The island survival episode was the start of the nightmare fuel.
In the novel, the one hit by Blightcap Madness Fever was not Waffel. It was Azalea.
It was a relatively unknown disease, and only Fanna managed to identify it due to her extensive knowledge of herbology as an elven race. It also helped that Azalea was the one infected.
The Blume family carried a rare trait in their blood, a lineage traced back to dryads, making fungus and plant-based poisons largely ineffective against her.
However, the infection did not spare her.
It only made her situation from bad to worse. Her eye rotted away, and they had to dig it out without anesthesia, then burn the socket to stop the bleeding.
I told you, right?
Nightmare fuel.
That moment marked a clear shift in the story, and not everyone was ready for it. Some readers were hooked by how far it was willing to go. Others thought it crossed a line.
Either way, the community never really agreed after that.
Because of Azalea's resistance, I failed to consider that the infection would turn the victim into a walking viagra addict. In this case, a Vyleesi.
She was almost always unconscious or far too weak to act on anything, so most of the symptoms never fully manifested. The only consistent sign noted in the novel was the faint glow of her remaining orange eye, which they had to constantly check, and the unusual strength in her tarrantums.
Anyway, what matters right now is getting more information. To do that, I need the source.
Cwal, can you bring Fanna? I need to ask her something.
"On it."
While waiting, my grip started to loosen from the sweat.
Tch. No choice.
"Laedingr!"
"Matt?" Tasora twitched, confused.
"Trust me. I practiced. I am not going to hurt her. I also do not think I can hold her down with strength alone. She is oddly, ridiculously strong now."
I stretched my hands forward, and the chain whips obeyed my will.
One set wrapped around her legs, binding them together. The other clamped down on both wrists.
Tasora let go of her hands and moved beside me.
"What is wrong with her?"
"I have heard of this before. Going by the symptoms, the fuzzy and glowing orange eyes, it is most likely Blightcap Madness. It is a fungal infection that causes an extreme fever. Other than that, I have no idea why she went feral."
I glanced at her. She was almost half-naked.
I forced my focus back to Waffel.
"You might want to fix your shirt and shorts."
"Oh…"
She hastily put them back on.
"I brought her."
I could hear Cwal's voice in the distance.
"I was told you guys need my help. "
"No. Stay there."
"What's going on here? I heard Emma screaming before running out."
Tasora, can you grab my phone from my storage?
"What about the space lock?"
"I set it to public mode when we arrived."
She nodded and touched my ring.
Her eyes closed as she scanned the interior in her mind for a moment before managing to pull it out.
"You sure brought a lot of random stuff in there."
"Whatever. Take a photo and a video of her, then slide it over to them."
Tasora raised the phone.
Kachick!
The sound came out sharp in the quiet.
Then her grip failed.
The phone slipped from her fingers—
Crack.
It hit the ground hard, screen spiderwebbing instantly.
"Hey! That's expensive! Well… not expensive, but that's all I've got!"
No response.
Her breathing turned uneven. One hand shot to her head, nails digging into her scalp like she was trying to tear something out.
"What… what's happening to me…"
My chest tightened.
Oh no…
No. It's too early.
"Tasora! When did you approach Waffel?"
Her knees buckled. She dropped hard, palms slamming into the floor with her arms shaking.
"La-last night… I was asking her why there were no portal remnants… usually there is a thrum residue…"
"Who else was there?"
"I think… there was a small gathering… Waffel was assigning shifts…"
"FUCK!"
I stepped back, mind about to explode at this revelation.
Forget sexual assault. Sooner or later, this might even turn into a whole ass orgy session if this keeps spreading.
I enhanced my feet. I discharged a small thrum compressing into a tight pulse and pointed it at the door.
"BOOM!"
The blast ripped into the wall. Wood splintered outward, shockwave tearing through the shack. The entire structure groaned, beams rattling like they might collapse.
Soon, multiple panicked footsteps could be heard.
"What happened?!"
"Was that an attack?!"
Dust and smoke filled the room.
Finster tried to break through the smoke to go further in.
"Cough!... cough!... What's going on?"
Cwal slammed into the ground.
"Ark!"
"The air knocked out of him as Cwal's knee drove into his back, pinning him down."
"Sit." Cwal said in low tone.
Azalea, seeing this reacted instantly.
A condensed thrum blast detonated from her palm, tearing through the smoke straight at Cwal's blind spot
He didn't even turn.
His arm flicked back.
A dagger spun out of his grip, slicing clean through the blast, splitting it apart before continuing forward.
It nicked her cheek.
A thin line of red.
Then it buried itself deep into the wall with a solid thunk.
"I dislike repeating myself," Cwal said.
Azalea's pupils contracted.
The air around her tightened.
She brought out her syche into existence and rested it on her back.
"Oh yeah? Try to hurt him again, and I'll skin you alive." She growled.
"I'm fine, sis—" Finster tried to de-escalate.
Multiple Ice Spears screamed through the air
Ice Spear was screaming fast in the air.
"Tch."
Cwal released Finster and threw him towards Kenth.
Steel met ice.
"CRACK!"
The spear shattered halfway, shards exploding outward like shrapnel.
The remaining half punched straight into his shoulder.
