Of all people to sit next to him and criticise every movement he made with unearned authority to do so, why did it have to be Eliza?

"How long could it possibly take to clean a single spot on a body?" she whispered from behind him, hands clutching his shoulders unnecessarily hard. "It's not like a little dust is gonna do him in."

"If anything bad is gonna happen to him I'd like to make sure it's not because of an infection," Tom said through gritted teeth, dabbing a piece of cotton along the veins covering Lucius' torso. "And it's not a single spot, because we don't know how much we'll end up cutting."

"But not all over where those things are, right?"

"I said I don't know."

"He'll be so upset." Eliza grimaced, and the grip on Tom's shoulders tightened.

"Can you not grab me like that?" he finally had to hiss back at her. "I need to keep my hands steady."

Eliza huffed.

"I need to make sure you don't bolt out of here once things get serious."

"Why would I—" Tom couldn't deal with her condescending attitude at the moment. Apparently his physique and introverted behaviour had rendered him a coward in her eyes, disregarding the help he'd provided during all the dangers Lucius had been in since they crossed paths.

He glanced down at the person in question. He dearly hoped it would all work out. Anthony may have left them and was seemingly upset with Lucius but Tom doubted he didn't care about him anymore, so it had to work.

His gaze wandered to his regrettably shaking hands, where multiple burn marks served as his constant reminder to not mess up again.

To not let anyone die again.

"Is he ready?" Aldrik brought him out of his worried state, and Tom hurriedly made one last swipe to disinfect the spot where the major incision would be before nodding.

A frightening whoosh alerted them that the powder around the platforms had been ignited, lighting up the room with tall flames, and as Aldrik and the others began mumbling something in sync, Tom gave Lucius' peaceful expression another glance. It was a good thing he was asleep. Had he shown any sign of panic or fear Tom might not have been able to go through with it.

A nod from Aldrik as the low murmurs grew louder into a chant, and Tom took a deep breath before bringing out the scalpel. To his frustration his hands would not stop trembling as he placed it against Lucius' skin, and he couldn't blame Eliza for it anymore as she'd released his shoulders to just watch. Why now? He'd always been precise when making incisions before, even when stakes were high.

His eyes flickered towards his hands again, and he summoned all his strength to still them. They were counting on him, so he couldn't fail.

Then he let the scalpel sink into the soft skin surrounding the cluster.

At first there was no blood. A thick, near transparent fluid pressed out of the gash, and to Tom's further distraction Eliza was already gagging. He pressed on however, praying to whatever entity that wanted to listen to a non-worshipper that the parasitic web would not be harmful to touch before reaching in a hand to slide a finger in under one of the thicker veins.

"Don't cut it off." Eliza's voice was muffled, hand covering her mouth and Tom groaned inwards.

"I know." He took a calming breath, now realising how strenuous his surroundings proved to be as well what with the heat from the flames prickling his neck, the chanting, and the incessant comments. "I'm aiming to get it all out in as few pieces as possible."

The risk of the unhallowed mass surviving and growing again was too big to let any trace of it remain inside the body, so as nice as Lucius was to look at, if Tom had to cut a lot of him open, he'd cut a lot of him open.

As he'd predicted the veins were soft and slippery, like thin, stringy eels pouring further over his hand as it dug deeper into Lucius' chest to reach the core.

"Are you finding—"

"Shut up," Tom hissed, but still felt the need to reply as his hand did grasp around something. Something that was not supposed to be there. He'd dug in bodies enough to know the feel of tissue, organs and bones, but he couldn't describe anything in the human body the way he'd describe what he felt at that moment. "It's like... A shell? But soft, and... Flaky?"

"Flaky?"

Tom pressed his lips together, gently tugging at the thing to loosen it from its host, relieved that it didn't require that much of an effort.

"What the... Waste is that?" Eliza gawked as Tom slowly pulled what had to be the core out of Lucius, sighing in brief relief as a large amount of the veins followed along.

Upon further inspection though, Tom almost had to agree with Eliza's previous nausea as the cocoon in his hand began pulsating, and he remorsefully defied all inner wishes to hurl it far away from him.

