WIEDERGEBURT Act III: Chapter 7

Immediately after Dante informed us that his sons had returned from in the Demon Beast Mountain Range with life-threatening injuries, our group was driven by cart to the Nevarian Spiritualist headquarters located in the northern district of the city. There, we found Earland and Mikkel lying on a pair of hospital beds inside of the infirmary.

The two brothers were not in good shape. Their clothing had been removed so a pair of healers could fix them up, but the cuts, gashes, and contusions covering their body were not healing quickly enough. Blood seeped from the wounds and stained the blankets they were under. Earland’s entire left flank had also been turned to stone. This didn’t stop the healers from at least trying, and they constantly moved their hands in idiosyncratic patterns that let them channel the water element through their palms.

Rainer was also present. He was standing against the wall, his fists clenched as he stared at his two sons. When we entered, he looked up at us with his caramel eyes, which currently did not contain their usual calm. His short sandy hair was in disarray as well.

“E-Earland! Mykkel!” Kari released a shocked cry as she rushed to the pair. The rest of us stood back for a moment to allow the girl time with her brothers. “What… happened to you two?”

“Kari…” Earland could barely open his eyes, for they were swollen so badly. I could just barely make out their color from behind the massive swells that were his eyelids.

Mykkel did not respond to Kari’s words at all. He was completely unconscious, his breathing labored and sweat forming on his body. His skin was flushed red. What’s more, I noticed that the blood flowing from his wounds was purple.

That could only mean one thing.

“Don’t speak,” Kari cried as she reached out and grabbed his hand. She wasn’t crying, but I could see that she was doing all in her power not to break down. It had been a long time since I’d seen her this distraught.

Despite how she didn’t really get along with her brothers, it was clear that she still loved them.

“How is it looking?” Dante asked the healer attending to Mykkel. He seemed to be having a much harder time healing him than the Spiritualist healing Earland.

The man shook his head. “He’s not looking good. All of his Spiritual Power has been completely exhausted, which is making it harder for my own Spiritual Power to heal his body.”

Mykkel had an affinity for water, as I recall, which made me think he’d probably exhausted his Spiritual Power keeping Earland alive. In doing so, he had likely saved his brother’s life. However, now his own life was in danger.

“Let me take a look at him.” I walked forward and gently but firmly pushed the healer away. The man looked like he was about to protest, but Dante stopped him.

“Let Eryk see if he can do anything,” the man said.

“Yes, Commander.” The healer sent me one last glare before reluctantly backing off.

Studying Mikkel with both my eyes and Spiritual Perception, I could honestly say that I was shocked he was still alive. There was a thick poison flowing through his body. With Spiritual Perception, I could see this poison as a purple flow that was so dark it appeared black. Whatever had caused this was so strong it left a powerful Spiritual Residue inside of the poison.

“Lin,” I called to the Lamia. “Do you recognize this poison?”

Coming up behind me, Lin studied Mikkel for several silent seconds before eventually nodding. “He’s been poisoned by a snake, though this princess cannot say which kind. However, the poison is very deadly. It’s even deadlier than a Lamia’s poison.”

“They have both been poisoned by a Basilisk,” I announced to the group. Shocked gasps rang out from everyone, but I ignored them as I placed my hands over Mikkel’s chest and continued talking. “Basilisks are listed as an S-rank Demon Beast. They are known as the King of Serpents. It is one of the most feared creatures within the Demon Beast Mountain Range, said to cause death with a single glance and containing a poison so potent nothing can survive it.”

Channeling my Spiritual Power and transforming it into the water element, I placed my hands on Mikkel’s chest and let the element flow into his wounds. First, I began eradicating the poison. This was a lot harder than it sounded. The poison of a Basilisk was virulent. When my water element tried to destroy it, the poison fought viciously back.

In order to destroy the Basilisk venom, I slowly isolated the many strands flowing through Mikkel’s body, surrounding each strand with water, and then purifying the poison using my element.

Since there was so much poison currently running rampant through his body, it took longer than I would have liked to cure him. While I was healing Mikkel, the two healers were now working on Earland, who didn’t seem to have been poisoned. That said, his entire left side had been turned to stone.

