Book 16 Chapter 31
Chapter 90
“Pipi, Lista is a baby! Protect Lista!”
Fride shouted.
Then Pipi began to make a nest on Lista's head.
“Pipi, don’t. You’ll make her angry.”
“Ah, Hze Mllrg~.”
“Hze M, Hze M, Hze Mllrg~.”
What a crazy provocation!
At that time, Lista’s infantilization (幼兒化) truly provided us with great laughter.
It was a little later that we became aware of the seriousness of the situation.
“Lately, you’ve been too playful. Doesn’t it mean you should humbly start over from zero? Getting younger is good. There are countless crazy women who devote themselves to the abyss just to get a little younger.”
“Ugh.”
Fride poked Lista’s forehead with her index finger and said.
“Lista has become like Riki.”
I also participated in that comedy.
Winterwind Riki was exactly this height.
It was the perfect height for resting an elbow on, like an armrest.
“There was no one as useful as Riki when reading a book, but now Lista will take her place.”
Lista swung her small fist, but her reach had shrunk by nearly three times, so avoiding it was no trouble for either Fride or me.
When her fist failed to reach its target, Lista’s body spun around in place due to inertia.
Then she plopped down into the swamp… My and Fride’s expressions seemed to freeze simultaneously. It was more bizarre than funny.
“Hey, stop messing around.”
“The Strongest wouldn’t possibly miss her footing.”
“That’s what I’m saying. You’re planning to make us come closer and then beat us up, right? Do you think we’d fall for such a petty trick?”
Does it make sense for Lista, who had demonstrated abnormal posture control abilities countless times, to look like that?
“Oh?”
Lista herself seemed to sense that something was wrong.
“My body… has no strength…”
Carefully on guard, hesitating as if playing a trick, Fride approached Lista and gently touched her forehead, and the playfulness vanished from her face.
“What? Her body is like a fireball. Not figuratively, but literally a fireball.”
“Really…?”
“Her breathing has also started to become ragged. Lin! Bring Lista’s belt that fell over there! There’s Dragonblood Serum in it!”
Faequoriers could embody the limited power of immortality, ‘ultra-fast regeneration,’ through Dragonblood Serum.
That’s why they always had to carry syringes containing the serum, and Lista also carried five of them on her belt.
Although Lista’s body had shrunk, her clothes remained the same, so her belt had fallen into the swamp. That was the problem.
“Wait, we can’t use this. The Dragonblood Serum has been corrupted by the abyss.”
Dragonblood naturally emits light, but submerged in the abyssal swamp, it had been stained pitch black. Using this would lead to big trouble.
Meanwhile, Kyos embraced Lista with both hands and ran to a safe zone free from the abyss’s influence.
Fride’s complexion, as she chanted various healing spells, turned even paler.
“Damn it, healing spells don’t work… It seems this isn’t a situation where healing would even apply.”
“What… what does that mean…?”
Lista’s voice was no longer just low and sunken, but had turned into wheezing.
“Her infant body can’t contain the dragon spirit within a Faequorier. Developing their bodies through physical modification is meant to allow them to handle a dragon’s power, isn’t it?”
That situation left a tremendous shock on me, who had thought Lista, as the invincible Strongest, would face no crisis.
Is the Strongest not invincible?
This also marked the point from which research into Juyeosogye Dae-ban, which had a relatively lower research priority compared to things like brain-fluid drainage, was accelerated.
“There’s… no way?”
I watched Fride unroll a scroll of psalms and asked blankly.
“Because it’s not corrupted by the abyss. There’s little I can do with my power. Still, there is one method, though even I can’t guarantee its success.”
“What is it?”
“Kyos, stop just watching and come down! You two are to precisely destroy everything but Lista’s heart. I will try to purify that Dragonblood Serum somehow. Then, when Lista’s body regenerates, it might regenerate into her original body, her adult body.”
I exchanged glances with Kyos and then looked back at Fride.
Is she serious?
