I felt irritation that she had gotten away, but at least we had managed to get the knife from her. As for the dungeon core, she still had it on her, so she must have taken it. Shaking my head, I turned and approached Miki as she was getting up. Salicia was still on the ground, and she looked even worse now. Some of the veins under her skin had turned black, and it was quickly spreading through her body. One look into Miki’s eyes and I could see the tears and helplessness there. She shook her head.

“She’s… close to death now.”

“You can’t do anything?” I asked.

Miki looked down. “If she was mana-based, I could flush her soul of the miasma. However, she’s already made of miasma. I can’t differentiate the two enough to remove it. I can’t stop the curse from progressing.”

“B-but… she’s a miasma creature herself. How can she even be affected by the blade?” I asked.

“You forget, creatures that leave the dungeon slowly become mana-based. Salicia had been on the surface for years as the Bandit Queen. She had already started to convert. Although it’s not enough to call her mana-based, she has some purified soul in there. Furthermore, the miasma from the knife doesn’t match the miasma in her. Just because they are both miasmas, doesn’t mean they wouldn’t war within her body. If mana and miasma were like oil and water, then two different miasmas are like water and brine.”

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“I see…”

“She isn’t completely helpless against the curse. If she had a scratch like you did, it was possible she would recover. After all, she’s still mostly miasmic, and so the curse can’t hurt her as badly. However, the strike was just too much and too close to her heart. If she was a mana creature, she’d already be dead. As is, she doesn’t have long.”

“How long?”

“At best, a few hours.” Miki sighed.

As a Spiritualist, Miki was an expert when it came to matters of life and death. Even if she couldn’t stop Salicia from dying, she would at least be able to tell me how long. Her answer would probably be more accurate than anyone else in this world. If she said that Salicia had only a few hours to live, it was true.

Grimacing, I walked over to Salicia and then kneeled next to her. She had her eyes closed, looking like she had fallen asleep, but as I kneeled next to her, they shot open. She looked at me, her expression did not give anything away.

“S-Salicia…” I said. “You saved my life.”

“That’s because I’m awesome.” She let out a laugh, which quickly turned to a grimace. “What’s the damage, healer?”

“Y-you’re going to be fine,” I responded. “Just fine.”

“Don’t lie to a liar.” She grinned weakly. “I’ve lived with enough death in my life that I know what’s happening.”

“Master…” I heard Lydia speak up as she walked up to me. “The knife… it wasn’t the miasmic knife.”

“What?”

“She must have switched it out. The knife Celeste knocked away… it was just a normal knife.”

So, in the end, Salicia would die, Calypso got away with the knife, the dungeon core, and Siti betrayed us. I wasn’t used to losing so badly. Even though I was standing in the dungeon, Calypso had defeated us completely.