Sweat formed on my brow as I continued to systematically destroy one strand of poison after another. The reason this healer couldn’t heal Mikkel wasn’t because Mikkel’s exhausted Spiritual Power was hampering his efforts. It was because the poison was simply so powerful that it destroyed the water element as soon as it entered the body. The only way to heal Mikkel was to overpower the poison with someone whose water element was stronger than the poison itself.

As I continued working, I told the others what I knew about Basilisks. “The fact that Mikkel and Earland are still alive means the Basilisk they encountered hasn’t reached full maturity. If it had, Mikkel would have died from the poison and Earland would be dead instead having the left side of his body petrified. That means this Basilisk currently only has the power of an A-rank Demon Beast instead of an S-rank one. Still…” I continued as I finished destroying the last of the poison. “It’s a miracle they survived against something like that and returned here alive.”

“My kids are strong,” Dante said. The words were prideful, but there was no pride in his voice. Only worry. “And they are resourceful. If there is a way to escape from a situation alive, they’ll find it.”

I nodded but didn’t say anything. There was nothing I could say. The evidence of his words lay before me.

With the poison from Mikkel’s body gone, it became much easier to heal his injuries. I flooded his body with the water element. This caused his wounds to visibly begin closing. It was almost like watching him get injured in reverse. The flesh sealed up like I was reversing the flow of time, leaving behind healthy pink skin.

Mikkel’s breathing became much easier once I had healed him. With him healed, I turned to Earland.

Unlike Mikkel, Earland’s life was not in danger, but that was not to say he was out of the woods. He’d obviously been hit with the Basilisk’s stare. Had the Basilisk been fully-grown, that stare would have killed him. The fact that his body had become petrified instead was proof that they had fought against an immature Basilisk.

Of course, he should have been completely petrified. That he wasn’t likely had something to do with his own strong Spiritual Power and Mikkel using the water element to fight against the petrification.

“Eryk,” Kari mumbled as she looked up at me. Her eyes were wet, yet no tears fell from them. She was trying so hard to stay strong. Later, when it was just us, I would have to let her poor those emotions out. It wasn’t good to keep them contained.

“Don’t worry,” I said with a slight smile. “I can heal Earland of his petrification.”

Dante ordered the two healers who had been doing all they could for Earland to step back. Both of them had seen me do what they could not, so neither was willing to even put up a fight this time. When they took a step away from the bed, I came up to Earland’s left side, opposite Kari, who was holding her brother’s non-petrified hand. I placed my hand on the stone-like arm and used Spiritual Perception to get a sense of how powerful this petrification was.

It looked like the petrification had halted at just a little before reaching his heart, which explained why he hadn’t been killed. I could probably chalk this up to Mikkel using the water element to heal his older brother. Water was a purifying force. Of course, half of Earland’s body was still petrified, but that was better than being dead.

“Basilisks can use a powerful Spiritual Attack known as Petrification, which penetrates the body through eye contact. They are basically shoving their Spiritual Power combined with a potent killing intent infused with the earth element to petrify their victims,” I said as I began channeling the water element into Earland’s arm. “A fully matured Basilisk has an incredible amount of control over this ability. They can penetrate any part of the body, ignoring all defenses. Even a Spiritual Aura is useless against a Basilisk’s stare. Generally speaking, they petrify only the heart. This instantly kills whoever was petrified, but it leaves the body intact so they can eat .”

Kari looked quite pale as I explained what I knew to her. While I did feel bad for giving her so much gruesome information, I also knew she would need to know about this if she planned on exploring the deeper parts of the Demon Beast Mountain Range. Basilisks were rare, but they were not uncommon.

“You seem to know a lot about Basilisks,” Rainer said.

“I know a lot about Demon Beasts in general,” I admitted without shame. “I’ve studied everything I can so I can figure how best to kill them.”

Rainer accepted my explanation with a nod and didn’t question me further.

