[Location: The Outskirts of Abysshaven]
[Time: The Next Morning]
The walk back to the city was silent, but it wasn't the silence of exhaustion; rather, it was the silence of observation.
Damien walked with a renewed stride. The weakness that had plagued him for days although still there, but now he had a certain jump to his steps.
His Will Core, now fused with the fragments of his fractured psyche, hummed in his chest like a diamond engine.
He scanned the grey horizon.
For the first time since falling, he wasn't just looking for threats, now he was calmly analysing this strange abyss ecosystem.
"Look at that," Damien whispered, pointing to a ridge in the distance.
A pack of creatures was tearing at the carcass of a giant centipede.
They looked like wolves, but their fur was made of wire-like bristles, and their eyes had rotted out, replaced by glowing sensory pits.
"Direwolves," Isabelle noted, her hand resting on her dagger. "But... wrong."
"Corrupted," Damien corrected.
