The ground trembled as the river split open wider, the oily surface churning like it was alive. From its depths, a colossal shape emerged — a serpent coiling upon itself, easily hundreds of meters long. Its scales shimmered dark violet beneath the corrupted moonlight, and veins of black energy pulsed beneath its hide. Yet what drew every gaze wasn't its monstrous size, but the face half-fused to its upper body.

It was human.

Its features were warped, melted into the scales like a half-finished sculpture — but still recognizably human. Once, that face might have been serene, wise, and benevolent. Now, it twisted in anger, its mouth splitting open to release a low, vibrating roar that made the air quiver.

The Queen's expression hardened. "That body... it resembles the temple guardian, Nāgaji," she murmured. "And that face is undeniably the High Priest. The High Priest who once watched over the Serpent Temple is fused with the guardian? How far have we fallen that even they have turned?"

Each temple in the empire has a high-level guardian with a relatively high purity of the Naga bloodline and hope of the bloodline completely reverting to a pure blooded Naga.

These guardians are not only protectors of their assigned cities but also objects of immense faith for the locals due to their close resemblance to true Naga that are typically only seen in myths unless a guardian's bloodline progresses.

Her words sent a wave of dread through the soldiers, with the Azure Serpent attendants having the strongest reactions. The fall of a Nāga guardian was no small matter—it was complete blasphemy given flesh.

"Stay sharp!" Kaito shouted, rallying the panicking vanguard. "Remember your training!"

But suddenly the river became an opponent against them. Black waves rose and crashed forward like reaching hands, dragging shrieking soldiers into the current. The serpent's movements controlled the water—its corrupted essence seeping into every ripple, every droplet.

The Queen raised her hand, indigo light flaring. The ground around her rippled as she summoned her contract—a massive Indigo-grade Lotus Dragon. Its body coiled like flowing water, every scale reflecting shifting blue, green and pink hues. Streams of shimmering liquid light flowed from its lotus-petal fins as it unfurled with a sound like rushing tides meeting stone. Its roar came with a surge of cleansing water that sliced through the mist.

"Form a perimeter! I will hold it back!" she commanded. Two of her seven-star attendants dashed to her sides, their own contracts manifesting—a silver carp wreathed in arcs of blue lightning, and a six-winged serpent who released most with every flap of its wings. Their attacks were immediately launched, clashing against the opponent's corrupted flood of black water and freeing some of the vanguard members being dragged into the water.

Serena and Kain's contracts moved to rescue those already too far into the water.

Aegis slammed his hands into the ground, jagged walls of black stone rising in layered arcs, stopping the contaminated flood from sweeping into the city and continuing to 'kidnap' those troops just rescued. The impact cracked the earth, and the sound of crashing water turned into a thunderous slam against the sturdy walls as the stone held.

Serena's Elemental Guardian remained in its water form, a vast serpent of living waves diving beneath the surface to drag struggling fighters back to shore. When the rescued emerged, small snake-like worms clung to them, their veins black and eyes flickering red with the beginning signs of corruption.

Serena's Star weaver destroyed the wiggling low grade abyssals in a flash of light but could not undo the contamination they've caused to the fighters.

Unfortunately, Pangea's ability to repel abyssal contamination stopped at those creature born with a connection to the planet and did not extend beyond that to their beast tamers.

These contracts, already purified by Pangea like a passive buff, were now gazing at their contractors anxiously.

Fortunately, Kain was not without a solution.

Kain gestured sharply—Aegis's black earthen shackles surged up to pin the victims in place, drawing the corruption out and toward Aegis in a manner reminiscent of hospital tubes inserted into a patient. Only it was drawing out poison instead of blood.

For the first time in the battle Kain also summoned a third contract. Chewy darted forward, sticking to a person about to change like a leech and gulping down the dark energy with gleeful burps.

Fortunately, Kain had two contracts, the only beings in existence besides himself, that could safely absorb abyssal power without risk of being corrupted.

