บท 114: Miasma
Emile, Willow, Blood, and now Roy approached the tree line. Hovering in the air, the pink mist created an immediate separation between the forest and the mountains.
Emile stopped just outside of the mist, so did Blood and Roy, but Willow continued. She stepped over the line and entered the dilapidated forest; the pink mist lingered on her skin, forming a subtle film of pink around her.
From a distance, it simply looked like Willow had a sunburn, but in reality the miasma was attacking her skin; pushing against it, trying to tear it and invade her bloodstream.
"Are you coming?" Willow called back.
Emile and Blood looked at each other.
"You go."
"No, you go."
"I'm the boss now, just get in there."
"We don't even know if your Gift counters it! Why would I go first?!"
"…"
"You have a point."
Emile momentarily closed his eyes and counted down from three. On go, he stepped forward. His foot passed the line and entered the forest and immediately the pink mist clung to his leg like a magnet.
He finished his step, his entire body now submerged in the miasma. Emile waited a second, but nothing happened. The miasma felt—heavy?
It didn't hurt, nor did it feel like he was in any danger, it just felt like pressure, like being underwater but weaker. Emile raised his arm and moved it around, there was a slight resistance, but a mostly unnoticeable change.
Emile turned around.
"What's supposed to happen again?" He asked Blood.
"The miasma seeps into your skin and takes control of your bloodstream. After a while your temperature will rise, your blood will start to sizzle and cook you from the inside. Eventually, blood will pour from your orifices until you're an empty shell to be manipulated by the Dead Tree."
"Lovely…" Emile mumbled.
He focused on his soul core, wanting to see if his essence was actively working against anything.
[Soul Rank: Chosen]
[Soul Saturation: 284/1000]
[Soul Essence: 499/500
[Gift: Breath of Essence]
[Description: Accelerate cell growth and division and increase soul essence production]
[Enhancement: Breath of Essence is applied to self]
[Relics: Enlightened Nimbus Charm, Enlightened Royal Scimitar]
Emile narrowed his attention on his essence, it repeatedly fluctuated from five hundred to four hundred ninety-nine over and over. That could only mean that Emile's Gift is actively fighting the miasma, but his essence regenerates so fast that the two exist in limbo.
Put simply, the miasma doesn't affect Emile.
"You look happy." Willow said from beside Emile.
"Yeah—" he replied, "the miasma isn't affecting me out here."
"I knew you'd be fine—" she winked at Emile and bumped her hip against his, nudging him to the side, "now get the two pests in here."
"I'm right here!" Blood shouted, "The miasma doesn't conceal noise!"
"Oh? I thought it did." Willow smirked.
"I'd like to be an Inferno Larv." Roy suddenly spoke.
"What?" The group said in unison.
"If I'm gonna be a pest, I'd like to be an Inferno Larv—their bodies are entirely immune to heat, they live deep underground inside pools of lava. When they emerge from the lava, their bodies glow radiant white and they melt pretty much anything on contact." Roy continued.
"Right…" Emile said slowly, "I'll keep that in mind."
Nevertheless, it was time for Blood and Roy to enter the forest. Blood went first, after shaking his nerves off he rushed into the miasma.
The air stuck to him like normal and his pristine white skin disappeared, leaving behind a rose complexion across his body. Unlike with Willow and Emile, however, the pink mist on his skin was moving.
Like a worm, the mist wiggled aggressively, pushing into his skin and seeping into his body. Blood looked up, concern etched into his eyes.
"I'm gonna die." He stated.
"You're not going to die—" Willow scoffed, "when you get uncomfortably warm have Spright heal you."
"What if Spright's not around!" Blood began to panic.
"You'll be okay as long as you're conscious, if you end up fainting it means your brain is too hot to function and is minutes away from being reduced to soup." Willow added.
"Soup?" Blood echoed.
Next, Roy passed the tree line. He brazenly walked into the miasma, no prep necessary. The remaining mist around them was sucked to his skin and similarly wiggled against his small frame.
"What rank are you, by the way?" Emile asked, noticing the mist reacted to Roy the same way it did to Blood.
"Late Enlightened—" the boy answered, "I'm hoping to become Perfected during this expedition."
"And what do you do?" Emile asked again.
"I see heat—" he pointed to the eye etched in his forehead, "and this eye acts like a tracker. I can mentally pick a target to lock onto and this eye will always look towards them."
"That's pretty helpful," Emile commented, "anyway, let's go, shall we?"
Emile turned away from the settlement and began walking deeper into the forest. Willow walked in front of him while Blood and Roy remained behind him.
They ducked beneath sunken branches, maneuvered around fallen trees, and slowly but surely made their way deeper into the Dead Tree's territory. All the while the miasma grew thicker, transitioning from a soft, baby pink to a slightly richer color.
They pushed past the tree line and stepped onto an open field. The grass was thin and cracked underneath their steps and they've yet to come across any type of flower or fruit.
Stepping into the open field, Emile looked back to check on Blood and Roy. The two boys looked infected, their veins pushed out of their skin and thickened while the whites in their eyes too faded to pink.
Looking sickly and ill, they kept walking through heavy, raggedy breaths.
"Are you guys okay?" Emile stopped and asked.
"I'm gonna die. I am dying. This is it." Blood said.
"Inferno Larv's don't feel heat…" Roy mumbled.
Emile looked to Willow, who gave him a confused shrug in response.
"You should probably heal them though." She said too.
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