The rescue campaign expanded quickly over the following two weeks, Ashworth coordinating an increasingly complex operation to identify and recover corrupted individuals scattered across the widening perimeter around the Dark Forest.
Victor found himself deployed almost daily, his suppression ability proving effective against early and moderate corruption stages with a consistency that brought genuine hope to an otherwise grim undertaking. Not every case ended successfully. Some individuals had been corrupted too long, the reversal incomplete or the underlying damage too extensive for full recovery. But enough succeeded that the effort felt worthwhile despite the toll it took on him personally.
"You're pushing too hard again," Wren observed, after a particularly difficult recovery that had left Victor visibly drained. "I know why. I understand the impulse. But burning yourself out doesn't help anyone if you're not functional for the confrontation that's still coming."
