Nestled in the heart of the city was a district, an eldritch-like labyrinth of narrow alleys and crumbling buildings. The architecture was a mishmash of styles, reflecting the district's long and turbulent history. Some buildings had ornate facades with intricate carvings, while others were nothing more than shabby hovels held together with scraps of wood and metal.
This place was a couple of blocks from Madam Petri's house of commodities and close to the Arcanist study branch. The branch that had undergone countless hands through the years. Ranging from: wars, love, and new groundbreaking theories that usurped the ruling party at the time.
( Or just a friendly play between partners and a few power shenanigans that got too out of hands.)
Nonetheless, another district with an interesting history. Currently, the place was unlively as everyone was fast asleep; the only people awake at this time would be people with motives that couldn't be publicly done at that time of day.
OR
Simply an unlucky fellow who does good deeds out of the good of his heart, like the man who strode a silent street at this very moment.
Eltic
Eltic trekked this dimly lit path, the moonlight casting a bright glow on him with each step he took. Only the cold air of the night accompanied his silent journey. They made whistling sounds as they passed through the edges of the buildings.
Eltic carried a figure on his back with a place in mind that would hopefully assist him in sorting things out. If someone asked of Eltic why he was carrying some random poor fella at his back, then he would calmly say – No fucking clue – All in the spirit of being a good Samaritan.
(A semi-legal one at that.)
Soon, Eltic reached a door, a simple steel door attached to a two-story metal house, and a material similar to both tungsten and silver.
He knocked on the door nine times: A slow five, followed up by a medium one, and concluding with a loud-sounding three.
After the ceremonial knocks, the corners of the door glowed red, revolving a few times before turning emerald in color.
Eltic waited in patience while examining the place and admiring the specular golden plant life around the home that shimmered like fireflies, ironically, fireflies hovered on it.
A few seconds later, the door opened with a bang, and Theodore was behind it.
"What do you want, Eltic? It's 1 AM," Theodore questioned groggily — he wore a red-white pajama and a hat that flung around — and Theodore yearned to finish whatever this was and get over with his life. However, he noticed the little girl on Eltic's back and couldn't help but ask.
"Which prostitute made you fumble?" Theodore asked.
"Fuck you and let me in," Eltic said.
Theodore tiredly nodded and pushed open the door completely, letting the two get in. They did.
The room was a simple room lit by a yellow bulb swinging from the top, smooth brown furniture made with exquisite material, a fireplace that gleamed with green flames, and tile floors that looked like the surface of the Atlantic sea.
Eltic and Theodore walked over to a chair; Theofore sat down while Eltic placed the girl on the couch before coming to sit down in tandem, and he lazily rested his hands on the see-through glass table in front of him.
"Good furniture," Eltic said to Theodore as he knocked on the glass a couple of times for good measure.
"Thank you," Theodore picked up a glass cup of lemon and stared at it longingly — Azurely Lemon, made from the finest lemon in the Zucraten region.
Theodore swirled the cup a few times. "Now can you explain yourself?" he said. "I know you can be a weird fellow at times, and you can do a lot of weird stuff — which I won't talk about — but knocking on my door while carrying a 3-7-year-old child is new… even for you… So what is going on?"
Eltic cleared up his throat. "Well, not sure how I feel about your words there you damn bastard, but since I am the one asking for help; I shall kindly explain." He replied.
"I'm waiting!"
"Let me get myself ready YOU impatient tw- a friendly gentleman; I mean… anyways," Eltic said. "I found the brat fighting for her life for some bread, typical back alley shiat, so I went to stop it. The damn twat released an Aeon rank attack on the bloody fools!"
Theodore had a look of realization, then he paused; then he reasoned it out.
"That doesn't explain why they are with you back, for god's sake!" Theodore said. "Why didn't you drop them off somewhere, to her parents—"
"Oh come on now! You know she doesn't have one." Eltic cut Theodore mid-speech while quickly lifting his hand and dropping it back.
"Ok… The local orphanage then, surely you could have done that." Theodore said.
"She was already in one; that bullshit burnt down to kingdom come. Don't ask how I know… it involves that fucker Kimara, on that I am 100% sure!" Eltic said; he suddenly leaped forward and snatched the cup Thoedore was holding and gulped it down.
Theodore looked at him with a raised brow as he held empty air; Eltic saw him by the sides of his eyes.
"What?" He asked. "You weren't going to drink it!" Eltic smoothly laid the glass cup onto the table and glanced up. And Theodore touched his head at his friend's act —used to it— but still, a damn bother when it comes up.
"Forget about the lemon… My lemon… you really believe that Yanza was involved in that orphanage incident?" Theodore asked while shifting his chair near and tilting his head, ears jerking to receive the news.
"Of course he is… that man is a fishy bastard. Everything about him and his recent activities reeks of bad intentions…" Eltic then whispered: "fucker"
Thoedore's head tilted at what his friend said, it seemed very reasonable, but that wasn't his only question.
