Chapter 49
After some time, Michelle was panting for breath, holding the scythe with trembling hands, standing in a ruined forest. Her body refused to move an inch, but she knew she had to continue. "Come on, Michelle! Move! Just a bit more!" Nyxaroth shouted as he lunged at Michelle again, solidifying into a black fist.
"Damn..." Michelle cursed under her breath and blocked with her scythe. If it wasn't enhancing her concentration, she would already be lying on the ground. Blocking Nyxaroth's attack with the scythe, Michelle had to dodge Cold Flame's ice spears. She rolled to the side, towards a tree and as she jumped to her feed, she slashed the scythe, holding it in one hand, vertically through the tree trunk. Then, she had to dodge again, and Cold Flame's ice spears hit the sliced tree, making it fall down.
A few long hours later, Michelle was lying on the ground, her trembling hand holding the scythe as she struggled to get up. All her muscles were aching as she got on all four and then slowly stood up. Cold Flame and Nyxaroth were no longer attacking her, and she had to do the rest alone. Trembling in exhaustion, she lifted the scythe with both hands and slashed it upwards. It flew out of her hands and ended up stabbed in the ground as Michelle fell to the ground, her hands twitching a bit. She couldn't move a muscle as her eyes slowly closed.
Intense pain was coursing through Michelle's body as she felt that her veins were no longer absorbing the surrounding spirit energy, which meant that something was wrong with them. And the only thing that could have been wrong with them after what she did was that they had tears on them, which was exactly what she wanted.
"Michelle..." Cold Flame landed next to her and watched her worriedly and Nyxaroth entered her body and observed what was happening in her veins. Everything was going as he predicted, so he could breathe a sigh of relief, even though Michelle fainted.
Michelle didn't know how long she was unconscious, but when she woke up, her body was sore and her muscles were aching, but she felt that her veins were stronger. "Argh-" groaning a bit, she lifted herself off the ground and stood up, looking at Cold Flame. "Flamie, How much time has passed?" she asked.
"An hour since you fainted!" Cold Flame chirped. "Michelle, Nyxaroth expected you to be unconscious at least for a day, but because of your healing abilities, you exceeded his expectations."
"I see..." Michelle smiled a bit as she walked over to the scythe stabbed in the ground and pulled it out. Then, she walked over to the tree on which she was sitting at first, she had on purpose left it untouched, and climbed it to get the Life Stone of Rivenaar, after resting the scythe against the tree trunk.
"Life Stone..." she muttered. "Rivenaar, just who were you?" From the knowledge she had, all monsters had gems on their forehead which contained some of their spirit powers, but some monsters with special bloodlines had their lives bound to the gems and because of that, the gems of those monsters were called Life Stones. If forced out of the monster's forehead, the monster would die.