*Bing-Bong*
Okay, this is getting suspicious.
|What is?|
This is the third ti you're doing this number thing in a row.
|Yeah, and?|
Do you have sothing planned?
|...no.|
You're lying to .
|Maybe. Also, do the thing.|
Right, ahem, we interrupt this chapter to reminder the reader the following:
^^ is for Scorch Talk.
~~ is for Umbral Speak.
"" is for Hoof Speech.
is for Tide Tongue.
We now return to your regularly scheduled chapter, thank you.
*Bing-Bong*
______Shifting to the Garden of Reflective Orchids ______
As the Peony brothers charged towards the girls and their accompanying zako, Alice stepped forward and began to circulate her aether in preparation for battle.
^Everybody, stand back!^ Alice roared as her aether circulation reached its peak.
[Regalia,on!] [Astra, manifest!]
In the blink of an eye, Caligos aether and lighting aether quickly wrapped around Alice's body and condensed into a dark purple battle dress that positively radiated with killing intent, just in ti for the Peony Brothers to attempt to launch an attack at Alice's face.
[Perfur's Punishing Palm!]
Attacking while soone was in the middle of summoning their [Regalia] or [Astra] was a frowned upon, yet viable strategy.
However, it was often predicated on the idea that the attacker was faster than the target.
Unfortunately for the Peony Brothers, Alice was a hair faster than the both of them.
[Lighting Reaper!]
Before the Peony Brothers' strangely scented palms had a chance of impacting Alice's face and doing heaven knows what, the warrior woman from Umbral Spider sent the bastards flying with a tily swing of her scythe shaped [Astra].
~Tsk! Missed.~
She had wanted to slice off the offending arms of these weird serial killer bastards but had to settle on catching one of the brothers on her scythe and using him like a blunt instrunt against the other.
^Ow!^
^Fuck!^
If neither of them were wearing their [Regalia] at this ti, then they both would've ended up as bloody broken corpses with fractured bones sticking out of every part of their bodies.
Instead, Alice had to settle on the fact that her attack went the bastards flying into a bushel of glass orchids.
^Bah!^
^Why does it sting?^
~Wait, what?~
That strangely didn't break nor shatter on being impacted by two adult warriors in [Regalia], but instead, survive while simultaneously stabbing them multiple tis and leaving multiple small lacerations in their backs that were quickly covered by their [Regalia].
While this damage wasn't enough to be life threatening to the Peony Brothers, it did cause Alice, Alicia, Bellona and Harriet to pause and consider their own attacks.
Especially when after the glass petals of these orchids beca stained with blood, they started emitting this weird aura that caused the hairs on their necks to stand on end.
"That's...weird."
"Why were a bunch of glass flowers able to do that?"
"I don't know, but I am getting a bad feeling about this garden now..."
A wise man once said that beautiful flowers hid the greatest of poisons.
When the girls of the Rainbow Phoenix Academy first arrived to this [Garden fo Reflective Orchids], they had assud that this was one of the rare "safe spots" that could occasionally be found in wandering ruins all over the world.
Then again, this assumption was made based on the fact that they hadn't actively ssed with the garden.
One of the first things they saw when entering this place was that there was a brick path connecting the entrances of the garden to each other.
Whether it was due to ingrained etiquette, or because the brick path was painfully obvious, the girls of the Rainbow Phoenix Academy didn't think of straying off the paved path and simply walk through it.
Evidently, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Because while the girls were debating whether or not it was worth to expens unnecessary aether to fly and attack their would-be attackers while hovering over the flowers, the aforentioned attackers were about to go through so...changes.
^You bitch!" One of the Peony Brothers shouted once he had recovered from the attack and got back on to his feet.^Do you know how much it's going cost to fix the clothes underneath this [Regalia]?! This was imported silk!^
"It's fine, brother," the other Peony Brothers said in an attempt to assuage his brother's temper. "We'll just skin her alive and use it as a patch."
