Primordial Villain with a Slave Harem

Chapter 1412  Fallout

The barrier holding Quinlan suspended vanished, and his body dropped out of the air, hitting the ground hard enough to drive the breath out of his chest. The impact rang through his bones. He felt it more as vibration than pain, a dull confirmation that his body had reached its limit and more. His ruined arm dragged uselessly at his side, fingers unresponsive. The rest of him followed shortly after.

He could not move.

Muscles refused commands. His spine pressed flat against the ground, armor biting into his back. Blood pooled warm beneath his shoulder and neck, spreading slowly as his heartbeat stuttered and struggled to keep pace. His lungs worked in short, shallow pulls that scraped his throat raw.

His eyes did not open.

Darkness sat heavy over his vision, complete and suffocating. There was no panic left in him to fight it. Only awareness remained, thin and flickering, anchored by the sound of Lilyanna's shrieking.

It sounded to be full of pain, tearing through the space again and again, sharp enough to cut. Quinlan lay there and listened, unable to shut it out, unable to look away, even blind.

Her shrieks fractured as the corruption spread.

It crawled through her hair first.

The strands that were clenched in Quinlan's ruined grip before he let go darkened rapidly, color draining away as bile-toned veins threaded through them. The glow that had once rolled across her like living starlight warped and soured, patterns breaking apart into harsh, uneven lines. The corruption dug inward, burrowing along the roots, spreading into her scalp and down into flesh that rejected it violently.

Her body convulsed.

Lilyanna staggered, hands clawing at her own head as corrupted force surged through her nervous system. Portions of her skin blistered into sickened hues, cosmic patterns collapsing into jagged stains that crawled across her shoulders and neck.

She fought it.

Her power surged outward in crushing waves, slamming down on the invading force again and again. The corruption resisted, tearing deeper where it could, gnawing at her authority with relentless hunger. The clash distorted the space around her, planes of the dimension flexing under the strain.

"Begone!" Lilyanna screamed again, voice tearing at the edges as she forced control back into her body. The spread slowed. Then it stalled.

The bile-stained flesh recoiled.

Sections of corrupted skin peeled back under her will, retreating inch by inch as she crushed the influence into a tight, violent knot centered near her scalp and upper spine. The discoloration receded, but the damage remained. Where the cosmic sheen returned, it looked altered. The glow dulled. Patterns reformed unevenly, as if etched under strain rather than flowing naturally.

Lilyanna's breath came hard and uneven as she finally forced the corruption into stillness.

Her shoulders rose and fell several times before she straightened fully, hands clenched at her sides as she maintained pressure on the foreign influence buried within her. It writhed under containment, crushed tight enough that it could no longer spread. The war for control was over. What remained was a scar she could already feel settling into her flesh and authority.

She inhaled deeply.

Then her gaze shifted.

Her eyes fell to the side and locked onto the figure crumpled on the ground.

"No… no, no, no!"

The words tore out of her as she lurched forward. Panic broke through her composure. She crossed the distance in an instant and dropped to her knees beside Quinlan.

He was pale. Too still.

Blood soaked into the surface beneath his shoulder and neck, his ruined arm lying at an angle that made her chest tighten. His breathing was shallow and uneven, each pull sounding thinner than the last.

"I'll help you, don't give up! Fight back!" Her hands slid under his head, lifting it carefully and drawing it onto her thighs. "Stay with me. If you die, even I can't save you!"

His head lolled weakly against her legs. His eyes did not open.

Lilyanna pressed her palm to his chest and sent her power flooding through him, sharp and focused. Cleansing force surged into his body, burning through corrupted residue clinging to torn pathways and damaged flesh. She worked fast, too fast, authority scraping against his internal structure as she stripped away lingering influence and forced his systems back into alignment.

Her hands shook.

"Why did you do this?" she demanded, voice breaking as she pushed more power into him. "Why would you go that far? You almost killed yourself just to lay a surprise attack on me?!"

Quinlan's throat worked. Blood bubbled faintly at the corner of his mouth as he dragged in a breath that sounded like it scraped something raw inside him.

"When you corner someone with no way out…" he whispered, voice barely carrying, "…they lash out."

Her jaw tightened. "What are you, a wild beast?! I am your ally! You were not cornered, just… In a minor predicament!"

His lips twitched, not quite a smile. The effort cost him. "Are you really my ally…? I can't really tell…"

"Yes!" Lilyanna snapped, leaning closer as she continued cleansing him. "I even vanquished Sel'Ashra from your soul realm once!"

Quinlan swallowed. It took him a moment to gather enough strength to speak again.

"Well…" he murmured weakly, "…as far as I'm concerned… allies don't kidnap someone much weaker than them… from the sides of their mothers… You barged in on us, said hello, and captured me to do with as you please…"

The words landed harder than any strike.

Lilyanna's hands stilled for a fraction of a second before resuming their work. Her lips pressed together, and she bit into them. Her gaze dropped to his face, taking in the damage she had inadvertently helped cause.

"They will never forgive me for this…" she said quietly, voice low and strained.

Her fingers tightened slightly in his hair as she drew him closer, power continuing to flow into him without pause, desperate now not to lose what she had nearly destroyed. "I'm sorry…"

"I'm so sorry…" Lilyanna whispered again.

There was no answer.

For a moment, she thought he had slipped away entirely. Her hand pressed harder to his chest, power flowing in a steady, disciplined stream as she searched for any sign of response beyond the faint, uneven rhythm of his heart.

Then his throat moved, letting the Goddess know that he just simply didn't answer her apology.

"What are you doing?" Quinlan asked quietly.

Her gaze snapped down to his face.

"I'm stabilizing you, cleansing your body. Repairing what I can before you cross a point I cannot pull you back from."

He swallowed again. "You can… reverse corruption?"

Her expression shifted. "Just how reckless can you be?! You had no clue I could heal you, yet did this to your body?!"

He weakly shrugged. "A cornered beast, remember? I'd rather defend myself by any means than let my kidnapper do with me as she pleases."

"… Unbelievable." Then, after a long exhale, the strain in her features eased for a brief moment, replaced by something straighter, prouder.

"I am a Goddess of Purity. Corruption is my natural enemy, which is why you managed to injure me despite wielding that power with no refinement at all. You forced it raw and uncontrolled into me, and it reacted violently."

Her hand glowed brighter against his chest as she continued. "And it also means that I am highly effective against it. I can burn it out of you."

A faint sound escaped Quinlan's chest. It took her a second to realize it was a breath that carried the shape of a tired laugh.

"Ah. A Goddess of Purity."

His head shifted slightly against her thighs. "That explains a lot."

Lilyanna's eyes narrowed. "What does that mean…?"

Quinlan exhaled slowly. "That you are an obnoxious brat with sparkly eyes who ignores reality while living in her own little bubble."

The words landed clean.

"?!" Her power wavered for the first time since she began healing him.

Shock flickered across her face, sharp and immediate. Her fingers tightened reflexively in his hair as she stared down at him, disbelief cutting through her composure.

No one spoke to her like that.

No one.

Her jaw set. "The corruption must have reached deeper than I thought. You're speaking jibberish."

A weak, victorious grin tugged at the corner of Quinlan's mouth. Blood stained his lips as he breathed in shallow pulls.

"Thanks for proving my point."

"Hmph."