Chaos descended upon the Chapel of the Holy Sun.
Mrs. Lawrence wept in ragged, heart-wrenching sobs, clutching her husband's limp, bruised hand like a lifeline.
Several elderly parishioners began backing toward the doors, hurriedly warding themselves with the defensive sign of the sun.
Right then, stepping from the deep shadows behind a stone pillar, was a young docker - nineteen at most.
His name was Kevin, and he had been working the night shifts down at the harbor for barely a month. His teeth chattered in such raw terror that his legs could scarcely support his weight.
With a trembling, coal-dusted hand, he rolled up the ragged sleeve of his shirt on his left arm.
“M-Miss Mina...” he stammered, his voice squeaking like a slaughtered animal. “On my arm... it’s breaking out on my arm too...”
Spanning the boy's pale skin were sprawling, deep crimson, almost violet bruises, interspersed with bulging, weeping blisters filled with serous fluid.
It looked identical to Lawrence’s affliction, albeit in a slightly earlier stage of progression.
“It’s a plague from the gutters!” an older ropemaker shrieked, bolting for the exit. “Run, or we're all dead!”
Panic roiled through the crowd.
“Shut your mouths and stand your ground!” Mina roared with such fury and authority that the echo cracked against the soaring ceiling like a whip.
Even the burly dock porters froze mid-stride, stunned by the sheer steel in the petite blonde’s voice - provocative outfit be damned.
“If this were a bacterial contagion or common plague, the Purification Elixir he drank this morning would have broken the fever and halted the spread!” Mina barked, instantly locking into crisis mode.
Pivoting toward the trembling youth, she added, “Calm down, Kevin. Don't move, and don't touch it. I'm going to examine it right now.”
She stepped back to the makeshift stretcher where Lawrence lay on the brink of death.
Raising her right hand, she focused her intent and invoked the solitary pure spell in her clerical repertoire:
“Lesser Heal.”
Warm, golden light of solar magic flared from her slender fingertips. The rays sank into the porter's sunken, sweat-drenched chest, attempting to mend the ruined tissues.
And that was when something unnatural occurred.
In a fraction of a second, the spell began to fracture, flicker, and sizzle, as if caught in heavy electromagnetic interference.
An alien, corrosive, invisible energy raged within Lawrence's body, tearing the spell's matrix to shreds.
The golden radiance snuffed out with a faint hiss, the man's chest heaving in a violent spasm.
Mina immediately shifted her hand to Kevin's swollen arm and repeated the incantation.
The result was identical.
The healing magic dissolved before it could even reach the cells, and the boy screamed in agony as the blisters turned a bruised, cadaverous hue at the point of contact with the spell.
Mina pulled her hand back, staring at her fingers.
Her modern Earth mind stripped away religious dogma, methodically tabulating the facts: sprawling blisters and tissue necrosis without a trace of fire or scorching.
Violent hematemesis.
Acute gastrointestinal collapse and vital organ failure within mere hours of exposure.
On top of that, an absolute blockage of natural mana flow and the systematic destruction of cellular structure on a microscopic level.
A blaring red warning siren detonated in the former accountant's head. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
Late-night binges of Chernobyl documentaries and medical case studies on Acute Radiation Syndrome flashed into memory.
She went so pale she nearly blended in with the white silk of her plunging bodice.
Whipping around to Kevin, she locked him in a piercing, lethal glare.
“Tell me the truth, Kevin!” she hissed, seizing his uninjured shoulder. “Were you near something glowing with its own unnatural light?! Did you open any sealed canisters?! Do you have anything from that site in your pockets?!”
“N-no! I swear to the Sun, we didn't steal a thing!” the weeping youth swore, backing against the wall. “Master Lawrence and I went down to the machine vaults beneath Fourth Dock... We were hired to replace an iron cooling grate in that new etheric furnace from the South! When we loosened the bolts... the shielding cracked! This ghostly, venomous blue light came pouring out... It blinded us! Burned our eyeballs and clawed at our throats!”
God damn it all to hell...
Mina’s hypothesis had become cold fact.
A magical reactor core had breached, and these poor bastards had taken a massive, lethal dose of concentrated mana contamination point-blank - the local fantasy equivalent of ionizing radiation.
For several heartbeats, pure terror paralyzed her.
Graphic imagery of sloughing hair, liquefying organs, and lingering agony flashed through her mind.
Then she drew a sharp, burning breath.
This was a world of magic, after all. If curses, sorcery, vampires, and succubi existed here, there had to be a way to neutralize energetic contamination.
“Listen to me carefully!” Mina snapped at the dockers. “Anyone who was down at the docks or touched their clothes - strip off your work doublets, shirts, and boots right now! Throw every scrap onto the sail and drag it out past the churchyard wall! Not a single shred of that fabric stays inside this sanctuary!”
“B-but Mother...” one of the laborers stammered.
“Move, damn it!” Mina snarled with such ferocity that the men began stripping their clothes on the spot. “Then march straight out to the well in the courtyard! Scrub your hands, faces, and necks with cold salt water until your skin is raw!”
She turned to the weeping Mrs. Lawrence.
“Take Allie and wash that dust off yourselves right now! Give your husband only boiled water mixed with a pinch of salt, small sips at a time. Under no circumstances do you touch his lesions with bare skin!”
