Corruption is Magic

“So that’s your plan is it?” I hear from the void around me. Where am I? What’s going on? I think angrily as I look around where I found myself.

“Who’s there? Why am I here? I was-”

“Being a brain dead idiot.” I hear the voice say that eerily sounds like my own. That is when out of the darkness a doppelganger of myself forms from the inky blackness. The only thing that sets this me apart from myself is the fact her eyes are Orange in their entirely. “You really were planning to use up all my power to power that stupid beam of pure magic?” The other me laughs as she brings her hand to her mouth. “Don’t make me laugh. You think something so elementary will kill him?”

“I don’t see you coming up with something better.” I bark as I storm up to the other me realizing this is the corruption within me.

“Oh but I can come up with something better. We can come up with something better.” She counters as she looks at me with a smug smile. “We have been working together and all that, you however have yet to accept me, Fully.”

“You say that as if it matters right now.”

“It matters a good bit. Sure, we have a vast amount of power and your wellsprings are larger than normal ones but because I’ve been mixed with your other wellsprings before your body has accepted me, it sees me as a toxin. You ever stop and ask why I haven’t filled your body yet?” The Corruption me says as if I was being stupid.

“I figured I just hadn’t collected enough. But I ask again, why does that matter?”

“It matters because your body is a Wellspring. I’m being contained to just your chest because your body is keeping me at bay. I could give you more power but you need to accept me.”

“Accept you how!?” I yell in irritation.

“Now that is the right question. I however am just a corrupt version of you. I have no clue but we need to figure that issue out or else we’ll be up shit creek.”

“Then… how long do we have to think?” I say settling the flame of anger in me as much as I can.

“I cast the spell quickly so you wouldn’t notice and think I was doing something bad for us. I’d say we have twelve seconds outside our heads to figure this out before our magic is wrung dry.”

“What about in our head here?” I ask, feeling panic prickle up my spine.

“Uh… twelve minutes.” The Corrupt me says after a moment of thought.

“Well let’s get to figuring this out.” I say crossing my arms. “What exactly would we need to do to become… one?”

“Ah…” The corrupt me says as she smiles. “Well right now we're one but also divided rather prominently. Alexander and the others don’t seem to have another voice in their head.”

“Yes but they have mentioned that this dynamic exists.” I say in thought as I feel what can pass as the ground here shakes. “What is that?”

“Mental fatigue.”

“That means…”

“We might not have as much time as I first estimated.” The other me says and I slowly nod.

“Alright… That happen often?”

“Whenever you use a lot of energy, yes.”

“Right, remind me to pamper you sometimes. I never liked earthquakes.” I say making a mental note to treat this corrupted me with a bit more regard than I have been. “Alright so mind shakes must be headaches coming in so maybe twelve seconds wasn’t right.”

“Probably more like ten…” Corrupt me says but stops as another shake occurs. “Make that seven.”

“Well, good to know. Seven minutes.”

“Onto the matter at hand. We have an Incubus problem.”

“That we do, we are in most cases the same person.”

“Yet we aren’t and you don’t trust me.”

“I don’t-”

“trust yourself.” Corruption me says and I let my jaw hang open as I point at her.

“I… same mind.” I say as I realize how she knows.

“That’s right. Though you realize we aren’t anything like Sombra or the others.”

“But-”

“We still pose a threat if we get power hungry.” She says with a nod of understanding as the ground shakes more violently. She then points down and groans. “We really need to hurry.”

“Yes I see that.”

“So… what are we going to do?”

“Well he is a big one. He really took jock training seriously.”

“He did.”

“So if we did merge, how long would it take for you to get fully set in?” I ask, feeling the ground shake again nearly causing me to fall over.

“A minute… maybe two.”

“Times a real cunt right now.” I chuckle as the ground shakes.

“We’ve done more with less.” The other me chuckles.

“Alright… I’ll stop fussing about us becoming a danger to those we love… as much as I can. No promises though.”

“We’ll go at it as things happen.” She says as she holds out a hand to me as the ground quakes again and I grab on for dear life as I stumble.

***

I fall to my knees gasping as my brow pours sweat down my face. I feel my head aching like it’s being struck by a jackhammer, liquid seeping down from my nose and I know it’s blood by the stickiness it leaves behind. “Damn, that’s some power.” I hear the Incubus laugh as he walks calmly towards me. The sound of his own blood splattering on the ground. I smirk and look up to him as my vision spins.

“Right back at you.” I say as I refocus my eyes. “Tell me something Vo, you’re trying to become King of the world right.”

“Oh I plan much more than just that.” He says with a cocky smile as he stands there with the skin on his arms being torn to shreds.

“That’s interesting. Now…” I say as I push myself up to my feet the anger in me is still there but I push it down feeling my corruption slowly creeping through me. “You probably already know that I am trying to become Queen. So in my eyes you're a Gnat. A thing to be squashed but getting my friends involved is disgusting.” I growl through my toothy smirk.

“You act tough but you seem to be out of juice.” Vo laughs as he cracks his knuckles.

“You think so?” I ask as I feel my body begin to tingle with magic from the corruption reaching through my body. “Because I have a question. What makes you so sure?” I say with a cocky grin of my own. “Tell me Vo, When did anyone say we were done? I’m ready for round two.”