"It's… It's singing a broken song, Kenji!" Elara's voice, though strained, held a desperate urgency.
Her Lumina light flickered weakly, casting faint shadows on the twisted landscape. They had finally reached the second Reality Anchor, but it was nothing like the first.
This was a huge, clear structure. It was dark and still, covered in thick, pulsing tendrils of blight.
It pulsed faintly, a ghostly blue on Kenji's System, but offered no warmth, no true stability.
"Like a crystal shattered but still longing for its light! There are points where the energy is twisted, choked by the blight. We need to realign it!"
Kaito, wiping a smudge of blight-dust from his cheek, peered at the dormant Anchor.
"Okay, so this giant glowing rock isn't just for show. Looks like there are energy conduits here, but they're choked with… whatever this gunk is. If we can clear them, maybe we can kickstart this thing. My gear could probably handle some minor… re-routing."
He took a small multi-tool from his belt. His eyes scanned the complex patterns on the Anchor's surface.
"But those tendrils are very aggressive. And whatever's making that awful screeching sound nearby won't be happy."
Kenji surveyed the scene. His Corruption Influence meter was still dangerously high, flashing
[CRITICAL! Sustained exposure degrades vessel integrity. Caution Advised!].
The air here felt heavy. The Blight's core loomed like a cruel god. This wasn't a place for rest. This was a puzzle, a siege.
"We need to clear these conduits," Kenji stated, his voice a low growl of determination.
"Kaito, you start working on the energy flow. Elara, guide me. Tell me where the blight is choking it the most. I'll clear a path."
He drew Shadowfang, its dark blade seeming almost eager in this realm.
They split up, a frantic dance of desperation against the encroaching despair. Kaito scrambled over the smooth surface of the dormant Anchor.
His quick fingers moved easily as he attached small, whirring devices to the intricate patterns. He muttered to himself, a mix of technical jargon and frustrated grunts.
"This is like trying to fix a supercomputer with a spork! But… if I can bridge this connection… bypass the blighted circuits…"
Elara, driven by desperation, moved next to Kenji. Her light shone brightly, showing the Anchor's areas where the blight was thickest.
"Here, Kenji! A dense knot of corruption! It's trying to sever the Anchor's connection to the pure reality!"
Her voice was urgent, her eyes scanning for approaching threats.
Kenji pressed his hand against the designated section of the Anchor. He felt a surge of raw, corrupted power, pulsing, trying to invade him. He gritted his teeth and fought against it.
He drew the harmful energy into himself, feeling a searing pain that blurred his vision. The Corruption Influence meter shouted
[OVERLOAD IMMINENT!], and his Shadow Brand throbbed like a fresh wound.
He focused on containing the energy, not destroying it. He absorbed it, creating a brief void for the Anchor to breathe.
As he drew the blight into himself, a strange creature with many limbs emerged from a nearby crack.
Its body was a tangle of moving tendrils and bright eyes. It screeched, making a sound that hurt their souls.
It was a Blight-Harvester, a guardian drawn by their attempts to reactivate the Anchor.
"We have a problem, guys!" Kaito yelled, barely looking up from his frantic work.
"Big ugly coming your way, ghost-boy! Looks like it doesn't like us messing with its… whatever this is!"
Elara gasped and quickly raised a fragile shield of light. It stood between Kenji and the Blight-Harvester.
"It's sensing the shift! It's trying to stop us!"
Her light flickered, struggling against the sheer power of the incoming attack.
Kenji moved, his body screaming, but his mind was clear.
He lunged at the Blight-Harvester. Instead of using brute force, he delivered precise Dark Slashes.
He aimed for the pulsating sacs on its limbs, which seemed to draw energy from the Anchor itself.
He ignored the burning pain in his Shadow Brand, ignored the roaring whispers. He was a scalpel, not a sledgehammer. Each strike drained him, but it was necessary.
As he fought, strange, alien patterns flashed through his mind. These weren't visions from Shadowbane.
He saw faint, shimmering lines of energy. They looked like veins of light. These lines ran through the damaged dimension. They connected the Anchors to a large, dark, beating network.
He saw a huge shadow. It twisted the lines, fed on them, and corrupted them. The Reality Anchors were stable points and could also serve as a power source, twisted by Noxius.
"Kenji! My circuits are linking! I need a steady flow! Now!" Kaito yelled, sweat beading on his brow as he wrestled with a loose energy conduit.
"The blight… it's trying to reconnect! Push more! You can do it!" Elara urged, her voice unwavering even as her light flickered.
Kenji pushed. He pushed more raw power into his Shadow Brand. It was a desperate act of faith. He drew more of the Anchor's blight into himself.
He roared, the sound echoing in the strange, metallic air. His Corruption Influence meter glowed red. Still, he pushed through, forcing his will over the rising darkness.
He used Void Bolt not to attack, but to create a cleansing shockwave. It blasted away the last tendrils from the Anchor's core.
The Blight-Harvester shrieked, sensing its connection severed, and lunged wildly.
Kenji met it head-on, a blur of dark energy, his Shadowfang a desperate arc of defiance. He pushed it back, buying precious seconds.
Suddenly, a low hum filled the air. Not the malevolent hum of the Blight, but a resonant, pure sound.
The Anchor's crystalline structure started to glow. At first, it was faint, but then it shone brighter with a pure blue light. This light pushed back the harsh green and purple of the dimension.
The Blight-Harvester shrieked, its form flickering, recoiling from the pure energy. It snarled, then slunk back into the shadows, defeated for now.
Kaito collapsed, panting.
"We did it! We actually did it! It's… humming! And not in a creepy 'I'm going to eat your soul' way!"
Elara rushed to the Anchor, her hands pressed against its now warm, pulsing surface.
Her own light seemed to strengthen, drawing sustenance from its pure energy. "It's alive again! It's a song… It's whole now! Oh, Kenji, Kaito… we did it!"
Her voice was filled with a relief so profound it brought tears to her eyes.
Kenji leaned against the softly humming Reality Anchor. His body shook as a deep exhaustion washed over him, almost making him buckle at the knees.
His System now showed the Anchor glowing steadily blue. His Corruption Influence meter was still high, but it had dipped into the yellow warning zone.
He gazed at the wide, damaged landscape. Then, he turned to the far-off, dreadful core of the Blight. A new understanding began to dawn on him.
"It's not just a point of stability," Kenji said.
The Heart of the Eclipse felt heavy inside him, but now he could control it.
"It's a living entity. And it's been in agony. This isn't just about getting back. It's about stopping him. Before he uses these 'anchors' to unravel our reality completely. We found two. We need to find the rest."
He pushed away from the Anchor, his gaze fixed on the endless, alien wastes.
"And then… we tear this damn dimension apart from the inside. One step at a time."