Hello and welcome to this random void! As you all know, I'm Cyan. Today I'll be telling you what big announcement Flurry's got for you all.

I know, it's been a while since the last update. Three months, to be exact. But Flurry's trying her best, trust me! This is the hardest chapter she's ever written so far and she was constantly getting interrupted by school. And even though she's finally graduated and she's now free, we can't promise for her to finish it soon; the only thing we can promise is that she'll finish it and the book itself eventually.

But she knows you're not satisfied with just that so she's given you all a short preview of the next chapter at the end of this post. :)

Anyways, let's just jump right into the next big announcement:

It's Corrupted's very first anniversary today! And to celebrate, Flurry's decided to host an art contest!

Topic:
For this contest you'll have to draw your favourite scene from the book! Preferably with me in it — ouch, Flurry! Kidding, kidding! Of course you guys can draw whoever and whatever you want in this. Buuut we've got some rules!

Rules, notes and deadline:

- Follow the Wattpad guidelines! That's always important.
- No plagiarism whatsoever! If Flurry and I spot you doing any sort of theft for this contest we will disqualify you.
- Adding blood is perfectly fine because I got injured at some point after all. Again, just follow the Wattpad guidelines, yeah?
- No OCs, duh! You're drawing a canon scene from the book.
- Go ham, seriously, we don't mind! Bring us your A-game! Judgement criteria will be listed after this.
- Deadline's at the 22nd of June; two weeks, there's plenty of time, don't worry!
- Tag Flurry in your entry, whether it's in your art book, randomness book, up to you!

Judgement criteria and judges:
I will be helping Flurry monitoring this contest but only she and her brother Holy Square will be judging!

These are the main points that Flurry and Holy Square would be looking for. You don't have to do all of them, but doing so will increase your chances of winning! Quality of art and skill levels don't matter too much because hey, that's unfair. So instead, we're having these:

Creativity: Do you associate the scene with something? A song maybe? Or maybe it reminds you of something, or you have an idea to transform the scene into something else? Go crazy go wild! Just make sure to remember that the main topic is your favourite scene and it shouldn't go too far off from that.
Layout: Similar to the Creativity point but more to the design of the artwork. So you can think of what you can do to bring the scene to life, but can you transcribe it? The artwork should look tidy, well-structured and not like an explosion of characters and Tree pieces-!
Colour palette: Colour is a powerful element in any kind of drawing! Use a colour palette that's easy on the eyes — or even better, a bold eye-straining kind of palette (but for the love of the Tree please remember to add an eye-strain warning at the beginning)! Make it look eye-catching and anything else related to the eyes-!

Don't forget to tell us why it's your favourite scene — and if you want to, the reason you drew the artwork that way! They might also help your chances in winning. Plus, it warms our hearts to read them. :)

Prizes:

1st place: Full high-quality illustration on an A4 (2893 x 4092px) canvas
2nd place: Full quality drawing on a 3450 x 3975px canvas (slightly smaller and a bit less detailed than 1st place)
3rd place: Full quality 2000 x 2000px profile picture

Examples of artworks will be posted down below.

All prizes will later be posted on my DeviantArt flurrywhipdraws for full quality!

Flurry here's not a very quick worker on drawing requests or other people's OCs (unless she gains a burst of inspiration) so please be patient later! Don't worry, she'll finish them.

Now with all the important stuff out of the way, here's a preview of the long-awaited chapter:

oOo

About an hour before the Corrupted met the strange phantom, Luna, Lili, Verdan, and Ferris had slipped unnoticed into the building.

The place was eerily quiet as they climbed through the smashed window of the eighteenth floor; there were no guards, none of the other Beats, just... silence. But they still kept their senses on high alert - surely the silence was just a trick to catch them off-guard?

"This place is... actually really cool," Ferris whispered, in awe despite herself. The others admired it too; the long rows of pink candles, highly polished floors, the tall ceilings...

"Agreed," Verdan nodded, then looked at Luna. "But we're not here for the sights. Now how are we gonna find Cyan and Kinn here without getting completely lost? Or caught? I don't see any quick hiding spots around here other than those decorative tables and vases."

