In a quick overview, Vivi detailed the Codex's capabilities and how it might allow Hollis to heal the remaining infected. She also presented a [Phoenix Blood Elixir] and told them it would make a safe, if expensive, alternative.
"Either will work," Vivi summed up. "And we have fallbacks. I know how painful casting with manaburn is, and there's no need to test the Codex right away. I just thought I'd offer since it makes sense. And I do have marginally more trust in a proper healing spell."
Alchemical solutions weren't unreliable, especially such high-tier ones, but the gold standard for healing was undeniably magic infused with divine energy. Nothing could truly compete with a [Priestess]'s spells or similar.
"As do I, Lady Vivisari. And more than marginal, no matter what potion it might be." Hollis considered quietly for a moment. "I'm far from one to shy from pain, especially when lives are at stake. Let's not take any risks, however small. If you see this as the best path forward, let us proceed."
She had expected the answer. A part of her was torn for having made the offer in the first place, but she had lied about nothing, and moreover, she suspected Hollis wanted to help regardless of personal cost. That would have been the case if she were in his shoes. He'd been through significantly more pain just reaching this chamber to begin with.
"Very well." She held the book out. Thoughts flashing back to when she'd done the same for Saffra, she reflexively said, "It's heavy."
But Hollis accepted the tome with little problem. His levels had strengthened him despite his magic-type class, like Vivi herself. He studied the book with a curious gaze, scanning the design on the cover and, after flipping to the first page, the magical rune inlaid into the thick paper.
"I'll need to remove the infection first," Vivi reiterated so there were no misunderstandings. "We'll start with one person to ensure it works like we hope. Once the infection is gone, use your strongest healing spell. There are no disease or poison aspects, so basic healing will suffice. Overcharge it with as much mana as you need—don't ration it, there's plenty. If that works, we can do the next eight all at once with an area-of-effect spell. Assuming you have one." She received a nod in confirmation, though she could read a question of his own in the way his brow pulled down. She answered, "The Codex should more than make up for how area-of-effect spells tend to be weaker. I don't want you casting any more than you have to."
His lips turned up in amusement. "Nor do I," he admitted.
"Are you ready, then? I can start whenever."
He traced the rune Galdrust—reservoir—with a finger. "Anything I should know before you begin?"
"It's intuitive, according to my apprentice." She paused. "Though… overwhelming?"
Saffra squirmed in place. "Maybe not overwhelming. It just caught me by surprise," she said with a hint of defensiveness. "Be ready for a lot of mana. More than you're thinking. Then double that like five times."
For some reason, Vivi felt suddenly self-conscious as Hollis and Eshara turned appraising, bordering-on-cautious looks at her. "There's a substantial amount of mana in each page," she agreed, "but you don't need to claim it all, and it's docile, for lack of a better term."
"I'll brace myself," Hollis replied. "It does go without saying that the personal reservoir of the Sorceress will be something to behold."
"You can know that in your head, but it's different seeing it in person," Saffra said dubiously.
"I'll keep that in mind." Hollis sounded amused rather than intimidated.
"You can link to the book first in preparation," Vivi told him. "You don't have to cast when you do. You probably should, actually." She'd been ready to proceed, but familiarization would only take a moment.
"Very well." The cleric looked down at the book and focused, serious but clearly unconcerned. "Here I go."
Vivi felt the book open up—and Hollis's face went ashen. His eyes unfocused, widening to the size of dinner plates. Though he didn't cry out, every muscle went rigid in pure, unbridled shock, as if an electric current had seized him.
"This is safe?" Eshara asked in sudden alarm.
"It is, yes," Vivi said, her vague embarrassment with the situation growing.
Hollis stayed frozen that way for several seconds. Eventually, he swallowed thickly and regained control of himself. Vivi felt the vault door holding back the depths of the Codex thunk closed. She also swore she sensed… disappointment?… from the book. It hadn't liked being linked to without being used.
The man took a second to find his words. "My." There was a nervous tinge to his tone. "I should have weighed your advice a little more heavily, dear," he said to Saffra. "You'd think I'd have learned by now to shed the arrogance."
"It's a lot of mana," Saffra said, sympathetic.
