Chapter 97: Youthful Endeavors

Chapter 97: Youthful Endeavors

September 21st, 2089

Terras POV

Welcome to Juans Stop n Shop. Where the prices are loco~. The middle-aged greeter at the grocery store did his job with an impressive lack of enthusiasm as I entered. As one would suspect from a store named Juans, I am not in Japan. I am in a barrio in Miami, where my search for the Fountain of Youth has led me to this dump. Ive been doing this search casually on the weekends, teleporting back and forth from wherever I left off.

Juan Ponce de Leons journey was well-documented, making it easy for me to follow. When I was traveling along his supposedly false route into Florida, I noticed lingering traces of ancient magic. It was so faint that in a few more years it would have completely faded. I followed the traces to an old waystone, which I realized was a marker for an underwater aquifer that ran along a ley line. I followed said aquifer to this store. Had this place not been located on a massive intersection of ley lines while simultaneously being directly under a constellation that was channeling mana, I would have assumed I made a mistake. As it stands, I need to pinpoint the exact location of the Fountain and see if it has run dry or not.

I started browsing some snacks, while keeping my sense open. The store was dank, ill-lit, and a major health hazard. I saw a rat mugging a cockroach, for goodness sake. I repressed a shudder and moved on. Hey chica, whats a beauty like you doin in a place like this? And there it is. I was shapeshifted as Rin for this little expedition. It was to keep my true identity a secret, and to hopefully mislead Dante as to where I am. If hes tearing up Tokyo with demons trying to find me, itll be inevitable for me to clash with them as Minato. Thus, he if thinks Rin has gone elsewhere, I wont have to worry about my hometown.

Fortunately, a year of experience masquerading as a girl has taught me the light touch needed to extricate myself from this situation (which has happened far too frequently for my liking). *Click* Wristbreaker was cocked and pointed in the face of the pendejo who was hitting on me. Not interested. The wannabe homeboy paled at the sight of the hand cannon, and quickly scurried away.

More importantly though, Pandemonium has just become predictable. Now that I know what theyre after, arranging an ambush should be simple enough. I doubt the imp will spill anything more. Demons are selfish, but when under contract theres only so far they can go against the contractors interests. I was about to tighten my grip and finish off the demon, but then those thrice-blasted headaches struck once more. My vision remained, but auditory hallucinations appeared instead. My lady, what does thou intendth? To utilize the ancient artifact and ritual to call uponth the Devil. In exchange for a pure maidens soul, he will answer a wish. NO! My lady, you are the last of the House of Meadow! If you die, so does the line! The duty of a noble is to protect their people. I will do so and meet the Gods with pride. Very well. May the Redeemers bless you.

The imp noticed my distracted state, and activated a magical bomb that had been in the old womans corpse. The resulting explosion tore my grip from him, and I could sense him teleport away with a muttered The boss is going to tear me a new one for sure. I was sent flying into the gardening section, where my impact was padded by an enormous number of lush, verdant plants. I got up, grumbling at the lost chance to kill one of Dantes high-level henchmen. Based on the imps aura, he was on a similar level to the oni. Why the hell am I getting hallucinations like these? Even that dream was related! I never heard that your hallucinations form a continuous story line!

I stopped my internal rant and decided to finish my mission before the police arrived. Theyll be slow, since this is a notorious barrio here in Miami and cops generally avoid the crime-ridden area unless they are in force. I noticed my surroundings, and was completely agape to see the flourishing plant life here. The roses were a vibrant red and were overgrowing from their pots, out of season plants were growing beautifully, and this was all despite being located in the darkest, dankest part of the entire store. A sneaking suspicion grew on me as I located the watering hose.

I tested the water, and traced its source to an underground well which was fed into by the aquafer that I had been following. Yep, theres still a trace of primal magic here. The owner of this store seems to have dug illegally into this underground well (based on what I saw through psychometry) to avoid paying additional water bills, inadvertently finding and using the last drops of the Fountain of Youth in watering his plants.

It seems like the mana calamity did just enough to get the Fountain to reactivate for a short period of time, unfortunately it has been wasted on plants. Lets salvage what we can. I drained every plant in the room of all its moisture, leaving dried husks in my wake. I then made a kind of magic filter, eliminating all the normal water and leaving only water from the Fountain of Youth. As simple as it sounded, it was extremely difficult.

The end result was 7 drops. This is not enough to grant eternal youth. The legends said you need at least a mouthful or to bathe in it. At best, this will provide youth throughout the natural lifespan, which is something I can already manage by enchanting ones telomeres. Veronica was right, this was a bust. At least I got a lead on Pandemonium. I vanished from the store after making sure that no signs of my presence or magic was leaked.