Before beginning the large-scale screening for an inhibitor, Velin spent three full days and nights trying to understand just one thing: what, exactly, was their enemy.
Elvin brought a Mage's perspective, viewing it as a powerful curse. Valerius, with his Alchemist's mindset, believed it to be a highly active alchemical creation.
But when Velin combined his microscopic observations with the symptoms of the deceased, a name buried deep in the memories of his past life surfaced—the culprit behind the Black Death, *Yersinia pestis*!
'So that's it…' Velin straightened, his face holding not the joy of discovery, but only a heavy burden. It had the *form* of *Yersinia pestis*, but it had been imbued with a *core* of Magic. It was both a physical pathogen and a magical curse.
This discovery, while weighing heavily on Velin, also pointed him toward a path forward.
