Chapter 97
As Simple As Opening A Door
The area we were in was a giant puzzle cube. At least that is the impression that I got from the layout of different rooms, and the different patterns needed to get from one section of the zone to another. There were three doors that spread out from our initial safe zone that we were in. As it was, the two outer doors both linked up with the main room ahead, but those routes would be a lot longer and more circuitous, so for now the most logical step would be to try to open the doorways between each of the rooms.
That is when I made my first revelation about the alleged doorways that existed between each room. From just looking at them, it was clear that while there was a physical component to the doors, they were actually a magically imbued barrier, but they were not ones that I had ever seen. I was in the process of trying to figure out why the barriers looked so familiar, when Mallory pulled me from my musings with a question.
“Should I just cut my way through it?” Mallory asked, already mentally calling forth her scythe and materializing it. The minute she did, she seemed to startle herself. “Whoa, that’s what it looks like to you?”
Hearing her and seeing the fact that she almost gave herself a sense of shock from wielding her own scythe I had to chuckle. “Yes, that is what your scythe looks like, even when you haven’t fully manifested it in the physical realm.”
At that she pauses and just looks at her hand that still has the scythe, then as if she was suddenly tripping, she took a few seconds to fully summon and then partially dismiss the scythe, only to then repeat the process repeatedly. Each time going through the different functions of her summoning ability.
“That is so cool!” She shouts as she keeps the blade partially called and then lackadaisically swipes it through the air. Then there is a point where the blade slightly contacted the wall, and that is when all hell broke loose.
SHRIEEEK!
RUMBLE!
The ground began to rumble, at the same time a defensive call was let out by monsters that were part of this zone.
“That is not a toy!” I chastise, but then wait. Fortunately, we are still within the safe room, but it seems that the first and main door to exit through is now swarming with dozens, if not hundreds of spiders.
Mallory who was still piggy-backing off of my shared senses, well part of my shared senses saw the spiders on the other side of the main door and took up a ready posture. “Don’t worry, I can take a few spiders.”
“That’s not the point of this. Those are clearly creatures who are responding to the tree, meaning they might have a symbiotic relationship with Yggidraspirit, the world tree that we are currently within. At the very least, we might want to keep the tree protectors alive long enough to help with any real enemy.” I state.
Hearing my words, Mallory lowered her attack posture and stood up straighter, “you’re right. Sorry about that, I guess I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t know that in half phase my blade could do damage to the building we are in. Normally it just passes through solid objects, but given that this whole building is technically alive, I should have been more aware.”
With that, the main entryway was now blocked to us, at least for the time being. We might still have to fight our way through the nest of spiders, but that was something I would greatly hope to avoid at this time.
“Alright, new rule, no scythe until we are actually in combat.” I said.
“Okay.” Mallory said, looking a bit embarrassed, but she did finally unsummon her scythe.
With that done, she asked, “so do we still go through the main door?”
“No, now we go through the longer side doors that can hopefully let us solve this place without getting into combat with the spiders up ahead.” I state, as I then head over to the right-side doorway and begin trying to once again puzzle out why the doorways looked so familiar. Yes, if I wanted to I was certain that Mallory could easily summon forth her scythe can cut down these temporary doors, but that would be the easy answer. At least that is what my mind was telling me. Then after looking at the doorway for a hot minute, the truth of the situation came to me. “Oh wow, I feel dumb.”
“What? Did you figure out what is up with the door?” Mallory asked.
“Yeah, I even know why it looks so familiar. Also, given where we are and why we are here, it makes surprisingly too much sense.” I say, as I begin to go forward and place my hand on the door. The minute I do, a black tendril unwinds itself from the door and wraps itself along my arm.
“What is that?” Mallory screams as she has summoned her scythe instantly.
“Stop that!” I scream, momentarially getting distracted by Mallory, which was all the black tendril needed to make contact with my skin.
Sizzle.
My skin was now sizzling, but it was something I could handle, as it actually helped me prove to myself what exactly I was dealing with. This was “a blighted doorway.”
“A Blighted doorway?” Mallory parroted.
“Yes,” I begin, but then pause. “Well not necessarily a doorway, I figure it is likely some type of flow valve the tree produces naturally, but it has since been sealed permanently shut by the amount of blight inside it.” I say, as I begin both fighting back against the tendril that is wrapped around me, keeping it from penetrating my skin. Fortunately, my resistance to the Blight makes this process a lot easier than it would normally be. Particularly thanks to my recent blessing by the pegicorns.
Pegicorn's Blessing
You have been blessed by the last pegicorn and are now officially recognized as a legendary healer of nature and spirit creatures alike. You are 25% more resistant to the blight and 25% more capable of healing the blight.
With that blessing flaring to life within my mind, I realize this next part should be relatively simple. Well not simple, this is still the greatest piece of Blight that I have ever had to operate on. While this is the equivalent of a fungal infection on a minor toenail, for Yggdraspirit, I cannot take this for granted, for the size of the infection in comparison to my body is a two to one ratio in favor of the infection. Still, this is basically what I was asked to do here. Come in and heal Yggdraspirit of its infection, so that is what I will do.