"Splendid," Aldrik said as he watched the abomination writhe aimlessly in Tom's grasp, and he raised his arms towards the ceiling as a sign for the others to chant louder. "Now, bring it towards the sword."

Tom hesitated, watching the disgusting thing reaching through the air, likely trying to find its way back to its host. Perhaps he would have liked to study it more, but he knew they couldn't let it remain on the human plane longer than necessary.

Moving proved difficult however. As soon as Tom brought the cluster closer to the sword in Lucius' hands it began crawling up his arm in an attempt to escape, and he clenched his hand tight to keep it restrained.

"Good, just hold it like that." Aldrik nodded, a smile forming on his lips as he turned to the others. "And now... Let us begin."

With a swift movement, the four men on the platforms speared their staffs down into the floor, sending large cracks to split the bridges in front of them apart and breaking the symbolic shape of Unity.

"Uh..." Tom stared at the demolished structures with dread building in his chest. He was no expert in theology but the disruption of the very Unity they sought help of did not sound promising to him, yet Aldrik did not seem bothered.

"What's going on?" Eliza had turned from tending to Lucius' wound, face pale from having her hands covered in blood and unholy veins, but she'd managed to place the rå's bark against the cavity in an attempt to make use of its supposedly protective properties. "What happened to the platforms?"

"They... Broke..." Tom searched Aldrik's face for panic, or a signal that something had gone wrong. That the blasphemous presence had caused the ritual to go wrong, but Aldrik looked calmer than ever as a surge of light swept through the room and the obsidian accessories on each of the four men began glowing a faint blue, colour spreading to infest the wearers' eyes while their voices changed rhythm. It did not take long for their words to turn hollow, empty sentences of an inhuman language echoing against the walls as the veined cocoon finally tore its way out of Tom's hand to land on the floor with a heavy splat.

"It is no matter," Aldrik said as Tom hurried to reach for it. "It is already trapped within the circle and with the help of the others it will stay that way, completely harmless."

"But the— The Unity's symbol is broken," Tom tried to explain as if Aldrik was somehow not aware of what had happened, and the latter chuckled.

"Yes, I suppose it is a necessary evil, quite literally." He gestured at the four men on the platforms, voices rising to overwhelm the air around them. "This ritual requires words only spoken by beings of another plane, and these blights could not possibly come forward on holy ground, even with humans as their hosts."

Tom paled, eyes snapping to the man wearing the necklace whose skin had begun dissolving along his throat, though seemingly without him noticing. Perhaps he couldn't, should another force actually be in control of his body.

"What's he saying?" Eliza wanted to know, unsure where to look with everything moving so quickly. "Why did the floor crack? What's going on with those four?"

"Why would you need blights for this?" Tom had to ignore Eliza at the time, focusing on Aldrik to get the answers they both wanted. "The sealing ritual specifically needed help from..."

He trailed off as a bluish light began pulsating through the obsidian blade, lighting up Lucius' still lifeless face. The answer seemed obvious after a second of thinking and goosebumps riddled Tom's skin as he drew a silent breath.

"... You are not sealing them, are you?"

"We are, in a way," Aldrik defended himself with a light shrug. "But we are not so foolish as to let such a force be locked up forever, when it can be used for a greater purpose."

"These things are destructive," Tom tried to reason, watching in horror as the cocoon in front of him seemed to swell, flaky hide beginning to burst in places to ooze out more of the same dark, oily mass the veins were made of. "We cannot risk them being out here for too long, I thought we were going to seal them immediately."

"They do not have to be destructive." Aldrik held his hands out towards the creatures as if showing off a wonderful piece of art. "None of them do. The Waste itself does not have to be destructive."

"You—" Tom wasn't even sure why he was surprised. He'd seen fanatics before, so the secret underground cult-like group had every right to qualify with little effort. "That is... Downright contradictory, is it not? The Waste is unholiness itself, and any spawn—"

"But it was not always," Aldrik interrupted, eyes blazing with fervour. "The Waste was supposed to help lost souls. Help them improve, and change for the better to later join The Unity as well."

The growing mass of stringy, morphing sludge stole Tom's attention again, and he scrunched up his face.