"So… what will YOU do now? And what do you want here… Just advice or something else?" Theodore questioned, his arms resting on the table.
"Well…" Eltic lingered for a couple of moments, and the side of his cheeks morphed through different shapes. "You could heal her for one. Maybe even find out what's wrong with her!"
"Oh!" Theodore stood from his chair. He slanted his head and looked at Eltic. "Why didn't you start with this first?"
"Long day. Brain gone. Lemon good." Elltic waved his hands and answered.
Theodore rolled his eyes, hastily trotting to the girl lying on the couch. Eltic followed right after; he carried her on in his arms and strolled to the hidden door by the sides of the marble-themed kitchen.
Upon reaching the door, Eltic clicked a few buttons on it; the rhythm of his presses created a soothing melody with the sounds of umms and ahhs.
In a blink of an eye, it was done. And Eltic marched in. Theodore gaped in bafflement: 'I thought I already changed it, so how does he know?'
His questions went unanswered as they entered the other side of the room or a hospital judging by the art scheme in the place.
It was filled with potions and test tubes in high quantities, both legal ones and less than legal ones — they were placed on a white shelf, a 1.6-meter tall shelf that also contained other papers (presumably documents)
Theodore trod quickly to a cabinet and retrieved a bag filled with pieces of equipment; they were:
1]. A syringe filled with a Newtonian-like fluid used needed for power surging in ether practitioners; it's also known as XEO 01.
2] Ether scanner( X-ray but for Āether lines.)
3] A life energy weakener, which was also called life-stabilizer by higher-ups — for reasons not known.
4] Black Nanites/ Nanobots 10*-10 meters in size placed in a 5X5 centimeter black steel box.
5] Antibodies; variant 46XO, LENNA 101.
Finally, he took a snow-white bag that was placed at the back of a table — one normally seen in offices.
Eltic nodded at Theodore's doctor's hands and said, "If someone saw you, they would never know you were a healer; you look more of a brute than me!"
Theodore became offended. "If someone saw you! They would think you kidnap little girls… Oh, wait… you do." He exclaimed in mock shock.
"Hmm, touche," Eltic gave up and focused on his tasks as his hands shivered and sweat ran down his forehead.
They got to a bed, and Eltic situated her on top of it and gestured to Theodore. "Do your thing," he pleaded.
Theodore nodded and stretched out his fingers, and retrieved the black box. He opened it by injecting his energy into its white rectangular keyholes. Soon after, the box opened with a click
Inside the box were black sandy particles —nanites— clumped together like Hawaii sands. They hovered above the box and attached themselves to the girl's skin; the nano-machines activated themselves and released heat energy that went from 20 °C and peaked at 37 °C, causing the skin below them to gleam scarlet red.
Theodore put his hands over the hot air and waited. Afterward, an image appeared in his mind's eye(Visual cortex): a humanoid figure with glowing blue lines flowing through its body: the glow moved clockwise through the conduits, its energy red at most parts – particularly the neck region.
Witnessing the scenario, Theodore became worried. 'Her energy looks disordered; it's moving without aim, and lung lacerations — a few minutes late she would have drowned in her own body. Mild brain concussion: seems to be from a forward force that snapped her head back. And finally. My conclusion—power runaway scenario… Did not expect to see that." he thought.
From the bag, Theodore collected a couple of syringes and pierced two of them on her hands. A while later, the nanites moved like a hive getting called by their queen, and the Nanos hastily entered the point of contact.
Then the girl's body reverberated in monotony, humming, slowly emitting a low frequency. Theodore, on the other hand, inspected closely, studying the mental image that pulsed in his mind.
'She has the energy level of an Elim rank Arcanist. But. Only able to release an Eim rank attack based on the energy-ether ratio in her—"
Theodore looked to Eltic. "give me the Ether scanner,"
Eltic obliged and ruffled through the bag in haste. Eventually, he noticed the handheld object with a forest-green screen ridden with complicated numbers and archaic alphabets. He handed it over.
Theodore snatched the scanner from him and clicked the red button at its center ten times consecutively.
The screen began to morph in response; Theodore waited; it kept swirling, going through multiple shapes and sizes; 2 minutes passed. It was then that Theodore became alarmed.
"It does not normally take this long—"
A dinging sound brought him out of his speech, and he breathed a sigh of relief — it stopped at a wave diagram.
"Weird… but good!" He muttered.
The girl's body slowly healed, and all her internal injuries at the thoracic vertebra, pharynx, and abdomen regenerated at abnormal speeds. And her etheric zones at the heart, crown, and throat stabilized
in simple terms, her throat and chest were back to normal, and her energetic system was ok.
As Eltic watched the process, he laughed as a feeling of happiness struck him from nowhere.
However Theodore didn't share his sentiments as he watched the screen in apprehension and a drop of sweat down his head.
"Eltic. This girl… I don't think she's."Theodore paused, and his killing intent permeated the room. "I don't think she's… human."