*Days after the Demomight*
***
"Dear gods..." I murmured.
The headache gnawing my brain seemed to have forced me awake from a deep sleep. I squinted my eyes open and was immediately blinded by a bright white light.
"GAH! Who turned on the lights? Wait... Lights?"
My eyes slowly adjusted to a familiar white room that eerily smelt of disinfectant. As if the white sheets and beeping machines didn't tell me enough , the cold feeling at my butt told me I was back at the hospital.
I took a good look around and noticed a few new things. There was a chair right next to my bedside, probably for someone who was watching me, and a white small desk that must have been holding my clothes and equipment.
I tried moving my hands and immediately stopped when sharp jabs of pain attacked my nervous system. At least I could feel them, now it was just a matter of when they will be fully healed.
"But how did I get here? The last thing I remember was fighting that useless excuse for an elf. Wait, NO WAY! Did I lose to him? Queen's gonna have a good laugh about this,"
My thoughts were suddenly interrupted when the hospital door slid open and a tear filled face walked in.
"I hope he gets well soon. After that fight...huh? Max? MAX!" Cathy screamed in joy and jumped over me for a hug.
"UGH! C–can't... Breathe!"
"You're finally awake! I was so worried! Do you have any idea how long you've been out?! The many machines plugged in you were even more scary!" she cried as she held me even tighter.
"Nah, I'm good. Still alive and kicking, see?"
"And a huge stroke of luck played that part! You know, when I saw you being rushed to the hospital...that view of you on your bed looked a lot like–" her words got caught as a fresh batch of tears fell from her eyes.
"Hey, Cathy Jeez! I'm sorry you had to see me in that state. But what matters is I'm still here right?"
"Yeah... I guess so," she sniffled and sat on the chair after finally letting go of me. I tried changing the subject before she thought about her dead family again.
"If I may ask, where I'm I?"
"Back at your camp, in the med centre. The king sent me here to watch over you after they had done what they could to save your life,"
"Can you tell me what happened when I lost consciousness?"
"Sorry Max. I was not present for your fight. But the king knew you'd ask, so he handed me this,"
She placed a flash disk on the desk. It must contain the video of the fight...I'll have to watch it later.
"Some of your friends passed by to see you. You were still out cold and they had classes so they could only stay for a little while," she informed me.
"Ah, I see."
"Well, I should be going now. Since you've finally awaken, my worry has eased up a little. Still have my duties as a maid of the castle, you see?"
"Can't you stay for a bit longer?"
"Wish I could, Max. But I was just from a call with the head battler about coming back since you are in a stable condition now. I was actually coming to tell you goodbye, even though you were asleep," Cathy explained.
"Oh, then safe travels Cathy. Hope we meet again,"
As she was leaving my room, she seemed to pause, then turned back at me. The warm smile on her face had vanished." Listen, Max. Don't do anything rush, OK?"
"Ah... Sure. But why are you–"
She closed the door on me. She always has to leave me hanging. Well, whatever. I still have a video to catch up on. Hmm... Now where to watch it from...
–––
[Oh Bradley? Where you at?]
<...>
[uh... Bradley?]
<*Dark magic corruption still in system. Time till full operation:
1:00:00*>
[Dark magic corruption? Why does my memory keep blacking out everytime I try thinking of how this happened? Well great, guese I'll just have to see why for myself]
–––
The doctor later came in and informed me of my injuries. Apparently, I broke a whole lot more than just my ribs.
"I've seen and heard many cases and rare abnormalities in my years. But yours, it's all new territory. Forcing your body to evolve into a werewolf with elven blood coursing through your veins is down right impossible, yet here you are," Dr Seth, a half–ape, observed as he took some notes in his pad.
"Come now doctor. I'm sure it's not that difficult to achieve full transformation given time,"
"Oh no. For any normal monster with wolf blood in him, unless his other part is human, no amount of transformation can ever be achieved. More so to a half elf too,"
"Can you elaborate more on that?" I asked the doctor as he instructed me to move my fingers. The pain had lessened a little. That's good.
"It's simple really. For your race, the Furrhas, there's a reason why not many of you make it to adulthood. See, your body has two types of blood that are always fighting for dominance. And in most cases, the elven blood always prevails in purifying the wolf blood as is your case,"
"Only on rare occasions does the wolf blood win, but such a case has never been heard of. Unfortunately for your race, even if since birth your blood is already fully elf, you still manage to retain parts of your wolf genes, sometimes the ears, teeth or in other cases the tail."
"So your existence is always rejected by the elves, and when your only result is to seek refuge from the monsters, many times you don't get to survive to your youthful ages due to harsh conditions. Honestly speaking, many monster races view yours as weak and hence those Furrhas who do make it to their young age are often times sold to slavery to the rich pigs who have weird kinks for this race."
All this time while explaining my race's history, he kept doing some medical check ups and tests on me. He eventually looked satisfied with the results and sat down to observe my eyes.
"Which brings me to a few questions of my own. How were you able to survive up until now? With your age, I'm sure the black market would spare no expense in trying to nab you for themsleves. You must have had a powerful backing to survive this long."
I had no idea how to respond to the doctor. But his words about being a rare case for a Furrha's wolf blood to dominate his body stuck with me. Some parts of my memory seem to resurface, and I remembered that night I was ease dropping on an important conversation between those two monsters that were discussing me. Something told me that if I was part of that family, then I was the only child with elven genes dominating the wolves. They must then have been really rare .
