Percy watched Rei as she sifted through the empty vials in her pockets, her trembling hand probably searching for a healing potion.
It didn’t seem like she had any left.
“Here you go,” he said, startling her. She clearly hadn’t noticed him approach.
Summoning two from his storage, he extended his hand. But she seed hesitant to take them.
“They won’t be enough anyway. My liver is severely damaged.”
“They will be, if you drink more of them.” he replied, bringing out another two. “I still have a few left.”
Rei bit her lip. She was clearly tempted to accept them. If her pained expression was anything to go by, her wound hurt a lot. Still, she shook her head in the end.
“Keep them. Sol will be able to use them after her new core is ready. You might need them later.”
Rei rested her head on the pile of carcasses behind her. The scaly hides of the Yellow lizards had to be rough, and the stench of blood and excrent was nauseating. But Percy didn’t fault her for not caring about any of that: the muddy ground didn’t look like a better place for her to die.
“Why are you giving up?!” Sol suddenly asked, taking back control of her body. “You’ve made it this far! We can bring you along!”
“Like I said… There’s nothing more I can do to help. I’d just slow you down…” Rei replied weakly.
Picking a tiny mushroom from the ground: one that had been uprooted amidst the chaos: she fiddled with it for a few seconds, probably considering whether to sprinkle so spores in her wounds.
“Don’t…” Percy said, grabbing her wrist. “No point in putting yourself through that. It’ll take longer to grow on you, and I doubt it’ll make a difference. If the Yellow beasts aren’t enough, we’re fucked anyway…”
She nodded.
The others had approached them too at so point. Not that there were many left: just Doh and Latt. They were looking at Rei, their gazes full of sorrow and compassion.
Sighing, Percy spoke, offering them another solution: against his better judgent.
“There is another way to save you… All four of you.” he said, surprising everyone. “But it’s not my call.”
Over the next few minutes, he told them about the Vault. He really didn’t want to make a habit of resorting to that whenever things went south, but what else was he supposed to do? Just let them all die?
Percy wasn’t the most social person. Even when he spent a long ti living sowhere, he didn’t easily connect with the people there. After years in the Guild, he’d barely grown close to Freddy, Orin and Nesha. He hadn’t really befriended anyone in Bogside town or Twilight City either. It was mostly his hosts that he tended to grow close to: an inevitable consequence of his bloodline. The only other people he’d befriended with his clones had been Tlaloc, Lyn and Klatz. Even then, he’d spent much less ti with them.
But the lodians were different.
He’d only been here for a month, but he’d spent every waking mont by their side, either trekking through the forest together or fighting against the beasts, sweating and bleeding with these people. And they were good people. They’d sacrificed everything for their country. He knew their nas and their faces. Even their traits and their spells. Suffice to say, he felt bad watching them die.
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“What’s the catch?” Doh asked as he finished his explanation.
“Where do I even begin?” Percy smiled bitterly.
He should be able to bring everyone to the Vault, since tatron would be interested in Sol and Doh, while Rei and Latt fell well within his quota. This was why he hadn’t ntioned anything earlier: because there had been more of them.
But the titan would definitely learn about the Mirror Lake. No way they’d pass four soul affinity users off as a coincidence. And he’d want it. The idea of giving tatron sothing this precious again sickened Percy to no end.
“We’ll have to make a deal with him. He gets the Mirror Lake in exchange for your people’s safety. The good news is that he’s honoured every deal we’ve ever made so far, so you can at least trust his word.”
Other than the Elental Source, lodia didn’t really have anything else of value: they didn’t even have any advancent resources. tatron would be more than happy to leave them alone. Even sending a demigod to protect their country from the beasts would be trivial for him.
“But the Mirror Lake won’t belong to you anymore. Your world won’t belong to you either, really. You’ll always be at his whim. The likelihood of sobody else finding out about it will also go up. tatron might decide to sell it at so point, or one of his enemies might learn about it. And your people are just part of the bundle.”
Percy didn’t press them, giving them so ti to consider it. He knew it was a big decision.
Eventually, Rei spoke again. She wasn’t the leader of the expedition, but she was the one whose life was currently hanging by a thread, so everyone was more than keen to listen to what she had to say.
“I joined the expedition for our people… everyone did… I’d rather die than abandon our mission and spit on everyone’s sacrifices.”
“But there’s no guarantee we’ll reach the lake. Even if we do, we might fail to upgrade the spell. Or Sol and Doh might get killed on the way back. I won’t even be able to stay with them for the return trip.” Percy said. “This may be the only way to save your people.”
She shrugged, though the movent made her wince.
“Let ask you sothing… How confident are you that this Dance thing is enough to turn the situation around?”
“I’m not sure how powerful the complete technique is, since my main body has yet to perfect it. Supposedly, it boosts one’s strength by a full grade, and I’m inclined to believe that. You’ve all seen Circulation. Even that might be enough, so the upgraded version should be plenty, assuming Sol can bring it back to your country.”
“Then… try to reach the lake. If you can’t, you can always escape to the Vault later… But I don’t want you to give up ahead of ti for my sake…”
“Are you sure?” Percy asked.
“If we end up making a deal with that god, you’ll have died for nothing!” Sol added, not happy about this.
Percy could feel how shaken the poor girl was, seeing her friend at death’s door. And Rei was far from the first person she’d lost over the past few years.
“I’m not dying for nothing.” Rei smiled. “None of us has. We’re dying to give lodia a chance to stand on its own two feet. I’d rather die for our people to protect themselves, than to rely on the kindness of so alien titan who only cares about the Mirror Lake.”
The others nodded along, sharing her decision. The only one who seed bothered by it was Sol, but she kept her thoughts to herself. Well… herself and her prying fiend.
Doh and Latt kept the dying woman company, but Percy didn’t. As much as he would have loved to stay by her side until the very end, he knew his priority was to repair Sol’s new core, else they’d just be wasting her sacrifice.
Digging into the pile of carcasses, he pulled so of the older ones resting at the bottom. These had been around for nearly a full day, so the mushrooms on them had already matured. Brushing his hands along the shrivelled bodies, he allowed the seed in Sol’s abdon to drain every drop of life mana from the fungi. Then, he tossed them aside, moving to the next ones.
Going through all of them would take hours. Especially since he’d probably have to wait a bit longer for the more recent ones. And they could get attacked again at any point.
It was about half an hour later when Rei exhaled her last breath, evident by Doh and Latt’s sobs. Percy’s heart clenched at that mont, tears streaming down Sol’s cheeks.
‘This was her choice… We just have to make sure we honour it…’ he said, more to himself than his host.
As Percy and Sol harvested the mushrooms, Latt took so ti to bury their fallen comrades. They did get attacked again in the afternoon, but it was only a lone Green beast this ti. Doh took care of it by himself. Tired as he was, he seed to have appreciated the chance to vent.
He planted a few more mushrooms on it too, just in case. But it proved unnecessary, since the Decree stopped absorbing mana by nightfall, with plenty of carcasses left.
Only then did the trio run away from this place, before the next wave of scavengers showed up. Despite their exhaustion, they moved much faster than they had over the past month.
Yet, the weight on their shoulders had only grown heavier…
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