Then frost bloomed. It spread instantly, crawling over his shoulder, creeping up his neck, biting into his skin.
Kenth, startled by the unknown object flung at him, drew his fist back in an attempt to intercept it.
Bright violet illuminated the smoke of dust.
They snapped tight around Finster midair. At the same time, more coiled around Kenth's arms, locking them in place mid-swing.
Cwal stepped forward through the frost still clinging to him.
He pointed his dagger at his classmates.
"Everyone, back off. My frie-...companion ordered me none shall pass. "
No one listened. In fact, Azalea got even more agitated.
"Everyone, calm down!"
Fanna's voice cut through the chaos.
I exhaled.
"Looks like everyone's here."
"Matt?" I already knew it was you the moment I heard a loud explosion. Are you all right?" Nagi axed before leasing strings on Finster.
"You destroyed Tasora's room and trashed the living room just to call us?" Solaris snapped.
"Why not just call us?"
"Oh, shut up. This was faster, plus it's an emergency."
I turned to Fanna.
"Waffel's infected. Blightcap Madness."
Her ears pricked up.
"You know what to do next, right?"
Then she nodded and straightened.
I need an exploration team to go with me, especially Azalea and Finster.
Finster got up and dusted his shorts.
"Huh? Oh.. Blume family stereotypes."
"Before that, Tasora said last ni—"
"Huh?"
The tension in my chains suddenly spiked.
I turned back to Waffel.
Tasora had broken posture completely.
She lunged forward and pinned Waffel down, straddling her like a predator.
"Such a feisty girl~" Waffel giggled.
Tasora then noticed the blood still dripping from Waffle's nose.
She took a closer look at it until their faces were only inches apart.
And she licked it.
Sweet.
She went back for more and sucked the dried ones stuck above Waffel's lips.
"Okay, you guys just upgraded from sexual assaulters to full-on public indecency."
More layers of armguard peeled from laedingr and transformed into chains
"I'm stopping this future yuri disaster before it starts to turn r18."
The chains clamped down on Tasora's arms
I clamped Tasora's arms.
The chains went taut, and she yanked hard.
My entire body jerked forward as she dragged me in like dead weight.
"Oh shi—"
SLAM!
My back hit the wall. The earth wall cracked from the impact.
Pain exploded through my spine.
"Dammit—! I did not manage to form an enhancement in time."
"Nagi! Solaris! I need help!"
A kunai flashed past Tasora's face
Nagi pulled back instantly as it left a violet thread behind.
Solaris followed up, palms glowing.
Ice surged across the ground, locking onto Waffel first, freezing her arms and legs solid against the floor.
"Got her restrained!"
That gave me an opening.
I removed every chain I had in motion from Waffel and wrapped them around Tasora's legs.
"I got the legs. Tie her arms!"
"Got it!"
Violet strings shot in next, wrapping through her arms.
Crack.
Snap.
Break.
Tasora tore through everything like it was nothing.
"No way—"
She grabbed the chain wrapped around her leg and pulled.
I felt my stomach drop as my own weapon betrayed me.
I got yanked straight back to her.
She caught me by the collar like I weighed nothing.
Then....
She brushed my bangs aside.
Her glowing eyes locked onto mine.
"…Ugly."
"…Who are you calling ugly, you bastaaaaaaaa—"
I never finished.
She threw me again.
The wall exploded outward as I was launched through it
Then through another-
and another....
"Kuak!, Coughed cough."
Did this bitch just try to kill me because I was ugly? Thank god I managed to enhance my body in time.
"Emma, Kenth, help me!" Nagi shouted.
More kunai flew
Again, they curved midair and snapped back into her grip, leaving behind violet threads.
While Nagi was setting up her threads, I kept getting thrown and pulled back, dragged in again just to be inspected, called ugly, and then thrown all over again.
A literal human Yo-Yo.
"Now!"
Kenth and Emma stepped in, and both their hair highlights and their eyes flared.
They were now using their innate core ability to augment Nagi's strings.
Kenth's Preservation.
And Emma's Stability.
The strings changed, becoming noticeably thicker and stronger.
The moment Kenth and Emma's touch was withdrawn from the thread.
Nagi snapped the strings onto Tasora again.
Tasora strained and tried breaking it by force again.
The ground beneath her cracked.
But the bindings held.
I coughed.
Warm liquid filled my mouth.
I spat.
Blood hit the floor in a thick splash.
Nagi rushed toward me only to be stopped by Cwal's arm.
I raised my hand weakly.
"It's…I'm fine…"
"Huh?"
My vision blurred.
Not blurred.
Missing.
I couldn't see my own raised hand..
My chest tightened.
Slowly, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my broken phone.
The cracked screen flickered as I angled it toward my face.
Everything was still fine except for the broken screen.
But when I angled it just right.
My right eye was glowing orange.
"…You've got to be kidding me."
Did I get infected faster because of prolonged exposure to both of them?
"Dammit…"
My strength gave out.
I dropped to my knees.
The chains vanished, collapsing back into storage as Laedingr disengaged.
I fumbled with my ring.
Then threw it across the floor.
"C-Cwal…!"
My voice came out rough.
"Tie me down too…"