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With the tendril around my arm stopped from entering, I then make sure to wrap up the tendril in my own vice like net. This will be important, at least I feel that will be the case. In my mind I see the door as a puzzle, one where you have but so many moves you can make at first, all to turn out all the lights or on all the lights. Knowing that going over a light will restart it, and likely set off a rapid growth sequence for other areas. Realizing the trap before me, I set out to operate, as I let a smile crest my lips. This was going to be fun.
Instantly I began sending multiple healing strands of energy out, striking at different clusters of the Blight. Within seconds, the doorway that had been completely covered in an oozing black tar like substance was able to show specks of clear green life. It was at this point that I realized that the green spots, while better than they were, were still weak, and easily able to be reinfected if I was careless with the way I dealt with the Blight. That was when I went and used Omni-Heal on the weakened sections, regrowing the deep fibers of the tree’s natural pathways, all while pushing the infection further and further to the center of the doorway, right towards my hand, and towards the tendril of the Blight that was wrapped around my arm and was now being held in place by my own cocoon of magical netting.
The process was long, made even harder by the fact that the cleared spots that I cleared out seemed to create a vacuum-like effect on the surrounding Blight that had been just sitting next to the doorway. I then had to clear off these sections as well, but fortunately the now healed and cleansed sections were twice as easy to clean up. That was the process, and as I went through, I found much easier ways to deal with the blight, there were patterns that the blight would do, when faced with my cleansing. The patterns that were utilized by the semi-sentient symbiotic magical parasite were predictable, at least for me they were, as they seemed to fall into the same patterns, I was used to from having healed so many Blighted patients.
That is how I fell into a rhythm of healing, obliterating parts of the Blight, and then corralling the remaining portions out the one hole I left it as an escape.
Finally, I was at a good part, the doorway and everything around it was now clear of the Blight. There was just one final section left, with an operation like this time stretches on, you notice the failures a lot more than the successes, as they seem to set you back hours. Honestly, I didn’t know how long I had been focusing on this process, a quick mental glance at Mallory showed that she was still attentively standing guard and staring off into space. Well, maybe she wasn’t paying as much attention as I had hoped, but we were still in the safe area, so her lack of attention was acceptable, at least for now.
“I just wanted you to know, that whatever happens next, please don’t chop my arm off.” I state, turning my head to Mallory.
Mallory, who had been staring off into nothingness shook her head, and then turned towards me. “What?”
“I am in the final stages of curing this section. When that happens, I will ask that you refrain from doing anything drastic, like chopping off my arm.” I state.
“What? Why would I do that?” Mallory asked, a slightly confused tone to her voice.
“Okay, again, this is all supposed to happen.” I state, then not really turning my head, I begin sending my last surges of energy into the sections of the giant doorway. I have corralled the infection and am now pushing it out, this could normally be a painful act for the patient, but with the way I am doing it, the Blight chooses the easiest path, namely coming out the opening that has the tendril and following that to another suitable host, me.
That is why I let the Blight continue making skin contact with me, figuring that my skin contact would be enough of a lure to get the rest of the infection to follow suit. And it worked, rather too well.
Squish-pop!
The tendril makes an audible sucking sound, as it fully extracts itself from the hole and then lunges onto me. Fortunately, I was prepared for this fact, and the fact that I had my head still turned away from the infection, and towards Mallory paid off, as the magical slime like entity lunged forward and tried to stick to my face. Fortunately for me, it only got my ear. Still not a comfortable feeling, but far better than having the drowning like feeling of it entering my mouth and nose.
This was the moment I used my newly acquired duelist skills. With my right hand planted on the door, my free left hand began using both Quick Casting, and Legendary Trick Shot. Seven beams of energy shot out from my hand, then once the spell hit its apex, I subtly moved my fingers once, to pull the spell down towards the squirming mass.
To no real surprise, the mass of the Blight squirmed and ducked out of the way, making it so it somehow missed almost all my strands, only having to take on the center beam that struck it dead in the center. At that, I smiled, as I could almost feel the sentience of the Blight delighting in the fact that I had missed. That was when I let a devilish smile crest my lips as I did so many things all at once. The first thing I did was I began hardening parts of the spell weave that flew over and around the Blight. Then using the method that I had been practicing as much as possible, I twisted my left hand and yanked the six parts of my spell that missed the Blight. That’s when the cords came back with a vengeance.
I think I could almost see the moment of recognition fill the little Blight’s mind, as it panicked and began trying to extricate itself from my arm to flee. Of course, I would offer it no such quarter, as removing itself from my right arm just made things easier for me, as I quickly withdrew my now meaningless right arm from the trap. Then with the magical cords solidifying from all angles, and then there was a moment when the magical cords became as sharp as magical garrote wires, all coming together and slicing the remaining portions of the Blight like it was cottage cheese. The spell wasn’t done there, as everywhere that the Blight touched my spell threads, instantly began burning away the weakened plasma-like skin of the Blight.