"From what I have heard, that is not the case."

"Not anymore, but it can be again." Aldrik pointed to the sword. "Because we can change it. Us humans can succeed where the scourges failed. The scourges who were created to help but ended up falling for the temptations and sins of humanity. They learned from it and coveted it, and instead of leading people away from it they embraced what it created around them."

"How would humans change that?" Tom shook his head, taking a small step back from the throbbing abomination in front of him with a retch finding its way up his throat before he could swallow it down again. "Scourges of all entities have stronger wills and unlimited time in comparison. No human could battle anything they could not."

Aldrik's smile persisted, and he stepped down from the altar to stand before the unholy creation.

"How much do you know about Dinthia, Mr. Reed?"

Tom's knee jerk reaction was to swallow again. Dinthia was the last name he wanted to hear at the time.

"... The man-made archon," he still mumbled. "The archon of purge."

"An archon who was once human," Aldrik specified, making Tom even more certain he didn't like where things were heading. "And if she can ascend to an archon status, what is stopping a human from ascending to the same power as a scourge?"

"Aldrik, that is insane," Tom had to hiss. "What would that accomplish? The world does not need more misery, and that is all the scourges have to offer."

"Because they are not human," Aldrik twisted things to agreement. "They have never been, so they do not understand, not like we do. Not like I do. Unlike scourges I understand human morals and would not fall for the same temptations, and I will reform The Waste to its intended purpose - to heal souls instead of devouring them."

"So you are what, planning some kind of ritual to become a scourge? That is—"

"No, no." Aldrik waved Tom's accusation away. "We are harnessing the blight. We are gathering as much unholy essence as possible under my control. Like a scourge commands blights, so will I, until I can ascend."

"That is not a real thing," Tom tried, despite his certainty that anything he said would be disregarded. Was it even possible to talk Aldrik out of it? Judging by his ambitions and how far he'd gone to achieve his goals, a brief scolding would not be enough. So instead he kept his eyes on what couldn't be anything but a pure blight of The Waste in front of them.

Except he was wrong. It wasn't a blight, he realised as the nightmare in front of him began splitting in two.

"Will you actually tell me what's going on?" Eliza yelled again and Tom finally felt obliged to answer.

"Aldrik's completely insane, the ritual is meant to harness power and not seal it away, and we're dealing with blights but I don't know how many yet."

"Oh for fuck's sake," Eliza whined, but ground her teeth together before focusing back on Lucius, only giving Tom a small glance over her shoulder. "Can you do something about it?"

"What the Waste can I do?" Tom clenched his hands in frustration, trying to search his mind to find anything useful regarding the scene in front of him, but even if he managed to suppress the grotesque spawn somehow, or recreate the holy circle, there was a chance the blights could protect themselves by changing form like the book he'd read had suggested.

Something was off though, and even Aldrik's smile faded slightly as the now almost discernable creatures of veins and bubbling goo kept expanding, and nothing else. The chanting didn't seem to do anything. Whatever Aldrik had planned it wasn't working, and he stared down at the sword with a near accusatory look.

"Why is nothing happening?" he muttered to himself before raising his voice to address the blight-possessed humans. "Chant louder!"

The blights obeyed without a moment of hesitation, and just as the shapes of deformed heads appeared out of the creatures, the ritual took effect. Loose, stringy veins went first, being sucked in towards the sword while larger parts of the bodies slowly got pulled along.

It was a short lived triumph for humans however as one of the creatures, apparently somewhat sentient now, noticed what was happening to its body and turned its head to look at the chanting blights. Then it released an unearthly shriek like nothing Tom could have ever imagined, and without a moment of hesitation the chanting came to a quick stop.

"No! You have to continue!" Aldrik looked around at the men on each platform, but he received no response. The blight possessed bodies weren't moving at all, so he turned to the white clad men. "Prepare a sealing ritual! If we lose the blights' powers we must trap them another way!"

Another chant in a familiar language began, but Tom had his doubts. They'd still destroyed the symbol of unity so how much resistance could they put up? Could the ritual work without it?

