Chapter Text

Saviour

Lily felt the wind strike her body as she slept, and she slowly opened her eyes to a desolate plain. There was nothing but grey dust in sight, not even the sky was visible from where she stood. She didn't care for the wind - most of its effects were nullified by her enchanted amulet - nor the seemingly random location she had awoken to, what sent her into panic mode was the fact that she didn't feel her blighted spirits at her side. She attempted calling for them, starting with her Umbral Knight, but all she felt was emptiness.

She didn't know what to do, this was too sudden. She hadn't thought her Umbral Knight would abandon her at any moment, and so she could only feel panic and fear. She tried to summon her Umbral Knight a second time, and no one answered. She tried to call for Fretia's Soul - she had said she'd always be by her side, right? - and no one answered. How could this be? Where was everyone?

She viewed her surroundings, as if they would hold the answers she saught. Of course, it was nothing more than dust, wind and the occasional bug. Although, those were some very big bugs, and one seemed to be approaching her...?

Lily quickly stood up from where she had been resting - an action that took too much energy out of her, why was she so tired? - and prepared herself for the possible confrontantion against this giant beetle. Without her spirits though, she stood no chance. Not even her blighted body would be able to... wait, where was her blight? She touched her hair for any signs of blight, but there were none. No black hair, no red tentacles coming out of her hair or body, and no cracks in her skin. Her body had been perfectly purified, which didn't make sense to Lily. After purifying the Blighted Lord she should be containing all that blight inside her body, but instead... there was nothing.

The beetle made a sound which thankfully woke Lily from her thoughts. It was about to attack! She readied herself and at the last moment before the beetle hit her she activated Fretia's ring in her hand and a shield materialised around her... or not. She didn't have any rings. Instead, the attack hit its mark and her enchanted amulet absorbed the hit, forming a crack around its gem in the process. She wouldn't survive another hit from the beetle and she had no defences whatsoever - no spirits, no relics and no blight.

The beetle prepared for a second attack, and all Lily could think about was that she'd die here. She could try to dodge by dashing away, except not. Silva wasn't here so she couldn't properly dash, all she could try was to throw herself to the side. That might work for now, but she'd surely tire herself out before long. Her body was incredibly fragile and she simply could not win a battle of attrition.

Still, she wasn't about to just give up. As the beetle came for another attack Lily threw herself to the side and quickly stood up again. Her body hurt and for the first time it wasn't due to the blight. Still, she prepared herself for yet another attack.

The beetle turned towards her and steadily approached her. It readied its arm for another swipe and Lily's body took position---

"KASAAAH!"

Lily blinked in surprise. What was that sound? When she opened her eyes the beetle in front of her had been pierced by a... something. It had the same shape as a sword but Lily had seen enough swords to know that they weren't made like that. A flash later and another bug had appeared behind the beetle, which fell to the ground. She eyed the beetle a moment longer, making sure that it wouldn't stand up again. It did not, and Lily could breath a sigh of relief.

Once Lily had calmed herself she eyed her saviour. They too were a bug, though they walked on two legs instead. They also wore two masks, one hiding their face and another on their head as a hat. They were also speaking to her, though she could not understand a single word the creature was saying. To indicate as such, she signaled her ear and shook her head. She then stopped, because she wasn't sure if bugs had ears...? Was the bug going to understand her?

"Tostakugando." Her bug saviour simply said before signaling to the distance with their sword. Lily followed where the sword was pointed at and found a tall mountain in the distance. The wind struck the mountain and left the dust settle over it, making it look like a grey uninhabited place.

Still, if her bug saviour wanted to go there then who was she to deny them? She nodded to the bug - would they even understand what she meant by the nod? - and signaled to the mountain as well.

They soon started walking towards it.

Climbing the mountain was going to suck, Lily concluded. Just arriving here had tired her out, and though she had been trying to not be a burden to her bug saviour they had noticed and had insisted on them taking a break - or that was what Lily thought they meant.

There were no respites in sight, and as such her enchanted amulet would unfortunately not repair itself this time. Still, with her saviour by her side, she should probably be fine.

The fact that the second being that Lily had met that wasn't either dead or blighted was a bug wasn't lost on her - the first one being Fretia, though the 'blighted' part could be disputed -. Lily already knew that her life as a White Priestess wasn't exactly the most normal one, but she had never heard of talking insects in her life. Granted, she was a few weeks old, so she hadn't exactly had the opportunity to read about the outside world, but she at least thought her Umbral Knight would have mentioned something like this in their travels.