Snap.
Then the cords were all pulled tightly in a vice-like effect and the remainder of the Blight melted away in an oddly satisfying manner.
“Gotcha!” I said, as I continued to tighten my spirit burning spell construct, burning away all the remaining residue of the Blight.
Only once my focus on obliterating the Blight was done, did I allow myself to relax. That was when I realized Mallory was staring at me with her mouth wide open.
“What?” Was all I managed to ask, before we were met with a quest prompt.
Hidden Quest Found: Curing The Patient (1/30): You have healed the first valve of Yggdraspirit the sacred world tree of the elves and the orcs. By healing these clogged passageways, you can begin to breathe life back into the sacred tree. Go out and explore, find the other clogged passageways and fully heal Yggdraspirit. Rewards: Experience, Title, variable.
“Oh nice, another title.” I said, with not too much fanfare, I guess I might think of it as a cool accomplishment once I get the title, also I realize that the title likely scales based on how far we get with this process. You know what, I just want to take a moment, that was intense. Then I pause, as I realize I was once again still filtering my whole thought process through Mallory. Then pausing, I realize that Mallory is still just standing there. Did I break Mallory again? Then after a moment I realized I still had my personal thought filter in place, so I asked.
“I didn’t break you again, did I?”
At that question, Mallory shook herself, but then just paused. “No, you didn’t break me, I was just a little caught off guard by how vicious you were.”
“Vicious?” I asked, suddenly confused.
“Yeah, the way you seemingly took delight in destroying the Blight, that was rather odd.” Mallory posed.
I thought about that, and while I was happy, I did feel that the comment was a bit unwarranted.
“I was just happy at a job well done. That took a lot of time and effort.” I said, a bit defensively.
“Oh, I know. Trust me, I saw the way you flew through that whole process. Then the way you baited the Blight into coming out and trying to target you. Chuckle.” Mallory said, and then began laughing.
I didn’t quite understand why the laugh, but I sat there and waited. Finally Mallory deigned to answer my unspoken question.
“Sorry, it’s just hard to imagine you going from being the ultimate pacifist, to being the ultimate slaughterer of the Blight, even going so far as to take delight in killing it.” Mallory said.
“What?” I asked, but I couldn’t quite grasp what she was getting at. “I can both be a pacifist and be okay with killing a semi-sentient disease.”
“Semi-sentient? HAH!” Mallory began. “That is not the case, and you know it.”
At that I feel like I have missed something. Yes, the Blight does show some reactive capabilities, but that is no different than any other single celled organism would, right?
My confusion must be apparent on my face.
“You don’t know do you? You can clearly see that the Blight will react to you, but you don’t think it is fully sentient? One super construct bent on destroying the world?” Mallory asks.
I pause, as I think Mallory might either have extra insight into the plague that I am not aware of, or her feelings of what she experienced during her years of being sick might have played a role in her current thinking. Either way, I realize that I am far from the leading expert in the Blight, while I might have come up with a way to cure the Blight, I don’t think that I know everything there is to know about the Blight. While I will agree that it does possess some semi-sentient qualities, I am not yet ready to believe that it is in fact fully sentient. With that, I realize that I might have to rethink this disease, and in fact the way to counter it, maybe this new wave of insight will make it that much easier to cure.
I pause for a moment and try to take in the ethical dilemma of killing off an entity like a sentient disease that can slowly kill and torture victims for years. Then after a brief thought, I realized that even if the Blight is in fact fully sentient and capable of feeling pain, it is one organism that I am okay with fully eradicating from this world. Though again, this is a slightly tough moral quandary, I feel that the idea of being a pacifist does not preclude me from killing diseases or bacteria, regardless of whether they are sentient or not.
With that ethical dilemma quickly solved I realize we are likely wasting a lot of time here. I am about to leave, when I stop, and turn back towards Mallory. Now I didn’t mean to turn back towards Mallory, it is just that she was now directly in between me and my next point of interest.
“Everything okay?” Mallory asks.
“Yes, I am just going to cure these other two doors first.” I state, noting that the doorway is still fully sealed shut, meaning we would have to likely force our way through to get out of here. And once we were out, there was no clear solution to the fact that I might get a chance to double back and come here. That was why I took the moment to abuse our time in the safe room for all that it was worth. Even after triggering the guards in the center room, now that I knew the doors wouldn’t open once healed, I decided to work my way through this quest as quickly as possible.
“Door number two, here I come.” I said, as I once again placed my right hand on the door and set about the long process of eradicating the Blight from it as well. This was going to be a long day, I could already feel it, but I did feel satisfied with what I was doing. Even if it meant killing off a sentient creature, something that I still had my doubts about, but was willing to at least entertain the idea, if for closure more than anything else.