Chương 72: (70) 2.23. The Ritual of Stillness

The inside of the small mansion was truly remarkable, but Vin didn't get the chance to admire the many portraits and carved statues of powerful infernals lining the hallway. As soon as Agne was gone and Malzer realized just what condition Vin and his party were in, the young infernal had gotten serious, his attitude vanishing as he quickly rushed them over to some form of sick bay.

"Malzer? What's going on?" An infernal reading beside the cluster of beds asked, getting to his feet and looking curiously at Vin's party as they entered. This infernal had the same golden eyes as Malzer, but looked to be closer to Vin's age. And unlike Malzer and Agne, the jagged lines running all along his dark skin were closer to purple than red. Based on the thin spectacles and hefty book in his hands, Vin immediately pegged him as some form of scholar.

"No time to explain Xaril, I need to go find Madam Trebella," Malzer said, grabbing a cloak hanging on the wall and throwing it over his shoulders. While his clawed fingers struggled with the clasp in his haste, he glanced up at the older infernal.

"Do you know where she went?"

"Why would I?" Xaril said unhelpfully, peering at Vin and his friends as he marked his place in his book with a pressed flower. He seemed entirely unfazed by the younger infernal's nervous haste.

"Gah, I think she mentioned something about algae... Maybe she's down by the pond! I'll be right back!" The moment the thought struck him, Malzer rushed out the door, slamming it shut behind him. Sighing, the older infernal clicked his tongue, turning to look at Vin's group. Like Agne, his eyes lingered on Shia for a few seconds before he focused on Vin. Unlike Agne however, rather than her warm curiosity, his eyes felt cold and clinical.

"Well, let's start with the obvious. Can you understand me?"

"Yeah," Vin nodded, wondering what the heck was going on.

"Are you a healer?"

"No. The sick bay is just the quietest place in the house to read. People rarely ever barge in here." Vin stared at the unmoving infernal, unable to believe what he was hearing. As the seconds slowly ticked by, and Xaril merely looked at him impassively, he came to the startling realization that the older infernal was waiting for an apology from him of all things.

"Look, my friends and I are literally dying," he said, glaring at the unconcerned infernal.

"If you're not going to help or anything, maybe you should, I don't know, get out of the sick bay."

"I didn't say I wouldn't help," Xaril shrugged, not seeming the slightest bit annoyed with Vin's tone.

"Just that I wasn't a healer. You can put your friends on the beds there while I start preparing the ritual for Madam Trebella."

'Ritual?' Vin heard Alka ask as he carefully placed Shia on an open bed. The elf felt feverish to the touch, and she continued letting out quiet moans every time she was jostled. Vin helped Reginald deposit Scule on the next available bed, and not even the comical sight of the tiny man lying in a regular person sized bed made him feel any better. Unsure what else to do for his friends at the moment, Vin turned to ask the annoying infernal if he thought his Renewal spell would be of any use when he froze.

In the few seconds it had taken Vin to get his friends on the bed, Xaril had been busy. A good chunk of the sick bay floor was absolutely covered in glowing red runes, and the infernal wasn't showing any signs of slowing down. Despite the current situation, Vin stared in awe of the hunched over infernal as his finger wove through the air so fast he could barely make it out, leaving behind a glowing purple line everywhere it passed.

"What's wrong with you?" Xaril asked bluntly, shocking Vin from his stupor as the infernal spoke without even looking at him.

"Severe radiation poisoning," Vin said, before realizing that probably meant nothing to the man.

"Our bodies are breaking down and dying on an extremely small level. Shia… The elf over there, said Neutralize Poison wasn't enough to fix us."

"Radiation?" Xaril repeated, actually pausing for a moment as he tried out the word like someone discovering a new food.

"Interesting. I've never come across that affliction before in any of our books."

"So this ritual… Will it cure us?" Vin asked, realizing he could barely make heads or tails of what the infernal was drawing out. All he could see was that it was slowly forming a complex looking square. While some of the runes looked a bit familiar, he didn't recognize any of them outright. It was clear Xaril was in an entirely different league when it came to runic formations.

"No," Xaril said simply, going back to his runes. If only he wasn't such a pain.

"Then why are you making it?" Vin hissed, trying to keep his anger from bubbling over.

'Keep it together Vin. It's taking everything I have not to brain this guy with the pommel of my sword. If you snap, I'm going to be right behind you.'

"While I'm not familiar with this radiation you speak of, I don't need to be in order to know the proper ritual for dealing with it," Xaril said, his tone suggesting he was explaining something simple to a small child.

"Madam Trebella will most likely need to enact a purification ritual in order to save your lives. However, she currently lacks the materials needed for casting such a powerful ritual. Logically, she'll then decide to perform a ritual of stillness, temporarily stopping the decay sweeping through your bodies and buying her time to get the needed materials for the more powerful ritual." A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Vin could only stare daggers at the uncaring infernal as he talked about their crisis situation like it was a textbook math problem. It was probably a good thing the guy didn't see himself as a healer, because his bedside manner was absolutely terrible.

"Done," Xaril finally said, standing up and giving his runic array one last look. Reaching into the sleeve of his cloak, the infernal pulled out four gleaming red stones, placing each one carefully at a specific point within the array.

