The princess looked on in shock. It was like some sort of parasite was being extracted out of Zarek's body, and there was simply no other way to describe what she was seeing other than…
Success.
After all this time, after all that effort, had she finally found a method?
No, no. This needed to be tested, rigorously. She also had to have the others come and see what was happening here to confirm.
This was the scientific process. She couldn't just make unilateral conclusions on her own. They had to be tested, retested, and then tested again through various means and challenges.
Only after it had made its way through the proper scientific process could she really call it a success.
But even though she was having these thoughts, her heart was practically doing flips in her chest. A breakthrough—finally, a breakthrough.
Zarek was half-watching this woman while putting on his performance. When he saw how she tried to mute and restrain herself, he understood that this situation wouldn't be so easy to flip around.
Given how she spoke about science and the importance of evidence in progression, he could guess what she was thinking now too. The moment she went off to try and confirm this, it would cause him problems.
It was a shame. This young woman actually had quite an excellent invention on her hands. Zarek had never heard of anything you could draw on the body to just draw out poison like that.
He was sure that there were some Matrices that were capable of this, but they had to be laid by an expert, and certainly couldn't be so casually laid on with a paintbrush.
He didn't know much about Matrices, but he knew that they were a very exact and precise science. You couldn't just freehand them, let alone freehand them on a bumpy canvas of pits and crevices like a person's body.
You'd probably need something like a talisman you would slap on, and it would certainly take you many hours, if not days, to draw it all.
But this woman seemed to be using a mix of Elixir making and Matrices to create a new path that relied on both the potency of the liquid she was using and the Matrix itself to complete a dual-sided blade…
All in the attempt to cut out the system from Zarek's body.
Obviously, that failed. But it had pulled something else out of him.
Those toxins.
No matter what, Zarek had to get his hands on that. But first, he had to finish up this performance.
Zarek "threw up," his head hanging down as the rest of the blackness was pulled out of him, hitting the floor and then finally losing its shape. It dismissed itself into pools of blackened fog that seeped through the floors and then disappeared in a wisp.
Then, he hung there on the wooden "X," gasping for breath and sweating out practical rivers of sweat. That latter part definitely wasn't fake. Using his Godsfall like that right now with this toxin roaring through him was practically like raking razors across his inner organs.
"Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!"
The princess jumped up and then quickly regained her composure again. She rushed by Zarek, ripping the door open and catching Sir Gelland off guard.
He had heard the roar from earlier and was about to step inside, so when the door swung open, it almost sent him flying. Or, rather, almost sent the princess flying, because that would have certainly been the ending.
"Princess?"
"Watch him! I'll be back!"
She didn't explain anything, rushing by the man and leaving.
Zarek was left there huffing for breath. "Three… two…"
A shriek came from the hallway and the princess came rushing back, shoving Sir Gelland out of the room and running up to her robes to pick them up off the floor.
Zarek couldn't help but purse his lips and nod as he watched the curve of her back.
'Not bad, not bad at all.'
As "modest" as her leather lingerie was, there was hardly hiding anything when she was bent over like that. Her cheeks were quite… plump.
Zarek looked away. 'Hear no evil, see no evil. I'm a saint, Pri, I swear.'
--
Notes:
[You disgust me]
--
The princess cleared her throat again as she smoothed the robes over her body. Then she rushed out again, racing by Sir Gelland as though nothing had happened.
Zarek couldn't help but chuckle inwardly. So she did know how to be embarrassed by that outfit, but the embarrassment itself only seemed to appear in contexts outside of her ceremonial duties.
Coughing again, Zarek spit out the rest of the Lurker's Godsfall from his mouth, causing Sir Gelland to actually take a step back. Whatever it was, he seemed scared to get involved.
"Oh, so the fatty knows how to be scared too. Boo."
Sir Gelland's face turned to stone again.
"What? Come hit me again. Or are you too scared to get close now?"
Zarek sneered as Gelland turned around, ignoring him. Cowardice aside, the man really was a mountain. He was just standing in the doorway, but it was impossible to even see past him. He practically filled up all the gaps.
With his back turned, Zarek's eyes locked onto the concoction on the table.
'Can I?'
Zarek was moving even though he had only just had the thought. When he acted, hesitation wasn't at the forefront of his mind.
He flicked out his tongue and a line of Lurker's Godsfall shot forward, latching onto the beaker.
There was no rigidity to the Godsfall, so Zarek pulled immediately.
'Control… control…'
Clink.
Zarek caught the edge of the beaker on his lips, tilting his head back quickly and swallowing the whole thing.
Sir Gelland's head whipped back only to see a beaker slamming to the ground.
Zarek smiled at him. "Whoopsies."
"You… what did you do just now?"
"I don't know. Shouldn't you be the one watching me? I'm not really in my right mind right now."