While Sky continued to lightly slap his shoulder, I wondered if it hurt him. However, judging by his awkward stance, it seemed like her slaps were as gentle as a soft touch for him.
I looked over to the carcass of the mad king and I could feel the psychic energy emanating from the lifeless body.
The mad king was dead but the Loucura virus was still there, probably rendered useless by the loss of its host.
When I initially peered into it's past using the eye of Psion I could somehow sense it. It wasn't a single microorganism; it was constantly dividing and its total number was rising through millions with each passing second. I could feel billions of the Loucura virus all connected like a hive. The hive was a single entity that was supposed to exist higher than it currently was but had been stripped of all the power it had held.
As I approached the creature, Hassan called out to me, saying, "Jess! You know we can't eat that."
I couldn't help but wonder why that was the first thought that crossed Hassan's mind. I turned to look at the two of them, noticing Sky's hand on Hassan's cloak, near where his shoulder should be. Then I glanced down at my stomach, feeling the rumbling sensation deep within my abdomen. I was incredibly hungry and thirsty, a dangerous combination indeed.
But no.
That wasn't what I wanted to do. I didn't want to cut out the creature's meat to eat. I had something else in mind.
There was a deep curiosity within me, urging me to find out what would happen if I set fire to the mad king's remains.
I summoned a medieval torch from the inventory and brought it close to the creature.
'No! This won't do' I thought as I stood next to the lifeless mad king.
I still trembled out of fear even though the creature was lifeless. The creature remained frightening even in its lifeless state. Its enormous fallen form still towered over me, engulfing my smaller frame.
'How did Hassan even manage to defeat this thing?'
As I extended my arm to bring the medieval torch closer to the mad king, I couldn't help but think that it might not be enough for the Loucura virus.
"Hey, Hassan. Can you burn this torch with your flames?" I asked
The medieval torch might have been sufficient to burn the deadly creature, but I had doubts about its effectiveness against the Loucura virus. I needed a more mythical flame, one that burned with greater radiance and intensity.
But then that would all depend on whether the light of the torchlight will give way to Hassan's flames. Immediately Hassan and Sky heard what I said they all looked at me with the same expression on their faces as if they had planned it.
"Why?" Sky asked
And I was sure that Hassan had the same question in his mind.
"I want to make sure the virus doesn't infect any other creature. Who knows what terrifying creature would get it next?"
"But then what about other foxes that have the virus ?" Sky asked.
They were walking towards the massive mad king's body. They both walked with the same energy. You might even say that Hassan was filled with more vigor than Sky, even when it was he who went to war with the monstrosity. But then Sky later poured her energy into him after he was nearly killed by the massive predator. So, she too was a marvel, especially since she even had the stamina to walk after the massive energy that she lost.
When Hassan was close enough that we were mere inches away from each other, he raised his limb in a way that his forearm was at a ninety-degree angle with his arm and his palm faced up. Then slowly the atmosphere above his palm heated up so that you could see the air dance on it. Slowly dark flames appeared and shone brighter till the amount he taught was enough.
"Let me burn it" Hassan offered
And that was good. Hassan's fire played many roles which included lighting the path and it's destructive force, amongst other roles.
But the reason I offered him to light my medieval torch was that I wanted to be the one to lay the fatal blow to the virus. My intuition told me that the rewards for whoever did that would be extreme.
"Don't worry I can do that" I said as I extended my medieval torch to him.
"Is it not better that I straight up burn it... Who knows if the stick could hold my flames"
While there might have been a hint of pride in his words, based on what I had come to know about Hassan, he wasn't the type to boast. It seemed he was simply stating the facts.
I took a deep breath and accepted the harsh reality that I wouldn't be the one delivering the decisive blow to the deadly virus.
With a simple wave of his hand, Hassan signaled for me to step aside to avoid being caught in the flames.
He waited till Sky and I moved to the hidden spot where we had been earlier before he started.
A dark aura, resembling the flames he was conjuring, enveloped his body. However, I couldn't help but think that these flames didn't serve the same purpose as the ones emanating from his palm.
I marveled at how he could generate such a level of energy even after the battle with the monstrous creature. My heart swelled with happiness, knowing that Hassan was by our side.
Suddenly, every part of his body, except for the hand producing the dark fire, was shrouded in the dark aura. He intensified the flames, making them burn brighter and hotter, causing the snowflakes in the air to vanish at that moment.
We had to retreat a bit because of the waves being radiated by the fire which was barely up to his facial level.
'What a monstrosity' I thought as I marveled at his abilities.
He brought his flaming hand close to the lifeless body of the mad king, and as soon as the flames made contact, they engulfed that area and began to spread across the mad king's body. As if the flames he created weren't enough Hassan placed both hands on the mad king's body, and an intense surge of flames erupted from his palms, swiftly enveloping the entire mad king's carcass.
While the dark fire consumed the mad king of ice bears, its massive body twitched intermittently, almost as if the virus within it was protesting its cruel demise.
When the fire burned so intensely that it appeared the trees might also be consumed, Hassan stepped back and approached us, moving at a slower pace than before.
He then sat on the ground with us, leaning against a tree, but he didn't turn to look back at the burning carcass.
The flames that enveloped the mad king's body were so intense that we could barely make out what was being consumed in the blaze.
I was sure then that if there was any creature that would have wanted to come to check if the mad king of Ice Bears was still terrorizing other creatures, by the time they heard the sound of the crackles of the intense flames that echoed far and wide through the forest they would flee further out of the forest.
Sky and I simply observed as the flames blazed, illuminating everything nearby and transforming the once-cold forest into a warm one ( at least we were on the radar of the heat waves emanating from the flames ).
My stomach grumbled and grumbled but I didn't pay any attention to it.
In the final moments, as the flames were about to dwindle, a loud shriek echoed through the area. The shriek didn't resemble anything the ice bear could produce, and besides, the carcass had been burned down to its bones, leaving little room for any remaining source of the sound.
So what had made the sound?
I turned to look at Sky and Hassan. But Hassan was busy with the meat of the river creature he had stored in his inventory.
At some point, while we were watching the burning carcass he had brought a huge chunk to roast.
"Your hand," Sky said when she saw the horrible burn wound that was in his palm.
Several points in his palm had patches of skin that were lifted, leaving a space in it that looked like liquid was trapped in it. The rest of the palm had its skin peeled off exposing the inner part of his hands.
It looked so gruesome... It was a mystery as to why he wasn't screaming out of pain.
He had used his soldiers to gather what he needed to roast the meat.
"Is that not painful?" I asked him as he turned the meat that was over the dark flames that weren't as intensely burning as the one that was burning the carcass.
But I got nothing but silence. He just focused on the food.