Chapter 63: Cyan Potion
"Spright!" Blood's muffled voice echoed in Emile's head. The boy sounded far away and behind something.
"Spright!" His voice echoed again, this time louder.
"Don't be mad!" Blood yelled one last time before he smacked Emile across the face.
Emile shot up and grabbed Blood's chest, ready to throw a punch, but after recognizing Blood he calmed down. Immediately his muscles ached in pain and Emile laid back on the floor.
"What happened?" Emile asked.
"I don't know," Blood replied, he sounded wheezy and coughed after he spoke, "but we're not in the hallways anymore."
Confused, Emile looked around the area. They found themselves in a small, enclosed room. The walls were a glossy, white marble and in the center of the room protruded a podium.
Behind the podium, imprinted on the marble wall, a tree constructed of gold flakes stood. The tree bore fruit and had eleven vibrant, cyan apples hanging from its branches.
Resting on the podium itself was a flask containing a similar blue liquid. Moreover, as with other parts of the labyrinth, unrecognizable runes were scattered across the floor and up the podium.
"Where are we?" Emile asked.
"I don't know that either. Probably not gonna know the answer to your next question too." Blood's raspy voice responded.
"What's wrong with you?" Emile asked.
"Oh—I actually do know the answer to that." Blood smiled, "My ribs punctured my lungs. I've sealed the tears, but my lungs are definitely collapsing."
"What?!" Emile pushed himself off the ground yet again, gritting his teeth through the soreness in his muscles.
'Why am I so sore?'
[Soul Essence: 0/100]
'Oh…'
"Blood I'm—" Emile hesitated the moment he saw he was out of essence.
"You're out of essence… I know." Blood said indifferently, "That's why I need you to drink that." He pointed to the blue flask.
"Why?"
"Well we know for certain it's a potion right? Potions that have to do with healing and revitalizing the body are usually red, I was hoping blue had something to do with essence." A weak smile crept up Blood's lips.
"You're hoping?" Emile questioned, "You don't even know what it does? Why don't you drink it?"
"Like I said, we know it's not a health potion right? If you don't get enough essence to heal me I'm gonna die… soon."
"And what if it doesn't give me any essence?" Emile questioned one last time.
"Then it's lights out for Blood." The teenage boy looked away from Emile's eyes as he replied, "And besides, you're not dying. Whatever the potion is, you're gonna live long enough to use it."
For a few moments after Blood finished speaking, Emile watched him. Blood never smiled like that, with sincerity. His smiles were always devious, they carried a sense of deceit and distrust that honest smiles didn't have.
But this smile, this slight uncontrollable curve up his lips, was genuine. Emile looked past Blood at the flask in the center of the room. He needed to drink it. And it was the reward for clearing the labyrinth, it couldn't be bad, right?
Emile forced his legs to carry the rest of his body to the flask where he grabbed the neck of the beaker. He brought the flask to his noise, spun the blue liquid around a few times, and sniffed it.
'It's sweet'
The sweetness tickled Emile's nose. Sugar was something impossible to come by between the Hollow Mountains and the Fallen Sky.
Crops themselves were nearly impossible to manage so a luxury delicacy like sugar faded out of this world's diet years ago. Having missed the mouth watering sweetness, Emile put the edge of the flask to his lips and drank the potion.
Somehow, the potion was cold. It coated his mouth with a heaviness like milk, but was surprisingly tasty. It reminded Emile a lot of a lychee back on Earth, one of the many dessert-like fruits found there.
Emile quickly downed the half gallon of potion and put the flask back on the podium. Returning to Blood's side, Emile sat down and waited for the potions effects to manifest.
"Anything?" Blood asked, justifiably impatient.
"Not yet."
Emile closed his eyes and concentrated on his soul.
[Soul Rank: Chosen]
[Soul Saturation: 304/1000]
[Soul Essence: 1/100
[Gift: Breath of Life]
[Description: Accelerate cell growth and division]
[Enhancement: Breath of Life is applied to self]
[Relics: Enlightened Nimbus Charm]
'Three-hundred and four?!'
'I killed three-hundred monsters here?!'
While waiting for the potion to act, Emile reviewed the past month of exploring with Blood. He killed the Arachnid on the shore and then the Hollowed in training.
After that… Emile stopped and tried to trace his steps.
'Was the next fight in the pit?'
'My third kill was a human?'
'No that's not right—I killed a few creatures after the Hollowed in the camp too'
'But then it was a person'
'Wait a second'
"Hey Blood?"
"Yeah? What?! Got any essence?!" Blood exploded.
"No no, not that." Emile blew him off, "Why doesn't my soul recognize when I kill other people?"
"Oh—" Blood collapsed in on himself, clearly disappointed in Emile's question. "There's a running theory about that, but it's never been confirmed or anything."
"And? What's the theory?" Emile pushed.
"The Gift wasn't made for humans to kill each other." Blood shrugged.
"That's it?"
"Yeah. Why? That isn't good enough?"
"It just seems… kinda simple." Emile thought.
"We don't even know why the Gift came to us." Blood explained, "We assume it was a gift, see where it got its name, from one of the Greater God's to help us survive against all the beasts that could naturally use essence. Because of that, the Gift doesn't recognize people as monsters. You still absorb their soul essence and you might still get a relic, but your soul will never acknowledge it."
"Huh—" Emile commented, "how strange."
[Foreign Substance Found Invading Soul]
[Soul Core Compromised]
[Soul Core Attempting Evolution]
[Insufficient Soul Core Saturation]
[Soul Core Attempting Evolution]
[Soul Core Attempting Evolution]
[Insufficient Soul Core Saturation]
[Soul Core Evolution Failed]
[Alternative Measures Taking Effect]
[Soul Core Entering Hibernation]
"Hey Blood, I think I—" Emile's vision suddenly blurred and he slurred his speech.
"Spright?!" Blood yelled.
Emile felt him shaking his shoulder, trying to keep him awake, but his eyelids were too heavy. Emile closed his eyes and fell back onto the floor.
[Soul Core Assimilating Foreign Substance]
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone