Chapter 202: Second Splinter

The sick green light didn’t just glow. It poured out of Corvus’s eyes and mouth like thick blood from an open wound.

Nathan blinked, instantly triggering [Hunter’s Insight]. His vision shifted, mapping the magic in the room. The truth hit him like a punch to the gut. This splinter wasn’t sitting inside a piece of stone like the one in the vault. It was completely woven into Corvus. It was wrapped around his spine, tangled in his veins, and dug deep into his mind. It had been sleeping in the bloodline for centuries, just waiting for a host to touch the Throne. Now, it was awake.

"Hold your fire!" Nathan yelled, throwing an arm out to stop his team. "Do not attack him! The splinter is using his body as a meat shield! If we hit the magic, we kill the man!"

"So how do we fix it?" Garrett yelled over the rising noise. His knuckles gripped tightly around Volcan’s handle. "We can’t just stand here and watch him tear himself apart!"

Corvus let out a horrible, ear-splitting scream. It wasn’t a normal human sound. It was two completely different voices ripping through the same throat, fighting for control. His body arched violently backward against the stone chair. Deep green cracks spread across his neck and face like shattered glass.

The Shepherd’s cold, mocking laughter bounced off the high walls of the throne room.

"You cannot save him, little King. The splinter already owns his heart. Even if you somehow manage to destroy it, you will only be left with an empty, broken shell."

Nathan’s mind raced. Down in the vault, they had a physical target. This was totally different. They couldn’t just shoot an arrow into Corvus’s chest.

Elise stepped up to Nathan’s side, gripping her staff. "I can freeze the rot," she said, her voice tight with stress. "I can slow it down. But I can’t pull it out of him without freezing his organs. The dark magic is totally merged with his blood."

Mirko’s pink eyes flashed with anger. "Then we burn the poison out! Dragon’s Fang was made to destroy this exact corruption!"

"You would roast him alive, Mirko," Shiro shot back immediately. "Wyrm-fire does not care what it burns. We need precision, not an explosion."

Kuro melted out of the shadows, stopping right next to Nathan’s shoulder. ’There might be another way,’ she sent through the mental link, her voice a calm anchor in the chaos. ’The Throne started to heal when Corvus sat down. It created a bond between him and this World. If we can pump enough energy into that bond, the World itself might force the splinter out.’

Nathan looked at the broken stone chair. Underneath the raging green magic, a faint, clean grey light was still fighting to stay alive. The connection was real. It was just getting crushed by the Shepherd’s power.

"We reinforce the bond," Nathan decided quickly. "We give the World enough raw power to push the Shepherd out of his body."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Dillon asked, his katana sparking nervously.

Nathan looked around at his party. "We feed our own mana into the Throne. We push it right into Corvus and give that grey light the strength to fight back."

"That could fry us alive," Smithy warned, taking a step back. "If that splinter turns around and attacks us while we’re connected to the circuit—"

"Then we hold the line anyway," Nathan said, looking Smithy dead in the eye. "That’s what we do."

Nathan spun around to face the rest of the team. "Elise, use the Frost Golem to lock down this platform. Keep that green rot from spreading to the floor. Mirko, Kuro, Shiro—you form a wall around us. When we start channeling, the Shepherd is going to physically fight back. Do not let anything touch us. Garrett, Dillon, Smithy—you’re with me. We pour everything we have into that chair."

The team didn’t waste a single second.

Elise raised Aurora’s Heart. Her giant Frost Golem stepped forward and slammed both of its heavy ice fists into the stone floor. A thick ring of solid ice exploded outward, drawing a freezing circle around the Throne. The creeping green light hit the ice and slowed down.

Nathan ran up the steps and slammed his bare hand flat against the cold stone of the Throne. He instantly felt the bond. It felt like a thin, fragile string trying to hold a mountain together. It was weak, but it was there.

"Everyone, hit it now!" Nathan yelled.

The team slammed their hands onto the stone and unleashed their energy. Garrett’s burning heat. Dillon’s wild lightning. Smithy’s dark shadows. And Nathan’s own B-Rank core. It felt like opening a floodgate. A massive, roaring river of pure mana rushed out of his chest, flowing straight down his arm and into the stone.

The clean grey light at the center of the Throne suddenly blazed bright white. The green magic surrounding Corvus flickered and dimmed.

But the Shepherd wasn’t going to just let go.

