Chapter 20 – Alice in Troubleland
I peer through the disturbed bush to find Alice lying, covered in wounds across her body.
“Alice?!”
I call out to the injured girl, earning a grunt of pain from her. Her eyes open slightly as she looks up at us. I reach down and pick her up in a princess carry while talking to Lulu,
“Can you get the door for me?”
She nods her head and runs to the door ahead of me, opening it and letting me get inside. As I walk through the door, Mina is startled after seeing Alice and stands up while saying,
“Oh gods, what happened?!”
I shake my head,
“I don’t know, but I’m gonna heal her. Mina, do you mind stripping the blankets off the bed for me?”
She nods her head and walks over to the bed, pulling down the sheets and revealing the clean, white mattress cover underneath. I lay Alice down on the fluffy bed gently, supporting her head down onto the firm pillow below. I look at her body, seeing several small cuts in her dress, with splotches of blood appearing in several spots. However, I can’t get a good enough read on her condition with the rather large dress covering her body. I look her in the eyes and say,
“Sorry, but I have to do this.”
I reach my hand down and store the ruined dress in my inventory, doing the same for the corset underneath. This reveals her porcelain-white skin, stained with bruises and cuts. There’s many minor cuts and bruises, some fresh from the fall into the bush, others a bit older. None of those are severe, but there’s one that is, though. Right below her ribs is a large gash, with a good amount of blood pouring from it.
“Shit…”
I feel my hands start to shake as I look at her wound. I put my hands over the majority of the gash before casting a new spell.
“Lesser Heal!”
Green light appears in my palms and slowly seeps into her wound. At a slow, but visible pace, the edges of her gash begin to slowly close up. Under my palm, however, I still feel the gash just as badly as before. As the energy seeps into her body, tears begin to fall from Alice’s eyes. Her weak hands grab at the sheets below, balling them up as the wounds slowly seal themselves.
“Lesser Heal!”
The green light seeps in once again, still showing no progress in the major gash, but clearing up the minor cuts.
“Shit! Why isn’t it working?!”
In a moment of desperation, I use Universal Appraisal on the wound, which brings up this:
[Holy Wound: a wound caused by the holy element. Cannot be healed via normal means, similarly to infernal wounds. Can be healed by infernal healing spells, or a stronger holy spell. Can be resisted by infernal beings.]
Dammit! That doesn’t help us here! There’s gotta be some way to help her. Somehow…
“Ugh…”
Alice’s weak voice trails through my ears as her cold hand reaches up to grab my own. She breathes weakly as she looks up into my eyes,
“I’m… Okay… hah… You can… Let me go… Huk!”
She tenses up in pain as she finishes her sentence. Cold sweats run down her forehead, while her skin begins to turn pale. I shake my head,
“No. No, I won’t let you die! Not after everything you’ve done for Lulu and I! We care about you way too much to let you go like this!”
I hear Lulu’s sobs coming from behind me, and think to myself,
‘Most of all… I can’t bear to see what this does to Lulu…’
‘C’mon, think! What can I do? What can I do to save her? Could I cut out the wound and heal her again? No… It’s already too close to her lungs. I doubt my Lesser Heal would be able to regenerate those wounds…’
I see Mina start to appear in the corner of my eye as she walks over to us. She looks at me and puts her hands on my shoulder before saying,
“There… Maybe a way to save her. This is hoping folk tales are true, but there’s a story from the past where the current Demon Goddess was able to turn humans into demons by gifting them some of her bodily fluids. The only thing is… the story doesn’t specify the fluids, nor does it say how this was done…”
As soon as she mentions this folk tale, I get a notification from the system:
[Notice! Due to extreme circumstances, Universal Appraisal has activated itself on the passive skill Demonic Royalty. Further functions of Demonic Royalty have been temporarily unlocked.]
[Demonic Royalty: Able to convert humanoids into demonic versions of themselves via ingestion of bodily fluids (EX: Blood, Saliva, Semen). (Temporarily Unlocked)]
!!!
Without a second thought, I bring up my arm and go to cut my wrist open to give her some blood. I stop halfway through, however, as I look down at Alice and remember the utter disgust she showed for demons. I think for a second. I’d rather not force her to become a demon just for my own mental well being. It’s better to die as something you like rather than to live as something you hate. Thankfully, she’s conscious, so I’m able to just ask her,
“Alice… I have a way to save you… However… This method will turn you into one of Lulu and I’s race. It’ll turn you into a demon.”
I look down at Alice and see the internal battle going on behind her eyes. I see her look down at her own hands, then back up at me. I then see her glance over at Lulu, who has sat down on the couch, crying, and being comforted by Mina. I see a look of acceptance come onto her face, before she looks me dead in the eyes. I expect her to say she’ll die…
“Save… Me… Please, Lily. If you and Lulu are demons, it’s clear that the drivel told to me was just that, drivel. Who knows, I might grow some cute horns like Lulu over there. Besides… I’d like to spend some more time with you two… And get to know Mina over there…”
I let go of a breath I had unknowingly been holding, and feel my shoulders droop back down. Muscles I hadn’t realized I’d been clenching release as I look her in the eyes;
“I’m going to cut my wrist. I need you to drink my blood for this to work.”
**********************************
She nods her head and opens her mouth as one of my claws digs into my wrist. Luckily, the pain seems to be mitigated by my defense stat, most likely. A line of blood begins to pour down my wrist, dripping into the mouth of Alice. As it pools in her mouth, her nose scrunches. She struggles to swallow it as the crimson liquid is pushed down her throat.
Almost immediately, I see a change in her body. Specifically, her eyes.
As she swallows, her eyes suddenly shoot wide open, dilating almost completely within a matter of seconds. She looks over at my wound as her eyes begin to change to match Lulu and I’s, a deep ruby red.
She reaches up and grabs my arm, pulling the wound into her mouth and suckling on it, sucking down the blood as though it were the most delicious drink she’s ever had. As she does this, a set of words appear in my mind. Words that are in a language I cannot speak, yet I understand them fully. As soon as they come to my mind, they leave my lips.
“Sutekai asha ae aa'urushap pakur ai'ai'al shasha!”
(Drink my blood and become one with me, joining my kin!)
A red circlet of runes begins to form around Alice’s head, each glowing a bright, crimson red. They slowly start to seep into her skin, causing her pale skin to begin to gain color again. The wound on her stomach slowly begins to heal as red light glows faintly behind the raw flesh. I feel a bit of energy draining from my body through my wrist as the wound on her stomach heals rapidly, stitching itself up.
My eyelids begin to grow heavy as I look down at Alice, seeing the blood dripping from her lips as she slowly pulls back, almost looking drunk. I barely have time to comprehend her passing out before hearing a booming, feminine, robotic voice echo through my skull:
*~~~~~~~{NOTIFICATION}~~~~~~~*
*Individual: Lilith Fellgrim has formed a kinship bond with individual: Alice Drakea. Alice Drakea shall undergo forceful evolution.*
*Notice: Individual: Lilith Fellgrim has completed an impossible task. Calculating rewards…*
*It has been decided. Individual: Lilith Fellgrim shall be forcibly evolved from a Demon to a Demon Archon.*
*Through the skill: Twin Connection, Lulura Fellgrim shall also evolve from a Demon to a Demon Valkyrie*
*Two new species registered.*
#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#
Immediately after this, I’m hit with a wave of exhaustion the likes of which I’ve never experienced before. With nowhere else to go, I manage to bend forwards fast enough to land face first on the bed, and pass out.