“You’re making an honourable sacrifice.”
That’s the last thing I remember being told. Just before I was flung into that pit.
“Thanks to you, everyone else gets to live.”
I was conscious while they tore into me. Turning me and my allies into the same horrible monsters they were. I tried so hard to fight back. I didn’t want to be sacrificed. I didn’t want to be corrupted.
“Trust me, this is for the best.”
But here I am, a Corruption. Well, a corrupted being. I’m not really a Corruption, just its damn slave. One of goodness knows how many little hostages. The Corruption calls us the Swarm but I’ve never felt that swarm-y.
I don’t know why I’m thinking all this. A little spurt of confusion and guilt as I wipe the blood off my face. I’ve just finished sucking the life out of whatever this four-legged thing in front of me was. Some sort of local guardian of this universe’s afterlife? Not sure. Don’t really care. I’m still hungry.
So off I go, looking for another victim. That’s what this place is. A victim. The Corruption goes around eating the land and stuff, me and the rest of the Swarm are like carnivorous locusts, killing anything that’s alive. Things like animals. Generally all the insects and stuff get eaten as the Corruption devours planets and things like that.
Really, I’m not sure what the point is, apart from the fact that we put all the sentient beings of a victim universe out of their misery. The Corruption didn’t always do that. It used to just consume at will.
Maybe that’s why I’m thinking these things.
The Corruption only made the Corrupted Swarm after it corrupted me and my friends. After She gave us to it.
That was the deal.
I remember it now.
She wanted to spare our universe. So She gave us to the Corruption. And Herself. Let it use Her to create more Corruption. Because that was what the Corruption always wanted, to be able to reproduce. Without having to split into smaller parts.
Couldn’t happen though, not at first. Her guardians needed to be corrupted. Each thread snipped away. She was cut out of Her own universe. Leaving it be. Our universe was no longer sentient because She was Corrupted now.
That was why we were thrown into that hell. To save our universe. By becoming monsters. Backwards logic.
Almost don’t want to remember what I used to be. What we lost. Back before we became the swarm.
Doesn’t matter now.
I’m hungry again. Always hungry. Got to fill that damn void where my internal organs used to be. Can hear the rest of the Swarm telling me to move on and start consuming again.
That’s fine. I don’t go far before I’ve found another meal. They don’t struggle much. This world is nearly dead anyway. Maybe this one was related to the one I consumed earlier. Their blood is the same colour. Tastes similar. Not as nice though, they didn’t flee like the other ones.
This meal ends quickly too. Always ends too fast. I’m alone with my thoughts again. Being a more efficient member of the Swarm has its benefits. More food. Things like that. Will have to move on soon.
Still, there’s a thought lingering in my mind.
Her actions spared the rest of them. They were never corrupted. I wonder how our old universe is getting on these days?
Maybe if I ever get freed from this Corruption, I’ll go and find out.