Legacy of the M'Zee Chapter 30

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

Not a whole lot of writing done. Editing the final version of Energy Barons now. I hope to have it done by next Sunday, then I'll publish it! Thanks for all y'all's support!

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

I found myself in a featureless stone room, alone again. Spirit appeared in front of me before I could complain. “What would you do to assist your companions?” Spirit asked.

“Whatever I could,” I said. “I can’t advance alone.”

“Will you accept pain and injury to give them a better future?”

“Of course.”

“Good.” Spirit vanished, and then my world shattered. Every meridian in my body, a significant percentage of my bones, and all of my extremities broke. I tried to scream, but I couldn’t force air out of my lungs.

“AIDEN!” Jamila screamed, but I could barely hear her. My ears weren’t working right, and my mind was barely functional under the immense pain I was in.

Tiny paws moved over my face, and I saw the tiny squirrel that was Jamila’s Bond rest on my forehead. Streamers of Wood and Water Aether flowed into my head.

Two more, much larger, rivers of Aether flooded into my chest. “Please be okay, please be okay,” Jamila said, barely touching me in fear of hurting me more.

I tried to speak, to comfort her, but she just said, “Shh. You will be okay. You have to be okay.” Aether flowed into me, and my broken ribs snapped together. A sheath formed around them, keeping the blood vessels from damage as the sharp pieces of bone moved quickly through my body.

I tried to send Aether out of my center, planning on using the techniques Counselor (Name) taught me, but Jamila’s Aether blocked my center. “No, your meridians are too damaged,” she said. “Just rest. I have you. You will be fine. You will be.”

Aether flowed from her and Fluffy into me. Slowly I was pieced back together. Wetness dropped onto my cheeks. I forced my eyes to focus and saw Jamila crying as she struggled to fix my destroyed body. After a few minutes, my brain had reset, and the pain had dropped to a reasonable amount. Of course, my pain tolerance had been massively increased due to tempering and advancing my gathering ability, as each stage had been more and more painful.

I watched her fixing me, amazed at her capability. She’s moving through me almost as fast as Counselor Stojka, and they are a Perfect Core gatherer. She’s amazing. I tried to speak, but again was unable to. Spirit, this sucks, but if it helps Jamila get a better benefit, fine. This sucks, so much, like Light, so much, but helping Jamila is worth it. Darkness, this hurts. I gasped as my femur was forcibly reattached.

“Shh, I’m sorry,” Jamila said. “I am running low on Aether. I am sorry. I cannot use any to keep your pain low.”

“It,” I gasped, forcing air out of my lungs, “is,” I couldn’t speak quickly, “okay. … I … love … you….”

“Please be okay,” she mumbled, low enough that I was sure I wasn’t supposed to hear. “I do not know what I would do without you. Please.”

“I … trust … you,” I told her, and knew I meant it. I would make it through this trial, because Jamila was just that good. She would be able to fix me. I believed in her.

Over the next four hours, I was put back together. Bones and muscles were healed, reattached and reconnected. Blood vessels were smoothed over, and more blood created to make sure my blood pressure was high enough to keep my heart working. I kept watching, learning as much as I could about healing my body. I have no idea how to mimic that, I thought while watching dozens of runes flash through my arm before my ulna snapped together. The runes dissipated, the rush of Wood, Water, and Earth Aether flowing away from the ulna to the radius before reforming, at least thirty runes flaring into life around the break.

A few seconds late and my left arm was fixed. Well, the bones were fixed. She redirected a stream of Aether to move along my meridians in that arm. I felt her falter, her Aether draining quicker than she expected as she tried to repair the blood vessel meridians in that arm. “How does he use a meridian this dense?” She asked  rhetorically.

A minute later, she slumped over me. I was still significantly damaged, but she’d brought me to a point where I wasn't in danger of dying. “Just a little break,” she whimpered.

“I’m fine,” I said. “I can … heal myself from … here. Don’t hurt … yourself.”

“No,” she said emphatically into my chest, her head resting on my newly healed ribs as she lay exhausted on me, “This is what I do best. I will be your healer. You will bear the weight of the world on your shoulders, and I will be the support that lets you hold it up. I cannot hold it myself, I am not strong enough. You are. I know you will save our world. I will support you, as much as I can. Now, focus, heal. You can make it through this. I know you can. You are awesome, and impress me all the time. Now, focus, your meridians are strong enough. Heal yourself here,” a pulse happened around my blood vessel medians just outside my lungs. “I have fixed enough that you can help. Come on, pull through. I need you.”

“I … need … you … too,” I said.

