Chapter 3903: Solving the Mystery (Part 2) "I’m sorry for my earlier outburst." Zoreth said. "You were just trying to help me, and I overreacted." "You underreacted, child." Baba Yaga shook her head. "I don’t know the details of what happened to you, but I can tell by looking at your life force that whoever did this to you was a monster. "I’ve rarely seen such deliberate cruelty. They knew what they were doing and what it would do to you, but they didn’t give a damn." "What now?" Zoreth asked, feeling her eyes droop and her strength fade. Without the pain, the exhaustion from the last few days was finally catching up with her. Normally, her powerful life forces would absorb the world energy from the mana geyser and restore the Shadow Dragon to her peak condition. Yet the troll side was battling the Eldritch side, while the hybrid life force struggled to sew them back together and keep itself from falling apart. It left Zoreth little energy, and the procedure had drained most of it. "Now that we have bought the Infirmary the time to analyze your condition and find a viable treatment." Baba Yaga replied. "In the meantime, we can rack our brains and see if we can come up with something on our own. "You, instead, need to eat and rest. Don’t use magic for any reason. Don’t activate your bloodline abilities and don’t take a single step off that floating chair. The slightest strain might send your life forces on a rampage and thwart our efforts." "Okay." Zoreth knew she was dying, but she was too happy about the absence of pain to care. She had finally been reunited with her wife and wanted to make the best of whatever time she had left. "I’ll show her the kitchens and be right back." Lith said while opening a Steps with the Warp Mirror. "Why would you do that?" The Red Mother furrowed her brows. "We are all tired, and Invigoration doesn’t make us think faster or better. We can use some food and rest as well." "Agreed." Faluel said as her stomach growled like a lion. "We didn’t do much, but resisting the constant erosion from the Chaos and Decay while we studied Xenagrosh’s life forces consumed the mana equivalent of several tier five Spirit Spells." "I’m sorry, guys." Zoreth barely knew most of them and felt guilty for troubling so many strangers. "Don’t be." Friya sighed. "Lith helped my boyfriend, so it’s only natural that my useless master returns him the favor." "Who did you call useless?" Faluel snarled. The quarrel continued until they reached the dining room, and the delicious smell of the various dishes on the groaning board waiting for them drowned the words in saliva. Zoreth had a huge appetite and barely the strength to eat. In her weakened state, even carrying to her mouth the huge amount of food necessary to sustain her was difficult. The Shadow Dragon couldn’t shapeshift into her Dragon form, so Salaark used Dimensional Magic to shrink whole cows to the size of pork chops and fit Zoreth’s human mouth, but their mass was unchanged. "I must ask Grandma to teach me how to do this." Lith munched a bite of a steak that weighed more than a car. "This would save me a lot of time and allow me to eat a reasonable-looking serving of food. "I’m tired of people staring at how much I eat every time we go to a restaurant." "Yeah, right." Quylla snorted. "It would also kill anyone who dares pick so much as a crumb from your plate." "That’s a good point." Lith shuddered at the idea of Elysia swallowing the dimensionally compressed food. After the meal, Lith brought Zoreth back to the tower and created a room for her. She fell asleep the moment her head touched the pillow, but her rest was far from peaceful. The memories of her imprisonment crept into her mind as nightmares, making her toss and turn. The alarms of the Infirmary flashed minutes after they had laid her to rest, forcing Lith to wake Zoreth up. "This isn’t good." Baba Yaga said. "You can’t afford this kind of stress." "But I can’t stay awake either." Zoreth wiped the tears off her eyes. "I’m too weak." "I’ll stay with you, Zor." Bytra said. "You were here before too, Byt. It didn’t stop the nightmares." Zoreth replied. "That’s because I wanted to give you space, and I was sitting on the chair." Bytra said. "I mean that I’ll stay with you. On the bed." She slipped under the blankets and embraced her wife. "What if I have another fit and you get hurt?" The Shadow Dragon tried to escape the hug, but her strength failed her. "Don’t worry, I can take it." Bytra replied. "At least until I wake you up with a punch to the nose. I’ll teach you and your rude nightmares a lesson you won’t forget easily." "Thanks, Byt." Zoreth half chuckled and half cried. "And keep your hands to yourself." Bytra grunted. "No funny business. This is Solus’ home and body, and we are her guests." "Yes, ma’am." Zoreth went full chuckle, while Solus became beet red. "I don’t peep! I mean, have a good rest!" She Warped everyone away, but kept a surveillance mirror for a few minutes. Once Zoreth fell asleep again and Solus checked that Bytra’s presence drove the worst of the nightmares away, she dropped the surveillance. "What happened to the ’I don’t peep’?" Tista teased her. "That’s not peeping!" Solus snorted. "Do you have any idea what a mere slap from someone like Zoreth can do to Bytra? Eldritch or not, the difference in mass is still abyssal." "Actually, I know." Tista cleared her throat in embarrassment. "It seems that sometimes I kick in my sleep. I sent Bodya crashing against the wall more than once." "And I don’t want to hear about that more than once, young lady." Lith replied with a stern tone. "Seriously, what’s our next move?" "That’s a good question." Baba Yaga nodded. "Right now, I have no answer for you, but I know where to look." "Which is?" Kalla asked. "Solving the mystery of what an evolved human life force should look like." Baba Yaga replied. "As we have said earlier, to fix the damage Raum inflicted on Zoreth’s life force, we need to understand how the different aspects comprising it work. "I’m aware that undoing the Fallen state of her troll side would kill her, but the good news is that we don’t need to perform anything so dramatic. As my breathing technique revealed, the Master did a solid job. "Zoreth’s hybrid life force is more than stable; it’s trying to keep itself together." "And what does that mean?" Quylla asked. "An unstable life force like that of the current trolls resists every change and tries to revert itself to its original condition, correct?" The Red Mother replied. "Correct." Quylla nodded, recalling her struggles with Ryla’s treatments. "If that were Zoreth’s case, the troll and the Eldritch sides would have collapsed long before I could get here. They wouldn’t struggle to stay together. It means that there is a way forward, and if we can find it, we can use it to solve this crisis."