CHAPTER 134: LILY’S CHOICE

Lily POV

The Void Walker crashed through the cave roof like a falling meteor, sending rocks and dust everywhere. I rolled away just as a massive chunk of stone smashed where I’d been stood. The monster landed hard, its gray form crackling with hungry energy.

"Lily, get back!" Caleb shouted, but I was already moving toward the hurt being instead of away from it.

Something was different about this Void Walker. Where others I’d seen moved with predatory ease, this one stumbled. Its gray skin shifted between solid and transparent, like a bad television signal. Most shocking of all, its eyes weren’t totally empty - I could see pain there. Real, terrible pain.

The creature tried to lunge at me, but fell halfway. Dark energy leaked from cracks in its form like blood from cuts. It was dying, and somehow I could feel its pain as if it were my own.

"Help... me..." The words came out as a whisper, barely audible.

My heart nearly stopped. Void Walkers didn’t talk. They didn’t ask for help. They just consumed everything in their way with mindless hunger. But this one was different.

"Did it just speak?" Brock asked, his sword raised but unsure.

I knelt beside the thing, ignoring everyone’s protests. Up close, I could see more cracks running through its gray form. They glowed with a sickly light that hurt to look at. But underneath that corruption, I felt something familiar. Something that reminded me of the protective feeling I got from pack leaders.

"You’re not really a monster, are you?" I whispered.

The Void Walker’s shifting eyes focused on me with desperate hope. "Guardian... was... Guardian..."

The truth hit me like lightning. This wasn’t just some dumb beast. This had been a person once. A guardian who’d been twisted into something horrible against their will.

"Lily, step away from that thing," Aiden ordered, but I couldn’t move. The creature’s pain called to every mending instinct I had.

"It’s hurt," I said, reaching out slowly. "It’s in terrible pain."

"It’s dangerous!" Caleb protested. "Void Walkers drain life power. One touch could kill you."

But when my fingers made touch with the creature’s cracked skin, something unexpected happened. Instead of feeling my energy drain away, I felt a bond form. Images flashed through my mind - memories that weren’t mine.

I saw a woman in shiny armor standing guard over a portal between worlds. She was proud, determined, guarding innocent people from dimensional threats. Her name was Sarah. She had a girl she loved more than anything.

Then came the greed. The Moon Goddess’s voice whispering poison into the guards’ minds. Promising them power to better protect their charges. The slow change as they lost themselves piece by piece, becoming consumed by an endless hunger they couldn’t control.

"Oh no," I breathed, tears running down my face. "She turned you into this. The Moon Goddess corrupted you."

The thing - Sarah - nodded weakly. Through our link, I felt her desperation. She’d been fighting the rot for so long, trying to hold onto who she used to be. But the hunger was winning, slowly eating away at her soul.

"Can’t... stop... the hunger..." she gasped. "Please... end it..."

She was asking me to kill her. To put her out of her misery before the corruption fully took over. My heart broke at the thought.

"There has to be another way," I said strongly. "I won’t give up on you."

I closed my eyes and reached deeper into our connection, using abilities I’d found during our fight against the Moon Goddess. My healing power, strengthened by the Triple Moon bond, flowed into the dying guardian.

The dark cracks in her form began to glow with silver light instead of ugly green. The rot fought back, trying to push my healing energy away. It felt like wrestling with a poisonous snake that didn’t want to let go of its target.

"Lily, what are you doing?" Sage asked, her voice filled with worry.

"Healing her," I grunted, pouring more power into the effort. "The corruption isn’t permanent. It’s like an infection that can be fixed."

But the process was harder than anything I’d ever tried. The Moon Goddess’s corruption was old and strong. It wrapped around Sarah’s soul like chains, unwilling to break. Every time I made progress, it fought back twice as hard.

"The hunger... it’s too strong..." Sarah whimpered. "I can feel it returning. You need to run before I lose control again."

I could sense she was right. The corruption was winning, pushing back against my recovery. Soon she’d become a dumb monster again, and this time she might hurt people I cared about.

But I couldn’t give up. Not when I’d seen who she really was underneath the curse.

"Help me," I called to the others. "I can’t do this alone."

"Are you insane?" Brock asked. "That thing could kill us all."

"She’s not a thing!" I snapped. "She’s a person who was changed against her will. The Moon Goddess did this to all the guards. She turned guards into monsters and made us fight them instead of her."

The truth of it hung in the air like a bomb waiting to burst. If I was right, then every Void Walker we’d killed had once been someone trying to protect harmless people. The Moon Goddess had turned our guardians into our enemies, making us destroy the very people who should have been our allies.

Caleb was the first to understand. "That’s why she wanted the guardians corrupted. Not just to clear obstacles, but to turn them into weapons against us."

"While we waste time and energy fighting them, she continues her plan unopposed," Aiden realized grimly.

I felt Sarah’s control slipping further. The corruption was spreading through her form again, and her eyes were becoming empty and hungry. Soon there would be nothing left of the guardian she’d once been.

"If you’re going to help, do it now!" I shouted desperately.

One by one, they joined the healing circle. Caleb put his hands on my shoulders, lending me his strength. Sage added her power to mine. Even Brock, still suspicious, donated his protective energy.

The joint power was incredible. Silver light blazed around Sarah’s form as our joined abilities fought against the ancient corruption. For a moment, I thought we might actually win. The dark cracks began to close, and her gray skin started returning to human color.

Then something went wrong. The corruption didn’t just fight - it lashed out. Dark energy burst from Sarah’s form, hitting all of us like a physical blow. I felt something tear inside my mind as the backlash hit.

When the light faded, Sarah was gone. Not dead, but disappeared completely. In her place stood something that made my blood freeze.

A perfect copy of myself, but with the empty silver eyes of a twisted god-version.

"Thank you, little healer," it said in my voice. "You’ve given me exactly what I needed."

The Moon Goddess had been using Sarah as bait. She’d wanted me to try healing a Void Walker, knowing that the process would make a connection she could exploit. Now she had access to my powers, my memories, and my form.

"Lily!" Caleb reached for me, but the fake version of myself stepped between us.

"I’m afraid the real Lily is indisposed," my duplicate said with a cruel smile. "She’s experiencing what it’s like to become a Void Walker from the inside."

I tried to speak, to move, to do anything, but I was stuck in my own body. I could feel the corruption beginning to spread through me, the same hunger that had eaten Sarah starting to gnaw at my soul.

The Moon Goddess had turned the trap around totally. Instead of saving a defender, I’d doomed myself to become one of her monsters.