Several weeks passed...
It was now the latter part of the winter, and the said season was nearing its end.
For the past weeks since the Magic Frostbite appeared, the said phenomenon didn't change for once, and it in fact, extended towards a part of the Monarch Forest.
This happening started to alarm the Regional Bishop himself, and was even paid attention by the Archbishop stationed in the Trigurniburg Kingdom and by the central government too.
They had never expected that such a Magic Frostbite that would cover the whole Horizon Mountain and the nearby regions would stretch towards to even the inner region of the Monarch Forest.
In history, only ten Magic Frostbite as big as this has ever occurred, and they mostly had a considerably large time interval between them.
...
The door of the shop opened and Allen walked inside the building. He removed his snow covered jacket and placed it on the counter.
Anna yawned and said, "This cold really makes me want to sleep."
Everyday, since the past few weeks, she would go to Allen's shop to do three things: Firstly, she would check if the pill she ordered was done; secondly, she would ask about James' condition; lastly, whenever she's bored, she would go observe Little Salad as if she's a hungry vegetarian.
She looked at Allen and asked, "Is James all right?"
"Don't worry, his condition didn't get worse.", he replied.
However, Anna was still dismayed as it also meant that Allen couldn't do anything about James' situation.
"Is there any way for him to get back to normal?", she asked.
"There is an object which can probably help him, but it's too rare."
"Oh."
"Also, your Adept Mana Stabilizing Pill is going to finish forming earlier than I thought, maybe before winter ends.", Allen added.
"Alright!", she replied. She didn't need it anymore, but because it was already ordered, it would be rude not to claim it.
"Sir Alchemist Morgan, did your apprentice come back yet?" Anna asked.
Allen: "Who? I don't have any apprentice."
"I mean Edwin, did he come back yet?" Anna asked her question again, this time straightly asking of Edwin.
"No, it will be his choice if he wants to return." Allen replied back.
After informing the adept about her pill, Allen then went upstairs to his bedroom.
When he entered his bedroom, he approached the wall, and pulled out a part of it.
There was actually a secret drawer!
In it, there were six pieces of small, faintly glowing, golden crystals. If somebody knew what the crystals were, they would be surprised that they were the rare Soul Shards!
"To use or not to use?", Allen asked himself.
***
Inside a room in a hotel in the Eastern Horizon City.
There were several men gathered around a table. As soon as another man walked in, they all sat down quietly.
The new person said to them, "Let's start planning the sabotage."
***
Somewhere else...
A blinding light hit the eyes of its owner as they were slowly opened.
He felt a warm feeling, a feeling that he last felt a long period of time ago. It was relaxing, giving him a feeling that he was lying down on the grass while the sun midly shone down on the lands.
His eyes adjusted afterwards, and he noticed that he was inside a room.
The room was mostly made out of fine rocks that couldn't even be seen in most luxurious inns and hotels.
There were branches of trees growing out of them that were sticking out of the wall, yet, it was as if they actually served as a decoration rather than being unpleasant on the eyes. There was also a single window where light entered the room.
"Where am I?", the boy muttered, who was none other than Edwin.
After which, he recalled that he suddenly sensed the painful burning sensation in his chest that spreaded throughout his body before he fainted in the forest after the demonic bear was killed.
After remembering, he tried to sit up but wasn't able to. He couldn't move most of his body, even his arms nor feet, though he could still turn his head and eyes around.
He then noticed that he wasn't wearing the white robe anymore, he was only wearing his suppose to be undergarments which were a shirt and leather pants.
Panic washed over him as he searched for his robe in the room, which he saw that it was on a stand near the door. He tried to channel some internal energy onto his eyes to enhance his sight, but he found out that he was devoid of the said energy.
In addition to that, his body also lacked mana, so he tried to absorb some from the air, but he realized that he couldn't obtain any of the said energy too.
In the end, he just narrowed his eyes and saw that the codex was still in the robe, then he relaxed and heave a sigh of relief.
Tiredness started to invade him and he yawned unconsciously. He resisted in response, but he only got sleepier and sleepier.
"No!", he shouted repeatedly, but he was only in fact muttering.
Soon, his eyes closed and he started sleeping again.
...
As consciousness slowly came back to him, his eyes narrowly opened.
Now, there was a lamp that lit up the whole room, as if there were hundreds of them inside the object on top of a table.
No light came from the window anymore, signaling that it was already night.
Feeling that he can slightly move his arms and hands, he tried to lift them up.
"Eeeek... you're already awake?!", a voice screeched in surprise.
He dropped his arm to the bed and turned his head towards the source of the voice and saw a young elven girl with gray pupils.
The young elf turned around to hide her face from Edwin and asked herself in panic, "What should I do? What should I do?"
"Can you... help me sit up?", Edwin weakly asked.
