Chapter 14: Ch54. Comatose
I charged towards them with everything I had.
Full of rage and that red void eating away at my heart.
I did tear every limb in them, but just as I thought, it grew back.
I felt my nose bleeding and that strange system trying to force its way against my will.
I did everything I could.
I promise you, I did.
But then...
I couldn’t move, and then I felt the tentacles piercing my body, pain being the only thing I could feel or see.
Then, before everything went dark, I felt Evellyn’s lips touching mine, and with that, the warmth that I felt when I awakened spread throughout my body.
Was it really goodbye?
[THE SYSTEM CANNOT CONTAIN THE POWER OF THE ABILITY]
[FORCEFULLY ALLOWING – INFINITE CONSCIOUSNESS – TO TAKE EFFECT]
[WARNING!]
[THE PLAYER’S MEMORIES HAVE BECOME CORRUPTED AND CANNOT BE FULLY RESTORED AFTER THE MERGING PROCESS]
[GOOD BYE... PLAYER.]
"I promise..."
I can’t.
"I’ll find you again..."
You’ll be safer away from me.
"And I’ll destroy this system."
I don’t want to fight anymore.
"I promise."
I don’t want to lose anyone anymore... I give up.
***
The sterile, white walls of the hospital room closed in around Octavius and Nina, as they sat vigil over their son, Kurt Blake.
They had been here for days, watching as the machines beeped and whirred around their son, who lay motionless in the hospital bed.
Kurt’s eyes were closed, and his breathing was shallow and labored.
The doctors had told them that their son had been in a car accident, and that he had sustained serious head injuries.
They had performed emergency surgery to try and relieve the pressure on his brain, but even the best healers of the hospital weren’t able to make the boy wake up since the operation.
They had put him in a medically-induced coma to try and give his brain a chance to heal, but so far, there had been no change.
The parents sat in silence, holding each other’s hands, as they watched their son’s chest rise and fall with each breath.
They tried to talk to him, to tell him that they loved him and that they were there for him, but they knew that he couldn’t hear them.
They were afraid that their beloved Kurt would never wake up, that he would be trapped in this comatose state forever.
As they sat there, the parents couldn’t help but think about their son’s life before the accident.
He had been a typical child, almost reaching his fifteens, full of energy and dreams for the future. He had been a talented athlete, with a passion for fighting and soccer, and had dreamed of playing professionally one day if he ever ended up not awakening.
He wasn’t so popular at school, but a large group of classmates had been devastated by the news of his accident.
The parents had always been proud of their son, and they had done everything they could to support him in his dreams.
They had taken him to soccer games, Octavius taught him how to fight like the wielders from his guild, Guardian, cheered him on from the sidelines, and celebrated his victories with him.
They had encouraged him to pursue his education, and had talked to him about his future plans.
But now, as they sat by his bedside, they were filled with regret.
They wished that they had spent more time with him, that they had listened to him more, and that they had told him how much they loved him more often.
They wished that they could go back in time and change things, to prevent this tragedy from happening.
Octavius and Nina were also filled with fear and uncertainty about the future. They didn’t know what would happen if their son never woke up. They didn’t know how they would cope, how they would go on with their lives.
They didn’t know if they would ever be able to find joy and happiness again, even more because their oldest, Quintus, wasn’t with them anymore, having died during a raid.
They simply couldn’t take one more loss in their lives.
But despite their fears and regrets, they never left their son’s side.
They stayed in the hospital room day and night, and when Octavius couldn’t be there because of his duties as the guild master from Guardian, Nina switched with him.
They talked to him, read to him, and played his favorite music.
They hoped that somehow, their love and presence would reach him, even in his comatose state.
Days turned into months, and the couple grew exhausted, both physically and emotionally.
They had been living in the hospital, barely leaving their son’s side, for what seemed like an eternity. They had seen other families come and go, their loved ones recovering or passing away, but they remained stuck in that limbo.
One day, though, a new doctor came to see them.
She was young, with bright eyes and a kind smile. She introduced herself as Dr. Lee, chief of research for the Harvard Institute, and explained that she had been brought in as a specialist to review Kurt’s case.
Dr. Lee asked the parents questions about their son’s life before the accident, about his hobbies and interests, about his dreams and aspirations.
But most of all, about his correlations with Octavius’ activities in the Guardian guild and how he behaved at home when close to his father.
