The head elf ignores the pout on my face but he's still holding onto my hand which is greatly appreciated since his support is keeping the light beam steady.
"I heard it all from Roy. That kind of ingenuity that involves wagering a living being's core and attempting to extract black mana whilst minimising all forms of risk could only be thought of by two reckless fools," he chides and gives sidelong look at Roy.
Roy, however, remains nonchalant. Must be my imagination but I think I'm sweating even more after recognising who Lord Sol is referring as one of the two 'reckless fools'.
Ha, ha, ha...
"And thus I propelled myself to hasten my work and come here," Lord Sol continues then sighs. "Now that I'm here, what I am seeing from the analysis of the heat sensor is troubling indeed. How long has it been like this?"
Lord Sol's ability in discerning complicated matters with calm composure is glaringly different to when he gets passionate about magic-related researches. Aside from that, he took the time to finish his work first before coming here? I would believe it if he says he dump his workload onto Kinai instead.
"A hundred and twenty-four ticks after she reported it to me," Roy answers, sounding ranger-like when the question is supposedly directed to me.
I provide some more information. "The discolouration is gradually spreading when the light magic reaches the deepest part where the core is speculated to be. I also verified with the tracking magic that the spread is in line with the black mana's movement."
"What of the Lion Pride's condition?"
Lord Sol questions the most concerning issue and again, Roy replies to the head elf first and I follow up after.
"His breathing is growing weaker as more time passes."
"So far, I've been increasing the effect of 'Serenity' to ease the pain."
"That would explain why you're in this state," Lord Sol says worriedly and wipe the sweat on my forehead with the sleeve of his free hand.
Eh? Do I look that terrible?
Sure, compressing a spell with an originally loose formation meant for wide-range effect into a small tornado in a jar is somewhat difficult to handle, hold on, he's not questioning the part about me modifying a spell like he always does? Given the present situation, I guess it's not the time for questioning.
Lord Sol then stares at the penetrating light coming out of my wand, deep in thought that lasts for a good few seconds and speaks. "From now on, it is a matter of time. I shall take over the black mana removal." He doesn't leave any room for discussion and press on with taking command of the operation. "Iris, I need you to retract your light magic but maintain 'Serenity' as it is. Can you do it?"
"I can thin the light beam as much as it could to give you an opening then I'll pull out once you're in."
"Yes, that would be best." Lord Sol agrees with the proposal. "Roy, once the removal is a success-"
Roy cuts mid-sentence. "I will take care of the vanquishing."
The two sages understand their role in this without saying much. And thus, the second part of the extraction procedure commences following Lord Sol's direction. I put away the wand after thinning out the light beam and dispelling the spell which is a relief for my aching wrist. Lord Sol somehow find a weak spot of the corrupted core and gives accurately detailed direction for me to continuously drill 'Serenity' alongside his magic. Does he have GPS installed in his brain or something? Moreover, his navigation is more precise than my 'Trace' magic.
My senses turn numb from sitting on the ground for too long, and everything is a blur apart from the steady and reassuring presence of the head elf. What shook me up is the abrupt, intense feeling of menace coming from a slithering black mist. Judging by how the black mist is not pushing the tornado named 'Serenity' out and instead, attempting to cling onto it means the black mist is making a move to infect my magic too, but Lord Sol is faster by blocking the black mist with his powerful magic. The white lion groans louder in pain due to the escalation of struggle happening within its body. We need to hurry with the extraction or else the white lion might not make it.
"Iris, once I say so, wrap the core with 'Serenity'," Lord Sol loudly commands.
I nod since its too tiring to speak now and prepare to fuel 'Serenity' with more mana. The image of the corrupted core is becoming clearer after confirming its position and so does the movement of the black mist. I can make out the traces of Lord Sol's magic cornering the black mist to where he wants it to and sensed him casting another set of magic that forcibly root out the black mist out of the white lion's body. Lord Sol push my exhausted body out of the way just in time before it could touch me. Geez, this one is clingier than the previous black mana we dealt with. The exposed black mana hits the wall and ground, moving in a disorderly zig-zagged manner as the air in the dome becoming hotter with the sound of a sword unsheathing, waiting for the time to strike.
"Not yet," Lord Sol warns.
The instant the last strand of black mist is no longer attached to the white lion's corrupted core, Lord Sol shouts. "Now!"
