Revealing its monstrously large body, Olivia understood the thought of the creature.


    With a flap of her wings, she flew on top of the creature''s nose, before hiding her demonic form with dark magic.


    Reverting to the human Olivia, she anxiously waited. Watching as its eyes focused on her.


    "..."


    While unconsciously looking around, her eyes stumbled upon dark spots all over its skin.


    ''I recognize those...''


    The corruption. On a creature this massive, it only showed as specks on its blue skin, but it would be fatal to anyone smaller than its size.


    Bigger patches appeared here and there, showing that it was indeed rapidly taking over, and that the pain it felt wasn''t imaginary.


    Though, the moment Olivia conversed with the being, she knew it wasn''t an enemy, as anticipated by the Azure Dragon.


    If not for his sudden appearance, she would have gone against this being, and lost. He gave her an opportunity, another path that was previously locked to her.


    "How bad is the pain?"


    Olivia kneeled and rubbed one of the dark spots close to her right foot.


    She was unable to read its thoughts, but she knew she had a chance to make things right. Risking everything to gain a fragment of its trust led her to this moment.


    ''It doesn''t look good.''


    With a single look, he gathered that it suffered a great deal until now. The actual problem was how she would ask questions without getting on its wrong side.


    "Unbearable."


    The growl that escaped its mouth was filled with agony. Its voice echoed so low in her mind that she felt incredibly sorry for its current state.


    "In normal circumstances, I would have called someone who can cure the corruption..."


    Its eyes unfocused and looked down, falling into deep thoughts.


    "It sounds like it won''t be possible."


    "Sadly, you are correct. We are at war with the cause of your affliction. He is currently fighting against it."


    Not knowing whether Orion was fighting Miasma, she assumed so.


    Still, that didn''t change her predicament. Olivia was unable to call Orion to her, even in this situation.


    Releasing a grunt out of its nose, the creature closed its beads like eyes.


    "Then, I might cause trouble to the world."


    "Why?"


    With a frown, Olivia shook her head and rectified her question.


    "No, that''s not it. Can you tell me what happened to you, and where you come from?"


    "Does that matter?"


    "I would like to know more. Maybe there is a clue on how to heal this cursed power inside your memories."


    The gargantuan beast opened its eyes, and snorted.


    "Fine."


    -


    The creature had no name. It was a vagrant, traveling the seas of this incredible planet. For all it knew, it was the only individual of its species to travel the world.


    It never really felt alone, as it simply enjoyed the tranquility of the depths, moving wherever it felt like.


    But, during a recent voyage, it stumbled upon the corpse of an even larger being. It was the corpse of a white dragon, which he knew from tales of the creatures of the depths around this continent.


    While it looked peaceful at first, the creature noticed dark spots on the body of the giant dragon. This was its first interaction with the ''taint'' as it began to call it.


    Observing the dark patches brought worries to it. As it turned around the corpse to see more of it, it suddenly found itself attacked by small fishes with red eyes.


    They were too small to even bother it, so he ate them without giving it a second thought.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    That was its mistake. Eating the corrupted cores of the fishes started the encroaching of the corruption inside his body, slowly wrapping itself inside, tainting its mind.


    After leaving the corpse, the creature felt an emotion it had never felt before. A constant rage that couldn''t be satiated. It hungered for more corrupted beings.


    While hunting them down and devouring them across the Northern Sea, it found a large quantity of them around Eogis.


    Once he devoured the corrupted to the very last one, it moved along the slope surrounding the depths, and devoured more.


    With its fogged mind, it mindlessly continued, until it found a truly impressive creature.


    It had the most condensed aura of taint ever. For the first time, the gargantuan beast experienced what was called ''magic''.


    While larger than the corrupted he devoured previously, the corrupted in the shape of a shark died pitifully in the jaws of the monstrous being.


    Eventually, it followed the scent of taint, which led it to devour the whale, and meet Olivia.


    -


    ''Velridar was corrupted...''


    This was an information Olivia wasn''t prepared to hear.


    Everyone knew about Velridar from Orion and Deveralna.


    ''A being even larger than the one in front of me, entirely white... There''s no one else besides the late Remnant of Strength.''


    ''Orion and Tiohr-nam won''t be pleased by this piece of information.''


    With a frown, she looked down while pressing her right thumb on her temple.


    ''That''s the reason for his death. He was corrupted without us noticing.''


    The dark spots on its body were unarguably the proof of its demise.


    "What now?"


    After telling its story, the creature looked at Olivia intently. Forced to return to reality, she blinked while looking confused.


    "There is nothing I can do. I am incompatible with the element that heals the corruption. Even if you asked me to, I am unable to do so."


