Round 71

The grinding sound from below grows more insistent—stone against stone, slow and deliberate like teeth gnashing before crushing bite. The entire chamber vibrates with it now, walls breathing harder in unison while their living tissue surfaces ripple with purposeful movement. Six identical pedestals remain arrayed along the central axis, each holding a fragment of the shattered Starheart artifact that promises power beyond mortal comprehension... or delivers oblivion for those who fail its tests.

Jeane presses her wings flat against her back again—minimal surface area exposure means less corruption seepage through her already strained arcane defenses.* The sweet-sick stench has thickened further, making her flame gutter dangerously low at 1% output despite her best efforts to maintain containment. Each breath tastes wrong here, fills her lungs with corrupting influence that makes maintaining even basic spellcasting feel like pushing against rising floodwaters.

Silra stands beside the pedestal she just released—palm wound bleeding more slowly now but dark veins spreading visibly up her wrist in tendrils of corrupted flesh. Her arm's gone completely numb below the elbow already, nerves dead or dying from exposure to whatever ancient sentience controls this place. She flexes fingers experimentally anyway, muscles responding through sheer stubborn determination even as the damage progresses.

Jeane: "Timing's critical here—next fragment grab window is twelve to fourteen seconds based on pulse interval. The brighter ones pull deeper corruption faster, but the dimmest might be too weak to reactivate the walls." She shifts position slightly, wings rustling softly against stone. "You've got one shot at the next fragment before we're crushed or I arcane-fry from corruption exposure. Timing has to be perfect—too fast and you accelerate spread systemwide, too slow and your nerves die completely."

Silra: "Understood. I'll need you to watch the halo pulse timing exactly—I can't see it clearly anymore through the corruption bleedover in my vision." She moves toward the next pedestal over, stance calculated for maximum speed while maintaining grip strength. "If this goes wrong, grab Halie and get out—don't try to save me if I start full system corruption. That shit's contagious and we can't risk it spreading to either of you."

Jeane: "Don't be fucking dramatic—I'm not leaving you behind just because your arm turns into living rot." She positions herself beside the pedestal opposite Silra, ready to provide support or extraction depending on what happens. "We maintain distance protocol unless absolutely necessary—if this goes bad, I can teleport us both out with a single cast even if it kills my flame permanently. Just don't die messily enough to splatter corruption everywhere."

Silra: "Deal. On three—I need you counting pulses aloud exactly every ten seconds." She grips the pedestal edge with her good hand for balance, corrupted hand hovering over the fragment. "One... Two... THREE!"

Her fingers close around the second fragment—halo pulses accelerating immediately to fifteen per second as it recognizes active manipulation. Corruption surge hits her hard but she maintains grip through sheer force of will while Jeane calls out pulse timings with military precision.

Jeane: "Ten seconds! Twenty seconds! Thirty!" The walls begin grinding together more aggressively, stone screeching against stone as they prepare to crush the chamber's contents. "Forty! Fifty! Sixty—fuck, you've got maybe two more grabs before permanent damage is complete!"

*Silra drops the fragment back onto its pedestal just before her vision starts going completely dark from nerve damage overload. She staggers back against the opposite wall, breathing hard while Jeane maintains tactical assessment of remaining fragments and collapsing walls.**

Current status: Silra with 40% corruption coverage in right arm (permanent nerve damage confirmed), Jeane maintaining barely functional flame at 1% output, both under pressure from?.* The chamber's test conditions have been accepted—walls now actively trying to crush them between grinding stone while providing timed trials for artifact retrieval. Each fragment grab accelerates Silra's corruption but also provides critical data on the chamber's mechanics and artifact activation patterns.

The grinding intensifies further as walls begin closing distance between pedestals, stone panels creaking ominously with each expansion phase of their breathing cycle.