Gaia woke up slowly to a throbbing pain in her right arm. The last thing she remembered was the Amalgamation saying he was starting her punishment and then nothing. Just black which was more worrying since she felt like something had happened during the time, but she couldn’t remember it. She felt a sense of loss that she didn’t understand, but her thoughts were quickly interrupted by her party’s voices.
“Gaia! Hello? Are you okay?” Stephanie asked as she tapped Gaia’s shoulder.
“Huh?” She said before continuing. “Uh, yeah, I think. My arm hurts but otherwise I think I’m alright.”
She heard her friends breathe a sigh of relief. “Good. You’ve been out for over ten hours. We were getting really worried.” Fergus said as he hugged her.
“What?! Ten hours? It felt like I just passed out for a moment. What happened while I was out?” She asked worriedly.
“It’s fine, we’re all fine for the most part. Malachite and Shadow were hit by the Sinew Horror’s mana though.” Griff explained as she heard a couple voices speak in her head.
“Mom! You’re okay?” Her bonds asked in unison, two of which sounded slightly pained.
“I’m fine, aside from my arm being sore. What about you guys? Shadow and Malachite were hit by the mana right? How are you two?” She asked.
“It hurts a little bit, but I’m okay for now.” Malachite replied.
“Same for me. I think I got hit more than brother though.” Shadow said right after.
“Let me know if it gets worse, ok? I’ll do what I can.” Gaia said.
“Ok.” The two responded.
“Alright, I think we’re all okay for now. I’m guessing you haven’t found a way off the floor yet?” Gaia asked.
“Nope. We haven’t, but we think it’ll be somewhere under water. The biggest problem with that is it’s the monster’s domain. It moves faster in the water and Malachite could barely outrun it. Let alone us while submerged.” Stephanie explained.
“So what’s the plan? I mean Malachite can’t lift us all up to entrance at once so, we can either search for the way down or have him ferry us a few at a time. Both are dangerous, but the second one seems worse as we’ll be split up.” Gaia asked.
“That’s what we were about to discuss when we noticed you starting to wake up.” Griff said.
“Shall we start then? I’d say finding the way down would be better than trying to go back up, but it could just land us in a situation similar to now. Going back up would allow us to get out of the ruins though.” She started.
“The biggest downside of going up is that we’d be split up while Malachite shuttled two of us up. There’s also the fact that he’s currently hurt and doesn’t seem to be getting better. Going down proves to be just as dangerous since only two of us could search the seabed at a time, while the Sinew Horror is after us.” Stephanie added.
“We’d also have to figure out how to open the way down as well. Going up would be dangerous but is likely the best option right now. We couldn’t before since Gaia was out and couldn’t put Shadow into a tattoo for the trip.” Griff said.
“That would mean Gaia would have to be one of the two that stayed while the others were shuttled. It seems like trying to go up is our best option while being the most risky.” Fergus finished.
“This is all assuming that Malachite’s better and can shuttle us.” Stephanie added.
At that moment, Malachite collapsed and the party was sent rolling off his shell. He even shrunk down while Gaia heard pained whimpers through their bond. Shadow wasn’t much better and had fallen to the ground. Gaia immediately ran and checked on them. She analyzed them and they both showed the same condition.
Condition – Miasmic Decay
She quickly pushed her mana field around them and noticed the spots where the Miasma, as she now knew what is was called, had burrowed into them. On Malachite it was on his back left leg and went up to just below his left front arm. For Shadow it had hit the left side of her face and went down to the middle of her left side as well. There was no skin in the area like it had been melted off and it seemed to be trying to go deeper.
“It’s only getting worse. If Malachite can’t raise us up, how long do you think it’d take to get out?” Gaia asked.
“Nearly impossible. With him, about an hour maybe. I’m guessing so it may take more or less time depending on if he needs a rest. I don’t think he can lift us up in his current state though.” Griff guessed.
“How long do you think someone could deal with this Miasma? If they took it from them both?” Gaia asked.
“It would depend on their recovery and natural resistance to pain and mana. Why?” He asked.
“Let me rephrase. How long do you think I could deal with it?” She asked.
Griff was silent for a bit. It took a moment for Gaia’s words to sink in and Griff replied as the other two went to protest. “Probably a few hours. Depends on how bad the initial damage is and on how well you can naturally stave off the mana.”
