Sliding his left hand to the side a bit, Leon slapped his right hand onto Astaroth's back, too. He poured out more Aether into the new ruler's back, eliciting more screams of pain.
But this time, instead of coming just from Astaroth, they came from Phoenix too. The woman suddenly felt a surge of heat, transferring from Astaroth to herself, washing into her body like a burning tsunami.
Outside the game, where Alexander had just started stabilizing, his vitals spiked again. And to make matters worse, Kary's vitals spiked alongside them.
The doctors and nurses present were baffled by what was happening. When they went to check on her, she exhibited similar changes on her back to the young man.
They quickly reacted, throwing cooling blankets onto Kary's back, trying to bring her temperature down, while repeating the process on Alexander, again.
"What the hell is going on?!" one doctor exclaimed.
Inside New Eden, the couple was howling and grunting in pain. Astaroth was taking the brunt of it, being in direct contact with the burning energy coming into him.
But Phoenix wasn't much better off, as the residual heat kept washing into her. Her bright blue, flaming form was raging all over the place, burning a part of the floor under her.
Leon was sweating bullets, his body quickly draining of all its energy. His mind was in shock.
'How much Aether can these two take?! By any measure, they should have blown to bits by now!'
Just as Leon spent the last of his energy and collapsed to the ground, Phoenix and Astaroth heard a familiar sound.
*Ding!*
*Marking of the rulers has been done successfully! Congratulations to the new rulers of Stellar Woodlands!*
*Ding!*
*Your body has been tempered in the flames of a star! New Passive is being generated.*
*New Passive generated! Passive Skill: Celestial Tempering has been added to your skill list! Congratulations!*
*Ding!*
*Marking of the rulers has unlocked a new Skill. Skill; Royal Protection unlocked!*
Astaroth and Phoenix were physically and mentally spent, and they fell to the ground, gasping for air while holding each other as they did.
Astaroth was slightly mad that Phoenix had put herself in harm's way for him, but he didn't have the energy to rebuke her for now. As for her, she was happy she could help him tide through this process.
But Astaroth could guess it should have taken this long. The fact that Leon had started with one hand, and suddenly switched to two, told him something different had happened than what was originally planned.
But when he turned to ask the guardian, he noticed the latter had passed out, sleeping on the ground. Astaroth grunted, but ignored the issue for now.
He glanced at his status to see if there were any negative statuses affecting him and noticed something.
Status:
Name: Astaroth
Race: Ash Elf
Grade: Special
Level: 48 (23,511,097/43,309,950)
Stats:
HP: 37,600/37,600 MP: 530/5,300 Stamina: 0/100
Physical Condition: Exhausted
Mental Condition: Exhausted
Seeing his stats suddenly be so high made his eyes widen in shock. The new grade option in his status window also caught his attention.
'When did I go up a grade?'
Astaroth didn't remember getting the reputation requirement to go up a grade. Neither did he ever get a notification for it.
His mind went to his new passive.
He opened it up, curiosity getting the best of him.
Celestial Tempering: You have tempered your body in the flames of a star or its equivalent. Your body has grown stronger from it. Grade raise: Common -> Special. Resistance to fire damage gained: 50%.
'Hot damn! As if the grade increase wasn't enough, I got a fire resistance bonus, too!'
Astaroth was stoked at this turn of events. Even though it hurt him like hell, the gains he made largely made up for it.
From Phoenix's exposed shoulders, he could clean some sort of change, too. The top of her shoulders, descending onto her back, were red and puffy.
Astaroth quickly asked Athena to Allow Silent Light inside the palace. Neither he nor Phoenix seemed in agony anymore, but he wanted to see if they could heal her back to normal.
He could guess his back was in the same state, and guessed he could use that too, if it worked.
It took a while for Silent Light to reach them, since he was already busy somewhere on the base. But once he entered the room, a wave of residual heat assaulted him.
He instantly started sweating, his forehead and back drenched in seconds. He walked toward his two guild leaders, who were still seated on the ground, next to the passed-out guardian.
The scene was almost comical, if it wasn't for the burnt ground under Phoenix. That made him curious about what had happened.
He resisted the urge to scan Phoenix and Astaroth, knowing both were capable enough mages to feel the action.
Sitting next to them, he looked at Astaroth.
"What happened here, and why is it so hot?"
"It's a long story. I'll tell you another time. For now, can you check her back and tell me if you can heal these marks, so they are at least no longer red and puffy?"
Saying this, Astaroth pulled Phoenix in closer, before lowering the back of her robes, exposing her skin to Silent Light. When the priest saw the markings on her skin, he paled.
Across the entire woman's back was the tribal representation of a lion, burned into her skin. Certain places had skin that seemed to have become crispy.
It was astonishing the woman wasn't howling in pain or crying right now. Silent went to work.
After casting a few healing spells, the skin unswelled, and the parts that seemed burned now looked healed up. He wasn't able to bring the skin back to normal, but Astaroth knew that was the point.
The markings were supposed to be permanent, after all. After getting healed, Phoenix fell asleep in Astaroth's arms.
The pain had kept her awake, but now that it was gone, exhaustion overcame her. Astaroth lay her down, before turning his back to Silent.
Silent saw the back of Astaroth and almost threw up. The guild leader's back was twice as bad as Phoenix, his markings larger, and more complex, but also burnt to a higher degree.
He quickly started healing his leader's back, wondering how the man was even keeping quiet. By the time he finished, Astaroth had already fainted from exhaustion, too.
Silent left the room, closing the door behind him. He messaged Athena, telling her that the guild leader and vice-leader were fine, but that they shouldn't be disturbed for the next few hours.
'I hope they are back on their feet before the guilds start sieging us,' Athena thought, biting her fingernails.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m