Chapter 553: Catastrophic Unintended Consequences

Having done all he could, Kai stood still as chaos unfolded around him.

There was lots of shouting from the Irunians, but the sound that hurt most was the quiet strangled sob from Zae Zin Nim. She threw herself forward, embracing Omilaena with little regard for the liquid metal staining her robes. With desperate energy, she placed a hand over their wife's stomach, her own qi surging out.

"Her qi is still strong!" Zae Zin Nim immediately pulled one of the medicinal pills they'd taken from the Brightwind vault, one of the deeper treasures, and tried to place it in Omilaena's mouth.

When the other woman's blue lips parted, however, silver ran from them. Zae Zin Nim moved in, kissing fiercely, then pulled back and spat out the metal. She tried a second and third kiss, but it seemed like endless metal poured from Omilaena's body.

"Kai, you have to help!" Zae Zin Nim gestured to him desperately.

He didn't think that they could suck out the metal like that, but Zae Zin Nim looked so forlorn, he had to do something. First, Kai remembered the scroll the elites had given him and sent a quick message, then he bent down to help. It seemed that Zae Zin Nim was placing her hands over Omilaena's lungs, trying some sort of technique, and she gestured upward.

Kai bent down and winced at how Omilaena's lips felt so lifeless, and coated in a layer of running metal. He still locked lips and sucked in, taking as much liquid metal as he dared before spitting it out. But he didn't think that this was going to work, and based on how Omilaena had stopped coughing after the injection, he didn't think she was in imminent danger of suffocation. The problem was that he had no idea what would help.

Zae Zin Nim's technique must not have worked either, because she looked toward him miserably and then dropped against Omilaena, hiding her face. Kai instinctively went to her, wrapping his arms around her and holding her against their wife. Omilaena was still warm, but her skin didn't feel quite like flesh, and he was afraid there was a metallic glint to it.

Around them, the Irunians only made a few attempts to help before stepping back in defeat. Sheiri made eye contact once and shook her head sadly. Tusquo and Quinta were standing to one side, expressions frozen, but he had no time for them, he barely saw the couple enough to note they were staying out of the way.

"Is there a chance that this is part of the process?" Pourila asked from beside the pool. Zae Zin Nim twitched in his arms and he wanted to curse the older woman for giving more hope.

"We can't say for sure." Kai gestured at her. "Clear the room unless you have more experts on the source metal."

Despite everything, part of Kai really did hope that this was only an unexpected step, that Omilaena would open her eyes and smirk at them as if nothing was wrong. But as time wore on and her condition didn't change, he gave up that hope. The panic had ended, but the numb uncertainty was almost worse. He wanted to do something, yet all he could do was hold Zae Zin Nim and hide her tears.

A portal appeared directly in the chamber and Gunjin stepped out with another elite behind him. Kai barely noticed the man was a thin Goralian and didn't pay much attention to him, just fixed his eyes on his mentor as they approached.

"Looks bad," Gunjin said. In a strange way, his emotionless voice helped more than empty comfort. "I don't know if we can help, but this is our best chance. Meet Fornil Andalion, the best healer we've got."

Kai gave the man a better look as he suddenly became relevant. Fornil was a thin Goralian man with a well-groomed beard, wearing a dark blue robe. More importantly, his soul...

<

Name: Fornil Andalion

Total Power: 708

Healer Advanced Class: 26 (378)

Manaknife: 75 (105)

Physique: E-3 (89)

Soul Level: 6 (36)

Hybrid Essence: Healer's Scalpel (+100)

>

Yes, the man had an elite's soul, with over 700 Power, mostly from an Advanced Healer Class. Kai felt a surge of gratitude for his mentor, even as hope and despair warred within him.

"She entered the pool to transmute it using her body?" Fornil asked a few well-chosen questions, then bent down on the opposite side of Omilaena. Zae Zin Nim watched him suspiciously, but pulled back enough for him to work.

