Chapter 28 : The Great Disease

It's finally time and we went to the special garden that is actual nothing special, bunch of flowers, bunch of trees but... something feels off. The oni and the boy aren't here anymore, I'm running around and looking everywhere in the garden if anyone is here and well, there is only the witch Saphilys next to that tree.

She is in a posture that makes me think something horrible has happened while I was busy escaping from the white hat demon, I must get rid of him once I'm strong enough and while I'm here something weird happen, the garden flowers become totally dead and one of the friendly witch is still someone I want to kill... Should I try to evaluate her before doing something I might regret ? No, there is no point in thinking too much, I will go now.

"Hello Saphilys I missed you !" I'm lying.

"It's great that you are here. I need your fur, hair and blood to have my last ingredients for the potion to work at the fullest."

"And why should I do that ?"

"Hey stop that Ellen !" shouts Karen while pointing her gun at me, I'm so mad at what she is doing right now...

"Is there a problem with what I ask of you ? I mean, I don't do that because I want to, I have to. Or all of the diseased will die aside from the Princess of Darkness."

"And why me exactly ? What kind of crap story have you going ?"

"She is hiding right now, actually there is nothing proving that you are the antidote. But if you do nothing, all the sick people will die in the next few hours."

"Fuck this shit ! I don't want to save anyone I don't care about. I'm not a hero."

"I have a reward for you if you accept to help me, I will not force you into doing it. If you do accept, you will get to learn thunder magic."

She must be lying to trick me into doing it, I'm not falling for that, I will kill her now and go away alone, unless she is telling us the truth... which is definitely something I want to learn by myself and not by being teached by a witch.

While I'm running of in Saphilys direction that is defenless, I impale her with my imaginary pink lance and she disappears with no trace of blood on her or anywhere else. I then get shot by Karen and get paralyzed on the spot while she has fun putting me on my kneels and that damn prankster is standing in front of me with her smug face and lowering her head a little to put her foot on my face.

"Do you understand what it implies you idiot ?"

"I do know, why should I care about strangers that will abuse me in the future if I'm too kind ? Isn't that what everyone does ? Plus, you have no right to say that I'm in the wrong !"

"You are in the wrong. You should thank me that you were trapped in here with me."

"That's what I hate about you."

"You hate being stepped on ? I understand, deal with it. Who do you think has been your partner in crime for everytime you stole Naomi's money ?"

"You will help me ?"

"Of course, I'll help you. I'll help you stop becoming a really bad person. Let go of your honor and proud, they will make you as bad as who you hate most."

"But I need power... and killing gives power, stop stopping me ! The witches are all bitches."

"And you can't say sandwiches without witches."

I laughed, I'm so weak to jokes no matter how bad they can be, she has always made me laugh in the past but well it seems we are less closer than before I betrayed them, I should be ashamed but I'm not since death is scarier than anything so far... anything except that demon, he is toying with my savior as we speak...

"Actually Karen, I want to save Naomi from the monster."

"You shouldn't. Naomi isn't worth saving at all."

I'm shocked by her statement, like she knows something I don't.

"Why ?"

"It's because of her that your brother died, while she was still young she flirted with a kitsune boy and lured him into telling where he lives. When she finally got him to say it, she told the demon with white hat her plan."

"Wait a minute ! How could you know that ? And It's definitely a lie, big sis would never have done that to me !"

"But she did. And I also learned through that wish that she is born a demon or at least she was adopted by one, but through experiences became a werewolf. The Demon's King's brother is not hurting her, they are tagging along to push you to your limits and then who knows what terrible things they planned for you."

"Why did you do that ?"

"Because I'm the only one I can trust. Well, let's just not count our catboy."

"Do you think I can still be a hero after all of that ?"

"Just let the witch use you this time, I've spent enough time with her to know she is someone you can trust."

"I still feel like I should save Naomi... and that other friend."

"It's pointless, he will only listen to her and she will act like she is an heroine and ask him to kill us both."

"Right now I will help make an antidote, also why would the sick die ?"

"When you reach a potential of energy beyond your own limits too fast under stress and fever, your body will shake, shake faster until your heart and brain gets rotten making you go from alive to dead in no time."

"Hurry up, get me out of the illusion ! And hum... thanks for telling me the truth. I'll find a way to help you."

"Before that, I wanna know, what do you think of the Demon King ?"

"If I could choose one word to describe him, I'd say he is human. And he needs me, he needs us."

She remove her foot from my face and sit, giving me a worried look, something I'm not used to have in my sight.

"And what do you think of Plutaria Nekretia ?"

"Not much, she is weird most of the time, she seems like a bright person in the inside and an evil person on the outside. Deep down inside, she must want to be a hero."

The flowers are alive again, Karen has always been behind me with her gun pointed at my arm.