The terrified woman nodded frantically, snatching her daughter’s hand.
When little Allie began to whimper from the cold as ice water from the bucket was splashed over her in the rain, Mina darted into the sacristy, pulled a clean woolen blanket from the cupboard, and personally bundled the shivering child tight.
She had contained the contamination, but that was just emergency triage.
Lawrence was slipping away, and Kevin was next in line.
Standard clerical rites were completely useless here.
She needed a master alchemist of the highest caliber - someone who understood high-tier fluctuations of raw energy.
And the only person fitting that description within miles was Liliane.
Mina didn’t waste a single heartbeat.
Throwing her worn gray traveling cloak directly over the scandalous Habit of Indecent Piety, she yanked the cowl low over her brow and burst from the church into the rain-lashed gloom.
Sprinting through the muddy back-alleys of Veyrsend was pure agony.
Her monumental new E-cup breasts bounced wildly and mercilessly with every jarring strike of her boots against the uneven cobblestones.
The rigid boning of the tight corset bit deep into her swollen, tender skin, and her soaked cloak clung heavy to her frame.
Mina ran half-hunched, wrapping both arms beneath her bust to absorb the concussive jolts.
The physical exertion and pounding pulse instantly triggered that cursed lactation mechanic - her nipples hardened into aching, feverish points, damp spots blooming once more against the sheer silk.
God damn it all to hell! she cursed internally, splashing through murky puddles and choking on icy rain. If that horny succubus can save these people from magical Chernobyl, she can grope me with her tail all night long for all I care! Just don't let these people drop dead on the floor of my chapel!
Reaching the wooden door with its wire-reinforced pane, she hammered her fist against the timbers with everything she had.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
The bolt snapped open with a metallic clatter, thrown by an invisible, soundless Mage Hand.
Mina stumbled inside, nearly losing her footing on the slick floorboards, and kicked the door shut behind her.
Soothing warmth filled the café, rich with the fragrance of roasted coffee, cinnamon, and spirits.
Behind the dark timber bar stood Liliane, draped in her plunging purple gown, idly swirling a crystal snifter of brandy in her hand.
At the sight of a drenched, panting Mina - whose soaked cloak fell open to reveal her lush, heaving bust wrapped in translucent silk - the succubus's emerald eyes flashed with predatory, unconcealed delight.
“My, my~” Liliane purred sensually, setting the glass down with a soft click. “Look who’s graced my humble threshold at such an ungodly hour. My sweet little nun... Did you miss your big sister's hugs already?~”
“I don't have... fucking... time for your games, Liliane!” Mina gasped, lunging toward the bar and clutching the polished wood. “I brought radiation... I think I'm contaminated! Do you understand?! People at the docks are dying! They're blistering, vomiting blood! Do you know how to cure it?!”
Liliane arched her sculpted brows.
Hearing the raw panic in the girl’s voice and seeing her pupils blown wide with terror, the succubus instantly shed her playful façade.
Her emerald irises took on a cool, azure-gold shimmer:
“Elemental Sight.”
In the magical spectrum, the world around Mina exploded into a riot of colors.
Liliane froze for a split second.
Clinging to the priestess’s hands, the hem of her cloak, and strands of her hair were erratic, venomous blue and violet wisps of unstable, fractured mana, spitting tiny energetic discharges into the air.
Liliane blinked, dispelling the spell, and an indulgent, almost tender smirk played across her lips.
Stepping out from behind the counter with fluid, measured grace, she closed the distance to the shivering, rain-soaked girl and, without the slightest warning, yanked Mina flush against her body.
The succubus's arms clamped tight around the girl’s slender waist, mashing the drenched priestess directly into her own plush, feverishly warm bosom.
Unceremoniously burying her face into the rain-slick nape of Mina’s neck, Liliane took a deep, greedy breath.
She drank in the aroma of cold rain, exertion, and the underlying sweet, milky fragrance of Mina’s body.
Her long, pointed tail slipped from beneath her velvet skirts and coiled around Mina’s thigh with predatory grace, slithering under the hem of the cloak and snaking up toward her buttocks.
“Silly little nun...” Liliane laughed with a low, throaty purr.
Her scorching breath washed over Mina’s sensitive ear, sending an involuntary, paralyzing shiver rippling down her spine.
“No such thing as ‘radiation,’ whatever that strange word means in that pretty little head of yours. It’s simply Mana Contamination from a fractured etheric crystal. Look at you, shivering like a leaf... Come, let big sister warm you up~”
“S-stop it!” Mina squeaked, blushing to the roots of her hair as the spade of the tail squeezed her buttock shamelessly, kneading it through the sheer skirt.
She tried to shove her away, but Liliane held her in an iron vise.
“Get your hands - tail - off my ass! Can it be cured or not?! People are dying out there!”
Liliane drew her face back by barely a few inches, looking straight into Mina’s tearful, desperate eyes.
Her hand slid brazenly down the girl’s hip, resting against bare skin revealed by the high slit of her habit.
“Of course I know how to neutralize it,” the succubus murmured, her tone sharpening with gravity even as a dangerous glint lingered in her emerald eyes.