84 The Necromancer and the Priestess 18

"You're going in?" Kai asked, and Yin Mei turned to look at him.

"Of course. I have a good feeling," Yin Mei said. She felt that their quest target was probably inside, though Lilith hadn't checked yet. "There's no need for you all to come along." Or rather, it would be bothersome, so don't.

After all, while they were here, she couldn't use her magic. Because of them, they ended up wasting more potions than necessary. At least the members of the White Bird party had brought a lot of potions along, since they had gotten used to completing missions without Yin Mei. In the first mission without Yin Mei, they had suffered from a potion shortage, so after that, they would always make sure to buy enough.

"No, we can't let you venture into such dangerous territory alone." Kai answered.

Mister protagonist, did you know that your righteousness is really annoying? Wouldn't it be easier on the both of us if you weren't so filled with justice and responsibility, burning with a sense of duty all the time?

Yin Mei really wanted to ask this to him, but didn't.

Yin Mei's eyes wandered around as she seemed to be in thought, her deadpan expression looking just slightly annoyed. "No, after all, it would be better if we went alone. Frankly, it'll be a burden to work with people we're unfamiliar with. Plus, we have some personal matters to attend to inside the shrine."

Kai wanted to insist, but after a continuous back and forth with Yin Mei, in the end relented to standing guard outside.

Entering the shrine, they walked down. And down. And down. And even further down. Lang mapped things out, preventing them from getting lost as they continued down staircase after staircase.

It took them some time, but they finally reached their destination.

It was pitch black, but not like any ordinary darkness. It stank of death, but more than that, it was thick with miasma.

Yin Mei lit up the vast room, and sitting in the middle, was the girl they were looking for. Her head was bowed, silver hair covering her face, shining in the warm light. Yin Mei felt a feeling of wrongness. This girl... had the aura of a dark element lingering about her. But, the princess should be a water affinity mage.

In addition to that, this dark element was slightly strange. There was something demonic about it, like it had been mixed with miasma.

Thoughts swirled about in Yin Mei's head.

Dark element. Miasma. Demons. Undead.

"Ah, it's the quest target!" Arthur was about to rush forward, but Yin Mei grabbed his shoulder, stopping him. "Leader?" He turned to look at the leader, who had on a very serious expression. Arthur immediately fell silent and didn't make another move. Such an expression, he knew that there was something very wrong.

"You, you ate something you shouldn't have?" Yin Mei said, and the girl raised her head. Her violet eyes were pitch black, like the depths of an abyss. The party members all flinched, looking into those inky eyes of hers.

"What in the world-" Lana began to say, but didn't finish when the room started rumbling, interrupting her words.

"!!" Alarm showed up on the faces of those present as the air of miasma strengthened. Yin Mei immediately put up a barrier, preventing the thick dark fog from reaching them. That was dangerous. Miasma that thick would poison those who didn't have a strong enough light affinity or weren't blessed.

"Shit," Yin Mei cursed, drawing her sword.

"Leader, what's happening?" Rosella called out in alarm, looking around in caution, feeling as if something was about to pop out of the billowing miasma at any moment now.

"That girl most likely ate a 'seed of evil'," Yin Mei said. She had read about this in the church's books. This seed of evil was the embryo of an evil creature. If a human consumed it, then they would "change", becoming similar to that of a demon, but also not quite a demon.

It was too bad that there wasn't enough information, as all these were stories from a long time ago.

Rosella didn't understand what a seed of evil was, but didn't ask further. Just hearing it was enough to know how dangerous it was.

Yin Mei really wanted to ask why there had been a seed of evil. They had just gotten rid of the evil creature last year, there was no way that there was enough miasma to produce another one! She was reminded of the strange conditions that had resulted in the birth of that evil creature. For that evil creature as well, it shouldn't have been possible for it to appear considering that the forest had been purified recently. In that case, could the seed of evil also have appeared this time for the same reasons as the evil creature of last year?

"..." Well, this sort of thinking wasn't useful right now. The problem was if they should kill the girl or not. She didn't want to, since then all the trouble they had gone through to complete that stupid quest would be for not. But it would be troublesome if they didn't.

After all, they couldn't just leave her like this, right? Look at that miasma! F*ck, at this rate, the entire forest would become a no man's land!

A person who had consumed a seed of evil was even more troublesome than your average evil creature. They possessed thought, reasoning, and everything that made humans more capable than your average beast. At the least, that was what the books had said. Yin Mei had not experienced either an evil creature or a human who had eaten a seed of evil, so she couldn't make any comparisons herself.

"... Do you think we can extract it?" Yin Mei mused, but wasn't sure how to go about this even though she had said it.

"Extract it? It's something that can be extracted?" Rosella asked.

"Whatever you plan to do, isn't it better to do it sooner? At this rate..." Arthur looked around nervously. Goddamn, the inability to see anything beyond the barrier was really putting his nerves on edge.

