Serum: C179 (Patreon)

Not long after she had called for help on the medallion, Eleanor was picked up.

A portal appeared beside her, a man stepping through it. He was wearing luxurious robes and the aura he exuded was terrifyingly far above Eleanor’s own.

Seeing him, Eleanor directly collapsed.

But she was caught before she could hit the ground, the man sending mana through her body to check her.

“My god child… Just what did you do?”

He muttered, seeing both the bloody medallion on the floor as well as the empty potion bottle. He even saw the healing her body was undergoing, understanding that she had drunk that potion.

However, the potion wasn’t her own. It was different than theirs and shockingly powerful.

But that made it all the more confusing. What enemy would give their defeated opponent a potion to heal?

Well, those questions were for later, for now, the man took Eleanor back the way he came.

They appeared within a grand hallway, yet despite its splendor and size, nobody occupied it.

With a turn of the heel, the man brought her through some doorways before coming upon a bedroom.

Kicking open the door, he placed her down on the large bed, her body sinking into the covers and staining it with residual blood.

Then, he took out an orb, tapping it and speaking.

“Send the Royal Healer.”

His command was given, and only a minute later, two people arrived.

“Sir Jeppen Lotus.”

The first to enter was a maid who bowed in greeting, but it was clear she was no ordinary servant. And she appeared beside a woman dressed in extraordinary robes, the Royal Healer.

But even more wondrous about the Healer than her rich robes was her face. It seemed perfect, her visage so beautiful it almost didn’t seem real.

Her crystal blue eyes fell upon Eleanor, stepping forward and reaching out, letting her finger tap her forehead.

*Flash*

A light bloomed, enveloping her entire body for a moment before fading. After that, an 8 circle spell formation appeared above her, raining down brilliant gold petals that sunk into her body and healed her wounds at a scarcely believable rate.

“She was left on the verge of death. Left by herself, she may have survived, but not without permanent wounds. She’s lucky her enemy was merciful.”

“So you saw the potion. Do you know where it’s from?”

“It's a vampiric concoction. Most of them are dark mages so anything they create with light magic is very distinct. It also sits just below Tier 7, so it's powerful without being overtly so.”

The Healer gave her diagnosis while her spell completed, leaving Eleanor looking brand new.

Her words made Jeppen nod. The political implications of this information were not to be understated, but it was amazing this could be found out simply by analyzing the effects a potion was having on an elf’s body.

Only the royal healer could do such a thing, he thought.

“I understand. Anything else I should know about?”

“Whoever she fought was weaker than her but had concussive anima that could break through her defenses. It was good that she’s as resilient as she is. But that also means her enemy isn’t in a much better state.”

“I see…”

He went silent, but his head was filled with countless questions.

After that, the Royal Healer took her leave.

Jeppen sat by the bed, stewing in thought. And about a half an hour later, Eleanor began to wake.

“Hm? Where…”

“Eleanor.”

She heard a voice, her vision clearing as she started to sit up.

Everything quickly came back to her, making her heart race in anxiousness.

But she also calmed once she realized where she was.

“Dad…”

“Eleanor, I need you to tell me what happened.”

“...I fought this man. A human.”

“A human?”

He looked confused but didn’t interrupt.

Eleanor went on and recounted the entire experience.

As she spoke, she got more and more excited, as if this wasn’t a battle she lost but a legendary fight she had witnessed.

Jeppen was even more confused by this. She almost seemed to enjoy this when not even an hour ago she was sitting on death’s door.

Finally, she got to the end, speaking with a wide smile.

“When he backed off, I got in the stance to perform the Severance strike. He had been on the back foot, so even though I took an extra half second to prepare, he shouldn’t have been able to recover. But he did, and as I sliced forward, he brought two of his fingers up and pressed the flat of my blade away while using its impact against him to dodge. I barely even believe what I saw with my own eyes, but right after that, he used my momentum to deliver a simple palm strike. It caved in my chest so much that I felt my heart stop for a few seconds. Thankfully it started again.”

“...Yes.”

“It was the most amazing battle I’ve ever engaged in! I’ve never been so focused. My technique alone has advanced several steps, not to mention my battle awareness! He was only a rank 5, but in the same position, I couldn’t hope to pull off what he did. He actually beat me even though he said it was my win. The very fact that he could walk away with wounds worse than mine was extraordinary.”

