Pain spiked through Mark's mind as the link became overwhelmed with chaotic thoughts and experiences, causing him to keel over and lean against the wall. In doing so, his arm sunk into the gelatinous mold that had grown throughout the room.

"Mark!? What's going on why do I feel that?" Wesley said looking around for threats.

Because Wesley had not been submerged in the link, he'd been spared the sudden onset of blinding light and scalding flesh. Even now the trembling in the building was still going on as it foundation shook.

Mark was still trying to ascertain if the others were alright when he noticed how the Corruption in the wall was acting strange. It seemed to be rushing past from somewhere deeper in the building and that's when Mark realized it was like a signal.

A signal to explode here too.

"Wes, get to me, now!" Mark yelled as he felt it coming wave of Corruption, not to mention the now obviously growing tremors near them.

Wesley moved beside Mark and his Aura exploded out of him, landing like a fortress wall around them.

Mark wasn't taking chances either and wrapped them up in a strong construct and then another. Finally finishing it with a third screen of protection.

When the detonations reached them, Mark could see the exact path the Corruption took as it passed through the walls and hit pustules hidden in the mold. Once it did, the pustules exploded after growing three times the size and releasing violet flames into the corridor.

Mark darkened the innermost construct to avoid being blinded as the passage became one long violet inferno. The swirling dark flames all around them, melted concrete and more wherever it passed.

The structural integrity of the room warped as the flames moved on down the passage, unceasing as it attempted to consume the entitle building from the inside.

Mark grunted as his outermost construct which had taken the full brunt of the explosion began to destabilize and eventually scatter.

The second held firm but they were trapped in the hallway, and though it may not seem it, they were the lucky ones. The passage they had been in, only had half a dozen of those exploding pustules. The room the other three had been in would have been packed full of the insidious little explosive charges.

A proportion of the passageway began to give way as cracks began to spread out from the nearest sections of flame.

Mark focussed on the surrounding rock and concrete and stitched it back together with [Earth control].

When the second spell activated he could tell there were numerous problems in the surrounding building but he didn't have the luxury to fix it all.

The third and final problem came when Wesley spoke, his eyes filled with concern.

"It's like napalm…"

Mark stared through the screens at the areas where the pustules had burst and there were indeed a thick layers of gel scatted nearby. It burned releasing large clouds of black smoke into the passage.

"Dammit, I can block the smoke, but we're going to have limited air. I'm getting us out of here."

"What about the others?" Wesley asked.

Mark's eye twitched, of course, he wanted to go searching for them, but they couldn't do much if they suffocated to death. Mark just had to believe they could take care of themself because he wasn't sure if he could heal asphyxiation.

For now, he had to be content that he could feel all three of them alive through the link. Though in what state, and for how long was still unknown.

Mark looked up towards the ceiling and had the concrete and tiles above their head open up as a hole, allowing him to lift them through the building onto the second floor, but Mark didn't stop there.

He lifted the two of them through the ceiling and up out of the building completely, fresh air washed around them as the afternoon sun baked them.

From up here they got a front-row seat as the building went up in flames, collapsing in on itself. They could still see certain areas as the Corruption continued to detonate inside. Flames burst out windows and doors wherever the Corrution passed. It was especially bad wherever the bodies had gathered. Mark looked around and tried to pinpoint the last area he'd seen their group. Sam wasn't responding and Jonathan's mind was submerged in turmoil.

The only one Mark could get something from was Jason, and he was all turned around as amber encased him.

Following the link to them proved easier now that Mark was up here, but he soon realized that approaching again would be hard as they were in the core of this fire. The heat was so overwhelming they could even feel it caressing their faces up here.

'Guys! What's going on in there, can you get out?' Mark called down the link.

But he got no response.

Mark was about to go down there –inferno be dammed– when he felt Sam's Mana undulate from the building. The flames had all but engulfed the structure, but when her Mana began to ripple outward they seemed to slow. The trails of smoke near the center of the structure began to die down as the flame's hues shifted from a deep violet to a flickering orange, and then a pale blue. Once that had happened, the surrounding flames all but died out. There were still many flames near the outer edges of the building but the majority were gone as though they'd never existed.

The building was in complete ruins even though it could not have burned from more than a couple of minutes.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

'Mark, we're alright here, but you may want to come quick, Jonathan took a heavy hit.'

Mark glanced at Wesley and then followed the link down towards their team. When they got near the structure opened up from them and Mark was greeted by the sight of the same room he'd seen through Sam's eyes.

There were a few differences.

The first and foremost was the equipment lying melted in a pile of plastic and metal, very obviously not surviving the blast. The same could be said for the walls; the room they had occupied had detonated, obliterating the surrounding stone and nearly liquefying the walls. The areas that remained were blackened, coated in a film of carbon.

Shards of amber and ice were scattered all around the space, glittering around the trio. Sam sat nearby panting but looking fine while Jason leaned up against a nearby wall. He had burns across his arms, and while they were nasty Mark made a beeline for Jonathan. The man sat crosslegged with his head hanging. Even from a distance, one could tell he was not right. The burns covered over forty percent of his body, primarily his back, neck, and head. His metal armor had superheated and bonded to his skin. The heat of which Sam was still trying to get rid of by siphoning off the glow from the metal.

