It turns out that the body is actually quite good at expelling Miasma, and the longer I look, the more I can see what appears to be veins in the body that the Miasma gathers into and flows out of the body. However, it appears Jetlin has ruptured his miasma veins, or whatever they are called, and the Miasma is wreaking havoc in his body and soul.

Tumorous growths are slowly forming in his body, and his soul barrier is deteriorating. If the Miasma isn’t drawn out of his body within the week, he will likely turn into a cursed being or die, and his corpse may turn into a cursed being.

To make his situation worse, it appears that some miasma has made it into the part of his soul where Aether is stored and is mixing into the ‘experience’ gathered for his future evolutions. However, that shouldn’t be possible. Miasma and Aether neutralize each other, but in this case, they aren’t.

I suppose that it does make sense if the experience is being protected somehow. Often, if not always, Aether and Miasma are created at the same time—and they should annihilate each other upon creation—so there is definitely something else going on.

Anyway, that is how I am very sure his potential evolutions are now cursed. It is very likely that in order to save the soul, the Miasma is being quarantined in the one place that seems like it is designed to keep and store Aether, and potentially, Miasma too. I have to wonder, though, why and how is it able to keep the soul—and Aether—safe from the Miasma?

There is nothing related to mana, magic, or souls that is immediately apparent, even at my maximum perceptive pressure, which makes me think it’s possibly a divinity thing or a very advanced soul thing.

As I give Lanya an explanation of what’s happening, I, with a clone, consult Kayafe about the situation and my findings.

“So before we go into what our next actions should be,” Kayafe says “I think it is important we talk about the implications of those miasma veins. First, the obvious, can they be healed, and will that solve any problems?”

Kayafe is currently exploring the city and sightseeing. She actually goes unnoticed with my clone beside her since she looks close enough to the Lunaley while I, with my five tails, draw all the attention from onlookers.

“I suspect they are in some way related to Divinity, so in theory, a burst of Aether should repair it like how I cleansed my cursed skill, or perhaps a powerful enough healer might be able to repair it. As for if healing the veins can remove Miasma from the soul, I don’t see how that would work. It seems to me that there was so much Miasma, it backflowed into the soul and contaminated it before rupturing the veins.”

“How strong do you think the healer has to be?” Kayafe asks, ignoring the bystanders.

“I don’t know.” I shrug. “If anyone can, it’d be Lanya, but if I am right that it is related to Divinity, then it might require an enhanced skill, since those seem to take greater aspects of either Divinity or Magic. A healing Bond might work too, but I’m not sure how powerful one has to be in it, but they at least have to be strong enough to influence Divinity.”

“If my experiences with powerful Bond users is correct, then they would have to be at the stage where their Bond transcends its reliance on Mana and is fully powered by Divinity. A healer at that stage should be able to heal the veins, but this is all theoretical; we can be wrong.”

“So it’s worth trying?”

“I don’t see any harm in an attempt,” Kayafe says. “Anyway, have you told this 'Lanya' about the veins yet?”

“Not yet; I wanted your thoughts on the matter first.”

“Well, you have it now. You’re the expert, and I doubt there’s anyone more knowledgeable than you in the study of Magic, Miasma, Aether, and Divinity. You should probably relocate the afflicted to an isolated location before attempting anything, and if you try all options and nothing works, then it might be best to end his suffering and fight the cursed being.”

“How do I fight a cursed being? Will you help?” I ask tentatively. 

Kayafe doesn’t answer immediately, which only makes my anxiety worse.

“Hmm… Yes, if it’s strong, but honestly, if it’s weak, you can probably handle it yourself.”

“But it’s a Cursed Being!” I argue, swishing my tails with anxious energy.

“And? You are well equipped to fight at least a weak one. Remember, they use Mana, so starve it; you most certainly have the strength to do so. Also, with your clones, you shouldn’t ever be in direct danger. Cursed Beings aren’t intelligent enough to realize the thing in front of them might not be real, and you’d be too far away for them to teleport you in danger, and even if they tried, with you starving them, they wouldn’t have the power to do so anyway.”

Kayafe places a hand on my head and smiles encouragingly. 

“You can do it, Alysara; Be more confident in your abilities. I will be watching just in case, so don’t be afraid.”

