Time itself seemed to stall in that suffocating grotto. The forge's glow cast flickering shadows across Karrion's straining face as the final echo of his hammer strike faded into silence.
From behind, a grotesque, rotten claw lashed out—ragged talons aimed straight for the dwarf's unguarded spine. The thing moved with uncanny speed, a diminutive Starborn revenant propelled by ravenous hunger and spite.
"No!" Raine's anguished cry tore through the gloom. He fought vainly against invisible chains that bound his limbs, powerless to intervene.
Beside him, Thalia's dark-shrouded form quivered. Her hand, still clamped over her heart, betrayed her desperation. Another of the accursed dead had pinned her shadows in place with one massive, jagged axe, leaving her unable even to turn in her comrade's defense.
Karrion's mighty arm tensed as the claw neared. Though sweat and ash caked his skin, and fatigue threatened to buckle his knees, he refused to glance back. The anvil before him bore the half-forged Starflame Blade—its veins of crimson metal streaked with trembling filaments of living starlight. One last rune, one final hallowed touch, and the weapon would be complete.
He had come too far to falter now.
The revenant's claw, blazing with malignant purple light, loomed mere inches from Karrion's exposed back. In that instant, the dwarf's chest shook—and not with terror, but with a roar of wrath that seemed to shake the very stones.
"Raine!" he bellowed, voice like thunder. "Activate it—use your blood!"
Those words resounded like a hammer blow to Raine's heart. Starborn blood… the very essence of his lineage… was the catalyst for this blade's final awakening. Karrion had hesitated to request it, knowing the terrible cost it extracted. But now, life itself hung in the balance—his friend, Thalia, and all hope lay upon that nascent sword.
Raine's gaze darted between the charging revenant, Karrion's iron silhouette, and Thalia's pale, determined face. In that crucible of fear and love, his resolve crystallized.
Without hesitation, he drew his dagger and slashed open his palm. A line of blood welled instantly, each drop shimmering faintly with star-forged radiance.
"Now!" he rasped.
He thrust his wounded hand toward the glowing anvil. The molten metal hissed and roared as the blood fell upon it, not evaporating but fusing, as though the essence of his very soul mingled with the blade's heart.
A low, otherworldly sizzle echoed through the cavern, and then a supernova of light erupted. Gone were the modest currents of starlight; in their place blazed incandescent torrents of gold, silver, and sapphire flame. Shadows fled before that brilliance, shrinking into the walls as though scorched from existence.
A sweeping shockwave rippled outward, gentle enough not to crush the forge, yet powerful enough to drive back the advancing horrors. The revenant, caught in its path, wailed in unholy agony as the purifying radiance stripped away its corruption. Its shriveled form disintegrated in an explosion of dark embers, leaving no trace but a stain of ash upon the stone.
One by one, the other cursed knights recoiled, their twisted armor crackling as the light consumed the rot from their joints. Their hollow eye sockets blinked once, dazed, before the purifying flames reduced them to dust.
Raine trembled, every nerve ablaze with pain. Blood loss and the surge of unleashed power combined into an agony that threatened to shatter his mind. Yet he stood firm, teeth gritted, eyes locked on the emerging weapon.
Where once lay a crude, flickering blade, now rose the Starflame Sword in its true form: a slender, tapering masterpiece of molten crimson steel shot through with veins of living cosmic light. Around it, the air shimmered, as though reality itself bent to its presence.
In that triumphant moment, Thalia unleashed her remaining might. Though utterly spent, she wove a wall of pure shadow around the forge, a final bulwark against any lingering taint. Twisting tendrils of darkness coalesced into sinewy serpents that swept the cave clean of the residual miasma, extinguishing the last embers of corruption.
Her voice, hoarse and unsteady, rose above the crackle of starfire: "It's done… go—while you still can!"
Karrion staggered forward and seized the shining blade, cradling it as if it were a newborn star. His voice cracked, raw with relief and awe: "By the mountains… it's—"
He could not finish; the cave itself trembled as the magic of the Starflame Sword radiated outward, undoing centuries of blight in a single heartbeat.
Raine faltered, blood fogging his vision, yet he forced himself to kneel beside his two stalwart friends. The hot steel of the blade comforted his trembling hand. A single, exhausted smile cracked across his bloodied lips. They had paid a grievous price—his lifeblood and Thalia's very life force—but in its place burned a weapon capable of turning the tide against the darkness.
In that moment of hard-won triumph, the three survivors—dwarf, witch, and scarred Starborn—felt the imprint of destiny settle upon them. The path forward would be fraught with peril, and their sacrifices would demand more than blood and sweat. Yet, for the first time since entering the Corruption, they tasted true hope—and no price, however steep, would seem too great to carry it onward.