Unlike any other time in the past few months, Yuzu found herself helpless to manipulate the threads on the tapestry. Even as she pushed past the pain in her hands, she found her movements clumsy, her bleeding fingers unable to grasp and alter the threads directly in front of her.

Her desperate actions to protect herself from the Corrupted One had injured her aetheric body so much that it had even caused wounds to appear on her physical body.

She could only watch as the Corrupted One's newly invigorated thread spun itself around the threads of Char Char and her companions.

"Get away from it!" Yuzu's cry didn't seem to reach Char Char as Firuzeh yanked Yuzu backward, preventing the young girl from running to her friend.

"What's wrong?" Firuzeh asked. She hadn't yet noticed how Char Char's actions had slowed. From her perspective the Corrupted One had been defeated, its decapitated head already rolled to a stop.

"Its spiritual body—" Yuzu only had to blurt out those three words for her companions to immediately understand the danger.

Firuzeh's lips curled in a snarl as she pushed Yuzu behind her, calling out, "Kai! Spirit plane!"

"Break!" Kai immediately understood the order as he pulled a silver chain taught between his hands, activating his powers. The sound of chain links shattering to the ground as they assaulted the invisible body of the Corrupted One.

The bindings that had frozen Char Char were released as she stumbled backward, her sword hand touching the floor as she nearly crumpled to the ground. However, she managed to stay standing, her hand still firmly gripping Hakuya's blade.

Yuzu forcefully hovered her hands over the threads, reading the tapestry even as she reeled in pain. The images were blurry, muddled together. However, even though she couldn't see the spiritual plane with her eyes, she could see it through the threads.

This Corrupted One… Its energy different than Deka's…! Yuzu realized with a start, as she compared it to her only other experience with Corrupted monsters. She had stopped the reincarnating Prince of Life from going corrupt, but this energy was clearly different.

She tried to speak to her companions on the string, but the pain nearly caused her to collapse right there on the floor.

"The monster's spirit body is different from its physical—." Yuzu stumbled forward and grabbed onto Firuzeh's arm, speaking out loud to deliver this critical information, "Don't trust your eyes!"

Just as Yuzu said these words, Firuzeh suddenly shoved her away. Pain shot up her arms as she hit the stone floor hard, looking up with horror to see Firuzeh suddenly stiffen in place. The elegant woman's eyes were wide and strained as she tried to open her mouth to say something, but only strained gasps came out.

Yuzu's attention was torn from Firuzeh as she heard the clattering of metal from up ahead. Terror welled up in Yuzu's throat as she saw that both Char Char and Kai had dropped their weapons and found themselves struggling and paralyzed by the monster's invisible attack.

In the physical world, the Corrupted One's bloated, purple flesh bubbled outward vigorously as it regrew its missing limbs. The two surrogate bodies merged completely with the main body, its two heads firmly attached, giving the monster the appearance of a two headed ogre. Their faces, warped by pain and agony, were locked in an endless scream. Their eyes were hollow pits of darkness that absorbed all light.

Even though it hadn't even moved from its spot, its corrupted thread had already firmly constricted the threads of Yuzu's three companions. Through the strings Yuzu could see the Corrupted One's massive spirit body that now extended beyond its physical one. The four arms of the surrogate Exalted, which were hanging limp from its shoulders in the physical world, were fully alive and functional in the spirit realm.

Three of its six arms, glimmering in a terrible radiance, grasped tightly around the spirits of Yuzu's companions. Even as they struggled, Yuzu could see that their spiritual bodies were being forcefully torn out from their main form. The Corrupted One's two mouths were wide open and salivating.

The eyes of its two heads, however, were not looking at its current prey, but were directly locked onto Yuzu. It was as if Yuzu was the most tasty looking morsel that the Corrupted One had ever seen.

Yuzu pushed herself to her feet, every part of her screaming to flee.

The Corrupted One's thread voraciously leapt toward Yuzu's fate thread.

"No!" Yuzu yelled, reaching out to the strings once more in desperation. However, even as she tried to pry away the strings, she felt her strength fading. Her fingers plucked uselessly at the threads.

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A discordant howl filled the chamber as the Corrupted One launched itself directly at Yuzu.

Just as it was about to reach her, a blurry figure collided with Yuzu, knocking the two of them away from the monster's trajectory.

The slim, yet firm arms of Char Char embraced Yuzu as they rolled down a short slope off the side of the main path. Char Char took the impact of the fall with her back, protecting Yuzu as they came to a stop.

"Yuzu! We can't fight it!" Char Char's voice was desperate as she pulled the two of them to their feet. "We have to—"

Her voice cut off as her whole tensed up and shivered. In the spirit world, the monster had already taken grasp of her again, but with a roar of effort, Char Char shook its spirit off her.

"We have to run! Now!" Char Char grabbed Yuzu by the arm and yanked her up the slope. Yuzu barely managed to keep herself standing as Char Char manoeuvred them just barely around the Corrupted One as it charged past them.

"Left! Duck!" Yuzu gasped.