As it turned out it was at least enough to gain the blight spawn's attention, wincing at the voices around it and its sludge-covered, empty eyes once again focusing on the possessed humans before letting out another scream.

And the other blights listened. Previously immovable bodies convulsed as if invisible strings had grabbed a hold of their limbs, and each of the four still withering hosts moved forward with blank expressions to reach the main platform.

Panic spilled over the other men's faces as the creatures approached, fire around them suddenly rising and flashing into a purple hue. They couldn't stop with the ritual but the inherent threat closing in on them made it understandably difficult to concentrate, and as soon as the possessed men were close enough to ready their staffs for an attack, they had no choice but to disrupt the ritual while defending themselves.

Rhythmic mumbling morphed into chaotic yelling, and Tom couldn't keep up with the mess in front of him. All he could discern were an array of rhenelises colliding, occasionally spotting strikes from staffs or a hand holding up a holy harmonia to ward off the evil beings.

Upon seeing this, the screaming blight snapped its head the other way to reach its fellow nightmare spawn, and Tom stifled a gasp as it opened its jaws wide to bite into its side.

The other spawn let out a screech as well, not the same eerie kind as its sibling's but rather one of pain, letting its flesh-like insides spill out over the floor without any attempt at retaliation. At least not towards its attacker.

It did do something however, tendrils of slimy innards suddenly rising from the floor to circle around the injured spawn, and before Tom had the time to shout a warning it had scattered the gore like gunshots across the room, apparently targeting the harmonias currently equipped by the chanters.

It was hard to see from where he sat, but Tom was certain the harmonia in one monk's hand twisted upon impact with the spawn's insides, cracking and bending into a deformed figure of nothing.

"It's— It's destroying holy items," he whispered, now knowing what to look for and thereby able to conclude what was happening. "One of them has some...Some kind of deciding power over those people— or the blights... Or either, and... The other one destroys blessed objects just by touch."

"Tom, we can't fight all this," Eliza tried to pull him out of his analysis. "We need to get Lucius out of here and figure out what to do afterwards. Let these so-called holy people deal with this as best they can."

"But what if they break free?" Tom couldn't tear his gaze away from the scene in front of him. "What if they kill everyone here and escape into our world?"

"I..." Eliza hesitated. She had no certain answer to give. "... I don't know, but there's a whole damn monastery on top of this so shouldn't they still be confined?"

"Not these." Tom lowered his eyes to Lucius, whose face was paler than ever from the loss of blood, but it seemed the bark had attached itself to his chest somehow, small roots spreading like a web across the gash. "I don't think they're the same as the ones Aldrik has harnessed. They're bigger, stronger, and they keep growing. If one of them can ruin what's holy there will be no stopping them no matter what ground they're on."

Flickering shadows loomed over the ceiling, most of them human but he was certain some were not. Some did not belong to anyone in the room, and a disturbing sensation washed over Tom. It didn't feel real. Everything seemed to move like he was in a nightmare.

"Well we can't stay put," Eliza insisted, shaking her head as if trying to rid her mind of similar feelings, and she leaned down to lift up Lucius as carefully as a stressed out lady in danger could. "We're safer the closer to the doors we can get. Maybe it's futile but I'm not dying sitting down."

"What are you doing!?" Aldrik yelled as he looked down at Tom, though seemingly not at all interested in Eliza pulling Lucius off the platform and into the shallow water beneath. "Help me rebuild a circle!"

"A circle...?" Tom watched as Aldrik used remaining blood from Lucius' incision to draw a smaller circle around the altar, only interrupting it in places to add even smaller circles representing towers. "... Oh, a holy circle!"

He hurriedly got to work, unable to hide a grimace as he dipped his fingers into his friend's blood to complete the circle. Despite the seething grudge he currently held against Aldrik for everything he'd caused, he had to cooperate.

Aldrik wasted no time before beginning the sealing ritual, placing the sword in the middle to make sure the creatures would be trapped once they were finally inside.

"There. Great, you've helped him," Eliza called out as quietly as she could, having just hoisted Lucius up on the other side. "Now get over here."

Tom couldn't bring himself to move. He had to be there. Had to find out what would happen next, and if he would be needed depending on the answer.

