Chapter 119 The Chase

An unknown time later, Evernya awoke to warmth spreading throughout her body. Cracking open her eyes, she found Elizabeth busily healing her body. While Elizabeth repaired the last bit of damage caused by her escape, Evernya questioned Kya, “What happened? The last thing I remember was seeing the gate to DIOM.”

Unseen by Elizabeth, Kya appeared in her vision. “You passed out from your injuries just inside DIOM, so I called Meira, who then called Elizabeth to come to get you. You are in a side room in the testing center. Also, don’t worry about your motorcycle. Aya stored it in your dimensional storage when they arrived a half-hour ago.”

“What about the men chasing me?” Evernya asked, dreading the answer.

Kya scowled as she ranted, “From what I’ve gathered, each group was operating independently for various reasons. The first group was from the Fleming family, wanting you for what you found in the ruin. The second group came after you because of the unknown entity reading on the scan. While the third group was just after you because of the interest of the other groups. Apparently, the Fleming family spread many rumors about you, causing you to end up on the watch list of a ton of major families. Now they added a few charges such as driving with an unregistered vehicle, speeding, reckless driving, Danger to public safety, among other things. Basically, they tried to stick you with any charge they could, no matter how flimsy.”

Stupid humans! Why can’t they just leave me alone? Sure, I’m some unknown race called Draecath, but that doesn’t mean I belong in some research lab! Who could hate on a cute little girl like me? Evernya fumed, causing her mana to act up, rushing through her body, healing all remaining damage in an instant.

Unable to keep still, Evernya sprung to her feet, causing Elizabeth to jump back. “Sit down, Evernya, you need to rest!” Elizabeth ordered.

“I’m fine,” Evernya stated as she paced back and forth in the small room, tail whipping, fists clenched, trying to contain her raging anger.

Standing her ground, Elizabeth insisted, “You are not fine! When I found you, your legs were worse than the commons incident. You tore everything in your legs. No one walks away from that in less than an hour.”

Evernya turned her glowing rage-filled eyes on Elizabeth, roaring, “And whose fault is that!? You stupid, greedy humans! If it weren’t for your kind, I would sit comfy at Meira’s, but now I’m a wanted criminal who had to run for her life!”

Elizabeth unconsciously stumbled back a step, overwhelmed by her patient’s glare. “My lady, please calm down. This human isn’t at fault.” Kya insisted.

Prompted by Kya, Evernya caught Elizabeth’s fearful expression, instantly dissolving her rage. Her eyes dimmed to normal as she gave Elizabeth an apologetic look, but just as she opened her mouth to apologize, her breath and heartbeat stopped. Like a puppet with its strings cut, Evernya crumbled to the floor.

Fortunately, a few seconds later, her body rebooted. First, her heartbeat restarted at an inhumanly slow cadence followed by weak, labored breathing, as if she was breathing through a tiny straw. Her eyes cracked open to find Elizabeth frantically scanning her body for what was wrong, finding nothing. Unable to move, Evernya materialized, a jug of mana on Elizabeth’s lap, hoping she understood what she needed.

Elizabeth popped off the cap to the jug, filling the room with potent mana. Elizabeth’s eyes widened as she took in the ultra-dense and pure mana permeating through the room, but with more pressing matters to attend to, she put her questions off. Elizabeth lifted her patient into a seated position, supporting her back with her chest before prying open her mouth to pour the jug’s contents down her throat.

Halfway through the jug Evernya regained enough muscle control to hold on to the jug herself, finishing it in an instant before summoning several more, downing them to in a feeding frenzy. Finally, by the fifth jug, Evernya stopped with a burp, patting her stomach in satisfaction.

“What the hell happened?” Evernya asked Kya.

“I’m sorry, my lady, but your body seems to be losing its battle against the corrupted mana. At first, I thought your body was adapting to the corrupted mana, but it’s the other way around. The mana is trying to change your body to a better-suited vessel, causing severe consequences. I would suggest leaving this country. I don’t know how much longer your body can resist the changes before shutting down.”

“Is there any way around leaving? Despite the annoying government, I still have my new family here.” Evernya inquired.

“As far as I can tell, no. Drinking pure mana only delays the inevitable, and soon, even that won’t help. With the current rate of changes, you have at most two weeks until it’s too late.”

Evernya trembled in panic as terrifying questions came to mind. “How do you know leaving will even help? What if the mana isn’t any different on the other side? What if I’m like the dinosaurs of earth, unable to survive with the changes to the planet?”

While trying to keep a strong front, Kya explained her findings. “I don’t know for sure, but what I’ve been able to uncover on data networks of several major families is that the barrier isn’t for keeping something away. The barrier came to be during a major event sometime 50,000 years ago. The original Sespina spanned an entire continent until this event, creating a crater with the dusk and dawn mountain ranges along the edges. All of these points to the barrier keeping something in, not out, which I hypothesize is the corrupted mana.”

“Still, what about my family? I can’t just leave them, and from what I’ve witnessed firsthand, I doubt I could make it to the barrier with them.” Evernya questioned.

Kya appeared in her vision with an apologetic expression as she continued, “I’ve come to the same conclusion. With your current level of strength, even after your evolution, the only way you could make it to the barrier is by taking advantage of your natural stealth.”

While Elizabeth lifted her body, transplanting her back on the cot, Evernya’s thoughts ran in circles. Dammit, what do I do? I can’t just leave. If this happened six months ago, I would have no problem, but now I have family and friends. But at the same time, even if I stay, what do I do about the government? They seem gung ho on forcing me under their thumb. I think for now I’ll try to hold on. Maybe my body will adapt. At least I hope so. I barely made it this time. What if I’m alone next time an attack hits? But what other choice do I have? I have no idea what’s beyond the barrier. It could be worse or simply nonexistent. Maybe everything got destroyed but Sespina.