"Sorry doctor. That's a question I can't quite give you a satisfactory answer," I said. Doctor Seth nodded in understanding but his eyes flashed with disappointment.
"I see. Then can you at least tell me how you were able to repress your elf blood so that you could take on a transformation?"
"I can't answer that too. Very sorry,"
I couldn't tell him that I had help from my system now could I?
He gave a long exasperated sigh. " Well regardless of how you did it, I'd advice you to never try that again. Your body experienced a new type of transformation that wasn't on par with its capabilities of handling it. It immediately tried destroying your bones to form new ones, but the strain to your body was too great for it to handle. Next time you try this, your heart will give out before you even get a step in,"
Wow, harsh! I had no idea it was that dangerous for me to try forced transformation. And here I thought I had a trump card to increase my strength drastically.
"Sorry doc. It won't happen again,"
"It better not. We had a hard time trying to repair you. You should thank your days that the Beast king wouldn't accept anything less but your full recovery," he said as he rose up to leave.
"The Beast king was the one who called for you?" I asked the good doctor.
"When faced with impossible cases like yours, there's no one else he could turn to. Get some rest kid. We'll see if we can discharge you sometime around tomorrow,"
"Thanks Doctor Seth,"
"Just doing my job kid. If you need anything, just push that button above your head and a nurse will show up for your assistance," he said and with a smile, left the room.
A few hours later, a nurse, as per my request, brought me a laptop, so that I could see just what the hell happened back at my fight.
I schemed through the parts that I could remember, up until the time Tye the dark warrior tossed me Charles' staff.
" Now, what happened from here?"
The fight was obviously my win, thank the gods, but the mistake I had made was grabbing the orb with my bare hands. That's where I lost consciousness. But even though I was out, I could see my body was still functioning.
"Who the hell is that?!"
The person inhibiting my body cracked an evil smile, his eyes glowing darkness with dark veins pulsing with power.
He calmly walked towards Charles' unconsciously body while raising the orb in a threatening manner. But before he could make a move, both Kings were already in front of him.
"Stand down, imposter. I think you've done enough," King Jason spoke first, a frown already formed on his face.
"Two kings of the universe. I'm honored!" a hoarse and deep whisper escaped from my mouth. Somehow I could feel the power backing up from its words, and yet his mouth hadn't moved.
Both Kings turned to each other then nodded their heads. King Fenrick walked up first with his arms spread open. "Leave the lad alone, dark god. Just return from where you came from,"
A thunderous laugh echoed through the entire field. It carried so much malice, that even through the laptop, I could still feel it. "I just found refuge in a good body, do you really think I'd easily give it up?!"
"Be that as it may, do you really think you can escape two powerful beings at your current weakened state? And let's not forget the boy's body is just now reaching its limits," King Jason said.
The god inhibiting my body looked like he was like he was considering something, then the dark smile widened from his mouth. "I'll take my chances with the kid!"
A large pull of dark magic erupted from my body which effectively cut off contact with the recording system.
"HEY?! That's all I get?! What happened after that?" I screamed in frustration and earned a weird look from from a passing doctor.
What kind of build up was that for? I didn't even get to know what happened next! Did the king take the orb? Obviously, if I'm here, it means he won, right? Or did the god release me out of goodwill? Man! That king has some explaining to do. Well...enough of that.
"I wonder what I missed during my time at the castle. One thing is certain, I'll probably fail my upcoming exams if I don't catch up on reading soon,"
I still had some few other questions of mine, so I waited out the systems limit, and immediately started talking to Bradley the second he was fully active.
–––
[Sup, sleepy head?]
[Hospital. You look bad, what the hell happened to you back there?]
"The same thing that will happen right now,"
[
–––
Both my and Bradley's consciousness were suddenly dragged into a bottomless abyss that seemed to go forever. Eventually, we were both brought to a dark realm that looked like a washed down version of the dark domain back at Archeron's castle.
"OK. Now where hell are we?!" Bradley asked. He was in his amoebic form. If he didn't know where we were, then how the hell would I? But I had a sinking feeling that we were somewhere that was close to me, but yet I could still not discover the source.
"WELCOME, TEMPORARY HOLDERS OF MY BODY, TO MY DOMAIN! " a voice boomed from the skies.
"Look at that, Max. They sky is talking to us. Only your brain could conjure up something so cliché. At this point, I'm not surprised." Bradley commented.
"Really? Even now you find a way to insult me? You really are a petty system. But whatever, I don't care. Hey, your cloudiness or whatever, why don't you show yourself before us,"
"Your cloudiness?! Such insolent! And from a mere child no less. SHOW SOME REPECT TO YOUR ELDERS!!"
"Nah, don't feel like it. From the way you are speaking, I can tell that you don't have a lot of power left in you, dark god!"
"You knew?"
"Guessed as much. You did risk your life fighting against two Kings after all,"
"Wait, god?" Bradley looked confused.
"You speak the truth boy. But the fact remains that I still have enough strength to destroy you!"
My body was immediately engulfed with a sudden pressure that brought me to my knees. Bradley wobbled in shock and tried to help me, but the same unknown force was holding him back.
I didn't think that the god still had this much strength in him still. But I had an idea on how to control him.
"K...kill...me...sure. B–but yo...ou'll r...remain tra....apped...here...for....rever!"
The pressure applied on my body suddenly eased up. The god must have realized that I had him ensnared.
"Fine. I concede. What do you want, brat!"
I stretched my spirit's hands and legs of their stiffness and stared up at the clouds with a victorious grin.
"Simple really. I want you."