"It was as you said it would be," Hollis told Vivi next. "Remarkably intuitive. There won't be any issue siphoning mana, I'm certain of it. Imbuing it… we'll have to see. Keep the potion ready. I would test first, but as we've said, I would rather limit how many spells I cast."
"I agree. If there's no objections, I'll begin now."
"No point in dallying." Hollis straightened his robes out with his free hand. He didn't sound shaken, exactly, but Vivi could tell the Codex had left an impression on him. He had plastered on too cheerful a tone.
Vivi put that out of her mind and focused on the task at hand. Floating over one of the mutated, humanoid beasts, she began drawing the spell she had passingly named [Unbind Scourge], a customized design that used the dispel-type [Annul] as its base. She wasn't healing anything here, merely unhooking many magical barbs that embedded the complex working of biomancy into the victim. Though she supposed the distinction was academic.
As she worked, Hollis linked to the Codex. Once [Unbind Scourge] was ready, she activated the spell and mentally dove into the victim to start peeling away the offending magic. Hollis's own spell circle grew as he poured oceans of mana into it. He didn't bother masking the spell's power, so it glowed to even her senses. His work wouldn't be one of subtlety, but of flooding his target's body with immense restorative energy.
She also felt that strange, foreign energy she herself had no access to flowing out of the cleric and intermingling with the mana—tinting it white, as her sixth sense interpreted the phenomenon. Power lent from the heavens, morphing the fundamental nature of the energy. For all that clerics, priests, and other similar classes were mages in some sense, much of how their spells worked was foreign to her. There was a reason that they didn't train at the Thaumaturgical Institute.
Vivi finished dismantling the Seed of Genesis's biomancy on the first victim and lowered her staff to make it clear she was done. "You can heal him now."
Or her, for all I know, she thought. The mutations were that advanced.
Hollis wasted no time responding. He incanted his own spell.
"[Benediction of Light]."
The words came out strained, and sweat had covered his forehead as he formed the spell, but the mana and circle itself were stable. Vivi hadn't doubted Hollis—she knew Titled didn't reach the heights he had without an ability to appraise their condition objectively, to decide whether they were capable of a given feat. Still, she'd been ready to dispel or recover whatever she might need to, and to use the potion as a backup.
The chamber glowed radiant with the holy purification of Hollis's presumably strongest healing spell, multiplied many thousands of times over. Even to her senses, she felt an urge to squint as the monster in front of her lit up like a sun. Lower-tier mages would have gone temporarily blind stealing so much as a glance at the pyre. Even Eshara turned her head away by instinct, though she kept her eyes locked on the creature's form.
Vivi shielded their party of four from the worst of the glare, particularly Saffra. The girl wouldn't understand much of what she was seeing, but glimpses into powerful magic could help her contextualize concepts further down the road. Not the most functional training, but still valuable.
In front of them, the mutated creature began changing shape. Even mundane healing could be disturbing to watch; it was human nature to dislike seeing people's limbs bend the wrong way, much less this: warping, twisting, shifting color, deflating.
But Vivi forced herself to not turn away, no matter how upsetting the sight. She might not be the real Sorceress, but she was determined to wear Vivisari's robes as best she could. Squeamishness had no place in an adventurer. She would see worse in the years to come.
Second by second, a human body emerged from the bloated, unnatural shapes that had once consumed its form. Broad shoulders, shorter than average, tanned skin and brown hair. A seemingly healthy middle-aged man.
A nude one, as became apparent rather quickly. Vivi wrapped an illusion of a cloth around his waist.
"I'm not ten," Saffra mumbled in embarrassed protest at Vivi's side.
"It's for everyone's benefit. Including his own."
That mollified the girl, though truth be told, Vivi's thoughts had jumped to Saffra first.
In ten seconds or so, [Benediction of Light]'s radiance faded away, having run its course. Vivi's mental attention dove into the man, seeking instabilities either magical or mundane. But he was breathing regularly, his heart was beating, and in general, she sensed nothing wrong with him.
He was asleep—and that might remain the case for a while. She wouldn't forcefully wake him. Natural recovery sometimes helped more than even magical healing. Reassuring as it would be to rouse the man and confirm his well-being, it would be best to let him stir to consciousness naturally.
She'd been confident the combination of spells would work, but she still almost sighed in relief.
