The Purifying Light
Another problem was the fact that the tattoos covering those two were different, and now she was looking at a third variation. One that was much bigger than the others, and whatever was underneath it was much more intricate. If that wasn't enough, there was one more issue. Alex's ability had to remove everything. The entire tattoo and not just the upper layer. The benefit of this situation was that no one would ask her to just take out the ring and let the person affected by it continue suffering as they studied it. On the other hand, having to remove everything made the process much more complicated than it could to be.
"Is she going to just stare at her, or is she going to do something?" a voice came from behind the assassin. Unfortunately, that was not the first small comment, and she reached the point where it became enough to distract her. With that, she lost track of where she was while following the mana in the tattoo.
With a groan, Alex turned around, "Are you going to keep talking?"
"I don't know, are you going to keep doing nothing?" a young elf scoffed and crossed his arms. He had light skin and wore tailored clothes that reeked of ostentation.
Alex rubbed her face with both hands. This elf who, from what she understood, was considered a teenager for his people, had been complaining about her ever since she arrived in the Pink Coast Forest. She understood that the elf she was trying to save was someone important to him, but the guy was nothing but rude and irritating. With him was an older elf that tried to calm the men down every time he spoke, but she wasn't able to do much.
Bonnie was in the corner of the room, just staring at the interaction. She had promised not to intervene unless Alex was in danger, but the assassin could tell her friend was a breath away from launching an elemental fist in the elf's face.
"Oh poor you, you have work to do. Stop staring and start doing something," the man groaned.
"Do you know how to fix her? How to solve all this?" Alex snapped.
"No, if I did I wouldn't have reached to someone like you," there was venom in his words, emphasizing the 'you,' to make it clear what he was talking about.
"Listen here, you little shit. I'm here to save her, and so far I'm the only one who managed to do something like this. So you either shut up and let me work or you can fuck off," Alex snarled as she got to her feet.
"How dare you?! Do you know who I am?!" the elf gasped, but the assassin didn't care.
She marched towards the door and opened it with more strength than she should. After poking her head out, she saw two guards by the entrance. The same ones that helped her meet the mayor of the city and come here to help his daughter, "Hey. Can you get that bitch ass prick out of here? If I keep hearing his voice, I'm going to toss him out of the window."
Both guards seemed shocked at the request, but the one on the left said, "The windows here are bared."
"We can send him out in pieces," Bonnie huffed as she walked closer to the door.
"Great, that solves a problem. So are you taking him out, or are we?" Alex smiled and turned to the guards.
"That's… the mayor's son. You can't do that," Thaddeus, the guard on the right, said.
"So that's his sister? I get why he is upset, but even so. I need peace and quiet to work," Alex continued.
"She is his aunt, not sister. Well, technically, she is also his sister," Viccor, the guard on the left, added.
"Come again?" Bonnie tilted her head, and even Ruby seemed confused.
"So the mayor's daughter. The one in the bed married a guy and then that guy's younger sister married the mayor," Thaddeus pointed inside, "He is the son of the mayor and his daughter's sister-in-law."
Alex blinked a few times, "And like… is that normal? I know elves live for a very long time. Maybe the way we see relationships is different."
The guard nodded, "We are less focused on age difference between relationships. As long as they are all adults, of course."
"But that set up is," Viccor looked inside and stopped himself from finishing that sentence. Quickly changing to, "Unique."
"Well then. Call the mayor and tell him I can't help his daughter with his son around. If he asks why, just tell him I asked if he really doesn't know. If he says he doesn't, then I'll talk to him," Alex continued.
The guards nodded, and Viccor stepped away to make the call. In less than a minute he returned, "The mayor says he understands. We will escort you master Vaeril out of the premises. He did ask to let his mother stay inside."
Alex nodded, "That is completely fine. She is a very sweet lady."
The two guards walked inside and grabbed the young elf by the arms before dragging him out, kicking and screaming. With a sigh of relief, the assassin walked closer to the elder woman, "I'm sorry for that, Lady Faunalyn. Your grandson was too disruptive, and this is a delicate process."
The old elf nodded, "Worry not, child. I understand the reasoning behind your actions. I am afraid my old age became a problem when attempting to connect with the youth. My great-great-great-grandson is among those who do not care for the opinion of an old woman."
"And that is a shame. Great wisdom comes with age," Alex smiled, remembering the summers she used to work in a retirement home. Most of her time was spent just talking with the residents, all happy to have someone new to interact. She quickly snapped back to reality to do what she came here to do, "Lady Faunalyn, what I'm going to do might take a while. If you would prefer, my friend can use a spell to stop your voice from reaching me. That way, the two of you can talk while I work. You will still be able to hear me, I just won't hear you. Or if you don't mind the silence, you can stay here. I just need a lot of focus for this to work."
