Chapter 56 - Reconstruction

Arbak was holding Nerun's body as she checked him over and over. As Nerun was talking with Ego in the space inside the Genesis Stone, she noticed that Nerun, who should have died from all the blood loss as well as the destruction of his auxiliary meridians, was actually holding up ok. In fact, his auxiliary meridians were stabilizing themselves.

That being said, if Nerun didn't get help soon enough, this would be hardly enough to even keep his life. His hard earned Qi and Mana were vanishing quickly from his body. So Arbak wasted no more time, and reached for the space ring that Sagat had recovered earlier from the secret compartment inside the cell area. She checked it quickly and found what she needed. Sagat didn't only have a lot of riches, gold, gems, scrolls and other such wealth, but also, the pieces of the Fruit of the Mountain God that he got from Arbak.

Nerun, originally, had found a piece of close to a tenth of the original Fruit that Kerchak and Arbak were fighting for. Arbak had found another five tenths, which went to Sagat later. Sagat delivered one tenth to Roland, now in the hands of Elizabeth. Therefore, there were four tenths in Sagat's ring. The Beast Lords used to devour the Fruit as a whole, since even if they were quite intelligent, most of them knew very little about Alchemy unless they had good relationships with humankind. Arbak was not one of those, and she needed a lot of pieces of the stone for her evolution. That was an utter waste of material, but she knew no better. That was until Nerun showed her the Millenial Stone Milk. She felt the aura from the Fruit of the Mountain God on it, and noticed that it was the pure energy contained in the stone, way more useful than just the stone.

Had she known of its existence earlier, maybe Kerchak and her could have made a deal to share the Fruit earlier, and not be embroiled in all these dangers. Man, or in this case, Beast proposes and EON disposes. That being said, Arbak knew what she had to do.

She took the pieces of the Fruit and made them float in front of her. Then she separated a part of her will and a bubble of energy formed surrounding the stones. She then applied all of her power into the bubble, and closed her hand with all her strength. The bubble started applying a horrible pressure upon the stones, lightning surrounding the bubble. The stones then were compressed till they imploded and lustrous, white, gorgeous liquid came out from them. This was Millenial Stone Milk. Compared to Maikal, whose power is quite unstable, the mighty power from Arbak is enough to guarantee that there is no waste this time around.

Forty drops of Millenial Stone Milk, enough to cause a war between territories were in front of Arbak. She didn't even bat an eye when she pointed towards Nerun, who started floating as well in front of her, and she started making hand signs quickly and ten drops of Millenial Stone Milk went towards Nerun and started circling him. The energy contained in them was mesmerizing to say the least. These 10 drops were almost enough to help a Legend-level Warrior to increase his level, or make a Saint grow to the Legendary level, but now were being used to heal the body of a 6 year old poor orphan, not even a Qi Master. What a waste some would think. But Arbak thought nothing from it. The boy saved her life. And she would pay him back with all her power. This was reciprocity. This was the way of the Magical Beasts.

"[Изначальное крещение] - /Iznachal'noye kreshcheniye/"*

This was a technique that usually great Beast Lords and Overlords performed for their most talented progeny, a true baptism that helped them cleanse their marrow, and made them stronger and increased their talent towards the Natural Energy of Heaven and Earth. Usually, it required the mighty power of a Beast Lord, of at least Rank 9, as well as expensive and rare resources and materials that helped a Magical Beast of lesser rank to awake their talents. It was rarely performed, for it required a lot of material expense, and the Beast Lord performing it would pass through a weak phase right afterwards. But Arbak did it without a second thought, for Nerun, a human child.

The Millenial Stone Milk entered Nerun through the Auxiliary Meridians in his head and four extremities, 5 drops in total. Under the mighty control of Arbak, the energy didn't disperse and hurt Nerun, but entered his torn muscles and bones, and aferwards broke them apart even further. The pain Nerun went through made it so, that even tho he was unconscious, he was clenching his fists really hard, and his mouth was also biting hard, as well as cold sweat was showering his body. Had he been awake he would have felt it unbearable.

Arbak however kept using the magnificent energy of the drops to destroy each and every muscle, ligament and bone in Nerun's body, as well as his accompanying tissues. Some of the energy was used to keep Nerun's heart and brain functioning, as well as keep his inner organs protected. After the bones and muscles were completely crushed, part of the energy also started baptizing the inner organs, making them more robust. Everything about Nerun was being broken to the minimum, and his skin looked red, saggy and bloated.

After Nerun couldn't be broken any further, Arbak said next:

"[Реконструкция] - /Rekonstruktsiya/"**

The final 5 drops entered Nerun through his chest and back and started mending everything back. From Nerun's bloated skin black impurities kept pouring out, and the bloating ceased. Everything about himself was being remade, his bones being stronger, his muscles and ligaments more tensile. His inner organs were also made stronger, his lungs could hold air for several minutes up to ten, and his heart was a strong muscle beating life over and over to his body and making it stronger by the minute. These changes were so incredible that Nerun was equal to a rank 1 beast as a child. This may not sound like much, but take into consideration that Nerun was just a 6 year old boy, not even a Qi master, and a Rank 1 beast is usually way stronger than a Qi Master, taking several warriors to defeat one.

