Living Necrocracies revealed themselves. Entities that had been veiled as Living Lives, their disguises maintained through methods that defied conventional detection…death mimicking life so convincingly that even elevated beings within the Sanctuary hadn't identified the infiltration.

One may wonder how such deception was possible. How death could mimic life so well and for so long without being discovered, how beings fundamentally opposed to everything this Sanctuary represented could hide in plain sight among their antithesis.

Oh!

The answer was terrifying in its simplicity…they'd been willing to suffer constant agony. Every moment maintaining the disguise had been torture as their death-aligned existence pressed against life-saturated environment, but they'd endured because the mission demanded it.

"FOR THE HIEROPHANT!"

One of them shrieked, voice like tearing metal…sound that shouldn't emerge from living throat, carrying harmonics that made surrounding Living Lives clutch their heads in pain.

RUMBLE!

Their bodies erupted with catastrophic violence. The verdant skin that had mimicked life peeled away, consumed instantly by exploding geysers of obsidian energy. Gentle light of Life was swallowed by heavy, suffocating gravity of Death, antithetical force that negated vitality simply through proximity.

Veiled figures emerged from the shedding disguises. Their forms were wrapped in tattered shadows that seemed woven from concentrated despair, radiating the distinct rot-inducing aura of Necrocracy that made reality itself recoil from their presence.

WAA!

The surrounding Living Lives screamed in shock and horror. Many stumbled backward, their bodies becoming tainted as cellular structures began to unravel, instincts screaming warnings about sudden proximity to their existential antithesis.

The obsidian aura lashed out like whips. It rotted the beautiful pavement that had been cultivated to radiate concentrated Life, turning verdant stone to crumbling ash in seconds. Nearby decorative flora wilted instantly, their life essence consumed by necrocratic principles that converted vitality into fuel for further corruption.

The five revealed figures didn't waste time attacking others directly. They didn't need to…dozens of Living Lives visibly began to melt from the immense aura of death radiating outward in expanding circles.

Flesh sloughed from bone. Bone crumbled to dust. Dust dispersed into nothing as their existences collapsed under pressure that negated the fundamental principles maintaining their cohesion.

"My cells... they're dying!" one Living Life shrieked, watching his own hand disintegrate. "I can't stop it! The authority is…"

His voice cut off as his throat dissolved. His eyes widened in final horror before his skull cracked and imploded, existence collapsing into state between death and nothingness.

Whether resurrection would occur was unknown!

Another tried to flee, wings manifesting as he attempted to take flight. The obsidian energy wrapped around him like chains, dragging him back down. He screamed as corruption spread from contact points, his verdant radiance flickering and dying as necrocratic principles overwrote everything that made him a Living Life.

"HELP! SOMEONE-"

The plea ended in wet gurgle as his chest cavity collapsed inward, internal organs liquefying and pouring from his mouth in torrent of corrupted fluids.

A third Living Life attempted to fight back, manifesting concentrated Living Existential Authority to counter the encroaching death. For a moment, verdant brilliance blazed against obsidian darkness, two antithetical forces locked in direct confrontation.

Then the obsidian overwhelmed his defense. It didn't just defeat his authority but corrupted it, turning his own life force against him. He watched in disbelieving horror as his hands began attacking his own body, life energy he'd cultivated for decades now weaponized to accelerate his collapse.

"No... no no NO-"

BOOM!

His existence shattered. Fragments of what had been a coherent being scattered across the plaza, each piece dissolving as necrocratic principles ensured nothing remained that might be resurrected or restored.

The horror was absolute. The devastation comprehensive.

Bodies….or what remained of them, littered the ground around the five revealed agents. Some were partially intact, faces frozen in expressions of terminal agony. Others had been reduced to puddles of corrupted biomass that steamed and hissed as residual life force struggled against consuming death.

...!

Then the teal-radiant entity beside Xar'vantheon moved.

His hand shot out with speed that defied perception, fingers wrapping around Xar'vantheon's throat before the Guardian could even register the threat. The grip was iron…authority-enhanced strength that made resistance impossible.

The teal being's eyes transformed. Verdant radiance that had seemed so genuine moments ago drained away, replaced by an allure of death that pulsed with malevolent intelligence.

"You will tell me everything you know regarding this... Achilles Adrastia."

His voice had changed entirely. No longer the friendly tone of fellow Living Life but something cold, mechanical, devoid of anything resembling mercy or compassion.

Xar'vantheon struggled, his own considerable power flaring as he attempted to break free. But the necrocratic authority wrapping around his throat was specifically designed to counter Life-based resistance…a parasitic force that fed on his struggles to strengthen its own hold.

"Where is he? What capabilities did you observe that haven't been publicly revealed?"

The questions came rapid-fire, each one accompanied by pressure that threatened to crush Xar'vantheon's windpipe entirely.

"Tell me now, or I begin extracting the information directly from your collapsing existence!"

Meanwhile.

The other five Living Necrocracies shot toward the entrance of the Tower of Life like arrows of darkness. They moved with suicidal speed, their forms accelerating beyond what their physical structures should be able to withstand, burning their own existences as fuel to achieve velocity that might let them breach the Tower's defenses before a responses could organize.

Their intent was clear through their movements and the obsidian energy trailing behind them.

Disruption. Assassination. Destruction.

Whatever it took to eliminate the unprecedented genius who'd just revealed himself through record-breaking evaluation performance!

—

Back in the Sacred Temple of Life.

The surface of the Life Pool rippled violently where Achilles had submerged. Waves of liquefied authority crashed against the basin's edges, displaced by transformations occurring beneath the surface…changes so dramatic they affected even this concentrated medium.

Mycelle stood by the edge, watching the liquid churn with expression of analytical assessment rather than concern. Her verdant eyes tracked patterns in the disturbance, calculating what they revealed about processes occurring within depths she couldn't directly observe.

But suddenly, her head snapped up.

Her gaze shifted. She wasn't looking at the pool anymore…wasn't focused on Achilles's initiation or whatever transformations the Life Pool was inducing. She was looking through the walls of the temple, through layers of the Sanctuary, focusing on specific point far below.

She felt the eruption of obsidian energy. Felt the signature of the enemy she'd just described mere minutes ago….necrocratic authority blazing with intensity that suggested multiple agents revealing themselves simultaneously.

Her devilish smile returned. But this time, it didn't reach her eyes. Those remained frozen…two orbs of absolute zero temperature that promised consequences beyond what conventional threats could convey.

"So you reveal yourselves..."

She tilted her head, sensing the suicide charge toward the entrance of her Tower.

"Okay! You ugly fuckers!"

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