Chapter 235 – Aura of Contamination

Ren - Day 55 - 63 Days Remain Until the End of the Mourning Period on Mavigan

We were looking at Kart’s body in utter shock and disbelief. She was there one moment and gone the next. People have been abruptly ripped away from me before, like Grandpa Yachiro dying to Lilyth, but even that felt less random and sudden. There was at least some rhyme and reason to it. Not well… Kart and a bunch of strangers getting random seizures and dying.

Why? I kept repeating in my mind.

Sav, as if in response, shook her head, knelt by Kart's side again and closed her eyes.

So… that’s that.

‘W… what happened?’ Taros suddenly stammered out, reminding us of vaer presence.

Sav looked around and pointed at the dozens of similar scenes happening all around us.

‘Probably something tied to whatever Lilyth and the rest are doing at the RMAI building,’ she said and told us about her second conversation with Nyx and what she had discovered when scanning Kart’s body.

‘Another Harvester plant maybe?’ I mused, doing my best to get my mind to refocus. ‘A similar thing happened to that poor sonuvabitch who explored the bunker after all.’

‘Except I doubt anybody here had any contact with one,’ our medic sighed. ‘Kart sure as fuck didn't.’

‘The dead plants?’ Deirdee suggested. ‘Maybe… they could be at fault somehow.’

Spores? Wouldn't we all be affected then?

‘Here’s a problem,’ Sav said, unconvinced by the theory. ‘Maybe THE problem. The Harvester plant on Julbar was definitely dead and the effect triggered the moment we came across the poor SOB that explored the bunker. Why? Assuming the Harvester plant theory is correct, this time the opposite happened. The effect was immediate, but the mechanism of “infestation” is unknown. It doesn't make any sense.’

‘That’s because you are looking at this as if we are dealing with a physical malady,’ Taros suddenly said in a grave tone. ‘Some… natural phenomenon tied to a magical source. Those are common enough. There is no guarantee of that here. Greater forces could be involved.’

Oh… fuck.

‘It would appear, that as Her Royal Furriness would put it, ‘Sav said, looking genuinely scared, ‘that some Fuckery is afoot.’

Taros’s observation gave me an idea, but I first had to rule out other kinds of fuckery.

‘Are you working with the Daughters?’ I asked the walking handbag point blank. ‘You were writing a song about them.’

‘No,’ Taros shook vaer head. ‘Mom briefed me on the matter when she asked me to link up with Dee.’

‘Why be positive about them then?’ Deirdee raised a good point.

‘Remember - I knew more about the Great Game than you back then. Forces fighting against dickbags like the Blood or the Light couldn't have been all that bad, right? And it made for a better story.’

‘Fair point has been made,’ Deirdee faintly smiled.

‘So you really aren’t working with them?’ I asked again to be sure.

‘No,’ Taros shook vaer head. ‘That would involve me going against you Ren, Dee and the rest of you. And my mom, given, you know, her being both one of the gods and Aki’s patron. Needless to say, it is something I don't want to do. Both because Dee is… was my friend, and well… After seeing what your group is capable of, being on the opposing side would be flat-out not survivable.’

I looked at the others. In lieu of responding, Deirdee gave the lizard her ultimate sign of forgiveness by approaching Taros and hugging vaem.

‘I missed you, you scaly goober. Try anything, though, and I will turn you into a pair of boots.’

Taros gulped and hugged her back.

‘I’ll keep that in mind.’

Eh. Personally, I am more partial to Lilyth's idea of turning the pesky demigod into a line of handbags.

That handled, I activated the ability I called [Leysight]. It wasn’t connected to leylines per se, but it did allow me to see patterns of magic around me, so it was as good a name as any. As for what it did, it was a refinement of the ability that let me see lines of magic back in the Murdergrove. And by “refinement” I mean: “Making it actually useful.”

My vision immediately filled with various coloured lights that indicated different types of mana surrounding me. I couldn’t look at them for too long without getting a headache no amount of [Soothe Pain] could kill.

Ere, who helped me develop that Ability to begin with, told me it was likely because I was looking at things not meant for mortal eyes and it would be years, if not decades, before my brain fully adjusted to that.

She also said I was lucky, as some people were born with [Leysight] and the Ability invariably either drove them mad or straight-up just killed them. In fact, none of its users lived past twenty-five.

I asked her then what had happened to people who used Ascension Thrones to become Gods, since I had time to grow into my powers while they didn't, but she simply said that those worked differently, which was her way of saying I would have to discover that for myself.

I didn't mind. Ere was of great help to me during our break from adventuring, at least before Lilyth knocked her up. I was initially disappointed when she told me that Nyx would have to take over for a while, but my airhead patron was almost as good as a teacher as the goddess of Death was.

Anyway, the first thing I looked at was my friends. It was always fascinating for me to see their magical fingerprints. For example, Anika’s aura was mostly that of a normal human, but… duller and with thin lines of corruption running through it. It was also… leaking a bit, which was tied to her needing to absorb mana from raw flesh.

While I didn't have enough, or any other really, points of reference for Ghûls, it seemed to me that the dullness was tied to Anika eating only enough to survive, rather than thrive.

Taros exuded pure Water magic. No anomalies there, which gave some credence to vaer words, but I couldn't be sure as the only other Daughter-related people I have met were actually related to the Daughters.

Deirdee, now, her aura was one of those fuckier one. It’s base level was thick and pure blood, purer than Caei’s even. The next layer was what Persephone did to her, that being a clean coating that was made out of Death, Earth and Fire. Previously, there was also a ring of pink Death circling around the former assassin, likely the timer curse as ‘Phone had the same one around her, but it was now gone.

