In a quick overview, Vivi detailed the Codex’s capabilities and how it might allow Hollis to heal the remaining infected. She also presented a [Phoenix Blood Elixir] and told them it would make a safe, if expensive, alternative.

  “Either will work,” Vivi summed up. “And we have fallbacks. I know how painful casting with manaburn is, and there’s no need to test the Codex right away. I just thought I’d offer since it makes sense. And I do have marginally more trust in a proper healing spell.”

  Alchemical solutions weren’t unreliable, especially such high-tier ones, but the gold standard for healing was undeniably magic infused with divine energy. Nothing could truly compete with a [Priestess]’s spells or similar.

  “As do I, Lady Vivisari. And more than marginal, no matter what potion it might be.” Hollis considered quietly for a moment. “I’m far from one to shy from pain, especially when lives are at stake. Let’s not take any risks, however small. If you see this as the best path forward, let us proceed.”

  She had expected the answer. A part of her was torn for having made the offer in the first place, but she had lied about nothing, and moreover, she suspected Hollis wanted to help regardless of personal cost. That would have been the case if she were in his shoes. He’d been through significantly more pain just reaching this chamber to begin with.

  “Very well.” She held the book out. Thoughts flashing back to when she’d done the same for Saffra, she reflexively said, “It’s heavy.”

  But Hollis accepted the tome with little problem. His levels had strengthened him despite his magic-type class, like Vivi herself. He studied the book with a curious gaze, scanning the design on the cover and, after flipping to the first page, the magical rune inlaid into the thick paper.

  “I’ll need to remove the infection first,” Vivi reiterated so there were no misunderstandings. “We’ll start with one person to ensure it works like we hope. Once the infection is gone, use your strongest healing spell. There are no disease or poison aspects, so basic healing will suffice. Overcharge it with as much mana as you need—don’t ration it, there’s plenty. If that works, we can do the next eight all at once with an area-of-effect spell. Assuming you have one.” She received a nod in confirmation, though she could read a question of his own in the way his brow pulled down. She answered, “The Codex should more than make up for how area-of-effect spells tend to be weaker. I don’t want you casting any more than you have to.”

  His lips turned up in amusement. “Nor do I,” he admitted.

  “Are you ready, then? I can start whenever.”

  He traced the rune Galdrust—reservoir—with a finger. “Anything I should know before you begin?”

  “It’s intuitive, according to my apprentice.” She paused. “Though… overwhelming?”

  Saffra squirmed in place. “Maybe not overwhelming. It just caught me by surprise,” she said with a hint of defensiveness. “Be ready for a lot of mana. More than you’re thinking. Then double that like five times.”

  For some reason, Vivi felt suddenly self-conscious as Hollis and Eshara turned appraising, bordering-on-cautious looks at her. “There’s a substantial amount of mana in each page,” she agreed, “but you don’t need to claim it all, and it’s docile, for lack of a better term.”

  “I’ll brace myself,” Hollis replied. “It does go without saying that the personal reservoir of the Sorceress will be something to behold.”

  “You can know that in your head, but it’s different seeing it in person,” Saffra said dubiously.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” Hollis sounded amused rather than intimidated.

  “You can link to the book first in preparation,” Vivi told him. “You don’t have to cast when you do. You probably should, actually.” She’d been ready to proceed, but familiarization would only take a moment.

  “Very well.” The cleric looked down at the book and focused, serious but clearly unconcerned. “Here I go.”

  Vivi felt the book open up—and Hollis’s face went ashen. His eyes unfocused, widening to the size of dinner plates. Though he didn’t cry out, every muscle went rigid in pure, unbridled shock, as if an electric current had seized him.

  “This is safe?” Eshara asked in sudden alarm.

  “It is, yes,” Vivi said, her vague embarrassment with the situation growing.

  Hollis stayed frozen that way for several seconds. Eventually, he swallowed thickly and regained control of himself. Vivi felt the vault door holding back the depths of the Codex thunk closed. She also swore she sensed… disappointment?… from the book. It hadn’t liked being linked to without being used.

  The man took a second to find his words. “My.” There was a nervous tinge to his tone. “I should have weighed your advice a little more heavily, dear,” he said to Saffra. “You’d think I’d have learned by now to shed the arrogance.”

  “It’s a lot of mana,” Saffra said, sympathetic.

  “It was as you said it would be,” Hollis told Vivi next. “Remarkably intuitive. There won’t be any issue siphoning mana, I’m certain of it. Imbuing it… we’ll have to see. Keep the potion ready. I would test first, but as we’ve said, I would rather limit how many spells I cast.”

