Aside from muffled, disgusted moans and the soldiers' chuckling, the room had finally become silent enough to allow Lith to regain his focus. Garith was one of the first infected, and that made him a perfect specimen, at least on paper.
From studying his condition, Lith discovered a few things.
The slow reproduction cycle of the mana blocking parasite had allowed Garith to live that long without side effects aside from the lack of magic. It also gave the parasites enough time to fill him with toxins to the brim.
To add insult to injury, each parasite was enveloped by some kind of cocoon, formed over time by the constant excretion of toxins, that made it almost impossible to pinpoint them even with Invigoration.
To get past the cocoons and make sure of the worms' position, Lith had to spend almost all his mana reserves.
"Your treatment was pretty harsh, sir." Kilian couldn't stop laughing at Garith's desperate attempts to remove the gag.