“...”

Jeppen didn’t know what to say as his daughter’s eyes sparkled.

Faintly, he felt that look resembled when she first began to learn the sword. She had fallen in love with it after merely a day of playing with a training blade.

So what was this infatuation? He frowned, but decided there were more pressing matters.

“Eleanor.”

“Hm?”

“The man. What was his name?”

“His name…”

Eleanor stared blankly for a second before shaking her head.

“We didn’t actually exchange names.”

“Is that so… Being an Heir, it's usually customary to exchange names.”

Jeppen narrowed his eyes at her, but she just let out a huff.

“Well how was I supposed to know he was an Heir? He simply appeared in the mountains while I was training.”

“Part of the resistance?”

“I think so. He obviously didn’t care to just spill his identity. Would you like me to try and ask politely next time?”

“...Forget it.”

Seeing his daughter getting sarcastic, Jeppen backed off.

He felt there was more to the story, but what had been said was shocking enough.

He couldn’t help but feel that this mystery man was far more complicated then she was making him out to be. How could someone be weaker than her yet actually manage to beat her within an inch of her life?

That kind of stuff simply didn’t happen between Heirs. Their instincts were simply too good for there to be such a large deviation like that. Rank was supposed to be the determining factor, and only when that was equal could there be an even fight.

For one’s instincts to be so good that they could actually fight an Heir an entire Rank higher meant that they belonged to a league of their own.

But what stood above Heirs? When the highest level of talent meant that you may someday become a King, what did it mean to surpass that talent?

Did that mean that this man was an immature King? Was it only a matter of time before one appeared?

He refused to believe it. The only explanation was that Eleanor’s evaluation of his true strength was off. But he also didn’t want to believe that an Heir’s instincts could be so off the mark, especially his daughter’s who he knew so well.

Standing, Jeppen sighed and made his way to the door.

“Rest for today. Your injuries need time to heal. And no more running off. Until I give you instructions, you’re to stay within this castle.”

“When I’ve healed enough to swing a sword I will be training again, regardless of where that is. It would be nice if I could get a sparring partner.”

“You deal with that. Don’t forget that there’s a war going on.”

With those words, Jeppen left the room, leaving Eleanor alone.

She sat there in silence for a few seconds, recalling those final moments seeing Dirk.

And at some point, her face began to blush.

When Dirk had utilized what she could only guess was lightning, it had sent arcs across his body and incinerated all his clothes.

She didn’t realize it at first, but when he was giving her that potion and walking away, he had in fact been entirely nude.

It was nothing to worry about at the time especially since she thought she was going to die, but now, she found herself heating up and her face flushing.

Those images replayed in her mind like a movie that she could rewind as many times as she wanted.

“Ahh, what perfect abs… And he’s taller than me… and bolder…”

She couldn’t help but lose herself in forbidden fantasies, but the thought of that only got her more riled up, sending her down a spiral of exhilaration.

……

…

Meanwhile, the target of Eleanor’s fantasies was trudging through the mountains.

Dirk’s body constantly healed over time, bringing torn muscles and tendons back together while mending bones and sealing lacerations and ruptures throughout his organs.

The first half hour was the worst, all of his bodily systems on the verge of shutting down. But over time, his nanites began to restore order and piece his broken body together.

But all of this took energy that he didn’t have much of. And he didn’t have an entire feast within Obsidius’ pocket space.

The little rations he had were enough for two days of basic sustenance, not enough to refuel his body after such an extreme battle.

A lot of the energy for the healing actually came from his Mana Body. It was no different from passive magic, and Dirk didn’t use much of his mana during that battle, so he had plenty.

But that only went so far. And besides, Dirk felt it was a good opportunity.

After finding a rock somewhere to sit, he sifted through some items and took out another potion.

This wasn’t a healing potion, but a potion made for refueling.

It was basically a dozen nutrient dense meals compacted and concocted into a brew that would provide enough fuel for a knight for a month.

Pandora had brought some along specifically for him. Only issue was, it was still a potion.

But Dirk had been drinking a lot lately, conditioning himself to react more normally to ingesting foreign fluids.

So he felt he would be fine. With that in mind, he popped the cap on the potion bottle and brought it to his mouth.

When he took the first gulp though, he started to gag.

But forcing down those reactions, he started downing the entire thing like his life depended on it.

