Stark walked over to Temarick, who was next to Sam. "She's bleeding."
"I'm going to get lightheaded from doing much more." Temarick cursed as he took off towards Liz, followed by Sam.
Nia walked up to Stark. "Are they fine, Grandpa?"
Stark rubbed Nia's head. "Yeah, we don't need to get involved yet."
Nia whispered something to Stark and got hit on the head by him. "Why?!"
"Ungrateful child, watch your tone when you talk about someone who helps you... But yes, she's fully capable of what you're thinking of." Stark called over everyone else.
"Lass! You alright?!" Temarick circled around and saw that Liz was leaking blood from her mouth, making a small puddle.
Temarick shot a small blast of flame at Liz. "I hope that's enough. I'm out of fire for the day."
Sam looked Liz over but found nothing else wrong. "Um, honey, why are you bleeding?"
Liz spat out a mouthful of blood before she talked. "Bleg! I bit my tongue so I didn't scream."
The blood she spat out hit the egg and slowly sucked the blood in, causing the three next to it to stare at the egg, confused.
Temarick glanced at Liz. "Is it not done?"
Liz looked up and saw two sets of text. "Yes, but she going to be like that for a while, and it needs fire the whole time to progress or with my blood."
[Phoenix rebirth has ranked up. II -> III
Time frame increase. 24 hours -> 8 days
Base cost of skill has been reduced by 5%
Potency of phoenix Mother's life force has increased by 25%]
[Sarah has been placed in a state of hibernation for her transition to a special phoenix.
Fire is necessary for her hibernation to continue.
If not provided with fire, she will stay in this state until fire is given.
Phoenix mother's blood can substitute for fire.]
Sam shifted the egg into the puddle of blood in front of Liz. "Where should we set the fire up?"
Liz got up and almost fell as a dizzy spell hit her. "We're going to a decent size fire for a while, and I don't think any of the places I've been would work... Well, here might work."
Temarick touched the charred logs that were warm to the touch. "While we could relight this, it would end up becoming a problem because we're in the open space, and goblins will try interrupting us at any time."
Liz sat down on a log and held her head. "We could watch over it in shifts. But would the three of us be enough? I do need to check on my world after we figure this out."
Stark walked up to Liz and glanced over at the egg sitting in blood. "You could ask us to watch over Sarah."
"Of course, we won't do it for free." Nia chimed in from a distance.
Stark continued not acknowledging Nia's words. "We would like your help in exchange for keeping watching over and helping Sarah."
Liz brought her head up and locked her tired eyes with Stark. "What do you want?"
Stark didn't break eye contact. "We would like your help with destroying the rest of the curse pillars in the city."
"Oh, that? I was planning to do that anyway." Liz sighed and looked back down.
Silence cemented Liz's words into their minds before Kindle landed next to her. "Can I help, Mother?"
Liz scratched Kindle's chin. "So can you set up a smaller fire for Sarah, Kindle?"
"I'll try." Kindle flew over to Ben, and after a brief talk, the two started to brake apart the bonfire to make a smaller one.
Liz looked up and saw that Stark, Nia, and the crowd were staring at her. "What?"
Stark looked at Sam and Temarick and then back to Liz. "I'm just a bit puzzled. Why are you already going to do it?"
Liz tilted her head at the question. "Why is that so surprising to you? Why wouldn't I get rid of something so pointless?"
"It seems I asked a stupid question. I would laugh if so many hadn't died. Excuse me, I help should them." Stark walked off and started to help Ben and Kindle make the small bonfire.
"I'll help with that, then I'm going to lock myself in the tool shed and sleep." Temarick mumbled a bit loud, letting everyone hear him.
Nia walked up to Liz. "You better not be lying."
Liz got up and turned to Nia. "If you want to be sure, you could just help me with it."
"Alright, just tell me when you start then. I need to help, or my grandfather will get mad at me." Nia was going before she heard Liz speak.
"By the way, before you start, why haven't I seen any soul crystals anywhere?" Liz found someone she didn't feel bad to prod for information.