“No, we can’t do that. You’d already have to be one of the two who stay on this floor while the other two are ferried up. If you’re also dealing with the Miasma then it would be that much more dangerous.” Fergus said.
“I agree with Fergus. You can’t do that. If could kill you long before we find someone who could heal it.” Stephanie added.
“I understand that, but if I don’t how are we going to get off this floor? Malachite and Shadow will likely die if they stay like this. Malachite’s our ticket out of here even if we try to find a way down. We can’t have him be out of action anyway. If I take it, he can ferry two of us up while the others stay and defend themselves.” Gaia explained.
Her companions argued for a bit longer, but the whimpers of pain from her bonds were breaking her heart. She moved towards them and transferred the injuries to herself. The transfer was almost instantaneous and she didn’t feel any pain while she saw her bonds injuries disappear. Then the pain came all at once. She felt something trying to decay her skin and muscle along her entire left side. It was painful, but she could manage the pain for now. She activated her armor so they wouldn’t be able to see how bad it got underneath until they got out.
“Alright. Shall we move towards the entrance tunnel?” She asked through gritted teeth. The pain was slowly getting worse as time passed. When she read the transfer skill again, she was thankful that the injuries she took couldn’t damage her spirit and healed faster, but wasn’t sure if it was infallible. She could already tell the Miasma was dealing more damage than she could heal, even with the boost. She would just have to grin and bare it until they escaped the ruins.
That started with the party moving to the beach she and Stephanie had first arrived on. Once there it was decided that Fergus and Stephanie would be the first two to go up. Gaia and Griff would stay on the beach with Shadow, who was now healed, Liv and Antonio. When Malachite came back, they would wait until he was ready, if need be. Then Gaia would put the rest of her bonds in their tattoos before Malachite floated them up to the first floor.
Fergus protested but relented when Gaia told him to go. Stephanie and Fergus hopped on Malachite’s shell, without the chairs, and held on as he started to float them up to the first floor. The wait for others was long, but nothing happened for the first few minutes before the Sinew Horror swam up to the beach. The group was placed in a precarious situation, they couldn’t leave the beach since they didn’t know how long it would take for Malachite to come back down. They would just have to defend their position until they had to run.
Griff quickly got ready for the fight as Gaia reined in her Mana Field. Shadow was prepared to block as best she could and Liv, along with Antonio, were ready to let some magic fly. The Sinew Horror wasn’t alone though, there were quite a few monsters with it. Gaia couldn’t sense them with her field only a few feet from her body but Griff warned her as the monsters charged.
Shadow focused on the Sinew Horror and distracted it while the others focused on the other enemies. Liv fired poison shots and trapped webs around to slow the advance while Antonio fired as much magic as he could at them. His Phantasmal spikes and psychic stings were great at slowing the horde down while dealing some damage since Gaia was locked down due to the Sinew Horror’s ability to absorb her mana. Griff was a menace to the monsters as he was lashing out with ranged kicks and dashing in to strike them causing a few to gain major wounds.
Gaia had her vines whipping around the monsters while using her chaos paths to increase the speed. Shadow had been able to lead the Sinew Horror away enough she could increase her mana field’s range a bit. This was when she noticed that, as she was slashing them, the monsters were bleeding more than usual and she couldn’t figure out why. The Miasma was slowly burrowing through her skin and had started to effect her muscle tissue. The pain was quickly increasing, but she couldn’t do anything to fix it.
It took her a while before she remembered something that had happened once before. She remembered that when she checked her status a while ago she had an attribute bound to strength, Agony. The biggest issue with this was that she couldn’t hurt anything herself and hadn’t really thought anything of it until the dungeon boss fight. That was when she realized what the bound attribute did and with her current situation it played in her favor. The Miasma was just causing the pain to worsen the longer it continued, so the stronger her conditions became. It even seemed to increase the severity from the start. The most disturbing thing she realized, was that the increase didn’t seem to have a limit, aside from what she could withstand.
The monsters were quickly slowing down from Gaia’s conditions which were quickly getting easier and easier to stack. Some monsters were already succumbing to bleeding and poison, without Griff needing to attack them. The more intelligent monsters in the back of the clump were beginning to retreat as they saw their brethren die without inflicting even a glancing blow. The unintelligent ones saw Gaia, who was looking more and more injured with every passing second, and renewed their charge.
