Arc 3 - Chapter 8: Fairy in the Burning Village (1/2)

"Yu! Yu! Please! Yu! Please!"

When their carriage suddenly stopped for some reason, Yurine and Yu were thrown out of the driver's seat and fell to the ground. Now they were both between the feet of the rinos. The rinos were stomping on the ground because they were scared and Yurine was trying to protect herself and Yu from being crushed.

"Yu! Please, Yu!"

Yurine couldn't tell if Yu was having one of his usual seizures or if the black bubbles coming from his mouth were caused by the poison of the cursed sword that had stabbed him. She had never seen foam of this color before and Yu was neither shaking nor convulsing, he was frozen like a statue. He had moaned and moaned in pain when the sword had first pierced him, but now he just stared blankly ahead.

Without Yu's core, Yurine couldn't feel if he was alive or not, so she put her hand over his heart and felt his heartbeat. Her heart was constantly slowing down as if it was tired. 

"Yu! Don't die! I'll be alone, Yu!"

She cast a healing spell, but it did not work on Yu's wound to heal it, nor did it work on his mind to make him conscious. The failure of the spell was not the same as in the Sigma Tower, where the mana never left Yurine's body, whereas here it did, but when it landed on Yu's wound, instead of healing him, it was poisoned by the evil curse, and the poisoned mana lost its function and dissolved into the air.

"Why is this happening?"

As hot, salty tears rolled down her cheeks, Yurine tore the cloth Yu was wearing and took a good look at the wound on his shoulder. The blood was not a deep red color, it was flowing black. The blackened veins were spreading from Yu's shoulder, reaching his neck, chest and elbow as the scab began to form around the wound.

"Yu!"

When the healing spell didn't work, she started slapping Yu's face to try to bring him to his senses, but even that failed to bring him to his senses. She shook Yu, hit him, tugged him, yelled at him, and tried every method she could think of to bring him to his senses, but all in vain.

"Yu, I promise I'll do whatever you say next time. Yu, if you say it's dangerous, we won't go. Yu, I'm sorry, I'll do whatever you say again. Yu... Get up..."

She didn't want to lose Yu just like she had lost her mother. Her mother was gone and if Yu left, she would be completely alone. If she managed to reach them, of course Sivina and Ana would take care of her and maybe help her achieve her goal, but Yu was the one Yurine wanted. She didn't even need anyone else to be there for her, she just wanted Yu to be there for her.

"Should I touch the wound?"

Perhaps she failed because she tried to cast the spell from a distance. If she applied the healing spell with no space in between, touching the wound, it might have worked.

She looked at Yu's wound, it looked disgusting and she wasn't sure she would want to touch it if it was someone else's, but it was Yu's wound and she determined to touch it even if it was disgusting.

"It burns!"

Yurine's tears of fear of losing Yu were joined by tears of pain. The curse on her shoulder burned like fire and Yurine's hand hurt.

The wound on Yu's shoulder was not like a stick with a heated tip, it was the heat source itself. The wound was so hot that Yurine had to scream from the pain.

"Hepea - Hepea - Hep-hep - Hepa'e Xi Rhea - Xi Rhaea- Hepa'e Xi Rhaea - Noxu Tavhee - Si Luel'la... What was it!"

She was trying to cast the healing spell she had learned from the book of light and healing magic she had received from the academy and had used twice before, but she was having trouble remembering the right words because of the stress.

"Hepa'e Xi Rhaea - Noxu Tevhea - Si Luel'la..."

When she pronounced the words correctly, butterflies made of light would start to emerge from her palm, but when she pronounced the next word incorrectly, the butterflies would quickly fade away and disappear. When Yurine saw the butterflies disappearing, she became even more stressed and started saying the words she had pronounced correctly incorrectly.

"Hep'e Xi Rhea - Nox-"

She could not put the right words in order, even though she said them over and over again. Now all the words, each stage of the spell, were all jumbled together in Yurine's mind.

She could have gone into the carriage and picked up the book and tried to read it from there, but she was afraid to leave Yu's side for even a second, and her heart wouldn't let her take a single step from where she was, feeling that if she was separated from him for even a second, his situation would get so bad that she would never be able to fix it again.

"Yu... If you wake up, I'll let you marry my mom... Look, I'm saying I'll let you, you just have to wake up... Yu... Come on, I'm waiting... Yu..."

When her movements were not enough to wake him, she tried desperately to use words, but whether her words reached him was as uncertain as whether he was actually asleep. His eyes were open and he kept looking in a straight line. Perhaps his consciousness was as open as his eyes and he could hear and feel everything.

Which was worse, the fact that he was unconscious or the fact that he was conscious and he could feel the curse on his shoulder, second by second, and he could do nothing? Yurine had cried from the heat just touching that wound, and if Yu could feel it, who knows what kind of pain he was in.

"Hepa'e... Xi Rhaea... N-Noxu Tevae... Si Luel'la..."

She started to take deep breaths, tried to get her body and mind together and finally managed to say the right words.

She kept her hand on Yu's wound to ensure that the spell would work, even though it hurt. She repeated the words, crying with pain and sadness.

