Perhaps Nasre's lingering resentment was too profound, or perhaps Marco was truly nudged by that minuscule trace of abyssal aura to let the darkness in his heart take over—or perhaps even the moon over Icewind Dale, large, round, and brightly shining, could no longer illuminate the icy heart of the last direct descendant of Habel beneath the Great Glacier.
Marco Habel fell right at midnight on this day.
None of those who discovered this felt any particular surprise.
That Marco had asked to guard the Abyssal Gate in the first place required nothing more than... a reason that would allow him to make his final decision.
Otherwise, an Archmage of the Good Alignment like him would have had to stay at the open Abyssal Gate for centuries before falling to evil... let alone now that the Abyssal Gate was thoroughly sealed.
The abyssal aura sent into Toril probably could not even corrupt a mid-level mage.
Marco only needed a reason to convince himself; with his family wiped out, he had long since stopped wanting to suppress that lingering resentment.
Yet he was also well aware that had he not abstained from participation and indeed remained of the Good Alignment, Tyr's Knights of Justice would have executed him alongside the others.
The Knights of Justice had actually sent word to Hill... Marco had in fact tried to use the rationale that the Terrasil Elves came from another world and Long Saddle Town needed locals to stir things up, hoping the knights would show leniency to certain members of the Habel Family who, while belonging to the Evil Alignment, truly had nothing to do with those events.
Regrettably, even those truly innocent young children had to have their names changed and be sent far away on ships; how could those who had