Sylvester had underestimated how much it was going to hurt. Up until then, he had only felt the physical pain. But this was different. It was unexplainable in words. It felt as if something was being pulled out from his veins in the leg--forcibly.
"Yes, it pains a lot to remove solarium from the veins forcibly. But, it's much different from burning it all in a fight." Hendrix commented while continuing to operate on him. He was using some potion to make the veins lose all their magic.
Sylvester just kept himself stable while gritting his teeth. He knew that some curses would naturally leave his mouth if he tried to speak.
"Just a bit more, and we'll be done with this part. Elaine, keep draining the blood." Hendrix ordered.
Slowly, three more minutes passed, although, to Sylvester, it felt like an eternity. Then soon, the pain started to disappear, and he eased his clenching jaw.
"Ugh! Fuck!"
But he suddenly exclaimed as the pain returned, as now it was the opposite. He felt something entering his veins forcibly, and surprisingly, this was a pain he knew very well from when he was near his Solarium depletion.
"What in God's name is happening?" Hendrix exclaimed in shock, and his arms remained up.
Elaine, responsible for draining the blood, also stepped back in shock. "How is this possible, dear? What's happening to his blood?"
Sylvester smelled the confusion and panic. Finally, he forced his head to rise and look. There, to his utter shock, all the blood in his wound, and the glass jar nearby, had started to disappear into nothingness.
Hendrix looked at Sylvester's face. "Do you know what this is?"
Sylvester shook his head.
"Do you... By any chance, have you ever been in a life and death situation where you should have run out of solarium, but for some reason never did and always persisted?" Hendrix asked quickly after guessing some cases.
Sylvester nodded and, in a growling manner, coughed out some words. "Y-Yesss... N-not die... Only thin, weak... and p-pale..."
"I will make a new cut near the wound to confirm my hypothesis. Bear with me." Hendrix said, and wasted no time.
Woosh!
Instantly, all the new blood that started to come out got disappeared. Heck, not a single drop could slide outside as all the blood vanished right at the surface.
"Lord Bard, I think... Your body is somehow turning your own blood into Solarium. It's a boon and a bane in itself. You can survive for as long as there is blood in your body. But at the same time, where solarium depletion would have only made you unconscious in extreme cases--With no blood, you would die!" Hendrix revealed his findings.
Sylvester couldn't give a fuck about it at the moment as he reeled in pain. "J-Just... Fix it!"
"I don't know how! I need your veins to be empty of the Solarium before trying anything. If I do it anyway, the pain will be unimaginable and might kill you."
"Do it!"
Sylvester had no other option anymore. If the greatest healer in the world was helpless, then there was no other option but to take any chance he could get.
"Please...!"
He gritted his teeth and glared at the old man with his reddened eyes. His face was also red by now, and veins had popped up all around.
"Fine... Elaine, prepare the tools. I will try to be as quick as possible." Hendrix ordered. However, the shocking part was that he was also sweating despite the cool, calming breeze of the Soul Tree.
"Here." Elaine handed over the forceps.
"Keep an eye on him. If his head starts twitching, you tell me."
Woosh!
"Dear... Look at his head!"
Hendrix looked and remained captivated. There, all of a sudden, Sylvester's eyes got shut, and a halo appeared behind his head despite not singing anything. It was dark golden and massive.
"He is so... Full of miracles. Let's work quickly... Who knows for how long he will remain this stable."
...
Sylvester didn't even know when his mind drifted into sleep. All he remembered was the feeling of helplessness, pain, and fear for his life. He had died enough already, and finally, he had made up his mind to live and chase strength--dying now would have been truly disappointing.
"Perhaps I should just meditate." He thought in his lucid dreamlike state and started mimicking what he used to do for meditation.
He cleared his mind of all thoughts and let the Solarium guide his heart and breath. The last time he tried, he didn't see any vision, no matter what. So, he didn't have much hope this time either.
Sylvester remained in that condition and waited. Thankfully, he didn't feel any pain, so he kept at it.
'Ah! I feel something.' Finally, he felt like he was somehow being squeezed out of a thin pipe. It became evident to him that a vision was going to present itself.
So he became attentive and kept looking. But, no matter what, all he saw was darkness. Finally, however, he could hear some sounds akin to rain and breathing.
Sniff!
'Crying?' Sylvester didn't even know if he was seeing something, but he still tried to look left and right in darkness.
"M-Mum... Dad... Uncle Bran... Why did you leave me? I'm hungry... Help, please... someone..."
Sylvester recognised that voice, but it sounded so weak and meek. There was a lot of pain in it, and from the sound, the girl seemed to be somewhere outside.
Bam!
"Wake up! The break's over. It's time to clean the dishes."
Suddenly, the darkness faded slightly, and the view became clearer. The little girl seemed to have covered herself under a blanket soaked in the rain. The location appeared to be a dark alley between buildings, and there was a lot of garbage around.
