it die."

"I’m trying."

Darkness tightened but it didn’t matter. The corruption inside the creature began consuming it; skin became black and the flesh dissolved.

Atheline grabbed its head.

"Who is returning?"

The creature looked directly into his eyes.

"His return..." its voice became almost reverent. "...cannot be stopped."

The body collapsed into black ash. He immediately stepped backward. Lilith withdrew her darkness. Neither spoke as they looked at the ash in both shock and confusion.

The surrounding battle ended minutes later which he barely noticed. They collected samples, interrogated soldiers and searched the region.

There was no corruption source, contaminated zone or underground nest. The creatures had simply appeared.

Then another report came.

A corrupted Human had spoken before death at a different continent and attack. To make it worse, it was the same phrase.

His return.

Three days later, Seragus sent a report from the Demonic Continent. Another speaking corrupted being.

Prepare for his return.

Then the Beastmen reported one.

The world will remember him.

A week later, another.

The chains weaken.

Atheline stood inside the royal library late one night with reports spread across a table. Lilith stood opposite him.

Zelpher had personally delivered the newest one.

Atheline read it twice, then a third time before putting it down.

"This isn’t corruption."

Lilith watched him.

Atheline pointed toward the reports.

"Not by itself." He began arranging them. "The attacks are coordinated."

Another report.

"The locations don’t follow contamination patterns."

Another.

"The Blood Ocean is expanding at the same time."

Another.

"Villages are disappearing without bodies."

Another.

"And now corrupted beings on four continents are speaking about the same event."

Zelpher looked between them.

"His return."

Atheline nodded.

He remembered Klaith and everything that seem to follow him.

The ones with the highest potential have been killed.

His stomach tightened.

Lilith saw his expression.

"You’re thinking about the vision."

"Yes."

"The seal."

Atheline nodded.

"Klaith stood in front of something sealed."

He closed his eyes. There were enormous chains and something beyond them. There had been a Death Core in Klaith’s hand, plus the presence of the fragment of the Sovereign of Fire.

He opened his eyes.

"I thought corruption was the problem."

Lilith said nothing.

"I thought the Sovereign of Death caused it and what we’re seeing now was some remnant becoming active again." He looked down at the reports. "But remnants don’t coordinate invasions across continents."

He tapped one page.

"They don’t speak."

Another.

"They don’t deliberately appear behind defenses."

Another.

"And they don’t announce someone’s return."

The room became silent.

Zelpher finally asked the obvious question.

"Then what is the corruption?"

Atheline looked toward him.

"A tool."

Lilith’s eyes narrowed.

He felt more certain the moment he said it.

"Or a symptom. Maybe both."

He walked toward the window.

The court stretched beyond the palace. More guards patrolled the streets than six months earlier. Defensive formations remained active through the night. People were frightened, they had every reason to be.

Atheline placed one hand against the glass. For months, everyone had been asking the wrong question.

How do they stop the corruption?

That wasn’t enough anymore. They needed to know who was directing it; why villages were being taken, why Klaith had collected a Death Core, why he’d stood before a seal, what the Sovereign of Fire had to do with any of it, and most importantly...

Who was returning?

Something inside Atheline pulsed. The mysterious fragment reacted so suddenly that he grabbed his chest.

Lilith appeared beside him.

"Atheline?"

"I’m fine."

Another pulse came, stronger this time. He stared toward the distant horizon. For a fraction of a second, he felt something, impossibly far away; a presence, then it disappeared.

Atheline’s face became pale.

Lilith noticed.

"What did you feel?"

He didn’t answer immediately because he wasn’t sure. But one thing had become impossible to deny.

Someone was moving it, someone was preparing something, and whatever was happening across the continents wasn’t the catastrophe itself.

Atheline looked at the reports mentioning the same words again and again.

His return.

This was preparation.

The real disaster hadn’t arrived yet.

.

.

.

For three days, Atheline barely left the royal archives. The palace continued functioning around him.

Reports arrived from the borders. Corrupted creatures continued appearing in places they shouldn’t. The Blood Ocean continued expanding.

Armies were moved. Villages strengthened their defensive circles, while those considered too exposed were evacuated toward larger settlements.

Yet Atheline remained underground. Because somewhere inside the oldest records of the Dark Elven Kingdom, Klaith had left something behind.

Atheline was certain of it. It was not because Klaith had made a mistake, quite the opposite, he’d been too careful.

"Again."

Zelpher looked exhausted.

"We’ve checked this section four times."

"Five."

Zelpher stared at him.

"That isn’t better."

Atheline ignored him.

The archive chamber looked as though a hurricane had passed through it. Books covered three tables. Scrolls had been arranged across the floor.

Copies of ancient records were stacked against walls according to estimated age, and several historians had spent the previous two days comparing handwriting, ink composition, translation styles and preservation methods.

Lilith sat at the far end of the largest table. She’d been reading the same three documents for nearly an hour.

Atheline walked toward her.

"Anything?"

"Contradictions."

"Useful ones?"

"Possibly." She slid the first document toward him. "The oldest surviving Dark Elven account says the Sovereign War began after the Sovereign of Death attempted to expand his authority beyond its natural boundary."

Atheline nodded.

That matched what most histories claimed.

Lilith moved another document.

"This copy was produced approximately two centuries later. It says Death attempted to consume the authorities of other Sovereigns."

Atheline frowned.

"That’s different."

"Very." The third document followed. "This one doesn’t mention consumption."

Atheline read the relevant passage.

"The Sovereign of Death sought dominion over all endings and therefore brought ruin upon the other Sovereigns."

He looked up.

"Three versions."

"Supposedly copied from the same source."

Zelpher approached.

"Translation errors?"

"No." Atheline shook his head. "Not repeatedly."

He picked up the oldest.

"Someone changed the meaning."

Lilith nodded.

"And each later version makes Death more obviously responsible."