Chapter 3921: Be Well (Part 2) ’If you have questions, instead, keep them for yourselves until we are done. Are we clear?’ Baba Yaga said via a mind link, and everyone nodded telepathically in reply. ’Good.’ The Red Mother assumed her apex form and wore the Apprentice Hands and the Maw. ’Lith, Dread Flames.’ Lith took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, releasing a gentle stream of silvery fire no wider than a baby’s finger. He infused it with great willpower, but when Baba Yaga Dominated his Flames, he opposed no resistance. She brought the Dread Flames near the fractured areas of Zoreth’s life force while Lith ensured the Flames phased through Zoreth’s body and mana without hurting her. He also followed Valtak’s teachings and used the Dread Flames as an extra sensory organ. Lith felt the silvery fire’s hunger and fury as it found the trail of the Cursed Elements, tugging at him to let it follow the prey like a hunting dog. Lith kept the leash tight, allowing the Dread Flames solely to cleanse the areas tainted by the Cursed Elements. At the same time, Baba Yaga studied carefully how the different mana flows inside Zoreth reacted to the Dread Flames. Once she was done, she doused the shattered life forces with the silvery fire. The hybrid side regained its strength while the wild Decay and Chaos slowly reverted into harmless light and darkness. The moment Zoreth’s vitals stabilized, Baba Yaga pulled the silvery fire away from a small portion of the fractured life forces and waited until they started reverting into Cursed Elements. Before that happened, however, Kalla severed the extremity with a surgical blade of Dread Flames, instantly cauterizing the wound at both sides. It was the same technique she had devised to become a Lich, but using Dread Flames instead of Body Sculpting. The small chunk of life force contained the same amount of troll and Eldritch sides, and both now had nowhere from which to draw sustenance. Before they could degrade or fade, the Maw conjured Baba Yaga’s tier five Body Sculpting spell, Loom of Life, to take control of the human aspect. The Red Mother had never treated an evolved human before, so she let Quylla take over via the mind link. One of the few strong threads remaining on the hybrid side of Zoreth’s life force bolted toward the fragment, sewing its two halves together along their most stable edges. Survival instinct drove the human threads already wrapped around the chunk of Eldritch life force to merge with those coming from the hybrid life force. The connection brought new vitality to the Eldritch side, but also forced it to partially merge with the troll side since the threads fueled them both in equal measure. Before Chaos and Decay could try to fight for dominance over the human aspect, Baba Yaga struck them with a wisp of Dread Flames. With the Cursed Elements neutralized, the light and darkness elements were free to rearrange themselves in a stable form that would allow them both to survive. To help them, Baba Yaga infused the fragment of life force with a constant flow of light, darkness, and Spirit Magic from the Storage. Together, they provided the fragment with everything it needed to develop without burdening the already weak hybrid side. After a while, the two halves of the fragment stabilized, and even when Chaos and Decay started to form again, the repulsion between them was minimal. The Red Mother then infused the hybrid side with Spirit Magic, allowing it to spin more threads that she used to strengthen its connection with the fragment. More nourishment arrived with each new strand that wrapped itself around the fragment, allowing its different parts to merge further. As soon as the Cursed Elements began to clash anew, another short burst of Dread Flames snuffed them out, quickly followed by another infusion of light, darkness, and Spirit Elements. At the end of the second cycle, the structure of the fragment had not experienced any major changes. ’This is not good.’ Baba Yaga said. ’The life forces are somewhat stable and linked, but their merging has halted. They still retain their individuality, and barely tolerate each other. Any suggestion?’ ’I thought you said questions had to wait.’ Quylla said. ’Yeah, your questions, silly child, not mine.’ Baba Yaga replied in annoyance. ’There is no progress, and we can’t keep wasting Flames and the energy of the Storage. There is a lot of life force to treat yet, and our predictions proved to be wrong. ’Let’s rack our brains and find a solution. If we don’t, we have already failed, and it will cost Zoreth part of her life force. It could affect her personality, her bloodline abilities, anything. Less talking and more thinking.’ Everyone thanked the gods for the Yggdrasill wood and the Armory. The Sage Staff amplified their mental acuity, allowing the team of Healers to process their own knowledge and that stored in the Library with uncanny speed. They did in minutes musings that would have otherwise taken them hours. Baba Yaga was about to use the Dread Flame to contain the Cursed Elements for the third time when Lith stopped her. ’Wait, I have an idea.’ He said, and the Red Mother telepathically nodded for him to continue. ’As you said, the fragments are somewhat stable. They have no reason to change, so let’s give them one. ’Don’t give them more Dread Flames and let’s power down the Infirmary a little.’ ’You want to trigger Zoreth’s survival instinct.’ Baba Yaga pondered the implications of such an approach. ’Remember what the Master taught me.’ Lith replied. ’We must make the life forces uncomfortable if we want them to change. Also, in case one of the two halves gains an advantage, nudge it. Make it so that they can survive only by cooperating.’ Quylla and Tista disagreed, finding Lith’s idea too dangerous, yet they had no alternative to offer. ’Let’s give this a try.’ The Red Mother sighed. ’Solus?’ ’On it.’ As the Chaos and Decay of the fragment resumed their struggle, Solus lowered the intensity of the Immortal Body array. Not by much, just enough to make the weakest parts of Zoreth’s life force fall apart. Baba Yaga shrouded everything but the isolated fragment with Dread Flames, putting out the Cursed Elements everywhere else. The two halves of the fragment attacked each other with renewed violence to monopolize the energy coming through the human aspect, but to no avail. Baba Yaga used the conjured tools of the Hands to inject darkness inside the Chaos and light inside the Decay as soon as they began to overpower the opponent, forcing the two halves to a standstill. The energy one leaked due to the attack was absorbed by the other, strengthening it and restoring the balance between the conflicting life forces. ’The human threads are wearing out.’ Baba Yaga’s expression turned sour. ’Soon they will fall apart and...’ Without the Chaos to keep it contained, the Decay would have consumed the human life force in a matter of minutes. Without the Decay, however, the threads of the human aspect would lose their hold on the fragment. Survival pushed the troll and the Eldritch sides to merge into a single block, but the violent clash between the Cursed Elements slowed them down so much that the process would never finish before the fragment died of starvation.