The little girl reached out to strike at her with a palm strike. However, the attack went through the fog and hit the ground with a loud explosion!
She missed?!
It can't be-!
She turned around and leapt aside from her place just in time to dodge what looked to be a figure of a wolf. It didn't take long before she realized that more emerged out of the mist...
What is this?!
She quickly dodged another lunge before striking the wolf with a palm. However, the strike went through the wolf's body and hit her ground! That's when it dawned on her.
They aren't real wolves! She's stuck in an array! A special array that can actually attack!
She looked between the creatures to find the focus point of the array to undo it. However, she quickly discovered that she could not find it!
No! It can't be! How could one measly kid be stronger than her!
Suddenly, she found herself buckling under the weight of her body and could not stand up!
Before the wolves, she was nothing more than a helpless rabbit waiting to get torn apart! No! No! She-! She doesn't want to die! She's too young to die!
As a sense of forebode shadowed over her heart, her desire for blood struck her again! She clenched her head in pain as she screamed, "Blood... blood... I want blood! Agh!!!"
As her scream echoed in the woods, the wolves attacked her again. However, with a strong strike, she pushed back her adversaries and screamed again, "The blood of Plant Fairies! Hurry! Give me!"
Suddenly, she was struck in the back as a needle was forced into her body. A piercing screech echoed in the air and the girl crumbled to the ground in pain.
"To think the one who was trying to harm mother was you..."
Lotus appeared from the thick blanket of leaves in the trees before leaping down from a branch. She sneered, "If you're willing to share me the details on how to free the plant fairy under your control, I will naturally let you have your fill of blood."
"You!"
Hatred courses through her as the strong power courses through her veins, "I... I'll kill you!"
"Your anger or your blood?" Lotus repeated unfazed by her glare, "You can either try to vent your anger for freedom or for your blood."
"Go die! Just you wait! I'll suck your blood dry, slowly tear your body apart and eat you alive!" The little girl screamed with a crazed state, "I'll shatter your bones and throw them and that so called mother of yours to the beasts! She'll never be freed as long as she's under my curse! If you kill me, she will die along with me! Until this world is under our thumb and destroyed, you will never see the light of day-!"
Before she could continue, a loud smack ran across her face as Lotus sighed languidly, "It would seem that this girl can neither speak good things nor has a pure mind... However, there's no need to worry about that. Just because she can't speak doesn't mean that only she knows the way to break the curse. Besides... Only a lunatic would dare drink the blood of a fairy. If it was an overblot, she might have a chance to be saved. Sadly, becoming an uncontrollable evil cultivator is the same as going past the point of no return when overblotting. The reason why I kept you around was to see just which form of overblotting it was. Who knew... that it was by consumption of human blood..."
A shiver ran through the forest as a familiar voice spoke up, "There are many forms of taboo in the practice of cultivation. Those who utilize humans into their practice. Those who use humans as experiment subjects. Those who practice forbidden arts... and the worst being those who consume human blood or flesh."
"Guardian." Lotus huffed, "Took you long enough."
"I had to go prepare antidote for a certain person." The white bird huffed in disdain.
"I know." Lotus responded shaking her head, "Crystal told me. Just thought that you'd be out here by now since alchemy is very simple for you."
"Hmph!" The white bird stomped his feet once before turning away, "Finish the business as soon as you are done. We cannot leave any traces behind, unless these traces return to hunt the other students again."
"Right..." Lotus sighed in disdain, "Guess I'll start taking the trash out then. Time to try out that new thing I've been working on."
With that, Lotus approached to the incapacitated girl and spiritual energy flowed through her eyes. Terrified, the girl's heart shuddered and struggled to move, but she couldn't even shake! It didn't take long before the girl's head slumped down despite still breathing. Lotus, then proceeded to take the girl, as a reptile, back into her ring and rode on Little Jun and swiftly left the dorm after throwing a porcelain bottle at the bird.
.....
Lotus had just returned to the dorm when she received a hurried knock on the door. With a raised brow, she opened it to find that it was Silver.
"We... We may need to check on the artifact you've crafted for the prince..."
Despite her irritation at the sight of him, she raised a brow in bewilderment. What does he mean?
