Keiran panted wearily while the Basilisk he had to confront lay dead before him, burnt almost to a crisp by an intense golden blaze.
"That was one heck of a tough boss battle. If I hadn't utilized Josec Fenix's legendary Zone Of Absolute Defense as a field to detect the Basilisk's movements, it would have been almost impossible to track its movements. I even had to resort to Ariel's Blaze technique by combining Fire with a more intense spectrum of Light. It was a good thing I had Concordia sit out this battle. It would have been Debilitating to her affinities" Keiran said and glared at the dead Basilisk with arms folded.
"Never again in the afterlife will you be stupid enough to underestimate Felines!" he said with a very imposing aura surrounding his body.
In Mitsuki's case, she had weighed down her Basilisk with the torrential pull of the Moon's Gravitational Force. The Moon possesses the power to reflect the rays of the Sun so that granted her the advantage in terms of affinity to utilize Moon/Reflection/Light based attacks against the Basilisk she had to confront. Though she belonged to the House Of The Hound by birth, Ai, her mother, was a Kirisawa. My Dad was a Nightbane who belonged to the House Of Lions by birth so she was granted the ability to inflict damage to the Basilisk and suppress its ability since my Mom and her Mom were sisters and even more importantly, twins. This ability was granted to her thus by affiliation. Mitsuki and I were also cousins and since I was affiliated to the Suzaku Peristylium by virtue of my Cape's colour, she was also indirectly affiliated so she also inherited immunity and total invulnerability to the Basilisk's attacks. Arlene had handed her a mini-representation of Christopher, rumoured in Christian Lore to have carried God and since Arlene's Christopher was a scout/tracking/information analysis type sigil, Mitsuki was also immune to the Basilisk's stare.
She killed it by shattering both fangs with the Moon's torrential gravitational pull and impaling it to the ground via its head. We all received messages of Congratulations and as a reward for defeating the Basilisk, we each received five Phoenix Feathers and five vials containing Phoenix Tears.
"Something was odd about the fight. Our buffs were granted to us by affinity however…they were only effective for as long as we were conscious of the advantages we possessed in battle. The Basilisk had the advantage for as long as we were unaware that our affinities were actually superior to its own. It makes sense. In battle, one cannot utilize weapons one cannot comprehend but still…" I thought.
"…that's cutting it pretty damn close! That battle was a true Nightmare!" we said with tear-stained faces as we returned to our various camps.
Keiran arrived at their shelter almost completely exhausted. Concordia stared at him as he walked in. She looked like she was about to say something when Keiran cut her off.
"Don't ask. To put it in simple terms that battle was Nightmarish enough to seed trauma" he said and dropped to the ground exhausted.
"I'll get you something to eat" Concordia said and went to fix some food.
After Keiran ate, he revealed the vials of Phoenix Tears. We have five Vials and five Phoenix Feathers.
In all our continents, those who had participated in the battle against the Basilisk revealed their rewards to those who had remained in camp. At that moment, we all received messages of congratulations.
"Congratulations on your victory. You all narrowly avoided a major jinx. If you had attempted to cure your patient without first expelling or defeating the Basilisk, you might have probably worsened the effects of the venom" my Dad's voice said.
"But you said defeating the boss was not the only way to cure our patient!" Concordia yelled in irritation.
"Oh, I see. Defeating the boss was indeed not the only way to cure our patient however a battle against the Basilisk would have been unavoidable. Aside from finishing it off, we could have incapacitated it with a debuff that removed the venom from the patient right?" Keiran realized.
"That's my son! No wonder you can go both Cat and Spider mode! Indeed, that's why I told you before 'it is foolish to fight fire with fire however a wise man can stop a raging inferno with a Blaze'. The Blaze category of Fire is a purification type of Flame and not a destructive one. It's the technique you used. Ariel also used that technique. She was the only one to completely nullify the Basilisk's venom without actually fighting. Her blaze invoked a sort of severing effect that disconnected the Basilisk from its victim. In a sense, it was a kind of exorcism. San and Mitsuki on the other hand resorted to impalement which is also a sort of exorcism technique only useful against malevolent spirits" my Dad explained.
"I see, thanks to Ariel's abilities, she does not need Phoenix Tears or Feathers to cure her patient" Concordia realized.
"That's how her party narrowly avoided a jinx" my Dad explained.
"I don't get it" Concordia said.
"Think of it this way, three of you were wise enough to destroy the Venomous Supply Chain and drink directly from the Source Of Wholesome Goods which are the rewards you obtained in the forms of Phoenix items. One of you was wise enough to avoid battle and still win by separating the victim from the source of the curse manipulating the Venomous Supply Chain. If you had brought home an item without first destroying the Venomous Supply Chain, you'd have poisoned your entire party" my Dad said.
"The battle alone was enough trauma but this…this is…" Keiran's eyes widened in…excitement.
"Yes, yes, my entire evil plan worked perfectly. So this is why you keep breaking San's videogames huh?" Keiran said.
"If you can't even beat something as basic level as this, defeating Zanböngfar is completely out of the question" my Dad said. "You all succeeded in clearing this level. The next level commences now. It takes just a drop of Phoenix Tears to cure any ailment regardless of how vast the solvent may appear to be. The only thing incapable of dissolution by the Tears Of The Phoenix is the Horizon. You have acquired a new skill to help you complete this level" my Dad's voice said.
After my Dad had finished speaking, Keiran and Concordia accessed their menus and found a new skill called 'Aquarius'.
"This time it's Aquarius huh? The Water-Bearer?" Keiran muttered.
"It takes just a drop of Phoenix Tears to cure any ailment regardless of how vast the solvent may appear to be? Usually, the effects or the taste of a soluble is more pronounced the more concentrated the solution is. On the other hand, the taste of the soluble is diminished proportionally to the quantity of the solvent. For Phoenix Tears to be able to cure any ailment regardless of the quantity of the solvent, it must be immune to the effects of dilution. In that case, regardless of the quantity of the solvent, the effects of the Phoenix's Tears are not diminished in any way. In fact, the entire solvent is transformed into Phoenix Tears at the same amount of concentration as the drops of Tears originally shed by the Phoenix. Talk about an infinite treasure in a finite vessel or a well that never runs dry" Concordia explained.
Keiran nodded.
"If we use the vials as they are, we'll completely exhaust our supply. The best thing to do would be to create as many reservoirs as we can and place a drop of Phoenix Tears into each. We can then fetch an amount of the water whenever we need it and replicate the process endlessly. That would be an endless source of purified water. Aquarius seems to connote Water Purification Methods" Keiran said.
Meanwhile, Ciella and I dropped a drop of Phoenix Tears directly into our patient's wounds.
"It's weird. My Dad said we might have worsened our patient's ailment if we had attempted to cure him without first defeating the Basilisk but on the whole, our patient is recovering just by depending on a healthy diet" I said.
"It might be what you said earlier about everything being harmless when used for the purpose for which it was designed. That would imply that there really isn't anything truly poisonous however, not all things are edible. Eating something inedible creates a situation of food poisoning. Our patient though has been eating a completely healthy and balanced diet" Ciella reasoned.
"You might be right. Anyway, our patient's stats are almost all recovered. All that's left is for him to regain consciousness. Whew, these past few days have been a real tug of war between Life and Death. We should create as many reservoirs as we can and fill them with water. Each should be purified with a drop of Phoenix Tears. We should use as little as we can to conserve the Tears in the Vial however we shouldn't keep the vials for too long lest we lose everything in them once they are misplaced. We should drop the Tears in as many reservoirs as we can within the least possible time to purify the Water" I said.
Ciella nodded.