When they first encountered the strange metallic construct that was seemingly out of place in Greed's domain, Coco was sent flying, getting knocked out of the fight before it even began.
Coco was sent flying over fifty feet into the sky, and flew over one hundred and fifty feet to the left before crashing through a wall.
Only a few seconds after being hit and working through the pain, Coco casted shield on all of her party members and herself hoping it would do something.
After casting this spell, she passed out.
Coco's taint magic stays on someone indefinitely as long as she has mana, but it doesn't do much unless she expands it, which can only be done once per cast. Since she would be out of range to expand her taint dots soon, she casted a shield spell as a last attempt before the drops she added before combat would become obsolete.
This shield also helped her, when she crashed into the building, and through the wall, she was fine. Well, as fine as a person who was sent forcibly flying into a building and now had a broken arm could be.
Coco's arm was broken, bent outwards, completely twisted around, it looked like an L shape with some bone sticking out.
After an unknown amount of time had passed, she woke up, in and out of consciousness.
"Mmm, hmm?" Coco looked straight ahead with half closed eyes. A broken wall with rubble leading back to herself was what met her gaze.
Coco then looked down at her arm.
A flash of what had happened crossed her mind. The scene of a mysterious metal creature disappearing in front of the group and reappearing to her side swinging its disjointed arm pressing into her arm with force, enough force to send her away from the fight.
Once Coco recounted what had happened, her arm started to ache again. Pain strong enough to wake her up completely, but was also close enough to make her pass out again coursed through her.
Coco could only breath out a loud frustrated sigh knowing that she would need to mend her own wounds.
"Alright Coco, you gotta distract yourself. Break things down for a second."
She bit down on her trench coat, made from tainted clove skin, and twisted her arm back into a normal position.
Coco's eyes went wide, sounds of someone fighting against pain erupted from her throat.
"HRMMM, ah-ah, ha, wohh."
Still broken, but now in an easier position to take her coat off and make a sling.
First she had to take off her backpack. This was a simple adventuring backpack with a handful of supplies, so lucky for her it was light weight. With some struggling and pain, she managed to get the bag off her back.
Then, Coco took some amount of time to get the cloak off of her body. This maneuver was a lot harder for her than taking off the backpack was, but it was a necessary level of pain. Through her struggles she managed to get it off.
Finally, Coco had to spend some time recalling how to make a sling. The process of making a sling was something that she once read in a book, but she wasn't formally taught how to make one.
With the pain she was in, Coco also couldn't tie the sling very tight, but something was better than nothing.
In the end, it was a mediocre sling at best, but it did hold her arm in a proper position and stopped some of the pain.
Once this process was done, she collapsed again.
A few minutes later, she woke up, "I have to think, think of something, stay awake."
Coco used her left arm and slapped her cheek then exhaled again.
"Why me? Why was I asked by an unknown God to kill the demon king? Why were Fenrir, Alex, and Zena asked to help in this mission? Why are we different from other people? I don't get it. What's the point of any of this?" Coco then laughed, an exhausted, hopeless, meaningless laugh.
"If my life was a book and I was a reader, I would stop reading around this point. The author has only been offering questions with no answers. Who is the God that brought us here? Who is Prince Argis Rosella? Who are the other sins? Who was the strange man that gave me this ring? Whoever wrote my story is a bad author, and is greedy for wanting the reader to keep participating."
Coco went from smiling a hopeless smile to making a solemn look. A darkness overtook Coco's heart for a moment.
"I miss Greed. He is tall, has a reassuring voice, he's strong and wise, I would do anything just to see him at this moment. I can't say I like him or anything, but I admire him. He is one of only three things that I seem to care about in this world."
Coco started to tear up, her vision becoming blurry. Part of these tears were from the pain, but part of it was something more.
"That is what bothers me the most… Why don't I care? I don't miss my homeland. I don't care that my party members are in danger. I don't care that I am in pain. I don't care that I almost died. Why do I not care? All I seem to enjoy doing is studying, learning, and talking to David … I want to care, but I just can't."
Coco tilted her head back resting it against the wall behind her.
"When I find that God, I will ask him, why was it I was to live this life? That is my only point in living right now, is just attempting to find an answer to that question. Why me?"
Coco then lowered her head again and closed her eyes.
Being pushed to her physical limit, her mana running low, and being mentally exhausted, Coco was simply mumbling to herself, some coherent and some not-coherent thoughts.
After closing her eyes, and rested for a moment longer, a musky old smell passed by her nose.
She didn't notice the smell filling up the area before, mostly due to her level of exhaustion and pain, but now that she was in less pain and could relax, she noticed the old musky smell.
Coco's red eyes shot up practically sparkling "books! Am I in Greed's library!?"
Coco got up. Not quickly, not gracefully, and very much still in pain, but she knew what this meant. Unlimited access to a sins knowledge. The smartest sin of all, Greed.
She grabbed her backpack with her free arm, then began to wander.
…
Coco got up and looked around her. She was in a dark section with lots of rumble around her. Despite the smell of books passing her by, there wasn't a single shelf in sight.
She looked to her right, there is a staircase going upwards.
When looking to her left, there are stairs going downwards.
She crashed on the weird middle section platform in between two separate floors.
Coco decided to walk up the stairs, taking the right path. The reasoning was simple, going up in Greed's world so far has always led to the path forwards.
This time seemed no different.
After a fairly short climb, she reached the top of the stairs.
A massive chandelier located at the top of the ceiling was emanating a powerful golden light that washed over the room. It was a large circular room with the floor being made of mahogany wood.
In the center, below the light, was a sectioned off opening showing the other floors.
Coco looked down this section and saw fourteen floors with the same circular pattern. "Guess I am at the top?" She said with a small laugh.
