LGHTNOVELBOOK 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.
Lily bit her lip, the sharp canines inherited from her new body drawing some blood. "I… I don't know. I mean… I hope so? I can… maybe try to filter it or something? It was really bad but I know people can get used to a bad smell. It's just… I wasn't even trying to USE my space sense until we got closer and it's already this bad?"
"So are you continuing or not?" asked Meg firmly.
"I will," said Lily as she stumbled to her feet. With a nod that Lily hoped conveyed some confidence she transformed back into her Memphis form. Immediately her spatial sense was assault by the feeling once again. Prepared this time, Lily managed to weather it without simply throwing up but it was a hard won fight. Lily felt herself shivering along her entire body. Her hair stood on end, puffing up as if she was trying to scare off a nearby predator.
Meg thought it was adorable, both that Lily was clearly trying so hard and that she looked 'ready' for a fight. Calmly watching the younger girl, Meg waited patiently as Lily acclimated. It wasn't a quick of a smooth process. Lily felt like her mind was twisting up in nots but ever time things overlapped in a certain way another piece seemed to click in place.
As Lily gained small grains of understanding of the place the nausea died down. The feeling of wrongness didn't abate, if anything it grew deeper as she felt out more and began to understand the core of the issue… but for now she was fine. She could manage. Lily hopped up towards Meg shoulder… and missed by a huge margin.
She wasn't vomiting sure but her sense of spatial awareness was completely broken. Her instinctive understanding of where Meg was didn't line up with the reality of things. Lily managed to land somewhat well, scraping up the stone and frowning. A few moments of this later, Lily transformed again to explain. "You'll have to carry me or something but I can manage. It's… it's less nausea inducing but it feels more unnatural as it lingers. OH and be careful. The area of corrupted space is expanding to cover more area! So don't just charge in,"
"I'll keep it in mind," stated Meg, who, after a moment picked up a much tinier Lily. Meg also pulled out the compass before starting to run. It was a bit awkward, with Lily in one hand and the compass in the other but Meg could manage it. If a couple of trees or buildings were damaged in the process Meg didn't consider that her problem.
It took some time, but compass was soon freaking out around a hundred metres from the edge of the property line. By this point Lily had settled into 'generally unwell but not about to vomit' stage of things and the link with Kat had been restored. Somewhat muted if Lily was doing things correctly, but open for now.
Lily could easily sense the reason for the stop. Hopping down from Meg's arms as gracefully as she could manage at the moment Lily transformed back to speak. As she did so Meg said. "The compass is telling me the mess starts here, what can you sense?"
"It DOES start here but only just barely? I'd suggest just… I dunno carrying me on your shoulders and sprinting up towards the manor. Though um… where is Pebbles?" answered Lily.
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."