It means Lista’s situation is so severe that we have to resort to such an absurd gamble.
“Sbal, where are you? Come out! Hey! This useless guy, he’s only absent when he’s needed like this.”
At that moment, Lista painfully vomited blood. Fride said, suppressing the congestion.
“Her organs can’t withstand the internal pressure. At this rate, her internal organs will all be crushed by her own inherent power, and she’ll die…!”
“Ah, I… This is strange… Why does it hurt so much…”
“Lin, quickly bring that serum to me! Kyos, nock an arrow! You’re destroying everything but the heart! You also think of some magic. Like putting up a barrier around the heart or something.”
Even as I placed the Dragonblood Serum in front of Fride, I felt the chill of cold sweat running down my temples.
Was sweat always this cold?
Kyos seemed to be no different; the wavelength of mana nocked on his bow was not stable and repeatedly changed its form.
“No, shouldn’t we leave the brain too? Do Faequoriers regenerate even if their brains are destroyed?”
“Ah, that’s right… Then, aim to preserve both the brain and the heart.”
“Then we’d also have to maintain the neural circuits running up the heart and spine, which would require an absurd amount of precise calculation.”
Doesn’t that mean even a slight miscalculation in power control would lead to disaster? And what if she can’t regenerate at all? Would I be killing Lista with my own hands?
“You’ll have to figure that out yourselves! I’m busy. This serum, the corruption has progressed impossibly far. What on earth is it? It’s not just consumed by the abyss; it’s like…”
It was at that very moment.
Suddenly, Kyos brilliantly completed the arrow that had been weakly flickering on the bowstring of Baekchang-gung Serwebon, and shot it towards the other side.
The cyan arrow, flying while burning the abyss, scattered into countless light particles (光粒子) with a fierce metallic clang the next moment.
“Oh, how barbaric these humans are, shooting their bows without even attempting to talk.”
Ain…!
Fride, who had been detoxifying the serum, rose, Pipi soared with wings of flame, and Kyos nocked a second arrow onto his bow.
What blocked everyone’s urgent fighting spirit (戰意) was… me.
“Wait!”
“Move, Lin! It’s urgent! We have to deal with them quickly!”
“No, they’re not enemies!”
It might be wishful thinking, but somehow I was certain that it was true. And rightly so.
“Link, Link, Link!”
Because I had never forgotten that enormous giant, beating his chest with his fists. Hadn’t we together subjugated Balag, the [Strongest]?
“Wait, Lin? Is that you, Lin?”
The dwarf, Nils, who had been sitting in his special seat installed on Link’s shoulder, unfastened his seatbelt, stood up, and shouted.
“Haha, I see why Link is so excited! What are you doing here?”
“Nils?”
“I was tailing Verater’s Keltoros when I saw the explosion of the Deep Burst (深爆) and rushed over. Ah, your presence means that’s the hero party that’s been making a stir on the continent lately.”
Even as Nils chattered, Link, with his massive body, crossed the swamp in a single bound and came to our side. Kyos was still on guard.
Because he was an old mercenary, he knew.
The fact that Nils was once a member of Verater! Not just a member, but the chief researcher among the Eight Verater!
“If you want to fight, we’ll leave as we are. If you intend to let that hero die, then aim that bow at us for just three more seconds.”
Kyos looked at me for a moment. I said.
“It’s fine. They were comrades from the old Balag subjugation party. They’re not bad guys. At least.”
Kyos and Fride exchanged glances, then nodded at each other and lowered their bows. The arrow disintegrated into particles of magic. Fride said.
“You… you know a way to save Lista?”
Nils, who had jumped off Link’s shoulder and was examining Lista’s condition, gave a bitter smile.
“There are exactly two madmen in this world who know how to solve this situation, and I am one of them. Ashamedly, I must say.”
“Why is that shameful?”
“It’s a long story. But there’s no time to explain. Her condition is truly serious. Hey, archer. Instead of glaring at us, carry this hero on your back and follow me. We need to go to the hideout.”