"Alright, then we'll try it that way." Yin Mei said, and walked outside the barrier. The fog quickly swallowed her up, and the group members couldn't see her figure at all.

"Wha-"

"Leader!" Several frantic calls of leader echoed, but there was no answer.

"... I'm going out," Rosella said as she grit her teeth, but Lang placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head.

"Lang is right. You can't be reckless. The leader must have a plan in mind," Ryan said, his voice calm, but his foot was impatiently tapping on the ground.

Lana paced back and forth, biting her thumb in frustration. "Dammit! If it wasn't for that goddamn miasma! Only the leader is able to resist miasma of that density. If any of us go out, we'll be dead in minutes," she said angrily.

They all looked outside. It was a darkness that inspired fear, and anxiety. "We can only wait." Ryan reaffirmed, and Rosella banged her fist up against the barrier wall in frustration. It wouldn't let her out. Even if they wanted to, their only choice was to wait.

As for Yin Mei, she was casually strolling around. She lit up the way with her light balls, which she had to constantly feed large amounts of mana, lest they be overwhelmed by the constantly increasing miasma. Her body was glowing slightly around her, fending off the aggressive fog that seemed to want to consume her. She walked straight several tens of feet, before she stood in front of the silver haired princess, who was in the same position she had been when they first came in.

"... How pathetic," Yin Mei said, looking down on the girl.

The girl looked up, her eyes dull. "Don't you mean yourself?" She said. "Hahaha!" Her cackling laughter was sharp and piercing, her expression crazed as she clutched at her stomach.

Yin Mei didn't answer, her hand darting out and piercing right through the girl's chest. Pulling it back out, in her hand was a glowing purple crystal with writhing black veins. "So this is what the seed of evil looks like? Quite creepy." She commented.

The girl had already collapsed on the ground, unconscious. There was not a single injury on her, as Yin Mei had used a technique similar to the one the Bishop used during the succession ceremony.

Without the girl acting as a vessel for the seed of evil, it lost its power, and the miasma began to slowly dissipate. Soon, the room was clear of fog again, and Yin Mei and the members of the White Bird party could clearly see each other.

"Leader!" Their shouts of excitement echoed across the room, and Yin Mei smiled, waving at them in reassurance.

"Well, it doesn't really matter anyways," She said, her gaze indifferent as she burned the thing up with holy power. Within moments, it was gone.

But, just as Yin Mei was about to grab the princess and walk over to the others, the room began to shake violently, as if an earthquake was happening.

"What the hell? And here I thought that everything would be taken care of!" She said, immediately hoisting up the girl over her shoulder and running over to where the others were. She quickly. let down the barrier, and they all didn't say anything, immediately making toward the exit.

Just, the goddamned exit was so far!!

The building began to come down on them, and Yin Mei really wanted to ask what the hell was wrong with this world.

She erected individual barriers for everyone that blocked the pieces of falling debris, and buffed them so that they could run faster.

They made it out in record time, just before the entire shrine collapsed.

"What in the world was that?" Yin Mei said, talking to the group of church members who had retreated away from the shrine.

But they were staring at the sky, not even noticing that the White Birds had exited from the shrine.

Yin Mei followed their gaze, and saw floating in the air above where the shrine had been, was some sort of gate. It was pitch black, with twisted designs. "... The demon bridge?" How was that a bridge? Wasn't it just a gate??

No, no, in the first place, why in the world had the demon bridge appeared?

Yin Mei heard the familiar voice of the system, as it congratulated her, before telling her to patiently wait as it calculated the next mission.

Wait, why was she even thinking about this? None of that mattered? What mattered was... A smile naturally formed on her lips, and her expression appeared half crazed as she looked at the gate with an odd desire.

Kai, who saw this, was chilled to the bone. How is it that she could still smile, when such a disaster had befallen their country?

"Ah, oops!" Yin Mei said, using her hand to cover up the grin on her face. It was no good. She had been so delighted that she had accidentally let all her emotions show. How embarrassing. Although she still didn't know why exactly the demon bridge had chosen this time to open, there was also no need to wonder.

All she knew was that she could finally take the opportunity to slice, chop, cut, crush, stomp, and destroy that slut that dared touch a hand on her El! And while she was at it, she would also give El a good punch to the stomach or two, in order to beat it into his body that she was not the sort of girl he could just up and abandon without consequences.

Or maybe that was too violent... She considered it for a moment. Would she drive El away if she was too violent? That was no good. Although she was angry, she couldn't have her man running away again! But what other way could she use to show her dissatisfaction? Yin Mei's expressions changed at the drop of a hat, going from thoughtful, to energetic, to frowning in seconds.

Either way, she would have to decide soon. After all, with the demon bridge open, she'd finally be able to meet El again. After all this time... she'd certainly make sure to drag his butt back over here.

(A/N: OMG, totally forgot about posting. Finished too late to schedule so I was like I'll just post it normally and then got caught up with some homework >->)