Reincarnated into a Snow Griffin-Chapter 134

"There may be a way to save her." I hear a voice coming from somewhere, a known one dragging the r’s like a growling, a female voice that did not belong to the tree creature nor the fox, a being that has kept quiet since we entered the Ghost City until now.

That’s right I had forgotten, the demon, Natasha, had fallen from around the fox’s neck and had been laying somewhere around us, and with the lower activity of the fog down here she is able to temporally show herself to us, a strange really pale color taking over her ever changing skin and hair, eyes down at the dying woman in front of us.

"Lord Natasha, such a delight! Always wondered what destiny become, disappeared as you had, but to think such a man would have you, what a fact!" Eanraig, the tree, says, recognizing her and proving that, at least, the Demon Lord part was true.

"Eanraig MacIlleBhuidhe, still as dutiful as ever I see." She says and receives a bow in response.

"Such is my nature, Lord Natasha. But to think of you as a mere necklace he did, what displeasing thinking he had!"

"Not anymore, he has no power now to keep me from speaking, boys, pick me up will you?" Ethan disappear from my side for a second and, next, he brings the horn into view, a faint glow shining every time it spoke, her power limited by her ghostly form, much of her predicament unknown to me.

"To be enslaved by the caused of all this pain... I cannot even-" The tree mushroom starts but she soon cuts him short.

"I came to terms with my own misery a long time ago, there is nothing that can be done for me or the past that I suffered, but I still can save this human, if only that... lady...?"

"Le-Leah Hayes." The woman says, out of breath and coughing up blood, and is easy to say by how weak her voice is that there is not much time left before she dies.

"I can save you, I can fuse us together, only that... you may not be human anymore, you may become... something new, but I can sense a connection between our energies, and I think I can save you."

That brings a rusting of leaves to the tree creature as it says, grumbling: "But Lord Natasha, fusing with her will be your demise."

There is a moment, a quiet dragging silence that makes his words sink in before she says:

"I have already been dead long ago old friend."

That’s the harsh reality of it all, and without the fox to sustain her there is not much time before even her words cannot reach us anymore, and before any of us can say anything or ponder further into the subject I can faintly hear Leah say:

"I d-don’t care."

And that’s what Natasha needed, nor our approval or sentiments, she was ready to die, to truly seize to exist, and perhaps had come to terms with it long before this opportunity to do it came to be, perhaps she even longed for it, with her actions and words enslaved, but in no time her horn fragment moves on his own and sinks itself in the hole on Leah’s chest.

The woman on the floor gasps, arching her back and starts convulsing, but I’m left speechless when, right before my eyes, the horns shines brighter and starts fusing itself with Leah’s skin, mending the wound up.

Pink skin is left at the end of the process, barely anything compared to what it had been before, and yet, after an outburst of limbs and gasping, her suddenly staying completely still there looked more like the end than a thorough recovery.

"She is... not dead is she?" I check her pulse next, and for a quiet tense moment cannot feel anything, but to all’s relief there is a heartbeat there, so slow that it is hard to catch.

"She is alive, if barely."

Eanraig branches creek in relief, his many eyes focus on the woman on the floor, and ours too once she starts moving again and open her eyes.

"Are you ok Leah?"

"L-Leah? Oh no, I-I’m Natasha, what is going on?" She widens her eyes, touching her own face, and with a grimace of pain endures as the transformation takes hold, her skin starts to crackle up like ash, turning deadly pale in the process and bringing forth the red vests and jet black hair where a single curved horn sprouts from one side of her head.

For a second time she checks her appearance with her hands, stopping at the horns.

"This does not make sense, I gave my remaining powers to her, I should be dead." Says Natasha, the strong tone of her voice being enough to identify the warrior lord demon inside the petite body.

"Is the girl dead?"

"I don’t- No, no she is not, I can... I can feel her consciousness in the back of my mind, I guess she is... resting?" She answers, not really sure and odded out by the sensation I bet.

"So, what? You too are sharing a body now?" Ethan asks deadpan, but I cannot deny that I’m a bit curious about such strange unique phenomena.

"I... I think so. Only when she wakes up will I be sure, but strange... I should have died in the process since I gave her all my mana, nor be transferred with is... it is something never heard of, how odd indeed." She seems to be caught up by the oddity of the situation, but I guess it worked fine in the end, a chance of a dying person and a dead demon to live once more, even if together like this.

Hard to say which choice would have been the best or worse, I guess they will have time to find out now.

"Pff, what a mess, you just got yourself a very crampy nagging kid to worry about." Ethan says, joking about the fierce yet too headstrong and impulsive to be considerate of a mature grown woman Leah.

Although, on the other hand...

"Says the one talking about childish impulsiveness." I poke Ethan’s ego, and he acts like he is hurt but displays his dimpled smirk that has me always wanting to smile back, even if just a little.

"Smiling as is, worry about the little black sneak shadow you must, for the skimming beast must be stopped at once." Says the mushroom tree creature, bending his torso on top of us and shadowing even from far away, bringing an important point to the discussion.

That this is not over yet, and in the confusion the fox had just escaped our grasp.