A calm, unruffled voice abruptly sounded from behind and to the side of Sefina.
Sefina’s whole body abruptly went rigid, her movements freezing instantly. Her head, like a rusted gear, twisted around with extreme stiffness.
Feliel was standing at the narrow entrance formed by the bookshelves at some point, her face devoid of much expression.
But at this moment, her gaze was fixed on Sefina’s raised skirt hem, then swept over her cheeks flushed with an abnormal redness and her panicked, misty eyes.
The air froze for two seconds.
Feliel’s brow furrowed slightly, her gaze circled Sefina’s flushed face once more, then she spoke in her usual flat tone:
“Are you having that again?”
Feliel was referring to the magic crest flaring up.
Obviously, as a companion who had worked together long-term and knew many of each other’s secrets, Feliel was no stranger to this ‘little trouble’ on Sefina.
“No! Not now!”
Sefina screamed inwardly, but her head shook vigorously like a rattle drum, her wine-red eyes filled with the embarrassment and anxiety of ‘go away quickly.’
Her free hand hurriedly waved at Feliel, signaling her to leave this awkward scene quickly.
However, the signal Feliel received seemed somewhat different from what she was expressing.
The black-haired girl looked at Sefina’s flustered head-shaking and hand-waving to drive her away, then at her action of lifting her skirt hem, was silent for a moment, then spoke:
“Then do you have an exhibitionism fetish?”
Feliel’s voice remained flat, as if she were merely stating an observed possibility.
Sefina:?????
A rush of hot blood shot to her head, Sefina felt her cheeks burning as if about to explode, and shame and anger instantly overwhelmed her embarrassment.
“What kind of joke is this?! Get lost!”
Sefina almost roared, her voice somewhat distorted by extreme anger and shame.
This Feliel! Was she really missing a screw, or was she deliberately saying such things at a time like this to piss her off?! She was almost angry enough to suffocate!
Seeing Sefina so angry her eyes were about to shoot fire, Feliel seemed to finally realize her deduction might not be quite right.
Her face did not change much, but the faint trace of doubt in her eyes dissipated.
“Oh.”
She responded, as if accepting the conclusion ‘not exhibitionism,’ then explained in her concise style:
“I was over there just now.”
She pointed to the area at the other end of the library.
“I saw you run in panic, holding a book and hiding here, suspicious movements. Thought something happened to you, or you discovered an emergency. So I used [Teleportation] to come check the situation.”
So that was it.
Sefina felt a breath stuck in her chest, unable to rise or fall. She knew it was out of concern and vigilance, but this occasion, this conversation…
It made her want to use magic to extract this memory from both of their heads!
“I’m fine! Just… just need to check something private! Unrelated to the mission! You hurry up and leave!”
Sefina spoke rapidly, just wanting to send her away quickly.
Feliel looked at her, then glanced at the eerie pattern faintly visible on the open ancient record, and seemed to understand something. She asked no more, only nodded.
“Okay. Call me if you need anything.”
As soon as the words fell, Feliel’s figure quietly blurred as if merging into shadow, then disappeared. Clearly she left using [Teleportation].
The small interlude was finally over, but Sefina felt as tired as if she had fought a battle.
She took several deep breaths before barely suppressing the residual heat on her face and the depression in her heart.
Now, continue with the real business.
Sefina refocused, her gaze falling back to her lower abdomen.
This time, without hesitation, she gently lifted her skirt hem a bit higher, exposing the skin around her waist and abdomen completely to the dim light.
Sefina’s wine-red eyes lowered slightly, carefully examining the dark patterns that had become much more complex.
Then, she turned her head and carefully compared them with the second stage magic crest pattern depicted in the ancient record.
The direction of the lines, the form of the core symbols, the density of the tangled branches…
Sure enough, there were still some differences from what was recorded in the ancient record.
Sefina felt a slight relief in her heart, but then that breath caught again.
Although not completely identical, the patterns on her lower abdomen, whether in complexity or the faintly revealed sinister feeling, were already incredibly close to the pattern in the book!
Especially the prototypes of several key nodes were already faintly visible, as if only the final ‘activation’ or a little time’s catalysis was missing.
She had a premonition… she might very well reach the second stage soon…
This realization made Sefina’s heart sink. The late first stage had already left her overwhelmed and unable to cope; what would the true second stage be like?
That sentence in the book, ‘craving external contact, such as intervention by others,’ hung over her heart like a cold lock.
If this continued… then it would be trouble…
Sefina bit her lower lip, straightened her clothes, her feelings somewhat complicated, and carried the ancient record back to her original seat.
The second stage was already like this, then the third stage, called the final form… what kind of sight would it be?
Sefina nervously flipped through the pages, her fingers still seeming to tremble slightly.
The description of the third stage was not long, yet every word exploded in her mind:
“The final form of the magic crest: the bearer will remain in a state of ‘craving’ forever, like an eternally burning fire, unable to be extinguished, unable to return to normal…”
What???!!!
Seeing this, Sefina was so startled she nearly jumped out of her chair, her heart pounding as if it would burst out of her chest.
Th-this this… this is too…
Always in that state? Never able to return to normal?!
How was this still a curse or trouble? This was simply the ultimate depravity, more terrifying than the most vicious curse!
“No no! Absolutely cannot let this happen!!! That would absolutely no longer be ‘Sefina’!”
Sefina felt both shame and urgency in her heart, mixed with intense fear. She simply could not imagine what that version of herself would become.
But fortunately, she was still far from the third stage, so for the time being she would not become a Loli who only gets aroused…
“No! I’m not a Loli at all!”
She quickly shook off the adjective in her mind that made her even more ashamed and angry.
The urgent matter was to resolve the imminent second stage crisis.
The second stage was already unacceptable to her; she had to find a way to contain or resolve it!
Sefina took a deep breath, forcibly calmed her mind, and urgently searched the pages with her eyes.
***
After the brief description of the third stage, logically there should follow a solution, or at least some clues for relief…
So, Sefina’s fingertips quickly flipped backward.
One page, records of other unrelated Demonkind artifacts.
Another page, a fragment of an obscure Demonkind ritual.
She kept flipping…
Nothing?!
Sefina’s movements suddenly stopped, her wine-red eyes staring fixedly at the end of the ancient record.
The record about the magic crest ended right after that despairing description of the third stage.
After that were blank pages, and flipping further back, it was completely different content.
What was going on? Why was nothing written after it?! Were pages missing? Or…
Sefina could not believe it and flipped back and forth over the joints of those pages, trying to find traces of tearing or natural detachment.
However, although the spine was old, it was basically intact. That chapter about the magic crest seemed to have been deliberately cut off, or the original author simply had not had time to write the follow-up.
Where did the solution go?!
A cold sense of helplessness mixed with immense panic instantly froze Sefina for several seconds.
She had found the root cause, seen the terrifying future, yet was missing only the most crucial answer to ‘how to survive.’
Hope, like a fragile soap bubble, just after rising not long ago, burst completely with a ‘pop.’
At the scene, only the cold pages of the ancient record remained, and the magic crest on her abdomen that seemed to be mocking her.