Read Novel Full Chapter 745: Against All Odds
Chapter 745: Against All Odds
“No… no no no no no no!”
Bleep…
Bleep…
“Doctor!”
The rhythm continued to slow, despite her efforts, until suddenly. It stopped.
Beeeeeeeeeeep~
A harrowing sound filled the operating room as the child and wife of their master both faced danger.
Kumiko’s body fell limp, without reacting to their actions.
“No pulse!”
“Start compressions!”
“We can’t while she’s open!”
“Then keep her blood circulating manually!”
Miranda gripped the child, though it looked like any other child; she couldn’t ignore the black and golden veins illuminating beneath her skin.
“Come on…”
The infant refused to move.
Black strands wrapped around its shoulders and spine, connecting it to the corruption buried throughout Kumiko’s body.
Miranda tried pulling again.
“Argh…. come on!”
However, it was as though the child had rooted itself inside its mother.
“Doctor Cummings, we’re losing her!”
“I know!”
Miranda’s voice cracked for the first time. She slid one hand deeper, following the black strands until her fingers found the thickest connection near the child’s back. Her heart pounded heavily as if filled with concrete.
‘I have to do this… he put his trust in me.’
The moment her fingers wrapped around the pulsing black corruption, it throbbed beneath her touch, like a heartbeat.
Miranda couldn’t tell if the organism was using the baby as a bridge or the baby was using it to keep her mother’s body alive.
‘Think!’
If she severed it carelessly, the corruption might flood Kumiko’s heart, and then nothing she did would save her. Yet if she left it intact, both mother and child would die together or become twisted monsters like Miranda saw in the lab.
‘This is the same thing that twisted those Thralls…’
Miranda’s eyes widened at the sight before her.
Golden blood continued leaking from both Kumiko’s and the child’s bodies.
But the moment it touched the black strand, the corruption softened for a few moments.
“Inject her blood into the womb.”
“What?”
“Take the golden blood from the suction line and inject it around the child! Hurry!”
The nurse stared at her as if she had heard the most ridiculous thing in her life, and yet Miranda’s scowl forced them to follow.
“Do it!”
They filled a syringe with Kumiko’s blood and passed it to Miranda. She pushed the needle beside the black connection and, with a slow breath, she penetrated the black sludge with the needle.
The corruption writhed as if in pain the moment Kumiko’s blood spread like countless spider webs expanding inside the black strand.
A sound like metal scraping glass echoed from inside Kumiko’s body, but seconds later, countless of the black strands loosened from the child and began to wither, almost like dried sticks.
“Now!”
Miranda pulled.
The child’s shoulders emerged.
Black fluid burst across her gloves while the golden veins beneath the infant’s skin shone brighter.
“Again!”
More blood was injected, repeating the process, as Miranda twisted carefully and freed one arm and then the other. Her actions tore the corruption apart with a wet snap.
Until finally the child slipped into Miranda’s hands.
However, the child remained still. Its tiny body was coated in black and gold, but the child did not cry or move and felt cold to the touch…
“H-Hurry, take the baby! We need to resuscitate her!”
A nurse reached forward, but the moment she tried to touch it, a sudden burst of aura exploded from the baby, causing most of the doctors to shudder before the child’s eyes opened.
One glowed gold, with small specks of glistening light inside her iris, creating a pretty star shape, while the other was completely black. It should’ve looked eerie, but within the darkness, beautiful specks of silver glistened as if forming the starry night’s sky.
Thump!
Kumiko’s body jolted on the table as the machines began to screech with an abnormal noise, as if they’d all broken. Everyone froze as the machines continued their rhythm and Kumiko remained sat up with her eyes wide open and shining with bright gold.
Another weak pulse followed.
Bleep…
Miranda stared between the child and its mother.
The black blood coating the infant’s skin began flowing backwards, crawling along Miranda’s gloves towards Kumiko’s open wound.
“Doctor…” the nurse gasped as Miranda tightened her hold upon the baby.
“Don’t let it touch her!”
[It’s fine]
“Eh?!”
A strange voice echoed within Miranda’s head as she glanced up to see the golden eyes of Kumiko fixated on her. No. They were fixated on the baby in her arms, the child’s few hairs golden with silver tips.
The child didn’t have humanoid ears, but little cone-shaped ears and a little tail resembling a fox.
[Don’t worry, I’m alright.]
Once again, Kumiko’s voice sounded as the corruption flowed back into her body, creating a mass of darkness that spread through her right side.
The corruption continued spreading through Kumiko’s right side, coiling beneath her skin like black smoke trapped inside her veins.
Miranda almost ordered the nurses to restrain her, but stopped when the darkness suddenly began to flatten.
Instead of spreading further, the black mass narrowed into countless lines.
They twisted around Kumiko’s thigh, crossed her hip and climbed along the right side of her stomach without touching the open wound. The markings continued over her ribs, circling one breast before travelling down her arm and ending along the back of her hand.