She was so focused on studying the man for lingering injuries that she only became aware of Hollis collapsing to her side when his staff bounced across the stone ground. Her gaze jerked his way, and panic flooded her. Eshara had already rushed over.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Hollis said, waving the knight away. Rather than looking exhausted or stunned, as Vivi had expected from the abrupt collapse, he wore a different expression—one that took Vivi aback. Unbridled awe. "I've just… never channeled that much at once. Never been so…" He struggled for a moment to find the right word, then shut his eyes. "Close," he breathed. Hushed and reverential. "The heavens provide. Truly."
Eshara wasn't impressed. "You scared me," she scolded. "Don't do that." Lending an arm to him, she helped her teammate up. Vivi floated his staff over, which he took.
She agreed with Eshara—her heart had immediately started slamming. Instead of being hurt, though, Hollis had just been overwhelmed. Except not in the way Saffra had been.
All of that energy did come from him, not the Codex, Vivi thought, remembering the shining white mana. For a moment, Hollis had acted as a gushing conduit for the heavens. It must have been an experience.
She wasn't sure how to feel about the lingering awe in the cleric's eyes, though.
She refocused when Hollis limped over to the man to check on him. "Is he all right?"
"So far as I can tell."
The cleric went through his own inspection and, since he didn't do more than circle around the man with his brow furrowed, presumably activated several skills. Soon enough, he let out an audible sigh of relief.
"Excellent."
Hollis seemed like he might expand on the thought, say more, but then he released an even bigger sigh. Something sagged out of him, leaving the man looking twice as exhausted yet, contradictorily, many times rejuvenated by the fact.
She could imagine how mentally and emotionally taxing the expedition had been on him. He had possibly thought he was dooming these men and women when Eshara killed the Seed. Vivi didn't know if the two had deduced that consequence, and didn't intend to bring it up. By his reaction, she had a strong suspicion.
"Excellent," Hollis repeated, quieter. "Let us do the rest."
They did so. Vivi arranged the remaining townsfolk and adventurers—with Corvan at the front and center—and ripped the offending magic from them all at the same time. When Vivi gave the signal, Hollis cast his Codex-empowered healing spell. A different one, this time. Area of effect.
"[Divine Absolution]."
A soft, glowing yellow circle surrounded the group, and each victim shone with holy restorative energy. Vivi's eyes couldn't help but fall on Corvan first and foremost. His condition had been most advanced, and his high level meant he would need stronger magic to affect his resilient—or perhaps absorbent was the better word—body. He was the person most likely to have complications.
But Hollis had, as Vivi had instructed him to, not held back. It was Vivi's own oceans of mana he was wielding, mixed with the unparalleled healing power of the divine. The beastkin's body warped back into shape, having no more issue than any of the others, and a thorough inspection afterward from both Vivi and Hollis confirmed that nobody had suffered ill effects. Not even the Titled beastkin.
"You're… certain?" Eshara asked, and there was a stiffness to her voice that even Vivi instantly picked up on. The first hint that the composure Eshara had cobbled together was indeed cobbled together. Her eyes bore into Corvan's peaceful, floating form with a raw intensity that had Vivi suddenly worried for the woman.
"We're certain," Hollis said gently, resting a hand on her shoulder.
Eshara's jaw clenched and unclenched. She nodded, and, abruptly, slammed her helmet on and faced away from them.
The three of them politely pretended not to notice.
"I'll be taking everyone back to town now," Vivi told Hollis. "And then come back and ensure I didn't miss anything, either in the caves or the surrounding forest. I'll kill the Seed after that, and scrub everything clean for a quarter mile or so."
Nobody needed clarification on what 'scrubbing everything clean' meant. Judicious usage of high-tier elemental magic: fire, and lots of it. Her specialty, in a sense.
"It's probably unnecessary," Vivi said, "but I won't leave anything to chance when it's the Flesh-Weaver's creations we're dealing with."
Eshara had turned back by then; she had only needed a moment. She hadn't removed her helmet again though.
"Is there anything you need from us?" the woman asked.
"Just inform the bailiff. Take care of everyone, or… whatever else needs doing. It might take me some time to deal with it all." She gestured at the Seed, and their surroundings more generally.
"It will be done, my lady."
Vivi looked around. "Is everyone ready?" When she received a collection of nods, she wrapped their group in magic—the sleeping cured villagers and adventurers included—and began casting [Greater Warp].