She grinned, though tears kept falling from her cheeks. She nodded, then closed her eyes. I could feel her Aether senses expand into me, sweeping through the damaged areas. To be fair, that was pretty much all of me. Aether flowed from her into me. I felt the tiny paws of Fluffy hop off my head and saw the squirrel land on Jamila’s shoulder. She immediately began to glow as Aether poured into her, her Bond gathering and channeling it into Jamila’s meridians faster than she could do so herself.

I blinked, then dropped into my center. Jamila had fixed my life and heart meridians right around where they started, but the majority of her effort was in keeping my organs running even with all the damage. Let me finish fixing the life meridian first, I thought, and see if I can take some of her work away from her.

I pulled a small amount of Aether out of my center, my pool and crown (name?) full but my meridians empty due to the damage. I carefully directed it up my life meridian, quickly reaching the location of the first crack. It felt like dry, chapped skin to my Aether senses, with a dozen places where it broke all the way through. I held the Aether back, moving along the damage to find a spot where it was only slightly damaged.

With a grunt, I grabbed another chunk of Aether. I let the first one start to ooze forward, keeping a bit of flow into it to coat the chapped area. Again I stopped it, just short of the break. The second bit of Aether was gently pulled out of the whole meridian, avoiding all of the damage, and I moved it to the next spot that just needed Aether to heal. The muscles in my upper chest soaked in a bunch of it, but I had plenty of Aether available. At least for now, I thought, looking at the amount left over. Going to have to prioritize a gathering meridian soon, my natural regen without one is pitiful.

Once I had two spots of strong meridians, separated by cracks, I created two tentacles, one from each, and then connected them. From the cable they formed, I extended Aether into the runes of the healing technique Counselor Stojka had taught me after my injury with the assassin. Over the next two minutes, my meridian healed.

After finishing that chunk, I now had a clear meridian to reach my heart. I sent a streamer of Aether towards and then into the organ, feeling Jamila’s Aether supporting it. I carefully mimicked her, and then her Aether wrapped mine. I smiled and hugged her Aether back.

A second later, she withdrew, though I could tell her attention was locked on my heart to make sure I could keep it beating. I had it, though, and she was able to move her focus again shortly. Shortly thereafter, the pain in my lungs faded enough that I was able to take a shaky breath. That one breath dropped mine and Jamila’s Aether drain, as we didn’t have to create oxygen from carbon dioxide anymore.

My consciousness went back to my life meridian, and I quickly replicated my success at healing the first cracked area of meridian. Over and over again, I worked my way up. I reached my brain, taking another shuddering breath, and spread my Aether throughout it. My mind cleared up, and my headache eased, changing from a massive migraine to only a bad pressure.

I took over maintaining my brain from Jamila, again getting an Aether hug. We quickly got into a routine, and after only another two hours, during which my Aether reserves dwindled to nothing, she had me to the point where I would naturally heal in a few days.

“I feel amazing,” I told her, smiling weakly at the wonderful girl I’d grown to love.

“Good,” she smiled back, then collapsed onto my chest.

I reflexively grabbed her, my arms groaning against the motion. (Name) chittered at me. “Yeah, she’s awesome but I guess she ran out of Aether and exhausted herself. She’ll be okay, though,” I told her.

More chittering, and then Jamila stirred. “Well,” she whispered, her voice pained, “this was not quite how I pictured getting on top of you.”

“Gah!” I exclaimed, my face exploding red.

Jamila giggled, and I held her tighter. “How are you feeling?” She asked me.

“I’m okay,” I said. “Still a bit of pain, but I’m stable now.”

“Good,” she picked herself up then kissed me, deeply. “Do not scare me like that?”

“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t know what Spirit was planning when he asked if I was willing to help my friends.”

“You dying will not help anyone,” Jamila said. “If you really need to, money helps with getting resources. What would I do if you died?”

“Support yourself as one of the best healers in the kingdom? Find another guy to love if you wanted to?” I said

She blushed, “I am not that good.”

“Yes, you are,” I said, “You’re only in training, and yet you were able to fix me from near total obliteration. Even Counselor Stojka would have struggled to heal me at your level of advancement. You are amazing.”

“Thank you,” she said, then kissed me again. We lay there for a few minutes, before a cough sounded next to us.

Spirit floated there, somehow managing to look annoyed even though their face didn’t change. “You have successfully passed this test,” they said. With a gesture, a massive stream of Aether slammed into me, and within seconds I was fully healed and lifted to my feet. “As a reward, Jamila, you have earned a Knowledge Stone of a healing technique.”

She had been pulled to her feet when I had. A fist-sized crystal appeared in front of her, and she snapped her hands forward to catch it. “Thank you,” she stammered, gazing wondrously at the stone.