"Now we just need to wait for Madam Trebella to arrive, and she can enact the ritual," he said, turning to look at Shia.

"Do you mind if I examine your pointy eared friend's body in the meantime? Or the small cursed one? I've never read about such a curse before."

"What? No!" Vin exclaimed, barely able to believe the guy was serious.

"And what do you mean cursed one? Is Scule cursed as well?"

"... yes?" Xaril said, looking at him like he was an idiot.

"The man's six inches tall. Did you hit your head along with getting yourself poisoned?"

'Oh buddy. Vin, you better get that guy out of here fast unless he wants to lose one of those horns.' Vin was just about to spare Alka the trouble and grab the infernal's horn himself when the door suddenly flew open, revealing a panting Malzer.

"She was already on her way back!" He gasped, quickly stepping to the side and hanging up his cloak.

"She's right behind me!" Sure enough, before he'd even finished speaking, a new infernal Vin could only assume was Madam Trebella strode into the room as if she owned the place. Unlike the simple clothing of Malzer and Xaril, Madam Trebella wore a dark grey robe adorned with gold and red thread, and her horns had small golden caps on the ends. The infernal carried her head high, and she didn't even pause to let Malzer finish moving out of the doorway, nearly barreling straight through him as she approached Vin.

"You!" She said, barely sparing his friends a look before glaring at Vin and thrusting a wicked looking claw at his chest.

"I've got some questions for you. Come with me."

"What is wrong with you people?!" Vin demanded, almost wishing Alka could take over and start swinging her sword around.

"My friends are dying. Them! Right there!" He said, gesturing to Scule and Shia's sweating forms.

"I'm not going any-" Vin's tirade was cut short as he finally lost the battle raging inside himself. Before he could give Madam Trebella a piece of his mind, he doubled over, throwing up his own breakfast onto the sick bay floor as his building nausea overtook him. Vin at least had the sense of mind to aim away from the complicated ritual, but it was a small consolation prize as he groaned, trying to ignore the pain and sense of wrongness radiating throughout his body as he stood back up.

"You don't look like you're in much better shape," Madam Trebella said bluntly, frowning at him as he leaned heavily against one of the beds.

"Xaril," she snapped, turning to the annoying infernal.

"Why is there a ritual of stillness prepared on my sick bay floor?"

"You don't have the materials needed for a purification ritual," Xaril said, unfazed by the older infernal's harsh tone.

"Logically, this would be your next step." Madam Trebella muttered something unintelligible under her breath, waving the two younger infernals away.

"Both of you two, get out! I need to have a private conversation with our dying visitors here." Malzer acted like he'd been waiting his whole life for this rude dismissal, turning and practically launching himself out the door the moment she issued the order. In stark contrast, Xaril merely shrugged. Grabbing his book from one of the beds, he casually strolled out of the room, not even bothering to shut the door behind him.

Sighing, Madam Trebella walked over and closed the door before turning to look Vin up and down.

"Like I said, I have questions for you. But seeing as you can't answer them if you're dead…" Walking into the center of Xaril's ritual, the infernal gestured toward his unconscious friends.

"Place each of them in one of the corners and take the last one for yourself. Oh, and tell your ghost pal there to move off to the side. Her death mana will screw up the ritual otherwise." Vin stared at the infernal in shock, his mouth seemingly not working correctly. While he was struggling to regain full motor functions, Alka drifted out of him, looking curiously at her.

"How did you know I was here?" She asked, looking just as surprised as Vin felt.

"Do you want me to answer that, or do you want me to save your friends?" The infernal drawled, not even looking at the ghost.

"Four creatures, four corners, chop chop!" Jumping into motion, Vin carefully placed Scule and Shia's bodies in two of the corners as Madam Trebella silently watched him, not making any move to help. Realizing Reginald wouldn't be able to understand the infernal, Vin explained what he needed the rat to do, and Reginald quickly took up one of the empty corners. Stepping into the last one himself, he turned to look at the waiting infernal.

"Now what?"

"Now you shut up and let me work." As soon as the four corners were filled, Madam Trebella began walking around the ritual, staring at the four of them in turn and muttering quietly to herself as she pulled different ingredients out of her cloak. Vin watched on in confusion as she dropped a few white twigs here and sprinkled a vial of something there. She chucked a handful of powder that seemed to vaporize the moment it left her hand, before rolling a few strange looking rocks across the ground.

Vin caught Alka's eyes from across the room, and the two of them shared a similar concerned look. They'd spent enough time listening to each other to know what the other was thinking by this point, and Vin didn't have a doubt in his mind Alka was currently questioning the sanity of the infernal, just as he was. Even so, Vin didn't dare say anything and mess up whatever it was the infernal was doing. She was literally their last option.

All he could do was pray Madam Trebella wasn't some crazy quack and actually knew how to help them. After tossing around a few more ingredients seemingly at random, the infernal finally paused, standing in the middle of the field of runes and giving everything a quick check, seeming pleased with her work.

"That should do it," she nodded. Pulling a small, white gemstone from within her cloak, she gave Vin a look that was almost apologetic.

"Fair warning to you, this will be… unpleasant." Before Vin could ask what she meant by that, the infernal let the gemstone fall from her hands. The moment it hit the ground, the gem shattered into four pieces, and Vin screamed as he felt something tear its way free from his very soul.