Duchess of Ceresé: "I've found some leads about Malum while both of you were away."
They were in Aquie's office, discussing right after they finished dinner, and after Yen and Marione spent some time in the festival.
Marione: "That quick?"
Duchess of Ceresé: "I've questioned some witnesses and was actually one myself."
Yen: "Did the Malum do anything to you?"
Duchess of Ceresé: "I was able to watch from afar and conceal my presence enough with magic to get a bit closer."
Marione: "..Could you elaborate what you saw?"
Aquie stayed silent for a moment, as if she was recollecting all of the memories and piecing them together.
Duchess of Ceresé: "I got to finish signing documents early, so I used magic to teleport to a village and start investigating there. There were 3 people, the witnesses, who recognized me and immediately told me of the situation. I went to the scene only to see a big part of the forest in flames, and a lion like creature with a devil's tail roaming about.."
She stayed silent a bit more.
Yen: "You can continue."
Duchess of Ceresé: "I wanted to fix the problem, but I needed to know more information about it just in case something like this happens again. So I used magic to conceal myself, and as I got closer, the more I could tell how much it was in pain."
Yen: "In pain..?"
Duchess of Ceresé: "Malum is something that haunts and possesses it's user into becoming Malum itself. For a lion, it's probably still resisting but it won't be long until Malum completely corrupts the body, kicking the soul out or maybe even devouring it completely."
Yen: "Did it harm you in any way?"
Aquie opened up her sleeve on her left arm, showing the bandages wrapped up. It was bleeding so much, at this scene alone has both shocked and horrified Yen and Marione.
Yen: "What even triggers Malum in the first place..?"
Marione: "Possibly something as dark, like negativity, or just negative emotions in particular. Anger, regret, sorrow, fear. It may be something that lures it and makes it easier to posses."
She paused, then looked at Yen with seriousness in her eyes.
Marione: "It may be the very reason for 'that'."
Yen: 'Is she implying about my death? It makes sense, now that I think about it. I was filled with such negative emotions that it may have made me quite the bait for Malum.'
Duchess of Ceresé: "Now, what is 'that'?"
Marione: "Ehh.. Yen?"
Yen: "You may tell her. I was planning to do it myself anyways."
Marione: "So technically, Yen has somehow traveled into the past after getting 'killed' by Malum after she find out Rui cheats on her. We assume the magic was her doing but we have yet to test it out. She's now trying to find her way out of death and her death day is supposedly in 5 days."
Duchess of Ceresé: "Oh.. I figured."
Yen: 'She didn't even bat an eye on it. That's how observant she was of me.'
Yen: "Of course. I was too obvious about it."
Duchess of Ceresé: "So you just need to get killed or just be in the verge of death?"
Yen: "Most likely the second one. I was just crushed, so it wasn't too serious."
Duchess of Ceresé: "Alright. So.."
Marione: "?"
Yen: "?"
Duchess of Ceresé: "How do we kill you?"
Yen: "What?!"
Duchess of Ceresé: "I don't mean it like an assassination, but we need to know about those abilities of yours and how to hide them from the empire. It would be too dangerous for others to know."
Yen: "I mean, you could kill me off right now and I'd probably go back to my safest point in time."
Marione: "Are you sure? You were quite hesitant back then.."
Yen: "Just get it over with before I regret my decision."
Aquie tapped her finger into her forehead as Yen felt a huge sensation all over her body. It was as if she would collapse at any moment.
Yen: 'Is this, a painless death?'
____________________
Yen opened her eyes again in shock.
Duchess of Ceresé: "Alright, so... How do we kill you?"
Yen: "Huh? I thought you.. oh wait.."
Marione's eyes widened.
Marione: "Why is your magic level on expert right now..?"
Duchess of Ceresé: "Did you revive?"
Yen: "I.. I have! But it feels quite unreal.."
Duchess of Ceresé: "How do you feel right now?"
