Two hundred sixty city guards were still alive. They were that last men under Colton Hilkhell, the last battalion that was still fighting with tooth and nail against the beast tide. The last hope this city had to survive this ordeal.
Right now, they had survived and won the war against those fierce beasts, but just at this last stage of battle, two hundred and forty soldiers lost their lives in that though situation. Many beasts and human corpses were laying on the ground while the survivors were still trying to recover from the shock. They looked at their dead friends trying to deny the reality, because it was too cruel.
Seth approached Colton Hilkhell and put a hand on his chest, infusing his Evergreen Essence inside his body and healing the most severe wounds first. This city lord actually stood behind to protect his city and buy time for the civilians to escape and find safety, contrary to what the "City Lord" of his own village did.
Colton Hilkhell eyes were unfocused and he wasn't able to fully reason anything that was happening, but he noticed that someone was helping him out.
"Th-Than-T..." He tried to talk even though he wasn't in condition.
"Don't try to talk now. Let me first heal some of your wounds."
Seth kept infusing his energy on him, until Colton recovered his senses. He was Mana Perception initial-stage cultivator and if not for that coupled that he was lucky to have suffered the attack from an injured beast, he would have been already dead by now.
Colton Hilkhell was finally able to see the face of the person who saved him. It was a face he knew, a person he had met before. Seth, someone he didn't think he would see again, even less in these conditions.
"You... Thank you." Inwardly, Colton started to think that a Deity was intervening for his life.
"Don't worry. You should rest for now." Seth stopped infusing Evergreen Essence on him and Colton's mind was finally able to relax. He lost consciousness and it would take some time for him to wake up, however, he was outside of any danger now.
Seth didn't ask him anything. He would be really confused if he hadn't searched through the memories of the Grand Elder of the Luberus Family, back at the Elven Territory.
After entering the city, he already knew what have happened. He felt the corruption still lingering in the air where there were signs of conflicts and instantly realized the corrupted beasts were attacking the city. This was one more thing orchestrated by his master Velgor and the Cerberus Clan, however, there was absolutely nothing he could do now.
Suddenly, he heard a strange noise and looked at a guard that has been injured and was resting while leaning against a still intact wall. His body suddenly jerked and many thin red lines started to spread on the surface of his skin. Around his whole body, many red shards started to appear and very quickly he turned into a red crystal, shattering in a single second.
"What?!"
"Oh my god, what is this?"
"What was that?!"
"What is happening?! You! You are...!" A guard saw his friend body reacting to that red energy, turning into a red crystal statue and shattering right after. He suffered the same destiny that guard suffered just some seconds ago.
Forty more guards started to tremble as many red lines were spreading inside their bodies. They ended up dying in the same way, reducing the quantity of living soldiers yet again.
Rina approached Seth in a hurry and asked: "What is happening here? What are those red lines?"
"I will tell you after we get in a safer place, let's first get out of here. There isn't much more we can do right now. But before we go, I need to try something really quick."
Seth approached the Flaming Eagle he had incapacitated and put a hand on its head. He tried to absorb the Crimson Corrupted Energy still inside the eagle's body testing his new theory out. If he was able to absorb the energy and revert the condition of the being he was treating, that would be incredible. And it was a success; he was able to absorb the crimson energy.
He felt happy that he may be able to control the energy more precisely now, and with that, it may be possible to save people.
To test if his theory was totally right, he woke up the eagle and the guards that stood by the side, jerked in a state of alert, defending their bodies with what they had in hand.
Seth hopefully expected that the eagle would feel everything was normal and would fly away, back to the Ygnolia Forest. However, even though it didn't have the Corrupted Crimson Energy coursing through its veins anymore, the first thing it did, was to ignite its flames back, trying to explode Seth in a million pieces.
CHIRP!
When it was almost releasing its flame techniques, the eagle felt the fire it had gathered being extinguished. However, this time, it was beheaded in a single second. The eagle died a painless instant death.
Seth couldn't understand what had gone wrong. He had extracted everything from inside the eagle's body, however, it didn't bring its animal instinct back. He felt in that single second it started gathering power, that the eagle was still corrupted. Something told him that nothing had changed, just that he was able to weaken it when extracting the energy, but it remained corrupted. However, that made no sense...
'Why was I able to save Arwen from the corruption, but I'm not able to save an eagle... In fact, I feel that I'm not even able to save the lives of these guards, if I had to extract the Corruption from inside them...'
Lexi was hearing Seth's thoughts and she felt she had a theory that made a bit of sense. It may not be the total truth, but it could help Seth in understanding a bit more about that power.
"Seth, I think that the Crimson Energy not only affects the cells, making them transform into something different, but it is able to invade the host soul, changing the consciousness into something else too. Even though you were able to extract the energy from inside the body, you can't bring that person or beast consciousness back to normal."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm not sure, but at the time you were inheriting the Seed of Tyranny, It tried to take control of your mind and consciousness, but I was there to not let it happen."
"How was I able to save Arwen then?"
"Simple. Her consciousness wasn't affected. She was lucky enough to only have her body infected and she is a Mana Sovereign cultivator. It would take a lot of time until the corruption was able to spread towards her consciousness."
"..." Seth couldn't understand everything behind that power yet. He only had some clues on how it worked and could feel it somehow, since he was the host of the Crimson Light. However, after witnessing what have happened here, even though he had acquired more control over it, he still felt a bit powerless.
'I need to find a way to explore this power... Else, I might lose someone important to me one day.'
"Rina, we're going. We won't be able to use the teleportation channel on this city anymore. They are in a terrible situation and it will take a lot of time for them to recover. We will need to travel by feet, so it may take at least two weeks to arrive at the Blazing Phoenix Sect."
"Sigh... Never thought the first thing I would see in the Human Territory, would be this massive catastrophe. Maybe this is a bad omen..." Rina said in a rueful tone. She loved nature and life, and a battle like this was something she didn't like at all. Be it for the beasts or humans that died. In her conception, both of them were victims and in reality, she was right.
Seth and Rina left the Hilkhell manor, passing through a mountain of dead bodies. Everywhere inside the city seemed to have turned into a graveyard and it was the worst trip Rina could have experienced.
This was a really bad start for their journey, but it kind of showed Rina that the world was really something cruel. She started to realize how power and resources were important and how fortunate she was for having a mother that protected her for her entire life.
Arwen was a very firm pillar she was able to lean on and even though she valued her mother a lot, only now, she was able to realize how good she was for her. Another thing she ended up realizing was that her mother's words were true.. The world was cruel and just some minutes after leaving the Elven Territory, she was able to experience that cruelty and the tragic outcome of a whole city.
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