It no longer looked like an infection.
The darkness resembled a tribal tattoo burned beneath her skin, with thin golden lines separating each black pattern.
“Doctor… what is happening to her?”
“I don’t know.”
Miranda hated saying those words.
Despite being a supernatural, she’d dedicated most of her life to studying medicine and blood arts. ‘But what the hell is this?! What is going on with this family…!?’ Yet she couldn’t understand anything here… it was just too bizarre.
Kumiko’s body slowly lowered back onto the table, her golden eyes remaining fixed upon the child. The glow in her left eye began fading until it returned to normal.
However, her right eye remained changed.
The iris was still gold, but the centre had become black, surrounded by several faint silver specks that resembled the child’s strange eye.
Bleep…
Bleep…
The heart monitor finally returned to a stable rhythm.
“Her pulse is recovering!”
“Blood pressure is increasing!”
Miranda ignored the voices and quickly checked the baby in her arms.
The child’s mismatched eyes had already closed.
She remained silent for several seconds before her face suddenly scrunched up.
“Waaah!”
The sharp cry echoed throughout the operating room.
Everyone froze because it just felt too unreal; the child who seemed special began to cry like a normal child. However, maybe that was enough for the nurses to release the bated breath they’d been holding for the past few hours.
“She’s breathing!”
“Prepare the neonatal unit!”
Miranda gently passed the child to the nurse, who immediately wrapped her in a warm towel and began checking her condition.
The tiny fox ears twitched at the noise while the small golden tail with silver tips curled around her leg.
Apart from those features and the faint veins beneath her skin, she looked like a perfectly healthy newborn.
“Heart rate is normal.”
“Breathing is clear.”
“No visible deformities.”
Miranda finally allowed herself to breathe.
“Clean her carefully. Do not scrub the markings or use anything that might react with her blood.”
“Understood.”
The nurses carried the child towards the nearby station while Miranda immediately turned her attention to Kumiko.
“You had me scared…” Miranda mumbled at the beautiful Kitsune.
The incision remained open…
Whatever miracle had restarted her heart hadn’t repaired the damage caused during the delivery.
“We’re not finished yet,” Miranda snapped. “Close the wound and prepare a transfusion.”
Everyone moved at once.
Miranda checked the dark markings while the assistants cleaned the blood and corruption from Kumiko’s body. The black patterns remained warm beneath her fingertips, but they no longer moved.
They had fused with her.
‘Just like the child.’
Miranda couldn’t tell whether Kumiko had absorbed the corruption or forced it into submission.
Either way, it was no longer killing her.
Several minutes passed as they closed each layer carefully.
Kumiko remained unconscious, yet her breathing grew stronger with every passing moment.
Finally, the last stitch was completed.
Miranda stepped back.
“Operation complete.”
The words left her lips weakly, like a ceremonial announcement, and yet nobody celebrated; barely standing, the nurses and doctors leaned against whatever they could.
‘How long was that…. what the hell did we endure?’
Most of the staff looked too exhausted or frightened to understand that both patients had survived.
Then the baby cried again.
Kumiko’s right hand twitched.
Her fingers slowly curled against the sheet as the strange markings along her arm glowed faintly gold.
Miranda turned towards her. “Eh?” She couldn’t believe that Kumiko’s eyes opened so soon after that surgery.
“My… baby…”
“Don’t get up, calm down and stay still. She’s okay, wait there!”
Miranda gestured towards the nurse.
The child was brought closer and gently placed against Kumiko’s chest.
Her crying immediately softened.
Kumiko stared down at the tiny fox ears and silver-tipped hair before tears rolled from the corners of her eyes.
“She has his eyes… how beautiful…”
The newborn shifted against her warmth and opened her mismatched eyes for only a moment before closing them again.
Miranda removed her gloves.
“Both of you need observation. Whatever happened here changed your body, and I don’t yet know whether the corruption is truly stable.”
Kumiko barely seemed to hear her.
She carefully touched her daughter’s cheek with one trembling finger.
“Thank you…”
Miranda glanced towards the monitors before turning back to find Kumiko was looking at her, focused like before.
“I-It’s my duty…”
“Mmm, but I know how hard you worked and everything that happened.”
The tired fox mother curled her lips while narrowing her eyes, bewitching the poor woman as Miranda stood frozen, becoming a victim of Kumiko’s smile.
“Um…”
However, outside the operating room, hurried footsteps approached, and then the doors opened. Nikolai stood there, breathless and covered in dust from the journey back and yet he didn’t seem to care.
“Kumi….!”
His eyes moved from Kumiko to the child resting against her chest, a smile forming on his lips as he stumbled forward while peeking at the black markings covering the right side of his wife’s body.
He didn’t speak further and approached the bed with a dazed expression.
Kumiko looked up at him and smiled through her tears.
“Husband… meet your daughter.”