The great, interminable abyss of space hurled Saffra out into the open air, and she recovered her footing with only a slight teetering back and forth.
Still not a fan of that, she thought, making a face.
But she was getting used to it. It was incredible what a person could adapt to given enough time and repetition, and Lady Vivi had dragged her through so many spatial warps that the unpleasant sensations that came afterward now passed in less than a second. The first time, she'd felt a background queasiness for minutes afterward.
Eyes shooting around to orient herself, Saffra saw that she had arrived in front of Crestwood's old, once-abandoned town hall. Lady Vivi, Eshara, Hollis, and the nine cured humans had also materialized around her.
"Nobody needs anything?" Lady Vivi asked. "I'll be leaving if not."
Both Eshara and Hollis returned negatives. Neither of the Titled seemed affected by the spatial travel, which Saffra eyed them enviously for. It had taken her dozens of trips to start brushing the experience off.
But then again, they're probably not new to it at all.
She reminded herself—as was a recurring source of disorientation—that Eshara and Hollis were Titled. They weren't normal people, however much they seemed like it. While Hollis probably didn't have access to spatial warping abilities, another mage in his team likely did. The Roving Justicar's band of heroes wasn't only three strong, after all; Hollis and Corvan were just who Eshara had brought along on this quest.
The rest of the woman's party was somewhere else—Saffra didn't know the details. She assumed that Eshara had reasonably underestimated the danger involved with the sickness and missing persons reports and not mustered up the largest response she could have. After all, even Crestwood itself had only been hoping for an orichalcum as its savior. As it stood, three Titled should've been enough for anything.
Upon seeing Eshara and Hollis confirm that she wasn't needed, Lady Vivi nodded, waved her staff lazily, and disappeared with a burst of mana, leaving everyone to stand in silence.
Hollis glanced first at Eshara, then at the nine levitating, unconscious humans, back to Eshara, and finally to Saffra. His brow creased as he visibly debated some decision she wasn't privy to.
"Saffra, dear," he eventually said. "Do you mind getting started on catching the bailiff up? We'll be with you shortly, but I need to speak with my team leader."
The request caught her off guard, but she shrugged after a second. "Yeah, sure. I can do that. Take your time."
She wasn't enthused by the idea of giving a report to the town leaders—in fact, she would rather not—but Hollis's request pleased her for a different reason. She appreciated a sign of trust from the senior adventurer, even if it was just dealing with a minor matter like debriefing the bailiff. She'd felt rather useless throughout the expedition.
She turned and walked away. She knew Hollis hadn't made the request frivolously either. Eshara seemed like the kind of woman who would take charge in nearly any situation, yet she'd been oddly quiet since their teleportation. Since Corvan had been healed.
Hardly difficult to imagine why, Saffra thought with a grimace.
She headed in through the front doors of the old town hall, sorting out her hectic thoughts as she went—a lot had happened in the past few hours. Exposure to the whirlwind that was Lady Vivi hadn't somehow immunized Saffra. She was getting better at dealing with 'Lady Vivi events,' but to a certain extent, they were situations a person couldn't get used to.
I wonder if even she is.
The first time Saffra had been inside the town hall, Lady Vivi had blinked them straight into the middle of a random hallway. Thus, she didn't remember the layout. She wandered around, glancing through window gaps or open doors, until eventually she heard voices and pivoted on a heel. Peeking through a doorway, she found what she was looking for: the town's bailiff sagging against a wooden chair. A nervous-looking healer—Leslie, Saffra thought she remembered—was wringing her hands next to him.
The bailiff's gaze drifted to the doorway, probably seeing the smudge of bright red hair intrude on his periphery. He froze, then bolted to his feet, chair scraping against the floor.
"Um, hi." Saffra finished walking around the corner and waved awkwardly in greeting. She had spent nine months adventuring, which meant dealing with town officials was nothing new, but usually the team's captain handled any real talking. And she had hardly ever been the agreed-upon captain. Not only because she was often the youngest by a decade or more, but because people weren't her strong suit in general. Like master, like apprentice, I suppose.
"Lady Saffra. You've returned."
Saffra winced. Lady? She still hadn't gotten used to that—the way people addressed her so respectfully. Even when she'd been working as a silver-rank adventurer, the courtesy offered had been of a professional sort. Nobody had ever treated her, or her allies, like nobility.
