Zerra never expected that things would turn out this way.
The first thing she did after she regained consciousness again was jump in panic. Especially when she was reminded of that warm embrace.
When she decided to transform into a fox forcefully, she hadn’t thought about the consequences yet. Seeing Laziel in danger, she no longer hesitated to save him.
But now, it all came crashing down on her. As dizziness hit her head again, she forced herself to open her eyes. The blurry eyesight slowly became clear, although her body still felt heavy.
"Zerra, how are you feeling?" The warm hands grasped hers, then abruptly let go as if the person got scalded. She didn’t know what came after her, but she instinctively grabbed hands back. She could grasp only one of his hands.
Someone’s face entered her eyesight. She took a deep breath, sensing the familiar warmth from the hand. The person no longer pulled his hand.
The blurry face slowly took shape, into a man with a flawless countenance.
His face leaned forward toward her as he crouched down with a graceful gesture. His complexion tense, with concern written all over it.
"I am... fine," She said hoarsely, a bit nervous. The hoarse voice made her answer rather perfunctory, but that wasn’t her current focus.
She scanned Cassias’ close-up face for any indication that he had seen the fox, which now transformed into her. In other words, had he witnessed her transforming into a human?
However, besides concern and worry, she saw nothing else. Or maybe he was too good at hiding it. She wasn’t sure.
"I am sorry," Cassias muttered apologetically, his voice tinged with remorse.
There was a pillow beside her. When she was unconscious, he had put a pillow under her head.
He handed her a bottle of water. She lifted her hand, but she found that she was too weak to grasp the bottle. Her little face scrunched, enduring the pain. Cassias noticed it and helped her to drink it.
"It’s fine." She exhaled. "He used a powerful illusion on us, so it’s difficult to break out of it."
The first time, Cassias had woken her up from it. He must have sensed something was wrong using his mental ability, but the subsequent illusions weren’t easy to break off.
She could do it because she was a fox. The fox clan in the celestial realm was known for being adept at illusions. They were illusion masters, but to cast or dispel them, they needed to have spiritual energy first.
Her mastery of illusions wasn’t as good as other high-level celestial foxes, but she still had some knowledge about it. Her time in the fox clan was pitifully short, so she didn’t have the time to learn further yet.
"Illusions..." Cassias muttered. He lifted his head.
"What did you see there?" Zerra asked. She was stunned when Cassias lifted her up and put her down near a relatively clean place. Behind her was a rather high haystack.
"You can lean back if you feel tired," Cassias suggested.
She did as she was told, raising her eyebrows.
After he saw her sitting more comfortably, he answered her question vaguely. "It’s nothing, just something that reminded me of an old memory."
His jaw tensed when he said that, then she saw him frowning uncomfortably again.
Her eyes flashed, and she determined that they actually had different illusions. Or, it was the trigger of the illusion, which had evoked different scenes for them based on the person’s memories. In other words, it just made them hallucinate.
At the lower level of illusion mastery, they still needed a trigger to evoke it. The illusion master could use certain images or words to guide their targets’ minds. For Zerra and Cassias, the trigger for the illusion was obviously the person with missing hands.
After the illusion was triggered, the powder of the mutated mushroom would do the rest. The mushroom was actually quite peculiar.
"Is it an awful memory?" She asked softly.
Cassias pursed his lips. "Yes."
They didn’t continue the topic further. If it was related to such a gruesome image, it might have been a memory of his previous life in the apocalypse.
Although Cassias appeared normal, Zerra could tell that he was a little disturbed. A look of contemplation occasionally crossed his eyes, distracted.
"Wait, where is Laziel?!" Zerra widened her eyes. She just remembered that foolish brother of hers.
She tried to stand up. Cassias grabbed her hand and soothed her. "Laziel is safe. Don’t worry about him. Sit down."
"Yo, you finally remember me." Laziel’s voice rang from behind her. He snorted, "You, a pair of lovebirds."
He dragged his foot, circled the haystack, and revealed himself in front of her.
"What’s wrong with you? Cosplaying a zombie?" Zerra blinked at him, eyeing his bandaged foot.
Laziel rolled his eyes. He opened his mouth, but he seemed to think of something and closed it again. In the end, he could only say, "You are still sick, so I won’t bother with you."
He was actually right. Because she had overdrawn her spiritual power, even the slightest movement was painful. A patch of bruises appeared on her fair skin, making it very eye-catching.
Although Zerra hated his loud mouth, she was still relieved to see him safe and sound.
Laziel cleared his throat. "What’s wrong with your body? Cassias tried to move you earlier, but once something touches your skin, it always leaves a deep bruise mark."
She pursed her lips. So, that was the reason they hadn’t moved her here earlier. She shook her head, pretending to be equally puzzled. "I don’t know, but it should be fine in a while now."
Most likely because of the backlash of her fox transformation, but she couldn’t tell them that.
Cassias finally dared to bring her to a relatively clean area. He must have noticed that her condition had improved when their hands touched each other, no longer as easily bruised.
"Can you tell us what happened after we fell into illusions?" Cassias asked softly.
Laziel was also looking at her; his eyes held complication, but something in them seemed to have changed subtly.
Zerra told them what had happened, excluding certain details. Starting from her, who managed to break away from the illusion, the zombie, which was Scott’s mother, and the source of the illusions, the mutated mushroom.
She realized that she had overlooked something. With a strange look in her eyes, she turned to them. "Where is the zombie...?"
Cassias and Laziel exchanged glances.
Cassias brought the other unconscious people out of the barn. They were weak, but none had been infected by the zombie virus yet, except maybe the pitiful person with missing hands.
His chance of making it out alive wasn’t high.
When Cassias told them about their plan, Zerra insisted on staying, eager to see what would happen next.
Beside her, in the bushes, Laziel frowned.
"Isn’t this cruel?" He initially didn’t object to the idea, but after witnessing it himself, he just couldn’t describe his feelings. Laziel watched as Cassias pulled down the crossbar lock, trapping Scott inside the room.
With the zombie who was once his mother.