Cassias’ face grew solemn the moment he heard Zerra’s words. Now that he inspected her eyes, there was indeed a faint white layer covering them, disturbing her eyesight.
She had teleported a few times out of desperation, so she most likely didn’t watch carefully where she had landed. His eyebrows knitted together. He also remembered Henry, who was swallowed by the sinkhole.
Was the space tear manmade or...?
Thus, he took a basin of spring water from his inner space. With extra carefulness, he dabbed cotton on her eyelids and rinsed her eyes to clean them from every possible contamination. Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs N()velFire.net
Zerra fell silent, letting him treat her while her mind wandered off. At first, she was a little panicked when she noticed her blurry eyesight.
She couldn’t see her mom’s condition and didn’t think straight. Hence, she didn’t even recall she could use her senses to check her mom’s condition.
"Does it hurt?" Cassias’ worried voice floated over.
She was initially panicked about losing her eyesight, but gradually her panic subsided upon finding that her mom was fine. Even if she lost her eyesight, as long as her mom was fine, it was worth it.
She also didn’t want to lose it for useless reasons.
"It does not hurt." She let out a whine. Her limbs were spread out on a soft pillow, lying on her stomach. She looked listless.
Cassias took a deep breath and knitted his brows. Zerra’s constitution in her fox form resembled a zombie, so it was better for her to be in this form. If she switched back to being human, she might feel pain in her eyes.
"It’s a little better..." she trailed off. Her eyes looked strange as she gazed up at Cassias, scrunching her little face.
"The spring water should have some effect." Cassias examined Zerra, who nodded at his statement.
"It seems to be the case. My eyes might recover in a while, but..." her ears twitched. She had a troubled look on her face. "It might take some time. Do I have to stay in the fox form?"
She could only see the figure of Cassias’ faint outline.
"Let’s check where you have landed, Zizi." Cassias rubbed her little head. Her tails swayed. "We might find a clue."
With that, he brought Zerra into his arms. His action was very careful, as if he were carrying fragile porcelain. She curled up, trying to find a comfortable position.
The moment they exited the tent, her eyes felt uncomfortable due to the light. Cassias covered her eyes. "Close your eyes."
She pursed her lips but also didn’t refuse. As she clutched Cassias’ powerful arms, she closed her eyes. It felt like she was walking during the night.
Everyone was already gone, well, even though the place still resembled a shipwreck. After all, so many people had gone crazy in this area at the same time.
Zerra sniffed, using her senses to locate every spot she had landed on. In the first spot, it was alright. The second and third didn’t seem to have a problem either, but...
"Something’s strange in the fifth spot." She opened her eyes, but Cassias’ palm covered her little face again. Anyway, she couldn’t see anything except the blurry surrounding. Opening her eyes was useless; she did that out of habit.
Zerra closed her eyes again and warned Cassias. "Don’t get too close. Since whatever is there can make my eyes , it must have been dangerous."
Cassias kept advancing, only stopping a few meters away from a suspicious object. Zerra used her senses to scan the surroundings. Alas, because her eyesight was blurry, it had affected her senses too.
"What did you see, Cassias?" she asked curiously.
The current state of her eyesight stirred the feeling of discontent from her heart again, a little dejected.
Cassias pinched her ears to calm her down, rubbing them fondly. Zerra swatted his evil claw away out of habit.
"The tendrils... there is a black flower in the middle of them." He examined the flower with a frown. "This flower’s pollen must have gotten into your eyes."
Just as he said that, the tendrils moved, and a sinkhole appeared, getting bigger and bigger as if it wanted to swallow them.
Zerra was vaguely aware of what was happening and let out a shocked yelp. Why did a sinkhole suddenly appear? Why had they met these things again?
Cassias evaded the tendrils aiming for them. The black flower was very small, around the size of a pinky finger. From its leaves to the stamen, everything was black.
If Cassias’ assumption was correct, then this flower was very deadly. Just a small one could destroy someone’s eyesight.
He took a sword and slashed it on the tendrils, cutting them off. The black tendrils wriggled on the ground like worms.
Zerra used her senses to analyze the flower. There was a strange fluctuation of space power presence around it. With her wood power, she detected that all plants were dead or withering within two meters of the flower’s radius. No doubt, it was because of the flower.
Cassias threw his sword toward it, cutting off its root with incredible accuracy. The growing sinkhole stopped, and it even receded.
"Do you think we should eliminate all the suspicious plants here?" Zerra proposed. The flower without its roots instantly withered, turning into inky black liquid.
It reminded her of the mutated mushroom in that forest.
"Since Zizi says so, let’s do it," Cassias rubbed the top of her head. They went to the place where Henry had disappeared. As expected, there were black tendrils there.
They searched through the area for more of the black tendrils. Zerra momentarily forgot about her worrying eyesight as she used her wood ability to search around.
"Cassias? Where is–" Alaric’s words were stuck to his throat when he saw the familiar three-tailed fox. His wife had calmed down and now was looking for Zerra.
"Mr. Sylvaris." Cassias nodded at him. Alaric had the urge to snatch the white fox from his hand, but...
He stared at Zerra’s closed eyes worriedly, instantly noticing something wrong. "What’s wrong with Zee?"
"Mr. Sylvaris. Can you let us live outside the base for a few days?" Cassias suddenly asked. Zerra abruptly opened her eyes, showing the layer of white on her irises to her dad.