  “I agree. If there’s no objections, I’ll begin now.”

  “No point in dallying.” Hollis straightened his robes out with his free hand. He didn’t sound shaken, exactly, but Vivi could tell the Codex had left an impression on him. He had plastered on too cheerful a tone.

  Vivi put that out of her mind and focused on the task at hand. Floating over one of the mutated, humanoid beasts, she began drawing the spell she had passingly named [Unbind Scourge], a customized design that used the dispel-type [Annul] as its base. She wasn’t healing anything here, merely unhooking many magical barbs that embedded the complex working of biomancy into the victim. Though she supposed the distinction was academic.

  As she worked, Hollis linked to the Codex. Once [Unbind Scourge] was ready, she activated the spell and mentally dove into the victim to start peeling away the offending magic. Hollis’s own spell circle grew as he poured oceans of mana into it. He didn’t bother masking the spell’s power, so it glowed to even her senses. His work wouldn’t be one of subtlety, but of flooding his target’s body with immense restorative energy.

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  She also felt that strange, foreign energy she herself had no access to flowing out of the cleric and intermingling with the mana—tinting it white, as her sixth sense interpreted the phenomenon. Power lent from the heavens, morphing the fundamental nature of the energy. For all that clerics, priests, and other similar classes were mages in some sense, much of how their spells worked was foreign to her. There was a reason that they didn’t train at the Thaumaturgical Institute.

  Vivi finished dismantling the Seed of Genesis’s biomancy on the first victim and lowered her staff to make it clear she was done. “You can heal him now.”

  Or her, for all I know, she thought. The mutations were that advanced.

  Hollis wasted no time responding. He incanted his own spell.

  “[Benediction of Light].”

  The words came out strained, and sweat had covered his forehead as he formed the spell, but the mana and circle itself were stable. Vivi hadn’t doubted Hollis—she knew Titled didn’t reach the heights he had without an ability to appraise their condition objectively, to decide whether they were capable of a given feat. Still, she’d been ready to dispel or recover whatever she might need to, and to use the potion as a backup.

  The chamber glowed radiant with the holy purification of Hollis’s presumably strongest healing spell, multiplied many thousands of times over. Even to her senses, she felt an urge to squint as the monster in front of her lit up like a sun. Lower-tier mages would have gone temporarily blind stealing so much as a glance at the pyre. Even Eshara turned her head away by instinct, though she kept her eyes locked on the creature’s form.

  Vivi shielded their party of four from the worst of the glare, particularly Saffra. The girl wouldn’t understand much of what she was seeing, but glimpses into powerful magic could help her contextualize concepts further down the road. Not the most functional training, but still valuable.

  In front of them, the mutated creature began changing shape. Even mundane healing could be disturbing to watch; it was human nature to dislike seeing people’s limbs bend the wrong way, much less this: warping, twisting, shifting color, deflating.

  But Vivi forced herself to not turn away, no matter how upsetting the sight. She might not be the real Sorceress, but she was determined to wear Vivisari’s robes as best she could. Squeamishness had no place in an adventurer. She would see worse in the years to come.

  Second by second, a human body emerged from the bloated, unnatural shapes that had once consumed its form. Broad shoulders, shorter than average, tanned skin and brown hair. A seemingly healthy middle-aged man.

  A nude one, as became apparent rather quickly. Vivi wrapped an illusion of a cloth around his waist.

  “I’m not ten,” Saffra mumbled in embarrassed protest at Vivi’s side.

  “It’s for everyone’s benefit. Including his own.”

  That mollified the girl, though truth be told, Vivi’s thoughts had jumped to Saffra first.

  In ten seconds or so, [Benediction of Light]’s radiance faded away, having run its course. Vivi’s mental attention dove into the man, seeking instabilities either magical or mundane. But he was breathing regularly, his heart was beating, and in general, she sensed nothing wrong with him.

  He was asleep—and that might remain the case for a while. She wouldn’t forcefully wake him. Natural recovery sometimes helped more than even magical healing. Reassuring as it would be to rouse the man and confirm his well-being, it would be best to let him stir to consciousness naturally.

  She’d been confident the combination of spells would work, but she still almost sighed in relief.

  She was so focused on studying the man for lingering injuries that she only became aware of Hollis collapsing to her side when his staff bounced across the stone ground. Her gaze jerked his way, and panic flooded her. Eshara had already rushed over.

