Chapter 130: Critical Condition!
The celebration was cut short by urgency as Rook stormed through the entrance with Emma burning in his arms, her body trembling and soaked through with sweat.
Emma’s skin was pale, breathing in short uneven pulls that told Kurt her system was fighting something hard and losing ground.
Whatever conversations that had been happening inside the guild’s reception collapsed into confusion as heads turned all at once.
"Medic bay!" Riley shouted as she rushed in with Zaza not far behind.
"I know where it is!" Rook uttered loudly, already moving, his boots striking the floor with heavy, uneven force as if stopping even for a second would cost him something he could not afford to lose.
Behind him, the rest of the group followed, their earlier exhaustion forgotten entirely, and Kurt was already moving before he consciously decided to, his expression hardening.
"Lizzie," Kurt called, not looking back.
"I see that," she replied, her usual carefree rhythm replaced by sharp seriousness as she rushed toward Emma. Once they piled into the elevator, she demanded, "What the hell happened?"
The elevator, large enough to hold twenty people, felt cramped as the entire group packed inside. Tension thickened the air while everyone waited for Rook, or anyone with answers to speak.
Rook glanced down at Emma, who groaned softly in pain, and let out a heavy sigh. "She lost her cool. That’s what happened."
"Well, if ’lost her cool’ is code for ’she was poisoned,’ then yeah, that tracks," Lizzie shot back, staring at Emma.
Emma’s skin had gone from its usual golden brown to an ashen grey, and dark veins had begun spreading from her chest outward, visible through her sweat-soaked shirt, branching across her shoulders and down her arms.
When Lizzie pulled back her eyelid to check her pupils, they were dilated almost completely pale, barely a ring of her natural grey visible.
Her hand glowed with a soft green light as she scanned Emma’s body quickly. And her eyes widened in genuine shock. "What the fuck is this!?"
The elevator doors slid open with a ding, and the group spilled out in a chaotic rush.
"What is it, Liz?" Kurt pressed as the medic bay doors burst open under Rook’s powerful shoulder, but Lizzie said nothing at first, already moving with focused intent.
Inside the controlled calm of the medic bay, order shattered instantly as everyone scrambled to prepare, waiting for clear instructions.
"You can put her here," Sam said quickly, clearing a nearby table.
Rook didn’t hesitate. He crossed the distance in a blink and lowered her carefully, though his hands lingered a second longer than necessary, like letting go required effort.
Sam hovered near the table’s edge, hands twisting together. She’d seen people injured before, but Emma’s labored breathing hit differently. "Is she going to be okay?"
"There’s enough toxins here to poison the water supply of a small country," Lizzie announced, already strapping on gloves as a habit. "What happened?" she asked again, reaching for instruments.
"Can you fix her?" Rook asked instead.
"I need to know what we’re dealing with here," Lizzie replied firmly.
Rook exhaled sharply and stepped back. "It was going well at first... until she saw him. And I just knew she wouldn’t be able to hold back."
Lizzie’s eyes widened in immediate understanding, and Kurt glanced between them, a confused look across his features as he asked, "him?"
"Her foster dad," Lizzie sighed, her tone carrying a mix of blunt assessment and frustration. "Real toxic piece of shit. And I mean that both figuratively and literally."
Rook chimed in while Lizzie continued working. "They call him the Poison Man. Terrifying A-rank hunter. I thought he retired years ago. Never expected she’d cross paths with him again."
He ran a hand through his hair as he fought to keep himself under control. "Emma... she’s got history there. Bad history. The kind that makes someone like her snap."
Because of Rook’s straightforward explanation, the pieces began clicking into place for the team.
Emma, who was fierce, short-tempered, and aggressive had clearly let her volatile emotions take over when confronted with her past. However, that loss of control had come at a steep price.
"Alright," Lizzie muttered under her breath, rolling her shoulders once. "Let’s see what’s going on with ya." She placed her hand lightly over Emma’s chest, allowing her healing essence to spread outward in a gentle wave.
Under normal circumstances, that would have been enough to stabilize most injuries. However, Lizzie’s expression shifted almost immediately. "...That’s weird."