Char Char didn't see anything around them, but reacted to Yuzu's commands immediately. Through the strings Yuzu saw them just barely avoid the grasp of the Corrupted One's spirit arms.

They scrambled toward the exit, but Yuzu didn't have to look far to know that they wouldn't even make it. Char Char seemed to be able to resist the monster's spirit through sheer force of will, but she had lost her sword and had no way to attack back. Firuzeh and Kai had already slumped to the ground, their spirit bodies and consciousness now completely in the hold of the monster. Yuzu could feel her power bleeding out of her fingers by the second.

Yuzu had already called on the Nature priestess. Naomi's white string was rushing down the path to them, but she wouldn't make it in time.

They were completely running out of options.

Still, Yuzu's mind was spinning trying to find a way out.

"Pix!" Yuzu screamed in desperation to the Chaos demi-god that she knew was somewhere around them. "You can't just let us die!"

The herald of misfortune offered no response.

The fate tapestry's golden threads snapped around them as Yuzu urgently grabbed Char Char and pulled her to the side, clinging to her arm. Her friend cried out with surprise as they just barely dodged the Corrupted One's fist as it slammed down at them.

Yuzu found herself with her back on the ground, Char Char on her knees holding herself up, her body shielding Yuzu from the sight behind them.

The pair locked eyes.

Instantly, Char Char knew that Yuzu had seen her end on the strings. Tears welled up in her eyes as she put on a brave smile.

"It's okay, Yuzu, it's okay."

On the threads, Yuzu saw the Corrupted One looming above them, its massive hand smashing down on her friend's back.

A tiny thought in Yuzu's whirring mind bubbled its way to the top.

A visit from the Trickster was a warning. Wherever she appeared, terrible disaster was sure to follow.

But were those warnings just to tease her victims?

Sometimes in the tales of the Trickster, she also gave her victims advice. Sometimes, an object. Things that were always discarded or left unheeded, to the victims' peril. These gifts from the trickster were double edged swords, challenges that when used wisely, could be used to overcome that peril.

Yuzu's fingers felt the cold touch of a small orb as she grabbed an object in her pocket and thrust it at the center of Char Char's chest.

At the same moment, the Corrupted One's palm smashed down on Char Char's back.

A brilliant orange flame erupted from Yuzu's palm as the small black marble-like sarira absorbed instantly into Char Char's body. Yuzu had to close her eyes as Char Char was engulfed in a brilliant fiery light.

Char Char's body took multiple impacts as the heavy palm came down over and over again, the ground shaking violently with each attack. An unbearable heat burned around Yuzu as Char Char's entire body turned white hot, like a molten ingot.

The next time the palm came down, Char Char raised her arms. and caught it, clutching onto the arm of the monster with her blazing hands. The rock floor beneath her feet shattered as the Corrupted One pressed down on the girl with a roar, but she remained strong, sheltering Yuzu who was directly beneath her.

Even as the monster continued to press down, the orange flames began to spread. They shot up its arm, setting the whole monster ablaze. The Corrupted One seemed to have no sense of self preservation as it continued with its attack, its two heads screamed in agony and rage even as their flesh melted and turned to charcoal.

The fire continued to rage even as the screams died down, even as the monster's arms crumbled and its body keeled over with a puff of ash and smoke. The blackened remains smouldered with a smoke that, despite its acrid stench, felt cleansing as it burned away the final corrupted energies that lingered around the corpse.

The danger of the Corrupted One had passed, but to Yuzu's dismay the chaotic flames did not disperse around Char Char. The girl stumbled backward a few steps before catching her balance. Her body keeled over as she raised her molten hands in front of her. The cracked, burnt flesh was starting to slough off her fingers, revealing the white hot bones beneath.

"Yuzu, it hurts!"

The raw Chaos energy of the sarira that Yuzu had thrust into her friend's chest was too much for her body to handle. It had given her the power to take down the Corrupted One, but now that same energy was consuming Char Char from the inside.

Just how powerful was the sarira that Pix had given her? And was it even a sarira for the right pathway? Even just a small incompatibility between it and Char Char's path would cause her to become Corrupted. This was the greatest danger for an Exalted's progression, and was the reason why many Exalted spent years painstakingly preparing for each breakthrough.

"Char Char!" Yuzu scrambled to her feet, her hands slick with her own blood. Her mind raced as she thought through the advice that she had previously heard around ascensions. "Focus! You can get through this!"

"I can't—" Char Char's voice reached her in a terrified croak, "I can't hold it in!"

Yuzu reached out to Char Char's shoulders, but couldn't get close enough. The heat was unbearable as the wounds on her hands came ablaze with pain even from a distance. "You can't give up! You have to believe you can make it!"

"Yuzu!" Char Char cried as she looked down at her crumbling hands. The bones of her fingers, hand, then arms fell to the floor until she only had the stubs of her forearms left. "Yuzu!"

Pix had given her what she'd needed to survive the disaster, but that double edged sword was now taking her best friend away from her.

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