But comparing a noble title against 'the Sorceress's apprentice,' there isn't even a competition. As far as social status went, Saffra was higher up the pecking order than a duke's daughter.
"We have everyone outside," Saffra told the bailiff, brushing off the weird feelings the thought produced. "The townsfolk and adventurers who went missing, I mean. I hope nine was everyone. Lady Nysari is looking around to make sure, but I doubt she missed any. Oh, and they're cured, but still unconscious." She perked up. "Has anyone here woken up?"
The timid-looking healer answered, rather than the bailiff. "Y-yes, actually. They started stirring not more than ten or twenty minutes after you and Lady Nysari left."
"Is there anything wrong with them?"
"They're disoriented, but healthy." The woman who always seemed like she was one wrong word from bursting into tears visibly cheered up. Then her brow furrowed. "Though they… seem to have foggy memories of being infected. Most are disturbed by the experience."
"Oh." Saffra frowned, not because that was catastrophic news, but because of what it implied. Corvan might remember his and Eshara's fight. Not that she thought Eshara would hide the details of this expedition from him anyway, but still. "That's good," she said after a delay.
"You have news?" the bailiff asked. "The problem has been dealt with?"
"Yes. Lady Nysari—"
A distant explosion of mana set all the hairs covering Saffra's arms standing on end. Even from so far, a cold sensation gripped her body, and she jerked her head in the direction. The bailiff and the town healer did the same, paling reflexively and stepping backward despite their gazes landing on an empty wall.
"Lady Nysari is… cleaning up," Saffra finished lamely.
The bailiff looked at her, digested the statement, and whitened further. He had handled Lady Vivi's reveal well, but the primal part of a person's brain would never not respond to displays like that. It was difficult for anyone to come to terms with the fact they were dealing with a woman who could erase provinces with a spell.
"I'm glad to hear that," the bailiff struggled out. Despite his change in complexion, there was genuine relief mixed into his nervous tone. "We can't thank you enough, Lady Saffra."
She wrinkled her nose. 'Miss' was about the most respectful title she could take—she really didn't like 'Lady.' Secondly, she'd hardly done anything, so why was she being thanked?
"I'll pass that along to Lady Nysari," she said neutrally.
"What was it? A monster?"
Saffra hesitated. He saw the reaction and turned a meaningful look to Leslie. The healer sighed, slumped her shoulders forward, and mumbled, "I should go check on the patients. Let me know if you need me."
Saffra felt bad about dismissing the woman—even if she hadn't been the one to do so—but she didn't know whether Lady Vivi wanted news of the Flesh-Weaver's work spreading. The bailiff already knew that Eshara and her team had found the matter serious enough to look into, though, and he was also aware the Sorceress herself had responded. Hard to not infer the gravity of the situation with hints like those.
So, she gave a concise report of what had happened, what the threat was, and how Lady Vivi was dealing with the 'cleanup.' The bailiff was understandably stunned by half of the sentences that came out of Saffra's mouth, though he handled himself well, all things considered. To regular people, the Cataclysms were as mythical as the gods themselves. Those walking natural disasters had cults that survived to this day.
And when even the withered-up, long-forgotten remnants had almost grievously wounded one of the strongest Titled-rank teams in the human kingdoms—had almost left them one man down—the terrified reverence was justified.
Near the end of her explanation, Hollis and Eshara joined her. They took over informing the bailiff and organizing how to move forward, and Saffra was happy to let them. Miniature mana-suns bloomed on the horizon every so often, intermittently bringing silence to the conversation.
When those stopped appearing, only five more minutes passed before Lady Vivi herself returned. She explained that she'd succeeded in her goals and then helped escort the cured townsfolk and adventurers—until that moment floating in the air, unable to be moved—into beds inside the makeshift hospital.
Saffra didn't do much, just watched. Like she had for most of the day.
When everything had been sorted out and the situation seemed to have come to a close, at least so far as they were involved, Lady Vivi pulled Saffra to the side.
"The rest of Eshara's team is in the city to the north," she started, "so I'll be helping her return and reunite for the next few hours. After that, I'll be taking them to Vanguard, speaking with Rafael, and handling her recruitment—and other matters. You can join us, but I assume you'd rather go home and practice. There won't be much for you to do from here on out."
