Chapter 71: I Rejected the Villain’s Potion and Bet My Life on a Duel Against the Vampire Goddess! (Sorry, Dragon Queen!)
"...are you stupid? E-even a toddler knows not to drink from strangers!"
Selene’s mudded breath spit black blood on the soil and bubbled shades, as she pointed at the ’obviously-not-suspicious-mysterious-person’, it would seem Demond’s manga collection has taught her well in the most unexpected ways that would have Alice groaned in tiredness.
Coriel’s smile twitched, her scientist arrogance weirdly hurt as if she was compared to a generic dark-power vendor, before she merely explained. "You should know. This potion is from your mother’s blood. Close your eyes, and you should feel her mana coiling in the vial."
The young Druid blinked, scowled, then blinked again, then scowled again. "Really?"
It seemed the subject was hesitant, so Coriel tilted her head, the smile now cracking with a hint of irritation. "Do you need me to prove it for you?"
Upon observing the shaded smile, Selene glanced away, the blood surging to her brain dampened in front of a (dragon’s) pressure that she could not comprehend. "Uh-uh...okay, I’ll do it."
Selene closed her eyes, the Druid’s rooted senses tingling as she stretched the roots outward, the vial echoing...screams? Screams...whispers...murmurs...for forgiveness, for release, for desperation, mixed in with the familiar greens she knew all too well.
The blood splurged from her throat as she gasped, the vial containing too much of a malice for her to bear. "What...what the hell is that?"
"Your Mother’s Mana, as I’ve already told you." Feeling the convesation was drifting back to track, Coriel’s smile finally stilled back to the a calmness she was more comfortable with. "It’s cruel, isn’t it? But cruelty begets forgivances and griefs into manifestation. Your mother’s mana is feared by this land, feared by the runes carved, it is how the runes obeyed her instead of rebelling against her."