The fighting continued with Griff landing some ranged hits on the monsters when necessary and running in to finish them off as he could. At this point, when he looked at Gaia he saw her on knees on the ground barely holding herself up with her right arm. The entire left side of her armor had a black cloud on it and he could see that the webbing had turned pitch black. He could also see spots where the armor was melting. The miasma was definitely a horrible attribute. The fact that she saw what was happening to her bonds and still took it on herself was definitely something she would do.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
When the monsters were finally all killed or retreated Griff ran over to her. After she’d fallen to the ground, her vines continued to whip out and slash enemies. A few had even been brazen enough to rush in and attack her since he was occupied by a few others. These ones were hit with a burst of radiation intense enough they almost started melting on top of bleeding and being poisoned. One had attacked her left side and started decaying the moment it touched the cloud.
The miasma was clearly getting worse and they had to get her out of the ruins and to healers immediately. Griff glanced up and saw Malachite falling to the water as he rushed back to them. He arrived at their position a minute later as the Sinew Horror approached. Shadow had been distracting him as best she could, but could only dodge for so long. She ran back towards Griff and Gaia as the monster ran towards them.
“Malachite, how long do you need to rest?” Griff asked.
“Mom! Put them in tattoos! We can go now!” Malachite shouted through the bond.
“Griff, now!” Was all Gaia could manage through the pain.
Gaia had her other bonds enter their tattoos as she tried to get up to get on Malachite’s shell. She more crawled with her one arm until Griff saw the Sinew Horror rear back to attack her. He immediately dashed forward and grabbed her, resulting in three deep gashes on his back. The gashes hurt and he could feel something attempting to burrow into his body. It took all of his mana to keep the miasma from burrowing into his back that he forgot about Gaia. He touched the haze on her left side and the miasma started burrowing into his arm.
He ignored the pain as he put Gaia on Malachite’s shell and climbed on himself, holding her to ensure she didn’t fall off. The trip up was long and Griff finally got a hint of the pain Gaia was experiencing. The miasma was only burrowing into his arm and the wounds in his back, but was already excruciating. He could only imagine how it felt to have her entire left side be under this abuse. She’d even been fighting the entire time. As they rose, Griff noticed Gaia was laying down to ensure the miasma wouldn’t touch Malachite, even when in unimaginable pain she still worried about her bonds.
The trip up lasted about fifteen minutes until they got to the first floor. Once there they met up with Fergus and Stephanie, who had been killing monsters that came at them as they waited. When they reunited, Griff told them not to touch him or Gaia, but they hopped on Malachite and raced to the ruins exit. When they were halfway there, they saw Edrahni as he raced forward with some people. He stopped after seeing them and ran to speak.
“You guyz are alright? Thank goodnezz.” He said before noticing Griff and Gaia.
“We’ll need healers ready as soon as we arrive at the camp. I’m not too bad, but Gaia’s really hurt. I don’t know if the healers will be of any use though.” Griff said.
Edrahni understood and immediately sprinted back to the camp at his top speed which far outpaced Malachite. The party continued running to the entrance and luckily didn’t run into anyone else. When they were above ground, Griff glanced at his hand and his face paled. He’d only been inflicted with Miasma for about an hour and his hand was already completely black and he could see bone in a few spots on his fingers. He glanced at Gaia before realizing her armor was still up and he couldn’t see what her wounds actually looked like.
The camp came into view about ten minutes later and Griff saw the Guild Master there with every healer he’d seen. They arrived and Griff relayed what was causing the injuries as he picked Gaia up and put her on a blanket they had prepared. When the haze surrounding Gaia’s side touched the blanket it started to decay at a visible rate. The healers backed up immediately and Griff showed them his back. It had started to get a slight haze similar to the one around Gaia. One healer stepped forward and examined it. He didn’t touch it but used some skill to do so.
“This is bad. Really bad. Do we have any healers with a holy attribute?” He asked quickly.
“We should have at least one. Quickly now!” Delilah yelled.
A young man stepped forward and spoke timidly. “I do.”
“Good, now heal this with holy mana.” The first healer commanded.
