Chapter 117

An orb of light floated in front of the two as they walked, the gentle green light shedding light where the electric ceiling lights failed to work. They could hear faint sounds of a fight echoing through the empty hallways all the way to them, but it was barely more than a raspy whisper, so they didn't worry too much. Rather, it was Gray and Assassin who were more in danger than them.

It didn't take them long to finally reach the place where Ayaka was supposed to be. After taking the several flights of stairs downwards, passing through an intersection and then taking several turns through the corridors, they spotted Ayaka in the distance, slowly dragging her injured leg as she braced herself against the wall, a trail of blood leading all the way to her.

Picking up their speed, they ran up to Ayaka, lightly jogging up to her. Flat knelt down next to her to support her as she turned her head, her eyes widening in surprise at the arrival of the two magi.

"Mentor, and Flat?"

"Yes, it's us. You'll be fine."

Flat waved his hand over her face, pulsing his mana out in order to break any mental compulsion or forms of magical mind control she could be subject to. When no visible changes occurred, he went ahead with checking her for injuries.

Seeing her in such an injured state, El-Melloi decided to question her later, letting Flat tend to her wounds as he looked around, trying to see if he could spot anything. The only things he could see was the droplets of red that marked Ayaka's route, and that this particular corridor seemed to be spared from any damage. Turning to Ayaka, he gave her a once-over, inspecting her condition and injuries. It seemed like her legs weren't the cause of her bleeding, though they were definitely injured in some way, though he had no way of telling in what manner without lifting the skirt a bit higher. The cuts littered around her back and arms, cutting into the sweater she swore, were likely the cause of the bloody trail. In addition, one arm seems to hang uselessly by her side, unresponsive while Flat treated her, while the other twitched or spasmed in response to the pain she felt when he pressed or prodded certain parts to find out whether they were injured or not.

She had also lost her glasses somewhere along the way, with her eyes reddened from burst blood vessels. The most glaringly obvious injuries though, were the three black fingers on her left hand, going from the index finger to the ring finger. It was an obvious sign that she had used a particularly potent branch of her own brand of witchcraft, and incurred a penalty like this.

Ayaka's sharp hiss of pain when Flat touched her back prompted Flat to lift her sweater to check the extent of her injuries.

"Teach!"

Waver's eyes snapped to the spot Flat was pointing at, and he instantly understood why Flat wanted him to see it. There was a symbol branded onto her back, along with the mottled, burnt flesh that was also part of the penalty of the magecraft that she had casted. If it were to be described, it looked like a tree, with an eye in the middle, but the roots were pointing to the sky, while the branches stretched into the earth.

This all but confirmed what he had suspected.

"Just treat her as best as you can for now."

Nodding Flat continued to check the rest of her body while Ayaka wheezed on the ground, silently enduring it as she leaned on the wall with her shoulder.

So Ayaka had cast witchcraft, and used the possible method they had discussed before of allowing her to attack Servants and eradicate them in one blow without even seeing them. The attack on the soul and the spiritual body that Servants were based on was particularly effective, and was also the reason why exorcisms of a high level from the Church would also work on Servants, since they were effectively spirits given form, but still to do such a thing would require training, resources and a necessary sacrifice in the case of Ayaka. In this case, she had used her body, judging by the state it was in.

He wondered if she had actually succeeded though. Even though it should work in theory, they hadn't actually tested it in reality, and were waiting for the chance when they would collect enough catalysts, such as preserved body material from a Servant, to make the ritual happen. It just so happened that Ayaka had managed to lure Ruler in, and had grabbed enough material over the course of her battle to serve as the inner catalyst for her magic circle bound to the tree, while Ruler's blood spilt from the minor cuts served as the outer catalyst that bound her.

Whatever the case, he could only hope that she was successful. If he could, he would want to go to her Workshop to check, but as it were Assassin and Gray were putting their lives on the line to buy time for them, so they would just have to escape as soon as possible while they could.

"One leg and arm unresponsive, multiple blood vessels on the arms, legs and face, back burnt and branded, minor cuts spread across her body and of course the blackened fingers. Some patches of her skin also seem to have their nerves destroyed as well."

The diagnosis Flat gave was spot-on, and left no doubt to El-Melloi as to what their next course of action would be.

"Heal her up as much as you can, then let's carry her to the second emergency exit."

It was much closer than the other two exits, and would allow them to get far away much quicker.

"There's something at the base of her neck."

Waver almost jumped out of his skin when he heard Flat's voice right in his ear, but he managed to control himself and not react. He could tell that somehow Flat had linked a string of mana from his own throat to Waver's ear, but how exactly he done so, and how it worked, was beyond him.

"I can't tell if it's actively influencing her actions currently, but regardless she might become dangerous later on."

Flat's mouth and face showed no sign of his word as he helped Ayaka stand, but the message was clearly conveyed to Waver.

"Let's go. We don't know what other enemies could be lurking around."

Flat looked at him, nodded, then started walking while supporting Ayaka, Waver walking in front as the vanguard.

If it was the old Flat, he might not have understood, but as he was now, he could at least read his actions and words and understand his teacher's intent.

When he didn't tell him to ditch Ayaka directly and instead said to go, he was indicating that they were still bringing her along, and then his second sentence was for the purpose of telling Flat that by bringing her along, they could potentially flush out the person who had planted the object in her spine by biting the bait they had prepared for them, which meant saving Ayaka like the person probably expected them to.

The trio made their way to the passageway, heading out into the interconnected tunnel that opened in an obscure alleyway as the surface exit.