Kenji pushed Elara through a tight gap in the crumbling tunnel.
The stones scraped against each other. New blight growths throbbed, trying to trap them inside.
The air was thick with the acrid scent of raw blight, hot and suffocating.
His Shadow Brand burned, a constant, painful reminder of the encroaching darkness.
His System screamed [Corruption Influence: CRITICAL!],
the red warning blaring relentlessly. He could feel Noxius's rage, a crushing weight, trying to force him to unleash everything, to just break.
"Go! Go! They're coming!"
He roared, his voice hoarse, pushing through the suffocating fear.
Kaito scrambled, his scanner beeping frantically, his eyes wide with genuine panic.
"They're faster than I thought! He's funneling them! It's like he knows our every move!"
He tripped over a newly formed blight tendril, barely catching himself.
"Multiple pursuit vectors! We're surrounded on three sides!"
He pointed at his flickering screen and waved towards a dark, shaky side tunnel.
"This way! Dead end! Unless... okay, new route! It's tighter, but less infested! Everyone through!"
Elara, out of breath, shot a burst of Lumina light. It held up a crumbling part of the tunnel behind them for a few vital seconds.
"The tunnels are closing! My light can barely hold them back! Watch the ceiling! More Screechers inbound! I'll try to blind them!"
She shot a quick beam of light up, blinding the flying blight creatures. They shrieked and crashed into the jagged ceiling.
She looked exhausted, her face dirty, but her determination was strong.
Kael, moving with terrifying, silent efficiency, acted as their rear guard.
A massive Siege-Blight with many limbs smashed through the tunnel behind them, blocking the way.
Kael swung their energy blade down hard and fast. With one precise cut, they split the creature in two.
The two halves dissolved into bubbling, corrosive sludge.
"They adapt quickly. "More output is needed."
Kael said, their voice calm and detached from the chaos around them. They moved quickly, like a dark shadow.
They cleared paths and took out threats with cold efficiency.
Kenji led the frantic retreat. His Shadow Step let him dodge sudden chasms and new blight formations.
This created chances for Elara and Kaito to escape.
His Dark Knight energy helped him make quick, focused attacks to take out key threats.
However, the Corruption Influence meter kept flickering at critical levels.
He's trying to break me, Kenji thought. His jaw was clenched as he fought the whispers creeping in.
Trying to make me unleash it all. Not yet. Not like this.
They were running on empty. Their bodies protested, but the chase pushed them on.
The blight didn't just follow; it tried to trap them. It collapsed parts of the tunnel ahead and grew walls of living material to block their escape.
Finally, the tunnel opened into a large, cavernous chamber.
But their relief was short-lived. Blocking the only exit was a truly colossal entity: a Blight Sentinel.
It's a huge, rocky shape merged with the chamber walls. It was covered in pulsing blight-veins and had sharp, scythe-like arms.
Its head, featureless save for a single, burning green eye, turned slowly towards them. It was too big to bypass, too powerful to simply ignore.
Kenji stopped dead, his breath hitching. He looked at the Sentinel, then at his exhausted companions.
There was no way around. He had to go through. He knew what this meant.
He shut his eyes for a moment, feeling the wild power of the Heart of the Eclipse surge, demanding to be set free.
The risk of absorption, of losing himself to the very thing he fought, was immense. But their lives depended on it.
"No way around,"
Kenji said, his voice low, strained, filled with the dread of what he was about to unleash. His hands trembled with the effort of control, his eyes fixed on the Blight Sentinel.
"We have to go through. Elara, Kaito, Kael... get ready for a backlash. I'm going to hit it with everything."
Elara, pale and shaking, nodded. Her Lumina light flared with fresh, desperate resolve.
Kaito's face was grim, but he gripped his pistol, ready. Kael simply activated their energy blade, its hum rising to a sharper pitch.
Kenji launched himself forward, a living, screaming conduit of pure dark energy. He unleashed an enormous amount of power.
A massive Void Nova exploded, striking the Blight Sentinel with destructive force.
The creature shrieked in pain.
The sound ripped through the underground as its huge body cracked and shattered.
The whole chamber shook as the Void Nova tore through the Sentinel, ripping it apart from the inside.
The explosion of raw dark energy further destabilized the tunnels. Kenji dropped to one knee, exhausted and close to corruption.
His System flashed urgent warnings.
His Shadow Brand felt like it was tearing a hole in his arm. He felt a deep emptiness, a scary void inside him.
It was as if the Heart of the Eclipse had taken too much and nearly consumed him.
Elara quickly moved to his side. She placed her hand on his arm, hoping to calm the fierce, dark energy around him.
They burst out of the underground, into the familiar, if still damaged, main hall of the vault.
The sunlight from the strong ceiling grates felt strange after the heavy darkness. The pursuit ceased, the blight recoiling from the pervasive light.
Hana rushed forward, her face a mixture of immense relief and stern disapproval.
"Kenji! You're back! But… what did you do down there?! The whole sector just lit up with dark energy! Get him to medical, now! Kaito, report!"
Her voice was sharp, but a tremor of relief was evident.
Kaito collapsed onto a discarded crate, breathing heavily, wiping sweat from his brow.
"We… we broke their pursuit. And Kenji broke… well, a lot of things. Including himself, almost."
He looked at Kael. Kael stood quietly, watching the scene with their energy blade retracted. A hint of awe touched Kaito's voice.
"And our new friend here is a serious problem for Noxius."
Kenji pushed himself up, still trembling, his head swimming. He looked at Hana, then at Kael, a grim, new understanding dawning.
They had survived. But the cost was growing, and the power he wielded was a razor's edge.
He met Kael's unwavering gaze, a silent acknowledgment of their shared, terrible purpose.
"He won't stop,"
Kenji rasped, his voice raw.
"We hit him where it hurts. He'll just hit back harder. We need to plan. We need to hit him first."