Chapter 265: Just One More Bite

Three bites later, Jacob finally forced himself away from the fruit. He decided that he could always borrow some of Maria’s fruit while he was by her to check on what she was doing. As he approached her fruit. Maria ’s short hair was laying behind her ears, giving Jacob a full view of her face. It didn’t look like the expression he expected at all. She seemed scared, sick, and there was something weird with her arms.

"Jacob! There’s something horribly wrong with these fruits!"

Sqaubee was near Slimo trying to pull him away from the fruit by yanking his armor backward, but Slimo refused to budge and stop eating. It was like something was possessing his body to keep grabbing at the fruit and shoving it down his throat. The only one who was eating moderately was Lidia. She was still eating, but it looked like she was lost in a weird trance where she would slowly scoop out more of the fruit, study it for a quick moment, and take small bites before finishing it.

"What the hell? Maria, stop eating for a moment."

Jacob gently grabbed her shoulder, but Maria elbowed him backward while muffling some words. A small bit of anger welled inside of Jacob’s gut.

"Maria, just stop for a moment and-"

Suddenly, Maria punched Jacob in the stomach, causing a ringing sound to echo outward from his armor. Luckily, Jacob appeared to still be stronger than her, but the hit still knocked the air out of his lungs. On top of this, that hit appeared to knock some sense into his brain. He shook his head before staring at Maria once more. She looked like a puppet on strings, grabbing the fruit with strange movements before wasting no time to put it in her mouth. Jacob furrowed his brow and jumped on her back.

"Forgive me later, but you need to stop eating this stuff!"

He reached in her mouth and started shoveling out the fruit so she could speak. Maria coughed out some remnants of the apple she was eating on the floor as Jacob stayed on her back.

"Corrupted! These apples are corrupted! Tie me to Sheeby or I won’t be able to stop eating!"

Jacob looked at Maria’s right arm. Her skin started looking strangely like the peel of a fruit. Just then, Jacob had a troubling intuition.

"These fruits... I think I know what they are. We need to leave this place immediately."

Jacob dragged Maria towards Sheeby and waved his hand in her face.

"Sheeby, I know you hate me, but I know you love Maria. Don’t let her take another bite of these plants!"

Sheeby appeared to understand what he was saying and wrapped her tail around Maria. Luckily, Sheeby appeared to not like fruit since she refused to eat any since they had landed. He ran back towards Sarah who was deep in the spell. Part of her face had already started transforming when he arrived.

"Squabee, get Lidia away from these things! She’s our only chance at helping everyone!"

Squabee was hanging off Slimo trying to yank his neck back with no luck.

"How am I supposed to do that when Slimo is like this?!"

"I’ll help you! Just hurry and follow me!"

They both ran over to Lidia who was staring at her next bite and mumbling.

"Why, why, why, why, why..."

Jacob looked at her distraught face and slapped the fruit out of her hands.

"Lidia? Can you hear me?"

"Why am I eating it? It tastes so... so foul. It feels like I’m eating vomit and yet my body won’t stop itself. I don’t understand. What is happening?"

Her tired eyes looked at Jacob.

"Why did you stop me? I wasn’t finished, Jacob. That was a very mean thing to do."

"Lidia, these are corrupted fruits. Please, stop eating them and use your power already!"

"My... power? Oh, that’s right. I do have a good power, don’t I? I will use it, trust me I will. Just one more bite and I will use it. Just one... more..."

She reached her hand back out at the fruit in front of her. Jacob slapped it back, grabbed Lidia’s face then shoved it in the direction of Maria being held by Sheeby.

"Look it at what it’s doing to us! Look at what it’s doing to Maria!"

Maria was straining against Sheeby’s tail in tears, screaming at the top of her lungs. Light seemed to find its way back into Lidia’s eyes.

"Maria. She’s in trouble."

She held her hands to her face.

"Release the-... just more bite."

Jacob grabbed her hands and shoved them back into her face.