Now, this would've been the part where the first Peony Brothers would've been in agreent with his brother and go for another attack. However, that didn't happen because of one simple thing.
^What did you just say?^
"I said...wait, what? What?!"
They were now speaking completely different languages.
Panic befell the brothers as they tried to wrap their heads around the fact that they were no longer able to communicate with each other as fluently as before, but that panic was soon replaced with a brand new sense of terror shortly after.
^Why are you speaking...wait, why does my body feel like it's on fire?!^
"I'm feeling...cold..."
The Peony Brothers began to double over in pain as if sothing was ripping through their intestines and piercing through their skin.
This observation was re conjecture,though, due to the girls being unable to see through the [Regalia] of the Peony Brothers.
However, this wasn't going to be the case for long.
"Can't...hold...much longer..."the Peony Brother that had initially complained about his ruined clothes, griped in perfect Hoof Speech.
the Peony Brother that had attempted to calm the other began to scream in perfect Tide Tongue.
Pop! Pop!
"Oh! Whoa!" Alice exclaid in alarm.
"That's...unsettling," Bellona observed while doing her best to suppress her gag reflex.
"I am suddenly reminded of ze charity visits I did with my ntor," Harriet quietly muttered in deep thought. "The ones where we visited plague victims."
Whatever the hell the Peony Brothers were going through right now, it was bad enough that their [Regalia] dismissed themselves, and the girls now had a full view of their current condition.
Which wasn't great.
One of the Peony Brothers was covered in blisters and sores that oozed dark red pus and reeked of sulfur.
anwhile, the other Peony Brother was looking paler and paler by the second and was becoming so cold that a literal mist began to roll off of their skin.
Alice, Alicia, and Bellona were shocked, disgusted, and had no clear idea of what was going on.
"What the fuck is wrong with them?" Alice asked aloud.
"I don't know, but we should probably put them out of their misery." Alicia said as she readied her mace.
"Agreed!" Bellona said while preparing her chakram.
While Harriet, on the other hand, was surprisingly calm and knew what they were dealing with.
"Don't touch them!"
"Huh?"×3
Which is precisely why the rest were shocked at Harriet's sudden outburst...up until she explained why.
"The one covered in pustules and sores has been infected with Scorching Plague while the one looking like he's about to die of frostbite is suffering from Bleeding Frost! If you touch either of them, you'll be infected imdiately, and none of us have the cultivation to even try and suppress it."
"Oh..."
"Shit."
Knowing about the danger they were in, Alice, Alicia, and Bellona imdiately reigned in their fighting intent and took up defensive positions instead.
Evidently this was a smart idea, as the Peony Brothers ended up vomiting up blood at this point and painting those oh-so pretty glass orchids a dark crimson color.
"Wait a minute, Harriet, how the fuck did these guys get infected?" Alice pointed out while pointing her scythe towards the infected Peony Brothers. "Is this shit airborne?! Also, why are you suddenly more fluent in your speech?"
"Oh, I know the answer to that," Alicia interjected. "Harriet is really passionate about the healing arts and gets weirdly fluent when it becos the focus of a topic."
"Dafuq?"
"No, these types of diseases are only passed on through blood and touch," Harriet explained while succinctly ignoring the additional question. "And if you wanted a vector, I think I can make a very well educated guess or use a trick I picked up from my ntor... I'm going to do both."
As she finished this statent, Harriet pulled out a little silver bell from her belongings.
"Glass makes an excellent container for illnesses, especially bloodborne ones, and we are surrounded by glass flowers," Harriet explained as she channeled aether into the little silver bell. "And more interestingly, infected glassware releases a very unique sound when it resonates with this specific tone."
[Epidemic Echo.]
Ding-a-ling
...
[And thus the ga begins in earnest. This group appears to have soone who recognizes the danger they're in. How refreshing. Been awhile since I've seen soone act competently before my collection, let's see if they can actually figure out the solution...or succumb to the sickness.]
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