Swallowing her nervousness, she turned back around and helped Edwin sit up with the wall where the bed was sticking to to support his back.
"Where am I?", he asked.
However, the elven girl didn't answer and hurriedly left the room.
"So much for a conversation.", Edwin grumbled.
Some time later, the door opened again and another figure whose pupils were green came with the little elf.
The newly-arrived person was none other than the elf that framed him.
"Where am I?", Edwin asked, albeit with a bit of a serious tone, but one could still sense a hint of weakness on it.
"In my house.", the elven lady said.
"Why can't I move my body?"
She looked towards the little elf and said, "You go explain it."
"Okay!", the little elf nodded in response.
"You see, Mr. Human, when you were brought to me, your condition was so bad to the point that your heart stopped beating! Luckily, with my great talent, I got to revive your heart.", the elven girl cheekily said.
"So here's your heart now.", suddenly, the little elf showed a human heart to Edwin, frightening him as his eyes widened.
-badump-
"Did it just beat?!", Edwin asked frantically as if he couldn't feel weakness any longer, making him almost faint afterwards.
"Zoe!", the elven lady glared at the little elven girl, who was Zoe.
"I'm only joking.", the little elf rolled her eyes and hid the heart.
Zoe coughed and continued, "You were inflicted with a... hmm, what are the right words? Ah yes! A gut-wrenching, bone crushing, deadly poison that spread throughout your body. You almost died and most of your blood became green, so I had to drain most of it from your system, and that is why you can't move most of your body parts right now."
After a pause, she added, "If you are a magician, you won't be able to absorb mana, because the pathway of the said energies are still blocked due to the remains of the poison. Plus, your body isn't able to produce internal energy for now because it is still too weak after getting inflicted by the poison.
"You had 80% chance of dying, but because I was talented, you're still alive now! Hehehe." Zoe chuckled, "But I wonder, how did you even get that poison?", She then curiously asked with innocent eyes.
"I... don't know.", Edwin said.
"Then... what was the last thing that you consumed?", Zoe questioned.
"A healing pill.", the boy replied.
"May I see it?"
"Can you get my satchel?", he requested.
The elven lady took the satchel from behind Edwin's robes and gave it to him.
He searched the satchel and took out a jar with pills occupying less than a quarter of it.
Without asking Edwin, Zoe unceremoniously snatched it from the former's hand, "This will take a few hours, I'll be right back." She then left the room.
Just right after Zoe left, Edwin's stomach rumbled and he felt extreme hunger.
"How long have I haven't been eating?", he held his stomach while his hands were twitching.
Without saying anything, the elven lady left the room, but immediately came back with a small plate of leaves and passed it to Edwin.
"Here, eat these, they're the only kind of food I have for now.", she said. "They are more delicious than they look."
"Thank you." Edwin accepted them and placed it on the bed.
The elven lady was about to leave the room when Edwin added, "Thank you for also saving me."
"Mhm.", she nodded then exited the room.
This chapter was released earlier than usual.
In the middle of the night, Zoe returned at Edwin's room with the jar of pills. The latter was keeping himself awake by tossing a bouncing ball made of leaves across the room.
"I got the results... and I retraced that there is some sort of herb that was used to create those pills, and that herb's extract matched with the poison in your body.", Zoe said.
"And I got to say to whoever made these pills is an absolute genius! I almost didn't even notice the herb extract. I don't even know what type of plant was used!", she added.
"But I will still need the pills to continue studying it, won't you mind..."
Before she could finish her sentence, the boy said, "I won't mind, actually, you can have it!"
"Really? Thank you!", Zoe happily replied and left the room.
When Zoe closed the door of the room, she saw the elven lady was standing by the beam of the door.
"You heard our conversation, Ms. Ariel?", Zoe asked.
"Yes.", the elven lady whose name was Ariel said.
After a pause, she questioned, "What more can you say about the person who created those pills?"
"Hmm, probably such a great master, or..."
"Or a cunning poison concocter?", Ariel interrupted and finished Zoe's sentence.
"Well, yes, after all, if one is a great alchemist, one is also a great poison maker.", Zoe nodded.
"If you excuse me, lady, I'll be going off now.", Zoe courteously bid farewell and left the area.
After the little elf left, Ariel carefully took a peek inside the room.
As soon as she opened a bit of it, she heard sobs from inside the room. Peeking inside it, she saw Edwin laid down on the bed crying, while covering his eyes with his arms.
She immediately closed the door afterwards and commented, "What a weak willpower."
...
Next morning, Edwin woke up earlier today. No light came from outside the window yet.
Now, he could move his legs, but they were still somewhat numb, making him need the support of the nearby furnitures to steadily move.
He approached his white robe amd inspected the codex to see if he could open more pages, however, the book didn't even budge an inch except for the page that was already shown to him.
