Viktor continued to pick up the objects, but he had no affinity for any other than the candle. Soon after, he tested the books and instruments, and when he picked up a guitar, a high-pitched sound automatically came out of it, which caused Viktor a big headache.
Lilith also took the guitar and had Viktor continue to test, but apart from the guitar and the candle, neither of them had an affinity with Viktor.
The morning was over by the time Viktor had finished checking his affinity.
Seeing Viktor finishing, Lilith extends her hand and her red aura soon collects all the objects and returns them somewhere in the house. When the red aura returned from inside the house, she was carrying a tray of food that she had left in front of Viktor.
"Eat and rest, you're going to need energy to, maybe, survive today." She spoke Lilith in a nonchalant voice to Viktor, before pulling her gaze away from him and opening her little book again.
Viktor looked at the tray of food in front of him and his mind didn't feel like eating, but his body did, with his stomach growling.
He decided not to think any more and just ate silently as some thoughts ran through his young mind.
...
After just over an hour, Lilith closed her little book and looked back at Viktor, and he opened his eyes and turned to her coldly.
"You have two choices. Either you become stronger or you die." Lilith spoke slowly under Viktor's gaze.
Before giving Viktor even time to think, Lilith picks up the black candle and throws it towards Viktor.
He instinctively picks up the candle, which immediately ascends and begins to drain its energy.
"You are only allowed to eat or sleep again when you have extinguished the candle in your hands." Lilith spoke before ignoring Viktor and going back to reading her little book.
The words of the beautiful but cruel young woman startled Viktor, he knew there was nothing he could do, and he just took a deep breath trying to control his anger. He wouldn't eat or sleep until the candle was out, as he didn't know what would happen to him if he went against Lilith, but he didn't think that was really a problem.
The boy didn't have to think long before he wet his fingers in his mouth and tried to put out the candle's fire as he normally would.
Although the candle didn't go out, he found that the red fire of the candle wasn't hot or cold, it was as if there wasn't even any fire there.
He was confused by this and tried to put it out by blowing, but the wind from his blow didn't even seem to affect the candle's fire.
He was uncomfortable to see that blowing out the candle wasn't as simple as he'd imagined, and after trying for a while longer, he closed his eyes and tried to remember if his parents had ever talked about something like this.
After thinking for several minutes, he finally remembered one of the stories his father had told him that resembled this, but unfortunately he couldn't remember the details.
"I remember him saying that the first time he found an artifact, it was in the form... of gloves! That despite making him punch several times faster with it, it also wouldn't let him stop punching! I also clearly remember him if bragging about finally being able to control the gloves after running for 3 days and 3 nights... But why? How had he controlled it? Damn details!" Viktor thought bitterly.
He didn't know if it was the fault of his own memory that left something missing or of his father who told some stories halfway, but either way he hadn't gotten the answer he was looking for. He knew that running wouldn't blow out the candle, as he had already tried before, although it was only for a few minutes and not for 3 days and 3 nights.
Even after thinking for a hour, no idea popped into Viktor's memory, and he didn't remember anything that could help him either.
The hours passed quickly, and Viktor grew more tired with each passing minute, with the artifact draining his energy.
Viktor's mind was already a mess trying to find a way to blow out the candle, but feeling his tiredness grow more and more and noticing his skin getting paler and paler, an idea popped into Viktor's shrewd mind.
He held the candle in his left hand, and with his right hand he tightly gripped his left wrist, thus trying to cut off his blood flow to his left hand.
That was the idea that crossed Viktor's mind as he associated the weakness he was feeling with the pallor he was gaining. Only one thing flashed through Viktor's mind putting the two together: Anemia!
These were clear signs of anemia, which led Viktor to believe that, even though it wasn't visible, the artifact was stealing his energy through his blood.
Of course, maybe it was just childish to squeeze your wrist so the blood wouldn't circulate and hope it would work, but it was the only idea Viktor had after hours, so he had to test it.
And luckily for him, it worked!
The candle flickered a few times before finally going out under Viktor's excited and Lilith's surprised eyes.
"Out..." was Viktor's only word before he fell unconscious, with all the weakness from the unconscious use of the artifact added to his great mental fatigue taking hold of him and causing him to fall into a deep sleep.
Lilith looked at Viktor in shock before closing her little book.
Only 16 hours had passed since he'd handed the candle to Viktor, which was an extremely short time.
For an untrained human to be able to control his blood energy in that time and sever his link with a relic was something she had never seen before!
Before Viktor, among the humans Lilith knew, the one who had severed the connection to an artifact on his own in the shortest amount of time had been Mike, and even it had taken him 3 days to sever the connection with a pair of gloves he had stolen from a hunter.
Of course, he hadn't really controlled his blood energy, but even thinking in that childish way was a great quality.
Adapting was extremely important, and Viktor was clearly good at adapting.
Lilith smiled slightly before carrying the boy over to his bed in the small room.