Yen: "I feel like I died quite the painless death, and it's as if I'm having deja vu too."
Marione: "It's confirmed. She made it back to the past again."
Duchess of Ceresé: "But what or who killed you?"
Yen: "Well.. you tried to test out your theory with magic so we'd have information about it. I actually died a minute after I came back here."
Duchess of Ceresé: "Ah.. my bad.."
Marione: "But we may have new information right? So what new things have you discovered?"
Yen: "The time I go back to the past could be what I wished for, or also most likely the safest point of my life, because the first time it happened, I wished I went back to when it was the starting point of my relationship, and the second time, I wished to go back a few minutes before I died."
Duchess of Ceresé: "I see.. that is quite useful."
Yen: "Another, is that I think I most likely don't have the power of resurrection and going to the past, but more of time itself."
Marione: "So what you're trying to say is, if you try hard enough, you might be able to travel to both the past and the future without dying."
Yen: "Exactly, but I don't really know how to."
Duchess of Ceresé: "Let's leave this conversation for next time then. It must be exhausting to try and time travel like that. You're sweating and you're very pale."
Yen took a look at her hands. She was really pale, and she was breathing heavily too and sweating immensely.
Yen: "Right.. then we shall take our leave."
Yen and Marione bowed and left the room. Yen immediately went into her room for a bath, and changed into her nightgown. The moment her head hit the pillow, she fell into a deep slumber.
____________________
Kayla: "My Lady, please wake up!"
Disturbed by the noises, she rubbed her eyes and sat up with a confused expression.
Yen: "What is it..?"
Kayla: "The Duchess has ordered you into her room!"
By this announcement alone has she hurriedly took a bath and changed into formal attire. It wasn't that fancy but it was enough for a meeting.
As soon as she was finished, she made her way to Aquie's office. Outside the door, she spotted Marione, also in some kind of formal wear. She was wearing a not so long skirt and a blouse.
Yen: "Marione. Has she called you too?"
She flinched at Yen's sudden call.
Marione: "Gosh, you scared me. But yes, I was also called into the office. She might continue yesterday's discussion."
By that, they stood together in front of the door and knocked.
Duchess of Ceresé: "Come in."
Both were shocked that there was food and drinks on the table, with Aquie sitting on one of the chairs. Usually, they aren't supposed to eat any desserts or snacks before breakfast, but they didn't question it further.
Duchess of Ceresé: "Have a seat. Today's discussion is important."
They both took a seat beside each other, opposite to where Aquie sat. Marione immediately took a glazed donut and took a bite, urging the other two to eat as well. The atmosphere in the room made the tension increase each second passing, despite how peaceful it seemed.
Duchess of Ceresé: "Malum tried to attack me last night."
Their eyes widened. It was really such an unexpected news.
Marione: "But our residence has a protective barrier! How is it possible?"
Duchess of Ceresé : "The work of the barrier is to detect any entities considered evil and eliminate them right away. The barrier calls Malum 'pure', mainly because Malum is new, so it is foreign to it. I wish Marione to update this to the barrier."
With two claps of her hands, a drop of sweat formed in her forehead.
Marione: "Done. But it really is hard to update that thing so easily."
Duchess of Ceresé: "Now, I had just finished my work yesterday but I felt an eerie presence. After Malum knew that I knew something was off, it had decided to attack me, in order to lessen witnesses and because it realized that I was one of the people who saw them yesterday. I used magic to eliminate it, but I highly doubt that that's the main source. It may just be Malum's underlings."
Yen: "Of course. The main source exposing itself wouldn't be smart."
Duchess of Ceresé: "That's why we need to eliminate it. Especially by today."
Yen: "Today?! But how? We've already discussed about it. It seemed almost impossible."
Duchess of Ceresé: "Almost. But the Malum I eliminated last night has mixed back with it's master. I can feel my magic there, so all three of us can talk mind to mind to be able to do this."
