Devilla
"First things first," I declared, "there's still a few matters to take care of. I'll need one of you to get Jahara from the kitchen, for starters..."
"Who?" Abigail asked with a frown.
"The dragon I fought," I explained to her. "She apparently has the ability to take a dragon girl form."
"Really?" Lucy asked. "I don't think Grell mentioned that..."
"I suppose Grell was more enamored with her original form," I replied, shaking my head. "Well,
was
more enamored with it before I started poking holes in her grand image of what a dragon should be... Regardless, the fact remains that she's currently in the kitchen."
"The kitchen someone made a giant mess of?" Abigail asked. "...You know what? Nevermind. I'll go grab her real quick while you... do whatever it is you need to keep Doll alive, I guess."
"Tell her to behave, or I'll take back what I said about dessert."
"I hate the fact that you think that'll work... especially since you're probably right," Abigail complained, shaking her head but nevertheless leaving the room.
"I'll go help her," Lucy said after glancing back and forth between me and the door. "I think she could use some company right now... Her world got turned upside down, too, even if it's not quite the same as with us."
I nodded before frowning at Doll. "So I take it that you know the spell to recharge yourself?"
"I know all spells accessible to the Demon Queens," Doll replied, her tone as matter of fact as always. "I
am
the receptacle of knowledge promised by the Rite of Insight, after all."
"...That wouldn't happen to include a holy depetrification spell, would it?" I asked before deciding against it. "You know what? Nevermind. I'll ask you again in the morning. After this is done tonight is dedicated to helping Lucy and Abigail destress... not to mention myself. Just tell me how to charge you so you won't die or be stuck here."
"Not yet," Doll replied. "There remains one last enchantment you must remove."
"And you're only mentioning it now?" I asked, arching an eyebrow. "After the others have left the room?"
"The wolf is still here," Doll pointed out. "Though I wish otherwise. This enchantment is... different from the others and the fewer unpredictable variables the better."
"And by 'unpredictable variables' you mean...?"
"People. Your behavior alone is difficult enough to predict. Add your companions and it becomes nigh impossible."
I sighed then glanced at Bailey. "Go wait in the bedroom, alright? I promise to stay safe from the scary Doll lady."
Bailey nodded, albeit somewhat reluctantly, and headed out.
"Now
can you tell me where this extra special spot upon your person is?" I asked, exasperated sat Doll's delaying.
Doll did not immediately reply, but instead looked at me with a surprisingly emotional expression. "...Now that they are gone, there won't be anyone to judge you for whatever decision you make. Knowing that, are you
sure
you want to do this? Disarming the divine energy within me without irrevocably damaging me
or
yourself will be akin to defusing a live bomb powered by the same energy keeping me alive. Even the miniscule amount of divine energy left within me to power the failsafe would be enough to seriously injure you, maybe even kill you - in body, if not soul. I don't know that you'll be able to recover fast enough to make your plans work, should things go that route... So I won't judge you if you choose to back out now."
"As if I could," I scoffed, trying to ignore the anger rising within me. "I already told the others I would try."
"You can tell them that it proved too much to you," Doll suggested. "That I ended myself before things could get out of control."
"Why?" I asked through gritted teeth.
"You've already proven yourself capable of carrying this to the end, in my eyes, and you have at least two people who care about you very deeply. I imagine you have at least a few friends amongst the humans you've mingled with, as well. Not to mention Lenora and Bailey. Any one of them would be devastated if something happened to you."
"And no one would care about
you
?!
"
I demanded. "Is that what you're trying to imply? Because I seem to recall a certain someone from your story who'd care very much, and I for one don't intend to look a revived Dalleen in the eye and tell her I let her only friend die because I was too cowardly to make the attempt."
"...You are surprisingly emotional about this," Doll noted. "I fear it might be preventing you from thinking things through logically. The risks of failure compared to the value of the goal-"
"'The value of the goal?!'" I interrupted. "The
value
of the goal here is your
life
!"
"My life is not worth risking the success of this plan."
"Like hell it isn't!" I all but growled back at her. "You've spent the last two thousand years weighing lives on a scale and discarding them when their chance at success fails to outweigh your risks. You've watched me, and so many before me, go to our doom. You've stood by and done
nothing,
time and time again, all in the name of these calculations you run in your head. Well, screw it! It's time someone taught you that life is more than just numbers! Even if it means the life I'm saving is
yours
!
