My grip on the scissors loosens and I let them fall to the ground. I felt my stomach clench, it felt like someone was twisting my guts. Coughing more blood bubbles up and runs out of my mouth.

It splatters over the tan tiled floor. I felt dizzy as I look at the ground, but in that next second my body tetters forward and slams into the tan tiles of the floor.

"Hollis!" Clemente shouts. He releases his weapon and comes over towards me and quickly scoops me up into his arms. His body felt chilled like ice, while my body was burning like molten lava.

"s.h.i.+t! You're burning up Hollis," he says pressing a hand to my forehead. He quickly waves his hand a s.h.i.+mmering blue vial appears in his hand.

Flicking the lid off the top of it, he brings it to my mouth. "Drink this," he says shoving it practically down my throat.

I don't resist and drink the blue liquid that smells like mint. It was freezing as it slides down my throat, it was thick, and I wanted to spit it up. But he covers my mouth and forces me to swallow the blue content of the vial.

[Panacea Consumed]

[Cleneasing all ailments, healing all damage]

I felt my eye bulge at the screen. He'd used a panacea potion on me. That was crazy, why did he use at?!

This was a high-level healing potion that could literally grow back limbs that had been cut off.

"It'll be okay now, big brother got you," he says warmly as he rubs a hand over my head.

The burning in my body managed to cool down, and all the other bruises and cuts healed up. But even with the potion, the burning was still mildly there.

「HP +500」

「Insanity Points -27」

「Insanity Point [6/100] 」

「Panacea is unable to cleanse all the negative effects. Insanity has been reduced however it's unable to be completely removed. It will acc.u.mulate and can be cleansed with healing magic, and other high-level potions aimed at removing negative effects. 」

Even with the Panacea, it didn't completely remove the insanity points that I'd acc.u.mulated! Just what the h.e.l.l had that d.a.m.ned G.o.ddess give to me. Everything that she'd given to me had some sort of negative drawback and effect. Looks like even if she gave me something, I'd have to pay a hefty price to use it.

It looks like I'd have to regularly consume potions to keep the points from reaching a tipping point. If that was the case, then I'd have to be careful.

d.a.m.n G.o.ddess, her gifts aren't gifts at all they're curses! The negatives outweighed the positives!

It wouldn't be a stretch to a.s.sume that this G.o.ddess wanted me dead to some extent. Had I offended her in some way? Or maybe she was just bitter that I'd been born as a Vampire in this life and not as a human?!

It wouldn't be a far stretch to a.s.sume that she'd be that petty.

「Trainee War Empress Deactivated 」

「Person of War Deactivated」

With that screen, the slight burning that I could still feel completely subsided. Everything felt normal after those had been deactivated. It seems that the negative effects of the insanity wouldn't flare up unless those were activated.

I'd have to check out the information on them and see just how I acc.u.mulated insanity points, to begin with!

"Hollis, how do you feel?" He asks pressing his hand to my head again.

A look of relief pa.s.ses over his face as he lets out a breath, he'd been holding in.

"Better," I say with a nod.

"Good, I'll be careful next time, I didn't mean to go all out with you. How did you manage to wield your scissors, they were so heavy but all of a sudden you acted like they weighed nothing," he comments, while still holding me in his arms.

His golden eyes are piercing as they look at me with confusion. The wind blows and lightly tosses his hair.

I didn't want to tell him or any of my family about the blessing that I'd gotten from the War G.o.ddess. The last thing I wanted them to do was worry about me.

"I don't know, they just felt lighter all of the sudden," I tell him with a shrug.

He raises an eyebrow but doesn't push me any further for an answer.

"Fine then, let's head back in. I don't think that you should be training anymore, let's call it a day. You should be fine with your test at the temple. I'm sure that you'll pa.s.s it with flying colors," he says releasing me and standing up.

The wound on his arms was already healed up and he looked completely fine. The only signs of injury are the fine streaks of blood that hadn't dried up just yet.

He was strong, I was still weak. Too weak to even wield my scissor without a lot of strain!

"Maybe," I say softly.

"No one knows about the Fate Temple since everything is designed specifically for you," I sigh as I rub a hand over my face. Blood comes away on my hand, and I rub it into my s.h.i.+rt.

He chuckles. "I'm still amazed that mother letting you take that test. I remember when Grail tried to ask her about it. She knocked him through three walls, it was so funny," Clemente says with a smirk.

I felt Grail's pain, my mother had allowed me to go only after being able to stomach one of her blows. It wasn't something that I wanted to relive anytime soon that was for sure.

"It wasn't a cakewalk," I grumble. Bending down I scoop up my scissors and return them to my storage.

"Fair, but in the end, you managed to do something not even the little prodigy could do," he says as he grabs his sword and slides it into its sheath.

"I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or as a worrisome comment. I don't want to be a prodigy, I just want to explore dungeons," I sigh.

"Of course, you're a little battle manic like me, who cares about being a prodigy as long as you can fight strong foes," he smiles as he pats my back.

I also double over! He never watched his strength, he's so troublesome.

"Either way, I'd prefer if you just called me an explorer, I don't consider myself a battle maniac," I scoff as I walk forward.

He follows behind me.

"Sis, you're not fooling anyone. We all know that you enjoy battling just as much as me. You shouldn't deny it, most of our family are battle maniacs as well. It just runs in the family, you know," he chuckles as he catches up to me.

We weave our way through the garden.

"Ambrose is a battle maniac, I find that hard to believe with how reserved he is," I say with a raised eyebrow.

"Ambrose has the t.i.tle 'Battle Mage'. Mages that have t.i.tles like that are battle maniacs, don't let his cool exterior fool you. Even Marigold, she's got the t.i.tle 'Berserker Healer'," he says.

"Seriously?" I ask. I couldn't imagine the always smiling Marigold to have that sort of t.i.tle.

"Mm. Why would I lie to you, little sis?" He retorts.

"Fair, I don't think you could lie if your life depended on it," I laugh.

"What? Am I that see-through? Maybe, that why I never win at poker," he sighs and rubs the back of his head.

I shake my head and continue into the house; I wanted a bath just about now.