97 The Necromancer and the Priestess 29 (1/2)
”How is research going?” El asked from his seat in the room that the dragons lent them. He was reading a book, his mask set aside and wearing his glasses.
On the other hand, Yin Mei was on the bed, also reading, her book raised high above her head. Her face was scrunched up as she focused, seeming to be thinking hard. She finally groaned and placed her arms down, book on her chest. ”Terrible. Very terrible.” She flung the book, and El caught it perfectly.
She then proceeded to roll around the bed multiple times. ”What do I dooooooo~” She said, before stopping, her hair now a mess.
El set the book down on the table in front of him. ”It's already been a month since we've been here. How about we-”
”No.” Yin Mei rejected, already knowing what he was going to say.
El had on a wry smile, knowing she was already going to say that.
She was so close, she knew it. The solution was certainly in her hands already, she just wasn't quite able to grasp it.
”General,” A voice said, and the black haired advisor poked his head into their room, obviously having something to report.
El didn't want to disturb Yin Mei, who had fallen back into her thoughts, and so stood up, switching his glasses out with his mask before following the demon out.
The walked from the cave outside, to a distance away, before stopping. ”What is it?” El asked coolly.
”I've already contacted our secret troops. General, are you sure...?” The advisor trailed off, his face showing slight unease.
”Sure about what, Kiel? That senile old man isn't worth the effort.” El said coldly, waving his hand. ”Unless you're having doubts?”
”N-no,” The demon shook his head.
”Maybe it's because you used to be human that you're so soft. I thought that Celes would be happy, so I brought you back to life, but... after all, you're a failure.” El said. Perhaps because of the illness he had been infected with, or some other outside reason, but this person here was no longer human after El had raised him up from the dead. He was not quite a real demon either. In other words, he was a failure. His appearance had changed to the point that Celestina couldn't even recognize him, while he also wasn't able to use magic at all, and his physical strength was the same as a human's. But, El still kept him as an advisor, perhaps partly due to sentiment.
Kiel lowered his head, a slightly bitter expression on his face, but it quickly disappeared.
”Anyways, it's good for you to just do as I say. The current demon king was never worth serving in the first place. Weak and pathetic.” El said.
Kiel nodded, but he was curious. El had never had the interest in a coup d'etat before, so why now? What had happened to cause the sudden change?
The two continued talking for a while more, meanwhile, Yin Mei back in the room had changed locations to the seat that El had been sitting in. ”That guy actually went and left while I was thinking. Such a terrible person!” Yin Mei grumbled.
She stuck her hand in her pocket, to pull out a candy, but she felt a smooth round surface of something else. She paused before pulling it out. It was that marble that Kai and Rosella had brought back from their treasure hunt. She had just stuck it in the pocket of her robe and forgot about it.
She had also forgot to ask the two where they had found it.
She set it on the table, rolling it back and forth with her finger.
Hmm. It was really pretty. Actually, looking at it like this, it kinda looked like a hard candy. Though it certainly didn't feel sticky like one. Man she was hungry.
She lay her head down, staring at the item.
Staring, staring, staring some more.
She really wanted to eat it...
So she did. She popped it in her mouth, bit down, chewed a few times, and swallowed.
And it tasted really good.
Like a burst of some sweet, fruity syrup like flavor of some kind - it was a taste that she liked the most in the world. How peculiar. She wasn't expecting that.
Or rather, why in the world had she eaten it in the first place?
Then, there was a sharp pain coming from her stomach, and with a cough, blood began seeping out of her mouth. She felt her stomach getting weirdly... cold? What the hell? She pulled up her clothes, and her stomach was turning into stone.
Firstly, how did that get digested so quickly. Secondly, this was spreading way too fast. And thirdly, although she was glad that she had finally found the cause of the dragon's illness, wasn't this kinda bad??
Or rather, it was spreading way to fast for comfort! She wasn't like dragons that could survive with her heart turned to stone! She quickly put her hand over her stomach, and closed her eyes, seeing her body like through an X-ray.
She wiggled her fingers, and strands of light appeared, drawing out pieces of that strange marble, turning it whole again in midair. It bounced onto the ground and she disregarded it, instead focusing on returning her body back to flesh. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead, her brows furrowed in pain.
The blood that seeped from her mouth dripped down onto the ground.
Only after a long while, who knows how long, did she finally fall to the ground, exhausted, but healed.
That marble was too strange. It had some sort of weird magic about it that almost made it impossible to catch with her magic vision. Only when she had adjusted it slightly, and because she had known what she was looking for, did she manage to extract it from her body.
In addition, why had she eaten it in the first place? There definitely had to be some sort of mind manipulation magic at work there.
And how did this little marble turn her body to stone anyways?
There were many unanswered questions, but the good thing was that she wasn't dead, and she had discovered the cause of the mysterious stone illness.
Though... Yin Mei leaned up against the bed, wiping the blood away from her mouth. Shit... this may be hard to fully recover from...
Her mana felt sluggish. She could practically feel it leaking out from her. She had definitely injured her magic source. With her magic source damaged, there was no way that Yin Mei herself would be able to heal it...