While Zaen was swinging between life and death, the woman who referred to herself as Ravener was busy treating his critical wounds. She was the last ray of hope for not only Zaen but for everyone on the planet.
Aeron had no idea how she was able to treat such a grave wound all by herself. Anyone who would have seen Zaen in the state Aeron found him, would have said that he won't last for long. And deep down, Aeron knew it was the truth. Yet for some reason, Ravener was deadset on fixing Zaen up.
In the meantime, her partner, who called himself Paragon, was trying to cheer Aeron up. But Aeron's mood did not get better despite his best efforts. And how could he? His brother was on the verge of death.
"Paragon, take some hardened stitches out of master's inventory," Ravener ordered Paragon before wiping sweat off her forehead, "Also bring out a medkit along with a Blood crystal. Using bandages might restore Zaen's dropping HP but the wound won't close like this."
"But Ravener, we only have two of the crystals left. Can't you heal him without using the crystals?..." Paragon tried to dissuade his partner only for her to scowl at him.
"If this man dies here, no one would be able to stop the calamity from happening." Ravener snatched the medkit and the crystal from her partner's hands before turning around to focus on healing Zaen, "Do you think your two medkits and crystals would be enough to save you sorry a*s then?"
"..."
"That's what I thought," Ravener mumbled before using the precious crystal to heal Zaen's grievous wounds, "Even after training with the master for more than a decade, we can barely last for a couple of days in the other realm. But this man lasted more than us even without any formal training. That's the difference between a Champion and us Disciples. Without him, we are doomed, to say the least."
The room once again went silent after their small bickering. Paragon was a bit sulky because their master, who was also a champion like Zaen, had to slay an A-ranked major ghoul all by himself to gain three blood crystals as the reward. They already had to use one to say their master before he suddenly disappeared on them. And the remaining two crystals were like treasures for him. A treasure he did not want to waste on a newbie whom he didn't trust. But as Ravener said, if they wanted to stop the calamity then Zaen was their only hope.
Sill, their master's disappearance was a bit... unnerving for them. They were pretty sure it was the Hand's doing but they had no idea how to proceed after their master disappeared. Without a champion guiding them, they were cut off from the other realm. So they did what they could in the real world by keeping an eye on those Hand's lackeys, who were also known as the special officers. And trying to sabotage their every move but with little to no success.
The few disciples they had in their brotherhood weren't strong enough to do much against a full-fledged organisation with global influence. They could only work from the shadows and try to amass more people on their side while preparing them to lead and protect more people for when the great calamity befalls the humans.
They were resigned to their fate and were just waiting for the inevitable to happen. But then, the artifact that gave their master his powers, reacted to something. Most of the disciples knew nothing about what was happening. But the Elder, who was the first disciple and the most experienced one among them knew exactly what was happening.
Her master had told her, how the other Artifacts would react when a new champion was born. How the inanimate Artifact would shine brighter than the sun and lighten up the world. How all the lost souls would gather in one place to greet humanity's new ray of hope. How the monsters and the ones aiding them would cower in fear of their doom... she knew it all.
Her old eyes that had lost all joy and hope were now shining again as she proclaimed in her croaky voice, "A new champion has born!"
The artifact gave them everything they would require to find Zaen. But it was in a language none of them could read. The artifact's words could only be understood by a champion and no one else. All they had was a name. Thankfully, it wasn't tough to find him as he was quite famous and had a lot of online presence. But it became a problem when the Hand also got a whiff of the situation. Now they not only had to recruit Zaen and help him but also keep the Hand away to protect him.
Thus, it became Ravener and Paragon's mission to find and aid the new champion, while the rest misguided the Hand along with the special force and mess with them in whatever way they could afford to. Ravener was happy that they finally found Zaen, but they were not expecting to find Zaen in such a critical condition. They were afraid they might have been too late in locating the champion.
'You have to survive... no matter what...' Ravener thought to herself, 'You're our last hope for survival.'
***
A couple of hours later...
Zaen felt a strong sting in his chest and slowly opened his eyes. The room was shrouded with bright light. But his vision was blurry and he couldn't make out what was happening. All he could see were the blurry silhouette of three people in his room. One of whom was operating on the gaping hole in his chest, while the other two were intently looking at him. Even with his blurry gaze, Zaen immediately recognised his little brother.
'Aeron? Who are these people?' He wanted to ask but no voice came out of his mouth.
His blurry gaze then fell on the person treating his wound. Then he saw the big hole in his chest for the first time. However, it looked like the wound was slowly healing by itself?
'Why is it that every time I go to the other realm, I have to get my chest punctured if nothing else?' Zaen wanted to smile a bit, he couldn't even move a single facial muscle.
It was as if his body just didn't want to listen to his commands anymore. And how could he blame his body? His reckless and immature actions were what brought him to feel death once again. No matter how strong he became, something always got to him in the end. It was a miracle that he survived for as long as he did with the gigantic holes in his upper body. However, he could not get his mind off of the strangers who were in the room with him.
'Did Aeron called someone for help?'
That was Zaen's first guess. He wanted to know more about the strangers and why were they there in the first place. But he fell asleep before he could ask anything. His body was too weak to anything, let alone move or talk.