There’s static, but there’s no doubt that it’s Taula’s voice.
“Taula! Are you all right!? Where are you?”
I ask while raising my head and clinging to the sword.
“Is that really you, Rust? I heard a voice… From the knife all of a sudden… I’m… All right…”
I hear Taula’s voice intermittently, and the purifying light stabbed by the sword flickers along with it.
“It’s really cold here… And hard to breathe… And dark…”
The voice gets interrupted more and more, and gets more and more quiet.
“…Bright light…”
The sound cuts off.
I only hear static, and eventually even the static goes.
Only the annoying breathing sound coming from a little further away breaks the silence.
“Taula! Taula! Can you hear me!?”
I ask, and try my hardest to hear anything, but there is no response.
I hold Taula’s sword very tightly, and the purifying lightly stabbed by its tip gets smaller, and then it shrinks again.
I slowly pull Taula’s sword out of the ground, and very carefully put it in my backpack, like I’m handling the very delicate poppies that give it its name.
There’s still a small lump of purifying light on the ground. I guess it can’t disappear completely because it’s bound by the curse.
I envelop my right hand with curses, and grab it strongly, before stuffing it in a spare bottle for potions. I close it, wrap it with a sealing scroll, soak my index finger with my own blood that’s on the ground, and put a curse on top of the seal.
This might come in handy for something later. Next, that…
My eyes are on a dark thing that’s still cowering and breathing loudly. It’s Lily’s body, that was taken by the ‘Third Seat of Immorality’ and fused with it.
I stagger my way towards it, and drink a few stamina potions one after the other on my way there.
“Ahh… Ahh… That’s too much potion…”
I shove an empty bottle in my backpack, and take out a 《Transcribe》 scroll.
“《Activate》. It’s all garbled. I can only read what’s on the surface…”
I take my eyes off the 《Transcribe》 scroll that didn’t give me any useful information, and look at what’s down on the ground.
Think! Think! My top priority is bringing Taula back. I need to do what I have to in order to accomplish that. I can’t let myself get carried by my emotions.
I put my hand in my backpack. I feel something cold and hard, take it out, and hold it over the thing on the ground.