I ran to Grace's side. She was curled up like a caterpillar, holding her knees. Her entire body was soaked in sweat, and her skin seemed overly hot. Just touching her skin caused my hands to burn. "Grace! What's wrong!?"
"So hot…. So hot…." Grace mumbled out weakly. I turned and looked at Adel, who was staring at me in confusion. I have no idea what was going on, but she was fine seconds ago but now….
"The blood seal!" This is what came to mind. Grace was perfectly fine all the way until this point. But now, she seemed to be burning up from the inside out. I quickly turned to Sei, who was a black knight. If anything, she would know about this more than anyone. "Sei!"
Sei frowned slightly but still walked over and began looking at Grace. "Faith, use ice magic to cool her body. It seems that the blood seal has started Grace's bloodline awakening."
I did not need any more words as my eyes lit up, and I spoke the activation words. "Ice Coffin!" A spell I basically created on the spot using the ice spear runic equation. It is a simple spell that encases the target in ice instead of striking through them. But I made sure to leave a section of it open around her face so she could still breathe. After that was done, I looked at Sei for more answers.
"She needs to keep her body as cool as possible. The issue is that a blood seal transfers a small amount of your blood into the person's body. This blood then merges into their bloodstream and flows down to their heart. Once they go against the blood seal, the blood will expand and destroy their heart, effectively killing them. But there are times when the blood seal will have an effect on a person. Like in this case, Faith, your blood triggered something in Grace's blood, and I believe now she will awaken to her bloodline." Sei explained, but her expression was not good.
"What are you not telling me?" I asked. With how much pain grace was in, it seemed something was wrong.
"Your blood is in conflict with her bloodline. This is causing her body to heat up due to the battle that is going on inside her. If she is able to overcome this, she will definitely get stronger, but…." Sei stopped talking as if she did not wish to continue.
"But what!?" I kind of already know the answer, but I needed to be sure.
"If she is consumed, she will die." Sei finished while letting out a long breath. Sei looked pretty worried about this. "Right now, she is showing signs of losing the battle."
"Is there anything I can do that will help with this? If I am the cause, then I will do what I can to help her. I do not want Grace to die because of me." I was staying as calm as possible but inside, my mind was a mess. If she dies because of me, what will I do? Grace is one of my friends. She had stuck up for me even when she did not need to. I don't want her to be harmed in any way. But now…. But now, because of me, she is going through all this suffering.
"There is a way, but it may put a strain on your body. You will need to keep injecting her with mana to allow her to gain the strength needed in her blood to finish awakening and push your bloodline back for the time being. Once she fully awakens, she will be able to merge with your blood and completely finish the blood seal." Sei explained. I needed no more words to know what I needed to do.
I sat down behind Grace with my legs on each side over her ice covered body and opened a spot big enough for my hands in the ice block. As soon as I did, the part of her clothing that was exposed to the air suddenly burnt to a crisp, revealing her now red back. I took a deep breath and placed my hands on her bare skin, ignoring the burning sensation I was feeling, and began injecting my mana into her body.
If it was mana that she needed, I could give her as much as she wanted. I have plenty to spare, after all. I slowly streamed my mana into her body, lacing it with a bit of ice element. I was hoping the cooling sensation would be able to help relieve some of the pain she was going through. It was not much, just a trace but did not wish for Grace to suffer.
"Faith, you will need to do this until she fully awakens…. If you use up all your mana…." Sei had a worried look on her face. I understand that she is worried, but even if I did not have infinity mana, I would still do what I could to help.
"Sei, you don't need to worry about Faith," Adel spoke up for me. Which I was grateful for as I could not lose my concentration. It was not easy trying to spread my mana throughout Grace's body without harming her. "If anyone is able to last until grace awakens her bloodline, it is Faith."
"It's not that I do not believe you, but this could take days. No matter how many people we have, it would never be enough. We won't be able to ...." Sei was cut off by Adel.
"Sei! You have been serving my father since you were young and have done many missions that allowed you to see a lot of the world. But remember one thing. In this life, there are things that can not be explained. Faith is someone you just have to believe in, no matter how outrageous or impossible things may seem. I mean, have we, not all survived to this point down in this deep dungeon with powerful monsters that could easily kill any one of us? Faith has the power to deal with everything on her own, yet she has not once complained about how slow we were moving. Not to mention she has helped not only me but you as well grow stronger, has she not? With everything that she has shown, why are you second guessing her actions now?"