The witch Saphilys was alive at the same time and already took all she wanted from me to make a potion work in her alchemy table that just appeared to my eyes and didn't seem to surprise Karen who most likely knew it was always here.

"Why is the liquid so blue ?"

"Plutaria, do you want to tell miss kitsune here why she is immune to your sickness ? Or do I have to tell her ?"

Plutaria, shows up out of nowhere by coming from the ground of the witch's shadow as she laughed evily and caughed which ruined her performance. She stares at my eyes, she stares into my very soul... that princess is sick and by her ow. fault she would have killed her own country by being sick.

"Today is an important day, I can't let my people down... I never do it, even now ! And yet, my dark powers became lighter and lighter, I've became so overwhelmingly week and by holding everyone's hands for celebrating mother's last anniversary as a queen. I pity you lady Ellen, having to swore for a noble cause and make me look like a winner. I order you to protect this land at the cost of your own life, as the Greatest Princess of Darkness the Kingdom of Lust as ever known, as God's daughter and as an horny young woman you must take responsability of all potentials deaths !"

"She is weird. Or just cringe I guess." comments my dear half bear friend.

"Plutaria has saved me countless times. I'm grateful for that and I will honor my words Ellen. My eldest sister will teach you, the kitsune how to use thunder or lighting magic whatever you call it."

"Every kitsune can learn it ?"

"Only the ones with purple hair, my sister analyzed you and she couldn't see your full potential. But she did find something odd about you."

"And what is that ?"

"Your powers are sealed due to a god's curse. Which means..."

"This god has gone mad."

"And you know what is even more odd ? It's a witch who did that. But under normal conditions, a witch cannot become a god. They are forbidden to be by what the Primordial God wants."

In that case, I'm fighting against a god that is also a witch, could it be the one who was given up on 50 years ago ? Does that mean the witch was given a favor by the god of gods so she could become a godess and get her powers back ?

"I don't know what you are thinking, but your lover here needs medical assistance." adds Plutaria in a worried tone while looking at me.

"Great, just great."

"Now hurry damn buffon of a fake friend !" screams the sick half godess at me in a high spirit.

I go away as soon as she say it to follow the witch that is going everywhere on the kingdom.

"Why is Plutaria still sick ?"

Saphilys ignores me and uses her wand, doing lot of circles, after doing that 14 times a few potion with the exact same liquid appeared and she forced me to take them and we are giving this to everyone we can, she even keeps one for herself and gives the rest to others then watches what happens to the people and I'm worried that it just accelerates the process to kill them.

"Are you alright ?" I ask to the boy in front of me.

He looks sick, he is definitely in pain and it hurts in his stomach, why whenever I see a little boy I have to think of my lost brother...

"I'm..." he waits a little and farts. "I feel better now miss, thank you !" his face is as happy as I want it to be.

"But hum, why did you help my family and me kind miss ?" he wonders.

"Well you see... The princess is sick and she spread her disease by being in contact with everyone she cares about, it means all of you..." I headpat him and go away, I help everyone I can and get thanked for it everytime, I'm not even asking for a reward because I would have regretted doing nothing.

Hours later, we finally all get back together, Karen, Plutaria, Saphilys and me in the Garden.

"So as you can see everyone is fine now." comments the witch with a smile.

"And where did the oni and her boyfriend go ?"

"If only I knew. In a matter of fact, they probably escaped because of the lack of surveillance here. Was there someone supposed to check on them in the first place ?"

"I asked for my hum... friend to do it, but it seems she forgot to do it or thought it wasn't important at all."

"Oni huh..." whispers Karen.

"Oni indeed." claims Plutaria.

"And what do we do exactly ? We don't know where they could have gone." I'm asking all of them at once by looking at each of them.

"Come with me Ellen, you can all come if you wish to, witches are far more intelligent than you three reunited."

"Don't think so." I comment instantly.

"If you say so, you must know a lot about forbidden things like revive magic or time travel or even about me." she claims in a blatant way.

At least, we go to their shop where a girl with white hair is waiting, she is reading a book and doesn't seem to even notice us by the sound we make nor by our smell or even her sight, she is so absorbed in her book and looks as young as the pretty me.

"Teach me thunder magic like your sister promised or I will rob you from all your hats !"

The young woman doesn't even turn to see us, she crudely answers me with something else.

"As you can see I'm reading. Also, I helped Camilla escape since you are so eager to do things on your own. Since she is the worst part of me, she will not do anything to you directly anymore."

I'm burning with rage to what she says, she is definitely provoking me into doing a fatal mistake.

"Then tell me about the witch you banished from your family 50 years ago."

"It's simple, she was a failure to us and we sealed all her powers for eternity. She became human after that, possessing no magic and she seeked for revenge against all of us. Even I couldn't protect her from that sentence. The girl no longer has a name, she is nothing, she is no one. If you ever meet her, ignore her."