The young healer did as he was told and the haze disappeared. Once the haze was gone the healers tried healing it. It worked slightly and the wounds lessened, but didn’t fully heal. When they tried to heal his hand the holy mana didn’t effect the haze much. Griff guessed it was because the miasma had burrowed deeper while he held Gaia on the way back. It looked like he wouldn’t be fully healed for a while whether the miasma was purified or not. This was when he made everyone focus on Gaia since she’d been inflicted with it much longer than him and on a much larger area. She still had her armor up so they couldn’t see any wounds, which only made her friends worry more.
Gaia let her bonds out of their tattoos before her armor dropped and there was a collective gasp. Her entire left side was pitch black with some spots throughout where bones could be seen. Her muscles appeared to have liquified, but were somehow still attached as well. The weirdest part was that she wasn’t getting any worse, at least from what they could tell. When the holy healer tried to heal her it actually made her condition worsen so they moved him back. The others tried healing her but nothing was working, so they had Griff carry her to the clinic. She was placed in one of the beds and the same thing happened to it as the blanket. They put her under observation and her party stayed nearby. Griff was purified of the new miasma and the day passed by. Gaia wasn’t able to sleep, since the pain was continuous, but couldn’t do anything else either. She just laid there as her body stabilized and eventually started to heal extremely slowly.
Griff was also put under observation since he had been in contact with her the longest and had been inflicted himself. He wasn’t nearly as effected by it as Gaia, but the wounds on his back slowly healed while the holy attribute healer purified his hand every couple hours. The healers checked on them hourly and noticed that they had started healing after a couple days. They didn’t know how or why Gaia was healing though. It should have been impossible to do so without being purified, but that’s what was happening. When her friends were told this their worry lessened but only very slightly. Until she was up and walking they wouldn’t be able to truly relax.
It took griff about two weeks to fully heal, but the skin that had regrown over the wounds was a dark gray color. As for Gaia, it took her about a month to heal. The healing had started extremely slow, but had accelerated as time passed. After the first week, the healing could be seen each day. The second and third week had shown visible improvement around twice a day to four times a day. By the final week, she had almost completely healed, but hadn’t fully recovered until the week was done.
During this time Gaia couldn’t do anything aside from practicing with her mana and talking to the people that came to visit. At first it had just been her party, Fauna, that stayed. Then, Flora joined and finally Legion joined the third week. They had all been worried about her and were extremely happy when she had fully recovered. There were some changes from the experience though.
She had checked her status and seen something disturbing. She had gotten her last bound attribute, Miasma. Worst of all, it was bound to her recovery stat. She didn’t know how that would work or if she even wanted to find out. She’d also gotten a skill from it called Hex. It allowed her to place a hex on a creature that would inflict it with miasma, dealing damage over time and weakening its defenses. It was also able to stack like her other conditions.
Her companions had waited to tell her what the physical changes were until she was fully healed, so they could tell her without the wounds. The changes, as her friends finally told her, were shocking. The entire left side of her body was pitch black and similar to obsidian. Her hair on that side had turned completely white. On this side her skin had become somewhat sunken with her skeletal structure becoming slightly more prominent. Her veins had also become black throughout her body. The vine on right side had not been spared either. It had become pitch black and had an ominous aura to it. It was shocking for her to imagine and was honestly kind of creepy.
She had tried to get up and walk, but was a bit unbalanced. She’d not walked for about a month since the doctors didn’t want her to accidentally inflict someone with miasma. The haze hadn’t fully disappeared until a few days earlier so it was a legitimate worry. Her left side was also very weak compared to the other so it could barely hold her weight. She also came to realize her chaos paths had changed somewhat. They were slightly harder to control than before, but figured a couple days of retraining her focus would fix it.
She could also feel something else similar to the paths, but was wholly different. It felt like her blood had changed which, according to her companions, possibly had. It felt thicker than before, like it couldn’t flow as quickly she wasn’t sure why her blood had changed. Her best guess was that her situation with her body had effected it somehow. Maybe it was the easiest way for her body to adapt to the miasma, or maybe blood was what held the attribute and, therefore, allowed miasma mana to be created. It was the only way it made sense for her blood to have changed.
She slowly made her way out of the healing tents and towards the inn. Her companions had taken shifts to stay while the other two and her bonds went on watch, so they were still getting some cores. They had all gotten the day off to be there when she was up and moving. They stopped at the mess hall on the way as it was time for a meal and saw the Guild Master.
