Chapter 3914: Poison (Part 1) *** Lith sat in the Elemental Storage until Invigoration had barely any effect on him, yet he filled only half a tank for his efforts. He became so tired that he ate in the privacy of his room and went to sleep as soon as he was done. Baba Yaga, Quylla, Faluel, Kalla, and Friya spent their time studying the readings of the Infirmary and discussing potential treatments for Zoreth. One person would have been enough to monitor the Shadow Dragon’s condition and compile the data, but with so little time left, every second mattered. Zoreth never left her room, not even for her meal. She hadn’t missed how Solus tensed up whenever Bytra talked or came too close to her. Moreover, Zoreth couldn’t stand the worried looks of the children. "If I have to die, I want them to remember me as the strong and indomitable Aunt Zoreth, the Shadow Dragon who carried them around on her back. Not as the weak, ruined mess I’ve become." She said after Bytra asked her why she refused to attend dinner. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮 "Besides, I’m too dangerous to stay near the children." Zoreth gulped a glass of Red Dragon to numb her pain. "One spark of Chaos and they die. One spark of Decay and they’ll turn into old people, if they are lucky. "Unless I spasm again and squash them like bugs, of course." The Shadow Dragon extended her hands and tried to keep them still, but even with the powerful liquor running through her veins, she kept shaking. "Still, I think that staying holed up in here does you no good, Zor." Bytra said while spoon-feeding dimensionally compressed dishes to her wife. "The sun would reduce your appetite, and seeing the beauty of the Desert would help you relax. "Remember what the Master taught us. The attitude of a patient influences the odds of a successful treatment." "Please." Zoreth sneered, the pain tormenting her mind as much as her body. "The sun would feed the Chaos and throw my life in even more disarray now that their connection is damaged. As for the beauty of the Desert, it would piss me off. "It’s not a reminder of what I’m fighting for but of what I’m going to lose forever. I’m finished, Byt. You’ve heard Baba Yaga. Even the mightiest white core on Mogar has no idea how to help me. "Give it a couple of days, and I’ll be in such a miserable condition that I’ll think back to this moment with fondness. Let’s be real, Byt. There is no way anyone can find a cure that fast, not even Baba Yaga with the help of Menadion’s tower. "I’m already dead, and we are only delaying the inevitable." "Don’t say that!" The Raiju set the plates aside and held the Shadow Dragon tight despite the stabs of the rampant Cursed Elements against her skin. "Even if everything goes wrong, you can just go back to being an Abomination. "The Master will make you a new clone and-" "No, Byt." Zoreth placed her fingers on the Raiju’s lips, silencing her. "I’m never going back to being an Abomination. I’ll never sacrifice the many people I’d need to become an Eldritch again or allow the Master to play with the lives of another tribe of trolls. "Not after what Raum did to me." Just speaking the Wonderer’s name misted Zoreth’s eyes and made her shiver with revulsion. "While I was trapped inside my body, he talked to me, Byt. "The bastard never stopped explaining his research to me with his cruel, condescending voice, and I was forced to listen. I’ve seen what he did to those poor people he captured. "I’ve become one of them and experienced firsthand what we have been doing to others ever since we joined the Master. Raum was a monster, Byt, but I’m no better. I don’t deserve another chance." "That’s not true!" Bytra replied. "Lith showed me what Raum did to you. I know what his plans and ambitions were. He was nothing like us or the Master. Sure, we committed many atrocities, but all Abominations do that. "More importantly, Raum’s research had no real goal, and he would have never stopped killing. Everything he did was to justify his existence by becoming more powerful than the Guardians and proving Mogar wrong. "Raum came up with all that nonsense about ’the illusion of the flesh’ because he couldn’t admit to being crazy, and his followers just enabled his delusion for their own gain. "The Master’s research, instead, has a fixed goal, and he’s going to stop killing once we achieve it. The Master doesn’t care about power or proving a point. He’s doing everything for the sake of the human race and to bring us, his children, back to life, Zor. "He doesn’t want to create more Abominations, only to find a way to bless the right people with eternal life. You are one of those people, Zor, and so am I. Think about all the good things we can do once we are no longer victims of the Chaos that plagues our bodies." "When we are no longer suffering from the consequences of our own actions, you mean." Zoreth shook her head. "I appreciate the sentiment, Byt, but listen to yourself. You call massacres normal and try to justify our version of Raum’s work by claiming it has a different flavor." "I have to, Zor. Would you let me die if our positions were reversed? Wouldn’t you tell me anything to keep me from giving up?" Bytra’s voice cracked, and tears streaked down her face. "You are different from me, Byt." Zoreth replied. "You are innocent. You committed no slaughter. You are not responsible for what Korgh did, nor for what the goblins you assimilated did. That’s on the Master. "From the day you were born in those mines, you haven’t hurt anyone. You kept yourself hidden and fed upon mana crystals." "I attacked Lith and his friends. I tried to kill them." Bytra’s voice steeled. "Only because you were afraid that they would have killed you first." Zoreth said. "You were just a confused newborn with her mind filled with the memories of a mass murderer. You did what Korgh fooled you into believing was the right thing to do. "Yet even then, you could have blown up the mines, and no one would have survived or would have discovered your presence. You were already better than Korgh and much better than me. "Once you had the opportunity to read and learn, you bloomed into a wonderful woman. I am still the monster I was three years ago, Byt. I just washed away the blood and put on some clean clothes." She took a pause, trying to find the strength to be honest. "I’m sorry, Byt, but if I die, I’m not going to run away from the storm." Zoreth said. "I’ll face it like I should have done a thousand years ago and accept whatever fate waits for me in the afterlife. "Assuming someone like me is allowed to go there again. Mogar turned its back on me when I became an Eldritch, and I don’t think my death will be enough to change Mogar’s mind."