Chapter 52

Gone

Lykan awoke to pain. A mental scan showed that he was in a bed of some kind, his body covered by sheets. On instinct he tried to circulate the energy within his body, but for the first time since he forever changed his life from being a null, he could not feel energy coursing through his body.

Worse, he felt pain. His body and internal organs were fine, but there was a problem. The meridians and pathways that had been in his body from the beginning were gone. No, they weren’t gone, but the energy that flowed through them was gone. He mentally searched for energy but found that the energy within his body was missing. On instinct Lykan moved to try to touch his heart, the spot where the metaphysical energy from his spirit would begin to flood his body, where he could then circulate the energy and fly.

Seeing his movement a few things happened all at once.

“He’s awake!” A familiar female voice called out.

“Telka...” Lykan called out, or at least he tried to call out, but his throat was dry and raspy.

Soon a flood of people came in.

Lights, numerous runed lights began to click on and flood the tiny room with light.

It was an energy that Lykan could feel, he could feel it because it wasn’t the same as natural light. Natural light was warm and crisp, while this light felt forced. Still, he tried to understand his condition.

“Step aside.” A female doctor came into the room instantly taking charge.

This was to be expected, with so many more women having Powers as compared to men, odds were that one would be more likely than not to find a female being called in as a specialist. This was doubly true for healing, which men had a much harder time adapting to mentally.

By this point Telka had come with a glass of water, water that Lykan drank greedily. Even after the glass his throat still felt parched.

The doctor came forward and placed her hand on Lykan’s arm. Instantly a cooling wave of energy filled him and circled his body once. As soon as it came back to its origination point the doctor spoke.

“His body and vitals are fine.”

Everyone let out a sigh of relief, that’s when the doctor continued to speak.

“Unfortunately, his meridians are still severed from whatever attack was used against him.” With that statement all eyes turned to the corner. There in the corner sat the sister of Ajimal the Great, her hands were bound together and then bound again to the wall. When Lykan looked towards her, she herself just looked on with a look of pride.

“What happened?” Lykan asked. While he had been looking at Nayali the girl he remembered fighting, not much made sense.

“Tell us what you remember first?” The doctor began.

Hearing this Lykan nodded and then proceeded to talk about the call to arms. About the sudden attack that caused a lot of ships to pull back, then how he summoned a trial of the Gods to fight. He recalled parts of the fight, “I remember leading her up high in the air. Then when she struck, I turned it back on her. That’s when…” He trailed off, his hands going to his chest again. This time trying to see if he could feel the impact point. He turned his eyes to look at Nayali again. This time Nayali looked to the floor in shame.

“You were hit. You crashed to the ground, thus breaking your leg and hip but managed to remain floating for a second. Long enough to show you could kill a passed-out opponent. After that the gods called the duel and the war ended almost as quickly as it began.” A commanding voice called out from behind. It took a moment for Lykan to see the rank of the Admiral behind everyone.

Seeing the man Lykan immediately tried to straighten himself out to render a proper salute. Seeing the strain that movement was causing the boy, the Admiral quickly began “At-ease, soldier. You need to rest. You did our country a great service. Though I do have to let you know that not everyone is happy about the outcome of the war.”

“They aren’t happy that we won?” Telka asked.

Admiral Sheil shook his head, “it’s not that. They think that by the war simply being over was too easy of a punishment and that the Azani should face war charges, especially for their massacre at Dunthir.” Admiral Shiel said turning to look at the chained girl in the corner.

Nayali just stared up defiantly at the admiral locking her gaze with the man. After a moment the admiral turned away not wanting to waste his time with a posturing match with the girl.

“Regardless, you saved hundreds of lives. Not just here but in the Belkins as well. Word has it that the Azani forces that attacked us are going to port to sail away, tail stuck between their legs.” The Admiral said, making sure to watch the reaction of Nayali out of the corner of his eye. Her reaction was exactly what he had hoped for and more. She was furious, but only her eyes could tell of her intense hatred at the remarks.

“Sir, there is something I must tell you…” Lykan began, his hand still holding the phantom wound over his chest.

“Yes, yes, I know. Your power channels are all damaged. Unfortunately, no one knows how to heal them, at least no one that is credible knows how to heal them.” The Admiral said, as he gave a dismissive wave of his hand.

A silence fell over the room. The Admiral opened his mouth to say something more and then apparently thought better of it. Instead, he looked at Lykan and then said something Lykan never thought he would hear.

“You know. I always read about those that had earned the title of Valiant from the gods. How their sheer presence alone was enough to fill a room with their righteousness. Honestly, I never even thought I knew what righteousness was, I had a vague idea. But after seeing you and the aura you now radiate. It is clear what righteousness is. You did well, before anyone tries to go and tell you otherwise, know that you will always have my support.” The Admiral said, as he came forward and shook Lykan’s hand.

At their touch Lykan could feel the power of the man before him, but it was odd and fleeting. The energy felt much the way his own energy would feel. And for a second the trickle of energy that was exchanged from the contact circled once around his body, before going to his heart where it abruptly dissipated into a nothingness. Lykan felt the entire process and was slightly saddened by the outcome. It seemed, that his ability to conduct energy was broken on some fundamental metaphysical level.

“Now there is just one thing you need to determine what to do.” The Admiral said as he turned his eyes for a third time back to the chained woman in the corner.

Lykan looked at the woman in question.

“Husband. Let me be by your side, where I belong.” The chained woman said, holding up her arms to show off her restraints.