The old elf nodded, "I will stay here."
Alex nodded back and sat in front of the elf in the bed again. She looked at the tattoo on her neck, trying to see beyond the ink to where the impurities were located, but to no avail. This was part of a skill from her legacy, one that allowed her to see the things that should not be a part of someone's body. This also worked with objects, but to a lesser degree. Only if a substance had seeped into the material that it would be flagged as an impurity.
The problem was, the woman was a mess. There was so much alien mana, so many overlapping spells, buffs, debuffs and random effects that Alex couldn't tell where one of those impurities ended and the next one started. Right now, she could only cleanse one thing at a time. Maybe that would change in the future, but her legacy was too weak to take care of large clumps of random bullshit. To make matters worse, she could tell that some of the spells in effect were helping to keep this woman alive. If the assassin was to take them all out in the wrong order, there was a chance the elf wouldn't make it.
Alex had made that mistake the first time she tried to remove these tattoos from someone, and now, that patient was still in a coma. Not wanting to let that happen again, she prepared to trigger another of her skills. The [Visions of Corruption] helped her understand what she was looking at, but [Steps of Purity] helped her break down everything she was seeing. The only problem was the long cooldown of 10 days for a short 10 minute effect.
'Ley? Are you ready?' the assassin asked in her mind, calling for the herald.
From the behind the pillow, a small mushroom appeared. It had a golden cap, two beady black eyes in his white body, and a long mustache that fell to the sides of what should be his mouth. There was also a pair of stumpy legs and arms with tiny fingers that could barely hold anything.
'I am at your disposal,' Ley, the herald of her legacy, nodded. His voice sounding like the most stereotypical aged wizard that ever lived.
Alex smiled, 'Thank you for all the help. We have another tricky one.'
Ley walked on top of the elven woman. Unlike Daskka, this herald didn't have an actual body. Not one that could be seen by others or even interact with the world in any way. It was, in essence, a hallucination. Still, Alex felt a bit weird letting him walk on top of someone else and put out her hand for him to sit there. The herald understood her intention moved to be carried by her. Despite knowing that Ley wasn't really there, the assassin couldn't help but feel the mushroom man's feet tapping on her fingers as he walked around her hand.
'I see why you want my help. This truly is a complicated endeavor,' Ley waved his hands trying to find the right path to remove the spells affecting the elf but to no avail.
'Yeah. I know that the skill is supposed to be like training wheels. Something to help me figure out the details of enchantments, and that I shouldn't rely too much on it. But this one is…' Alex frowned.
'Beyond you. I understand,' Ley tilted his head back and cracked his neck, even if a mushroom shouldn't have any bones, 'I am ready when you are.'
Alex nodded and took a deep breath. To Bonnie and Lady Faunalyn, the assassin was silent the entire time. They couldn't hear the conversation between the herald and the legacy holder. But the intensity was palpable.
Her eyes glowed with a golden light and the entire room changed just as she triggered the skill [Steps of Purity.] It would dissect any enchantment she laid eyes on and show her how to unravel the mana that was woven together. It could also do that with many other things, such as poisons, corruption of many kinds, and even some diseases. But to Alex, there was one more reason to use this skill.
When she was under the curse's influence. That evil magic started showing her colors she couldn't see before. It preyed on her insecurities. Once people in her school discovered she was colorblind, a group took it upon themselves to bully her relentlessly for it. And the curse showed her how the world truly looked. That's part of the reason she let it spread so fast. Not to mention the constant voice of paranoia offering to tell her the things she wanted to know.
Alex didn't regret getting rid of the curse. Not one bit, but saying she didn't miss the colors she could see back then would be a lie. However, once the [Steps of Purity] was activated, all the different shades of yellow, brown, and baby blue once again returned to her eyes. According to Ley, that skill should improve with time and effort. The higher its rank, the longer should be the duration with a smaller cooldown. Eventually, it would change from an active skill to a passive one. When that happened, Alex would no longer be color blind.
She already had accepted that part of her. Partially thanks to Hera, who reached out during training. But it was one thing to never know what some colors actually looked like. Another was to see them, only for them to be taken away from you.
Focusing back on the task at hand, she watched as Ley pointed towards the black tattoo on the woman's body and a single strand of white appeared in the corner. It slowly moved along while Alex used another skill to unravel the mana attached to that string. Ley would make sure to mark as many paths as he could while the assassin worked on breaking down the spells and effects even after the skill was over. The Alliance was calling her the Purifying Light, and she wanted to prove she was worthy of that moniker.