They stayed silent. Of course, defeating a threat to the empire, a large one even, seemed quite taxing to do in just one day, but if they were to work hard enough. Yen mumbled to herself.
Yen: "If Marione dies, I'll have to die too.."
Marione: "You're already thinking about my death?!"
Duchess of Ceresé: "I mean, she could travel back in time over and over to relay the news of the trip, but won't that drive you into insanity the more it happens?"
Yen eyed the food, taking another bite of the snack.
Yen: "If I think about it, I'm already too insane to care."
Aquie just sighed and sipped some coffee. Marione nodded, taking a big bite on a glazed donut and trying to eat the other desserts, while drinking coffee, and it brought a smile to her face.
Marione: "Magic enough is insane, and our roles drive us insane enough. Mental capacity isn't a problem, but physical capacity is."
Yen delved deeper into her memories, recalling the day she died.
Yen: 'Two strikes of lighting, yet it still stood. It was just pretending to be dead. What could harm or scare Malum, or most especially, a lion?'
Yen: "Something strong.. poison? and fire may eliminate.."
The room stayed silent.
Marione: "What are you thinking about?"
Yen: "Malum just possesses that Lion right?"
Duchess of Ceresé: "That's right. Why?"
Yen: "Then, would their instincts still be intact?"
Duchess of Ceresé: "..!"
Duchess of Ceresé: "It would.. but lions don't have much weaknesses."
Yen: "Then, what are their weaknesses?"
Marione: "They're not afraid of fire, but they are afraid of really strong things and tend to avoid animals like snakes."
Duchess of Ceresé: "Then let's hit it hard with a giant hammer made with magic or something.. Once it's weak enough, we can burn it."
And just like that, their meeting had ended swiftly, with a large mission and an important plan to be carried out. Walking out of the room, it was silent, but only for a few minutes before Marione started talking again.
Marione: "Just go to my room once you're ready. I'll teleport both of us to the scene."
Yen: "Of course."
Yen walked in her room and called in Kayla.
Yen: "Kayla, please get my uniform ready."
Kayla: "Yes, my lady."
Her uniform. Not something she always wore, but she did wear whenever she was sent on hunting missions. It was blue, and had the crest of the Ceresés imprinted in it. It was like her pride and joy, to show that she was someone of importance and someone not to be messed with. But it was also something she should never brag about.
Her hair was tied into a braided bun before she made her way into Marione's room. It was the same as always, but it was in its cleanest state that it shocked Yen.
Marione was also wearing the Ceresé uniform, but her hair was tied into a ponytail.
Marione: "Are you ready?"
Yen: "Of course."
Marione: "Sword?"
Yen unsheathed her sword, and some other extra blades just in case. Marione also had some extra weapons, but she kept a bow and some arrows with her too.
Marione: "Then's lets go."
In a moment, they were teleported with the location Aquie saw them in, Divisina Forest.
It was a forest known with the most of its magical stories and strange events, but there was actually nothing that important or dangerous with it despite the many objections of others. It was quiet and the habitat of many animals.
Marione: "It's unusually silent.. and there used to be so much animals.."
Marione whispered this with worry in her voice. She was correct. The Divisina Forest is home to an amazing amount of animals that everywhere you look, you could see different kinds of species running wild freely. Now it's nothing but a deserted forest.
Yen: "This must be Malum's doing."
Malum was capable of eating out other animals because of it's size. The bigger the soul's energy, the more powerful Malum becomes.
Yen: 'If Malum took the energy of all the animals in this forest.. It's inevitably very powerful.'
Duchess of Ceresé: 'Any reports?'
Yen: 'Wildlife is gone, and it's possible Malum took all the energy from the animals to grow.'
Marione: 'Is it close by?'
Duchess of Ceresé: 'Wait! It's behind you-!'
With that message alone, they both turned around as Marione used an arrow infused with fire to shoot at the lion before them, receiving a roar of admonition in return.