What Arbak had done was giving Nerun such a sturdy foundation, that a magnificent skyscraper could be built on top of it.

Nerun's body was completely rebuilt. His skin was fairer than before. He was always a pretty young boy, but right now his body was giving a certain allure of purity.

Arbak took a look at the result and nodded to herself. She couldn't help exclaiming,

"I feel like I've made a loss today. You gave me 2 drops of that milk, and I've given you ten to rebuild your body. Even though you've lost most of the Qi you had accumulated in your body, your foundation is the sturdiest one you can find in the continent. You have the chance to become a legendary level warrior or adept in the future. Also, your auxiliary meridians have now been stabilized. You can open or close them whenever you want without fear, tho you can only use one meridian more per extremity than your current level. This will give you a huge boost whenever you are fighting some else in the same rank as you.

That's not all. I'll give you three more things for you to take away. I do not want to owe anything to a human. They are filthy, but I somehow feel that you are different. The first thing, will be another 10 drops of this Millenial Stone Milk. The second is a blessing. I see you use a technique of my species in your eye meridians. I'll enhance your technique, so It will grow with you. If you ever manage to become a Legend or an Archmage, your technique will be close to the one used by the ancestor of my race."

When Arbak said this she touched Nerun's closed eyes and a small glitter was left in both eyelids. Then she continued speaking,

"The third will be a blessing. If you ever find an enemy you find unsurmountable for your level, a projection of mine will appear besides you and attack with a full strength attack. My current power is not my best, but currently it's what I can give you. It will serve as the full attack power of an Emperor Level Beast. Finally, a freebie, should you ever come to the Grand Forest of Balamur, you may call upon my name. Maybe it could be of use.

I'll help your friends. I can't bring the dead back from the grave, but I can make sure that fatty is healed properly, and that boy will stop losing blood from his lost leg. I don't really know why I've done all of this. It's just a feeling deep inside me. In the future, you might be the friend we from the Forest are waiting for. I just hope you can keep that innocence throughout your life. Tho' that may be a much bigger challenge than fighting a Qi General as not even a Qi master yourself. Goodbye little boy. I sense people coming, and I don't desire speaking to anyone else. I don't trust humans."

Having said that, Arbak quickly took the rest of the drops with her. She left Sagat's ring with all of his riches in Nerun's clothes and quickly stabilized Silvester and Ailan's wound with her power, so they didn't get any worse. She even used some of her energy to boost their inner being, a small scale blessing, but a much lower rank than the one she used for Nerun. After all, Silvester and Ailan had also helped her somewhat, albeit reluctantly.

Then Arbak vanished from the Cell area before Eliana's astonished gaze.

A few seconds after Arbak left, Elijah entered the cell area running with a couple of the other captains from the Ansem Army. When Elijah saw both Nerun and Silvester laying on the ground, specially when he saw the blood pool under Nerun's body he feared the worst, and came running towards Nerun first and checked his condition.

For a minute Elijah was shocked. Nerun wasn't just fine. He was better than fine, just unconscious. He noticed that Nerun's power seemed exuberant, but he also was sharp enough to tell that Nerun's Qi had been downgraded severely. Nerun's Qi level was no bigger than 3 right now. His Mana as well, seemed to have lowered but Elijah couldn't tell on such short notice. In any case, Elijah was reassured to see that Nerun was without major injuries, though he didn't clean the blood on him. It was better for people to think they were gravely injured. He would ask him later about what happened.

The captains checked on everybody else and the kids were ok. Silvester woke up soonish, and he started screaming after waking up, as if he was a pig being roasted. Elijah had to knock him out again so he could calm down. He kept yelling about Sagat and being killed with a single punch and Nerun dying and such.

The soldiers asked Eliana, the only one properly awake and she just told them that Sagat had appeared around the cell area when they were trying to escape. That Sagat killed one of their companions, a former mercenary and aferwards hurt them all deeply, but when he was about to kill them, a former prisoner of him managed to break in and surprise him and kill him quickly, before any of them could notice anything. The person who killed Sagat took his ring and left just as she came. Eliane could never take a look at the person, since she was taking care of her brother who was hurt by Sagat and lost his leg.

The soldiers didn't doubt Eliana's testimony, after all she was a normal human, not a Qi master or Mana Adept, and she did not have anything to gain from lying. However, Eliana was not open with the whole truth, since she wanted to protect the privacy of big sister Arbak. Also, it was actually true that she couldn't tell what exactly happened with Nerun and Sagat, since Arbak's power made it so no one could get a clear picture of what happened. Also, Arbak somewhat healed Ailan's leg stump, therefore saving his life, so Eliana was even less likely to rat her out.

Two of the captains took Silvester and Ailan on a stretcher, while Elijah took care of Nerun himself. Finally, everything seemed to be over. The group quickly rendezvoused with Sub-Commander Saul and the rest of the team.

Maikal saw Nerun's pale complexion on Elijah's back as well as Silvester and the rest, but he was wise enough not to make any inquiries before making sure of what had happened. He just made a quick signal to Elijah who answered him just as quickly and then calmed down for a while.

This adventure on the frontier was on its final leg for Nerun and company.

___

Изначальное крещение: Primordial Baptism

Реконструкция: Reconstruction