Jonathan's face was a mix of agony and solace as he squinted at Sam.

"You are the biggest dufus I've ever met. Do you think those flames could have hurt me?" Sam said as she looked at him with anxiety in her eyes.

He didn't bother responding, too busy clenching his jaw. Mark could see that the flames had easily inflicted third-degree burns on his squirming flesh, even taking the back portion of his hair and left ear. Whatever this attack was, it couldn't be just ordinary fire—Jonathan had proven multiple times how fireproof he was. The fact that these purple flames could burn him meant they were something else altogether.

When Mark reached them, he knelt down and immediately began working, hitting Jonathan with a wave of Prana and, for the first time since learning the spell, casting [Fend Pain] to ward off another's pain. Jonathan sighed in relief almost immediately as his bubbling flesh quieted down.

There were blackened patches where Mark was certain Corruption had infiltrated the tissues, but it was manageable. The real problem was how much Prana Jonathan needed to repair the damage. His internal organs hadn't been spared either, leaving Mark to juggle several failing organs to conserve energy.

"Okay, I got you, but it's going to take me some time to repair all this damage. Just don't leave the construct until I can get everything under control," Mark said, his voice steady despite the situation.

As he inspected Jonathan's wounds, Mark paled slightly, realizing the severity of the situation. Jonathan would have been in big trouble had Mark not been there. It wasn't that Jonathan would necessarily have died; in fact, Mark was pretty sure someone like him would have survived. But what really worried him was Jonathan's accelerated regeneration wasn't cutting it.

Aura had turned Jonathan's body into a resilient fortress that very little could damage unless it was truly life-threatening. Even with wounds as severe as these, he would eventually recover. The problem was that this type of injury could take months, if not years, to fully heal, and he would suffer the entire time he was repairing himself. His body literally wouldn't let him die, but it might make him wish he had.

That's just how resilient his aura had made him.

Jonathan placed his hand over his melted cheek and touched it as he spoke.

"We can't stay here. That trap was left here for us. My only guess is that the Corrupted humans that the woman spoke about are behind this."

Sam frowned at Jonathan and slapped his hand away from his own cheek as she shook her head.

"I'm sure that's the case, but we have a major problem now. What the hell do we do about the equipment? We can't go back empty-handed."

"Why the fuck not. I don't know if you're getting this but you all almost just died and it wasn't to some horde of hungry Z's" Wesley said.

Jonathan shook his head.

"No, we need that equipment. It is not something we can do without."

Jason pressed his lips together as he took out his communication device.

"Well then let's inform HQ and get on the road to the next stop."

Jonathan reached up and stopped him.

"We can't do that either."

"What? Why?!" Jason growled as he pulled his hand free.

Mark sadly knew exactly where Jonathan was going with this.

"Have you forgotten what just happened? That was a trap, probably set up by a Corrupted human. The fact these 'people' somehow knew we were coming, and exactly what we were looking for, cannot be a coincidence."

Jason's confusion turned to a hardened glare.

"Are you saying my people told them we were coming?"

Mark looked at Jason and cocked his head.

"No, but I am saying that there's a good possibility we have a 'leak' somewhere in the city. It doesn't matter where they are right now, what matters is not giving away our next move."

Jason snorted.

"Come on, how do you suppose they could manage that? The spire literally keeps them away."

Mark nodded along with him.

"Yes, but do you know the extent of it? Can they handle it if they stay a certain distance away, or indoors? Or are they unaffected and pretending to be unable to approach? The problem is we don't know what they're capable of. And until we do, we can't know how much we can trust."

Jason seemed to wrestle with himself for a second but then let his shoulders droop.

"Okay, then what should we do?" he said expecting the perfect answer

Jonathan scratched his head but Sam raised her voice.

"If we assume they have an inside man then it's best to assume they know every nearby location we would try. Seeing as we don't know their numbers it's better to assume they have far more personnel than us and would compromise every nearby location. So the next best thing would be to select one not on the list. Then at least we can choose our battlefield."

Everyone frowned at this for different reasons.

Jason still looked like he wanted to argue with them on the infiltrator angle, while Wesley seemed more concerned that they were possibly being hunted.

Jonathan picked at the stubble on the side of his face that still had hair.

"We should also use this to our advantage. We can make a false report. Tell HQ what happened here, but brush it off as a coincidence and tell them our next location. Maybe even that some of us are injured. If there are Corrutpted humans involved then that might get them off our tails for now."

Mark thought it was a good idea but Jason looked like he didn't like the idea of lying to his superiors.

Eventually, he caved as there were very few ways to look at this with the current evidence and everyone else was on board.

Sam had to borrow Wesley's tablet as hers was damaged in the explosion. After some time looking through the maps, she made a sour face

"Damn, the loyalists were through with their search. There are only two that meet our specifications and one of them was certainly overrun, so the only remaining one is halfway across the state. New Jersey State Police Office to be exact."

"New Jersey? You want us to cross state lines?" Wesley's brows rose.

"Yeah, I know it's a hike," Sam interrupted, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration.

"But we don't have any other options if we want to get this equipment. The location is remote, so if we're lucky, we can get there in less than two days."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.