A flash of light swept through the sword again as Aldrik chanted the sealing words with an impressive speed, and a strange sensation of relief washed over Tom as the spawn let out a simultaneous shriek while being pulled towards it again, this time more effectively, courtesy of The Unity's power against the unholy.

The spawn were not giving up however, and as soon as it had located the threat, the injured one shot another burst of blood forward, sharp enough to pierce right through Aldrik's chest.

Aldrik gasped for air, but he summoned all his composure to keep going, even managing a slight smile of triumph as he noticed the blood being pulled into the sword immediately after, meaning the creature couldn't keep attacking him without being dragged into the sword even further.

"Will you get over here already!?"

Tom flinched as Eliza yanked his arm, having temporarily abandoned Lucius' unconscious body to drag her obstinate, reluctant-friend out of immediate danger. He intended to protest at first, but he had to accept the reality. If he stayed near Aldrik he could be killed at any moment should one of the inimical plagues consider him a threat as well. All they could do was hope Aldrik could seal them before his injury got the best of him.

"Wait." Tom didn't even make it down from the main platform before halting, forcing a groan out of Eliza that he ignored in favour of squinting at the writhing creatures. "Something's wrong."

The ritual had lost some of its effect. The pace of which the spawn were being sealed had slowed down despite Aldrik's unceasing words and the longer he looked, the more certain Tom was that they were changing form again. More than before. To something more than shapeless horrors.

"They're morphing," he whispered under his breath as panic pounded through his chest. "No— They can't. Not now."

He stumbled forward towards Aldrik, hoping dearly the man would cling to his consciousness just a little longer.

"Aldrik, they are trying to change! They are trying to become part of this plane!"

Of course, Aldrik only kept chanting, eye twitching and lips trembling as he kept his focus firm on the blights.

Tom couldn't stop staring either at that point. He watched in dread and silence as the creatures formed human limbs, attempting much like Tom's book had suggested to take on the form of the first thing they ever came in contact with on the plane.

Lucius.

Aldrik was still going however, and as more of their essence were drawn into the sword, the less the spawn were able to establish a form, limbs twisting and shrinking and growing in one attempt after another to be done with the transformation.

"Keep going!" Tom pleaded with Aldrik who summoned the last of his strength to chant louder, forcing even more of the blights into the sword to a point where they couldn't form proper limbs anymore.

Then Aldrik collapsed on top of the sword, and the glow faded.

"No," Tom whispered, rushing forward to try shaking some last hint of life into Aldrik but the man was gone, finally having succumbed to his wound. "No, not now."

He was at a loss. What would happen now? Would the blights return to their monstrous state and keep growing like they'd done before? Or had they already transformed into something to avoid being sealed? But their forms were too small to be human anymore, at least not by Lucius' size.

Could they change into something else though? Was it possible for them to find another organic form despite never having encountered one?

He finally dared to look up, heart pounding hard in his chest as he saw what remained of the unhallowed monsters.

"No... Fucking way..." Tom felt his energy draining as the horrors twitched, definitely alive, and definitely not in danger of being sealed anymore, or even exorcised.

"Is— Is he... Dead?" a nervous Eliza asked from where she sat with Lucius. ""What— What about the blights? Did he do it? Did he seal them?"

Tom looked back at the sword partially trapped underneath Aldrik's corpse, once again a lifeless blade, and he drew a silent breath before rising from the floor.

"No..." he mumbled in response as he walked over to stare down at the spot where unspeakable malevolence had been just seconds ago, now a spot occupied by two helpless, human infants. "... Not quite."

***

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Damn, can't believe I'm finally done with this chapter! I struggled so much with this whole arc for some reason. I've been so excited about it all along but I guess it put a bunch of pressure on me that way too, so I haven't been able to enjoy it. I hope my excitement shows through the writing despite this because I really do love this arc, and I'm gonna do editing in the future to make sure it's everything I wanted it to be. It's a very important part of all my books, really.

This is sort of the last chapter of the arc, possibly along with a "breather" chapter in the next, so I'd love to hear about your thoughts on all this!