Meanwhile, the Queen's Lotus Dragon thrust both of its front claws forward, and three glowing rings of indigo tinged water surged out, spiralling through the air to coil around the beast.

They snapped shut with the force of a tidal vortex, and pink petals floated through the water current, glowing faintly as the creature struggled. Clearly, those petals had a stabilizing or strengthening effect.

For a heartbeat, the serpent writhed and hissed, its body tightening under the compressing waters. Cracks of light burst along the bindings as the pressure built—but then a pulse of corrupted power rippled from within the monster. The binding around it shattered, the water rings became black, exploding outward like shrapnel.

The serpent lunged free with a roar that split the sky, the backlash of energy warping the air and cracking the stones beneath their feet. The Queen staggered, her attendants trying their best to shield their eyes and their bodies as fragments of the water bindings exploded outward like shrapnel. Fortunately, anybody too weak had avoided the vicinity of the high grade abyssal, otherwise they would have been instantly blown up at the time it escaped.

Kain surveyed the devastation left in its wake—earth torn open, portions of the riverbanks shredded, and entire sections of the stone fortifications made by Aegis and one of the Queen's 7-star attendant's contracts was reduced to gravel.

Waves of corrupted water lashed the shore, flinging debris and splinters of shimmering lotus petals through the air. Two of the Queen's attendants nearest to the explosion staggered back, their contracts wounded and bleeding, while the others scrambled to drag them to safety under the collapsing terrain.

"It feels... stronger than a normal indigo," Kain muttered, shielding his eyes as the creature's violet glow intensified. "Perhaps because it is the fusion of the indigo-grade temple guardian and the temple priest who was a high level tamer. But it's not quite violet grade." He could sense that it definitely was not as strong as the giant snake that they'd fled from into the Demigod Turtle's territory. "It's somewhere in between. But still, I feel like the Queen should be able to handle it with her attendants."

"Or perhaps it's a combination of it being stronger but the Queen and her attendants also being weakened in this environment." Serena said "Don't you think this place feels like a domain?"

Kain immediately realized she was right. A true domain exists in harmony with the world's laws, which is why they could be sustained effortlessly for a long time.

Yet abyssals are rejected by this world—many may not be able to do it, and those that can unfold a domain, the strain would be immense, just like when Isolde and Cassian's contracts forced their fledgling domains during the National Tournament.

But the environment here seemed wrong, subtly warped. Calming down to examine themselves, they could feel that the flow of energy in their bodies felt sluggish.

Additionally, even with Bea's help to monitor the battlefield, they were slower to respond to sudden attacks than usual.

Under normal circumstances, so many of the refugee soldiers never would have been able to be dragged into the water without Aegis immediately being able to drag a good chunk of them back. But this time? He didn't respond in time to prevent a single targeted soldier from being dragged into the water. Kain was only noticing this anomaly now. Clearly, his brain was also not working as fast as usual.

Even more strange, the Queen and her attendants, despite their might, had not unfurled domains of their own since the fight began. It couldn't be to conserve strength—domains don't drain energy; if anything fighting within their domain would be more energy efficient for them.

But, perhaps they couldn't. Perhaps this corrupted ground already belonged to something else...

Kain also heard back from Bea who was trying to control the minds of the low grade abyssal.

Bea's whisper brushed Kain's mind. 'There's something wrong... I can feel their thoughts. They loop—like prayers twisted on repeat.'

She focused, sifting through the fragmented consciousnesses present. Echoes rose within her mind—pleas for forgiveness, vows of protection, and cries for a goddess long since drowned. It wasn't purely beastly. Somewhere, deep within the corruption, the priests and their followers still prayed.

For mercy.

But that lingering humanity wasn't something to be happy about. If anything, it was the most dangerous part—it made the creatures unpredictable and the low grade abyssal smarter and harder for Bea to manipulate than usual abyssals.

Suddenly, the massive high-level serpent turned, its vast, slit pupil eyes locking onto Kain. Recognition flared—or hunger.

The water around his feet began to rise, reaching for him.

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