The dark magic fought back. The green cracks on Corvus’s face flared, and solid spikes of sick green light shot out of his chest and back like spears, aiming right for the team.

"Shields up!" Mirko roared. She threw herself in front of Garrett. Her [Impenetrable Fortress] slammed into place just as three green spikes hit it. The jade barrier cracked under the heavy pressure, but she held her ground, gritting her teeth.

Shiro jumped high, her dragon scales glowing. She caught a flying spike of dark magic with her bare hands, the golden fire on her skin burning the green rot into harmless black ash before it could hit Dillon.

Kuro was a blur. She dashed around the back of the Throne, her daggers flashing. She sliced through the magical tendrils trying to wrap around Nathan’s legs, keeping the channel clear.

Nathan grunted, feeling the terrible heat of the splinter pushing back through the stone. It felt like grabbing a hot iron bar. But his new B-Rank capacity held strong. He dug deep, pulling even more energy from his core, forcing it into the chair.

The Shepherd’s voice rose again. He wasn’t laughing anymore. He sounded furious. "You cannot take this from me!"

"Get out of his head," Nathan growled through his teeth, pushing harder. "Now."

The green light let out a high, piercing shriek. The energy twisted and thrashed inside Corvus, desperately fighting against the heavy grey light. The team pushed with everything they had. Nathan felt the Throne fully wake up beneath his hand. The World itself was reaching out. It recognized Corvus. It recognized its guardian.

And it violently rejected the invader.

With a deafening sound like a massive glass window shattering, the green light broke.

The dark magic exploded out of Corvus’s body in a blinding shockwave. The blast picked Nathan and the others up and threw them backward. Nathan hit the hard stone floor, all the air rushing out of his lungs. He rolled fast, forcing himself up to his knees and ripping Moonlight off his back, ready to fire.

But the fight was over.

The splinter was gone. The ugly green light dissolved into the air like cheap smoke. Corvus slumped heavily against the armrests of the Throne, gasping for air. The dark black color melted out of his eyes, leaving them clear.

The Shepherd’s voice echoed one last time, sounding very faint and far away. "This changes nothing, little King. The Throne belongs to me. This World is mine. And you will fall."

Then, the throne room was totally silent.

The team slowly picked themselves up and gathered around the raised platform.

Corvus was alive, but just barely. His skin was pale and covered in cold sweat. The ugly green cracks were completely gone from his skin, but the fight had drained almost all of his strength. Elise hurried up the steps and knelt beside him, placing two fingers against his neck.

"His heartbeat is steady," Elise said, letting out a long sigh of relief. "The rot is totally gone from his system. But the magical bond... it’s very weak right now. The Throne healed him, but the process completely exhausted his body."

Corvus slowly opened his eyes. They were human again. A light, clear grey. He stared at the ceiling for a second before turning his head to look at Nathan.

"The Throne," Corvus whispered, his voice shaking. "It spoke to me. Not the Shepherd. The World itself. It told me..." He took a weak, rattling breath, fresh tears pooling in his eyes. "It told me it was sorry. For all of it. For the endless war. For the pain. It wants to be whole again."

Nathan looked down at the stone chair. The deep crack running down the middle was still there, but it looked different. The gap was smaller now. The two broken halves had actually pulled closer together. The clean grey light inside the stone was steady and warm.

"The World is finally healing," Nathan said softly. "And you’re its king."

Corvus shook his head weakly against the stone. "Not yet. The Throne is still broken. It needs more time to fix itself. It needs more... something." He looked back at Nathan. "But this is a start. For the first time in hundreds of years, this World actually has hope."

Nathan stepped forward and held out his hand. Corvus looked at it for a second, then reached up and took it. Nathan pulled the tired man up to his feet.

The party stood together in the center of the giant, drafty throne room. Their armor was scratched, their muscles ached, and they were covered in dust. But they were all breathing.

The Shattered Throne was still in pieces. Outside these walls, the war between the factions was still raging. But the curse was finally broken, and the World was starting to remember what it used to be.

"We need to tell the other factions what happened here," Nathan said, looking around at his team. "The Crownless. The Legion. The Iron Court. The Vine Council. The Deep Fleet. We have to let them all know that the Throne can actually be fixed."

Corvus nodded slowly, leaning heavily on the chair. "Then we have a lot more work to do."

Nathan looked at his friends and gave a tired smile. "We always do."