Seeing this, Lykan moaned inwardly as he did not know what to make of the current situation.

On reflex, Lykan began the process to circulate mana throughout his body. This was a calming effect he often used to help him remain calm. Yet, as soon as he tried to circulate mana throughout his body an intense burning sensation could be felt burning and eating away at his internal body. Feeling this, Lykan instantly stopped as he clutched his chest tightly.

Instantly the doctor moved in to check his vitals and found that with the effort Lykan had just performed he had in fact ruptured a few blood vessels that ran in parallel to his meridians. A wave of healing energy flowed through his body going to the damaged blood vessels, but nothing could be done to help heal the burning meridian.

“There, I think we have stressed him out enough for now. Now we need to let him rest so he can hopefully recover.” The doctor said, gesturing for everyone to leave.

Hearing that, even the Admiral gave a crisp bow.

“Get better soon.” The Admiral said.

Seeing that everyone had left, it was just Lykan, the Doctor, Telka, and of course the chained-up war criminal in the corner.

“You should be getting some rest.” The doctor said. Hearing that Lykan nodded, though he felt saddened. He had lost the one thing he had spent most of his military career trying to earn, a thing he dreamed about as a kid. The ability to fly.

Now even cycling mana was too much for him. If this remained the case, he knew he would soon be discharged from his military service, as no officer was allowed to serve if they no longer could wield mana. Honestly Lykan was surprised that he had managed to make it as far as he had with his limited ability to form and manifest mana. He was at most a niche user, and at worst a fraud. Maybe this is for the best, he thought to himself as he let his thoughts begin to race.

“There is something else that we should talk about.” The doctor said, gesturing with her eyes towards the war criminal in the corner.

“Release her.” Lykan said.

“Are you sure?” The doctor asked.

Lykan nodded.

“She is bound by the gods to follow her pledge. She pledged to be loyal.” Lykan said.

“But she will only be loyal to you?” Telka asked, fear evident in her tone.

“And I am loyal to Sidhertha, which means by extension she will be loyal to Sidhertha as well.” Lykan answered.

“It is as I have told you all along.” Nayali said indignantly from the corner.

The doctor must have given some unseen signal for a guard came forward and quickly unlocked Nayali’s chains.

With the chains removed Nayali began massaging her wrists while moving forward to be with Lykan.

“Hmmph.” She sounded as shew as quickly by Lykan’s side.

As she drew near Lykan could feel her energy flowing through her body. This was different from what he had been able to feel from the others. Before with the others, he could only feel their energy once they made direct skin contact, but with Nayali she was electric. Her energy was hot, primal, and volatile, calling to him from a few paces away. It was weak, but he could still feel her energy.

Still there was so much for Lykan to think about and process that it was becoming too much for his mind. As such he just sank back and relaxed.

“Nurse Telka, will you stay and monitor our patient?” The Doctor asked while shooting a glance at Nayali.

Telka nodded, as the doctor officially out ranked her, by her giving an order to stay Telka would not be breaking her oath of service to stay by Lykan’s side.

Knowing that Telka was close and that for the moment he had nothing to worry about from Nayali as the bonds of the heavens clung to her tightly, Lykan felt calm. At least as calm as one could be when they found out their entire livelihood had been removed. Still, everything was too much for him at the moment, so he decided to rest.

But before he did, he pulled up his status screen to see how he was doing after the battle.

Name Lykan Vita Race Human Class Valiant Wanderer Age 17 Attribute Base Plus Modifier Total Strength (8+6) 14 Awareness (9+6) 15 Mobility (10+6) 16 Intelligence (8+12) 20 Power (9+12) 21 Skill Base Plus Modifier Rating Universal Linguist (Maximum) Spear Master (Maximum) Sword Mastery (Maximum) Aerial Combat Expert + (Rare) Sage Bow Mastery Adept Quick Step (Maximum) Unarmed Mastery Novice Qi Infusion Novice + (Rare) Beginner Universal Literacy (Maximum) Regeneration (Maximum) Meditation (Maximum) Qi Cultivation Novice + (Rare X2) Adept Qi Resistance Novice + (Rare X2) Adept Focus (Maximum) Aerial Movement Expert + (Rare) Sage Master Crafting Beginner Magical Abilities Base Plus Modifier Rating Energy Absorption (Maximum) Energy Sensing (Maximum) Energy Control (Maximum) Qi Absorption Novice + (Rare) Beginner Qi Sensing Novice Energy Alter (Maximum) Qi Control Novice Qi Alter Novice

Looking at his gains from the past battle he was surprised to see that a few of his natural attributes had increased. Most notably his Strength, Awareness, and Power had all increased by one point. Then the part that was probably the hardest to swallow was the fact that two of his most powerful magical abilities were now blocked to him. In the end he only had Qi. In fact, of his skills only the Qi and his movement-based ones improved. While most of the other skills he had were already maxed out, there were still quite a few that he didn’t use at all during the battle. He thought it would have been stupid to go into a battle that could solve a war with his Novice level of unarmed combat. Even the use of his war bow would have looked questionable. In the end, the only thing that truly saved him was his mastery of the blade. His opponent had been more powerful than him. He knew that she was holding back, even at the end he had expected something like the devastating attack that came for him.

On the bright side his Master Crafting had gone up by its own, thanks to his work in the RDT department. Closing his eyes, he let the cold embrace of darkness take him as he prepared for what was to come next.