Nia stopped and turned around. "What do you mean?"
Liz gestured around. "I expected to find some in the mill since no one has been here since the curse pillar showed up."
"Oh, that's what you mean. It's because of Nathan." Nia pointed to a short-cut black haired teenager struggling to pick up one of the logs.
Liz stared at Nathan. "So, how?"
Nia explained while she looked around. "He has a skill that pulls soul crystals to him. He used it and pulled all the soul crystals to himself so people could have them to morn over when they didn't have a body."
Liz felt something wrong with that explanation. "How would they know who's in the soul crystal?"
Nia was surprised by Liz. "They can't, and because he drew them all to him at once, we don't know what's an animal and who's my father."
Liz saw that bonfire was made, and they were trying to light it. "Oh, I get that, I thought Kindle was a goblin, but they turned out to be a weasel that had been eaten by a goblin."
Nia was confused by the comparison. "Eaten?"
Liz wanted to know a couple of more things. "How many did he pull in?"
Nia thought for a moment before answering. "He pulled in 4, and people already had 2."
Liz blinked and focused on Nia. "That's it? Hundreds died, and only 6 were found?"
Nia shrugged. "I don't know either, I thought there would be more as well."
Liz opened her status as attention towards the conversation started to fade. "How old are those crystals?"
Nia realized she got out of doing any labor from this conversation. "6 months old at the youngest."
Liz clicked her tongue and mumbled. "Two more ranks at this rate."
"What was that?" Nia questioned.
Liz looked up like she was surprised. "Sorry, just thinking of how I should deal with the curse pillars."
Nia squinted her eyes at Liz. "...Alright, do you have anything else you have to ask?"
Liz chuckled to herself. "Yeah, could you tell me what this looks like when I get back? I still haven't got a clue."
"Sure? Get back, what?" Nia answered baffled.
Nia watched as Liz disappeared in a twister of fire, leaving only a similar-looking egg. "Oh... What just happened?"
.
..
.
Liz leaned up and stretched all of her working limbs. "It's seamless now."
Liz looked over to a clock and took note of the time. "8 hours passed out here... and I was in for 8, but when I'm out for 12, it's only 2 inside."
Liz could hear Jill and Bell talking about something involving food. "Weird... Where's the controller."
Liz went over to her nightstand and fished around in it until she pulled out a joystick controller. "She would usually come to get me in my chair at this point. After all, we've done this 7 times since the lockdown."
"What's its orientation?" Liz flicked the joystick and watched as her chair moved in a certain direction.
Liz moved the chair next to the bed facing her. 'Now, just back into it.'
Liz, with a bit of trouble, got onto her chair. "Man, I almost forgot how annoying this is."
"Haha, I could have killed 12 goblins in the time it took to get in my chair." Liz opened her door and went to the living room.
Bell and Jill were in the kitchen having a discussion. "I'll go out for food."
Bell shook her head. "You can't miss Jill it's too dangerous, I can go."
Jill pointed at Liz without realizing it. "But what about my sister, I need you to watch over her."
Bell slapped her hand on a table. "Miss Jill, can you be shot and not die?"
"Are you bulletproof Bell?" Liz chimed in.
"My skin and organs are coated in carbon fiber, and my bones were made with titanium, Mistress." Bell looked over with a still relatively emotionless face.
Jill looked over to Liz with surprise. "When did you come in?"
Liz saw that the fridge was opened and judged that there would be at most 7 days of food even if they starved themselves. "When you brought up that we needed to get food and you wanted to leave."
Jill closed the fridge. "Well, what do you think, Sis? Actually, don't answer that."
Liz looked the two over and realized Jill was losing weight, but Bell was the same. 'we're eating the amount, as small as it is right now.'
"Bell, do you know how to disarm or disable people?" Liz drummed her fingers on her chair.
Bell nodded. "I have MCMAP installed into my mind."
Jill did a double take. "Why would they have that installed?!"
Bell looked between a suspicious Jill and a curious Liz. "I-"
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*