The potion bottle was drained, but as soon as he was done, he fell to the floor and started vomiting.

Thankfully nothing came out, Spyte sealing everything within his stomach. Still, he heaved for several minutes, an irrepressible urge to empty his stomach overcoming him.

He felt utterly sickened, and those feelings only served to stoke rage.

He hated that simply drinking a potion could bring him to his knees like this. It was disgusting, even more so knowing that another man had made him like this.

Then, Spyte suddenly spoke.

[You’re bleeding.]

“What?”

Dirk was confused. Even whens lived with a sword he wouldn’t shed more than a few drops of blood. But now he was actually bleeding?

Sure enough, he could feel moisture on his back. Reaching back and running his fingers across brought back a layer of blood.

But it wasn’t red. His blood was actually a shimmering purple.

After so many enhancements including blood destruction, the genetic enhancement as a kid, and then his Mana Body, it had changed into this magical fluid that barely resembled blood at all.

Even Spyte had analyzed it and said that it was no longer human blood. It was several magnitudes more efficient even without factoring in the anima and mana boosts, but trying to determine which aspects came from which enhancements, like his High Human species or his Mana Body, proved to be impossible.

Now, his blood would coagulate so fast that even without his nanites he wouldn’t have to worry about bleeding much.

However, right now, he was actually shedding blood.

Through his all encompassing mana sight, he could see dozens of lacerations on his back. They had simply appeared there, as if a ghost had carved him up without him knowing. He felt his head throb just seeing them.

Old scars carved into his very soul. Although the damage to his soul had been healed after receiving the protection of the Dark Dragon Primordial, it seemed those scars still hadn’t gone away.

The mind was extraordinary, the soul even more so. In response to a triggered trauma, it would harm itself without even knowing it, as if the psychological wounds couldn’t go without the physical wounds.

It made Dirk scowl even more. He preferred not to remember the torture he endured under those endless days of whipping, but he also wasn’t afraid of it either. So the fact that those scars had engraved themselves so deeply only served to piss him off.

It was only after he stopped heaving that the wounds healed themselves. Dirk also started to gain strength back as his body burned the dense fuel inside of him.

Then, he looked up through the trees around him.

His battle with Eleanor took a while, and it had only started later in the evening.

In the Otherworld, there was no blue sky, not even the normal night sky. It was like there was no barrier between this world and the depths of space. It was so clear that Dirk could make out millions of individual stars. He could even make out a bit of extra color from all the light of their galaxy.

“Hey Spyte. Do you recognize any constellations?”

Dirk suddenly asked, prompting the cat to appear beside him.

[Let me check.]

She spoke with eagerness, scanning all the stars while generating long exposure images.

After several minutes though, she shook her head.

[There’s not a single recognizable constellation. So either we’re in a galaxy far beyond the Virgo Supercluster the Milky Way is located in, or this dimension houses an entire alternate universe. Without an orbital telescope, it would be impossible to find out. That or we would need to build an observatory within this place since there doesn’t appear to be any atmospheric distortion whatsoever.]

“Sure.”

Dirk just shrugged.

Doing all that was a waste of time. They would have better luck just waiting for Earth to make its way back here.

Dirk wondered when it would happen, and how they would know it happened. After all, who said Earth needed to storm in here with an entire army and make itself known?

They would probably infiltrate slowly once they had a definitive method of transporting people over without them being killed or reincarnated. They would blend in with whatever society they appeared in and gather information.

Only when they knew about every possible catastrophic threat would they invade full force. Or, perhaps if a miracle occurred, they would reveal themselves and engage in diplomacy.

But even that couldn’t happen unless they established a stronghold for themselves, which would involve armed forces invading, claiming a piece of land, and successfully defending it against a sizable threat to establish dominance.

Well, either way, Dirk would hear the cannons before anything else. He just needed to wait for them to appear.

Slumped against the boulder, Dirk continued to gaze at the night sky while his body healed.

“One hell of a first day.”

He mumbled realizing that this was still only the first night at this place.

He’d have to head back to the labor camp before morning. He didn’t plan on leaving, mainly to help people, but also because he wanted to continue mining in those caves.

He had a feeling something was down there in that mountain. It was nothing but a gut feeling, but Dirk knew he was on to something good.

So after a few more hours, he was finally good enough to make his way back. He snuck into the camp just as the sun started to rise and continued on with his work.