Under the coils of the Venom Jade Serpent, Michelle stared in confusion at the mark her spirit energy created above her. Did it an that the Venom Jade Serpent was Mare and sothing was affecting the contract? Or was the snake a completely different one with a contract to a human with a similar contract mark to her own?
The second case was nearly impossible, because, as Michelle’s father, Philip Grace, had once explained, aningful contract marks were rare, and people with them were often targeted by powerhouses. Michelle thought that even if soone with a aningful contract mark did exist in the lower realm, their contract mark wouldn’t be so similar to hers.
In the end, Philip Grace had also told her that an Elder in the Academy in the upper realm was investigating whether contract marks were related to one’s soul, and if it was proven to be true, she didn’t think soone with a soul similar to hers could exist. Because, just like spirit energy in one’s body, it was a well-known fact even in the Land of Exile that all souls were unique.
So that only left the first case. But she had no clue as to how soone or sothing could have altered the shape of the contract mark she had with Mare. And she had no clue how to fix it.
"Is sothing wrong with the contract mark?" Alexander’s carefree voice ca from behind. The mont his words fell, the snake stopped tightening its grip around Michelle and remained motionless.
"If this is Mare, then sothing or soone tampered with the mark and changed it a bit. Originally, the butterfly wasn’t there and the snake’s mouth was closed..." Michelle spoke with so difficulty. The poison was clearly making every breath she took a torture.
Hearing that, Alexander raised a brow, his playful smile still present. "There are a few reasons why that could have happened... And this place only allows one." He slowly walked towards Michelle.
With every step Alexander took, the snake uncoiled its body and shrunk back a bit, so when Alexander was next to her, she was already free, with the snake once again wrapped around the boulder.
"So, what happened to Mare?" Michelle asked.
"Your contract with her has weakened, right?" Alexander tilted his head a bit as he stared at the snake around the boulder.
"Yes..."
"Then my guess is right! And that stone is the reason for all the changes!" Alexander said with a smile as he stepped towards the boulder.
"How so?" Michelle was confused.
"Do you know what Void Obsidian is?" Alexander asked as he watched the snake hiss at him defensively as he walked towards the boulder. The snake was clearly afraid of him, but it refused to back down. It was clearly protecting the stone, refusing to stop even if it cost it its life.
"Yes, I’ve co across it once," Michelle nodded. "Is the stone made of Void Obsidian?" she asked.
"Most probably." Alexander nodded lazily.
"But why does it affect Mare? Doesn’t Void Obsidian only affect Soul Masters?" Michelle was getting more and more confused.
"Under certain conditions, Void Obsidian can twist up things connected to one’s soul, which includes contracts and contract marks. But it can always affect only one creature."
"And how exactly does it do that?" Michelle frowned.
"If the Void Obsidian has a creature carved on it, it starts emitting the power of all the soul energy it has absorbed from the Soul Masters who have touched it, to attract the creature. If a creature the sa as the one carved into it touches the Void Obsidian in that state, the Void Obsidian will start pulsing soul energy into the creature’s body, greatly affecting its soul, which could lead to changes in things related to the soul, such as change of mories, disordered consciousness, or even new elents in contract marks. And many more, of course," Alexander slowly explained.
"And most of the ti," Alexander continued, "after being affected by the Void Obsidian, even after the soul energy retreats back into the stone, the affected creature will stay around, getting extrely possessive and protective of the stone."
As Alexander spoke, he approached Mare, coiled around the boulder of Void Obsidian. "So protective that they are willing to risk their lives..." he uttered with a careless smile.
"Is there a way to reverse it?" Michelle asked with a frown, watching as many small black threads started appearing around Alexander’s fingers.
"Of course, there is," Alexander answered with a smile as he put his hand on the snake’s head. The snake clearly wanted to retaliate, but it was unable to move under the pressure coming from the small threads. "Mare is like this because her soul was affected by foreign soul energy, so as long as the sa soul energy enters her body and fixes the damage it caused, she should return to normal. But for that to happen, soone needs to take control of the soul energy, or it would just cause more damage."
"And you don’t know how to do that?" Michelle raised a brow.
"I can’t do it," Alexander said with a careless smile. "But you should be able to do it, since you have completely black soul energy."
"I know that much," Michelle said as she walked over to the stone. "I said I’ve already encountered Void Obsidian." She stretched out her hand and was about to put it on the stone when Alexander grabbed her wrist and yanked her hand back, making her frown. "What?" she asked, her voice chilly.
"First off, you are still poisoned and with a broken ribcage, so this can wait. And second, you can’t just absorb the soul energy. If it becos yours, you won’t be able to use it to heal Mare." Alexander pulled Michelle by her wrist, forcing her to co out of the cave with him. "You are a doctor, so why don’t you examine yourself and think whether you are in a state to do sothing?"
Michelle glared at the smiling face and sat down on a rock nearby, closing her eyes. She used her spirit and soul energy to assess the damage on her bones, before deciding that it wasn’t that serious and her Spirit Soul Blood could heal it without her needing to interfere.
The only problem was the poison within her body. She already knew that the poison wasn’t causing internal bleeding or she would have died already, but with it fooling her nerve system, she couldn’t cure it right away. Also, she was guessing that wasn’t the only effect the poison had, so she had no clue where to start with healing it.
Then, a thought struck her. She lifted her head and looked in the direction where Snow and the rest were camping. Her gaze fell on Nyxaroth. He was able to enter her body, so he should be able to check what the poison was really doing to her.
But if he did it, there was the threat of him getting poisoned too. And Michelle didn’t want that.
With a sigh, she closed her eyes and used the contract to ask Nyxaroth to co over. After explaining everything to him, he understood what she wanted and also what she was worried about, so he just turned into a speck of black mist and flew into her body. "Don’t worry, Michelle. I don’t have blood or a solid body, so the poison can’t affect ." His voice lingered in Michelle’s ears.
Feeling Nyxaroth’s body of black mist bubbling within her, Michelle closed her eyes and placed two fingers over her wrist, feeling her pulse. It wasn’t that it wasn’t within her ability to find out the effect of the poison herself—she could easily do it if she took a blood sample and checked it—but she knew it would take a lot of ti, and she wanted to get back to Mare as soon as possible, so she asked Nyxaroth for help.
After a while, a black puff of smoke left Michelle’s body and Nyxaroth took on his human form in front of her, his long black hair flowing behind his back as his black eyes locked on Michelle. "It’s causing your organs to work slower and weaker than before. At this rate, so might stop working in a few hours," he said with a frown.
Getting such an answer, Michelle was fairly shocked. Maybe it was because the poison was also fooling her nerve system, but she didn’t feel that anything was wrong with her organs. "So I have to quickly get the antidote, huh...?" she frowned a bit and ford a small ice knife in her hand. At the sa ti, an ice bowl appeared on her lap. She brought her hand above the bowl and made a small cut, drawing so blood.
She had to be quick with her actions so the sweet sll of her blood wouldn’t attract monsters and beasts to swarm at her again. She had no ti to fight them, and she also had no confidence in defeating them all. At the mont, she was in the lower realm, where stronger creatures resided compared to the Land of Exile, so she didn’t plan to risk a fight.
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