Lily was interrupted from her thoughts by the sound of something landing nearby. Her saviour was much faster than her and reacted first, taking their sword from where it laid on the ground and standing up to face the sound. That was when Lily saw the other bug that had arrived. This was the first bug that she had seen wearing clothes, they wearing a red cloth around them as well as a mask on their face. In their hands stood another one of the weird swords that these bugs seemed to use, though this one didn't look like the one her saviour fought with.

The two bugs were saying things to each other. They seemed to be arguing, though with the masks she couldn't read their expressions - not that she knew how to identify the expressions of bugs. Eventually though, the red clothed bug attacked first by charging against her saviour at speeds Lily could barely register. Her saviour reacted just as fast though, and managed to block the attack with their own sword.

For the second time since she had arrived here Lily felt fear. What if her saviour wasn't strong enough? The red bug seemed more experienced in their attacks than her saviour, and at this rate they'd win just by tiring her saviour out. She had to help them!

But... what could she do? She'd surely just be a nuisance if she got involved, these bugs were moving at speeds that even Hoenir could not match! Perhaps she could help from a safe distance? What did she have...?

As the red bug prepared for another charge against her saviour, Lily held her hands over her chest and murmured a few words under her breath. It was a prayer to the ancient White Priestesses, before the colonists had arrived to what was now known as Land's End. Her aura surrounded her in a shield that lasted for no more than a second, though it repaired her amulet like it had never been damaged. This action surprised the two combatants, who jerked their heads towards her as her aura reached them. It was also enough to make the red bug miss their shot, and instead of their sword landing in her saviour's caparace it hit the mask over their head, which suddenly flashed to life. It was an enchanted mask, though with what spell Lily did not know - she wasn't a mage.

This, too, surprised the red bug, who withdrew from their attack and instead returned to using words. Which surely was a good thing?

The two bugs argued again, though this time it ended with the red bug throwing her sword far away, which somehow sent them flying as well.

Finally, Lily let out a sigh of relief. That had been her second close call in less than an hour! How much she wished her spirits would be here to support here.

As she had expected, climbing the mountain had been an experience she wishes to never repeat. She still didn't know what had happened between her saviour and the red bug, but it seemed the situation was resolved since her saviour walked in a relaxing manner.

After three breaks just for Lily they managed to reach the peak. It was full of bugs, though these ones were thankfully smaller than the first beetle she had encountered. However, Lily froze when her saviour killed one of the bugs that had attempted to attack them. These bugs... they were infected. As the bug died, Lily could plainly see the infection go with them. And, now that she looked closely, she could see the bugs' eyes shine an orange light. They also bled orange, which she was pretty sure was not a normal thing bugs did.

For a moment Lily debated whether to take the infection of the dead bugs into herself. Back in Land's End, when she took the blight inside of herself, she'd grow stronger. Her muscles would be reinforced from the blight, and she'd hit harder. Of course, not everything was a positive, as her physical appearence would also change to resemble that of a blighted human. So, while taking this infection into herself would most surely not affect her mind or Soul, it was better that she didn't for now. She just didn't know what effects this infection might hold on a person's body, and she didn't want to scare her saviour by making herself look like an infected. Eventually though, she'd need to take the infection into herself if she wanted to make new spirits.

Her saviour did not seem to notice Lily's internal dilemma and they soon continued in their journey.

Lily was so happy right now. They had found a respite! The town which they had arrived to wasn't populated by many bugs, but she could at least take a nap on this bench. At first, it had saddened her a bit when she sat down and no spirits came to greet her, but she could fix that soon enough! She decided there and then that she'd help the few remaining bugs of this town by purifying the infected that she came across, eventually reaching the point where she would try to contain the entire infection inside herself. Of course, it wouldn't be easy - no relics meant that she had no Luminant Aegis Curio and as such she couldn't just recklessly take infection within herself and not end up like Fretia. Instead, she had to be smart about this.

As her saviour and elder of this town talked near her Lily fell asleep on the bench.

When she awoke, her saviour was sitting by her side, still talking with the elder. She sat up with a yawn, which alerted her saviour and made them turn their head towards her at a rapid pace. Did... did bugs not yawn? Maybe they didn't and that was why she had worried her saviour. Either way, she smiled to her saviour so they knew that everything was alright. They seemed to relax at that and stood up from the bench, an action which Lily soon copied. Her saviour took a few steps before noticing her following and turned around to face her. They signaled towards the respite and said something that, as always, Lily did not understand. Still, the action was pretty clear in her mind, her saviour wanted her to go back to the respite, which she definitely was not going to do! She had a town to save and spirits to make!