I focused more on healing Earland now, watching as the pale gray skin became more of a peach color, almost like brand new flesh. His arm relaxed as the petrification disappeared. The skin all along his left side slowly continued shifting back to a more natural skin color, and as it did, the muscles that had been stiff and incapable of moving, slackened.

Since I was already healing the petrification, I decided to go ahead and heal the rest of his wounds too. The torn skin reknit itself together. The bruises vanished. The swelling around his eyes went down. Earland breathed an intense sigh of relief and looked at me with gratitude.

“Thank you,” he mumbled before falling fast asleep. He must have been unable to rest because of the petrification. Now that it was gone, his body could no longer function without sleep.

“There.” I stepped back and took a deep breath. “Earland has been healed.”

The reactions within the room varied. While Kari looked at me like she wanted to hug me so tightly my ribs would fracture, the two healers were staring at me with a mixture of awe and jealousy. Meanwhile, Lin and Fay did not have any particular expression. They were relieved, of course, but they weren’t very close to Kari’s brothers.

Dante’s reaction was the most impactful.

“Thank you!” The man’s silver hair fell around his face as he bowed from the waist. His hands were clenched so tightly that his arms were shaking. “Thank you so much for saving my kids! I know that being a Spiritualist means walking alongside death, but if my kids had died before me, there’s no way I’d ever be able to live with myself.”

“There’s no need to thank me,” I said with a sigh. “We’re family now. It’s only natural to help family. Besides, one of your sons is still missing. Please save your thanks until after I’ve rescued Geirolf.”

My words caught everyone off guard. Dante straightened up and looked at me incredulously.

“You’re going to try and rescue Geirolf?” he asked.

“Obviously,” I answered. Dante bit his lip, stopping himself from saying something pessimistic, but I already knew what was on his mind. “There is a chance that Geirolf is already dead. However, until we know for sure, we should go under the assumption that he is alive. I’m going to check out the place they were exploring to see if I can find any trace of him. If he’s alive, I’ll bring him back. If he isn’t… I can at least bring back his body so he can have a proper burial.”

These couldn’t be easy words to hear, but Dante sucked up his feelings and nodded at me. “I know where they went. I can mark it down for you on a map.”

I agreed that would be the best way to start my journey. However, before he and I left the room, I turned to Fay and Lin.

“Can you two remain here and look after Kari?” I asked.

“Of course.” Lin placed a hand on her chest. “This princess has no intention of leaving Big Sister alone right now.”

“Please be assured that we’ll look after Kari,” Fay added with a soft smile. “She’s my best friend. I won’t let her suffer by herself.”

Nodding, I left Kari’s well-being to them and followed Dante and Rainer out of the infirmary. The last I saw of my three betrotheds was Lin and Fay walking over to Kari and hugging her from both sides. Then the door closed, and I was following the two Nevarian Spiritualist commanders down the hall.

We made our way to the commander’s office in silence. Once we entered, Dante went over to the commander’s desk and pulled out a scroll, which he laid on the table in the center of the room. He, myself, and Rainer stood around the table.

Grabbing a quill and a bottle of ink, Dante dipped the quill into the ink and circled a section of the Demon Beast Mountain Range that I recognized. It was not very far from Nevaria. In fact, I was shocked by how close it was.

“This is where Earland, Geirolf, and Mikkel said they were going,” Dante said with furrowed brows.

“Isn’t that where the city known as Bucharest is?” I asked with a frown. “From what I know, this city was said to be the capital of a kingdom known as Romania before the Catastrophe destroyed it. The city itself is supposed to have already been cleared out, and I’ve never heard of any Basilisks living there. In fact, Basilisks normally prefer to live in underground caverns.”

“I know that.” Dante sighed and ran a hand through his silver hair. “Don’t think I’m not aware of this. However, this is where Mikkel said they would be exploring. They actually wanted to travel further in, but the Nevarian Spiritualists we’ve had scouting the Demon Beast Mountain Range have reported that a lot of the stronger Demon Beasts are now closer to Nevaria than they were before, so we refused to let them travel any further than this.”

