The light sphere convulsed in my grasp like a dying star giving birth to a new one. One hemisphere burned with an eye-searing whiteness that cast jagged shadows across my trembling arms, while the other swallowed all light into its fathomless black maw.
They warred at the edges where they met - the white advancing like dawn creeping across the tundra, the darkness recoiling like a scorched beast.
As the white consumed more of the sphere, the excruciating pain wracking my body began to recede, replaced by a surge of overwhelming emotions: a clawing eagerness to exist, a deep sense of freedom, a burgeoning hope, and a wave of pure, unadulterated relief.
I was in no state to form coherent thoughts, my mind still reeling from the psychic assault, yet somehow, I knew.
They are fighting!
The original consciousness was winning - its light devouring the corruption pulse by pulse.
Then—
CRACKLE—!
