(This chapter gets a...bit darker in certain parts, but it's Gotham and the Magnus Archives entities, it's not gonna be pretty, you've been warned.)
*Malcom POV*
*Location: Gotham City, New Jersey (Sewers)*
*Date: January 1st, 2002*
As the tunnel filled with a bright blue glow, one that felt like a cleansing light, as though the magic was a spray bottle, and my stamina was just the wipe. Helping clean the world of corruption and filth these entities brought to the world, which helps feed them and their monsters' fear. Looking back, I could tell that Wallace was having a negative reaction to the bright light, not as intense as the various fleeing or burning insects that were slowly revealing the rest of the tunnel.
It was just as filthy as the entrance, maybe even more so, as this time it had the actual sewage you'd expect from the sewers. All the grim and nasty water you'd expect from such a place, even with my nose basically burnt off and covered in bandages, it still got through somehow, though. I already knew Wallace was suffering worse than me at this point, as I took one step in and felt like I entered a whole new world. It felt different from my own form of transportation it felt like it felt like I entered a whole new reality, one where the rules of my old one had little effect on.
Looking behind me, I could tell that Wallace was starting to get agitated, probably feeling the effects of this place, hastening his own transformation. I could see him scratching at his skin and doing everything he could to resist doing so, only barely containing himself and scratching every once in a while. Turning back around, I made my way through the sewers. I could feel the sludge underneath my boots, trying to make their way in as flies buzzed past me, through the newly made entrance.
It wasn't quite as numerous as the wall that blocked this place off, but it was clear that whatever The Corruption was doing here, well, it was just getting bigger. Like an ant nest that just kept on growing and growing, forming a well-made hive. I was still trying to figure that bit out. What tether was I dealing with here? Wallace wasn't a full-on avatar yet, and even then, I had no way to prove it was for The Corruption, well, at least not in this place, no, I needed a bit more time, time I didn't want to waste while on the case.
Right now, though, I was more worried about any unnatural things coming through. Right now, I didn't know what this particular thing was doing to the local homeless, nor whether they were even still alive and intact. For all I knew, this particular incident could've made them all these bugs, turned them into literally garbage, into what they feared most, being the true undesirables of the city. The garbage, the waste, the things that could never be reused, are no longer treated as humans. Their fear is forever etched in this place, in these tunnels, and never to leave.
A legend newly told and one that would spread far and wide, that would shift and change, leading to something new. At least that was my own personal theory. I couldn't prove it, but it was better than nothing, and well, sometimes these things just...happened. Sometimes these things just like to play, liked to watch us twist and squirm as they feed, hell, most of the time they were barely sentient. I was reminded of that as I reached a large section of the sewer, the junction point, I think it's called, or something like that.
Either way, it had...it had four people hanging from the ceiling, each oen attached via a mixture of their own rotting flesh, and spider-webs. The corpses are being used as nesting grounds, both for the archanids and insects. Each one festering with rot and the one singular emotion they had on their face as they died, fear and sadness, knowing this is where it all ends.
I had to physically stop myself from gagging or puking. Wallace was a bit stronger this time and turned away, stopping himself from leaning on the wall. Did everything he could to look at their faces, to remember them, so that someone would.
"Did you know them?" I said, calming myself down and stopping myself from puking.
He waved his hand at me, ready to move forward when I was ready.
"No, no, I mean I tried to help out whoever I could, but these guys...I don't remember them ever coming here, must've been after I went home for the day or something like that."
I nodded and took a couple of steps forward and began smelling the air, sure whoever was doing this could probably hide the physical stench of the sewers, but magic...magic was harder to get rid of. Magic you couldn't just wipe away like it was some grim on the wall, no, it stayed there, and even if these entities weren't originally magical or something like that, they needed to adapt to this reality, like I did, and adapt to the rules.
While they did change reality, they still had to follow certain rules, certain things that helped create this more loose reality. So what better way to do that than...magic, the leftover sparks of creation, and the power to manipulate reality sometimes with no cost and sometimes at a great cost. Here and now, though they were steadily turning this place into a nest of decay and corpses.
I tried the tunnel to the right of us first and took in a big breath, and while the current sewage smell was...overwhelming to a degree, I was more or less concentrating on the smell of magic instead. So I went through them one by one, taking a deep breath, trying to discern which of the tunnels was the most likely location for whatever was causing all this. Each tunnel had varying degrees of this stench; for example, the right one barely reeked of magic but had the strongest foul stench, with the middle one having barely any of the two, and finally, the left one had the strongest magical stench.
Pinching my nose, I decided to go down the left tunnel, signalling for Wallace to follow me, and he did so, a little confused, but he could help identify any more corpses or just as muscle.
"You sure this is the right way? I mean, I know your-"
"I'm an unlicensed PI, detective skills are a bit out of my reach, magic just helps me cheat, and right now this tunnel has the strongest stench," I said, stopping him midway.
"Then wouldn't the right tunnel be a better place to start? I mean, that place was rank."
"Not that kind of smell, no magic has a stench to it, the kind you can't wash away, and for right now, this tunnel has the greatest magic stench."
"Although if this doesn't pan out well, we can try the middle tunnel; that place didn't have either of these things, but...well, let's just say these entities may not be sentient or anything like us, that doesn't mean their followers can't be clever when they want to be."
"Like a cult or something?"
I just nodded my head as we kept going further in, as more corpses slowly started to show themselves; some were familiar to Wallace, others were like the four hung up at the junction. Some...some were still alive, but well, it was kinder to put them out of their misery, those ones were kept alive but torn open and their own intestines were scattered by them, being used by the various insects down here, and I remembered their faces, I made sure to as Wallace shouldn't take that burden alone, no one should.
I won't lie and say I wasn't afraid; I was truly afraid of what would happen to me if I should fail, in this world, should a cult get smart and let all these things loose at once. For right now, until I could figure out a way to seal them far away from my new reality permanently, the best I could do was contain them, get rid of their monsters, and take care of their artifacts, make sure they didn't get into the wrong hands.
Eventually, we reached a more...alien part of the sewers, and by that I don't mean it was like from another world, but rather another reality, one molded by The Corruption itself. The rot and insects, the death surrounding both me and Wllace as we trudged through the sewers, the insects swarming the bloated corpses and making sure they were unrecognizable. I'm not afraid to say it was disturbing to see, to witness, and while it would probably not be burned into my mind, like Wallace at least, it would serve as a reminder that if left alone for too long, these things can cause massive damage to countless lives.
That every time I failed to stop or prevent something like this, more lives would be lost, and right now I am both thankful and full of hate for the universe. Thankful for the gifts it's given me to survive my encounters with these things, and hateful for the fact that it forced this task upon me just because I came here the same method they did. Although for some reason...for some reason the how has been becoming less clear over time, more distorted, as though I was touched by both The Spiral and The Web at once.
Although I wouldn't put it past them to work together to achieve a similiar goal, The Spiral may be madness, but even madness could have a purpose to it if directed, and the Web loved its secrets. So what greater madness could be achieved than by keeping a secret so intrinsic to their existence, to how they operate, than how one could banish them, how one could rid their reality of them permanently under the right conditions.
Then again, it could be that I spent far more time with all fifteen of them than I realized. While falling into this reality, I could be maddened by their very touch. Unable to distinguish reality and fantasy, and my own mad ravings from the universe speaking to me. Although who was to say this wasn't one in the same, that the universe spoke to the madden ones, the insane ones, and most of all the fools who took the rambling seriously.
As the stench of magic got stronger, I simply steeled myself and readied my mind for what was to come, and hoped that Wallace could be saved from this madness.