"
"...Very well. Start here," she said, pointing at her stomach with her free hand. "The enchantment is very complex, as it involves the control and use of divine energy. It is something only the Goddess herself has true mastery of. All you need to do is use
extreme care
to pluck off this
one
character here - do you see it? - and another
here
. The first will disable the holy magic trigger, and the latter will do a controlled bleed off to safely release the divine magic to ensure that even a direct order from Luci will have nothing to activate."
"Here we go..." I muttered, turning on my holy vision again so that I could see where she was pointing. "At least it's only a couple symbols this time..."
She nodded, silently watching me as I plucked at the first, and then the second. Even if the risk had increased a hundredfold, the basic actions remained the same, and things went smoothly at first. Just as I was about to do the final pass with my nail, however, Doll suddenly called out,
"Sh-Wait!"
Too late - my nail broke through the final enchantment and
something
emerged from her stomach and floated towards my hand. It was white and wispy, almost misty, except mist didn't
hurt
like this did. Though it only made momentary contact with my hand, it left my flesh red and inflamed even as I pulled my hand back and hopped backwards away from Doll.
"Ow!" I cried out in what might very well have been the first true physical pain I'd ever felt in this lifetime. My hand was slowly healing, but it seemed the mist, which had thankfully dissipated, was indeed harmful to me.
"Eena?!" Lucy called out, running into the room with Abigail and Bailey just a step behind her. Jahara trailed behind the three, notably lacking their looks of concern.
"What's wrong?" Abigail asked. "It sounded like you were in pain!"
Doll shot me a look, subtly shaking her head. A silent warning - or perhaps a plea - to keep things simple and secret.
Except secrets were never truly simple, were they? Even when Lucy explicitly gave me permission to keep them. They were like a barrier between me and those I kept them from - one through which we could see each other, even feel each other, but never truly connect in all the ways that mattered.
"I was burned," I explained to them, showing them my still slowly healing hand and ignoring Doll's slightly narrowed eyes. "By what I assume to be divine magic. It escaped the spell it was confined to within Doll and harmed my hand."
"Wait a second," Abigail interrupted. "It hurt
your
hand?
Yours
?The magical hand that's, like, impervious to all mortal harm?"
"This wasn't exactly mortal," I remarked. "It was divine. A step above even me..."
"More than a 'step' if just making contact with it is enough to hurt
you
like that," Abigail remarked.
"Divine magic is akin to fire," Doll said, joining in to my surprise. "It can be warm and gentle when handled properly, but if left uncontrolled it can incinerate almost anything. Sticking your hand in it - whether you be made of holy energy or mortal flesh - is ill advised.
"...Perhaps more so in the latter case, though."
"Wait a second," Lucy muttered. "I just realized! You're made of holy magic, right, Eena?"
I nodded silently, wondering what insight she would bring.
"Then no wonder I have all that positive energy 'staining' me! It must have come from you! When we... you know..."
"Ate each other out?" Abigail suggested, causing Lucy's cheeks to tinge pink.
"It's weird to be able to actually say it out loud in front of people, but yeah!" Lucy confirmed.
"I suppose that could explain it," Doll confirmed. "For a normal mortal, I doubt consuming holy magic in such a way would matter much, but when combined with the blessing carved upon your soul... it might indeed have put the energy you gained to use."
"Wait, what do you mean carved into her soul?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'm kinda curious too," Abigail admitted, while Lucy nodded fiercely.
"It is only a theory of mine," Doll told us. "But in
theory
the only way to grant a blessing such as yours would be to carve it into the very soul of the individual..."
"Then... does that mean that there's actually only a singular Heroine?" I asked. "That she's actually a... reincarnation?"
I didn't know how to feel about that. About the thought that Lucy might share a soul with those monsters... Thankfully, Doll shook her head.
"I do not imagine a Heroine's soul would survive even a single cycle of abuse, let alone many. A mortal's body and soul are not meant to utilize holy or unholy energy the way the Heroine does. Yet the Heroine utilizes both to strengthen herself. You see the effect upon their mortal brains in how they go insane - their positive and negative emotions dramatically magnified in line with the positive and negative energy that now strengthens their flesh... Yet what it does to the mortal mind cannot even compare to the damage it would wreak upon a mortal's soul. I imagine the souls of most Heroines break apart before they can ever enter the reincarnation cycle."