Yen unsheathed her sword and charged at the Malum, giving it small cuts and bruises, and distracting it as Marione worked her way to focus on summoning a big hammer, just a Aquie said.
Mumbling a lot of words to chant the spell, a large hammer was summoned and Yen was able to run farther away before getting hit.
Marione: "Is it weak enough?"
A large roar was heard. From the tone alone, both of them knew that Malum was angry.
Marione: 'Aquie, it's mad. What should we do next?'
Duchess of Ceresé: 'Is there magic that you could to that transfers poison into its body? And I mean a deadly one.'
Marione: 'It's possible. But I need information about the poison. Mostly it's name and what it does to the body.'
There was a moment of silence. It wasn't easy to think of just any poison.
Duchess of Ceresé: 'Botulinum toxin. One of its effects is muscle weakness yet it is also one of the most dangerous poisons in the world. Is that enough.'
Marione: 'More than enough.'
With a smile on her face, she casted a spell and did a lot of hand signals to strengthen the effects of the poison. It took a while but Malum fell to the ground, paralyzed.
Yen: "Now, is it weak enough?"
After getting a bit closer to Malum, with a protective barrier surrounding the both of them, they could see how the body was still alive, but it was unable to move.
Marione: "It's weak enough."
The tip of her finger let out a fire that could be compared to that on a candle. With one touch, Malum and the body it possessed started burning as Yen and Marione watched this scene, with a serious look on their faces. The fire was large, but Marione made sure that none of it would harm the forest in any way. By the time the fire had finished, there was nothing left but ashes, which Marione cleaned up using magic.
Marione: "I'll store it somewhere for research purposes."
They were glad that the threat was eliminated, but they were still uneasy.
Marione: 'If Malum was that strong.. Was it Poscanitus's doing?'
Duchess of Ceresé: 'It may be so, but make sure to copy the aura of black magic in Malum. We may need it when the time is right.'
Marione did as Aquie said and tried to show an illusion of the aura, pasting it safe in her book.
Yen: "How are you able to put an illusion and paste it in a book like a drawing that easily?"
Marione: "Practice makes perfect, as they say, and it is really useful to know how to use magic like this."
Duchess of Ceresé: 'Head back to my office as soon as possible. Let's go throught what happened carefully once more.'
With a clap of her fingers, Marione was able to teleport them into Aquie's office. She was sweating after the spell.
Marione: "Is it me or is it so hot?"
Duchess of Ceresé: "Jeremy, quickly get 3 ice packs!"
Butler: "Yes, Duchess Ceresé."
When the ice packs were given and spread around Marione, she felt much more cooler. It was also better that snacks, water, and tea have arrived too.
Duchess of Ceresé: "You both spent almost an hour battling the Malum and I commend you of your efforts."
Yen: "It was an hour? It felt real quick dealing with that thing."
Marione: "If there weren't any snacks or water, I was gonna pass out from exhaustion."
Duchess of Ceresé: "You used too much magic. Of course you're on the brink of passing out."
Yen: "So.. we need to briefly explain what had happened, right?"
Duchess of Ceresé: "Yes. You could also just explain the details you may find important and suspicious."
Yen took a deep breath, explaining the different things she saw new in the forest, and the different things Malum tried to do to them. Aquie just sat there, listening with a straight and calm face, eating some snacks, and drinking some tea.
Yen: "And that's about it. I don't recall anything else."
Duchess of Ceresé: "I could tell it was true. Look how tired you both are. You've gone pale."
Yen: "Ah.. yes I have."
Duchess of Ceresé: "Do rest here for a moment. Or would you both like to be teleported to your rooms?"
Yen: "If that won't bother you-"
With a snap of Aquie's fingers, she found herself lying on her bed, with her nightgown on and in a sleeping position.
Yen: "I'll just.. take a quick nap.."
And for that, she fell into a deep slumber, with another brick off worries lifted off her shoulders.