Endless Evolution: Being Op With My Broken Affinity!-Chapter 35: Into The Blight

Kaelen pov

The journey north took two days of hard riding. They pushed through the first night, stopping only to water the horses and grab brief moments of rest. Kaelen’s body protested every jarring step, his ribs still tender from the construct’s attack. But the suppression poison was finally clearing from his system, and with each passing hour, he could feel his Aether sense growing sharper.

By the second day, he could perceive the corruption ahead of them.

It started as a wrongness on the edge of his awareness...a dark stain against the natural flow of life energy that surrounded them. The closer they rode, the more pronounced it became, until Kaelen could taste it in the air like ash on his tongue, for a moment he felt like he was still on the mashes.

"You feel it too," Joanna said, riding beside him. She looked pale, her water magic reacting badly to the corruption’s presence.

"It’s like a wound in the world," Kaelen replied. "Festering and spreading."

Serenya, on his other side, had gone quiet hours ago. Her eyes held knowledge that made her expression grave. "The Blight has accelerated. This shouldn’t be possible in such a short time."

Tomis heard her and urged his horse forward. "It wasn’t like this when we left. Whatever’s happening, it’s getting worse."

They crested a hill, and Millbrook came into view.

Kaelen’s breath caught in his throat.

The eastern third of the village was gone .

The fields that should have been golden with late harvest were black, the crops twisted into gnarled shapes that looked like they were reaching toward the sky in silent agony. The corruption had spread to the buildings nearest the fields, turning wood and stone into something that pulsed with sickly green light.

But it was the boundary that made Kaelen’s stomach turn. Where healthy land met corrupted ground, there was a visible line—and it was moving. Slowly but steadily, the Blight crept forward, consuming everything in its path.

"Gods preserve us," one of the guards whispered.

"They already fled," Mera said bitterly. "The gods don’t come to places like this."

They rode into the village proper, where people had gathered in the western quarter, as far from the corruption as they could get. Makeshift tents had been erected in what looked like the town square. The faces that turned toward them were hollow with fear and exhaustion.

A tall man with a hastily bandaged arm stepped forward. "Mera, Tomis, you made it back. And you brought..." His eyes widened when he saw the quality of their escort. "You brought the city?"

"We brought help," Mera said, dismounting. "This is Kaelen Valerius and his companions from House Zephyr."

The name caused a ripple of reaction. Some recognition, some suspicion. Kaelen dismounted carefully, every movement reminding him he wasn’t fully healed.

"I know who you are," the tall man said. "The exile who supposedly killed his father. You’re wanted by the council."

"He’s also the only person who might be able to stop this," Mera said firmly. "So unless you want to argue while the Blight swallows our homes, I suggest we let him try."

The man studied Kaelen for a long moment, then nodded curtly. "I’m Daven, village head. Or what’s left of it anyway. We’ve lost over a hundred people since this started. Another dozen are infected, corruption spreading through their bodies. If you can do anything at all, we’re grateful."

Kaelen looked past him toward the creeping darkness. Even from here, he could feel how wrong it was. The Blight wasn’t just dead matter..it was actively consuming the Aether around it, twisting life force into something poisonous.

"Show me the infected," Kaelen said.

Daven led them to a tent where the sick people had been quarantined. The smell hit Kaelen first...the mixture rot and decay mixed with something sharp and chemical. Inside, people lay on makeshift beds, their bodies marked with spreading black veins that pulsed beneath their skin.

Was this supposed to be his fate as well, if he hadn’t discovered his magic? The thought made him feel chills in his bones.

A young girl, maybe ten years old, whimpered as her father held her hand. Her arm was wrapped in bandages, but Kaelen could see the corruption seeping through the cloth.

"This is my daughter, Lila," the father said. His voice was steady, but his eyes were desperate. "The healers cut away the infected flesh, but it keeps spreading."

Kaelen knelt beside the girl’s bed. With his Aether sense fully open, he could see what was happening. The Blight corruption was like a parasite, feeding on her life force and converting it into more corruption. If left unchecked, it would consume her completely.

