Trashes of the Counts' Families || Trash of the Count's Family || OC

71

What she did notice was the big lake a bit further from them. It was big and wide, the water pitch-black. Her eyes gleamed as she looked at it. All of it was Dead Mana—a whole swamp full of stuff that could scarcely be found anywhere else. And it was in front of her, only a few steps away.

I could risk it, she thought, eyes on the swamp. I could risk it. I could take a sip. The Vitality of the Heart will save me, won't it? If I take a sip... I won't die.

Cale frowned from next to her. She had been acting oddly since they arrived in the Forest of Darkness. She seemed distracted, thinking hard. Witira and Paseton hadn't seen it, but he did. He could easily tell that something was wrong— and if not wrong, then odd.

Even now, he had to hold her back to wait for the Whale Siblings. She didn't seem to have noticed, still staring at the swamp with a dangerous gleam in her eyes. "Adara—?" he asked, his voice getting caught off-guard when she snapped her head towards him.

She was excited. He could tell that. Before he could ask again, a voice spoke. Adara's voice, but it wasn't out loud. 'The swamp is filled with Dead Mana,' she said.

He grabbed her hand, remembering a conversation they had a while ago. He could communicate with her if he made skin-to-skin contact, though it used up quite a bit of Dead Mana.

He felt the electric hum go through his wrist and could feel the synchronised beating of their hearts. 'All of it?' he asked.

She gave the tiniest of nods.

That certainly changed a bit.

And answered a few questions.

"It's pretty fitting for the Forest of Darkness, isn't it?" he spoke, letting go of her hand and pretending he heard nothing of it. He continued. "It's a pretty large lake. It's large enough for multiple huge ships to fit," he said. And all of it is Dead Mana, he thought.

Witira looked at the swamp with admiration and fear. "I didn't expect it to be so big." Her eyes lingered on the plants near the swamp. They were all black and brown but clearly alive and thriving. "It must be poison."

Adara was putting on her gloves as she responded. She's never been this far inside the Forest of Darkness. Nobody has. But she had a fairly good idea of what happened. "Unlike the plants in the outer region," she started, tightening her mask, "these have grown with the poison from before the monsters arrived. These mutated to survive in this environment."

The Whale Siblings followed suit; as Witira was tightening her gloves, she looked at Adara who seemed to be an expert on the ecology aspect of the Forest of Darkness, while Cale was the one who knew where to go. "What type of poison is it?"

Adara shrugged, crouching down to a black plant near her. "I have no idea. I've never been this far in the Forest of Darkness. I'm only hypothesising on what is logical. But don't let it touch your skin."

Witira stared at her, surprise in her eyes. "What?" But she knew so much; how could she not have visited this far?

Cale was next to Witira; he, too, shrugged. "It's not that surprising. Adara has at least been in the Forest of Darkness a few times. This is my first time."

That made Witira even more shocked. Even Paseton, who was making sure not a single bit of his skin was showing in fear of a poison similar to the mermaids' poison, paused in shock.

But both of their surprise was interrupted when Adara beckoned Hong to her. To the Whale Siblings' surprise, he took a bite out of the black plant. Witira immediately looked at Adara and Cale, but neither of them seemed to be surprised.