“A-Alright, I’ll try to fight it.” I say reluctantly.

After a moment of silence, walking down the Grand Bazaar, Kayafe looks at a souvenir shop with interest. On display are ash pearls from some monsters that live in the Ash Lands. 

Kayafe hums in thought, staring at the pearls.

“You want one?” I ask.

“No. I was just thinking about what kind of environment these ‘Ash Lands’ are. Is it a magic zone? If not, then what is perpetuating it?”

“The volcano?” I say, as if it were obvious.

Kayafe smirks as if she knows something I do not. 

“No, actually. Volcanos are the result of sleeping fire elementals under the earth; they don’t produce Ash Essence. So something has to be producing so much Ash essence that Ash monsters are spawning from them, and there’s really only a few candidates that can do that.”

“That sounds ridiculous. Volcanos are caused by geological activity.”

“That might have been true in your past life, Miss Legacy Soul, but here it is not, not when there are beings that can destroy large portions of continents, or create new ones.”

“So, what do you think is making all that Ash Essence?” I ask.

“Hmm… Hard to say since it could very well be something we've never heard of, but a powerful and sentient Ash Spirit would make the most sense.”

“We can check it out after the current situation.” I could scan it now with no trouble, but I think Kayafe wants to explore it herself; I won’t spoil the surprise and share the adventure with her.

Back at the Helikan Academy, I just finished explaining the situation to Lanya.

“There is one thing you can try, but I am fairly sure it is beyond your abilities,” I tell Lanya.

“What is it?”

“Apparently, there’s some sort of veins in his body that are meant to expel Miasma; they’ve been ruptured, so healing them should be enough to drain the Miasma out of his body.”

“Alright, so how do I heal them?” Lanya asks.

“Well, I know they are there because I can sense the Miasma, but I can’t sense them directly, which means they aren’t made of anything that I can see, or if they are, it is well beyond even my abilities to see them which I highly doubt. However, my best guess is that they are, at least in part, made of divinity. Unless you have a healing skill as advanced as my sensing skill, I highly doubt you can heal it. As for your Bond, that should be able to heal it if it is strong enough.”

“What about Magic? Surely that can heal those veins, right?”

“No.” I say firmly, shaking my head, not even giving room for a ‘maybe’.

“Why not? Magic can do just about anything.” Lanya argues.

“First,” I reply, raising a finger. “You need to be able to reliably cast magic without it causing some sort of backlash. Second, Miasma is a powerful catalyst for Magic, it greatly empowers it, but again, it may have unforeseen and terrible consequences. And third, Magic is antithetical to Divinity. Too much Magic, as caused by the empowerment from Miasma, will destroy anything made of Divinity. So, even if you could use magic safely, you’d just make things worse.”

“I would still like to try and heal him,” Lanya says, resolutely.

I suppose it’s more a matter of pride of being the best healer than it is in healing the ill. Even if Jetlin is healed, he would still be a danger since his evolutions are cursed.

“Then let’s move to a remote location in case of the worst,” I say.

Lanya nods, and I teleport her and Jetlin to a small island offshore. Well, it’s more like a large rock jutting out of the water. 

“Keep in mind, you are operating through a clone right now, so expect a distance penalty to the mana cost of your healing,” I warn her.

She nods and proceeds to focus on Jetlin. I see her spread healing essence through his body, but, as I expected, his Miasma Veins remain in the same condition.

“Is it working?” Lanya asks.

“No.”

“Can’t heal. Can’t see what I am doing. I feel like a novice again,” Lanya complains, sounding a little frustrated. “I haven’t done this in a long time, but in situations like this, it’s better to end it as quickly and painlessly as possible.”

Lanya touches Jetlin’s head and seems to draw his vitality out.

“Can you tell Klaman to come here? He is the only one strong enough to slay these things,”

“I can, but he’s not the only one.” 

Over on the shore, a portal opens, and Kayafe steps through, closing the portal behind her.

“Who’s that?” Lanya asks.

“Backup, I suppose,” I say, raising my hand.

In an instant, all the mana for a dozen kilometers gathers at a point far above us, Including the vitality and mana reserves in Jetlin, killing him swiftly.

I watch as his soul detaches from his body and seems to dissipate, vanishing from the Soul layer entirely. Where it went, I have no idea.

