Supreme Magus novel Chapter 158

Lith unceremoniously lifted the grey shirt all the way up, revealing Nindra’s flat and smooth belly. He then enhanced her metabolism with light magic, covering her abdomen in milky droplets of sweat saturated with the toxins.

His eyes and hands moved nimbly, careful to not miss even one bead of the precious liquid. The fate of the Kingdom, but even more importantly his own, depended on the alchemists finding a way to neutralize them or at least analysing their properties, making Lith’s work much easier.

Even if her partner didn’t care, Solus stared in envy at Nindra’s full and perky breasts going up and down while she heaved in panic.

- "If I ever get a body, I would really like for it to be like this one." She thought to herself. –

Nindra’s fears quickly got dispelled by Lith’s careful touch, filling one containment vial after the other without taking pauses to look at the scenery, or worse taking advantage of her helplessness.

During over a month of captivity, she had learned to recognize the lust in the men surrounding her, be them other infected or soldiers. After the prolonged period of isolation, people were easy to fall in desperation and act like animals.

Guards were relatively safe. They couldn’t go past the casual grope because they feared getting infected the most. But her tent mates were something else. With nothing to lose, they would often lose decency, fighting among themselves for a slice of bread or harassing women.

Usually the guards intervened quickly, but other times, when they were bored, they would let things slide, watching at the r*pe attempts like they were just a theatrical performance, laughing and commenting without a care.

They would still intervene before something really bad happened, but that didn’t make any of it less traumatic. With her powers gone, pride was the only thing Nindra had left, and she would do anything to protect it.

When she had first met Lith, she had assumed that behind the mask there was just another perverted old man, and treated him accordingly, taking take to remind him her status in the Association and her knowledge of the Queen.

But now, watching him work relentlessly, she couldn’t feel anything. He was cold, like a machine, allowing her to hope that for once since her imprisonment, the man in front of her was really a healer.

As the last drop was collected, Lith carefully placed the shirt back down, avoiding any unnecessary contact, before using Invigoration again. The zone surrounding Nindra’s mana core was now clear from all the toxins, only the cocoons remained, with the parasites still hidden inside them.

- "Any change, so far?" He asked Solus.

"None, it’s still too soon. Even for you it takes some time. Don’t worry, if I notice her core recovering or her mana circulating like that of a true mage, I’ll let you know." –

Without the toxin’s dampening effect, Lith could now spot the worms and attempt to kill them. His plan was to test on Nindra the first cure he had devised. It consisted in cleansing first the mana core, allowing it to recover, while the rest of the body was clogged by the anti mana parasites.

His theory was that even if the core were to be flooded with the world energy, Nindra wouldn’t be able to perceive it in such status.

- "If I’m right, I need to make up some medical babble to justify the passing of days before treating the rest of the body. I can’t allow other healers to rush things up." –

He then targeted the cocoons closer to the core, sending multiple tendrils of dark energy to seep in and kill their inhabitants. Just as he feared, the cocoons were just a highly packed toxin mass.

Sending magic through them was like pushing the proverbial SUV uphill, but this time with the hand brake on. Since this was within his expectations, he moved to plan B. He used his cleansing spell to remove the outer layers, while he enhanced with light magic Nindra’s metabolism.

The effect was similar to doing cardio, the blood pressure increased and the muscle contracted and relaxed cyclically, hastening the dispersion process of the toxins, by both natural flow and osmosis.

The hours passed, and soon Lith was too exhausted to continue.

"This is what we will do from now on, more or less. Can I have your answer now?"

He asked after removing the gag.

Nindra’s eyes were still cold, but contemptuous no more.

"Are you aware of what happens daily in that tent?"

Lith shook his head.

"If I accept to help you, I want the security to be increased, and the soldiers to be punished for their behaviour." Nindra asked, after briefly describing to him her dreadful experiences.

"I’m just a healer." Lith shrugged.

"I can talk to the camp’s supervisor, but I doubt there’s much even he can do. Humans will be humans. I could have him give you a detail, though."

"One more thing. I want your promise that you won’t lay a hand on me if not for medical reasons."

Lith found her demands reasonable, and he needed her trust.

Solus believed to be able to determine if someone was Awakened, but that didn’t mean that Nindra couldn’t manage to feel the mana flow, and by remembering it, Awaken weeks, if not months after being cured.

"Deal." Lith released the restraints, allowing her to shook his extended hand.

"There is one thing you should know. These blue veins..." He tapped with his finger on her arm and behind her neck.

"...are a sign that the infection is nearing the critical level. My procedure should prevent it to become lethal, but it’s still experimental. There are still a lot of things that could go wrong, so if you feel anything funny or unusual with your body after one of our sessions, you have to tell me."

Nindra was shocked by his words, looking at her own veins like snakes in the grass.