novel bin Chapter 1705 Rollin’ Up
Chapter 1705 Rollin’ Up
--- Lily --- (A short time after leaving the group)
A bit over halfway between the manor and the Trvis outbreak Lily was hit with a sickening feeling. Her claws retracted and she tumbled from Meg’s shoulder, unable to do anything. Even before she hit the ground Lily was already retching and things did not get better on impact. Lily couldn’t help but throw up a mix of bile and food from earlier in the day as her head swam and pounded.
She could faintly hear, and barely register, Meg’s foot slamming into the ground a short distance away as the greed demon stopped in place and jogged back over to Lily. Lily continued to lose sustenance for a few moments even as Meg said something Lily failed to hear.
Eventually, Lily had enough coherent thoughts to realise she needed to explain or at least vocalise some groans to explain what was happening. Rolling away a bit so she didn’t transform into vomit Lily immediately sighed in relief as her senses were neutered by her human form. It was enough that she was outside of the invisible line of hell. "Oh thank god," exhaled Lily.
"What was that?" asked Meg. "You get hit by a spell or something? I’d joke about you being motion sick but you took quite the tumble," Meg pointed to the several small craters that had been gauged in the road by Lily’s passing. Glancing over at them Lily was genuinely surprised. She hadn’t realised her body had strengthened enough to DO that. Sure she was sore but there were no cuts or anything and clearly the road had come out as the loser in their short battle.
Lily shook her head to try and clear it as she gave a pained laugh. It was no longer debilitating but her head was still a mess from it. Still, Lily had to explain. "The... the manor it’s... it’s beyond fucked. The space there it’s... it’s so unbelievably WRONG. I don’t have the words to describe it. The closest thing I can give as a comparison would be sitting down for dinner and being served a rotting carcass, half decomposed and full of maggots. It... it feels just so..." Lily trailed off with a shake of her head, unable to properly express just how off she felt.
"Hmm..." Meg remained silent other than that slight noise of acknowledgement. She had a few competing thoughts. Lily was an important part of her plans to catch up to Hunter. Even if Meg herself could detect some weaknesses in space, without a proper sense of things it would be a risk. Yet at the same time... if Lily couldn’t even function? Then she’d just be a liability. Well, that and Kat might have some WORDS with her. Meg would count herself lucky if Kat didn’t complain at all.
Of course, Meg was unaware that Lily had managed to instinctively shut off the link between her and Kat once the sensation of the corrupted space hit her mind. Not wanting to transmit the awful sensation to her girlfriend as well. With Kat too busy with Kamiko she didn’t notice the cut-off. Perhaps if she was more actively looking things would be different, but for now Meg was off the hook.
"Can you continue?" asked Meg.
Meg frowned at the mention of Pebbles and glanced around. Looking for the man in question but no obvious sign of him could be seen. Stretching out her own senses, Meg eventually managed to detect movement under the ground a few metres away. Walking until she stood directly above the noise, Meg slammed her fist through the stonework and after a bit more destruction pulled out an injured looking Pebbles.
"Didn’t take into account what the bomb might’ve done to the ground here?" asked Meg smugly. Not feeling the slightest bit of shame from the fact she didn’t think about it either.
Pebbles spat, away from Meg, and a large amount of blood and... was a tooth? Lily wasn’t sure and the fact Pebbles then continued to spit out chunks of rock afterwards alongside the blood didn’t help decide matters one way or the other. Once his airways were clear of obstruction Pebbles took in a shuddering breath and said, "Nope. Apparently not. Spell clearly needs more testing,"
Then, to Lily’s amazement he slapped himself in the face twice, pulled away from Meg... and HEALED HIMSELF. The spell was only visible for a few moments but it quickly restored Pebbles to full health, or what seemed like it. He at least had the decency to look winded afterwards but Lily was shocked. "HOW!"
Meg glanced at Lily, then at Pebbles then back at Lily. "Hmm... I do know the little secret to that spell... should I keep it to myself or...?"
"A lifelike statue of myself," cut in Pebbles.
"What?" intoned a confused Lily.
"The secret Meg was dodging around is that I created a healing spell that only works because I took the time to sculpt a perfectly anatomically correct copy of myself including the veins and arteries, bones and even individual muscles. It required having a healer cut me open in multiple places to ensure that it was completely accurate to the best of my abilities," explained Pebbles.
"That’s... THAT’S INSANE!" hissed Lily.
Meg giggled, "Yeah and the extra bit he likely wants to really keep secret? If you mess with that statue? He’ll heal wrong forever. If you’re subtle enough he might never know just how damaging what you’ve done is. Just a minor imperfection and then..." Meg snapped her fingers closed. "He’s done."