"Can you help her?" the father asked.

"I can try," Kaelen said honestly. He looked at Joanna. "I need you to stabilize her. Keep her body strong while I work."

Joanna nodded and moved to the girl’s other side, her hands already glowing with soft blue light as she channeled water magic to support Lila’s failing systems.

Kaelen placed his palm carefully on the girl’s infected arm, just above the bandages. He reached for his Aether, and this time, it came smoothly. The suppression poison was finally gone, leaving his power clear and responsive.

He could see the corruption clearly now—dark threads winding through healthy tissue, consuming and converting. Carefully, precisely, he began to weave his Aether around those threads, not attacking them directly but surrounding them with pure life force.

The Blight recoiled from his power like a living thing trying to escape light. Kaelen pressed harder, pouring more Aether into the girl’s arm. Where his power touched corruption, the darkness began to dissolve, breaking apart and dissipating like smoke in wind.

But it wasn’t easy. The corruption fought back, trying to burrow deeper, to escape his cleansing. Sweat beaded on Kaelen’s forehead as he pursued it through the girl’s tissue, methodically purifying every infected cell.

It took nearly an hour. By the end, Kaelen was shaking with exhaustion, but the corruption was gone. Where black veins had pulsed beneath the girl’s skin, healthy pink flesh now showed. The wrongness that had permeated her was simply... gone.

Lila’s eyes fluttered open. "Papa?"

Her father sobbed, clutching her to his chest. "You’re okay. You’re going to be okay."

Around the tent, other infected people watched with desperate hope.

"Can you do that for all of them?" Daven asked quietly.

Kaelen looked at the dozen other beds, then at the creeping darkness outside that threatened the entire village. "The people, yes. But the Blight outside... that’s going to be harder."

"How much harder?" Marius asked.

"I don’t know yet," Kaelen admitted. "But I need to try."

He spent the next two hours working through the infected villagers. Each one required intense concentration and left him more drained, but he pushed through. By the time he finished the last patient, the sun was setting, painting the corrupted landscape in shades of red and black.

"You need to rest," Serenya said firmly when Kaelen stood to head toward the Blight’s edge.

"I can rest after," Kaelen replied. "That corruption is still spreading. Every hour I wait, more land is lost."

"And if you exhaust yourself completely, you’ll be useless to anyone," Joanna countered. "At least eat something. Drink water. You look half-dead."

She wasn’t wrong. Kaelen’s hands trembled, and his vision kept blurring at the edges. Healing the infected had taken more out of him than he’d expected.

"One hour," he conceded. "Then I’m going out there."

They ate quickly...dried meat and bread that tasted like sawdust in Kaelen’s mouth. The villagers kept their distance, watching him with a mixture of hope and fear. He was the exile who’d supposedly murdered his father, but he was also the man who’d just saved their children.

As darkness fell, Kaelen walked to the edge of the Blight with Joanna and Serenya flanking him. The corruption seemed almost to glow in the twilight, that sickly green phosphorescence making it look even more unnatural.

"The empire’s magic drains energy from the land to power the city," Serenya said quietly. "This is what’s left when all the life force is consumed...corruption that can’t sustain itself, so it hunts for more energy to devour."

"Your Aether is pure. Untainted. The opposite of this corruption." Serenya looked at him. "If anyone can fight this, it’s you. But Kaelen... this isn’t like healing a person. This is trying to purify corruption that’s been spreading for years. It’s vast. It’s powerful. And it will fight back."

"I know," Kaelen said. He stepped forward until his boots were inches from the boundary line where corruption met healthy ground. He could feel the Blight pulling at him, trying to corrupt his own life force.

He took a deep breath and reached out with his power.

The Blight responded immediately, surging toward his Aether like a starving animal finding food. Kaelen gritted his teeth and pushed back, flooding the corrupted ground with pure life force.

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It’s a mistake and not this Chapter continuation, skip it to the next

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