Emerging from the portal after another grueling challenge, Elio felt the familiar weight of corruption as its level increased to 27.
The pressure was still there when he focused on it, but a bit lighter now that Lila shared some of the burden. Her consumption of the sphere had distributed part of the load, making it more manageable even if a little… but much more noticeable as now Elio would think of his friends more often.
"So," Dionz floated beside him, "how are those explosive combinations working out? The first few challenges went quickly with your wolf-komodo fusion, but this one took almost a full day again."
"The numbers keep growing," Elio observed, reviewing his latest battle. "But I'm getting better at expanding the blast radius. Each explosion can affect a wider area now."
"Looking for ways to make them even bigger?" Dionz asked with a knowing smile.