The two walked toward the end of the hallway, facing the flame, Tabitha realized that the white figure behind the flame was Fay, who was in her white dress. Her head was hanging down, and a few blond hairs hung around her cheeks. She was hardly identifiable. Her wand was still held in her hand, and there a spot of light at top of her wand. It illuminated her entire body. Somehow, Tabitha's body started shaking slightly with a panic-stricken fear.
The duo stopped simultaneously. Tabitha stepped out of Alfred's shadow and tried to talk to the young girl in a soft voice, "Fay, what are you doing here?"
The girl who heard the sound slowly lifted her head and her cervical spine lifted upwards in a quite unnatural way. Her movement reminded Tabitha of the motions of puppets under a puppeteer's control. Tabitha clenched Alfred's sleeve and took a step back.
Fay did not speak at all. After she raised her head, she looked straight at the two teammates who were standing in front of her. As she raised her head, the wand in her hand also lifted a little higher. Under the flame, a strange silvery white appeared in her eyes. Alfred frowned slightly and suddenly threw "Aaron" to the ground from his back. He took Tabitha in his arms and hurled her to the left.
The girl in the man's arms didn't even have a chance to do anything but two ice orbs had already arrived at the place they stood. The man on the floor was struck, sending blood spewing all over. All the tiles around them shattered. Alfred didn't stand up immediately and used his body to shield off the tiles, flesh, and blood.
Fay held her wand and took a step toward the two. Her step was stiff. Every joint of her body seemed to aid her strange movement.
"Her mind is empty! I can't stop her with my ability! After I count to three, let's run forward together and try to get to her back!"
Tabitha listened to Alfred's words and kept her eyes fixated on the young girl who was approaching them with every step. "We have already left Aaron on the first floor alone. Now we need to abandon Fay too?!" She didn't dare to move nor want to move. She came from a civilized world. Fay was the first person she knew here and she couldn't bring herself into leaving such a young girl who was still in her golden years in such a gloomy hospital.
"…"
Alfred wanted to say something but stopped. He looked at Tabitha's hand and asked, "How much more of your ability can you use?"
"My ability... It should be about 70% now... What do you want to do?"
"If I'm not mistaken, your ability is restoration, right? If all the creatures can be treated, we might have a chance to restore her sanity." Alfred replied, "If you insist, we can try. But we don't know what the result will be. We might die together under her hand if something that exceeds our expectation happens."
Alfred stared at Tabitha's eyes, and the ambiguous emotions in his amber pupils seemed to boil over. He hated taking such risks, but... well, just this once. If it worked out for them, they could get a strong teammate anyway.
"Tell me, tell me what I should do."
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"Hey! I'm here!"
Alfred yelled at Fay. They had already circled around Fay about two or three times. Alfred got a general understanding of Fay's weakness by now. One was that her vision was close to nothing, and secondly, her speed was very slow. She could only attack with the sound and the light on her wand. After Alfred turned off the flashlight, she just became a puppet that went off her proverbial strings.
Tabitha took the chance while Fay walked towards Alfred. She threw the climbing rope out and tied the rope to the pillar on the side. Fay's movement was slow and stiff. As soon as she was struck by the rope, her forward momentum made her fall to the ground.
Alfred didn't approach the girl immediately. He looked at her for a few seconds and finally stopped to Fay's side. He grasped Fay's wrist tightly. Tabitha vaguely heard a cracking sound and vaguely saw something dropping from Fay's hand. Her wand fell to the ground. Apparently, she had lost the ability to cast her most powerful attack. Alfred genuflected beside Fay, used his hands to string her arms together, ensuring that she could not escape.
He gestured to Tabitha to come over.
Tabitha placed her hand on the girl's forehead, and after the health bar appeared, the actual numbers of Fay's status revealed:
Life Value: 5/100
Ability Value: --
Tabitha frowned. Why was her life value so low... Fay should not have been in such a perilous state despite not being active moments ago. Tabitha used her ability as green light enveloped Fay's face. Half a minute later, more than half the silvery white color in Fay's eyes resided. The sweat dribbled from Tabitha's forehead, but she did not dare stop. After spending a lot of energy, Fay's life value finally reached 8/100. Obviously, Fay's state was more complicated than what Alfred conjectured.
Another minute passed, Tabitha finally stopped when she felt that drained from overusing her ability. Alfred handed a bottle of clear water to her. He looked closely at Fay for a moment and connected his mind with Fay. He was relieved. Although Fay's sanity was still blank, there was a faint stir that he could feel.
"She shouldn't wake up anytime soon. Let's take a rest. I can't stand up yet..."
Tabitha wiped the sweat from her forehead and drooped both her hands. She leaned against Fay's body with her eyes slightly opened. Alfred walked to the corner and did a rough inspection of his surroundings with a flashlight. He found nothing. When he walked back and saw Fay's wrist that had been twisted by him, he came to a halt. He lifted the swollen wrist and twisted the joint back in just one motion.
"You learned how to do that before?"
Tabitha's eyes remained half-opened; only watching the sweating man through a tiny gap between her eyelids.
"I've stayed in the barracks for a few years." Alfred snorted, apparently not wanting to mention it. Tabitha opened her eyes and looked at the person in front of her. The man wearing glasses always gave her a feeling of elegance. It was hard to match him to a sweating soldier on a battlefield with the bearing he exuded.
"Something... Is something in front of us?"
Despite relaxing his body slightly, the man remained alert to his surroundings. He looked around and pointed to a wall at the end of the corridor. Tabitha didn't like to pry into the privacy of others. Naturally, she didn't ask Alfred for a detailed account of his past. Tracing Alfred's finger, there were gray walls and fog-filled area. Nothing seemed wrong.
Wait… She took a flashlight and shone in front of her. The light reflected a soft halo on the wall. "Is that a mirror over there?" Tabitha had no strength and could only ask Alfred to do the exploring.
After walking up to the wall and looking carefully, he realized that there was a carved silver mirror fixed to the wall. Alfred seemed to feel a bit distorted when he looked at himself in the mirror. The feeling reminded him of his previous experience in the basement. He didn't stay for a long time. Since there was something here, he turned to return to Tabitha.
"It's a mirror." Alfred gestured. "A one-meter-tall silver mirror..." as he described, an idea came to him. He knelt down and opened Fay's eyelids. Fay's eyes were normal—the silver-white color in them was gone.
"That mirror might be the reason… for Fay's actions."