The heavy atmosphere in the room was palpable.
Many servants, nurses, guards, as well as the four Guardians, remained tight-lipped, holding back their sorrow. They knew there was nothing that could be done.
The three young men, not even thirty years old, in the prime of their lives, to be cut down like this was...difficult. It was best that their mothers didn't see them in such a state, butchered beyond recognition, or they just might die from heartache and grief.
Tap, tap, tap…
The sound of swift footsteps echoed in the hallway and was coming ever closer.
The three generals turned around with red eyes to see who was the poor soul that came running at such a dull time. But when they saw the two men enter, their hearts skipped a beat, and their eyes filled with hope.
"Your Majesty," the doctor bowed. Behind him was a walking corpse.
Well, saying that to his face might be just good enough to get yourself hanged. The man was the best Alchemist in Myrtana, the cream of the crop, the one and only…
Bob, his name was Bob.
[All jokes aside, I didn't have a name for this guy. Feel free to suggest one in the comments :)]
"Your Majesty," the man said, without bowing, and opened a small wooden box he was carrying. "As requested, three Elixirs of Life and Fire."
The exquisitely made wooden box had three small vials resting on a crimson cushion with golden phoenixes. The liquid inside was also dark red in color, and it seemed like it was boiling.
Except for the servants and Shadow Guards who didn't dare to lift their heads, the rest looked at the potions with barely hidden greed. Many have heard of the mythical concoction, but few were those that actually ever saw it.
"Oh, is that the Elixir of Life?" Gerald asked after seeing the goods. The Aura surrounding the potion was… It was so big! He simply couldn't stay silent any longer and simply had to ask.
The room turned cold all of a sudden. Hundreds of eyes pierced through him all of a sudden, making him feel uncomfortable.
"Who the hell are you?! How did you get in here?!" A guard suddenly jumped on his feet and unsheathed his sword. He was not the only one. The kneeling Shadows also stood up and armed themselves.
Gerald was confused, "What do you mean, I was here the entire time!"
"Bullshit!" Ewat roared. "How come I didn't see you when coming in? Are you trying to finish off the young-"
"I was behind the door," Gerald interrupted him.
"Enough!" King Robart III bellowed, "Let him stay." Then he turned to the two old men, "Doctor please, we don't have much time…"
"Right away!" The doctor took the box and quickly went to the wounded young masters and carefully made them drink the potion. It wasn't an easy task as they were all unconscious, but he had experience in such things and managed to do it before long.
Meanwhile Bob, in all his skin-and-bones glory, made his way to Gerald and slapped him across the face after giving him a stink eye.
"Ow, what was that for?" Gerald rubbed his cheek, bewildered.
The old man poked him in the chest with his bony finger, emphasizing every word, "It's called Elixir of Life and Fire for a reason, get that through your thick skull! Nobody disrespects my creations! I'll let you off this once, but don't make it happen again!"
After saying his peace he turned around with a "Humph!" and left.
"Okay, geez! I'm sorry," Gerald murmured, but the old skeleton already returned to his spot and couldn't hear him anymore.
'This old coot… His brain probably rotted away after decades of breathing sulfur fumes.' He mused but didn't take it to heart. Old people were often crazy and unpredictable. What he was curious about was to see how the potion worked. If it was any good he might try to get his hands on some.
Everybody now nervously waited for the potion to take effect with bated breath. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience something like this. They didn't even dare to blink as they gathered in a circle around the beds.
Cough!
It all started with that one cough. Arron was the first to show some reaction as his skin was becoming redder by the second. Then they all started coughing.
"Wait, what's happening?" Crag Carre said as he saw his son start to shake, seemingly in a lot of pain.
The old Alchemist grinned and licked his lips, taking out a piece of parchment and a pen in expectation. It didn't happen often that he had the opportunity to observe the potion working on anyone other than himself.
Writing down stuff while under the effect of the Elixir of Life and Fire was difficult due to certain... reasons. The doctor quickly copied him and took a piece of paper to note down this occasion.
Then the three dying men started to release steam…
"The fuck?" escaped Gerald's mouth, but nobody seemed to notice. Whatever was happening was too interesting for anyone to care about him.
Then started the screaming.
"Aaaaaaah!"
"AaAAAaaah!
"WaaAAaahaAA!"
The tree awoke at once and released a blood-curdling scream. At the same time, Mana in the room started acting weirdly, forming a funnel above each patient and started rushing into their bodies on its own, seemingly without end.
Worse thing yet, they were now fully conscious.
"AAAAAAAH!"
The shouting became even louder and their bodies twisted and arched, trying to escape the pain. They were tied down with thick leather straps beforehand, or else they might have tried to escape or commit suicide. Such was the pain they were experiencing right now.
As more and more steam escaped their bodies, their skin turned black and started to crack. Like molten rock, their insides started glowing with insane heat and became soft.
Arron's body transformation was the most striking of them all.
His eyes turned white from heat and his skin peeled off his face as he became a man of flames. Underneath, the skull became molten and soft and slowly closed the giant crack like it was never there in the first place.
The stick in Tabbris' torso burned off in a flash of flames and his wounds closed off, forming a molten-rock-like skin.
His chopped-off limbs started to grow under the effects of powerful magic storms, all white-hot and tentacle-like. As they slowly thickened, they also started taking a more normal shape, his hands splitting into five and forming fingers, and his legs hardening in the form of a foot.
As the three's bodies were slowly reformed, the temperature in the room started to rise exponentially, and the beds they lay on already caught fire.
And yet, with a simple gesture from the King, the place cooled down and the heat was isolated in a sphere in the middle of the room.
However inside, the restraints snapped and the beds crumbled as they burned, taking the three burning men to the ground.
"Fascinating, fascinating! Such power! Such magnificence!" The old Alchemist was shaking with excitement, scribbling down like mad. "If we could only stabilize this… Dull the pain… Immortal soldiers, unafraid of getting hurt, with unlimited power…!"
"Get it together, Bob!" King Robart said with a heavy voice. "You know damn well the pain is not of physical nature. I already told you to stop dreaming about it. Nobody can escape death."
"Hehe, of course, my King! Of course!" The man smiled, but his eyes showed madness and desire. Immortality. No matter the pain, he would always strive for it.
How many times was he reborn? Dozens? Not many knew, but he has seen five generations grow old and die, and he was still here! So what if he resembled a walking corpse? So what if a piece of his Soul burned off whenever he did it? So what if he lost a piece of his memories every time? They were all useless anyway!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Ron roared and started banging on the ground. Each of his strikes left a small crack on the granite floor, and also each was becoming weaker than those before. And yet there was nothing to dull the pain.
"How long…?" Crag asked with gritted teeth, unable to keep looking at his son below in pain any longer.
"Hehe, it should be soon," the Alchemist laughed. "Soon their rebirth will be complete! New life, from the baptism of fire! Praise Innos!"
"Praise Innos," the rest replied in unison, unawares. It was nearly impossible to look away, even for Gerald. The sight was so enchanting, nearly hypnotic for most. It was just that he was observing everything with Magic Eyes, so he could see so much more than the others.
Still, he wasn't even sure what he was looking at. The swirling Mana was so chaotic that it was difficult to decipher. It was like a knot made of millions of strings.
Anyway, it was clear that it was slowing down. Whatever was happening, it should be ending soon.