Chapter 722

Kat shot up out of bed, mind still telling her she should be in great pain. Then the fact she was able to sit up without issue seemed to cause a record scratch for a moment as her mind revaluated what was going on. This was helped by a wave of reassurance that Lily was sending down the link, further calming Kat’s mind down from the adrenaline charged battle mindset she’d just been botted out of. When her mind gave back the all clear, she took the time to actually take in where she was.

Lily was purring on Kat’s lap, something Lily knew from research was supposed to be good for calming people down and a few other things besides. She was sending reassurance that Kat was alright while trying to convince herself of that fact.

The room was a quick job on Thyme’s part. This was because it clearly showed its leafy origins. The walls looked like bark, and seemed to have been made by expanding part of the tree, pushing the walls out like they’d placed a giant balloon in the centre and kept blowing until the space inside was large enough to fit a bed... and not much else really.

The light on the ceiling looked like a pitcher plant that had been stuffed full of glowing water. It was a soft blue light that shone down on everything, tinting Kat’s vision somewhat. There was a Thyme standing at the end, no clothes this time, just looking as Thyme did with their recognisable facial features and a clipboard.

“Urgh... what happened?” asked Kat as she pulled herself into a proper sitting position.

“It should come back to you, if it’s even gone in the first place...” said Thyme, “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Getting hit by a steam train,” answered Kat reflexively. Then she paused, as the rest of the memory came together properly and she open and closed her mouth a few times. *How was I able to say that? I wasn’t actually hit by a steam train... it just felt like it... is it because I could only sort of remember? Hmmm...*

.....

“Yes that does sound about right, though the translation was a little funny on that one,” said Thyme.

Kat’s eyes widened. *Is that it? ‘train’ probably doesn’t translate well in a world where magical horse carriages are one of the better modes of transport. So... was that the answer? It translated to be a true statement? Wait... if a demon lies in the forest with nobody to hear them... is it really a lie? Like does it count? I’m pretty sure I can lie in my head... can I lie to myself if I speak aloud? Perhaps something else to test.*

“Yeah... um... so what happened after I got knocked out?” asked Kat.

“Well, Nell and One were taken out pretty quickly, Lily freaked out, your team won the round and now the score is all tied up. In a few moments I’ll be taking you back to everyone who is uninjured. We’ll be deciding what to do next. I’d designed the tasks in such a way that you couldn’t end up with a tie between teams... but that was before we had one drop out. Anyway, we’ll get to that later.

“What I want to cover is your healing. I didn’t actually need to do much despite the extensive damage. Your body was doing that on its own and managed to basically fix you up all by itself. I couldn’t have done it much faster myself so I let it go on and waited for you to wake up. You’ve not even been out a minute yet.

“What I wanted to check though, is if you’re aware of how your body heals? You see, most regenerators do a good job, but their bodies focus on getting things in working order as fast as possible. This tends to leave little bone chips or other issues inside the body. Not a major issue for a regenerator who is constantly keeping themselves healthy, but can build up into one. You however... your body seems to be able to piece itself together and whenever it grows new material, it makes sure to completely remove the old. Were you aware?” Thyme explained carefully, making sure to explain both properly and succinctly without devolving into medical terminology.

“Ah... sort of?” said Kat, “I mean, I know that my body can eject stuff like that. I had a bunch of gravel digging into my body at one point and that all got removed either through my skin before it got healed or coughed up. I guess I just assumed other issues would be dealt with as well... am I likely to ever have health complications because of my regeneration?”

Thyme shook their head, “No, it’s some of the most comprehensive healing I’ve seen in a regenerator. The fact that it isn’t time magic instead is actually a surprise. It seems to try and find an ‘idealised form’ of you as a baseline. So, instead of ‘fixing’ the issue it’s more ‘optimising your body’ if that makes sense?”

*It makes a lot actually. It’s probably why Succubus Regeneration doesn’t leave scars. It’s focused on improving my body. I wonder what that means for my hair and nails... I know my hair and nails don’t really grow anymore, but I wonder if I can change that? I also wonder if it’s helping make my muscles better? Nah, that seems a bit too good. I could ask I suppose...*

“Is it making my muscles and bones better?” asked Kat.

Thyme shook their head, “No not that I can see. They have improved since the first time I met you, but I suspect it was...” Thyme paused and let the words ‘ranking up’ almost hang in the air unsaid, “something else all demons go through,”

“Right...” said Kat.

Thyme nodded, “Well, I’ll have to take Lily back off you for now,” [What?] “because you’ll be with the others working out how we go from here.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

*Sorry Lily* thought Kat as she gave Lily a light scratch and a nod towards Thyme. The light engulfed her for a few moments, this time she didn’t feel sick, though it was on the edge of acceptability. When the light dimmed Kat found herself in a chair next to Green who was leaning on Gareth, Nixilei came after a wry smile on her face, and finally Kress, and he actually had a smug smirk on his face. Kat decided to let him have his moment.

The rest of the teams were spread out through the room. They were in a moderately sized auditorium with each team having their own raised section off from the rest of the theatre. The thing is though... there wasn’t a large section of chairs in the centre, just Thyme on stage. “Everyone is here now... and it’s time to talk about where we go from here. ‘Wild Ones’ and ‘Numbers’ I am afraid this isn’t so much for you as it is for ‘Men With Hats’ and ‘Demona and the Misfits’ considering the point score, but I decided you should be included.

“Originally, I was going to have the final round be a game show, you’d all be partnered up, have five minutes to chat, and then given a series of questions. You would be then tasked with trying to get the same answer to the question as your partner. Any questions you missed, would then be thrown over to the other teams where they had a chance to get a point by trying to match up with either answer of the teams that failed.

“This however, won’t work. You’ve all been paired up once already and I don’t have a way to retool that particular game into a solo experience in a timely manner. The questions are much too easy for people who are actually teammates and now you know it’s the final round... I feel as though the temptation for sabotage, which might have been an interesting temptation before, would now be too much.

“So I’m left with the issue of needing to pick a winner between two teams and no game in mind to find a winner between them. A game that can’t really be used or retooled and a desperate need for a winner. The floor is yours,”

Nixilei wasted no time in suggesting, “Why not just call it a draw?”

Thyme shook their head, “Fun idea, but we DO need a team to move onto the next round. Even if I was willing to declare this match a draw, which I’m not then able to pick who should go on to the next round. You’d still need to decide that between the two of you, and it’d be in a less controlled environment. Even if you decide to just fight it out, if you do it as part of the contest I can monitor it properly. Weird rules involving judges not interfering with contestants between matches. Sorry,”