“We think the reason for this is because of Dyr,” Rainer added. “I believe her powers attracted these Demon Beasts. However, her powers disappeared before they could follow it to the source, and thus they began inhabiting new regions closer to Nevaria.”

“That’s certainly plausible,” I murmured.

Thinking on the Demon Beast attack two months ago, I vaguely felt like the number of Demon Beasts that had attacked Nevaria had been too few. Maybe my memories from my previous life were simply fuzzy. I’ll admit that I had not been focused on how many Demon Beasts were attacking at the time, but I also felt like the Demon Beast Invasion in my previous life had consisted of far more Demon Beasts than the one in this life.

The most likely reason I could think of was that Dyr’s power in this life had not been as powerful, or maybe the ritual had not been complete. The Leucht Family had decided to use Dyr early. Had they waited a few more years, then I’m sure the Demon Beast Invasion would have been just as big in this life as it had been in my previous one.

“Bucharest has a sewer system much like the one here in Nevaria,” Rainer added. “The Basilisk might be using the sewers as its home.”

“If Bucharest has a sewer system, then a Basilisk might decide to make the city its territory,” I admitted. “Either way, I’ll start my search there. However, I’m going to need several things first.” I looked at Dante. “I need you to travel back to the Imperial Royal Palace and grab the Dragon’s Tail Ruler, my armor, and my alchemist set.” Then I looked at Rainer. “And I want you to head over to the Alchemist Association and get several ingredients for me. I’ll write them down for you.”

I grabbed a blank sheet of parchment from the commander’s desk, took the quill from Dante’s hand, and jotted down the list of ingredients I needed. There were 30 in total. Fortunately, none of them were extremely rare. I was positive the Alchemist Association would have everything I needed.

Rainer looked at the list and nodded. “I’ll have someone grab these right away.”

“And I’ll personally get everything you requested,” Dante added.

Dante and Rainer soon left, and I debated traveling back into the infirmary where Kari, Fay, and Lin were, but it was only for a moment before I decided against it. Right now I needed to focus on saving Geirolf. If I saw Kari at the moment, my attention would go right to her. It was better to keep my distance for now and leave comforting her to Fay and Lin.

Dante and Rainer must have been working exceptionally fast. Rainer returned within an hour and a half with several bags worth of ingredients. Everything I had requested was inside of the bags. Dante returned about half an hour after Rainer with the Dragon’s Tail Ruler, my armor, and my alchemy set.

“Is there an empty room here that I can use?” I asked.

“There is. Follow me,” Dante said as he walked out of the commander’s office.

The room that he led me to was just a big empty space with four walls, a ceiling, a floor, and a table in the center. I walked up to the table and began setting up my alchemy set without wasting any time. The longer it took me to begin, the longer it would be before I could rescue Geirolf, and the more likely it was that he would die—if he wasn’t already dead.

Dante left me alone once I began setting up my alchemy kit. Fortunately, the table was large enough to fit everything on it. After I had set everything up, I began pulling ingredients out of the bag and setting them on the table as well.

Alchemy was the act of refining pills that created various effects. Generally, alchemy pills were consumed, but they sometimes could also be absorbed through the skin after releasing them into a bath, such as the case with the Body Forging Pill.

Alchemy pills were categorized into four tiers: Beginner, Intermediate, Master, and Original. Beginner-tier alchemy pills were relatively easy to make and generally only required no more than six or seven ingredients at the most. Intermediate alchemy pills often required anywhere between 10 and 25 ingredients. Meanwhile, Master-tier alchemy pills could consist of 25 or more ingredients.

The more ingredients required to refine an alchemy pill, the more difficult it was to refine. This was because multiple ingredients had to be refined at the same time. What’s more, if you let any one ingredient sit for too long, the ingredient would be ruined and you’d have to refine it all over again. And since all the ingredients had to be refined within a specific timeframe, if one of the ingredients became ruined, then all of the ingredients would become useless as well.

I started the refining process by first filling up two 500 mL beakers with water to the halfway point. I placed a burner—a flat disc made from a monster core with the fire element—underneath them and activated both burners to bring the water to a boil. While waiting for the water to boil, I grabbed the first ingredient I needed to refine.

