“Tsk, this is starting to feel like a bit of a hassle.”
The battle outside was still ongoing; although it was a retreat, the fighting remained fierce.
Inside the Central Habitat, the tree trunks that Lan Qingyou had originally used as warehouses now held the bodies of witches, laid out one by one.
Most of these witches had been killed by sneak attacks during the initial stages of the invasion.
Fortunately, because they had anticipated the invaders' intentions, other witches had managed to fight back and reclaim most of their sisters' bodies before their blood could be extracted.
As a result, only a small number of witches had their blood successfully stolen.
However, given that Typhon City was home to over a hundred thousand witches, even that small fraction was a significant number.
At the very least, it was more than the witches were willing to accept.
The loss of even a single sister was unacceptable.
It was fortunate that most of the witches were inside the academy when the invaders attacked; otherwise, the consequences would have been unthinkable.
Of course, there were also cases where blood had been extracted but then reclaimed by other witches who fought desperately to get it back.
In everyone's words: “Since we can't die anyway, there's nothing to be afraid of.”
After all, even an “injury” as severe as Lucia's had been saved.
Though, for now, that “saved” had to be placed in quotation marks.
“Why hasn't she woken up yet?”
By the bedside, the 【Steel Witch】 Erika frowned as she looked at the deathly pale Lucia lying on the bed.
Beside her was the 【Lantern Witch】 Nightingale, a member of the Witch Group who wore glasses and a white lab coat, her long brown hair tied into a side ponytail that draped over her shoulder.
She was one of the few who had rushed to check on Lucia immediately after the attack.
However, because she had been quite a distance away at the time, she had simply gone to Cynthia's station with the 【Summoning Witch】 Martha, who was investigating the attack site, before they all moved to the Central Habitat together.
At that moment, Nightingale was organizing the IV equipment by the bed.
This equipment had been used earlier to re-inject the blood that had been lost.
Naturally, in addition to the tools, she had also employed some medical magic she had researched herself, such as cardiac resuscitation.
Besides these two, several other witches who had participated in the “Resurrect Lucia” operation were also present.
There was the 【Toy Witch】 Katie, the 【Thorn Witch】 Cynthia, and the 【Knowledge Witch】 Diana, who was supervising the resurrection effort...
“I'm not sure. She's definitely alive, but... how should I put it? Lucia's current state is somewhat similar to a persistent vegetative state on Blue Star. I think you all understand what that means.”
Nightingale had originally intended to use more professional medical terminology and jargon, as it felt more natural for her to speak that way.
But then she remembered that none of the others were medical graduates, so she switched to a common explanation that everyone was familiar with and could understand.
“A vegetative state... then shouldn't we just call Alice? They say people in a vegetative state actually have consciousness; they just can't wake up.”
Erika, who didn't fully grasp Nightingale's meaning, offered her own solution after a moment of thought.
In her understanding, a person in a vegetative state was still conscious, so if Alice used her magic, she might be able to wake Lucia up.
However, that wasn't the case at all.
And so...
“Sigh...”
Nightingale let out a sigh.
It seemed that even when she used common terms everyone understood, there were still misunderstandings.
After all, Blue Star and the Kalim continent were fundamentally different.
But how exactly was she supposed to explain the “phenomenon” currently happening to Lucia?
Nightingale struggled for a moment, then pushed up her glasses and spoke again.
“Ugh... it's a bit different. How should I put this... It's as if the body can slowly return to its peak state after treatment, but the spirit hasn't recovered, which is why she won't wake up.”
“Is there... a difference?”
The 【Toy Witch】 Katie, who was only eighteen and stood a mere 1.5 meters tall, didn't quite understand, but the others basically grasped the concept after this second explanation.
“Based on the formula: mana points equal spirit equals soul.”
Erika recited the formula aloud.
“Huh?”
Katie was still lost.
“It means that if the soul hasn't recovered, the spirit won't recover either. If the spirit doesn't recover, the mana points won't recover, leading to this kind of meaningless, deep slumber.”
Nightingale handed her glasses to the younger witch.
Though she still didn't quite understand, Katie took the glasses and put them on.
These were identification glasses, a tool Lan Qingyou had used in the past.
Then, she saw a string of numbers she had never seen before.
No... to be precise, it was the first time she had seen numbers arranged in such a way.
Lucia's current mana point value was 0.
That was right. Normally, no matter how much magic one used, mana points could never truly reach zero.
After all, this value increased every second of every minute.
Furthermore, the higher the level, the faster and greater the increase.
“Then what should we do?”
As someone whose role in this operation was merely to use her talent to turn the person into a cotton doll and then back again, Katie was starting to panic a little.
After all, this was the first time she had participated in a plan where so many “leaders” were personally involved.
She truly hoped to do a good job and make it perfect.
But her question was a sharp one, and none of the others knew how to answer it.
“How about... we have Martha come over and try a summoning spell?”
Erika scanned the room and then proposed her new plan.
“Martha?”
Diana asked, puzzled.
“The girl who calls herself the Summoning Witch. She's extremely skilled with summoning magic.”
“...You mean to summon the soul directly?”
“Exactly. Most of the summoning spells the Boss made summon hell creatures. If a person dies, their soul should go to Hell, right? As long as we focus on that, I think there's some room to maneuver.”
Erika held her head high with a look of pride.
She felt that she was brilliant for coming up with such a method.
After all, who else would have thought of robbing a soul from Hell?
“...”
Wait, she actually had a point!
Although it sounded like a wild fantasy—and in fact, it was—the plan wasn't entirely without a chance of success.
Thus, everyone who understood began to applaud Erika. They then called over Martha, who had come with them earlier, and explained the situation.
“It's a bit complicated...”
Martha looked at Lucia on the bed, pinching her chin in deep thought.
“Doing this is equivalent to a targeted summoning. Although, compared to those incomprehensible creatures in Hell, a soul might at least understand human speech.”
“Katie, please turn Lucia's body into a toy first. I'm going to go think about how to construct the summoning circle.”
After thinking for a while, Martha gave Katie the instruction and flew out of the tree hollow.
Seeing her “get into the zone” so quickly at a time like this, everyone in the room except for the busy Katie was left speechless.
Rate on N.U.
