Corrupt Creations

Lilian was sitting inside a carriage, concentrated on reading the document the city lord handled her.

"It seems to be the eleventh time they received the same report. This is no longer a coincidence, right?"

"Probably not." Seth was inside the carriage with her. He sat at the window and kept staring outside. Ther was something very wrong with this situation, his senses were practically screaming it for him.

Outside, the image of many houses and buildings indicated that they were already inside the village that was their destination.

"Milord. Milady. We arrived."

The carriage stopped. And a man opened the door for the duo. After leaving it, they realized they were in a military camp.

The captain of the soldiers came forward to greet them.

"I received news about you from Colton Hilkhell. The city lord told us that you are the group of people in charge of helping us containing this rampage, am I right?"

"That's it. Where is the place the beasts are wreaking havoc on?"

"Follow me, I'll bring you there." The captain brough Lilian and Seth to the village gates right at the other side of the military camp. While walking through the tents, Seth and Lilian realized that it was a hastily made camp.

"We have been containing the rampage outside these gates. There were previously two garrisons we mounted about a kilometer from here, where we were using to contain the beasts. But yesterday night they invaded and destroyed our defensive formations. We are defending the gate with all our might now. The defensive formation around the village gate is tougher than the ones we used before, but we don't know how much it will last."

"Have you entered a close quarter fight or are you attacking from the top of the village walls?"

Lilian asked, since she knew about of their predicament from the document she read.

"We tried a melee fight once, but the beasts are working together with a formation we haven't seen before. They seem to be possessed and would stop for nothing. We had some casualties on that fight and since then I opted for a range style of combat."

Lilian nodded and said: "Bring us to the village walls."

"Let's go."

Seth had analyzed the strength of the guards around here and discovered they were around the Qi Gathering middle to late-stage. Only the captain was a Profound Qi initial-stage practitioner. 𝐟𝗿𝚎𝐞𝓌e𝒃𝑛𝒐ѵ𝒆𝑙.c𝚘𝓶

The beasts attacking the village should be around that realm of power, so there was no need for him to worry, however, his senses were screaming that something was not right.

Suddenly a loud noise echoed.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Captain the beasts are attacking the gate."

"Soldiers take your positions."

The captain quickly led Seth and Lilian to the village walls where they would be able to see at an advantageous position.

When they saw what was happening on the other side of the walls, they got shocked. There was practically a swarm of beasts attacking the gate. They would take turns while banging their head on the formation that protected the gate and walls.

"That is the Metal-Horned Moose. This beast shouldn't be here. It usually runs all over the continent and never stays in the same place for long. It is unheard of it attacking a village before, what the hell is happening here?" Lilian couldn't piece things together.

"They all seem to be at the Qi Gathering late-stage realm. But they seem way more sinister than they should be." The captain analyzed those beasts.

Seth was feeling that something within those beasts was really familiar to him.

Bang! Bang!

"Archers and mages, start your attacks! Focus those far away in order to not damage the formation!" The captain commanded.

Fsh! Fsh! Swoosh!

Lot of skills and arrows imbued with Qi were fired in rapid succession against the beast tide. 𝘧r𝗲𝑒𝔀𝘦𝙗𝓃oν𝑒l.𝐜𝗼m

Seth approached Lilian and spoke: "Lilian, the condition of these beasts seems really strange, do not let your guard down around them."

Lilian nodded. She too found it strange for this kind of beast to attack a village.

BANG!

A loud sound marked the moment the formation was destroyed. The gate was blasted and its pieces flew, hitting some soldiers that were ready to defend the incoming wave of beasts.

Bellow!

Grrrrrrrrr!

A darker than normal bellow resounded and the animals started to attack furiously. They were unstoppable, not even the injuries they were receiving from the soldiers were enough to rein them.

The soldiers at the front row were reduced to pieces after getting pierced by an almost one-meter-long metal horn.

Lilian unsheathed her sword and a flaming aura started to build up around her. She waved her sword and the spirit within controlled the fire, making it rain on the beasts trying to advance. Many of them were catching fire, but they didn't stop and kept charging in.

"Lilian, I'll go." Seth said and jumped from the village wall, entering right in the middle of the raging beasts.

"What? He jumped outside!" The soldiers were stupefied.

Lilian furrowed her brows and decided to help him, increasing the power and the rate of fire of her attacks.

She drew a strange pattern on the air using her sword and some orbs of fire started to appear in front of her. She willed and those orbs dropped like a rain of bombs, destroying countless beasts around the battlefield. Where the orbs dropped, a thick fire wall would appear, sealing the place in flames.

Seth killed beast after beast with his bare hands. He used the most primitive and raw way possible to kill them. Deep inside his mind something was making he enjoy the massacre.

There was something on those beasts that was familiar to him. Something that should belong to him. He felt it more vividly when killing them.

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In another space where there the time and space weren't the same as we know, it seemed to be missing any of the fundamental laws. The floor was littered with a red energy. Sitting on a throne, there was a man made of the same red energy.

He tapped his finger on the armrest of the throne and smiled.

"It has finally begun."

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All the beasts felt that there was something inside the human they were fighting that attracted them. The already didn't have any reason remaining, however now, they mindlessly charged towards Seth, abandoning whatever they were doing before.

A red energy aura that could be seen very clearly, was circling around them. Seth felt that the familiarities he was feeling from before were exactly that red circling aura.

The Seed of Tyranny inside Seth started to absorb the energy from the dead beast bodies, however it went unnoticed for him.

While this was happening, Seth was lost in the marvelous feeling of destroying his enemies. He sometimes would rip a beast apart, another time he would crush a head and so on. The battlefield quickly turned into a bloodbath. The extremely strange energy was flowing towards him in torrents.

At some point in time, all the beasts were already running towards him, letting the soldiers take a breath. Lilian and those soldier that were stationed on the city walls saw how strange Seth was acting, but they could not see the energy at all. It was kind of invisible like Mana and Qi. It would only take shape and form if the holder willed it to. Although the beasts were bathing on that strange energy, they didn't know how to use it. It was more like the energy was using them instead.

After the last Metal-horned Moose died, Seth felt the energy flowing inside him, going directly to the Seed of Tyranny and quenching its thirst. The Seed was watered in that blood-red energy and suddenly it threatened to open and turn into a sprout, however the energy seemed insufficient and the action stopped from happening.

"I need more. I need more!" At this moment Seth's eyes were pulsing in a reddish color. He looked up directly to the village guards and thoughts about shredding them and absorbing more of that essence were almost dominating his mind.

He walked three steps on their direction and the guards started to feel apprehension. They started to tremble, but didn't even know why. The ground around Seth was littered with corpses and there was a river of fresh beast blood, however for some reason they were more spooked by his appearance when he looked towards them.

"Seth, wake up! what is happening? Seth?!" Lexi's voice resounded inside his head.

He finally regained some clear thought process and realized that there was something wrong with him. He stopped and the sinister aura that was circling him now receded.

"Lexi, what was that?"

"You seemed to be influenced by something and it is linked to that seed inside you." Lexi observed the whole process and said what she thought of it to him.

"Are you telling me that the Seed of Tyranny can influence my thoughts?"

"That seems to be so."

Seth stood there silent. It was a serious matter. If he somehow loses control of his entire consciousness and goes on a rampage... He was already trembling in fear just thinking what he could've done to the people around here.

"Damn! What is this seed? I think I don't want it at all!"

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The man made of red energy opened his eyes to observe the situation that was happening. After witnessing until the end, he closed his eyes again.

"That is not a choice. The corruption has already started to spread."

After that, he simply disappeared from the hall, the same hall Seth had visited some days ago while he was unconscious.