The butterflies fluttered freely from between her fingers and flew over Yu's wound, buds of light falling from their wings, enveloping Yu's wound.

The black veins in Yu's left hand changed color under the healing spell and began to gently pull upwards from his hand. The veins that extended up to his face were also subjected to the effect of the spell and went down to his neck. 

The bleeding was also decreasing, but there was no change in the temperature, it was still as hot as it had been at the beginning and continued to burn Yurine's hand.

"Yu..."

She was about to continue calling Yu's name when she suddenly stopped, noticing the dark presence increasing in intensity.

"Go on, Yu... Yu... Yu..."

Until now, Yurine, who had been so confused by her fear of losing Yu, had not realized what had caused the carriage to stop so abruptly and the two of them to fall to the ground, but now it was revealing itself. Yurine could feel the darkness.

A mocking, condescending, contemptuous, vile, irritating, disgusted, infuriating voice perfectly imitated Yurine's voice and called out Yu's name in mockery.

Yurine was undecided where to focus her attention. Should she continue with the spell to heal Yu first, or should she attack the demon, who was probably intent on killing them? Every second the demon stood there made her nervous.

"What would my mom do? I know, I think she would have attacked the demon when she realized Yu couldn't be cured. She hates demons anyway."

Is that really what her mother would do? Yurine wanted to imitate her and find what she would do and do it, but she wasn't quite sure what her mother would do in such a situation.

If she thought Yu could not be cured, would Rie give up on him and really let him die? If her mother was alive and she and Yu would have developed a relationship of several months if they had gotten to this point together, would she disregard that relationship and let him die?

But despite being his apprentice, she left Sharley to die without blinking an eye.

When they were confronted by the hunter gorilla, Rie tried to save Sharley instead of running away with Yurine, but that was because she saw a way.

When there was no way to save Sharley in the fire in the Sigma Tower and it became impossible to save him, she never thought about what would happen to him, she had no problem leaving him to die.

But Sharley and Yu were not the same. Even after a few weeks with Yu, Yurine loved him more than she loved Sharley, more than she could ever love Sharley, and she preferred him to Sharley. Rie, like Yurine, would not equate the two and would make a different decision if Yu was the one in trouble, Yurine wanted to believe that.

Yet the fact that she did not know what to do in this situation still remained. Her mother often surprised Yurine and made unexpected decisions. If she were here now, would she try to take Yu and run away? Yurine could drag Yu a certain distance, but she couldn't run with him on her shoulder.

At this point, she could not escape with Yu, and neither could her mother. There was a demon right in front of them and the whole village was full of demons. With escape out of the question, the only options left were to stay here and try to heal Yu, or to interrupt the healing spell and attack the demon.

She wasn't sure which of these two options would be the right one. The demon was not going to be kind and wait while Yurine chose the first option and continued to heal Yu.

Yu's condition seemed stable. If she stopped the healing spell, there was a chance that his condition would worsen. So he couldn't stop healing him and only focus on the second option.

She made her decision. There was no need to worry about what her mother would choose to do, Yurine would make her own choice. Yu was like a second mother to her and she cared for him the same way she cared for her mother. She would not give up on Yu, just as she would not give up on her mother.

If she think about it, she was even closer to Yu than she was to her mother. Yu was a companion as well as a parent, and that made her more comfortable and able to talk to him about more things than when she talked to her mother. This made Yu more valuable and indispensable.

"Okay, I can't let Yu go, nor can I let the devil live. If I choose one option, it will end in all sorts of disasters."

Yurine looked around and then at the demon as she continued her healing spell.

"If I push myself, can I succeed?"

She and Yu had studied wind magic together. Trying it would have exhausted Yurine and probably made her pass out again because of using up all her mana. But she had no other method she could think of, and she had magic books which she had learned a lot from them. She was now the strongest she had ever been and she was getting stronger every day.

"Won't you keep calling daddy's name?"

The vile being's provocations were too much for her to ignore. Yurine pulled her hand away from Yu's half and saw that her palm was blistered from the heat.

Tears streamed down her cheeks, some entering her mouth through her lips, others running down her chin. Yurine wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand and the wind spell she had cast began to surround Yu.

The wind gathered around Yu, condensed and began to spin. Yurine raised her hand up and with the movement of Yurine's hand, the wind went under Yu and lifted him up.

When Yurine was able to levitate objects, Yu was excited and said, "Holy shit, just like the force, Jedi Yurine." With this method Yurine could even lift herself and fly. Of course, she had to concentrate and not get excited, which she couldn't try on herself because of Yu's worries.

In fact, Yu was the first creature Yurine had tried this skill on since she learned it, and she was terrified that he would fall at any moment. It was also hard to focus on keeping Yu in the air and continuing to cast healing spells from a distance.

And now she would have to deal with the devil in front of her. At least the devil seemed to have no intention of moving until Yurine had completed her preparations.

It was not because he was an honorable warrior, but because his sick personality enjoyed watching Yurine's preparations.

"Your job looks tough, can you fight like this?"