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The immobile form of Shindzha sprawled on the holding cell floor with neither heartbeat nor breath might have looked dead to the others, but with fairy sight, but I could clearly see her aura still active.
Active, but fading. And while her yellow-green skin never looked healthy, it was taking on a gray pallor now.
The others in the room were still reeling from Astaroth’s mental attack, and the lesser fairy warrior was not yet answering to my demand.
Desperate, I had no time to wait for her. Fortunately, Mother never installed fairy-proof bars on these cells. It was high-quality steel though, so it took serious effort before the iron in it lost strength and the bar failed in my grip.
Why did I not use the qi sword version of Durandal? He had vanished when the [Fortress of Gaia] crumbled during the detonation. Fortunately, it had held up just long enough to absorb the blast before failing.
“Your Highness!” the warrior finally yelped, beginning to recover at last as I heaved on the bars. “It could be a trap!”
I had the first pair apart, but even bending them far enough to touch the adjacent bars didn’t leave quite enough room to squeeze through. I changed my grip to grasp the adjacent bars as well and pulled again.
Again, that infuriating resistance. The alloy managed to put up a fight against fairy-induced metal fatigue, but the bars gave way at last, with the first set now stretching like taffy. At last, I could enter the cell.
I got to Shindzha’s side with my heart now pounding. Hellspawn or not, this was one of my Servants, and every cell in my body was screaming at me to save her.
But as soon as I began, Fan Li snapped, [Stop that!]
It only took a half a breath to recognize that she meant the Holy mana I was about to convert to [Healing].
The company had included CPR in my training as a store manager. I started preparing to perform it on her, but my alter-ego had more to say.
[Think, Your Highness!] Fan Li ordered. [During your battle with her, this child was using a Healing-like spell, based upon Darkness!]
If I didn’t feel certain it was Fan Li talking, I would have thought it was Rhea or someone else. I don’t know if she was also feeling the anxiety of the Mistress for her dying Servant or what, but she was dropping all her normal pretense of polite humility and speaking to me as a senior.
[I don’t know that spell!] I retorted.
[Make her do it herself! Use only enough [Restoration] to wake her, then Command her to cast it!]
[If I’m going to use Holy mana anyway…]
Fan Li interrupted. [In her current state, [Healing] would cause more damage than good! Only use enough to wake her and use [Restoration] only!]
I could really feel her frustration with me coming through. I shut up and followed instructions. I would ask her to explain later.
Circulating Holy mana, I opened my fan, held it over the hellspawn girl’s forehead, and intoned, “[Restoration].”
Because of Fan Li’s taking the trouble to tell me twice, I amped up my Will to insure I didn’t let too much Holy mana flow out at once. Then, thanks to my heightened spiritual state, I could see why. Shindzha’s Demonic mana was curling up and pulling away from the Holy mana, repulsed from it like a magnet pressed by another of the same polarity.
“Wake up, Shindzha,” I ordered her, with [Vampire Command] on full power.
Her eyes sprang open, but they seemed to stare blankly. And her heart and her lungs were still stopped. I wasn’t sure if she was truly awake, but I needed to stop the Holy magic soon, so I couldn’t wait longer.
I Commanded, “Shindzha, use the spell you used on yourself while fighting me.”
Her head rotated slightly, to stare back at me. I honestly didn’t believe she was aware of much, but she seemed to notice my presence.
“Mis… tress…” she mouthed without sound.
My anxiety growing, I told her, still with [Vampire Command] on full blast, “Use the magic that was repairing your wounds during our fight, Shindzha! Do it with as much power as you can, and make sure to include your heart and lungs!”
At last, I felt the stirrings in my mana pathways of one of my Servants borrowing my channel. I had been thinking about it for a while, but when they pull mana, it really is different than when I pull mana for my own use. It seems to flow not just from my immediate environment, but also from my Servants’ surroundings as well.
But it seemed like nobody was in a good spot for pulling Dark mana at the moment, so that the flow was only a trickle. Not knowing anything else I could do, I released Darkness from my blood core instead, and used Will to make it flow into Shindzha’s connection to me.
Thankfully, it worked. Her lips moved again, barely managing a painful whisper, “[Re… gener.. ation]”
I felt a brand new spell form in my mind, and felt how the keyword slotted into it, forming the whole magic… and felt the magic uselessly reaching my body instead of hers.
Her eyes rolled back and she passed out, but she had done enough. I now had the spell. Feeling immense relief, I poured out more Darkness from my blood core, into my own mana pathways, and copied her.
“[Regeneration]” I intoned, using the fan to cast it across her head and upper body, letting the mana flow as rapidly as I could.
Her Demonic mana was still weak, but her aura grew stronger. Even so, her skin continued to grow grayer.
[Fan Li!] I called out, growing anxious again.
[Do not panic, Your Highness,] she answered calmly, as if her previous agitation had never happened. [Continue the spell.]
Once more, Shindzha wasn’t breathing, and I still couldn’t hear her heartbeat, but as more of my mana flowed out onto her, her aura really was growing stronger.
[Her heart isn’t beating, though…] I still worried.
[Use your restoration on it, now,] Fan Li advised. [While continuing the Darkness spell. Just give her heart momentary hits with it.]
For just a moment, I hesitated, remembering how it affected her Demonic mana, which was as much an intrinsic part of her flesh as mana and miasma are part of mine, but circulated Holy mana anyhow.
