"I… I'm alive?"
Daphne rubbed her face, glancing at the priest. Yet Father Gideon didn't look happy at all.
"Gideon, we can still find other monsters," Sadie stepped forward to comfort him.
Daphne's mouth twitched. For a brief mont, she actually felt sorry for the monsters here.
"Sadie's right. For now, let's save the other two hunters first," Ralph said, pointing to the ground.
Only then did Daphne rember her companions still lying there. She rushed to her sister Amy's side.
Amy was still breathing, but her skin was already showing signs of rot—classic symptoms of corruption from the plague mist, and usually irreversible.
Daphne's eyes welled instantly. She didn't dare touch her sister, fearing she'd be infected as well.
The other Calvin clansman, Jan, was little better. His body was swollen with countless bee stings. Though not as dire as Amy's condition, his corruption was just a matter of ti.
Daphne fought to hold back her grief.
She hadn't expected a single expedition to cost so much.
How was she supposed to face herself… or Jan's parents?
"Here. Make them drink this."
A calm voice broke her despair.
Daphne looked up and saw the priest standing there, tossing a small glass vial at her feet.
"This is…?"
"Holy water," Gideon replied offhandedly.
"I'll start with the other two. I'll check on you later."
He strode toward Amy before Daphne could respond.
She froze. Wait—did he just say save?
Could he actually cure Amy and Jan?
Hope flickered in her chest, though she was terrified it was just her wishful thinking.
Daphne stared at the vial in her hands. After a brief hesitation, she pulled out the cork. For the second ti that day, she decided to trust the priest.
---
Gideon opened his exorcism scripture, biting the cork off another vial of holy water.
He sighed. Losing the Hive Queens earlier had stung, but there was more urgent business now.
"By the… ahem… by the Lord's blessing," he began, adjusting his tone mid-prayer,
"may His power shine upon this vessel, and let no evil hide in His light…"
As he spoke, a pale radiance enveloped Amy and Jan. Black pus oozed from their skin, hissing as it hit the ground.
Gideon poured holy water over them, the stench of corruption bursting forth—leeches, black serpents, tumorous flesh spilling from their mouths.
But under the weight of scripture and relics, the evil was quickly purged.
"Ugh—!"
Both suddenly gasped awake, coughing out the last traces of filth.
"Amy! Jan!"
Daphne could hardly believe her eyes. She threw her arms around them, trembling with relief.
The priest had really done it. He saved them.
She wanted to run to Gideon and thank him, but—
"Stay back, miss. The ritual isn't over."
He had just kicked her away again, this ti with a solemn face, scrubbing his shoe against the dirt afterward.
"O–okay!"
Daphne bit her lip hard, telling herself over and over: He's a lifesaver. Don't lose your temper. He's a lifesaver.
Ten minutes later, the three Calvin hunters were fully purified.
"This is the clue we gathered—along with so materials," Daphne said quickly, showing both gratitude and tact.
Sadie accepted the Stone of Revelation, which was what they truly needed. But when Daphne offered the collected materials, she hesitated.
"I appreciate your generosity, but… you should keep them. We already owe you much."
Daphne assud Sadie was being modest. In truth, Sadie just thought the items were bulky and hardly worth carrying.
With Gideon around, the Allard family had already acquired rarer, more valuable spoils.
Still, Sadie used the chance to strengthen ties.
"Take them back. Entering the plague zone is already a service to the Seal itself. That's contribution enough."
Daphne blinked, her heart warming.
"I'll rember this favor from the Allard family," she said, carefully packing the materials away.
Then, with a frown, she asked: "Have you found an oasis yet?"
Sadie shook her head. "Why? Sothing wrong?"
"Yes. After the Trait Hunt begins, oasis locations start to shift."
Daphne unfolded a map, her worry clear.
"This ti, most of the recorded sites have… disappeared."
When they first entered the plague zone, her team had checked multiple oasis points passed down through the families.
Every single one had been swallowed by dense plague mist. So were even crawling with monsters.
That wasn't normal.
And it had drained their swamp leaves faster than expected. That was why Daphne had gone after the Stone of Revelation clue first, saving her clan's hidden oasis for later.
That particular site had never shifted in decades. It was one of the Calvin family's few reliable resources.
"It's not far. With the mist thickening here, we should head there next," she offered, partly to repay the Allard family's kindness.
Sadie was startled. She hadn't expected even the oases to go wrong. If their family's stash of herbs and resources had been compromised, the loss would be devastating.
She glanced at her companions. Gideon and Ralph both nodded.
And so, the two teams set off together.
---
An hour later.
"This… this is impossible…"
Daphne stared at the lake before them in shock.
This was supposed to be the Calvin clan's most secure oasis.
But now it was choked with plague mist, the water blackened with rotting monster corpses.
Exactly like the corrupted sites she'd seen before.
Panic gnawed at her. Their swamp leaves were nearly gone. Without an oasis, death was only a matter of ti.
Gideon narrowed his eyes.
From his perspective, this place had been a "clean haven" not long ago—Daphne hadn't lied.
"Daphne, we need to hurry," Gideon said.
Sadie, too, felt a prickle of worry. She produced the Allard family map. "Let's check the locations marked on our map."
The oasis guarded by the Allards was farther away, so Sadie decided to check the nearer points first. Daphne could only nod—she had no other choice.
They set out again.
Over the next two hours they visited several recorded sites, but the sa problem repeated: every oasis had shifted.
That ant, except for the Allards, the other hunting parties had lost their escape routes.
Gideon had already run tests along the way. The mist around the oases was indeed denser than elsewhere, and although the relics could still hold it at bay, they consud sanctified power much faster. A twentieth-year relic that might normally last over a thousand days only lasted about nine hundred under these conditions.
Gideon was not overly alard.
He asked Sadie how they normally locate an oasis. She explained that the plague mist contains faint traces of natural breath—follow those traces and you can find an oasis. But the scent is so faint that only the tribe's "sacred bell" can detect it. The bell—made from deer hooves, turtle shells and the like—will twitch toward the natural breath. Even then, finding an oasis is often a matter of luck. Hunters sotis spend weeks without ever picking up a trace.
Gideon nodded and reactivated his Ethereal Sight, watching the barely visible pale green currents hanging in the air. "So that's what the natural breath looks like," he murmured. He had assud those currents were rely denser patches of plague mist.
Just as he was about to speak, voices ca from the brush nearby.
"Hey, damn it—are there no other recorded points?"
"We finally got a clue. Are we supposed to die here?"
"Your family's been stuck in the past—using an oasis marked twenty years ago!"
"Shut up, you hypocrite—aren't you standing around doing nothing too?"
"Watch your mouth, or I'll put my boot where the sun don't shine!"
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