“Go through the door,” Spirit gestured again, and the featureless walls of the room that I hadn’t noticed before now was fairly small, morphed to hold two doors. One opened onto a blackness.

“Will you be alright, Aiden?” She asked, not moving.

“Yes I will, thanks to you,” I said. “And Spirit finished fixing me up. Go on, show them how awesome you are.”

She grinned at me, then turned and ran through the doorway. I watched her leave, amazed yet again that such a beautiful and talented young woman was interested in me. How do I get so lucky? I thought, ignoring Spirit for a minute. Jamila, Vaya, and Aleks, all like me. Me. Heh, I don’t understand but something about me must be pretty cool. Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but three times is a pattern. Light, even twice is outside the realms of chance and I’m at four. Jasmine was as much an anomaly as any of the others. Though, it does seem like I am the main character. Makes a lot of my life pretty sucky, but at least the mc usually gets the girl. Or in this case three. When did my life become a harem?

I laughed to myself, of course, there’s no way that any of them become just an accessory to me. Light, I’ll probably end up as an accessory to them! Aleks is heir to the kingdom, Vaya is destined to be the head of a major noble clan, and Jamila will be the best healer the kingdom has ever seen.  I’m just a guy who is going to be very strong. What do I really have that is worth them?

“Will you accept additional pain for your friends?” Spirit asked. “Now that you know but a fraction of what it could entail?”

“Yes,” I said without hesitation. “They would die for me, and I would die for them. That is what our friendship means.”

“Good. If you do, stay still. In two minutes, you will be transported again. If not, simply walk through the doorway to your next challenge,” Spirit said, then vanished.

“Is it going to be the same thing?” I called after them, but there was no answer. “Ugh, fine.” I waited, grumbling to myself about uncommunicative ghosts and annoying tests. Two minutes passed slowly, until I finally blinked and found myself standing in a tiny room with a single door. A table sat against the wall, holding a column of Inscribed diamond. A note hung off the top.

I picked up the note and read it aloud, “Hold onto the Aether receptacle and step through the door. Charge it with Aether and move to the end of the next room. Okay, seems simple enough.”

I reached over and lifted the column. It was pretty heavy, somehow significantly denser than a diamond should be. My Aether flowed out of my hands and into the column, a massive flood that I struggled to shut off. “Of course, there’s the complication.”

I stepped into the next room to find myself standing in ankle-deep water. Just in front of me, Jon and Zimnodlot appeared. “Aiden! Good to see you,” Jon said.

“Welcome, head of our wisdom,” a light, airy voice said in my mind.

“Jon, Zimnodlot,” I said with a grin. “It’s great to see you. Now, we need to get this,” I shook that column, “to the other end. Uh, that way, I think.” I gestured with it, realizing I was unable to pull my hands from its side. “Uh, I don’t think I’ll be good for much though.” I tried to form a Lightning bolt, but any Aether I channeled went into the diamond rather than where I wanted it to. “Make that, I can’t use techniques right now, and I can’t take my hands off the stick. So, when something attacks us, I’ll be relying on you.”

“Finally,” Jon said with more feeling than I felt he should have. I just gave him a look. He laughed, shaking his head. “Come on then.”

“I will scout,” Zimnodlot said to me, and then a few seconds later he leapt off Jon’s shoulder.

“So, Zimnodlot can talk to me now,” I said.

“Yeah,” Jon answered my unasked question, “But he can only speak to one person at a time.”

“Have you had a good adventure?” I asked, sloshing forward along the small spit of land that was only slightly submerged. To either side I could see the ground fall off and drop beyond my sight.

Jon stood right by me, keeping his head moving back and forth. I did as well, trying to spot the inevitable ambush before it was triggered. “Yeah,” Jon said. “Been pretty crazy, but I have advanced to Complete Condensation, so it was worth it. I’m even slightly worried that I’ll finish and waste some of the rewards because Librarian Narwan did not teach me anything about advancing to Seed Core.”

“Same here,” I said. “Though I wonder how different we will be, since, you know, we have a Seed Core already.”

Jon looked down at his chest, “Good point.” He seemed lost in thought for a bit, but long ingrained habits kept his eyes moving. “Watch out!” Jon leapt in front of me, a massive shield of Ice and hardened Air extending away from his physical shield to intercept a meter-thick bar of water that exploded out of the water to my left.

I ducked behind him, making sure that the shield was between me and the beam. I swept my Aether senses through the water, finding them unimpeded by the Aether conduit I held. “I’m not sensing anything!” I shouted over the roar of the Water.

