Sighing, Noah massaged his temples while standing at the side of a bedridden man covered in blankets and feather pillows.
The man had gaunt, pallid features, causing him to appear older than he seemed. However, the aged appearance had more to do with the sunken eyes, yellowish cheeks, and strained breathing than anything else.
On the man's chest, a web of black veins was working its way through an injury near the man's sternum. The wound was closed; long since healed over, but signs of a more heinous infection remained.
Blight. The poison of the fog dwellers that coated their bodies and weapons with the black fog's accursed taint.
Just a scratch was enough for infection to penetrate and spread, and when fully succumbed to Blight, the black fog takes and twists you into abhorrent abominations.
As new denizen's of the Black fog, the darkness seeketh its prisoners, binding them to a cycle of madness and servitude beyond death.
A dark sign is formed on the flesh, gouged and singed in the form of an inverted pentagram known better as the Dark Star.
The symbol was proof of the brand.
In death, the Blighted do not die, but return doomed to wander in the eternal darkness of the fog.
The man lying sick over the bed, Duke Everbright, was in the final stages of Blight.
Noah could see the brand of the Dark Star forming over the Duke's forehead. Incomplete, the progression of the mark reflected the Blight's spread in a new host.
Mana level acted as the sole deterrent. Stronger Knights and Wizards with greater mana pools took considerably longer to succumb to Blight. However, their loss was never easy. Both figuratively for those involved, and literally for what the Blighted become. The stronger the infected individual, the greater the strength of the Blighted.
Killing of the Blighted was therefore prohibited even before the Dark Star's completion. Once infected, death would take the deceased into the embrace of the fog where the Dark Star's effects would continue.
Rather than provide the world with a monster on the level of a First-Tier Knight to the dark fog, it was better to restrain them and prevent further tragedy.
Glancing to his side, Noah noted Sophia, Annette, and Henri all watching from the side of the room.
Tension was palpable.
Of the Dark Star on the Duke, only a single point of the star remained before the Duke succumbed to Blight.
Standard procedure was to transport the infected Duke to the inner Capital's prison where Wizards would permanently freeze the body or leave it subdued in a deep prison.
It was only because it was Everbright that Sophia managed to keep the Duke free of imprisonment this late into his infection. However, the deadline was coming.
The Royal Family was well aware of Duke Everbright's infection and would not sit idle while a person of the level of the Duke could turn into an inhuman monster against humanity.
Sophia was already in hot water with Altera. Any day now, and the Royal Guard or a member of the Capital Nobility would come to forcibly seize Duke Everbright.
In the silence, Sophia's hardened eyes met Noah's, urging him to go on and make an attempt while Annette balled her hands into fists.
'How did he get roped into this?'
The original Noah may have had no way to deal with Blight, but somehow the current Noah felt it just might be possible given the symbol of a cross adorned upon the back of his hands.
It was a symbol to absolve the first sin, and if the bible were to be believed, the medium of the miracle enacted by God.
When God said 'let there be light, then there was light.'
What was described in the Bible was a type of omnipotent power and faith that could banish any darkness.
And in this world where the first light was beginning to shine, would the lord not have mercy?
Kyrie Eleison.
The cry of the poor, the destitute, and the pious.
Taking in a steady breath, Noah raised his hands towards Duke Everbright and briefly scolded the original Noah's stubborn pride. Just as he was influencing Noah, the original Noah was influencing him.
While Noah focused on the repercussions of potentially curing Blight in the Kingdom of Aletera, the original Noah focused on Noblesse Oblige and was appalled at the notion of secrecy.
This was the same Noah that had starved himself to death because he refused to feed his younger noble siblings subpar food even when they didn't care.
The nobility in sharing a means for the kingdom's Blighted to have hope was something no upstanding Noble, given their station through their capability for mankind, should ignore.
Noah reasoned that there had to be corrupt nobles that would keep the benefit to themselves, but evidently, the original Noah wasn't of that type. More so when the original Noah felt even remotely like the deed would make him resemble his aunt and the conspiracy she'd played in the Lambert Family.
Of course, Noah had to remember that the original Noah he was trying to reason with was a young teenager.
There was no winning.
Inwardly sighing, Noah concentrated on the soft glow beginning to radiate from his palms and down over the Duke.
As the light touched upon the darkness of the black veins spreading across the Duke's body, the veins began to writhe and squirm.
"Ugh," a gasp escaped Noah's mouth as he visibly recoiled. An ungodly roar of animosity was echoing in his ears.
Writhing and twisting, the darkness gradually began to dissolve in the light, and the forming Dark Star ceased all movement.
"F-Father…" Annette choked back tears at the sight.
Henri's sword clattered to the ground, all thoughts leaving him.
However, it was Sophia who had the largest reaction to the first sign of hope she'd seen since the Duke fell ill. Her neutral features were violently wobbling, before she hurriedly walked up to the foot of the bed and placed the back of her hand on Noah's back.
Raising a questioning brow, Noah had seconds to react as Sophia flooded him with the full mana of a First-Tier knight.
Noah staggered and grunted, blood rushing to his head and throughout his body from the strain.
He no longer had any doubt that Sophia had noticed what he'd done to Martin in their duel.
Mana Eater.
It was the inherent ability of the Mana Users of the Lambert Family to siphon mana and act as a conduit. The Lamberts were always the Aletera Kingdom's flagship Knights.
Able to freely use the siphoned mana of others, the Kingdom would deploy a contingency of Knights to supply their mana to a Lambert to pierce through any battlefield. Alternatively, they could drop a Lambert in a group of enemy Wizards and drain all mana in the area.
In this case, Sophia must have assumed Noah had a similar ability, or was gambling on it.
Based on her stiff expression- she was definitely gambling!
Yet, Noah really was a Lambert.
The mana she forcibly charged into him burst his veins and caused his organs to rattle, but the original Noah was a prodigy. Reflexively, Noah diverted the excess mana into the light in his palms, and sure enough, the light intensified several fold.
If Noah's initial test had managed to stop the spread of Blight, now it was gradually receding.
"M-Me too." Annette hurriedly ran and placed a hand on Noah's back, injecting her own mana.
'Wait!'
Noah groaned.
Skilled as the original Noah was, it wasn't a good idea to fill an empty stomach all at once after years of starvation.
Noah felt his vision blur, and that was before he caught sight of Henri running up and doing the same thing as his mother and sister.
'T-This, damn Everbrights!'
Noah gritted his teeth and channeled all mana into the light of his palms lest he explode.
The Blighted areas continued to recede at an accelerating rate, but that was when Noah noticed an anomaly in the Dark Star.
As the Dark Star's points began to fade, the symbol began to meld and squirm. It rounded on the corners and narrowed at the center to form a black eye.
Noah stared. The eye stared back.
It was the last thing Noah remembered as he passed out.