“Ah, good, you’re up and moving again. I’m glad you’re alright and I’m sorry we couldn’t help you.” The Guild Master Delilah said.
“No problem. I’m just glad I’m moving again.” Gaia slowly said as the change made it a bit hard to speak.
“Well, you still have a week to heal and get your strength back before the recovery time is up. We won’t force you back on watch, but if you could help around here then we’d appreciate it.” Delilah replied.
“Thank you. I’ll let you know when I’m back to normal.” She replied.
Fauna continued into the mess hall where they sat to eat. Gaia’s recent change was going to take a bit to get used to as everything was a bit harder. She ate her meal which made her feel a bit better and the group went back to the inn for a bit. Gaia was still having a bit of trouble controlling her chaotic movements, so she soon moved to the training area. She was able to get a small area again where she started to work on her chaos path control again. It only took an hour before she was back to normal in that aspect.
Next, was trying to strengthen her left side back up to normal. She started with a slow walk and worked on basic strengthening. She used some weighted stones to work on her arm but couldn’t really think about anything else she could do for now. She was still quite weak but was able to walk close to normally after about four hours of continuous workouts. She could also hold about a fifth of what she normally could after training for the day.
She wasn’t going to be back to normal within a few days, but figured if she pushed herself she might be able to after a week. She spent the next week training in this fashion and increasing the duration or weight as she needed to. During her rest time she focused on practicing with her mana and on her less strenuous skills. She also played with her bonds when she could which helped encourage her to work harder. Her companions continued their watches as usual with Malachite staying with Gaia. Now that she was moving they weren’t worried and could focus on watching for monsters.
After the week was up, Gaia was almost completely back to normal but still decided to take it easy. She went up on watch, but mostly stayed out of the battles for another week. She used her Mana field to help and her vines to attack if the monsters got close enough though. She didn’t use her hex skill in fear of accidentally hurting someone if the miasmic haze appeared. After the week was up she started taking her usual role in battles without taking big risks like she usually did. This went on for a couple more weeks before Gaia suggested something to her party that they were all surprised to hear.
“Do y’all want to go back into the ruins?” She asked.
There was silence for an uncomfortable amount of time.
“I should have known you’d want to go back down there, but can I ask why?” Fergus asked.
“I want to try my new skill but I’m afraid of what it could do. It has to deal with the Miasma and don’t want to try it out where someone could get hurt. I figured we can just go to the first floor and I can use it to see its effects.” Gaia said.
“Wait a second. You can use the miasma now too?” Griff asked.
“Apparently, it did become a bound attribute and I got a skill from it. I don’t want to figure out how it works with the stat though.” She replied.
“I actually got it bound to me somehow too. It’s bound to my strength. What is yours bound to? Wait, if it’s something you don’t want to find out, is it bound to recovery or something?” Griff asked jokingly until he saw Gaia’s head nod.
“It’s bound to my recovery stat.” Gaia confirmed.
“Sorry. I didn’t think it actually would be. I can understand the hesitation.” Griff replied apologetically.
“I also figured out how my bound Agony attribute works too.” Gaia said as she explained the effects she discovered during the fight from the second floor.
“That’s not great. A bit disturbing actually. I don’t like how it requires you to be in pain for it to take effect. Why couldn’t you just get a skill like Antonio’s spikes from it or something similar?” Fergus asked.
“I don’t know, but it’s not like I got to choose or had any say in how it works.” Gaia replied.
“Ok. Ok. Calm down you two. It’s good to know for the future, but be careful alright? Effects like that can lead to other problems.” Stephanie said.
“Alright, but back to the topic of the ruins. What do you guys think?” Gaia asked.
“Let’s wait a few more days. I still need a few more days before I can even think about going back down.” Fergus said.
“I’m with Fergus. I’d rather wait and talk about it in a few days.” Stephanie added.
“I don’t want to go back. I will if we need to, but I’m never gonna be the same after what we’ve been through because of it.” Griff said.
“Then, let’s discuss it in a few days.” Gaia finished.
Fauna went to the inn to relax for the rest of the night. They ran into Legion while they were resting and enjoyed a night of chatting and teasing before going to sleep.