Soon, he started putting on his robe and boots; with the codex being placed in his robe. After finishing all the said actions them, he was about to open the door to leave when it was opened by somebody else.
Ariel was surprised when she saw that Edwin was about to leave, "Leaving so soon?"
"Yes.", Edwin nodded.
"Aren't you going to wait for Zoe to check you again?", Ariel asked.
"No, I'm going to leave now.", he said, then Edwin changed his path to avoid Ariel, but the latter blocked his path again.
"Where are you going?", she questioned again.
"To the south, I don't know... just let me through.", he stepped to the side again, but the elf still blocked his way.
"You won't even get out of the forest alive with your current condition.", she rebuked.
"I should've died long ago, you know!", Edwin refuted.
Suddenly, Ariel punched him in the face, and with the latter's current condition, he took a few steps back and stumbled to the ground.
"Are all humans hardheaded like you?", she slowly approached him with an indifferent look on her face.
"Do all elves think highly of their own race as you do?", Edwin said.
"No, why do you always think we are above you humans you puny...", while insulting, Ariel repeatedly stomped on Edwin's chest.
"Ow... stop... *cough*..."
...
After finishing what she was saying, the elf stopped stepping on Edwin's chest with her foot.
On the other hand, the boy sighed in relief. Though he was repeatedly stomped on the chest by the elf, most of the force was absorbed by the thick codex on his chest under the robe.
Even if Edwin almost wasn't injured the slightest, Ariel ignored it and even reached out her hand to help him up.
After some time, the boy accepted the elf's hand and stood up.
"So... you're not hungry?", Ariel asked.
"No, in fact, I don't feel anything after you kicked me a lot of times.", Edwin joked, starting to smile a bit.
However, there was still no change on her countenance and left the room.
Edwin: "..."
Going out of the room, he was met with a short corridor, the design was still the same as within the bedroom, but the difference was that the quality seemed worse.
After the corridor, he arrived to what seemed to be like a kitchen.
Everything in the kitchen also seemed to be of below average quality.
"What do you want?", Ariel appeared and asked. However, she didn't wait for Edwin to answer and said, "Go sit down, I'll make you the same leaves that you ate last night."
He followed the elf's instruction and sat down on the chair, which slightly creaked.
'So much for being an elf, I thought they are tidy with their things.', he thought.
'Humans have no respect, doesn't even know basic thanking etiquette.', Ariel sneered within her mind.
Before the elf could even start preparing the needed ingredients, a knock came from the door.
"It must be Zoe.", she went to the other room where the door leading outside was.
When she opened the door, she saw an elf wearing white robes with green and gold linings in front of her.
Then two other elves with the same robes crashed through the window in the kitchen. After which, they brought out small poles, which turned into double bladed staffs.
One of the elves slashed down at the surprised Edwin, but the latter jumped back, dodging the attack, leaving the chair in two halves.
The other elf then charged him, however, the elf's staff changed into a pole and thrust it towards him.
He easily evaded that attack, but the other elf's weapon also turned into a pole and swifty stabbed Edwin towards his chest.
This time, he didn't get to dodge because he was still recovering from his injuries.
-bzzt-
Faint but painful electric shocks came from the pole and slowly numbed him. Meanwhile, the other elf also attacked Edwin on his back, increasing the intensity of the shock.
When the elves retrieved their weapons, Edwin collapsed to the ground, almost unconscious.
However, his consciousness started to fade away, and before he was knocked out, he saw a blurry vision of Ariel entering the room beside an another elf.
"Why?", he muttered, but he passed out afterwards.
***
When Edwin woke up again, he saw himself inside some sort of a closed room without any windows. There wasn't a single source of light inside the room, but his eyes adjusted so he can at least check where he was.
His wrists were secured with chains that was connected to the ceiling, while his feet were also tightly secured on the wall.
There were also two other chains in the room, one with a skeleton on it, the other one with a blood puddle under it.
In addition to that, he also saw his gray shirt hanged on the other side of the room.
A sensation of tiredness was all over his body, he couldn't move his body even if he tried his best.
Suddenly, an entrance opened from the other side of the room, and a large, masked elf, wearing black clothes walked in while carrying a small metal stick.
The entrance behind the elf closed as soon as he entered the room.
The elf went in front of Edwin and asked, "Where are your other fellow humans?"
"What other fellow?", the boy weakly asked.
The elf punched Edwin on his stomach with his fist filled with internal energy.
While the sound of bones cracking could be heard, blood seeped out of the boy's mouth as he replied, "I'm not with anybody!"
"Say it, where are your fellow humans?", the elf asked again.
Still, Edwin answered the same question.
-whoosh-
The small metal stick that the elf was holding turned into a mace. Red electric flashes came from the weapon.
The feeling of agitation and fear surrounded him as Edwin's eyes widened, "I'm really alone, I'm really alone, I'm really..."
And by then, shrill screams resonated inside the room.