Around Coco in all directions were giant book cases, seven in total, going around the room.
"WOAH!" Coco's eyes lit up even more as she looked around her.
Realizing that she should check out the books themselves instead of staring, she walked over to the nearest book shelf.
Coco scanned each shelf looking for anything that might reach out to her. Although she was fascinated by it all, it is not the person who chooses the book, but the novel that chooses the reader.
Quickly she realized that these books had no rhyme or reason for their location. It wasn't alphabetical or by author's last name.
On one shelf there was a book titled, After you go Through a Deck of Cards, Then What? Written by Aoi Shida and right next to it was a book titled "Saints Holy Magic" written by Saint Cassian.
These books were just placed here haphazardly.
Continuing her search and walking slowly waiting for something to call out to her. Coco eventually saw a blank book. A book with no cover, a simple silver border holding the pages in place.
Coco grabbed the book, which was small enough to be a diary, and skimmed through it.
Fwwwwwf
Blank pages covered most of the book, but three pages from the end of the book, there was writing.
In the center of the page there was a simple quote.
"Don't forget the Rat Man." - Greed.
Coco felt a shiver run down her spine. "God whoever wrote this plot line sucks. More confusing questions with no answers!" She shouted trying to push off that uneasy feeling. Coco then placed the book back into its rightful place back on the shelf.
Then the book next to it caught her attention.
"An Extraordinary Guide to Unique Monsters." Written by Shaya Pheni. This was a large book, golden trims with a red cover, a phoenix imprinted on the front of it.
Coco opened the first page of the book, "Dear reader, I am Shaya Pheni, a monster who loves discovering monsters, please read these notes carefully for they will most surely save your life."
This was a warm message, someone who really wanted to help people, that was the feeling Coco received from this message.
The book was written in sections based on area and creature type. Part one covered air regions for example.
Coco took this book with her left hand, then she moved onto the next bookshelf.
Coco scanned over thirty different book shelves, reading over a hundred book titles, all within a matter of ten minutes.
Along the way of her little detour, she grabbed two other books. One was titled "A Complete Guide to Domains" written by Olshnar. This book was about how to create domains with magic, like what Coco and the others were in now.
The other book was "Building a Friend" written by Hiel. This one is a blacksmith book, it held a weapon that Coco was interested in using, so she wanted to give it to Fenrir and have him make it for her.
Coco, through some struggling, placed the books into her backpack.
She wanted to spend more time in this place, but one of the books reminded her that she needed to get back to the main objective: finding the exit.
"I should ask Greed if I can come back here sometime." Coco said to herself before heading down the stairs.
…
With each passing floor, Coco resisted the urge to wander around the library and look at more books.
She fought off this desire for knowledge as hard as she could, even managing to make it halfway … before she reached the seventh floor.
"Just a quick peak." Coco said to herself stepping away from the spiraling staircase and onto a flat section.
This floor seemed to be different. She couldn't see it from the top of the library looking down, but this place seemed more natural. Each section was lifestyle things, instead of books or book related things.
There were plants, desks, chairs, and the like. It felt more like an office or study area than anything.
Is this where Greed likes to read? Coco thought to herself while wandering around the area.
She eventually came across a large desk located in the back part of the room, the furthest point away from the stairs, out of the way, and somewhat out of sight.
This desk was a proper desk, it had drawers, crumpled papers on top of it, a plant on each corner, a golden apple leaning against the left plant. "This must be where Greed studies." Coco said aloud, moving her non-broken hand across the desk.
Out of curiosity she opened the drawers, mainly there were papers and random guild information, but in the biggest drawer located at the bottom of the desk, Coco found some magical potions.
Fifteen bottles of varying colors were located inside the drawer.
Coco took out five red potions, five blue potions, and a green potion. "Sorry Greed, we need to borrow these."
Coco placed each of the ones she needed on top of the desk carefully, then she opened a red bottle, and downed it.
Gulp
Some of the red liquid escaped her mouth making it look like blood was dripping downwards. It tasted like strawberry cough medicine, sweet and bitter at the same time.
Instantly Coco felt relieved. As if life had been breathed into her.
Without missing a beat, she gulped down a blue potion as well. This potion tasted like blackberry cough medicine, a bitter flavor topped with more bitter flavoring, but despite the bad taste, it recovered her mana to full.
Red potions are health potions. Originally designed to help with injuries like cuts, bruises, and broken limbs. Red potions have a side effect of also alleviating exhaustion and drowsiness, like an energy drink.
The blue potion, although used for mana instead of health, the side effect was the same, it was akin to drinking something with tons of sugar and caffeine.
Coco surmised that the red and blue potions are there to give Greed energy when he works late into the night.
The confusion is the green potion that was alongside them. Why would Greed need an invisibility potion? To hide from someone? Oh well, I need to get back on track.
Feeling full of life again, she undid her makeshift sling, her arm fell asleep from the position, but it was now healed. "It feels a little fuzzy, but not broken anymore."
Coco then took off her backpack, opened it, and placed the rest of the potions carefully alongside the books. She put her blood-soaked trench coat on again, then swung her backpack over her shoulder before continuing.
She worked her way down the rest of the stairs, slowly but surely, trying once again to fight the urge to experience all the library had to offer.
Coco made it down to the first floor of the library, the entrance.
She peered outside to see if anything outside the library had changed, and there she saw three familiar faces meekly walking over the library.
Coco took off her backpack and pulled out some of the potions she found and offered them to her party members.
"Coco! You're alive! Thank the Gods!" Alex yelled as excited as she could in her weakened state.
The group talked for a moment with each person drinking a red and blue potion.
Everyone in Team Earth was now back together in much better shape than before.