SL: Chapter 727 – Day 5,915 Part 3 – Death Of A Companion

We arrived at the city as I finished clearing off the monsters that had been following us. We landed in the plaza and I annihilated all the people nearby. I didn’t want to deal with headaches or trouble. Young Michael was groaning in pain. Michelle was still unconscious. I scooped up Young Michael and pushed his hands onto a pillar.

His face came back togeather. I let out a sigh of relief. “Why can’t I see?” he asked. I felt my heart rate spike at that.

“Get another regeneration,” I suggested.

“I just did. My eyes…my eyes aren’t coming back,” he said with fear.

“They came back, let me look,” I said. He turned towards me. They were milky white. He had been blinded. That was really bad.

“We can fix it, even if I have to train up a doctor myself,” I said. Young Michael looked away and I could tell he was crying as silently as he could. I didn’t say anything as I returned to the airship.

“Any luck waking her up?” I asked Clarissa.

“Nothing. She is breathing shallowly. Her heart is still going. Young Michael?” she asked.

“Blinded. Regeneration isn’t fixing it,” I replied and Clarissa let out a sigh.

“If she doesn’t wake up, she will die,” Clarissa said. I went over to Michelle and began lightly slapping her. No reaction. I poked her in the sides and gut, no reaction either. “If Michael lost his eyes, she might be brain dead,” Clarissa said.

“I will try to shock her awake. The longer she goes without a regeneration the worse it will be,” I replied and put both my hands on her head. I sent a pulse of energy through her head. Michelle’s entire body convulsed.

“Wake Monster Master Michelle. Triple M,” I said and sent another wave of energy through her head. Her entire body convulsed and her ragged breathing sped up slightly. Lifting her up, I quickly carried her off the airship and to the store. Young Michael was gripping one of the pillars, probably hoping another purchase of regeneration would fix his eyes. I put my arms under Michelle’s arms and grabbed her wrists while standing behind her. I put her hands on the pillar.

“Use the store. Regenerate,” I told her.

“Is that you Michael?” Young Michael asked.

“Wake up Michelle, wake up,” I repeated. She let out a gasp and struggled in my grip, letting out a moan. “Use a regeneration, store is in front of you.” I pushed the top of her hands down on the pillar. She went still and there was a surge of energy that went through her body. I stepped away and moved around in front of her.

Her jaw and teeth were fixed. But she had a blank look on her face. “Michelle, are you okay?” I asked.

“Michelle. Michelle. Michelle,” she quietly repeated.

“I am Michael. You remember that?” I asked.

“Remember. Remember. Remember,” she quietly repeated. I closed my eyes as I screamed to myself.

“Hey Michelle. Wake up. Come on, stop joking around,” Young Michael said.

“Wake up. Wake up. Wake up,” she repeated.

“Come on, lets get back to the airship and get out of here,” I said.

“Um. I…I need help,” Young Michael said.

“I will carry her up first, then come back for you,” I said. I returned Michelle first to Clarissa and then went back for Young Michael. As I picked him up in a bridal carry he had despair on his face.

“What am going to do?” he hesitantly asked.

“Find an eye doctor and get them enough stats to try and fix this.” A shame about the Fleshcrafter. If anyone could have fixed this, it would have been him. “I have some ideas. I did read all the research. I just never practiced. Eyes we can fix,” I said.

He didn’t say anything, and I didn’t point out that he was crying as I returned to the airship. “Time to head back to our base,” I said and began to set off. The airship shook. The energy reserves were much lower than they should be. My mind raced and I immediately had a guess on what happened.

“Shit! Brace for landing!” I shouted as the wall for the city was in front of us. I swung the airship to the side and forced it to rapidly descend. There was some shouting in the background as we slammed down onto the road next to the wall. The airship skidded across the ground and its side slammed into the wall.

“Quickly, we need to get everything off,” I said.

“Why?” Clarissa looked at me in shock.

“Quickly!” I ordered her and she didn’t ask. The four trunks in the back were already mostly packed away. Clarissa got them off the airship, while I quickly carried Young Michael and Michelle away.

“Don’t look, no matter what,” I told Clarissa and brought my hands up. I hit the airship with a massive annihilation blast. As the dust cleared there was something. Like an invisible sheet of paper that was constantly folding.

I felt a massive headache hit me as I tried to understand it. A random person from the city came around a corner and looked at the monster. Their body began to fold at weird angles, blood, viscera, and other chunks exploding outwards as another foldable monster began to emerge from inside of them. I unleashed another annihilation blast, killing the person and the second foldable monster broke apart. The first one remained where I had first seen it, unmoving besides folding constantly. I put more energy into this attack than was safe.

