Lucius closed his eyes once again, targeting his focus towards his core. It took him a few moments to pin down the pulse's signal as it was still quite faint but after a bit of effort, he could feel it once again. Now came the difficult part, though he could feel the orb it was as if it were an atrophied limb, moving it felt like an impossible task.
He kept at it till his mind felt like it would collapse, before exhaling loudly and opening his eyes. The leader leafling was staring at him intently, waiting for him to say something.
"So? Did it work?" the leader leafling asked excitedly.
Lucius shook his head in response, his face fraught with exhaustion. By now his entire body was slippery from all the perspiration he had secreted, and though he had no throat he felt terribly thirsty.
"I see," the leader leafling responded, staring at the ground in thought.
"It feels like a paralyzed limb, like it's there but not really. I can feel it, but at the same time I cant," Lucius sighed, lying on his back in exhaustion. Right now everything was fuzzy, it felt like if he attempted one more time, he would pass out from the mental strain alone.
"What's a paralyzed limb?" the leader leafling asked as a offhand comment before lying down next to Lucius.
"A part of your body that you can't move anymore. Like if one of your legs stopped working."
"Then how would you walk?" the leader leafling asked, staring at his legs as he played with them in the air.
"You'd use something like a crutch, a small stick to help you walk around," Lucius replied, remembering how some of his own men back in his old world were confined to wheelchairs after losing their legs on the battlefield.
"A small stick? I don't see how a stick would help you move around," the leader leafling whispered to himself.
"I guess in your case you'd need someone to help y-" Lucius turned to look at the leader leafling, an idea buzzing through his mind.
"What if you could help me? What if I just need a little push?" he asked, more to himself than the leader leafling.
"But would you even be able to see it? I don't know how this works," Lucius mumbled on, getting into a meditative position as he did.
"I want you to try giving it a shove, once you see a pulsing orb I want you to push it forward with your mind," Lucius said, his words devoid of any of the confidence he usually spoke with.
"It's worth a shot anyway," he whispered to himself before closing his eyes.
After a bit of mental effort, he pinpointed the orb and tried to 'connect' with it once again, but just like last time, it felt impossible. After a few moments he was just about ready to give up, and that's when it happened, it felt as if something was grasping onto his core, before -ever so slightly- it began to move upward.
It took all of Lucius's remaining strength to just keep track of it as it moved, and after what felt like an eternity, he felt the orb move out of his body.
Just then his mind went blank, it was as if the cage that kept his mind from the physical plane had been lifted. He had been thrown into a void of intense light, it was hard to tell where the void ended and his consciousness started, however, he wasn't sure whether that was a bad thing at all. His mind was full and empty all at once. His whole body felt warm, and the mental strain he had been suffering from just a few moments ago had disappeared entirely.
[Shared photosynthesis]
[Absorbing 200 Helios per second]
Lucius could feel the light all around him swirl towards the orb directly above his head. It was like a black hole the size of a pinhead, distorting the light and inhaling it like a hungry beast. After just a few moments of photosynthesis, he could feel his body overheating, if he continued any further it felt like he would be charred alive.
"I-It worked," he sighed, opening his eyes.
The leader leafling was still touching him with the tip of his leaf, his whole body glowing intensely.
Lucius now understood why the leaflings called him the Lighted One, the glow that currently surrounded the leader leafling seemed almost divine, and if he looked anything close to that when he did it, then he wouldn't be surprised if they made him out to be some sort of god.
"Pagan." That's what he would call the leader leafling, though it seemed over the top, Lucius was never the religious type so he didn't mind it much. If anything, had he seen something like this in his past life, perhaps he would've converted.
After a few moments passed, the leader leafling stopped glowing, and his body slacked to the ground in exhaustion.
"You know what, Pagan, I think I like your idea," Lucius whispered to himself, before lying down as well, his mental exhaustion coming back to him all at once.
***
"Not again, I knew we shouldn't have left him."
"It's not like we could've guessed he would do this again. We just have to patien- wait, I think he's awake."
Lucius slowly opened his eyes, it was quite the familiar sight. Ghost was looking down at him with worry-filled eyes, while Alpha and the other leaflings under him stood a bit further behind her.
"You're awake!" Ghost shouted, running towards him.
"Ye-yeah," he said apologetically, picking himself off the ground.
"I'm kind of thirsty," he continued as Ghost leaned her leaf against him. His body felt hot and dry, as if he were a withered twig.
"Lucy, now that you're awake. Can you tell us what that thing is?" Ghost asked, looking a bit above his head.
"What thing?" Lucius looked up to where she was staring and found a glowing orb the size of a pinhead floating right above him. It gave out a wave of heat periodically and seemed to distort everything close to it to a small degree.
"Huh?"