Luna frowned. It was a good question. For all they knew, Cyan and Kinn could be anywhere in this vast tower. Not to mention possibly Corrupted - though in Cyan's case it sounded impossible - and she could imagine that an encounter with a Corrupted Kinn or even Cyan would be disastrous.

But they had to be particularly quick in this mission. If they were spotted, they would most likely fail the mission instantly since they were heavily outnumbered, even with the two triangles. The triangles were incredibly powerful artefacts indeed, but not anyone could use them just like that. Since they didn't know how to harness their powers, the artefacts might as well be useless.

"Well..." Luna said slowly, "maybe they could be hidden in one of the top floors. And if we really need to, you guys can hold on to me and I'll fly up to evade any guards. But other than that... I can't believe I'm saying this, but I guess we just gotta YOLO this mission."

"Now you're speaking my language," Lili grinned determinedly. "C'mon, let's start climbing up. I'm sure we can fight off any Corrupted bastards if we have to."

Luna smiled, trying to keep their hopes up as much as hers.

They crept across the halls without a sound, searching for a staircase to climb up. The place was like a maze despite its large, thick walls, and despite the simplicity of the task, every now and then they would either meet a dead-end or end up in the same place they came from.

And to be honest, it was kind of frustrating.

"AAAGH!" Ferris groaned when they met the same shattered window for the fifth time. "How long are we gonna keep doing this?"

"We need something to act as some sort of landmark," Luna murmured, pressing a hand against her face in frustration. "We're completely lost."

"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock," Lili muttered.

Verdan was the only one who didn't look frustrated, being the calmest member of the Quartet, though he was also undoubtedly slightly annoyed. He looked rather deep in thought. "M'kay then," he then said. "How about this. Lili, you go stand in the middle of the fork over there. I'll go over to the left and-"

CRASH.

Verdan's sentence was cut short as a loud sound came echoing across the corridors and they all almost jumped out of their skins - in fact, Ferris was so spooked that she jumped onto Verdan's shoulders like a terrified kitten. It sounded like china breaking into a million pieces, and the pentagon immediately realized that it must be either a window or one of those large flower vases.

But who - or what - had caused it to break?

"What on earth was that?" Ferris whispered, slowly climbing down Verdan's shoulders, who didn't seem to mind the fact that his friend had literally just scrambled on his back. "We haven't been spotted, have we?"

Silence as they listened hard for any more noises. Nothing.

"No... no," Verdan whispered, though he sounded unsure of himself. "No, I don't think so."

"Let's just go back to searching," Lili hissed. "The longer we stay here, the more Cyan and Kinn possibly suffer - Wait, Verdan, where are you going?"

The pentagon had walked ahead, face screwed in concentration as he scanned the walls. "The sound bounced around here somewhere," he said thoughtfully, looking around.

"So?"

"Isn't it obvious?" he said. "That means the staircase should be around - oh. Found it!"

The staircase was hidden behind a hallway that they avoided since there were no candles to light up the walls, making it look too dark and ominous to be visited. But now they walked across it, being extra careful about anyone that might be hiding in the shadows - but thankfully, nobody was there to ambush them as they crept silently up the marble staircase.

Seriously, where were the guards? Some of them couldn't help but feel their anxieties rise at the unusual scenario.

To everyone's annoyance and exasperation, the staircase didn't continue all the way up to the top floor and instead ended at the next floor. Now they had to repeat what they had done earlier. "Sweet Tree of Life, who designed this place?" Ferris grumbled quietly, throwing up her arms in exasperation. "No wonder they don't have guards. People would end up getting lost anyway."

"The fact that there are no guards still doesn't make sense to me," Verdan murmured. "Something has to be wrong."

"No shit, Paradise is raining like an endless bucket of pink ice and something changed our friend into a fucked-up demon bastard who starts taking over the land," Lili muttered as they explored the nineteenth floor further, which honestly didn't look too different from the previous one. "Everything is wrong right now."

And the two couldn't have been more right - because out of nowhere, two pink-haired figures of Corrupted guards appeared around the corner.

oOo

That's all, I'm sorry, heh.

Anyways, good luck and happy drawing! We're all excited to see your entries! If you have any questions, feel free to ask us in the comments.

- Cyan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Examples of artwork

1st place would look similar to these:

2nd place:

3rd place: Profile pictures would look similar to 2nd place but in a 2000 x 2000px canvas