Holy mana does not play well with Darkness. They don’t directly conflict, but Holy mana seems to have a Light component in it that gives Darkness trouble. To circulate them both, I have to accept a certain amount of loss. That loss in turn decreased the effect of the [Regeneration] spell.
While continuing to pour out Dark mana through the fan, I placed my free hand on Shindzha’s breast and again chanted, “[Restoration]”
I guided the spell directly into her heart.
In my imagination, a team of TV doctors and nurses were gathered around her, using the defibrillator paddles on her, yelling ‘clear’ and hitting her heart with electricity. Fortunately, the spell probably doesn’t work the same, since if it did, I would have no idea how to make it work. I just poured the mana into her, one jolt at a time like Fan Li had advised.
[Keep it up, just like that.]
[What about her lungs?] I fretted. The heart was giving individual kicks, every time I jolted it, although a regular heartbeat had yet to resume. But without oxygen in her lungs for her blood to circulate, it wouldn’t help, right?
[In a moment,] she answered calmly.
Finally, to my great relief, I felt Shidzha’s heart stirring. It was weak, but it was beating properly.
[Now her lungs, Your Highness. Just stimulate her diaphragm.]
I tried. I honestly did. But Shindzha just wouldn’t quite begin breathing. Finally, I was unable to wait any longer. I threw down the fan, dropped the spell, put her head into position and went through the steps for mouth-to-mouth.
Ignoring the protesting cries of “Lady!”, “My Lady!” and “Your Highness!” from behind, I kept going, repeatedly placing my lips on hers while pinching her nose, blowing air in, then turning away to breathe in while listening to the air coming back out. Rinse and repeat.
[Very well,] Fan Li conceded. [It’s a valid method. As her heart is beating, this should work.]
And at last, it did. Shindzha coughed and managed a breath of her own. I immediately rolled her onto her side so she could cough out whatever was in her windpipe.
Her mana was weak. Horribly weak. I didn’t have the least concern about touching her at that moment. Not that touching her was necessarily a problem; although demons have the ability to forcibly infect beings with their mana, Shindzha wouldn’t normally leave more than faint traces of it on things she touched, unless she intended to do so. But right now, even if she wanted to, she probably couldn’t.
But as she huffed one breath after another, weakly staring at me while barely focusing, I could see her natural color gradually returning.
Behind me, Ceria and Chiara were coming into the cell, with the fairy warrior following.
“Lady, is she okay now?” Ceria wondered.
“She’s horribly mana-depleted,” I answered. “I think Demonic mana is a bit like pneuma for her. She’s suffering from something similar to pneuma loss, or blood loss. But she’s alive.”
“What was that thing?” Chiara wondered. “That couldn’t have been part of her, could it?”
I shook my head. “There’s no way it could be. That was a proxy from a very powerful being. A much stronger being than her.”
“Like… an archdemon or something?” the fairy warrior asked.
I honestly didn’t want to talk about it without being inside a privacy screen. Not with Astaroth demonstrating an ability to manifest here.
“Something like that,” I answered.
“Mistress…” Shindzha whispered.
I put my hand on her cheek. “I’m here.”
“Mistress… you should kill me.”
It was stated in such a matter-of-fact way, without any emotion at all. She used a tone of voice that one might use to suggest going to the doctor for a check-up, or having your ‘check engine’ light diagnosed. I didn’t know how to react to it.
“Hey!” Ceria scolded. “She just put a lot of effort into saving you, you know?!”
With a dull tone, she replied, “I felt that thing inside me, coming out of me. I’m a danger to you.”
I had only seen it materialize near her. This actual ‘coming out of her’ step had not been apparent to my fairy sight. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t true. I can’t actually see the mana flowing from me to my Servants either. It just seems to leap directly from me to them, without passing through the points between.
[While she is right to think this way, I don’t recommend it,] Fan Li noted. [You should consult with your seniors before taking such a step.]
I felt a touch of annoyance that Fan Li thought I would just agree to it… although rationally, I could see why she thought I might. My Tiana side has a pretty pragmatic approach to matters like killing.
“That doesn’t mean it can happen again,” I told Shindzha, replying to her last words rather than Fan Li’s. “It might have been a one-shot thing. I’m going to have some experts have a look at you before deciding what to do.”
She shook her head. “Mistress, I can’t endanger you!”
It had been bugging me for a while, but where was this instant loyalty coming from? Was the bond brainwashing my other Servants like this too?
[To a very mild extent, a small effect of that nature might be included in the blood bond, at least to the point of inclining them in your favor, but it should neither be so compelling nor so overwhelming. This has to do with this girl’s nature. Or perhaps, your bond with her has accidentally taken control of brainwashing that was applied to her by her previous master.]
I gently petted her hair to reassure her. “You haven’t endangered me yet, Shindzha. Relax and trust me to handle it.”
Her eyes grew worried. “Can you truly? I could do absolutely nothing against that thing!”
“I won’t ask you to,” I assured her, then very lightly circulated mana and told her, “[Sleep.]”
With help from my Servants, we moved Shindzha to an undamaged cell, put her on the cot and covered her up with the blanket.
“Lady, can you really do something to prevent that from happening again?” Ceria wondered.
“That’s what I’m going to find out,” I assured her. Hopefully, between Rhea and the Hekatoncheires, I could do so.
Satisfied that things were, at least for now, under control, I patted Shindzha through her blanket, stood, walked out of the cell… and promptly collapsed.
