Light gathered into Adam's open palm, particles swirling into a humanoid shape. The blinding shell fell off, revealing hair green like the lushest flower. It frad scholarly round glasses perched on a small nose, and big blue eyes that sparkled with intelligence. A crimson bowtie ruffled over a white shirt neatly tucked in a black skirt, while on her back, transparent wings fluttered with thrill and charm.
"I thought you'd never summon !" Her fake harsh tone, raised finger, and giggle at the end only made her more adorable. She put on imaginary gloves, locking her eyes on the green flas suppressed within Grum'Thal's scars. Her playfulness faded, and her voice grew solemn. "Nice to et you, last and first orc. I've heard it all, and you can believe , we'll cure you."
Bao finally relaxed upon seeing Lulu. She was beautiful and small. Perhaps even smaller than her. Sohow, comparing their size beca more important than her terror of Grum'Thal's ugly face. She wanted to poke Lulu, to make friends with her. Despite her sparkling eyes, she shook her head. Not now.
While Adam nodded, Grum'Thal jerked up on the table. His eyes widened, burning with red lights as his fangs glinted with hostility. "Of course, you asked for secrecy. That miserable tribe escaped extinction! Among cowards, they're king. I should have guessed it."
"Huh?" Adam and Lulu exchanged a confused glance before a shared understanding sparkled in their eyes. Since mana abandoned Grum'Thal, he couldn't feel the energy with as much clarity as mages did. Therefore, he knew Lulu was a magical being but failed to understand her origins as a sentient artefact.
"You've got it wrong... I guess it's better like that," Adam muttered, patting Lulu's hair. "You might dislike her appearance, but let introduce you to Lulu, my partner and close friend. Close. Not an acquaintance or an associate. Soone I trust with my life. And yours, for that matter."
"I'd rather trust a Puffling Pixehog than the sa fairies who refused to follow Lady Mortis to war. These fools even made consider whether demons were more trustworthy than them." Grum'Thal glared at Lulu, his lips twisted like a whip about to lash out. Yet, his words never ca out.
He massaged his brow as if to smooth the anger distorting his features. It didn't work. At least, Adam didn't see the difference until Grum'Thal spoke in his usual deep voice.
"Apologies... I just warned my warriors about prejudice. Looks like mine have tougher hide than theirs." He leaned against the table, clapping his hands with more strength than needed. "The faster we're done, the easier it'll be for us all."
Lulu puffed out her cheeks in a pout. "I'm not sure I want to help anymore..."
"We can't understand the horrors and betrayals he has witnessed during the war. Perhaps he's right about fairies. But why would you care?" Adam opened Grum'Thal's robes like leathery curtains. The sight was haunting, a maze of profane scars pulsing green that ran across the orc's flesh. How much did he suffer?
He clenched his jaw as he set his hands over Grum'Thal's chest, qi and mana flaring in his sky-blue eyes. "I'll start the diagnosis. Support with anything I might have missed."
Lulu nodded as he sent a surge of both energy into Grum'Thal's towering fra. Mana mapped the orc's atrophied energy pathways, sinking into muscles and bones, down to a cellular level. On its side, Qi blew like a floral wind inside the great shaman's organs, stimulating them as Adam understood how much the demonic contamination had claid.
And the feedback he received painted a picture haunting enough to make him wince through his teeth. Grum'Thal's mana channels were drier than the cracked ground of a sun-baked desert.
No mana in him, not even a speck. Yin, yang, and the elents—the little that remained—were a twisted, half-devoured mass. His cells were two-thirds demonised, but that wasn't even the worst. The core was. Adam felt it had been hamred from its original form to a dented sphere.
Flowing out of it was sothing else, sothing he couldn't feel: demonic energy. The only reason he could notice it was that both his qi and mana groaned as if they had seen their nesis. Adam sweated as they tried to lash out of his control, to wrestle the consuming power.
As he prevented his energies from rampaging, what was inside Grum'Thal retaliated without warning. Adam felt as if a tsunami had collapsed on his qi, as if sothing had drilled his mana out of Grum'Thal's limbs.
Then, nothing.
The feedback of his energies faded. The energies themselves disappeared.
A deep furrow creased his brow as he removed his palm from Grum'Thal's chest. "That's why the Netherworld Overseer didn't mind the loophole in your deal," he muttered.
"The Netherworld Overseer suppression prevents the contamination from devouring him, but not foreign energies." Lulu shook her head, her eyes narrow beneath her round glasses. "Worse, the contamination operates like a symbiotic parasite. It feeds on its host, turning it into a vessel of brutality and madness. It's a part of him, latched to his vital functions. Even his DNA..."
Adam clenched his fist. He had figured out as much. Even if he kept qi and mana within Grum'Thal, extracting the demonic energy would be the sa as squeezing out the orc's life.
As he pondered, Grum'Thal cut Lulu off. "Lady Mortis tried. Leoric did too. Even Haldris. They all ca to the sa conclusion." Hope still blazed in his eyes. Then, he fell silent, likely trying to help by confirming or refuting Adam's diagnosis.
In the thickening atmosphere, Adam pondered for a minute before sighing. "I can think of two procedures. One and a half without extensive simulations."
"Sa." Sky-blue mana danced across the channels of Lulu's spread wings. Her eyes glinted with what Adam recognised as rapid simulation. Then, she twisted her lips. "You won't like it."
"I know." Adam sighed, while Grum'Thal half-lifted his chest from the table.
"I believe this is what Lady Mortis foresaw, and we can still do it. I an, implenting one of your bones into Grum'Thal. In his state, the purification will take, at the bare minimum, a millennium, perhaps two, before he's cured. It's really safe, though."
"What I thought." Adam shrugged. "What are the chances of curing him with the second thod?"
"Very high as well. I'd say over seventy percent if we take our ti."
Grum'Thal slamd his palms in delight, the sound making Adam frown. Seventy? That was far higher than his own estimates unless... she hadn't thought of the sa approach in the first place. No, Lulu must have. Discarded for its dangerousness? Perhaps. But sohow, he felt safety ca at its own cost. One universal, one he couldn't pay: ti. Still, he had to consider every option.
"You'll have to enlighten on this one."
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