"Fever’s at 104," Sam read from a nearby thermometer. "And climbing."
The aura began to fade, and Emma’s body reacted violently. Her breathing hitched sharply, her back arched against the table, and the fever spiked so suddenly that Lizzie pulled her hand back in surprise.
"What the hell?" Lizzie exclaimed.
Silence fell over the room and Kurt’s eyes narrowed with growing concern. "Talk to me, Liz."
Lizzie didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she stared at her own hand, flexing her fingers slowly as if expecting to feel something lingering there. "It didn’t take," she said finally.
"What do you mean it didn’t take?" Kurt asked, his tone sharpening.
"I mean," Lizzie replied, looking back at Emma, "it should’ve worked. That wasn’t even me trying hard. That was just..."
She stepped forward again. "Maybe I didn’t push enough."
"Lizzie—" Eli started.
"Relax, Butler Boy, I got this." She placed her hand down again. This time, the aura came out stronger and brighter.
It wrapped tighter around Emma’s body, forcing its way in with more intent, more pressure, as Lizzie leaned into it with focus that burned away any trace of her usual playfulness.
And for a moment it worked. Emma’s breathing steadied as her body relaxed and the heat dropped slightly.
For a brief, hopeful moment, it seemed to work. Emma’s breathing steadied as her body relaxed slightly, and the intense heat dropped.
Then, without warning, she recoiled as if something inside had rejected the healing. Emma gasped sharply, her fingers twitching while the fever surged back even stronger than before.
Lizzie jerked her hand away like she’d touched something hot. "Okay, this is bad, really really bad," she said immediately, shaking her head. "If bad got super powers, it’d be this."
Rook went very still. "Explain."
"It’s not just a poison," Lizzie said, moving to her desk and dropping into her wheeled chair. She rolled to the bookshelf and started pulling volumes. "It’s layered. There’s toxin, but underneath—"
She stopped on a page, read it fast, kept moving. "Underneath that is a curse. They’re woven together."
Rook’s eyebrow went up. "What are you saying?"
"Well, the poison feeds the curse and the curse feeds the poison, and every time I push healing essence in, the curse reads it as foreign energy and spikes the fever to compensate." Lizzie explained.
"Meaning your healing is making it worse," Zaza said quietly from the doorway.
"Meaning my healing is making it worse," Lizzie confirmed, pointing at her without looking up. "Exactly."
"Hmm," Rook grunted. "The Poison Man spent years building techniques nobody else could reverse. It was his whole thing."
Meanwhile, Kurt’s gaze shifted slightly, remembering he had an ability that dealt with poisons and toxins specifically. He pulled up his system interface, running through his ability list until he found it.
[Toxic Tide - F Rank]
[Can identify, neutralize, and manipulate toxins and venoms within range]
"Right." He exhaled. "So can this fix Emma?" He asked the system directly in his head, and the system responded almost instantly after running a deep analysis.
[Analysis: Toxic Tide insufficient at current rank. Upgrade to A-Rank minimum required to interface with compound of this complexity]
[Notice: Even at A-Rank, curse element may resist neutralization. Curse techniques operate outside toxin classification and require separate methodology]
Shit," Kurt muttered mentally, his jaw tightening. Out loud, he kept his voice steady. "So what now? There’s got to be an antidote or some workaround."
Rook straightened and folded his arms. "We can’t just wait. Emma’s a fighter, she’d hate seeing us standing around helpless.".
Zaza stepped into the room fully, pushing her glasses up. "I know a bit about curse techniques." She stared at Lizzie. "Between the both of us, I’m confident we can come up with something."
Lizzie stopped pulling books and looked at her. Ran the calculation visibly. "Between the two of us?"
"Between the two of us," Zaza confirmed.
Lizzie spun her chair back toward the table and planted her feet. "Then let’s get started." She glanced back over her shoulder. "Because Emma might not have the luxury of time."
Across the room, Riley said nothing. She simply looked at all their faces as they moved through the tight space both panicked and resolved.