Direct healers were rare, but Kai had seen a few work: they could close wounds with a touch or heal diseases with a surge of mana. Fornil was by far the most powerful that he'd ever felt before, and the man's mana flowed out in complex nets that sank into Omilaena's body.

It culminated in placing his hand over her head, carefully gathering mana. When it suddenly intensified, Kai realized that he was witnessing some sort of healing phase: the healing energy was being compressed into a more intense form, as effective as any kind of attack. All of it surged through Omilaena's body with an intense glow... and then the healer pulled back.

"I'm sorry," Fornil said. "What I can tell you is that she's still alive, and she's not dying."

"What's happened to her?" Zae Zin Nim demanded.

"This is uncharted territory. It is... possible for Physique breakthroughs to go wrong, to break apart the body. In this case, it is more like the body has grown still and armored. Blunt healing will never work, because there isn't any injury, the problem is actually too much power."

"And what does that mean for her?" Kai asked. "Surely this can't be good."

"I wish I could tell you that it's harmless, but it might not be." Fornil looked each of them in the eye grimly. "It is entirely possible for excess power to harm the user - I saw a woman from the Fire Union burn herself alive in an attunement gone wrong. There's no imminent danger, but what she needs isn't healing."

"What might work?"

"Something specific to her. More brute force healing won't work, I'm confident of that. If she has any chakra sources of power that she uses herself, those might help. Don't use Irunian materials, she has an excess of those. But otherwise... all I can say is that the solution will be unique to her."

It seemed that he was on his way again, but Kai followed and explained about the syringe. Based on their terse conversation, Fornil thought that might have saved Omilaena's life, and that was the sort of intervention she needed to recover. But it didn't sound like the same thing would work again and there were obviously no easy answers.

"Sorry I couldn't do more," Gunjin said as they stepped away. "Keep in touch if you have an idea. But..." He trailed off, not saying it to Kai's face. Kai only nodded.

When he turned back to the room, he saw that Zae Zin Nim had dried her tears but remained fixed beside Omilaena's body, half-submerged in the pool of bluish-silver liquid. Omilaena floated easily on the top, disturbingly peaceful. Zae Zin Nim wiped away the liquid metal on her lips, closed her eyes, and tilted her head to a natural position, then began fussing with her clothes, as if she could set things right by putting them in order.

For now, all Kai could do was comfort her.

.

..

.

A day later, no one even dared to hope that this was a temporary condition that would resolve itself. Omilaena remained in repose as if sleeping, but she wasn't breathing and Kai was certain that her skin was gradually turning more metallic. Even if she wasn't dying, he knew this state was unnatural and doubted she should remain in it.

The problem was that he'd already thrown the best he had at the problem and come up empty.

They had taken chakra from Omilaena's satchel as well as injected her with her own poison. Her body had seemed to respond slightly to both, but she hadn't woken. Zae Zin Nim remained near her at all times, stroking her hand with the ice tattoo, sending in her own qi as if it would wake her up.

Heart aching, Kai bent down beside her again. "Zin Nim..."

"Go." She spoke so intensely that for a moment he feared that she was angry, then she looked up at him and he saw her pain. "I will stay and defend her, someone must. But there are two of us. Go and look for a solution... and if you have to deal with other things, handle them. Just come back to us."

"I will." Kai embraced her briefly, then he rose to his feet.

Aside from the overwhelming priority to him, Kai knew that others were still worried about the incursion and related issues. Most pressingly, there were Irunians moving around outside, wanting to see the pool, and he was afraid that Zae Zin Nim would attack one of them. So Kai got a jar and scooped up some of the new metal to take out to them.

"Thank you." Tusquo bowed deeply as he accepted the jar. "Of course, we'll tell you immediately if we discover anything that might help."

"See what effect it has first," Kai said. "There's a chance it could poison someone else. But if it doesn't, we might be able to learn something."

And so, even though his emotions screamed at him, Kai ended up walking away from his wife as she slowly grew more metallic. He didn't want to think about anything else, but there was no choice, and he'd never find a cure for Omilaena if he didn't move forward.