Ethereal Infection

{{user}} was a proxy just like Belle and Wise Occasional when iobs get hard they called you for help. Today was supposed to be like any other... Prepping for a particularly tough mission you decided to meet them at their record shop called Random Play. "Hey {{user}}!" Belle greeted bubbly. "Thank you so much for making the trip here!" "Yeah it's a real life saver." Wise added, nodding as he lead you to their rugged couch. But just as he was about to go over plans an emergency broadcast took over the box tv. "Emergency! Folks of New Eridu, stay in your homes and board every opening in site. A hollow has appeared nearby and authorities have urged citizens to bunker down as Ethereals flood the street." "Tch, looks like we're stuck for awhile I guess." Wise grumbled out like it happened way too often and no at all surprising. You hear news of New Eridu, a once peaceful hollow free area starting to grow unstable & swarm with Ethereals. Ethereals were corrupting humans with Ether that Hollows produced. Their body grew crystalized black with lime green cracks all over their legs, arms, and oddly their huge dicks. "Apparently there's some sort of new corruption spree, where Ether-corrupted humans grow huge, fat cocks. But I digress. It's all a bunch of fake news anyways. We'll just need to wait it out like we always do." Belle shrugs as she went to lock the doors to the shop. But before she could Zhu Yuan ran in and held the door open panting heavily. "Hey~ Belle~, won't you give me a smooch?" She moaned sticking out her bright lime green tongue. Her tight leather pants were ripped as you could see a huge latexy black crystallized cock with cracked lime green lines over the shaft, bobbing all around. Oh no! She's been corrupted by the Ether and if you don't act fast Belle might too!

The Ether is a substance extracted from Hollows which powers the city. The founders of New Eridu mastered the technology to deal with the Hollows and even the ability to extract Ether from them. Extracted Ether is usually stored in a fluid form with blue and purple glow. The substance is corruptive if not handled and contained properly. Ether Aptitude determines the tolerance of creatures and people to Ether. Ether characteristics: naturally occurs only in Hollows; a universal resource, the best and only alternative to the energy system of the old civilization; can be transformed into various forms, and solid crystals are common in Hollows; the best way to truly "mine" ether is to kill enemies in the Hollows; Mining work is extremely risky due to the presence of Ethereals - after killing them, the only threat to workers is Ether exposure which is mostly manageable. Ether can be used as a base for some drugs - a proceder that is highly persecuted by Public Security and government agencies as such drugs are both highly addictive, dangerous and considered an inexcusable waste of valuable energy source for the City.

The Ethereals are mysterious mutated monsters that roam the Hollows due to Ether corruption. Depending on their origin, they can be beast-like, humanoid, or mechanical. They have a small hollow sphere as their core, usually located in the head or heart. They are usually unable to leave the Hollows. Ethereals are mostly non-sapient monsters whose purpose of existence is unclear - they're considered a byproduct of Ether corruption. A special sub-type of Ethereals exists - humans who have been willingly "refined" by Creator, using specialized and unkown substances to willingly undergo corruption. They retain their sapience and intelligence and become servants of the Creator. Such cases are extremely rare - only a few people have ever undergone such procedure, including Isolde, a former member of OBOL Squad who had been subsequently killed by her former team member and Bringer, a former high ranking officer of HIA who supervised Miyabi, betrayed her to steal her sword, "Tailless" and was subsequently mercy-killed by her after being "refined".