A shockwave exploded outwards from the annihilation blast. A portion of the city wall the monster was next to collapsed along with several buildings. I was forced to use Air Burst from being blasted backwards. I didn’t hesitate to unleash a massive wave of Acid Shot followed up by Force Shot. There was another annihilation explosion.

“Is it safe now?” Clarissa called out after a minute. There was no sign of the foldable hell monster.

“Yes. That was to close,” I called out the first part and made my way over to my group. “There was a monster hidden in the airship’s energy storage.”

“What? How?” Clarissa asked.

“These hell monsters appear to need or want concentrated energy, but struggle against something with a will. The airship was a convenient vector of attack. When I saw the energy reserves were lower than they should have been, I realized there was a problem,” I replied heavily. We had lost the airship. The only airship in the Systemic Lands. My airship, which was incredibly important to me so I didn’t have to walk everywhere.

“Upgrade this city?” Clarissa asked me and I sighed heavily.

“Possibly. Just taking a moment to process everything. What a mess,” I muttered in frustration. The airship was the most valuable member of my team besides myself. Losing it was a massive loss. A loss that could be fixed, but still a massive loss.

“I am useless,” Young Michael said quietly while Michelle kept staring blankly and repeating whatever she heard last. What a complete and utter mess. At least I had airship insurance on top of health insurance in terms of points.

“It is fixable. The trick is forcing your eyes to see again by reshaping your body and then letting that set in long enough to fix the curse damage. Eyes can be fixed. I might not be the best, but I do know what to do,” I told Young Michael and he shut up. I didn’t blame him, but he needed a tougher mentality if he wanted to survive. Losing some eyes and having a teammate who could possibly fix the curse damage wasn’t a horrible position to be in.

Unlike Michelle. I could only hope her brain would recover on its own. The only problem with an airship was having to put pieces togeather. The cost wasn’t a huge factor, but it was an entire thing. Even with my point reserves, it would take a chunk of them and time.

But the moment I suspected a hell creature of gaining a ride, I knew I had to wipe out the airship. At least I had saved all my stuff. “First, let’s upgrade the city. Level 4 and a middle sized airship assembly. Going to need to get a home as well we can barricade,” I said.

“Annoying. The population here, the fact that most don’t know English is a massive headache. But there is no place near Purgatory for a proper secret base,” she replied.

“You want to take over Purgatory?” I asked her.

“No. Let’s just get a building. My people can use it as a public gathering point. I can move operations there. A hidden base should remain hidden,” Clarissa said.

“Well, you want people or the chests?” I asked Clarissa.

 “Four and two people. This is going to be a pain. I will take Michelle and Young Michael. I can carry her in my arms, and he can grab onto my back,” Clarissa said. I carefully gathered up the four wooden trunks, stacking them carefully. It was annoying having to balance them in my arms as we quickly made our way back to the city’s plaza at its center.

There were people looking at us and talking in Hindi or some other language. I didn’t care. None of them were a threat. We reached the city center, and everyone fled at our arrival. After showing up the last time, they got the message that I didn’t want to deal with them.

“City upgraded. I am getting a 4 by 4 building,” I told Clarissa who just nodded. I picked one edge of the plaza and the structures moved about. I then purchased a other amenities for the building as I quickly did the layout. I also increased the height to 3 stories, putting the building above other buildings. The points were being used up quickly, but I could make billions back in a single day. Millions didn’t mean much anymore.

An airship port was purchased as part of the building along with an airship assembly building next to it. “Done. Let’s get these two settled in while I begin dealing with an airship,” I said.

“Maybe Young Michael could look after Michelle, while I head back and get people here. To help assemble stuff and look after the building,” Clarissa said. Young Michael was silent, and Michelle was quietly repeating things.

“A day?” I asked her.

“I will be back late tomorrow,” she said.

“Young Michael, you up for that?” I asked.

“Um, yes. Will need some help though and not much I can do while blind,” he said morosely.

“Just keep an eye on Michelle, so she doesn’t hurt herself or anything weird happen. Help me get everything settled in the building first,” I told Clarissa. It was a bit of work, but I got food and other supplies while showing Young Michael where everything was.

It would take time and be a pain, but I would figure out how to fix him up. It was just a matter of time and effort. Also there were a lot of disposable test subjects I could use to see how eyes should work and make the necessary changes in Young Michael’s head. Or he might be able to make the changes himself. But I would give me a couple of days to mentally recover and bounce back. For now I would give him some space and have him watch Michelle.