Suddenly, a jolt ran through her body, causing Evernya to shoot her hands up toward her head while glaring at the culprit of the horn probe. “What was that for!?” Evernya squeaked while shielding her horns with her hands.

“Fascinating. They are real and quite sensitive. What is she? I’ve never heard of someone so light, and those horns are nothing like other shifter horns.” Elizabeth mumbled to herself, her previous fear forgotten.

Next, Elizabeth prodded her still shifted natural armor, unaware of her patient’s glare of annoyance. “So beautiful, a perfect match of beauty, softness, and durability. The scales even cover her palms and soles of her feet. Though those areas have grippy scales instead of smooth.”

Fed up, Evernya bonked Elizabeth on the forehead, knocking her out of her investigation. “If you want to know something, just ask. There’s no need to prod every inch of my body.” Evernya asserted, finally gaining the fascinated doctor’s attention.

Upon catching Elizabeth’s eyes wondering back to her scaly skin, Evernya shifted it away, revealing unblemished ashen skin underneath. “Less touching, more asking.” Evernya stated.

Unfortunately, her prompting opened the floodgates of an inquisitive mind. “What happened to you? Why are you so light? Where did the horns come from? Did you shrink?”

Evernya rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming on as her thoughts spin out of control again. Is this how Meira felt during my question barrages? Speaking of Meira, where is she? What about Aya? I feel her close, but why is she blocking communication and emotions? Shouldn’t I be in a full tail hug right now? I don’t understand. Did something happen over the last month? Ugh, even my psionic brain can’t handle this. One step at a time first, I probably should explain what happened to me during my time away.

She took a deep breath, only to cause a coughing fit. After drinking yet another mana jug, she returned her attention to Elizabeth, staring at her with intense curiosity and concern. “First, can you get Meira and Aya in here? There is no point in explaining what happened multiple times.” Evernya requested.

Unwilling to leave her patient’s side, Elizabeth shot several texts in rapid succession before returning her curious gaze to Evernya.

A few minutes of enduring Elizabeth’s almost hungry look later, Meira, Thomas, and even Maylin entered the small room. Immediately noticing her mate’s absence, Evernya asked, “where’s Aya?”

A worried expression flashed over Meira’s face. “I don’t know. She disappeared when I tried looking for her.”

Refusing to start without Aya, Evernya jumped to her feet, causing her to sway for a moment from lightheadedness. “I’ll be right back I need to fetch a runaway fox.” Stated Evernya, shifting her natural armor and dashing out of the door before anyone could stop her.

Evernya followed her bond with Aya through the increasingly loud halls. A few minutes later, the hall opened up into a giant football stadium-sized arena/gymnasium packed with teenagers and their parents. This must be where we meet for the entrance exam. Evernya thought, flattening her ears against the loudness as she continued to search for Aya.

Evernya weaved her way through the crowds, ignoring the stares and racist comments as she made her way to the opposite side. Only to find her bond indicating Aya was near where she started. Evernya turned back toward the crowd, grumbling under her breath. This time, she dashed along the edge of the room, avoiding the growing crowds of humans. As soon as she stepped back in the hallway leading to the room she woke up in, she yet again found her bond pointing her toward the opposite side of the auditorium. What the fuck is going on? Is the bond wrong? Evernya questioned in frustration.

Evernya turned her attention to Kya, wanting to avoid crossing the gymnasium too many more times, “hey Kya, any idea where she is?”

After a few second delay, camera footage appeared in her vision showing Aya huddled in the corner of a dark room hugging herself with her tails with tears streaming down her face. Upon seeing her mate in tears, Evernya pushed the camera view to the corner of her vision as she dashed through the crowds toward where her bond showed her mate was. However, as soon as she neared the other side of the gymnasium, Aya suddenly looked up with an expression of anguish before vanishing, causing Evernya to stop dead in confusion.

“How did she disappear? Did she teleport? But I thought she didn’t have magic classes capable of teleportation.” Evernya questioned.

“Remember, she shares your bloodline. Even at a diluted level, I’m sure she gained basic spatial magic.” Kya replied as she switched the camera view to Aya’s current location, which was another darkroom huddled in a corner.

Growling in frustration, Evernya dashed toward Aya’s location again, but yet again, three quarters across the gymnasium, Aya teleported to the opposite side. Without even taking a moment to catch her breath, Evernya blurred in the opposite direction, but no matter how fast she went, Aya always teleported away.

After fifteen minutes of dashing across the gymnasium, Evernya collapsed near the hall she started from, gasping for breath. With trembling hands, Evernya lifted a mana jug to her lips, gulping it down as fast as she could. Before standing up with another mana jug in her hands.

She turned toward the gymnasium again, but found no easy openings in the dense crowd. A moment later, Meira and Maylin snuck up behind the distracted Draecath.

Before her adoptive little sister could escape, Meira wrapped her arms around Evernya’s shoulders, trapping her against the chest of the much taller elf. Evernya glared up at the hugging elf stating, “I need to find my mate.”

While smiling down at her cute little sister, trying but failing at imagining the cute outfits she will blackmail her into wearing, Meira assured, “don’t worry, I’m sure she’s fine. Besides, the entrance exam is about to start.”

Still exhausted from chasing her mate, Evernya offered little resistance as Meira lifted her into a princess carry before entering the gymnasium, using a subtle release of mana aura to part the crowd.

Against her will, Meira carried Evernya through the stifling crowds toward the front, revealing a raised stage with a dozen humans standing, Thomas at the center with Elizabeth on his right and Richard on his left.

After glancing at his watch, Thomas gestured Richard forward to the microphone at the center of the stage.