"I can see that you care about him. I can save his life. Not only save this life, but I can even grant him a longer life. A life filled with health, safety and protection. You can have it all. He can leave a life that he could only dream about in the past." .
The Emperor's words sounded like he was giving him an offer, but Gabriel wasn't certain what he wanted in return. Or was he just toying with him to give him hope only to take it away later?
"Doesn't it sound too good to be true? But you can have it all. It all depends on your will. Do you want his life bad enough? Or do you care about yourself more? The choice shall ultimately rest on your shoulders."
"If you try to leave, I won't stop you either. You can take him with you. Treat the last few moments of his life as my gift to you."
It was as if the emperor had reached out with both his hands. With one hand he offered Ezekiel's life, and with the other he offered freedom but that freedom came with Ezekiel's death. And the choice belonged to Gabriel who still didn't know what the Emperor wanted.
"Why should I believe that you can save him?" Gabriel asked the Emperor.
As far as deals were concerned, he had made more deals in the past with others, so he wasn't ignorant as to how a deal worked. But before taking the decision or even asking for help, he had to be sure that they actually had a method. He didn't want to become a pawn.
The Emperor laughed. "I have never spoken a single lie. But if you still don't believe me, then I shall grant you another greeting gift."
He brought another unique crystal from his Spatial Ring. With a gentle cut to his finger, a small droplet of blood graced the crystal's surface. As if with an insatiable thirst, the crystal absorbed the blood, transforming its hue into a deep shade of red.
The transformation was mesmerizing. Once the process was finished, a beautiful royal symbol became visible on the crystal.
The Emperor walked closer to Gabriel with the crystal. Gabriel took a step back, moving even closer to the portal.
Seeing Gabriel's caution, the Emperor stopped. He tossed the crystal to Gabriel who caught it carefully.
"Place the crystal over his wound. You'll start believing my words."
With nothing to lose, Gabriel did as he was suggested. However, he still maintained his caution even as he followed the method.
He placed the crystal near Ezekiel's heart. As soon as the crystal came in contact with Ezekiel, it started shining in a mysterious light.
The light intensified and a surge of energy flowed through Ezekiel's body, causing him to move. The life essence in the crystal swiftly flowed inside Ezekiel's body, the color of his face slowly returning. Even the wound around his chest started healing.
Slowly, the crystal was completely absorbed inside Ezekiel's body, taking the place of his missing heart. It was akin to an artificial heart.
The effects were clear as day to the point that even Gabriel was surprised. Life essence was something that could never be recovered.
There was simply no method to artificially produce it. Even with the sacrifice of millions of lives, the fundamental essence of life remained inaccessible.
Even gods couldn't transfer life essence in this manner, at least not when someone had exhausted all their original life essence. Even gods could only share their divine essence to modify the aura of a person, their bodies and grant him divine ability.
In that way, God could create a being who could live for an eternity as long as they weren't killed. Ezekiel was also one such existence who was able to live for an eternity. However, he was different in a way that he couldn't be killed, unlike gods.
Ezekiel was someone that broke the balance of the world. Or so everyone thought. However, Gabriel knew better.
Gods could live for an eternity, because their bodies were molded in such ways that they didn't use their life essence at all unless they used special means like extracting their life essence for a special power, or used something like the sword of Life.
Most gods never had to do that, and even if they could, they did so only once or twice.
However, Ezekiel was different. Unlike the other gods, he had constantly been exhausting his original life essence that couldn't further be recovered. Every time he died and had to use immortality, his life essence lowered, ultimately completely exhausted.
In a situation like this, even a god couldn't survive. Another person's life essence couldn't be taken as the life essence of other people was only compatible with them. If this was possible, Gabriel could've shared his life essence already.
"Your life essence? That's the key?" It didn't take Gabriel long to understand that.
A person's life essence wasn't compatible with others. However, the logic of his original world failed in Elzeria. It was a different world after all.
A thought crossed his mind. If he was able to connect enough blood from an Elzerian, couldn't Ezekiel live for much longer? Even if he could just kidnap one Elzerian and leave, that was enough for a long long time.
The Emperor could already guess what Gabriel was thinking. He smiled like a compassionate man.
"Only my blood can do it. Even amongst Elzerians, no one can transfer their life essence to others. And then if they could, why would they? They only have a life span of two hundred years."
The Emperor's words worked as an explanation but also as a threat to make Gabriel realize that it was useless to target the weak ones as they were useless. Only the King was able to do it.
Moreover, with his explanation, the king also made another thing clear. He had a maximum of two hundred years of lifespan. And he had lived quite a long life already.
So his remaining life span was previous. It became even more precious since he was an important person in Elzeria.
Essentially, the King was trading him with his life.
