The Price Of Life

(A/N: This chapter is not one you should jump to conclusion with. Also, I hope I gave enough true hints from a perspective-wise in the previous chapter for this one event ro not come out of kingdom come. I additionally hope the method Julian use during this chapter make sense with the tools he has at his disposal and their utility, beside maybe for the wings. That's pretty much it, tell me what you guys thought of these points in the comments. Enjoy!)

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Julian sighed deeply looking at the body of the pack leader.

Truly, he hadn't changed that much since his outburst in his first trip to this world if he still resorted to violence to let out steam.

Nonetheless, this realization didn't the change the fact that he was indeed feeling more relaxed. The guilt probably wouldn't go away for a while concerning Subaru's situation. But in the end, only thing he could do was suck it up and reafirm that he was a dick in his mind. He guessed that feeling guilt at all was a step in the good direction?

Banishing the thought, Julian considered cleaning up the mountain of corpses of the monster horde for a bit before deciding that he had given enough shits about things for the night.

So, striding up to the unconscious Meili who had a mean bump on her forehead. He picked up her up, threw her on his shoulder and departed toward the manor.

—————

After throwing the girl in one of the cell of the mansion and locking her in, Julian went back to his room.

Crashing into his bed, he was suddenly striken with an uncomfortable thought.

With Subaru going to his own timeline, he wouldn't have anyone to speak to anymore.

He would become lonely.

Sure, he was on friendly term with Emilia because of how easy going she was and because he was the one to get back her emblem.

But because of his own training and with Puck hating his guts, they hadn't spoke much since he was brought here. Subaru was actually way closer to her than he was in this case.

He had barely interacted with Rem and Ram other than as a guest and servants with how busy they were working and teaching Subaru his duty as a majordomo. It was also obvious that the sisters were actually extremelly suspicious of him but kept their reserve since he was Roswaal's apprentice.

Beatrice refused to see him after their first meeting, probably because she trusted whatever negative verdict Puck had told her about him.

As for Roswaal, well. They were business partner. And he doubted someone could even truly become the man's friend.

In retrospective, he was pretty damn isolated.

He should really work on that, maybe come back to earth (not literally) a little bit and socialize a bit? Else he might really lose his mind.

But that was a thing he could work on tomorrow, for now. He'd better get some sleep, because tomorrow morning was bound to be pretty heavy with feelings.

At the time. He had no idea how right that prediction would prove itself to be.

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Julian didn't like dreaming. Since in the rare case he remembered them, they were rarely agreable.

And again, he was proven right.

During his sleep, he dreamt of his past. Of the many faces he had met and their relation with him. He knew everything about many of them, but only three persons knew who he really was.

These people with stories written with them in it, they had their life already pre-written. Their destiny set in stone in a way.

But him? What was his role in all of that?

It was a question he secretely knew had probably no answer. Yet, it only made it more frustrating.

This was a train of thought that appeared frequently during his idle time or his meditation. It was always waiting, creeping in the back of his mind. And it always ended with a particular question, one which he had but superficial answer to give to:

What was the point of living?

*YYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!*

Julian's eyes snapped open, his sleep interrupted by the most heart-wrenching cry he had ever heard.

It shook his sool by the sheer raw pain it radiated, it replaced his blood with cold ice.

Instantly, he was up and dashing through the manor toward the cries of anguish that could be heard all thorough the building.

His heart was thundering through his ears. This wasn't supposed to happen.

Rounding a corner, he slowed his pace. The sobs were ever closer now. A bit farther in, a door was left open, letting out the rays of blue light of the early morning.

Creeping at a glacial space, he approached it.

And stepped inside.

Blue hair, a pale face looking nothing else but peacefully asleep.

It was Rem. She was dead.

Ram was at her bedside, gripping the sheets and crying her heart out.

It seemed he wasn't the first one to arrive, Roswaal and Beatrice were already there. Sending him a look as he entered.

Yet, Julian ignored them. He had eyes only for the the girl laying in the bed and the beacon of fluctuating wrath that was her sister.

Walking forward, he inspected Rem and found out what he had feared. She was taken by the very same curse he had purged out of the children last night.

And he had no idea she had even been bitten.

"She died of exhaustion. Julian-Kun, since you went out last night. Do you perhaps have an idea of why my cute little maid was found dead this morning?" Roswaal asked casually, thought there was an edge to his voice that could be heard clearly.

Mechanically, Julian answered. "I do."

Barely had his words escaped his mouth that Ram tearfilled eyes snapped to him. Wind messily radiating from her form as her aura of anger exploded in his vision.

"You know...?"

Meeting eyes with Ram, Julian paused at the sheer danger radiating from her voice. But it seemed that even this second of hesitation was too much for the grieving sister.

Jumping to her feet, she screamed with wind condensing around her hand. "TELL ME!"

"It was an assassin capable of controlling monsters. These monsters cursed those they bite and feed on their mana. They attacked the village last night, that's where I went." Softly, Julian said. Afterward, he tried to grab Rem's wrist. But his hand was reppeled by a violent gust of wind.

"DON'T TOUCH MY SISTER!" Ram snapped at Julian, her eyes full of rage. Though it was not directed at him in particular.

It was at this moment that Emilia entered the room, out of breath. Barely had she seen the scene within that she covered her mouth with an hand, her eyes wide, not needing to be told anything to understand the crux of the situation.

Julian, overwhelemed by the raw grief he was subjected to. Threw another look at Rem peaceful face and gritted his teeth before meeting head on Ram's hurt filled eyes.

"I know you want vengeance, I can even give it to you. The one responsible for this is locked up in the basement. But all is not lost yet, let me inspect your sister. There's a chance that I can save her." His words like a bomb, shaking up Ram to her core.

