As Elias led Nira through the ship''s corridor towards the rendezvous, he wiped the beading sweat from his brow. The crimson hue cast by the emergency lights turned the hallway into an apparition of blood, the once pristine vessel now the home of a nightmare.


    Spotting Maren and Etta near the predetermined location, a wind of relief swept over him.


    "There they are," he whispered.


    As they approached, Maren and Etta turned to face them; fear turned to relief at the sight of Elias, then to suspicion as they eyed Nira. "Relax, you two, she is another Chosen One."


    Maren, still tense, looked back to Elias and asked, "Have you checked her for Corruption?"


    "I have. She is clean. She saw Tavin die but says that he was tracking the damage to the ship and believed it was headed for something specific. The corruption seems to have a goal here, and I think understanding that goal is one of the key pieces of knowledge we are meant to learn."


    Elias was sure of it. They were here to learn the ways of Corruption and the failures of humanity in their first exposure to it, and this was an integral part of that lesson.


    The group fell silent as the implications of that statement settled. The weight was palpable, the outlook of this trial was growing more bleak as time passed. They needed to find two artifacts each, twenty four in total.


    On top of gleaning whatever knowledge they could, surviving the monstrous forms of the corruption and make it to the bridge, together. Accomplishing this was already going to be difficult, doing so face to face against not just the Corruption, but a version of it that seemed to have a will and intelligence? Impossible. Panic was beginning to take hold.


    Elias forced the fear from his mind. Fear made one slow, both in mind and body. Fear gets people killed. "We need to find the artifacts, all of them. I don''t see any way for us to survive this devastation otherwise."


    Maren nodded in agreement, Etta and Nira still had the bulging eyes of the desperate, fear still clouding their judgement.


    SLAP


    Etta brought her hand to her cheek, her face flushing as she sat stunned by Maren''s open palm.


    "You… You hit me?!"


    "Snap out of it and get your mind focused. We stay here, frozen by fear; we die." Maren hissed.


    From somewhere behind them, the sound of liquid flowing and the metallic thud of the hull deforming around them made the group rise and sprint in the opposite direction. Elias couldn''t help but notice that Corruption was not merely coating the walls; it was changing them. Morphing the steel into an extension of itself.


    "It''s coming; we are going to die!" screamed Nira as panic took complete control of the poor girl. The four of them were sprinting at full speed, heading towards the security office.


    Black tendrils lined the walls, pulsating like a grotesque blackened heart.


    Moments stretched into minutes as they frantically ran for the security office, which should have armored doors and walls. Reaching the entrance after what felt like an eternity of running, but in reality was only a few moments, Elias ushered the women through the opening and then slammed it shut behind them. The door crashed with a resounding thud, sealing itself closed as Elias hit the console with more force than was needed.


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    As he turned, he saw something that caused terror to swell and sweat to bead on his forehead. Right in front of them was a security team facing off against a fully corrupted crewmate.


    ''That''s a shade! A full-blown SHADE!'' Elias'' mind ran wild. He had seen Corrupted ones like this before during the eastern breach. These monsters were harbingers of death and destruction. They were dead, it was over.


    The shade was holding two security officers by the throat with glassy black tendrils that grew from its fingers. The massive maw stretched from ear to ear on its humanoid face, lined with sharp talon-like teeth. Its tongue, long and thin, black as tar, dripped with onyx ooze that melted the steel floor as it fell to the ground, and barbed at the end, whipped through the air, piercing one of the officers'' chests.


    ''RAAAAHXHXHXHX!''


    All four of them clutched their ears in a futile attempt to drown out the inhuman scream that enveloped them.


    Maren moved in that moment, lunging at the beast with abandon. Her Twilight Twins flashed, a beautiful purple hue trailing wherever the daggers slashed the air. A massive rune appeared in the air before her, its brilliant glow a deep violet, reminiscent of sunset. The rune pulsed, and a wave of pressure exploded out from it, slamming the shade into the wall behind it. Elias expected the shade to slam into the wall, but to his surprise, the shade collided with such force that the wall gave way, and the shade vanished.


    Etta and Nira were wide-eyed, filled with disbelief. "What the hell was that?!" Etta cried.


    Maren looked down at the twin blades. "I don''t know. I just… heard a voice and knew what to do. My body almost moved on its own, as if I had always known how to do it."


    "Well thank goodness it did. Well done Maren." Elias gave the girl a pat on the shoulder, genuinely relieved to have her by his side. A strange emotion for someone so used to being alone in the slums, surviving by never trusting others.


    Not to say that he trusted the woman who stood before him, but he had an appreciation for her usefulness.


    Nira''s voice came from across the room, "There is a surveillance panel over here! It appears that several cameras are still operational across the ship!"


    Elias rushed over to the console, his eyes scanning the pixels displayed on the surveillance system''s screens. His hands began to move on their own, twisting dials and mashing buttons as if he knew how the technology worked. Different feeds were flashing across the three screens in front of them, all four on the lookout for anyone they recognized.


    "There!" Maren pointed at the screen. "That''s Keldric, I''m certain! It looks like he survived after we left him!


    A sigh of relief escaped the three that had been there when they left Keldric behind. His heroism helped them to escape and led to their conversation with the Judge.


    Etta''s eyes narrowed as she focused on the grainy video. "Looks like he''s helping others evacuate; he''s probably the closest of all of us to the bridge."


    Elias kept flashing through other feeds on the two remaining screens, keeping Keldric live on the third.


    Elias paused on a particular feed as he saw a young woman helping some injured crewmates. "Lyara," Elias muttered. He was sure it was her.


    "It looks like she is in the medical bay, treating the wounded." Nira''s voice was low and quiet, probably in fear that too much noise might bring the shade back to consume them.


    Elias stood up from the console, "We need to get in touch with them, our best chance of doing that is from the Auxiliary Control room." Elias brought up a map of the current deck they were on, along with the next two decks above them. "There, two decks up and about 300 meters that way." His hand pointed into the gaping hole that Maren made using the shade''s horrid body.


    "You want to go that way?!" Etta almost screamed it; she couldn''t believe what she was hearing! And from the looks of it, both Nira and Maren agreed with the farm girls'' sentiment.


    Elias spoke with dire urgency, "I don''t see how we have any other option. Look for yourself. Every other route is blocked off, you can see the damaged portions on the diagram right in front of you."


    The three others stared at each other for a moment; their faces grew pale at the thought of following the shade into the dark. Elias gave them a moment more before stepping forward right up to the cavernous abyss before him. He turned to look at them, a knowing look crossing his olive-colored face.


    Then he stepped into the shadows.