"This..." Silver paused after glancing around and hurriedly rushed her to the dorm leader's room.
Never had Malleus have so many people in his room before unless it was for something important which would be taken to the throne room or a banquet hall. For him, everything was a new experience.
"You're finally here, human!" Sebek exclaimed angrily.
Hearing this, Lotus could conclude that the situation was more troubling than she had expected!
Or rather, upon entering, she had already felt the heavy aura of spiritual energy! It was far stronger than what Malleus had in the past. Thankfully, he did not need to incorporate this energy into his nerves and meridians as cultivators would or he'd be in a life and death situation!
Ren sighed in relief upon seeing her present and asked, "Lotus, you're here! Sorry for making you come here just after your recovery. This is very important..."
"This feeling..." Lotus clenched the spiritual stone in one hand, "Did you grow stronger, Malleus?"
Before Sebek could make her correct the way she addressed him, Malleus responded, "It would seem so. You can sense it?"
"Rather than sense it, the energy was overflowing before I even got close to your room." She responded, "I was just swarmed by the pressure of it earlier and couldn't say a word till now. Are you sure you're withholding your strength properly?"
"Well, he is." Lilia responded with a frown, "However, this is too much for him to hold back. If this goes on, we may have to bring him back to Briar Valley."
"What's the rush?" Lotus sighed, "Just because fae's biological body is slightly different from humans doesn't mean I can't diagnose him without touching him."
"Eh?!"
Lotus followed the vision with her eyes and pointed to the staff after hiding her shocked expression, "This staff... I don't think the dorm leader has used other staff aside from the one provided by this dorm? Cause I sense a strong amount of spiritual energy coming from here. But this energy... This mana seems to have the same wave length as him. Is it an artifact? Did he forged some form of bond with it?"
Hearing her words, the others were flabbergasted. Because her room was across the hall, they know for sure that she couldn't have eavesdropped on them. If she had, Lilia would be the first to alert them! Then, the magic stone really helped her to this extent?
"Do you have an eye ability, Lotus?" Ren asked carefully, "Your eyes are moving strangely."
"Huh?" She looked to him in shock and quickly lied, "Th-that's right. This is something the princess let me borrow, as in I only get to use it for a set number of times and set length of time each before I can no longer use the ability. It's sort of like Azul's contracts. Once the time limit of the contract is met, the trade is over. I've used this plenty of times before during tough cases. You're the first person to notice it so far."
"Ren was taught by Silver and Sebek in the past for a brief period of time." Lilia explained, "So, his attention to details are better than most humans."
"I see..." Lotus raised a brow doubtfully. If she were to draw her own conclusion, she'd say that it was Ren's own talent rather than a taught ability. Still, she turned to them and continued, "You can go and see her majesty after the gala. I'll just make another artifact to temporarily cut off the connection between the two. Unless you would prefer another method?"
"Are there other methods?" Silver asked hesitantly.
Lotus nodded, "I can restrict use of magic or add more suppressants, but Malleus is a royalty. I worry what would happen if something occurs and he needs a certain large amount of magic for something, such as teleporting. If I restrict it too much, it could prove a problem."
"Can you actually restrict all of his powers?" Lilia raised a brow.
Lotus sighed, "If it was the queen, I've already failed numerous times already."
"The queen?" Silver raised a brow.
"Yeah." Lotus nodded as she went into her bag, "I don't know why the queen requested it, but I'm just a worker. So I'd rather not question it. She always tries to get an artifact once a year but it always doesn't work, since her magic is so powerful that she breaks them every time without meaning to. So, my skills is no match for her power. If it's Malleus..."
She then fished out a brooch of a large black rose from her bag and handed it to them, "This was the last thing I was working on last year. A limiter with a magic switch. It limits magic to a certain amount and blocks connection with others, such as artifacts or familiars. Inserting magic in it will unlock the function. It seemed to work on the princess so I don't know if it works on the dorm leader."
"Hm..." Malleus picked up the limiter before anyone could stop him and suddenly found that a portion of his magic had been suppressed!
It wasn't much, but just a portion was a very large amount of magic to begin with for him. It was then that he felt a switch with his remaining magic and the flower shattered in his hands!