𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙩𝙤𝙗𝙚𝙧. - 𝙍𝙌/𝙎𝙇 𝙒𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙚 ✔︎

☘︎︎ 𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝗦𝗶𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻: 𝙁𝙪𝙣𝙜𝙪𝙨 ☘︎︎

𝘼𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙩, 𝙄'𝙢 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙄 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙑𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙣!𝙎𝙖𝙗𝙧𝙚 𝘼𝙐-
𝙄𝙩𝙨 𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙛𝙪𝙣, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙮 𝙄'𝙢 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩.

𝙃𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧, 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙨𝙣'𝙩 𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙮 𝙖 𝙫𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝘼𝙐, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙤𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙬'𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚 ;)

𝙃𝙤𝙥𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙚𝙣𝙟𝙤𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙩, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙛𝙪𝙣 𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨!

𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗱: 𝟭𝟬/𝟭𝟲/𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟭

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀: 𝗥𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗯𝗼𝘄 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁

𝗔𝗨: 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗻!𝗦𝗮𝗯𝗿𝗲

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: 𝗦𝗮𝗯𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲

𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁: 𝟳𝟭𝟬

『••✎••』

Something was wrong with me. I could feel it, and it wasn't the Darkness.

There was something else inside of me, infecting me like a virus.

The only problem was that I didn't know what it was, and I was too in pain for me to check.

I had been lying in bed all day, the pain making every movement difficult. I wanted to see what happened to me or if something looked different, but was it really worth the pain of doing so?

...Let's hope so.

With a groan of pain I sat up, swinging my legs over the side of the bed to stand. My floor-length mirror was in the corner of my room, so it wasn't that far away.

The pain sure made it feel like it was miles away, though.

With a great amount of effort I managed to drag myself to the mirror. Based on my reflection, nothing visible seemed to look off, but then again, my outfit covered most of my skin. Maybe it was something being hidden by my clothes.

I started by taking off my left glove. Nothing unusual.

The right glove, however...

That was what concealed the problem.

I sucked in a breath at what I found on my hand: red scorch-like marks tracing up and ever slowly going up my arm.

I knew what this was; I read about it at some point. These marks only appear if you touch some type of fungus only found in the World Below. The result was that you would slowly become a demon if you did.

I don't know when I ever came in contact with the fungus, but this wasn't good either way.

"Sabre?" A voice sounded on the other side of my door. It was Time.

Eyes widening, I pulled the gloves back on my hands and pretended to look fine. Time and Dark were already worried enough about the Darkness in me; I didn't want to worry them more.

"Uh- come in!" I called, flinching as I stood up straighter. Even if this infection was slow-spreading, it sure did cause a lot of discomfort, I noted.

The door opened, revealing Time Steve standing behind it. He seemed concerned.

"Sabre, are you feeling okay?" He asked, stepping into the room. "You haven't left your room all day. Is something wrong?"

"Um, y-yeah, everything's fine." I mentally facepalmed at my stutter. Now Time's gonna know I'm lying. "Everything's a-okay. Nothing wrong here."

The steve frowned. "Sabre, I know you're lying; I've known you long enough to figure out if you are or not. What's wrong?"

I sighed. There's no point hiding it if I can't convince Time that I'm okay, is there?

"Fine, fine, you got me." I muttered, then reached for my glove, the one hiding the marks. "Just...try not to freak out too much, okay?"

"Okay...?" Time was confused, but agreed nonetheless.

Taking a deep breath, I pulled off the glove. The marks were in broad daylight again, making Time gasp in shock.

"That's from a fungus in the World Below, isn't it?" He breathed, looking from the marks back to my eyes.

My eyebrows raised. "How did you know about that?"

"I read the book you did about the dangers of the World Below." He explained. "I got curious and read it myself, and took careful note of plant and fungal infections before actually going with you to fight Void Steve."

I nodded, then looked at the marks again. "So how do we fix this? The book never mentioned a cure."

"Well, I can slow down the time-state of the infection until we figure something out." Time offered.

Without waiting for my answer, Time lifted my hand with his own. He closed his eyes, concentrating on summoning his power, which he managed to do. His hand had a gold aura around it, which spread to my own. I couldn't help but giggle at the tingly feeling it created.

When the aura faded, Time's eyes opened again. "There. That should slow it down for now."

With the time-state of this infection slowed down, it was only a matter of waiting and thinking until we could cure this infection of mine for good.