    "Even knowing what made you come this far, it doesn''t hold much meaning in hope to heal you."


    "..."


    The light in the creature seemed to dim out, with its hope for survival being reduced to zero.


    "The only thing I can say is to avoid eating any other corrupted... It will spare you more suffering."


    Olivia clenched her fists and looked down with a grim expression.


    ''Is that all I can do? Really?''


    It noticed the pain on her face, before a misty cloud escaped its nostrils. With a compassionate gaze and tone, it spoke to her.


    "Fear not, death takes us all at some point. It just means my time is up."


    But, it spoke words that she wishes she had never heard.


    "Before my time is up, I want you to..."


    "Kill me."


    With a bewildered expression, a shiver ran down her spine.


    "No! I can''t do that!"


    "You''ve done nothing wrong! It isn''t fair to you!"


    Losing control over her emotions, she angrily walked closer to its eyes.


    "Sure, you''ve almost drowned my city, and killed me while attacking the corrupted whale, but that was an accident!"


    "I''m not ending your life because you told me to! How am I even supposed to do that?"


    She swiped her right arm through the air in disapproval.


    "That is a fair point."


    Remembering its size, very few were able to injure it. That was, only those with unnatural powers could manage to kill it.


    People like Olivia.


    Yet, she was determined not to use her power for that purpose. She was prepared to kill, but not this being. It was too tragic an end.


    This led to Olivia releasing her illusion. Her demonic form appeared to the gargantuan beast, while she began to walk in a circle in front of its eyes.


    Pushing her brain to its limits, she tried to find an idea that would save it from both death, and the corruption.


    ''What would Orion do?''


    She smirked and shrugged.


    ''That''s a stupid question. He would have already found a way to remove the corruption out of its body.''


    Returning to a frown, she kept walking incessantly. Her steps quickened, as she kept trying to find the right answer.


    ''My powers aren''t made to heal. They are to protect myself, hide things from others, and ruthlessly kill my enemies. The power of my blood isn''t much better.''


    The demons were a physically strong faction. There was nothing her brutal strength could do in this situation.


    Then, as she pondered some more, she stopped.


    "I... can''t find anything."


    With a tear-filled grimace, she looked at her hands. She was forced to accept that nothing could be done.


    From the looks of it, the monster in front of her had no less than a few hours before its mind completely sunk into corruption.


    ''Am I really going to... kill it?''


    She looked into its eyes, and felt her heart sunk. She wanted to save it more than anything else.


    ''This is not fair...''


    The reality was that life wasn''t fair at all. The death of her parents, the state she found her maids in, the corruption encroached into high-ranking humans, and the struggle she herself was put through.


    But she still couldn''t accept it.


    Seeing her dismayed look, the creature asked her a single question.


    "What are you?"


    Surprised by the sudden interest of the other side, she answered while confounded.


    "I-I''m a demon."


    "A demon. Is that why you look like this?"


    It had never bothered entering into contact with other species. This was the first time it ever moved toward the surface.


    With its last moment approaching, it felt curiosity toward the only other intelligent being in front of it.


    "That''s my real form."


    "Then, what''s the one without those things behind your back?"


    "My wings?"


    She glanced at the dark wings pulled behind her back.


    "Oh, you mean my human form. I use it to hide my true form. Our society isn''t kind to our faction. There are only two of us left."


    "I am probably the same. Is it hard for you to know you are alone?"


    Olivia looked at her hands again, before shaking her head.


    "Not particularly. I miss my parents, but that''s all there is to it. I can''t be sad for something I don''t know about."


    She had never experienced life inside the demon faction in Eogis. All she knew was her parents, and the human city of Noctelagia.


    "I am the same."


    The creature closed its eyes, before looking into the sky.


    "How can you change your form?"


    "With magic."


    "I don''t know what that is."


    Olivia formed a bubble of water in her left hand, and a dark sphere in her right hand, before looking at it.


    "This is magic. It''s a power we have access, which was given by a faction called elementals."


    She played with both of them, creating a double of herself in her human form.


    "I can create illusions. Fouling others in my specialty, since I had to... hide..."


    Swallowing her words, she blinked while looking at her clone. Within seconds, it popped, leaving behind a brief afterimage of herself.


    "..."


    Shocked, Olivia stared blankly where the clone was.


    "What is it? Are you not going to continue?"


    Slowly, Olivia glanced toward the creature, and stared directly into its eyes.


    "This is going to sound absurd..."


    "But I can save you."


    A brilliant but mind-blowing idea appeared in her mind.


    Following the exemple of everyone in the Agathion faction, Olivia was about to create a miracle.


    A new power, capable of breaking the laws of Nature.