Eli found the knot of cold energy in his core.
'That's the corruption,' he realized right away.
Twenty four souls' worth of pain, fear, anger, and despair compressed into a single point inside him.
It felt like some kind of tumor growing where it didn't belong.
[GOOD. YOU SEE IT.]
[NOW: PURGE IT.]
"How?"
[PULL IT OUT. THE SAME WAY YOU PULLED SOULS FROM BODIES.]
Eli focused harder and reached inward with that same mental muscle he had used to consume souls.
He grasped it, and pulled.
Suddenly, the pain exploded through his chest.
It felt like someone had reached into his soul and started tearing.
Every nerve on his body lit up at once, making him convulsed. He bit down his lower lip so hard until it bled.
The corruption didn't want to leave his soul.
It had rooted itself, really like a tumor.
Pulling it out felt like ripping his own ribcage open from the inside.
Eli screamed.
"I CAN'T—"
[YOU MUST.]
Eli's hands clawed at the tile white floor, his vision whited out. But he kept pulling.
Finally, the corruption came free in black and tar like energy chunks that leaked from his chest like smoke.
All the memories from the souls he processed flooded back in, and guilt crashed into him.
He had killed and consumend them.
And now he felt everything.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry—" Eli gasped, trying hard to breath.
[RELEASE IT.]
He pulled the corruption harder, and it tore free completely.
And suddenly, he could breathe again.
The cold emptiness in his chest was gone, replaced by something warm. Something that felt like him as a human.
Eli collapsed forward in a sitting position, his forehead pressed against the tile.
[PURIFICATION COMPLETE]
[HUMANITY RESTORED: +15%]
[CURRENT HUMANITY: 83%]
He collapsed on his side, and lay there for a long moment. His body was shaking hard.
All of his emotions were back at once. It was too loud, like someone had turned the volume of his emotions up to maximum.
"Oh my God," Eli whispered.
[CLEANSING RITUAL LEARNED]
[COOLDOWN: 6 HOURS]
[NOTE: EXTENDED MEDITATION REQUIRED. VULNERABILITY DURING PROCESS.]
Six hours.
He could only do this once every six hours.
And it would leave him vulnerable, like now. Completely defenseless.
"That's a shit mechanic," Eli muttered softly.
[IT IS BALANCED.]
"It's painful."
[YES.]
Eli pushed himself up slowly, feeling his body like he had been hit by a truck.
But now his mind was clear.
He looked at the teenage girl in the prom dress. She was still standing there with vacant eyes, shuffling slowly toward him.
'I can't consume her yet,' Eli thought.
[CORRECT.]
[YOU CANNOT SUSTAIN CONSUMPTION WITHOUT CORRUPTION.]
[YOU MUST FIND ANOTHER WAY.]
"What other way? You came to me and said I can't cleanse them until Rank D. I can't consume them without sacrificing my own sanity. What am I supposed to—"
The building suddenly shook.
Eli grabbed the wall for balance. "What the hell was that?"
[TIME ACCELERATION DETECTED]
[CORRUPTED SOULS REACHING MOBILITY THRESHOLD]
The moaning from the corpses grew louder.
It was not from one direction. It was from everywhere.
Eli ran to the hallway window, looking out through the reinforced glass to the main corridor.
And his stomach dropped.
The souls he hadn't processed yet, were moving, walking toward the exits. Drawn by something Eli couldn't see.
"Where are they going?"
[CORRUPTED SOULS SEEK LIVING HOSTS.]
His blood went cold.
If twenty four corrupted souls got loose in the city…
He looked out the window at the far end of the hall, where he could see the parking lot.
And beyond it was chaos.
Smoke was rising from buildings, and he could hear people screaming.
"Oh my God."
[DEATH SURGE: GLOBAL EVENT]
[ESTIMATED CASUALTIES: 47 MILLION IN FIRST HOUR]
[PROJECTED CASUALTIES: 2.3 BILLION WITHIN 24 HOURS]
Eli read the texts with wide eyes.
Forty seven million.
This was everywhere, not just the morgue.
Every hospital, every morgue, every funeral home… every place where the dead had been stored.
They were all waking up.
"Why didn't you tell me beforehand?" Eli shouted to the system, feeling frustrated.
[YOU WERE FOCUSED ON IMMEDIATE SURVIVAL.]
[GLOBAL CONTEXT WAS IRRELEVANT.]
"What do you mean—IRRELEVANT?!!!"
[YOUR MORGUE CONTAINED 47 SOULS.]
[THE WORLD CONTAINS 47 MILLION.]
[ONE AUDITOR CANNOT SAVE EVERYONE]
Eli stared at the text
One Auditor. One.
"How many of us are there?" he asked quietly, calming down.
[CURRENT ACTIVE AUDITORS: 1,247]
[REQUIRED AUDITORS FOR GLOBAL COVERAGE: 50,000]
Fifty thousand.
Yet, they had only one thousand.
"We're fucked," Eli said flatly.
[AFFIRMATIVE.]
The building shook again.
The corrupted souls were pushing through the exit doors now, spilling into the parking lot.
Eli watched them scatter in every direction. Some toward the smokes in the city, some toward the screaming, and some just wandering aimlessly.
[REVISED MISSION: EXIT MORGUE]
[OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE]
[SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: LOCATE SAFE ZONE]
[RANK ADVANCEMENT SUSPENDED UNTIL STABILIZATION]
"Alright," he said quietly after some times, and headed for the exit. "Let's see how bad it really is."
He opened the door and cold air rushed in, along with the smoke of the fires outside.
Eli stepped outside, and saw the sky was red.
It wasn't sunset red, it was like the atmosphere itself was bleeding.
Cars were piled up on the highway overpass in the distance. Some on fire.
The dead and the living bodies were scattered everywhere.
A woman ran past him, screaming as she was chased by the decaying corpse that used to be her husband.
A child sat on the curb, crying next to a corpse that was starting to glow blue.
And in the distance, maybe three miles away, all the skyscrapers were dark. All the power grids were down.
But there was blue lights everywhere.
Thousands of glowing figures moving through the streets.
Eli stood in the parking lot, watching the world end.
[DEATH SURGE: HOUR 2]
[GLOBAL MORTALITY RATE: CLIMBING]
[SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 12%]
"Twelve percent," he said numbly.
[NEW MISSION AVAILABLE]
[ACCEPT?]
Eli took a deep breath.
Then he pressed YES.