For several long moments, it seems like Jetlin’s body wouldn’t transform into a Cursed Being, but to my perception, the Miasma is going haywire before being burned away as the body begins to warp and change.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

 

Clone POV:

 

It took years to build enough airships for convenient public transportation, and now I can make another Entylamo in just one day. To compound my irritation, those airships weren’t cheap, and now I can make them for free. If I had just waited, I wouldn’t have had to borrow money and make unfavorable deals with village elders.

Most of my public transportation efforts have been focused on the outer islands since it takes them longer to travel to the inner islands, and next month they will see the most use yet. The Kheshamo tournaments are being resumed now that enough time has passed for the shock of the Cursed Being fight with Safyr to have passed. Plus, most villages have been restored from the damage, and things are returning to normal.

Normally those on the outer reaches of the Nexus would have to travel by boat across a hundred kilometers to attend the festivities, which is time-consuming, boring, and hard work. Traveling by airship will make it fast, easy, and fun, so this is no doubt a great opportunity to advertise my new public transportation system to the entire Nexus.

Naturally, Entylamo class ships will be a very valuable asset since they can transport an entire village in one go, so hopefully, I can use them to negotiate a better deal.

Each village Elder has a different deal for their village. Some buy the service then resell the service to their people, others buy the service and offer it for free, and some charge me for the rights to sell my services directly to their people. It’s quite the headache at times, and the stacks of contracts can be annoying to sort through.

It’s times like these that the level of independence of each village can be detrimental, but at the same time, the decentralized system the Runalymo have gives the people a lot of freedom, and if they don’t like how one place is run, they can easily move.

“You made another one of these airships?” Elder Sylo asks, looking at a new Entylamo class ship.”

“Yes,” I answer, “however, our contract doesn’t include it.”

“I see, well, the current airships work well enough. I don’t see a reason to change things up right now.”

This is unexpected. I thought for sure they’d want an upgrade, but I suppose it’s no loss for me. I can just sell the services of the new ships to other villages that have no airship services.

“Very well, but do you mind telling me your thoughts? Why do you think things are fine as they are currently?” I ask.

“It’s not just about carrying capacity, I don't need one airship that can carry the whole village if the whole village doesn’t want to go anywhere. Plus oftentimes, people want to go to different places, so it saves on time to have several airships go to different destinations.”

So bigger isn’t always better… then maybe building more smaller airships is the way to go. However, Entylamo-type ships require Magic from my [Manipulte Magic] skill, and they will need to be renewed every few years, so there is a limit to how many I can sustain.

In the end, it seems that the current airships are better anyway, and money didn’t go to waste. That, however, leaves me with the question of what to do with this new ship. I could have it trade with Lunaley, but we already have enough; I already built the fifth that will be joining the next convoy. 

This still doesn’t help this trial either, but there are certainly situations where mass transit is needed, such as the Kheshamo tournament. 

“That makes sense; then what about renting for a couple of days for the Tournament next month?” I ask.

A rental service, that’s the best use for these ships. The best part is they cost me nothing to build, so it’s all profit.

“How much?” Elder Sylo asks.

In our deal, I only rent out the airships, so the village pays for the pilots. So, I name a figure that is cheaper than the cost of the pilots.

Elder Sylo thinks about the offer, her tail swishing in tune with her thoughts.

“That’s reasonable; however, I only need it for the trip to and from Temple Island, not all-day.”

If people are going to be that frugal then it only makes sense for me to hire my own pilots and rent out the same airship for multiple villages.

“Then how about I pay for the pilot too?” I give a cheaper offer but one that also takes into account the pilot wages.

Sylo spends several moments of tail enthused thought before finally agreeing.

“Alright, I can do that.”

The goal was only to expand my public transport, but it seems I’m going into the taxi business too. I wonder what else I can do with this airship? There won’t be enough demand all year, so most of the time, it’ll just be taking up space at the docks. Perhaps I should make a cruise airship?

If the need to rent the airship is lacking, then all I need to do is give more reasons to rent it. Family events, Elder convocations, parties, and whatever else that might come to mind all can be enjoyed in the skies. I might need to renovate the cruise airship to make it more appealing and have more fun activities. Plus, I don’t have to get wrapped up in even more contracts! It’s a direct rental to customers for an afternoon.