I shove tornado 'Serenity' towards the core, wrapping it entirely and tightly. At that moment, a two-fold battle ensues. While Roy deals with the exposed black mana that's been consuming the life force of a Pride Lion, Lord Sol is restricting the black mana's movement from escaping through the rabbit hole entrance. On the other hand, we still need to mend and purify the corrupted core and I'm the one left with that task. No time to rest. Better quickly drink a restorative potion first. While awaiting the diagnosis result of the white lion's condition which shouldn't take that long, I almost spit out the remaining potion when it's alerting me of the declining heart rate.
"Dang it!" I shout in frantic.
The white lion breathing is faint and it's barely responding to recovery magic. What else? Come on Iris, think! At one point, you binge-watched medical shows including the reruns. There must be something... a resuscitator. That's not it, the scene when the heart stops during a surgical operation, doctors use the defibrillator to revive the faltering heartbeat. And I have just the thing that works the same way.
My hands move in haste; gather electric discharge on my palms, press them in between the foreleg and charge. The white lion helpless body jerk at the touch. I cast recovery magic again and look at the diagnosis' result. My face frowns when there's no change. Repeat while increasing the volts. Charge, heal, diagnose. At the third charge, the heart rate starting to pick up. One more time. I can't increase the volts any more than this or, it'll cause an external burn. Actually, something else is burning behind me along with an intensely powerful purifying magic lingering in the air. Ignore, ignore.
"Charge."
The white lion jolts harder when I release the electric discharge with increased volts. I breathe a little easier when the white lion eyes slowly flicker open. Diagnosis already verifies the heart rate is steady now. Few more things to do is... ah, no good. My vision is turning upside down until everything fades into darkness.
"-his condition is stable for now, thanks to Iris' effort," A short pause before the soft-spoken Luna resume talking. "Even so, she exhausted both her mana and strength. It's remarkable she didn't lose consciousness much sooner."
"This time, she exerted herself too much," a voice belonging to the head elf respond.
"My lord, the fault is mine. I should not have permitted her into the Lion Pride's enclosure."
"You are not to blame, Luna. It was the Lion Pride that called her to them. If we're talking about who's taking the blame of responsibility for what transpired here, then it would be our fault for admitting a battle-maniac as a sage."
Lord Sol says it so lightly made me rethink of the qualification of being appointed as one of the most powerful people in this world. He says I'm eccentric but the sages have their set of peculiarity too.
Right, let's stop eavesdropping on their conversation and open my eyes. I would like to do that but it's too cosy to want to be awake. Something soft tickles my skin when my head moves a little. Didn't I pass out on the hard ground? My eyes slowly open, completely weary.
"She's waking up."
Lord Sol notices first.
"Shush, sleep some more."
A hand covers my eyes and my consciousness fades again. Wait, what about the white lion?
Dream world
I'm back here again; sitting under the shadow of the willow tree and watch the grassland landscape stretches out to the endless horizon.
"He's not here," I murmur.
The last time I'm this exhausted, I doze off while soaking in the hot spring and unintentionally called him to this dream place, though that lasted for a few minutes before I was woken up by Erissa.
"I don't think it's going to happen a second time. Was the trigger my desire to be healed?" I wonder.
Well, I remember that day I was both physically and mentally exhausted and it was also my first time in a place populated by humans. Plus, a lot of things happened at once so I couldn't properly enjoy myself. More like being taken away on a sudden business trip when you're supposed to be on holiday, take kind of feeling. On my next visit, let's properly enjoy myself.
With nothing else to do here, I lean back on the trunk of the willow tree and start humming the same song from last night. Can't believe I'm relating to a song from a romance movie and why am I remembering that specific balcony ending scene too? Footsteps approaching the willow tree. No need to look to know when its always been the two of us here. He willingly sits down when I tap the empty spot next to me.
He asks first, "Have you been waiting long?"
When I turn to face him, his hand touch my left cheek and tenderly touch the tiredness under my eye with concern. I can't hide it from him as expected, because of the connection we share that only I'm aware of. Has he ever suspected what all this is? Uncertainty and confusion seeping into my skin but, I wash it away when those pair of captivating blue eyes stare fixedly into mine. What I see in his reflection hints at the answer I already know.
Shifting my body and snuggle my head into his shoulder, I say close to a whisper, "Let's stay like this today. I'm tired."
He says nothing, feeling his hand move to caress my hair then pull my shoulder closer to his embrace.
"What are you thinking right now?"
"I was thinking that a dream couldn't possibly make the feel of your touch this realistic," I answer honestly.
"I am real and as are you," he says it with conviction.
Understanding the meaning of his words, I tell him reassuringly.
"Take your time. I'm not going anywhere for the time being."
"I might not recognise you if these dreadful dark circles are permanently attached to your face," he says, teasingly.
Smack his chest. He laughs.
The sound of his laughter washes some of the tiredness away from me.