"What do you mean save her? She's dead, there's nothing to save..." And with that, the sobs came back with a revenge now that she knew she could immediatly avenge her sister if she so wished.

"Ah, Julian-Kun~. I know we made a vow that make us allies in each other endeavor. But please refrain from playing with my maid's feelings, this is hardly appropriate." Roswaal squinted as he eyed up Julian.

Julian's anger flared up, his patience very thin for waste of times. If he was to bring someone from the dead, time was of the essence. "Roswaal, what you cannot accomplish matter little to me. If you want an explanation. Ask Beatrice since I gave her a thread of my magic some time ago and I have no doubt she studied it thoroughly."

After some quick thinking, Julian gave a meaningful glance at Emilia. "Also, Subaru is not here yet."

With eyes round in recognition, Emilia darted out of the room.

With that, Julian turned back to Ram and took a deep breath. "I know you don't trust me or even know me that well. But the more time we lose talking, the more the chance if it working is slipping. So tell me, even if it doesn't work. What do you have win, and what do you have to lose?"

Ram fell silent at his word, her head dipping and hidding her eyes with her hair.

Lifting her head back up, she met Julian's eyes with her own full of fearful hope. And before long, she steeled herself and screamed with all her Soul her desire.

"PLEASE SAVE MY SISTER!"

That was the only prompting Julian needed.

"Make way." Immediatly, he set himself to work.

Under the eyes of his audience, he touched forehead. Carefully parting her bangs as he did so.

He frowned, as he expected. It wouldn't be easy.

Taking her in his arms alomg with the sheets, he delicately placed her on the floor in the middle of the room before calling on something he had never done before.

His Nephalem wings.

Spreading from his shoulder, they appeared under all their glory to an Archmage, a powerful spirit, and an oni maid.

He had no doubt that he would need them for this operations, as one of their primary purpose was to make him a bit more in tune with his EC. Making its manipulation easier and smoother.

Afterward, he sat crosslegged. And warned. "Don't interfere."

That said, he speared his hand through his chest and wrenched out his still beating heart. Both it and the hole in his chest immediatly began glowing orange.

Then, using the blood bursting out of his beating heart and pooling before him. He drew with the help of his wings a magical circle around Rem from memory.

Since his heart blood channeled his magic the best, that's what he opted to use. After finishing the circle, his heart and the hole in his chest vanished.

He was done with the easy part, now came the hard bit since it was uncharted territory.

After thinking for a bit, he took a bet and sliced his brain in multiple paces with thin blade of PoD while using EC to slow the shutdown of his system and keep his consciouness alive.

So instead of dying instantly, he experienced the gradual blackout to nothingness as his body and his senses died.

The body was died, the soul was fleeting, yet the mind was alive. It was a weird state he he had experienced once during his fight with Satella. The difference this time was that he kept a control on his EC because of his wings and had still plenty in the tank.

The world was formless, black and white. His mind was muddled, wanting to analyze in depth every passing thoughts that came by. Exactly like the last time he was here, but he was prepared for it. Focused not on the moment but on a task.

So, with difficulty. He concentrated on the white husk in front of him. A lifeless body devoid of soul. It was Rem.

No matter if her soul was not present, if he was right. He didn't need a soul to inspect someone essence. Merely either one the three component of it. Namely the body, mind, or soul.

As he searched for the tiny 2D circle that represented a person Essence in the white husk, he was proven right.

Rem's essence was a beautiful thing, filled with royal blue and cyan. With a core of gold.

Yet, he knew it lacked something. It missed a certain vibrancy and liveliness to its colors, qualities he had seen in Satella's essence once upon a time.

He dig deeper, seeking where this vibrancy had gone.

He found it. Somewhere a mortal mind wasn't supposed to see, else their spirit would break. The corridor of memories, the place where Od Laguna receive the souls of the dead to purge them from their memories to afterward put them back into the cycle.

Fortunately, he wasn't exactly mortal. And he wanted that soul back, with its memories intact.

He wasn't sure how, but in this place where distance was relative. He simply flexed his magic, and he pinpointed the soul.

He even gave it an experimental tug, using a time where the soul was still in its body as his excuse to bring it back. But Od Laguna's grasp didn't budge, it would take way more power and a more refined technique for it to work.

He didn't have time to find a better way to proceed, so brute force it was.

Rewinding the injuries in his brain and of his entire being, Julian gasped as his soul and mind snapped back into his body.

Standing up, he bit his thumb in thought and frowned. He couldn't afford to waste magical energy trying to contest the hold of Od Laguna with merely his current reserve. Using the experimental tug as a foundation, he knew it wouldn't be enough.

A substitution would no doubt help, as he did not get the impression that Od Laguna had a will of its own. But there was no time to find one, Rem could be gone any moment. How many baby were born every moment? Her memories could be wiped the next instant for all he knew.

Thus the true question was: how much was he willing to sacrifice for Rem?

He barely knew her after all, why should he go through all that trouble for a stranger.

Then, Ram's heart-wrenching cry echoed again in his mind. He remembered a quote from Beatrice in the canon concerning the twin. That one couldn't live without the other.

In the end, his life wasn't worth all that much. What was paying a few shaving of it for a mistake that was his own in the end?

Throwing a look at Ram and contemplating her pale stress and anxiousness ridden face for a second. He relaxed and huffed out, joking. "You'd better be grateful."

Activating the magical circle with Rem and the center, Julian drowned the room in an almost blinding orange light.

Illusory yellow sparked going off around him, he started up the ritual. A similar one he used to created his peerage monolyth.

And ripped off his left arm.