She listened carefully to their answers, and then asked to see their son’s medical records.
For the next few hours, Dr. Lee pored over the records, studying the scans and test results. She consulted with other doctors, and then came back to speak to the parents.
"I think we may have found something," she said. "Did you know that unawakened people, even before they reach the age of awakening, develop a slight resistance to the mana fluctuations in the atmosphere?"
Both Octavius and Nina raised their brows at Dr. Lee’s question, to which she responded.
"That’s because the human body can’t deal with raw mana by getting in touch with wielders and normal awakened. So the body automatically starts to evolve to a state where it can take the mana fluctuations without being damaged. But your son hasn’t developed this ability as of yet."
"And it means..." Octavius’ voice was full of concern.
"It means that Kurt’s body isn’t recovering from his brain damage because his physiology is too busy trying to assimilate the mana from the atmosphere and from his wielder father, without killing the body."
Octavius sat down with his head in his hands.
"So it’s... My fault...?"
Nina squeezed his shoulder, but she too looked devastated by the thought. She was just a regular, not having awakened when she reached the age, but the thought of the world around Kurt being the cause of him not waking up made her feel completely powerless.
"No. It’s something in Kurt’s own physiology. However, I think there’s something we can do to wake him up, even though we don’t know what could happen to his mind, since his body is still constantly dealing with the mana, unable to recover from the damages."
Their faces lit up with determination, but they kept silent, waiting for Dr. Lee to finish.
"There is a new treatment that we could try. It’s experimental, and there are no guarantees, but I think it’s worth it."
Octavius and Nina were hesitant at first. They had been through so much already, and they didn’t want to get their hopes up. But Dr. Lee explained that the treatment was non-invasive, and that it had shown promising results in other patients.
The treatment involved using a device called a transcranial magnetic stimulator, which used magnetic pulses to stimulate the brain.
The theory was that this stimulation could help to wake up dormant areas of the brain, and possibly even help to rewire damaged neural pathways.
It wasn’t a promise of Kurt waking up, but it was better than nothing, after the two years the boy’s parents spent beside his hospital bed, hoping for a miracle to happen.
But what Dr. Lee wasn’t telling them was that she wasn’t just aiming for their son waking up. She was also aiming for a new project where she used this machine to rewire the brain to be less susceptible to the mana around, reinforcing it and allowing regular kids to finally have a chance to go on living in this world of crucibles.
She accepted to take a look at Kurt’s case because some of his records showed high similarities to those of kids who died from mana poisoning.
"Can we think about it for tonight?" Nina looked at Dr. Lee, trying to not sound like she wanted to refuse.
She held Octavius’ hand and smiled as Dr. Lee agreed.
"Don’t worry, it’s not an easy step to take, so of course you can think it off through the night. Here’s my contact data, you can reach me at any time of day or night if you choose to accept." She touched her holowatch on Nina’s and Octavius’ and shared her information.
After that she left the room, leaving the couple to the silence, grievous atmosphere of the hospital room and their comatose son.
They talked for a while and decided to go home to get things set up for the time they would spend in the hospital until they got any positive response.
Later that night, Octavius had left Nina sleeping at home and went back to Kurt’s room in the hospital, carrying a little black silk wrapping in his hand.
"I brought you something, son." He approached the bed. "I don’t know if you can hear me or what, but I found it. I bought it from a suspicious man, but after some tests, I confirmed it. It’s a fragment of the disaster that brought the Calamity to the world fifty years ago."
He fell silent for a second, trying to suppress the tears.
"I don’t know if it’ll help with anything, but let it at least be an amulet for good luck. And when you wake up, help me study it more, so we can be the ones to help the world get rid of the Nests and Beasts... So please son... Just wake up..."
He opened the black piece of silk and placed the red crystal fragment inside Kurt’s hand.
And before Octavius could break down and cry, he left the room.
***
In the silent, dark hospital room, the crystal glowed in a faint red light.
Immediately after that, Kurt opened his eyes, glowing in red. Even though he couldn’t see anything from the outside world.
In his mind, a voice echoed.
[CORRUPTED HOST FOUND]
[INITIALIZING REPAIR]
[MEMORY CONFLICT DETECTED]
[INITIALIZING DAMAGE REVERSION PROCESS]