"LIGHT."

Light shot out of her finger tips and appeared to seep deep into her veins on her skull. Her pupils were dilated for a few moments before returning to their normal size.

"Jacob... what the hell was that?"

"No time! Help we need you to help everyone else!"

Without wasting any time, Lidia dashed toward Slimo and Sarah first, curing their hex immediately. Once Lidia had cured them, their transformation appeared to revert itself and their bodies turned back to normal. While Lidia ran back to Maria to help her out too, Jacob helped Slimo stand up.

"Argh. My stomach and mouth hurt so bad. I think my brain is going to throb out of my skull. What the hell are these things?"

"I think these fruits aren’t fruits at all. I think they are creatures turned into fruits."

"What? What makes you say that?"

"Where there should have been a core in the center of the fruit, there is bone instead. That and you all appeared to be turning into fruits before I stopped you. That confirmed my suspicion entirely."

"But, if this entire garden of fruit is just other creatures, how powerful must that original fruit have been to contain such a strong mind hex?"

"It had to have started as a Spirit level, minimum."

Jacob looked out at the thousands upon thousands of other fruits differing in size across the land.

"Zalo only knows how much this thing must have grown by now."

"Can’t your eye see what these things are?"

"That’s the scary thing. It doesn’t tell me anything, at least not for any of the fruits around us. That can only mean when you turn into some fruit, you truly become one in every aspect."

"You mean I almost turned into some succulent treat?! I know I’m sweet, but I don’t want to literally become sweet!"

"That was a bad joke. Never make that joke again."

Slimo slouched over.

"Ouch. You could have said that a bit nicer."

"Just go back to Sheeby. Lidia is probably going to be mad at you."

"Why? She got pulled into this too."

"Becuase you almost got yourself killed. She cares about you way too much sometimes, Slimo. It’s honestly almost creepy."

Slimo sighed and started his walk back.

"Thank you, Jacob."

Jacob walked over to Sarah and helped her up. However, once he did, Sarah vomited all the fruit she ate onto the ground.

"Oops."

Jacob didn’t even flinch at the sight.

"It’s okay. How are you feeling?"

Sarah wiped her mouth.

"Shitty. Really shitty, like I was just stuffed full of the most awful thing in existence."

Jacob laughed and guided her back towards the others.

"I’ve been meaning to ask you, how does it feel not having your powers anymore? Is it odd?"

Sarah nodded.

"Very odd. There have already been a few times I considered attacking something and Lidia needing to jump in between me and the creature to save me because I thought it couldn’t hit me. On the bright side, my power didn’t have anything to do with my strength, so I just need to work on my defense and I’ll be much better."

"Something tells me you could have prepared for this situation a bit more."

"Well how the hell was I supposed to know my power was getting taken away?!"

"You aren’t the only person I’m talking about."

"Hm?"

Sarah followed Jacob’s gaze to Maria who was now being healed by Lidia’s bright light.

"Both you and her were relying way too much on your power when you had it. I’m not trying to blame you both for failing to predict something like this from happening, but you have to remember that you both were still humans before those powers, and that human side, that original side, was always going to be a part of you."

Sarah crossed her arms.

"What good is a lecture going to be now that it’s already too late?"

Jacob shrugged his shoulders.

"Zalo’s aren’t the only power in this world we’ve seen. Who knows? You both may even be blessed with another power like Lidia’s on this continent."

Sarah’s eyes lit up.

"Are you saying I can get my powers back?"

Jacob held up his hands innocently.

"Woah, woah. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I never said you would get your original powers, but if Lidia managed to have both a Zalo and this power, what’s stopping you from receiving a power from the Great Serpent as well?"

"Hmm. Maybe the fact that we have no idea how or why Lidia received those powers in the first place?"

"Hey, we at least know she got it from the statue!"

Sarah hid her smile and walked back over to Sqaubee to join her on Sheeby’s back.