***
Inside a room...
A thin elf wearing vibrant long tailed vest entered a room and bowed down.
"So, did that human say anything yet?", an old elf sitting behind a desk asked without looking at the newcomer
"Not a thing, sir.", the other elf replied.
The aged elf kept looking at the letters on his table and said, "It's been several hours since that human woke up, that human really knows how to hide things. What do you think about it, chief?"
"I think, that human isn't connected to the other ones we saw. We might have mistaken him to be one of them.", the elf chief answered.
"Oh? I was talking about what we should do to make him tell the truth. Do you really trust that human?", the elder elf put down the letters he was reading and looked at the other elf.
"No! Forgive me, sir.", the chief elf bowed down again.
"Alright, I'll let it off, it's just a trivial matter.", the old elf pulled out a drawer and took a quill and ink from it.
After a pause, the elder elf said, "The council sent me a letter to use that 'object' continuously for a few days. You may leave now."
The chief elf's forehead let out beads of sweat when he heard that 'object', but his face became solemn as the that thing would be used for a few days.
Afterwards, he bowed down again, however, he didn't leave just yet, "Sir, I'm also reporting that Her Highness found out what we really did to that human."
"Hm? Don't let her near that place.", the old elf replied.
"As you command, sir."
***
With the sound of the chains slightly swaying back and forth. Constant pants and sobs could be heard within the secret chamber.
Edwin's hands repeatedly twitched, even though his body was mostly the one that get hit, he could feel the pain up to his chained hands.
The pain he felt was like as if repeatedly getting ripped apart, crushed, minced, and slowly being peeled by giant hands.
"Father... father... father...", Edwin muttered the same words each second.
Some time later, the large elf walked in the room while holding a box and the same small metal rod. The elf placed the box on the floor but kept carrying the rod.
"Where are your fellow humans? Where did you hide the fruit? From where did you came from?", the elf asked. Edwin already heard the same questions for a lot of times.
"I'm not one of them, I don't know what you're talking about, I'm not one of them...", Edwin hurriedly answered.
However, the metal rod turned into the mace and the elf bashed it against the boy's chest.
He let out several shrill screams, blood continuously flowed out of his mouth and nose while sounds of bones cracking could also be heard.
The same questions, answers, and torment repeated again and again and again and again, for Edwin, he felt that it would never stop.
When it finally stopped, a puddle of blood formed under the boy, his already dried pants was soaked in blood again. In addition to that, there were also a few pieces of "meat" on the ground.
His ribs were exposed and the boy felt that he could die at any moment from now, but the elf won't let it happen.
The elf retrieved a pill from his robes and planned to heal Edwin with it. However, because the boy's energy pathways were blocked, the elf could only take an another option...
...and that was planting the pill right inside the body.
The boy let out even louder shouts of pain as the elf forcefully pierced through his ribcage and placed the pill inside his stomach.
Meat and flesh grew back and Edwin's body returned back to once it was.
"Still not going to tell the truth?", the elf asked.
"I don't know what you're talking about... I don't know... I don't know...", Edwin wheezed.
The elf let out a sigh and he opened the small box. Inside it was a red thorn, but the elf seemed to hesitate picking it up.
Instead, he wore a glove on his hand and picked up the said object.
"Why... are you even here?", the elf changed the question.
"I-I... I don't know... I don't know...", Edwin kept answering the same question. At the same time, he felt an extreme headache attacking him that barred him from answering with his true purpose.
Still dissatisfied with his answer, the elf stabbed the thorn towards Edwin's chest.
-whoosh-
The thorn grew into a little red plant and its vines pierced through Edwin's back, and even attaching itself to the wall behind him.
Not just that, the vines also stretched and pierced everywhere in his body, to the lungs, to the kidneys, to the heart, to the throat, to his brain. Everywhere from top to bottom.
The vines at some times connect some of his organs to the other organs, some of his organs also got crushed, some were pierced through, some where utterly dislocated, etc.
Nonetheless, he gets healed every time through the vines too, but it also added more to his pain.
Blood flowed out of his orifices at a fast rate.
He wanted to scream the loudest as he can, but he couldn't even let out a squeak, less likely a yell, because his throat was filled with blood.
The suffering he was going through right now couldn't be explained by mere words.
Meanwhile, the elf turned around and ignored the boy's wide eyes, as if they were going to get remove from their sockets.
-clang- -clang- -clang-
The loud rattling sound of the chains holding the boy, made them elf extremely uncomfortable.
In the end, the elf couldn't take it anymore and left the room. The elf couldn't even turn around to see the bloody mess behind him!
The mark on Edwin's palm grew brighter and turned blood red, but the boy didn't notice it because of the unexplainable pain he was feeling.
I feel like the quality in this chapter is lower compared to the other ones, but I don't want to elaborate the scene any further.
-C_M
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