Juniper berries.

They were tiny blue berries that looked a lot like blueberries, but they were harder and couldn’t be eaten by normal people unless they wanted to ruin their teeth. These had to be calcined. After crushing the barriers in the mortar, I scraped the remains inside of a 100 mL beaker and activated another burner to begin roasting them.

Next, I grabbed the spirit root, which looked like a glowing white root with numerous fine hairs sprouting from it. I placed these inside of a 200 mL flask, capped the flash, and then activated yet another burner. This particular ingredient needed to be sublimated. In other words, I needed to turn it into a gas without going to the liquid stage first.

Following this, I grabbed two more ingredients, sun moth wings and mora tapinella, which I added together inside one of the 500 mL beakers. The water was boiling. After tossing in the ingredients, I took a stirring rod and began mixing them together, watching with careful eyes as both ingredients dissolved into the water. It wasn’t long before the substances had congealed together and turned a viscous green.

By this point, the juniper berries had roasted nicely. I used tongs to grab the 500 mL beaker and brought it over to the 100 mL beaker, tilted it, and let the water slowly mix into the calcined juniper berries. The boiling liquid hit the berries and quickly mixed in with them. The berries dissolved and the water shift from clear to dark blue. I made sure the berries had mixed into the water properly with a stirring rod, and then added the new substance into the 500 mL beaker with the sun moth wings and mora tapinella. The resulting concoction went from viscous green and dark blue respectively to a bright golden color.

I glanced at the spirit root and saw that it had become completely shriveled. The liquid found inside of the spirit root had been brought to the surface and vaporized, becoming a thick gas that tried floating out of the flask but couldn’t because I had capped it.

Being careful not to let any of the gas escape, I uncapped the flask and quickly replaced it with a separator funnel, squibb shaped, glass stopcock. The gas quickly floated upward through the tube and began gathering inside of the 500 mL stopcock. Once all the gas had gathered inside, I closed the neck so none of the gas could escape, set it aside, and got started on the rest of the ingredients.

It took nearly two hours to refine the first alchemy pill. Some of the ingredients needed to be refined through calcination, others were refined via ceration, and still others relied on congelation or fusion to properly refine. What’s more, I was refining most of these ingredients at either the same time or immediately after refining two or more ingredients, and then I had to mix them all together in a specific order for each ingredient to activate and work in conjunction with the others. By the time I got to the part where I used my Spiritual Power to create the pill, the mental strain was enough that even an intermediate alchemist would have felt exhausted.

“That’s one Azoth Medicinal Pill ready,” I muttered with a tired sigh as I held the alchemy pill in my hand.

It was a golden pill that appeared perfectly smooth and round. There didn’t seem to be anything unusual or remarkable about it outside of the pure gold color itself. However, this pill was one of the most difficult Master-tier alchemy pills a person could refine.

“Now I just have to make at least one more.” I sighed tiredly as I cleaned out my alchemy set and got back to work.

***

It took another three hours to refine a second Azoth Medicinal Pill. It would have only taken two, but I made a mistake during the refining process and had to start over. However, I finally had two alchemy pills—one for Geirolf and one for myself in case we needed them.

After making the alchemy pills, I stored them in my pouch, which contained several other pills I felt like I might need, and began putting on my armor. I slid the chestplate over my head. The chestplate was composed of two parts, a back and front plate, which was held together with leather straps, which I tightened until both were fitted comfortably to my chest. Once that was done, I attached the greaves to my boots.

I was wearing the same clothing I usually did when I went out. The dark black pants fit my legs snugly and had an elasticity that let them stretch out to conform against my bottom. A light blue undershirt was underneath my chest plate. The front was longer than the back, which caused it to trail down in front of me like a hanging tapestry. I put the dark blue vest with a high collar over my chestplate. The ends extended past my knees. Once everything else was secure, I put on a pair of gray fingerless gloves that went past my shoulders and cinched a belt, which my pouch was attached to, around my waist.