Saffra bit her tongue on her initial, sarcastic response: There wasn't much for me to do until now, either. She knew it was an apprentice's job to learn, but she still didn't like not having an active role.
"And good job with Eshara," Lady Vivi added, seemingly out of nowhere. "I didn't know what to say or do, when she was… like that. I didn't expect to come back to her so much better."
Saffra blinked several times, taken aback. "Um. I—didn't say much of anything." Only the obvious, and she had felt stupid doing so. Who was she, to be giving a Titled advice about anything?
A barely perceptible smile touched Lady Vivi's lips, though Saffra had no clue why. "If you say so. Coming with, or going back?"
She shrugged. "Up to you."
The truth was that, yes, she didn't particularly want to fly around and shadow an expedition where she wouldn't have anything to learn, but the apprentice wasn't the one who decided that. She felt weird about Lady Vivi even giving her the option.
"I'll take you back," the woman decided after a moment. "More time for you to practice is always better, and you should check on Isabella. See how she's getting along at the Institute."
"All right." Saffra tried not to let her relief show. That was what she'd been hoping for.
Rather than scooping the two of them up in a [Warp] spell, Lady Vivi studied her quietly for a moment. Saffra felt a sudden wariness come on.
"How… are you feeling?" Lady Vivi eventually asked.
"What do you mean?"
"The Flesh-Weaver's work isn't pleasant. I'm assuming this was your first time dealing with something like that."
Saffra almost groaned. Exactly what I was hoping she wasn't hinting at, she thought. Saffra pushed away her gut reaction of a scowl. She owed Lady Vivi more than she could repay, so the least she could do was not have an attitude.
But Lady Vivi treated her like a child more than anyone else did. Saffra didn't need coddling. She'd been twelve when she started an adventuring career, and had done fine for herself too. Better than most adults. Even other high-rank adventurers had noticed, like Jasper during the Convoy's events, and now Hollis and Eshara.
That independence—the fact she wasn't a child—had been one of the only selling points for her demanding an apprenticeship from Lady Vivi in the first place. What an embarrassing irony.
"Seemed like most other monsters to me," Saffra said in as neutral a tone as she could manage. "Don't think there's much to talk about."
Lady Vivi appraised her calmly, and Saffra fought another spike of irritation. I don't need to be 'checked on' because we were fighting big, scary monsters, she thought with an imaginary glare.
To her enormous relief, Lady Vivi didn't press. She nodded and held a hand out. Saffra took it, feeling her tension drain away. Biting her tongue was far from a strength of hers, and she really hadn't wanted to get snippy with Lady Vivi.
Several spatial teleportation spells later—first landing in the Vexaria manor and then bouncing across the city—Saffra arrived in front of Isabella's Institute dorm room. A vague queasiness passed through her and faded.
Across the human kingdoms in a matter of seconds. She was still getting used to how the concept of travel was an inconvenience of the past. She hadn't realized the sheer amount of time she spent moving between places until Lady Vivi removed the need. They'd literally jumped down to the Southern Kingdom for a half-day jaunt.
"I'll probably have time to continue lessons tonight," her mentor said, "but I can't make any promises. Do you need anything before I go?"
"No. Thank you, Lady Vivi. And good luck."
The mage nodded, then disappeared.
Saffra took a breath in, held it for a long moment, and released.
She knocked on Isabella's door. When the wooden slab swung open, a White Glove with two silver bars on her lapel greeted her. The Institute didn't normally allow their students to have bodyguards or attendants—since there were too many nobles and other sorts that would want them—but reasonably, an exception had been made for Isabella. From what Saffra understood, the White Glove Academy had essentially hosted a tournament for the privilege.
"Young miss," the woman said, curtsying. "Please come in."
Saffra said a thank-you and trailed inside. She found Isabella in her bedroom. The blonde, having had her nose stuffed in a book, blinked and straightened out when she saw Saffra. Saffra ignored the girl, staggered for the bed, and collapsed face-first into it, bouncing several times before settling.
She let out a loud groan muffled by the sheets.
"…long day, I take it?" Isabella asked.
"Don't even get me started." She rolled over and rubbed her face, then flopped her arms back down. "But you go first."