Seeing that she wasn't moving, her saviour took a few more steps towards the town well and Lily followed behind. Her saviour again tried to signal her to go back to the respite but she simply shook her head. She wouldn't be separating herself from her saviour!

She heard a chuckle-like sound coming from the elder and a breath of exasperation from her saviour, which meant that she had won the argument! Lily soon followed behind her saviour as they approached the well and looked down. She did too, and Lily was able to see that the well's chain reached the floor after a few metres. Her saviour started murmuring to themselves, testing how the chain responded to their pulls. Lily didn't understand why they bothered, she had seen her saviour jump from much higher heights and be perfectly fine, so why were they hesitating now...? Oh, it was because of her, they were trying to find a safe way for her to land down. That was so adorable!

She giggled, which confused her saviour. They didn't know that her nature as a White Priestess meant that she could do things like this...

She stood up and jumped inside the well. Her saviour was fast enough to grab her if they wanted, though thankfully they stopped themselves from trying to do so. After a second she landed on the ground without any injury and soon her saviour landed by her side. They had reached a dimly lit cavern, filled with the same bugs that they had encountered at the peak when they first arrived. Thankfully, her saviour took care of the approaching flies - remember not to take their infection in, Lily - and they continued towards the right.

Lily thought they'd have to walk longer to find anything of worth, but that ended up not being the case. Just next room stood a giant structure in the form of a bug which interested her saviour enough to enter and check out. Inside was a giant black ball with an egg-shaped sealed door. Said door had three masks engraved on it, though that wasn't what called Lily's attention the most. Instead, it was the infection in the air. It was right here! She had found the source of the infection!

She quickly ran up to the black ball and touched its surface. It was warm, though it wasn't as if the heat bothered her - thanks to her enchanted amulet, courtesy of Eleine! -, it was also sealed shut with a seal, so even if Lily wanted to purify the source of the infection from here - which she most definitely didn't at this state, she'd have ended up just like Fretia - she would need to first get rid of the seal before trying anything.

Lily heard her saviour chuckle behind her, and as she turned around she had the feeling that the bug was smiling behind their mask. They also joined her in touching the surface of the ball, and they started murmuring beneath their breath. Her saviour seemed really interested in this black structure, and so Lily stayed quiet as they inspected the thing - she wouldn't be the one to interrupt a person while they were as immersed as her saviour was now.

Eventually though, a new bug entered inside. They were smaller than her saviour or the red bug, and their skin was pitch black. As all bugs, they wore a mask over their head, though they also wore a cloak. Lily blinked at the bug, and the bug turned their head to look at her. For some reason, the bug wasn't registering in her senses. White Priestesses had the innate ability to see minds, it was a necessity if you wanted to purify a person. However, the bug in front of her didn't show up as having a mind, which was obviously untrue. The bug walked up to her saviour and they held a conversation - well, it was mostly her saviour talking since the bug wasn't saying anything. Maybe they were mute, like her?

Eventually the bug left - they didn't seem to be as interested in the black ball as her saviour was - and Lily found herself pondering over why her senses had failed. There had to be an external reason for it, her senses couldn't simply fail at something so basic as seeing if there was someone in front of her!

Either way she shook her head and made an effort to avoid thinking about it. There were more pressing matters and she could always revisit the thought later on. She stood up from where she had been sitting on the floor and tapped her saviour's shoulder.

"Ganama tunek?"

As always, she just couldn't understand what her saviour meant. Therefore, she signaled to the exit with her hand so that maybe the bug could comprehend her. It seemed to work, as her saviour and Lily soon left the bug structure and continued their path towards the right.

The next bugs they found were bigger than the others, most of them even reaching the size of her saviour. Their resemblance to her saviour made her want to purify them even more than before, but Lily held herself back. She had to wait for now, she couldn't get infected in front of her saviour - it would worry them too much and she had no way to explain what she was actually doing.

Eventually they found a fork in their path, they could either go down or up, and her saviour was kind enough to let her decide. She chose up, and after a quick break - going upwards was hard! - they reached another room. It was some kind of abandoned security post, Lily could tell - she had seen her fair share of them, and even though the clubs that were stored inside didn't resemble any weapon that Lily knew it was still the same concept. What struck her however were not the giant clubs nor the grub trapped in a jar at the end of the room, no. It was the giant guard that noticed their entry and raised their club for combat.

