Azure Dune, Chapter 8 - BLACK

After a full day of trudging through the corrupted terrain, deflecting attacks left and right, we finally made it to the opening inside the mountain. It wouldn’t take long before we reached her core and then…

“So, how exactly are you planning on talking to her anyway?” Ellen asked.

Xeron frowned.

“Mmm, I’m not exactly sure if it will work, but I wanted to share some of my memories with her. Let her see who I am and what Azure let me experience all in one go.”

“You can do that…?” Devon carefully asked.

“Yes, but I need to get close to the core.”

“That’s too dangerous,” Trevor grumbled. “What if your avatar gets absorbed instead? There’s no time and space to make another one.”

“If that happens… Then I will need Azure to touch her core and I can work through them.”

Ellen shuffled around nervously while the two men in the party scowled.

“That’s fine,” I agreed. “We just have to get close. Either me or Xeron.”

The others clearly felt uncomfortable taking such a risk just to potentially spare an enemy destroying the world. And I understood that hesitation. But at the same time…

“We’re supposed to be the hero party, are we not?” I reminded them. “What kind of heroes strike down a confused child without even trying to help first?”

Trevor’s expression changed as if he was eating lemons while Devon snorted in amusement. “A confused child, huh? Even after all these years, you are still the same Azure.” The man shook his head. “Fine. We’ll do our best to protect you two while you try to get close enough then.”

With a round of nods – Trevor’s a bit more reluctant than the others’ – we finally entered the tunnel inside the mountain.

From then on, it only got more strenuous and draining to advance. The closer we got to the core, the more vicious the corruption got. It took all our efforts to keep it at bay, with Xeron draining it, me purifying it, and the others protecting us.

After hours that felt like an eternity, we finally made it to the big open cavern where Xeron’s core once lay. As expected, there she was, a pulsating orb of blackness, sprouting countless black tentacles of pure corrupted Aether, all surrounded by a dark mist permeating the whole room.

“Intruders!” a loud warped voice said, shaking the entire room with its sheer power. “You dare invade my home!”

I felt my insides rattling. Breathing was difficult despite all the defensive measures we had taken.

It reminded me of our final confrontation with Xeron.

“Hah? Invade your home? We’re only here because you invaded the home of everyone else in the world!” Ellen shouted at the manifestation of corruption in front of us, her voice steadier than I could have managed in our situation.

“Such insolence! The world is my home! And you are not welcome here!”

“Hey, that’s just not fair! We were here first, you little brat!” the crazy woman in our party yelled back, despite the increasing pressure.

“My name is Xethra and this world belongs to my father! He’s been here since the beginning! Not you humans! He left me here to cultivate myself and strike out at the world to avenge him when you murdered him! I’m carrying his will! I will avenge what you humans did to him!”

We stared at Xeron.

Xeron visibly cringed.

“That… I… I seem to have forgotten I told her all that…” She shuffled around. “It… I guess I was a bit stressed right before you sealed me, alright…?”

We continued to stare. Me and Ellen deadpan, Devon royally annoyed, and Trevor downright murderous.

Xeron slowly turned away from us to face her daughter, took a deep breath, and shouted, “Xethra! It’s me, Xeron!” The corruption's wriggling suddenly froze, the pressure we had been fighting off abating. “I am sorry for leaving you like this, but there is no need for revenge anymore! Things have changed! Humans are not enemies anymore!”

There was a moment of silence as the corruption slowly began to wriggle again. Despite not being a human, I somehow got the impression of the movement being uncomfortable.

“You… you lie! You are not Xeron! You are an imposter, here to confuse me!”

“It is true, Xethra! You can feel my presence, can you not? You recognize my Aether.”

“I… No! Father would never side with humans! You must be a fake!”

Xeron took a step forward, despite all the corruption around.

“It is really me, Xethra. I’ve been sealed in Azure and the past few decades, I observed their life and learned about what it meant to be a human. I was wrong, Xethra. There is no need for destruction!”

Once more, Xethra fell silent. We all waited with bated breath. Trevor murmured something akin to, “No way that actually works…”

And a good minute of silence later, she spoke again, “You… insolent humans! What have you done to Father?!”

The pressure suddenly returned, even stronger than before, forcing us to huddle down and strengthen our defenses.

“Xethra! Stop this–”

“Wait for me, Father! I’ll free you from these filthy humans! You won’t have to be trapped anymore! Won’t have to pretend to side with them!”

“Shiiit! That backfired really hard!” Ellen swore as a surge of corrupted Aether hit us.

“I’m not pretending, Xethra!” Xeron pleaded even as our defenses began to break down. “Dammit… Fine, we’ll have to do this the hard way then!”

Without another word, we all fell into a formation and prepared for the final battle.