While the three girls got to know each other, and discussed what they knew of Scott’s possible location, another lost soul was receiving a visit. Sax stood within the threshold of the local hospital and stared at the comatose form of his trusted subordinate.

“His condition has not changed since he was admitted. While his physical injuries were healed easily enough, his spiritual wounds cannot be further treated,” said an overly erotic nurse.

Wearing an outfit more befitting a Halloween party than an actual nurse, the buxom goddess fluffed her hair then acquired an overtly sexual pose. Few legitimate patients were ever admitted. Most injuries healed within a few seconds, due to the nature of being god and the bonuses of living in the divine city.

Sax nodded to her while completely ignoring her sexualized display. She made another effort to capture his attention, but upon realizing that he did not care she sighed then gestured toward the patient. “He’s available for visitors, but whether he will wake up is unknown. He experienced some sort of significant trauma that prevents him from regaining consciousness. Even the grand physician who took his case could not retrieve his psyche.”

“Even a grand physician?” asked Sax. “What could have done such a thing to him that even a doctor of that caliber could not repair him?”

“We don’t know. The grand physician said that it was as though his soul had been shredded beyond recognition, and for some reason Logos Remnant refused to acknowledge any attempt to allow for deep psyche penetration.”

“So, some sort of curse? One that makes the system ignore attempts to heal the afflicted?” asked Sax.

The nurse licked her lower lip then swayed from side to side. Sax snorted at her then asked that she stop being an idiot.

She hardly ever got the chance to play with visitors, as few people visited. She put a great deal of effort into her lifestyle, and his rudeness annoyed her greatly. “Fine. If that’s how you want it.”

The nurse sighed once more then crossed her arms over her ample chest. “It’s not a curse. The Aethereal pathways linking his mind with the system are shorn. It’s like his soul was partially ripped out of its housing, as unbelievable as that is to hear.”

“Wait, you’re saying that his soul itself was being torn apart?” asked Sax. Soul based magic and other forces were quite common, but taking a soul usually happened in complete units. It was nearly impossible to destroy a soul.

Gods they may be, but they could neither create nor destroy souls. There were many theories regarding how they might come to exist, but no god was known to be able to perform the needed steps to craft one. The best they could do was to craft poor facsimiles of them. In most worlds, every who existed was a mortal or divine soul who opted to enter into an incarnation in that location.

“Typical healing powers are useless because there is no ability to access the deeper mind through the Logos Remnant,” said the nurse. “There’s incomparable damage done to this poor patient. The only way for him to heal, that we know of, is time.”

“How much time?” asked Sax.

“It’s impossible to know,” said the nurse.

“Is it possible to speak with the grand physician who performed the medical procedure?” asked Sax.

“Perhaps? I could put you on his appointment list,” she said. However, her slightly vapid expression soon shifted. “Of course, he did say not to disturb him as he needed to speak with a grand arbiter right away and might not be available for some time.”

Sax’s eyes widened slightly, but he quickly recovered. He tried not to show any further signs of disquiet. Yet, it was quite difficult. If the damage that his idiot lieutenant had taken was as significant as stated, then it was possible that the grand physician could have discovered any number of their plans when he was trying to dig around inside of his mind.

The fact that the physician had ran off to see an arbiter, however, was quite discerning. The possibility that he had discovered something was significant.

“Do you want some time alone with him?” she asked him a short time later. If he was not going to play with her, there were other things she could be doing. If nothing else she could post a few accidental nip-slip selfies in one of the fake patient rooms, or perhaps even make a naughty video! Every now and then a fake patient would come in and profess to be sick. While it annoyed the administration, the nurses were usually ecstatic. Fake or real, patients were rare.

“Yes. Leave,” said Sax.

He walked into the room while completely dismissing her. She stared after him, shock evident on her face. Seriously, what manner of asshole came to a hospital and couldn’t be bothered to at least lust after the nurses? Had he no sense of decorum?

The overly buxom nurse frowned at him cutely then said, “Hmph!” and turned away in a huff. Nose up in the air she bounced off to find something more interesting to do.

Sax loomed over the bed of his subordinate. On the outside he seemed to be quite and reserved. On the inside, however, he was a seething mass of anger.

“This pathetic little shit!” he snarled inside his head. All manner of hateful invectives proliferated inside his head for a moment. “Harei… You useless fuck…”

He could not believe what he was seeing. Someone had brazenly taken down one of his lieutenants. After the banishment from ARS his guild broke apart. It took a few years into the current project, and his rise to prominence as the project leader to woo some of them back.

“I gave you so much, even weakened my own avatar to give you part of my racial power… and you waste it,” thought sax.

If he did not know that the rooms were monitored, he would have beaten the divine vegetable slumbering peacefully in that bed. The useless bastard had ruined everything. The doctor might even know their plans because of him. He was not under a non-disclosure agreement! If he discovered anything incriminating the entire plan would be compromised, and all their ambitions would come to nothing.

Sax tried his best not to glare at the vegetable, but it was a hard thing. Harei had been the first of his lieutenants to return and had only asked to stick it to that red-haired slut. Sax had chosen to indulge him, promote him, grant him system access authorities through shady means that were definitely illegal.