A while later, the mysterious woman gently drew Laddie into her arms. Their long green hair naturally intertwined like vines, shimmering with a lustrous glow.
When the woman furrowed her brows in concentration, the unconscious Laddie simultaneously formed the same expression. When the woman's breathing grew slightly quicker, Laddie's chest rose and fell faster as well, as though their two bodies shared the same rhythm of life.
The woman's slender fingers brushed over the wound on Laddie's chest, and the curved horn on her forehead suddenly lit up with an amber halo. As the light flowed, the scattered magical power began to converge again like an hourglass running backward. Ancient runes, the same color as the woman's pointed horn, emerged around the edges of the wound.
Most eerie of all, when the pain of the treatment made the woman bite her lower lip, Laddie's pale lips were immediately pressed by her teeth, leaving the exact same marks.
The places where their skin touched glimmered with a mother-of-pearl sheen, as though they were two mercury mirrors on the verge of merging.
As the amber light circulated, the hideous wound on Laddie's chest healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. The hearts of Paul and the others finally relaxed.
Irene suddenly drew in a sharp breath—she had seen a mark appear beneath the woman's collarbone, precisely where Laddie's wound had just healed. It had even manifested in exactly the same shape.
A dark red glow gathered, and Paul guessed that it was the so-called magical power. It transformed into fine veins that sank beneath Laddie's skin. The color gradually returned to the girl's ashen cheeks, her tightly furrowed brows relaxed, and her breathing became steady and deep.
Paul let out a long breath, his tense shoulders finally relaxing. Tears of