The sound of the door opening alerted me to someone entering. I paused with my right hand halfway to the Dragon’s Tail Ruler and turned my head to Kari, who stood in the doorway with red eyes and a determined expression.

“I’m going with you,” she said, and I finally noticed that she was also dressed in her new armor, which had been fitted over her blue and white shirt, which featured long sleeves and appeared vaguely dress-like. The reason I didn’t call it a dress was because it stopped too high up her legs. Her knee-high brown boots were protected by new greaves, while black tights covered her legs and hips.

I found myself at a crossroads. I had been planning on going alone. I could travel faster by myself than I could if someone else was with me, and I had planned on liberally abusing the Flash Step to reach Bucharest within a few hours. If Kari went with me, my pace would be slowed, which meant that even if Geirolf was still alive, his chances of surviving until I arrived went down. It would be better if I went alone.

At the same time, Kari and Geirolf were brother and sister. They were family.

“I might not like Geirolf very much.” Kari took a step forward as she placed a hand on her chest. “But he’s still my brother. I can’t just sit here and do nothing, knowing that he’s out there somewhere with a Basilisk after him. Please let me come with you.”

Gazing into the woman’s eyes, I found a determined fire blazing inside of her beautiful blue irises. There was a will stronger than mythril hidden behind that gorgeous face.

Whether it was in this life or my previous life, I had never once been able to deny Kari anything, and so my will to reject her desire crumbled before it could even form. I took in a deep breath, held it, then expelled it.

“If Geirolf is still alive and there really is a Basilisk after him, this situation is going to be incredibly dangerous,” I said.

“I know,” Kari said.

“If you come with me, you will have to follow every order I give you.”

“I know.”

“Even if that order is to leave me behind.”

Kari did not say “I know” when I said this. Her mouth trembled as she struggled against her conflicting emotions.

“Kari,” I began. “If you cannot follow every order I give, no matter what that order is, I won’t take you with me.”

“I… I understand.” It sounded like she was choking on the words. “I’ll follow your orders… even if you tell me to leave you behind.” Her eyes watered as if the very idea was physically hurting her, but she smiled at me. “But I’m only willing to do that because I have confidence in you. I have faith that you will always return to me, so you had better make sure to come back even if the worst should happen.”

Her words made me smile. “Don’t worry. Something like a Basilisk that hasn’t even reached full maturity won’t be enough to defeat me.”

Since I made my decision to let Kari come with me, I saw no point in remaining here. After grabbing the Dragon’s Tail Ruler, I used magnetism to make it stick to my back, and then traveled with Kari outside of the Nevarian Headquarters. Lin, Fay, Rainer, and Dante must have been informed that we were leaving. They exited the headquarters several seconds after us.

“Eryk,” Rainer said. “Please take care of yourself out there… and please bring Geirolf back home.”

“I will,” I promised.

“Also, take care of Kari,” Dante added. “Don’t let anything happen to her.”

“I won’t. I promise,” I said.

“This princess doesn’t like the idea of you two going out there by yourself.” Lin crossed her arms and bit her lip. “She wants to go with you.”

I shook my head. “If it weren’t such a dire situation where time was our greatest enemy, I’d let you both come along, but that isn’t possible right now. I need to travel quickly.”

“This princess knows that, which is why she’s not arguing to come with you.” Lin slithered up and kissed both me and Kari on the cheeks. “Please come back safely.”

“We will,” Kari promised.

Unlike Lin, who was very free with her affection, Fay stood in place about a meter away, not saying anything as she gripped her clothing. I saw this and sighed.

“Fay,” I said, causing her to blink. “I’m counting on you to hold down the fort.”

“Yes… I will do that,” Fay said with trembling lips. “Please… don’t do anything reckless.”

The very act of traveling into the Demon Beast Mountain Range without prior preparation was reckless in and of itself, nevermind the fact that I might end up fighting a Basilisk. I didn’t say this, however. I promised her that I would do everything in my power to stay safe.

With our goodbyes said, I lifted Kari into a princess carry, activated Flash Step Version 2: Jump Step, and sped toward the northern gate that would lead me out of Nevaria.