She didn't look good. Her eyes had sunken, and her face had thinned out to the point her cheekbones seemed more like elbows. Her body overall was extremely malnourished, and her skin was paler than before. Zye was the name he had learnt all these years--a little ashen-haired girl with teal eyes--perhaps six or seven years old.
"Yes, sir." She stood up after some struggles and followed the tall, fat, bald man inside the building.
"There! For each broken plate, I will break a bone of your body in compensation; remember that. Good for nothing, girl. Now, work!" The man shouted at her for no apparent reason.
"Yes, sir."
She dragged herself to the large cleaning area on the ground. A place was made there to clean utensils on the floor. There were a few buckets full of water and two giant tubs full of dirty plates. It was a tavern she worked in, after all.
In silence, she worked and worked. Tears would fall from her eyes every now and then. But she had learned her lessons long ago. Crying and asking for help only brought more trouble.
She brushed the plates, cleaned them spotless and stacked them on the side. This was her life for the past month. She was allowed to sleep in the Pigpen in return for the service. For food, she was allowed to eat the leftovers.
Sadly, the leftovers were never from the kitchen. Her single meal of the day, the dinner, only came from the plates she was tasked to clean. On good days, she could find something to fill her stomach, but usually, it was nothing but some rare snippets of vegetables and soup.
Long ago, she had stopped feeling disgusted by such actions. After all, staying alive was the only goal.
She often wondered why her life was like that. She often shouted at the sky, at the sun--There was no sun god in her eyes. For no matter what, she couldn't outrun the darkness.
By midnight, she finished her work and decided to go and sleep. It was the only time of the day she looked forward to, for she could at least dream of the happy days in them.
Sylvester, who saw it all, couldn't help but feel sad for her. Being an orphan, he knew that if he had been there, he'd have given her a big hug and a lot of food.
Eventually, the morning came. However, this time it brought a change. A man from the Monastery was there, calling himself Bishop Monarthy Reed.
"Girl, you're going with him to the Monastery now. You will live there and study with other children your age. No need to work. They will feed you." The owner of the tavern rudely ordered her.
The Bishop was all smiles. The man appeared so kind as if the god had sent him. His short, dirty blonde hair and tall and thin build were all too normal.
Zye hated her life, and the lure of better days was enticing. "Really? Thank you, Bishop."
"Haha, come." The Bishop brought her along into his carriage.
Zye was happy and excited about the future. For the first time, the warmth of the summer day didn't feel as annoying to her that day.
Sylvester was happy, too, watching her face finally show a hint of a smile.
'I should focus on this route. Perhaps I can pinpoint her location with this.' Sylvester decided while he watched everything like an invisible all-seeing eye.
Soon, Sylvester saw the Wall of Void and the Desert Road. The carriage seemed to be going North. And to his joy, the carriage finally appeared to pass through the Fort Sunflower, a place Sylvester knew very intimately.
But, the carriage kept on moving. And soon, it took a turn on the dirt road.
Then finally, the carriage halted in the middle of nowhere. On the opposite side were three more carriages, looking rundown and ugly. The men inside it were equally dirty--Appearing like savages than humans.
Bam!
"Here's the money as promised." The savage men threw a pouch full of gold at the Bishop.
"Haha, pleasure doing business with you. Take her." The Bishop drooled on the golden coins inside the bag.
Zye just stood there, slowly processing what just happened. Her smile instantly turned to horror. The fate she had been running from for so long had finally reached her. She discovered that the cursed fate was gifted to her by one of the men the world trusted.
"No! Leave me! Help! Help!" She tried to fight as the men came to catch her.
Clank!
In an instant, steel chains were locked on her thin wrists and neck. Free life was gone. Slavery was there. But she didn't know that a fate worse than slavery awaited her.
"Hehe... Don't worry, little one. We're just simple men from the Desert Cannibal tribe. You will be our tribute to the Supreme Chief--He likes eating young ones like you."
The Bishop was gone, and Zye's heart was shattered. All her efforts had been in vain. Life seemed to be hellbent on killing her.
'Fuck! I should do something!' Sylvester cursed and shouted. He tried to sing, but nothing happened.
Slowly, the vision started to disappear, and the black screen returned. But he didn't want to go. He wanted to see her more--The sad little girl.
'Haaa! Who is she? Why am I seeing her?'
"Aaaaa!" Sylvester shouted, trying to use his magic. But nothing happened.
Woosh!
"Weakness disgusts me!"
Abruptly the scenes changed. Sylvester saw something again. This time, it sent a sense of dread down his spine, as if he were standing in death's jaws.
He turned around in his lucid dream, and there it was. A colossal being sitting on a throne, donning white robes, golden ornaments and a halo behind the head. The face was not visible, but the divinity was enough to leave Sylvester out of breath and down on his knees.
"S-Solis?"
[A/N: See here]
700 GT = 1 Bonus chapter.
1 Super Gift = 1 Bonus chapter.
