CHAPTER 80: RESULTS

Sylara instructed Calen to put his hand on the massive animal trapped in the chamber.

"Try to use divine energy to feel the Blight inside of it." She said. "The process will be easier if you understand how the corruption spreads through living creatures."

Calen was unsure how he was supposed to do it, but decided to try anyway - he closed his eyes and and sent a miniscule amount of the flame’s power inside the beast.

That spark traveled a bit through its body, before colliding with something and dispersing, and that feeling have him an idea have him and idea.

He released countless small sparks inside the creature, slowly feeling it with a very low concentration of divine energy - energy which bounced off of something, building a clear mental picture in his mind.

"It’s... a root system?" Calen frowned.

It sounded ridiculous, but that was what he could feel, there was a clear starting point near the beast’s heart, from which a myriad of branching tendrils sprouted, spreading all over its body.

"Correct - most people consider it to be more of a secondary cardiovascular system, but I think that in partially corrupted creatures roots are a better analogy." Sylara nodded. "Your job will be to get rid of those roots, you need to start from the thinnest and make your way up to the source, and then hopefully destroy it as well."

"What if I mess up?"

"Worst case scenario it dies and that’s it - no need to get to stressed, we have quite a lot of them here." She shrugged. "That might sound cruel from someone using the power of nature, but I prefer to be realistic about those things."

That calmed him a little, obviously he would rather not kill the creature he was supposed to help, but if he does there won’t be any consequences.

Calen took a deep breath and pushed his flame inside the beast once more - this time it was smaller, but much more potent and precisely controlled. He ordered the flame to hurt only corruption, but he had doubts whether it would work.

He guided his power towards the end of one of the roots, and started slowly pushing it against the corruption.

The creature flinched when he did that, but didn’t start thrashing around or trying to escape, which was a good sign.

For a while his work went smoothly - he removed branches one after another, slowly trimming the vast system, until it was little more than a few main roots.

Those did pose a little bit of a challenge, since he had to increase the power in order to destroy them, but if he overdid it he harmed the creature and Sylara had to step in to heal it.

It was a painstaking work, but finally he managed to purge all the roots, leaving only the source intact.

"I think we have a problem." Calen clicked his tongue.

"Your doing well, what’s the issue?" Sylara looked at him.

"It’s about the source, originally I thought it was just next to the heart, but it seems like it has attached itself to the organ like a tumor." He looked at the small flame dancing on his palm "I’m not sure if I can destroy it without killing the animal."

"I see." She nodded. "Don’t worry, be slow and precise, and I’ll heal it before you destroy too much - if we work in tandem we should be able to remove it completely."

Calen decided to change his strategy for this one, whereas before he used high force with pinpoint precision, now he would envelop the entire thing in a slightly lower flame to slowly burn away the rot.

The tactic was sound, but turned out to be a little tricky to perform - he had to make sure the flame was even on all sides, and keep the power high enough to actually damage the thing, but low enough so that it wouldn’t happen too quickly.

What’s even worse the beast started thrashing in its restraints - the procedure was hurting it, but there was no other way around it, as the Blight has embedded itself into it so deeply.

Calen was covered in sweat before he even reached the halfway point, the technique it was somewhat similar to filling up the source oasis, and therefore theoretically familiar, but it required much more precision, both because of the smaller scale, and the fact that it was performed on a living being.

He could feel the corruption tumor slowly shrinking under his flame, and the smaller it became the more it started resisting.

By the time it was a third of its original size, he had to put in almost twice as much power to maintain a consistent pace. As they got closer to their goal even the usually flippant and happy Sylara started looking more serious and focused, her gaze transfixed on the creature, as if she could see the heart through the skin and flesh.

Calen could feel his knees buckle as the last signs of the corruption disappeared, but he managed to remain upright.

The animal passed out from the pain at some point, but it was still breathing steadily, even if a bit heavily.

They succeeded.