  “I’m fine, I’m fine,” Hollis said, waving the knight away. Rather than looking exhausted or stunned, as Vivi had expected from the abrupt collapse, he wore a different expression—one that took Vivi aback. Unbridled awe. “I’ve just… never channeled that much at once. Never been so…” He struggled for a moment to find the right word, then shut his eyes. “Close,” he breathed. Hushed and reverential. “The heavens provide. Truly.”

  Eshara wasn’t impressed. “You scared me,” she scolded. “Don’t do that.” Lending an arm to him, she helped her teammate up. Vivi floated his staff over, which he took.

  She agreed with Eshara—her heart had immediately started slamming. Instead of being hurt, though, Hollis had just been overwhelmed. Except not in the way Saffra had been.

  All of that energy did come from him, not the Codex, Vivi thought, remembering the shining white mana. For a moment, Hollis had acted as a gushing conduit for the heavens. It must have been an experience.

  She wasn’t sure how to feel about the lingering awe in the cleric’s eyes, though.

  She refocused when Hollis limped over to the man to check on him. “Is he all right?”

  “So far as I can tell.”

  The cleric went through his own inspection and, since he didn’t do more than circle around the man with his brow furrowed, presumably activated several skills. Soon enough, he let out an audible sigh of relief.

  “Excellent.”

  Hollis seemed like he might expand on the thought, say more, but then he released an even bigger sigh. Something sagged out of him, leaving the man looking twice as exhausted yet, contradictorily, many times rejuvenated by the fact.

  She could imagine how mentally and emotionally taxing the expedition had been on him. He had possibly thought he was dooming these men and women when Eshara killed the Seed. Vivi didn’t know if the two had deduced that consequence, and didn’t intend to bring it up. By his reaction, she had a strong suspicion.

  “Excellent,” Hollis repeated, quieter. “Let us do the rest.”

  They did so. Vivi arranged the remaining townsfolk and adventurers—with Corvan at the front and center—and ripped the offending magic from them all at the same time. When Vivi gave the signal, Hollis cast his Codex-empowered healing spell. A different one, this time. Area of effect.

  “[Divine Absolution].”

  A soft, glowing yellow circle surrounded the group, and each victim shone with holy restorative energy. Vivi’s eyes couldn’t help but fall on Corvan first and foremost. His condition had been most advanced, and his high level meant he would need stronger magic to affect his resilient—or perhaps absorbent was the better word—body. He was the person most likely to have complications.

  But Hollis had, as Vivi had instructed him to, not held back. It was Vivi’s own oceans of mana he was wielding, mixed with the unparalleled healing power of the divine. The beastkin’s body warped back into shape, having no more issue than any of the others, and a thorough inspection afterward from both Vivi and Hollis confirmed that nobody had suffered ill effects. Not even the Titled beastkin.

  “You’re… certain?” Eshara asked, and there was a stiffness to her voice that even Vivi instantly picked up on. The first hint that the composure Eshara had cobbled together was indeed cobbled together. Her eyes bore into Corvan’s peaceful, floating form with a raw intensity that had Vivi suddenly worried for the woman.

  “We’re certain,” Hollis said gently, resting a hand on her shoulder.

  Eshara’s jaw clenched and unclenched. She nodded, and, abruptly, slammed her helmet on and faced away from them.

  The three of them politely pretended not to notice.

  “I’ll be taking everyone back to town now,” Vivi told Hollis. “And then come back and ensure I didn’t miss anything, either in the caves or the surrounding forest. I’ll kill the Seed after that, and scrub everything clean for a quarter mile or so.”

  Nobody needed clarification on what ‘scrubbing everything clean’ meant. Judicious usage of high-tier elemental magic: fire, and lots of it. Her specialty, in a sense.

  “It’s probably unnecessary,” Vivi said, “but I won’t leave anything to chance when it’s the Flesh-Weaver’s creations we’re dealing with.”

  Eshara had turned back by then; she had only needed a moment. She hadn’t removed her helmet again though.

  “Is there anything you need from us?” the woman asked.

  “Just inform the bailiff. Take care of everyone, or… whatever else needs doing. It might take me some time to deal with it all.” She gestured at the Seed, and their surroundings more generally.

  “It will be done, my lady.”

  Vivi looked around. “Is everyone ready?” When she received a collection of nods, she wrapped their group in magic—the sleeping cured villagers and adventurers included—and began casting [Greater Warp].