“It has not changed location,” Jon said. “Move forward.”

Three steps later, Jon was able to turn his shield and send the attack off into the distance. “Must’ve been a trap,” I said.

Jon nodded, panting slightly. “Yeah, but that was the strongest attack I have blocked in a while.” He shook his head. “I’m still good. Let us continue.”

I kept my eyes, my Aether senses, and every sense on high alert. Six steps later, a bright spot formed to my right, and I shouted, “Jon, there!” while picking up my pace a bit.

Jon moved to that side and reformed his shield. A bar identical to the first slammed into him, but he was equal to it. Stronger than it, in fact, able to hold out and move while still blocking the attack that would obliterate a normal Circulation Condensation gatherer without any ability to resist. With an effort of will, he redirected the beam into the sky, then took three steps forward and let his shield drop. The bar of Aether dropped back into place once he released his Aether. “Good catch,” Jon said, more tired.

“Five Beasts attacking,” Zimnodlot said. “Frogs of some type. Water, Mud, and Brine Aether.”

“Brine? I said back, confused.

A pause occurred before Jon said, “Zimnodlot says it is another mixture of Earth and Water Aether. Uh, it is more dangerous, as its wounds resist healing.”

“Well, that sucks,” I said. I tried to channel the General Strengthening Technique, but even that one was blocked. “I’m still limited.”

“I have got this,” Jon said. With a blaze of Aether, he streaked forward. Tiny spots of water froze as he stepped on them, bringing him out of the water.

“Sure you do,” I grumbled, slogging after him, “but I don’t.” I saw him dive forward, rolling underneath a swirling stream of Brine Aether, before he slashed at the closest Beast. The Brine was the color of dirty seawater, and the Frogs were the same shade of brownish blue. The coating of purple Ice caused by Jon’s attack definitely made the Beast better looking. At least until it landed from its hop and shattered.

“Whoa,” I said, surprised.

Jon slammed into the second one, shield bashing it back into the third, before sending another series of Aether attacks at the fourth. The fifth one leapt over him, though, at the same time the third lashed out with a tongue. “Light!” Jon exclaimed, ripping the Frog’s tongue out with a jerk of his leg, but it tripped him enough that the quick Aether Blast he sent out of the tip of his sword missed the Beast staring hungrily at the pillar in my arms.

I looked at it, the column not disrupting my Aether Sight at least, though I couldn’t strengthen it with extra Aether. I think it’s only level four, I thought. I can take that with two arms tied up. I hope. It landed two meters short of me, the Beast about two and a half meters tall. “Big Frog,” I said.

It croaked and sent a tongue at me. I jumped sideways, my body still superhuman even without Aether techniques. Of course, the Beast was as well, its tongue twisting in mid-air to reach for me. I kicked up, letting the slimy bit grab my leg, then rotated hard. It pulled back, aborting my turn, but it wasn’t strong enough to completely break my center of balance.

A growl sounded from the Beast, and then a column of Brine shot at me. I blocked it with the Aether receptacle. The Aether in the receptacle started to dim, the Beast’s reacting negatively with mine. “Well, crap,” I shouted, then jumped with the pull of the tongue. The Beast yanked me out of the way of its beam, and opened its mouth wide to accept my leg as an offering.

I wrenched myself up and slammed the column of diamond down onto the Beast’s head, crushing its mouth with the crack of bones. It croaked in agony, a swirling barrier of Brine Aether forming around it. The shield knocked my follow up strike away from the Beast.

“Let go of my friend!” Jon shouted, his sword slashing down through the shield to split the Frog in two. “You okay?” He asked after cutting the tongue off my leg.

“Yeah,” I said. “But it looks like I’ll be stuck with this pillar for a while longer.” I gestured with it.

“That is not useful,” he frowned at it.

“Yup,” I said. “Well, let’s go.”

The next three hours passed quickly. The pillars of Water sped up, often leaving Jon to run back and forth between sides or drop a temporary wall of Ice to divert the last bit of the attacks. The Brine Frogs, for lack of a better name, attacked three times more, but Jon had learned his lessons from the first group and none made it through to me. Finally, a stone wall with a doorway appeared in front of us. A pillar rose next to it, with a circular hole the right size to accept the Aether receptacle.

“Well, I guess this is it,” I said. “Good luck with the rest of your tests.”

“Thanks,” Jon said, then pulled me into a side hug. “Come on, stick it in and open the door.”

I snorted, “Phrasing,” and then put the column of diamond into the pillar. With a clunk, it sank down, and the door opened. Jon and Zimnodlot went through together, disappearing into the blackness, and then I followed after.