Corrupted Lands

By the time Xilo could open his eyes again he was alone on the battlefield except for two figures in the distance that he didn't recognize. Not quite understanding what had just happened he was forced to stay still regardless of how much he struggled but before he could figure out anything he heard one of them speak. Stopping he made sure they hadn't spotted him but that didn't seem to be the case as he watched them. One seemed to be in a suit of armour that he had seen before but he was alive and the other carried with him a prestige Xilo hadn't felt before.

"But my King you can't be serious. this is insane and hopeless."

"I know that, which is why I'm letting them make a choice if they want to leave or not you can as well. However I must fight. That darkness is growing stronger regardless of what we do to try and slow it down. So we've all agreed to work together to try and put a stop to it finally. We've ignored it for so long it's about time we finally put a stop to it."

"Tha-that thing is impossible for any of us to beat even you. It stands mountains tall and unleashes corruption that spreads across the land that disables us from even coming close to it. Asking us to come along is just asking us to die without even putting up a fight. You know better then all of us how fighting that thing will turn out even if everyone groups up together. Even if it is sealed in that accursed Island that appeared."

Sadly looking at his old friend he spoke up with a bit of sadness but he understood.

"So you've made your choice then."

With that Xilo watched the man the soldier called King walk off in the opposite direction as the soldier grumbled to himself.

"That isn't fair."

Watching the scene change before his eyes Xilo was reminded of something Xelfia had told him about a while ago. "A giant shrouded in darkness that crushed everything in its path." She had seen a vision of it deep in the ruins of an Astral Zone. At the time Xilo had somewhat waved it off as just an ancient tale but if what they were talking about was the same thing as what Xelfia saw then the story might be a lot more real than he initially thought.

Feeling a little tingle run through his body he tried to shake off his fears. "It's been defeated already." Telling himself that he looked upon the same battlefield assumably some time later as hundreds of soldiers fought each other without ever stopping no matter how badly they were injured. Seeing a familiar scene he silently watched them trying to figure out what was happening but before anything of note happened he felt the ground begin to rumble with an intensity he had never felt.

In the next second he watched as a giant hand pierced the ground of the castle and latched onto it. "It's falling?" Feeling him fall downwards confusion struck him but it didn't seem to affect the soldiers that were fighting. They mindlessly kept going, ignoring the problem that was occurring until eventually they slammed into the ground. Crashing Xilo felt a little sick as he looked around the battlefield as the hand disappeared while a large cracking sound entered his ears.

"That was..."

Looking in the direction of it he saw one of the pillars that was in this place shatter into pieces as things began to change. Within a few seconds a portal opened well the environment around this place began to change with things getting thrown out of balance as a looming feeling of darkness seeped into this place. Trying to comprehend such sudden changes Xilo watched as the warriors that were fighting each other turned around and charged into the portal without any regards to what was waiting for them on the other side as darkness seeped into their bodies corrupting them even further.

"So is this the corruption that man spoke off before?"

Looking into the portal Xilo was pulled into it as well as he saw one lone warrior on the side patiently waiting there. Once all of them arrived the soldier silently looked up before it finally began to move forward. "He's from before." He may have been deformed compared to before but the armour he had on was still the same as before along with that same feeling he had before. Darkness oozed from his body non stop as he pulled out his blade with zero sound well all of the other soldiers stopped moving before collapsing in an instant to a pile of dust along with the commander himself. Shocked for a second Xilo watched as they built themselves back together in seconds while he noticed something from the commander.

"There's a core in him...but how and why not the others?"

However before he had more time to study the situation he felt his mind awaken greeted by the sight of a panicked Tearia grabbing at his body trying to get his attention. Blinking a couple times he looked down at the girl who was hugging his body as he heard her mumbling his name alongside Felli. Looking between the two of them he felt a sense of reality return to him as Felli noticed him awake finally. Seeing Xilo finally awaken after suddenly passing out she smiled as she tapped Tearia's shoulder.

"I told you not to panic so much he was probably still too tired Tearia."

"Huh?"

Looking up at Xilo and noticing him staring down at her, she untangled himself from him with a bit of embarrassment as she spoke up softly."

"Are you alright Xilo?"

"Yeah I am Now."

But before he could speak about what he saw he heard the sound of another portal opening up. Soon Undead warriors swarmed into this place without stopping again as their timer was up but Xilo paid a lot more attention to them this time around. Looking for something different he scanned the crowd of Warriors until eventually he found something that resembled the image he had seen before.

"There it is."