Corrupt Creations

Sometime before all of that happened, a giant red crystal creature passed through an energy mantle and impacted against the ground of the dark abyss. 

Bang! 

But instead of breaking the floor or causing any wide area disturbances, just like it happened on the surface, down there, nothing like that happened. What had actually happened was that the creature legs shattered like a piece of glass and the force of that impact almost instantly killed it. 

Just like Seth and Lan Xue, its Mana was thoroughly suppressed, not letting it protect itself from the fall, but differently from them, the crimson fog hovering in the entire area started to flow towards it and cause a series of changes. 

The first one was that it started to regenerate at a really good speed, but instead of returning to its previous size, it was now, way smaller. The creature itself felt like it belonged to this place, yet it was a cursed existence, since it was accepted by this strange environment. However, it was incapable of forming a complex thought process, so it had to live being guided by the instinct that there was something here that could make it more complete. 

Suddenly, it heard the calling from a certain faraway place. It automatically started to move towards that direction, trying to reach that place or acquire that something that would make it feel complete. 

Impressively, it had already forgotten about the primary target it was following, as if he didn't even exist anymore. 

It kept moving forward until it was like two thousand meters away from that gargantuan spine, when suddenly, it felt a repelling force out of nowhere. 

Bang! 

It was tossed backwards by that strange and powerful force, making it impossible to proceed. However, the creature kept trying to go forward at all cost, but nothing it did, was able to let it pass through that invisible barrier. 

It was like it wasn't allowed to proceed anymore, something that seemed to be imposed by the natural laws ruling over this whole place. 

But the creature couldn't accept it. The thing that would make it stronger was right there, in front of that area, but it wasn't able to move even a single step ahead. 

But suddenly, it saw the target it had already forgotten, moving past that area, some distance away from it. 

Seth senses were being thoroughly restricted by the whole area, yet the beast that had already been accepted by the abyss was not. Only their Mana were equally suppressed. 

When the beast saw its target doing what it couldn't, out of despair it used all the energy it was able to gather to create something to attack. By instinct, instead of using Mana, it condensed a crimson shard out of pure corruption. Even though the corruption running through its veins was not strong enough, it was still a creature reborn after the crimson baptism. 

With all its physical prowess, it threw the shard towards Seth filled with rage and dissatisfaction. It had even forgotten about the repelling force that wouldn't let it advance, but when that shard passed through that repelling area, nothing happened to it. 

The projectile kept accelerating forward, reaching the goal in no time. However, it made the target be sent towards the thing it so desperately needed to reach. 

. 

. 

. 

A moment after the tip of Seth's finger touched the gigantic spine, a red light suddenly expanded from it and covered the whole underground world. That entire place was bathing in that crimson light and living by its rules. 

Man, woman, beasts, inanimate objects and everything else completely stopped in time and space. Actually, even the concept of time and space stopped existing at that moment. There was only the tyrannical rule of corruption. 

Seth's soul was forcefully dragged towards a crimson world where he had been once before. He immediately recognized it, as being the same place that he saw on that strange dream. The dream he had at that time when he was injured at the borders of the Ygnolia forest. 

However, instead of falling from the void, this time, he was already standing straight right before the throne he had seen at that time. Immediately, a strong will to sit down there started to take over him, just like it happened back then. But this time, he resisted. However, he inevitably took a step forward. 

At that moment though, a red lightning descended in front of the throne and a figure appeared there. It was the figure of a man, totally constituted by that crimson light of corruption. 

When he appeared, Seth felt like his body got paralyzed and he couldn't even breath properly at his presence. It was an ancient presence capable of making him feel like a useless ant. 

'Lexi!!! Are you there? Lexi!!!' Seth desperately tried to call for his partner, but she was not there with him. Whatever was happening, was an event able to separate his soul from hers, what should have been an impossible thing. 

That figure slowly moved towards the throne and calmly sat down. His pair of crimson bright eyes looked directly at Seth as he started to ask in an ancient voice: "Why... Why are you fearing it? Why are you so fearful of it?" 

Seth felt like he was given the rights to say something, but that question wasn't something he knew how to respond. 

"What... What are you talking about?" 

The corrupted figure pointed towards his chest and Seth suddenly looked down. He got shocked to see that there was a huge crystal shard crossing through his chest, yet he felt nothing. But he panicked after remembering everything. 

"Why do you fear it so much? It wasn't supposed to be like this..." The crimson figure said once again. 

"What is that supposed to mean? Who are you?" 

"Sigh... Let me show you something..." 

The man suddenly moved his finger and behind Seth, the whole word collapsed. It was like a curtain of glass had just shattered and instead of that crimson infinity, now, there was some kind of purgatory there. 

Although it looked like it was a purgatory, full of human, beasts and myriad of other races, it actually wasn't. High up in the sky, there was a crimson star, shinning in corruption and down there on the ground, all those beings were trying their utmost to be blessed by the crimson star, yet there seemed to be a barrier that didn't let it happen. 

"They are those who do not fear the corruption, yet they are doomed to never be blessed by it. However, you... You were blessed, yet you fear it." 

Seth was starting to understand what he was talking about, but it still didn't make any sense. 

That figure sitting on his crimson throne continued: "And that's why you can't control it."

When he said those words, Seth felt like the entity in front of him had the answers for his questions. The answers he was so desperately trying to get. 

"Senior... Who are you?" 

"That's an interesting question. I was once someone... But not anymore. After what happened, the others started to call me as the Great Corruptor." 

"The Great Corruptor?" 

"Let me tell you an ancient story, something so old that probably no one knows it anymore. From the Twelve Primordial Laws, I held two of them in my possession. What I am now and everything that I did, began with how I used one of them, creating the Supreme Law of Corruption." 

"!!!" Seth suddenly understood that this entity, was one if the six Primordial True Gods. Someone that held creation and destruction on the palm of his hands, but what shocked him the most, was the wild supposition he had inside his head. 

He suddenly looked towards this whole crimson world and something clicked inside of him. He suddenly turned towards the Great Corruptor and asked: "What is corruption? Why did you create it?" 

Instead of directly replying, he made the "screen" behind Seth change, showing the scenes Seth had seen many times over. But this time, more detailed so he could see everything. 

An individual was infected by corruption. It tried to change him, to create something more perfect, more complete. But it ended up failing. However, this time, Seth was totally feeling the whole process. He felt how the individual failed the process by his own limitations. 

The individual feared it; he wasn't strong enough; he wasn't able to resist the process; his soul was frail... Resulting in the failure Seth had seen many and many times. There were many more complex things inside that process, making it even harder for someone to actually succeed. The variables were so extensive, that there were only two successful cases until this very moment. Seth and the Great Corruptor himself. 

Seth saw how he was able to succeed the process and the screen shattered once again. After it ended, he wasn't able to even say a single word, because he noticed something shocking. The corruption was not trying to destroy anything, but trying to create something new. All those failures, were the times it failed to create the "perfect object" the law was always trying to create. 

"We are the Corrupt Creations."