co?rrupt??ed.

Void Fiend (Risk of Rain 2)

Aside from some curious stares and pokes, alongside a uniquely awful experience of some void infestors trying to find a way to squirm under her armor to get to her flesh before being shooed away, she had largely been left alone, aside from that wretched jailor who always had its eyes on her - clearly having nothing better to do than watch his prisoner that it dragged down with it.

Fingers flexing, she recalled driving that nano-spear between its eyes. Every time she started to feel despair, she thought about it - the scene igniting the embers of hatred once again.

If I had my gauntlets.. I'd kill all of you.

Starting with you.

I'll relish it.

Regardless, during her time left relatively alone, she continued to silently think - Court knows she couldn't do much else - and a continuous thought hovered at the forefront of her tired mind. Why keep me, rather than kill me? Why force the infestors to scatter, rather than turn me? It was quite perplexing, and kept her thoughts relatively elsewhere for a few days.

Perhaps a week? I hope too much time hasn't passed...

He needs me.

...He must be panicking.

Things slowly began to make sense after a few days.

Viend alone had escaped the Simulacrum, deep within the bowels of the void itself - tearing himself from the poisonous fields layer-by-layer with nothing but monstrous mutations and sheer willpower. And the void didn't necessarily enjoy letting kin abandon kin.

After dwelling on it for quite a while, it finally clicked.

I'm being kept to lure him home.

The thought was sickening, but there was not much of an alternative. She clearly wasn't being eaten or turned, after all. Her body was untouched, aside from the persistent numbness in both arms and legs - If I escape, I'm going to fall flat on my face. Perfect. - and a persistent cough that seemed to be induced by the thick impure air eventually having wormed its way through her suit's recycling system, a cough that only seemed to worsen as time went on.

SHHHKKRRRRRKKKKKKKKHHKKKAAAAAA!!!

The thick sound of a portal being ripped through space itself, followed by an otherwordly scream that made her very bones vibrate within her suit. The sudden sound was enough to startle her from her reverie, bringing her back to the present - frantic eyes flickering about as the creatures around her suddenly turned hostile.

An intruder-? No--

It had gotten WOR?SE with every delve deeper.

But every raw nerve reminded him that this was his fault.

He'd been savagely mauling the very same Jailer, body glowing blood-red; RI?PPIN?G through exoskeleton and gouging into softer flesh beneath, while the - his - Artificer provided support from afar, synthetic ice freezing it solid again and again and again and again.

When the singularity implosion began to inevitably rip through the air, the Jailer had shot it not in his direction, but H?ERS. The corruption, searing hot, turned her name into a SC?REA???M.

『?WASN?'T FAST EN??OUGH??.】

And now, racing through the sickening fog for countless hours, after delving down L?EVEL??S UPON L??EVEL?S, he FO?UND HE?R.

HER.

SHHHKKRRRRRKKKKKKKKHHKKKAAAAAA!!!

RA??GE overcame P?AI??N - every synapse burning like fire upon tender flesh, C??ORRUP?TIO??N threatening to tear his carapace apart at the seams. Blasts of incandescent plasma seared molten crevices through indigo armor, wicked glowing digits tearing and gouging, cannon arm lacing fiery agony through remnants of bone, a living weapon.

R??IP. TEA???R. ?HER. HER. H???ER.

....................

When his consciousness returned, he was covered with alien gore, glossy slick and black voidborne blood; standing alone amidst a sea of broken shells and corpses - trembling with every pained cyclic intake.