Zhu’s face remained expressionless as he watched from the side.

Using the sharp nails on his right hand reinforced by his Ki, Neils touched one of the bandages on Zack’s head. He rubbed the bandage for a few moments. His eyes remained closed. Moving his hand forward, he cut.

The bandage was cleanly separated in two. It hung loosely in the air, emanating a dull yellow light which seemed to distort everything around it.

Neils’s expression remained solemn as he grabbed the next layer of the bandage, repeating the same procedure. One after another, layer after layer of bandages came undone. In a matter of minutes, he reached the last layer of bandages.

Lifting the last layer, he made a cut. Like before, the bandage cleanly snapped in half, a part of it falling down on the floor, mixing within the pile of cloth cuttings littering the floor of the medical room. However, as Neils pulled on the remaining part in his hand, his expression changed.

Looking at the scene before him, he couldn’t help but take a step back. Distress filled his face.

Neils’s reaction ended up piquing Zhu’s interest, who got up and looked closely at the scene before him. In a matter of seconds, his expression changed. He turned his head away, unwilling to look any more than necessary.

Taking a deep breath, Neils walked closer. Suppressing his urge to wretch, he brought his hand closer to the boy’s face. A cold light flickered on the tips of his nails. They moved in a straight line, aiming towards the boy’s left eye-socket. As his hand drew near, Neils couldn’t help but grow astonished.

What a dense aura of Ominheim. It can’t be anything else. Zhu said that this kid lived for around four to five months in a condition like this. Heck, even if I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t even believe it. He even fought. And his training schedule… that thing was no joke.

All in all, his physical consumption was nothing to scoff at. Nevertheless, he remained all fine and breathing. Then, just how did he live this long?

Not even considering this dense aura of Ominheim, even the amount of impurities he let out. Even if I take half the amount Zhu told me, taking rest to be an exaggeration which it shouldn’t be, this kid shouldn’t have lived for this long. He should’ve died long—

Just as Neils was frowning while contemplating over the boy’s condition, when his hand was about to touch the boy’s left eyelid, a bone-chilling frigidness enveloped the surroundings, wrecking his train of thoughts before it could reach anywhere.

To the side, Zhu stood up. His eyes remained fixated on the boy’s body, not daring to move an inch.

A fragment of a stony mask materialised out of thin air, landing securely on the boy’s left eye. As soon as the fragment touched the boy’s bare skin, blood-red patterns crawled out from beneath the mask as if they possessed a life of their own, covering the boy’s body in its entirety in all but a flash like ropes being bound around a shipment, and when placed alongside the mask itself glowing in a dim crimson radiance of its own within the dimly lit room and the bone-chilling sensation rolling off of it, it gave the boy an appearance like that of a fiend released from the depths of purgatory.

Dazedly, Neils’s hand reached out towards the mask. Immediately, Zhu snapped out of his daze, reaching out to stop the former. Yet, he was a step too late.

*Riiip*

Acting like a wild beast which had gone hungry for days before finally seeing a sheep, the mask ripped off Neils’s hand by the joint.

Neils’s breath got caught in his throat. He panicked. Purple blood flowed out of the missing hand, revealing a bone made of Jade-like material in the stump left behind. As the blood pooled on the ground, it gave off a sour smell.

As soon as Neils registered what happened, he covered up his wound with his other arm. Unable to contain himself, he bit down hard on the flesh of his other arm, turning his bitter scream into muffled groans of agony. The eyes of the tough-looking Naga turned a shade redder.

Despite that, when looking at the fragment of mask plastered onto Zack’s face and his hand turning into a fine bloody mush before subsequently being absorbed by the fragment, he couldn’t help feeling a sense of terror from the depths of his soul.

What if that thing was complete?

As soon as he had the thought, Neils didn’t dare think any further.

Passing Neils one of the cut fragments from the bandages fallen on the ground, Zhu asked, “Can you regrow it back?”

Neils solemnly looked at his steadily bleeding forearm. Taking the pieces of bandage from Zhu, he bound them around his arm. “This should help. Although trashy quality, these things are bandages with runes of time. They should help. And yeah, I think I can manage. Although it will take a while.”

Although Neils’s words tried to sound calm, his shaky tone betrayed the intent he tried to convey.

Zhu nodded. He didn’t bother exposing Neils, trying to feign calm or make fun of him. Instead, his gaze didn’t shift in the slightest, staying fixated on the boy covered in crimson patterns for any unexpected movements.

One rune after another lit up with a dull, bloody hue atop the surface of the mask. In but a few minutes, a devilishly enchanting crimson pattern resembling a landscape full of blossoming flowers lit up on the surface of the mask. While the pattern seemed lively, it gave off a dense sensation of rot and decay.

Yet, before the pattern could complete itself, the mask and the boy’s body shuddered simultaneously. Like a rope being pulled back fiercely, the patterns flowing over the boy’s body suddenly converged back, their centre being the mask itself.

The mask’s radiance grew duller by the second. As if the mask couldn’t bear the consumption of power, it soundlessly dissipated into fading motes of bloody light, leaving behind no signs of its appearance whatsoever.

A few moments passed, nothing being around to disperse the calm after the storm.

Taking a deep breath, Neils mustered up his courage and snaked forwards with bated breath. Zhu followed closely behind.

Reaching next to the boy, Neils reached out with his remaining hand, touching over the boy’s left eye. As soon as his hand touched, he almost retracted it by instinct. However, he managed to hold it in. A moment later, his expression changed, his features shifting into a somewhat stiff yet relieved look.

“All that aura of Ominheim… Before it was scattered all over his body. But now it’s all concentrated in his left eye. Just what the heck. What was that thing?” Neils exclaimed as his tongue rubbed against the top of his mouth.

Zhu patted Neils’s shoulder before pointing upwards as he said, “Don’t talk about things randomly. You can get in trouble.”

Hearing his words, Neils sealed his lips tight, staring silently at his missing hand.