"What happened to him?" Leon asked darkly and Nate had to grip his arm to stop him from throwing a tantrum while still appearing equally angry despite his quiet nature and whispered words of wisdom in his ear, effectively calming him down.
They are in the infirmary where Rufus is treated by doctors. One nurse is trying to stop visitors from disturbing them.
Theseus was confused and startled. "He was fine earlier. He could control animals. This shouldn't hurt him."
The nurse's head drooped, "Normally yes, but that applies to creatures that he has encountered. The venom from this snake bite is non-lethal so he won't die however, it will leave him dreadfully sick for a week and if it continues this way without the proper anti-venom then it would cripple him. The doctors could make an anti-venom, but the snake that bit him is not native to Solin so I'm afraid this won't be possible right now. He is thankfully resisting the venom, but I can't guarantee that he would participate in the tournament tomorrow. He must drop out. Now please, leave. We can't concentrate with you here."
"We're not obstructing anything!" yelled Leon but was pushed away by Theseus.
"Let's go!"
"It's the assassin!" Leon murmured while biting down a nail once they reached outside the infirmary.
"Calm down, we won't be able to find answers. Rufus is strong. With his powers, he is resistant to anything from an animal. Even rabies won't kill him."
"This snake is rare. To regular humans, he should already be comatose by now, but he has a high fever that doesn't seem to be going down. Rufus is not a monster but he's monstrous on his own. He will recover. I'm sure of it." said Theseus in a determined tone.
"Who was the last person he talked to?"
"No clue, I talked to him, but we part ways after he helped me answer my question." Theseus answered.
"It isn't like him to be so careless when it comes to animals. He can even sense bugs from far off distances." Nathaniel said.
"Not to mention, he is wearing protective clothing. Those fangs pierced into it. This is definitely a scheme specifically against him."
"Thankfully, the next rounds after this are matchups so no one would pull sneaky stunts like this." a figure wearing a hood said.
The trio looked at him, unworried about him at all. "You shouldn't be here."
"I need to be sure of what I saw."
*
Boris is one of the doctors that is treating Rufus and he's in pretty bad shape. The venom will not kill him, especially a young man like Rufus but it will have lasting, permanent consequences. It is definitely the assassin's idea.
He is trying to make an antidote but curing venom from such a rare venomous snake after darkening his soul isn't something magic could easily fix in time.
There is only one solution.
"I need your help." he whispered.
*
It was late at night and Rufus feels terrible. The worst has come to pass but he feels the pain radiating from his ankle, he has a high fever and the effect of darkening his soul again is making this more painful to deal with. He can't even sleep soundly because of it even though he is extremely exhausted. The amount of medicine he was exposed to is not helping. He stared at the moon to pass the time. He watches it slowly drop down the horizon.
Groaning, he cannot be sure he could keep his sanity much longer. The taste in his mouth is disgusting, the heaviness of his growing burden is pushing him down and is no doubt getting worse, his mind is too cloudy, and he is stressed. This power is disgusting in its own way. To gain the powers of the beings he controls and kills is immoral, it darkens his soul, and it will continue to darken until his soul becomes brittle and crumble into nothing, killing him slowly and painfully even after dying. It's extremely powerful but it is also the most inconvenient and dark ability fit for a demon. His mind and conscience feel stormy like the souls of every innocent being whose free will he snatched away is haunting him. It is noisy, so noisy.
Then he felt a hand over his forehead.
Rufus is too tired to see clearly but the silhouette is a calming presence to him. It is like in this moment, he found clarity even though he might be delirious. He groaned for a bit as he tried to get a clear look at this person, hoping to identify them. He couldn't see who that person is. The gossamer curtains behind her made the silhouette more visible but not her face. He could tell it was a woman because of her hair and small frame. This overwhelming calm is the most amazing, familiar feeling. But before he could ask, he grip her sleeve and fell back asleep.
*
"Did the spell wore off?" asked Leon.
The rest nodded and Leon swore loudly.
"Oh finally! That was annoying!"
"It is your idea in the first place." Nathaniel said and stared at his hand, "But I'm shocked that worked. No one noticed."
"Hey! Don't underestimate my power! This is but a small taste of it."
"Amazing how long you could hold your cool like that. I barely kept my cool the whole time." Sabina said while doing her usual maintenance for her legs and the braces. She came back from her check up.
"I'm quite shocked that you can walk again so quickly. That doctor was quite skilled" Nathaniel said.
"Yeah, he was recommended here and healed Violet. She's apparently going to wake up from her coma pretty soon."
"I could repair your legs." Leon offered.
"Yeah, but if you die then your powers wear off and I'm back to being a cripple again." Sabina refuted.
Leon let out a haughty laugh, "No one can hurt me."
Everyone stared at Leon, unimpressed. Everyone is getting hurt at his expense.
"The professors were quite careful this year. Now that Rufus was attacked, it is only a matter of time for the rest of us to go through that." Theseus noted.
"For some reason, no one figured out who the assassin at the school is. It's like they have no memory of that person at all." Leon said.
"So is some high-ranking member of the organization here to assassinate you or something?" Sabina asked.
"No, it's definitely a student. We already established that. Rufus killed and turned in most of them but for the ones who are actually responsible," Leon shook his head, "Trails gone cold.