Reidar turned back to the vendor. "I need more information. You said the progenitor came here, right?"

Morv'axil nodded. "This morning."

"You saw him?"

"Everyone saw him. He appeared at the center of the settlement, standing on the raised platform where Martin used to address the people." Morv'axil's tentacles curled slightly.

"He was human, or had been once in the past. Now he's something else. The mutations were at a far advanced level. His skin was like grey marble, and his ears were pointy like that of an elf. His mere presence made the air itself feel heavy."

"Even for you?"

The Thalassari nodded.

Reidar's mind raced. The Progenitor wasn't just some legend the church preached about. He was real. Tangible. Powerful enough to walk into a fortified settlement and claim it without resistance.

"What did he say?"

"He offered salvation." Morv'axil's voice remained neutral. "He spoke of freedom from the System's chains, of humanity's true potential, of power beyond what the Guardian system allowed. He said the allied worlds had crippled Earth, that the System was a prison disguised as protection. The same rhetoric Caleb spouted, but this time they had proof there was a way to get strong without it."

"And they believed him. How?" Reidar's voice was tinted with disbelief. "How could he prove something like that?"

"His level."

"His level? How high could that be?"

"250."

He paused.

"That number appeared for all to see," Morv'axil said. "A man who had apparently transcended the System, who stood before them radiating power that dwarfed anything they had achieved through levels and skills. To them, the proof was irrefutable. He was everything the church promised."

He looked from Martin's body to the empty square. It was a lie built on a single, impossible truth.

Reidar exhaled slowly. "Then… is the Church right?"

"Of course it isn't." Morv'axil's tone sharpened for the first time. "The Progenitor is no savior. He's a cautionary tale. The mutations he's undergone aren't evolution; they're degradation. Unfiltered mana exposure twists the body and the mind. He is powerful, yes, but he is also losing himself. He will cease to be human, only to turn into an extremely violent ape. It is inevitable."

But that made Reidar think. "Morv'axil. Are the monsters those that usually destroy planets?"

Morv'axil nodded, but he understood what Reidar was hinting at.

"It really is the monsters…"

Reidar looked Morv'axil in the eyes.

"But these monsters…? Nothing says they can't be of our own species… Right?"

The vendor shook his head.

"The Guardian System is a scaffold built in the storm, designed to allow a species to adapt and integrate this new reality safely. But the scaffold is not perfect. It can fail to install itself correctly in every individual. In those cases, mana works normally. It twists the body and mind, creating the feral, monstrous things you fight, but of the human race, in this case. It takes a while for sapiens to fully lose themselves, but they inevitably do."

"These intelligent corrupted are almost invariably of the native species. Their intelligence, now poisoned and amplified by raw mana, makes them uniquely destructive."

A horrifying understanding dawned on Reidar. "You're saying… the monsters that destroyed your world… they were Thalassari?"

Morv'axil's head dipped in a slow nod. The usual merchant's levity was entirely absent, replaced by a gravitas that spoke of ancestral trauma.

"Yes. The Great Silence that fell upon my people was not sung by the monstrous animals you are used to fighting. It was screamed by our own brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, their minds and bodies warped into engines of annihilation by the very power that was meant to uplift us. The System saved the remnants of my species, as it is trying to save yours. But it is a salvation that comes with the ghost of our greatest failure always whispering at the door."

He looked from Reidar to Lena. "The Progenitor is one of these. A human in whom the System failed to properly install. He has been corrupted, his power is growing wild and untamed, and the mutations are the physical evidence of slow delve into madness."

"But he's level 250," Reidar said, unable to understand how that was even possible. "How can it be?"

"That is the question that troubles me most," Morv'axil said. "The speed of his growth is anomalous. Unprecedented. It suggests an external catalyst or a fundamental difference in how mana interacts with humanity. Or simply greed. I do not have the answer. I only know that his current state of apparent coherence is a temporary, and very dangerous, illusion."

Lena's voice cut through the conversation. "You could have told them. You could have explained what he really was."

Morv'axil turned his gaze to her. "I did. They didn't listen. The Progenitor stood before them. I am merely a merchant from a distant world. Who carries more weight, the human savior promising freedom or the alien selling the very System the progenitor was opposing?"

She had no answer. Neither did Reidar. The logic was cold, but it held truth.

"Martin tried," Morv'axil said. "He argued. He pleaded. He reminded them of everything they'd built, everything they'd survived together. But the Progenitor had already won their hearts. They followed him into the forest toward whatever compound or camp he's established."

"And Martin stayed."

"He stayed. He refused to abandon Havenwood even when it became clear he was alone. He activated the Settlement Token anyway, trying to hold the territory, but the System requires willing residents. Twenty-five minimum. He had only himself." Morv'axil paused. "Then Jorik came out of the crowd."

"They wanted the token."

"They did." The thalassari nodded.

Reidar looked at the stake, at the blood-soaked wood. "They made an example out of him."

Morv'axil's tentacles clicked again. "I suspect they left his body here specifically for you to find, Reidar."

Lena stood, her face wet with tears but her expression hardening into something cold and focused. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "We're going after them."

Reidar met her gaze, the same resolve solidifying within him. He turned back to the vendor one last time. "What can we do, Morv'axil? We can't fight a level 250 Corrupted."

The Thalassari regarded them both, a faint, almost imperceptible shift in his posture suggesting something akin to respect.

"You are correct. A direct confrontation now would be suicide. But you are not alone in facing this threat." He gestured toward the sky.

"I have sent a detailed report of these events, including the Progenitor's anomalous power level and speed of growth. The situation here has been upgraded from 'Integration Crisis' to 'Existential Corruption Event.'"

His black eyes held Reidar's. "Help is already coming."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.