The bug was gigantic, easily towering over any other bug that Lily had seen up to that point. They... they could be her first spirit. It wouldn't be a main spirit, just a subspirit, but it would be a phenomenal subspirit. How could she tell? Well, although the guard was losing against her saviour, the way they swung their club reminded her of Gerrod, and Gerrod had been a powerful spirit. Lily loved all of her spirits equally - though she had to admit that she favoured her Umbral Knight quite a bit - and as such she didn't have favourite spirits. Every spirit had its moment to shine, you just had to look for that moment.

That was why, when her saviour dealt the final blow to the infected guard, Lily rapidly approached the corpse. She didn't have much time, purification must happen shortly after killing the subject, otherwise the chances of spirit-fication decreased considerably. How she knew this, she wasn't sure. It wasn't like anybody told her, though she suspected that this knowledge came from Fretia's mind during the cloning process. Either way, this was the reason why she purified the blighted shortly after killing them, Faden being the most notable exception.

As she raised her hand to the guard's mind she ignored her saviour's inquiring glance. Soon after succeeding at entering the bug's mind, Lily found no trace of memory inside of it. She had expected this, of course. The main difference between her main spirits and her subspirits were the recollection of mind. Main spirits like Silva or Gerrod maintained their mind while blighted, which she then accessed in order to set them free. Subspirits also held onto their minds, though only simple thoughts could be expressed by them as they died, normally in the form of phrases. This was no different, as the guard's last thoughts before death were:

Remain...At guard...

Protect...I must...

Come no closer!

The infection was twisting the thoughts that the guard would normally have into its needs. It was a very crude method of control, not even the blight she knew would do such a thing.

However, as she worked to setting the guard's mind free, something latched onto her. It took a moment for her to realise that it was the infection. Instead of Lily having to absorb the infection into herself, it had done so out of its own volition... What? How?

She got her answer soon enough, as she felt the infection reach towards her mind with impressive speed and try to force its way through. Key word being 'try'. Her nature as a White Priestess meant that magics in general and infection in particular could not affect either her mind or Soul, though of course the infection had no way of knowing that until now. What Lily gained out of all of this was the fact that the infection was sentient, which wasn't entirely new to her - the blight had also been somewhat sentient - but this infection was more direct in its methods than the blight had ever been. Still, she felt a small amount of amusement at the infection's reaction upon seeing that it could not force its way through. Strong emotions such as CONFUSSION, RAGE and a bit of FEAR flashed in her senses.

Regardless of what the infection felt, it had already done half of Lily's job! The guard's infection was within her and so now it came the most painful part, making that infection hers. As the infection affected the victim's mind, it had to model itself after said mind - in this case the guard's mind. The infection retained a tiny bit of the victim's instincts which Lily used for spirit-making. In this case, it would be the act of swinging their - no, not 'their', but 'his' - club at enemies. Regretably, there was nothing that Lily could identify as a last rite, and so the spirit wouldn't have a functioning last rite - not an uncommon occurrence, seeing as some of her spirits lacked last rites. Western Merchant came to her mind. Of course, that didn't mean they were bad spirits. Not having a last rite didn't stop the human-turned-bird to help her out as much as he could.

Lastly, all she had to do was finalising the process. As a subspirit, it would be limited to a set amount of uses before the need of a respite - in this particular case, fifteen - as well as having a cooldown between uses. On the positive side, the subspirit would only need to be fed stagnant blight - or 'stagnant infection' - to grow, which was much more easily accessible than either furious infection or the scarce Ancient Soul that her Umbral Knight preferred.

"Its body is turning to stone..." She heard her saviour's voice from behind, and it took her a moment to realise the fact that she could understand them now. Why? What had changed? Was it due to the Husk Guard? Maybe, because the Husk Guard could understand her saviour, she could now? Lily hadn't known this characteristic of spirit-making.

Still, even though she could understand her saviour now, it didn't mean she could speak the bugs' language. There was no way her mouth could pronounce those sounds, and her Husk Guard didn't have the ability to speak - she might need to make a spirit just with such an ability in the future, just as a way of communicating with the locals. Gah, all was much easier when she had her Umbral Knight by her side!

Either way, she wanted to reassure her saviour that everything had gone without harm and so she turned around and flashed them a smile. Unexpectedly however, her saviour reacted by immediately stepping away from her and unsheathing their blade. What...?

"Stay back, Pale Being." They said, though they lacked any confrontanional intent in their tone.

Lily found herself relunctantly raising an arm towards her cheek, only to touch a tear. She brought said hand in front of her face and then she saw it: she was crying orange tears. Her eyes were orange, and now her saviour thought she was infected - which she was, but not in the way they thought. Regardless, she had no easy way of telling them that, and so she stood there, unmoving. Hopefully her saviour would notice that she wasn't behaving like the other infected and realise their mistake.