"Will it return to its original form?" Calen asked in a tired voice.

"It will, but not immediately." Sylara confirmed. "Im guessing it will go into a coma for a few days, so that its body can adjust to the drastic changes."

"It was really tough at the end." He commented.

"Yes, but don’t worry - the mostly purified ones won’t fight back, since the Blight inside of them is dormant."

"...you want us to cleanse more animals?"

"All of them if possible." She nodded. "It will be a good training for you, puls the herbs I’ve prepared for you will need some time to take effect - you might as well help me in the meantime."

"Okay." Calen reluctantly agreed. "When will you give them to me?"

"When we get back to the fortress. If you take them before going to sleep today, we should be able to perform the ritual a day before the festival - assuming everything goes well you and your friends will be able to enjoy the festivities without any issues."

"Right, Elita mentioned something about possible complications... is it true I can die during the ritual?"

"It’s true that dying is a danger in most cases - but not in yours. The worse thing that could happen is that you’ll faint from the pain, the ritual will fail and we’ll have to repeat it." She exhaled slowly. "Well, I suppose there’s also a chance that you’ll go into a coma just like our furry friend over there, but I’m giving you more powerful herbs than you need to hopefully avoid that."

She moved to leave the building and motioned outside.

"Now let’s go, we need to talk about everything."

***

Back at the fortress Calen, Cassian, Isara and Elira were joined not only by Sylara and her advisors, but also Maya and surprisingly, Alfred.

"First of all, let me thank you for fulfilling my tasks so well, we couldn’t have done those things without you." Sylara smiled.

"But you could though." Cassian commented. "Our presence was wholly unnecessary for most of those jobs."

Surprisingly, the Guardian chuckled at his dry, and quite frankly rude statement.

"Perhaps I phrased it badly - we probably could have done those things without you, but that doesn’t mean your presence was any less vital." Sylara grinned. "I needed to know what kind of people are you, and what better way to check it than to watch you when you think you aren’t watched."

"That’s a bit creepy." Isara admitted. "But I am a bit curious what are your opinions about us now."

"Wouldn’t you like to know." She responded. "I won’t share my exact thoughts, but I can assure you that you have all passed my tests with flying colours, so I have prepared rewards for each and every one of you, not just Calen."

Sylara waved her hand and four wooden boxes appeared on the table on front of her, each with a name engraved on it.

"Calen, for you I have prepared a set of three herbs that will help you reach the level required for inheritance, just like we agreed."

He accepted the box with his name and asked:

"Can you tell me what kind of herbs?"

"Phoenix feathers, giant’s toenail and pixie’s wings."

"Those are herbs?" Cassian squinted at the box.

"They are." Elira jumped in to answer. "Very rare and powerful ones."

"Next up, Cassian - I’ve got implements designed to stimulate aura development for you, courtesy of Alfred."

The knight standing in the corner nodded at him.

"I think sir Vandrel’s son deserves to have the best training possible."

"...thank you." Cassian nodded curtly, but Calen could see that he was very pleased.

"For Isara, I procured something from Geo." Sylara opened the box and showed it tho the young mage. "A complete enchantment toolbox."

"Ooooh, I always wanted a one like that!" Isara smiled.

"What are you talking about?" Calen raised an eyebrow. "We had one exactly like this at work."

"Yeah, but we couldn’t touch it outside of work related reasons." Her eyes sparkled a little. "Now I can creat all the stupid... I mean useful enchantments I want."

"And finally Elira." Sylara smiled. "For you I have taken liberty to fully charge the abyss splinter you got from Antonio, and if you’re willing I would like to give you a few exclusive lessons on how to use your powers."

The people who looked the most shocked by that were Sylara’s advisors, who all looked extremely surprised.

"Are you finally taking on an apprentice?" Geodor managed to ask.

"That depends on her answer."

Everyone in the room turned to look at Elira.

"I... Uh.. yes." She smiled a little "I think I would like that."