Did Ere free her from the obligation? But why? Were the events at RMAI that significant? Or is it because of Kart? A soul for a soul kind of a deal?

No matter, Deirdee and, hopefully, Persephone no longer living on borrowed time would give us some breathing room to deal with the Red Masks, as our trip to Mavigan would no longer be an all-or-nothing thing.

The biggest surprise, however, was Savri. While her magical was always a fucking mess, even moreso than Lilyth's if you can believe it, it has changed since the last time I saw it.

You see, most the magic energy most mortals have is “neutral” with some colouration based on the types of Arcana they specialise in, while Fae invariably emit their parent element. As I have recently learned, Demons were “natural” beings so they should have the neutral energy type. Except, they, or at least Savri, didn't. It had all the characteristics of neutral mana, but instead of being its usual brightish white its colours were constantly shifting and despite Sav being one of the best Life mages, there was just no trace of the corresponding type of magic energy, making me wonder if her power wasn't somehow stunted due to this.

What was even stranger was that there was no trace of that weird colouration in Aki’s aura. She, as expected, had neutral mana with detectable Hellfire, something once again absent from Sav, and Water.

The only “normal” part about our medic’s mana was the slight “aftertaste” of Air present, thanks to the elemental essence Savri took months before. And now that aftertaste has become dominant, kinda like it was in the case of our furball.

Did Nyxie give Sav some divine essence?

It took me a moment to realise that the Air energy didn't seem to originate from Sav, but rather one of the pockets of her jacket.

Still on the fence then. I would be too in her shoes.

Having identified the auras of my friends, I filtered them out from my [Leysight] with a few blinks that caused me small pangs of pain between my eyes.

Stupid… mortal… brain…

It was worth it though, as without the intense “light” pollution I was able to see myriads upon myriads of green pinpricks of magical energy in the air.

Spores, I confirmed my initial suspicions.

We were all breathing them, but, while it was hard to tell for certain, we exhaled about as much of them as we inhaled, so that couldn't have been the primary method of people becoming infested with them.

I poured more mana into my ability in order to be able to see inside people's bodies, which revealed that, with the exception of Anika, we all had massive spore build-ups within ourselves, far worse than any of the actual victims. Taros had an especially bad case.

‘How long have you been in Serrezht?’ I asked the handbag.

‘Three weeks give or take?’ vae said, unsure about the exact number of days.

Interesting.

‘Wandered around any weird places?’

‘Just from settlement to settlement. I like to experience everything the area has to offer. Food, drink, women…’

Food.

I pulled out one of the rations we bought at one of the villages and while the vegetables had some spores on them, the hard tack…’

‘Is there a bakery nearby?’ I was scared to follow that line of inquiry, but I had to.

‘The grain…’ Sav hissed, likely realising I was getting at.

‘Yes,’ Taros nodded and showed us the way.

Predictably, the baker and all of his staff were dead, but their wares proved to be the ultimate confirmation of my theory. Almost every single loaf or roll of bread on display glowed green from the amount of spores inside of them.

‘Let’s check the flour,’ I sighed and went past the counter and into the back.

‘Isn’t this breaking and entering?’ Taros asked.

‘Can we check what's out back?’ I turned to the corpse of the baker.

It actually twitched and let out a groan then.

Is he still alive? No. He can't be. Just air escaping his body.

‘I’ll take that as a yes,’ I shrugged, doing my best to keep a calm face.

Sav wasn't quite as certain, as she approached the “corpse” and cas [Scan Body] on it. She paled, drew her gun, pressed it against the “corpse’s” temple and pulled the trigger.

How?

Savri then went from body to body and checked if there were still any survivors, but it would appear that the baker was the only one.

‘I… I… don't understand,’ I stammered out.

‘Me neither,’ the medic shook her head. ‘By all accounts, that man should have been dead. The vines were eating him from the inside, and yet he still persisted.’

‘Is there really nothing that can be done for them?’ Deirdee asked.

‘No. At least there is nothing I can do. Saving those poor souls would require highly invasive surgery, as you would need to remove vines spreading through their entire GI tract… so intestines, esophagus and whatnot. Hell… the surgery prep would take longer than the victim has to live once the symptoms start.’

‘I imagine we will have to burn the bodies?’ Taros asked.

‘Yep.’

‘And there is a chance some of the people will still be alive then?’

‘Yep,’ Sav repeated, her phase turning a sick shade of green.

I was feeling queasy myself.

‘C-can’t we first… I guess… triage them?’ I inquired.

‘If you are willing to check hundreds of bodies for signs of life, be my guest. I can even teach you the spell, because I sure as shit am not doing that.’

The worst part was that I knew it was just talk on her end. When it came to it, Sav would do it. It would cost her a piece of her soul, but Master Sergeant Savri Adzenhair would do what had to be done.

I will stand by her and help when it comes to it, I decided.

I wasn't sure what kind of deity I would be, or if I even wanted to be one, but I definitely wouldn't be one who abandons her friends.

We found more bodies in the baking area. Luckily, they were actually dead.

‘What the fuck did Lilyth unleash?’ Deirdee cried out after we finished checking.

‘Something evil,’ Sav replied, sounding at the verge of tears. ‘It is not her fault though. Never think that.’

‘Yeah,’ I agreed. ‘I doubt that thing would be any kinder on the locals if let be. If anything, it would have caused more damage.’

‘Small comfort that,’ Deirdee shook her head. ‘But… you are right. If that was indeed a Harvester plant as you theorise Rennie, then the thing was probably seeking to consume the entire region in one fell swoop.’

‘And it is using food to do it too,’ I said pointing at the bags of flour I could see through the open door leading to a storage area.

There were maybe ten of them, eight contaminated to a various degree.