Chapter 409 - Scraping By

"...This is bad! You idiot--what mess did you get yourself into?!" Macheo's voice was heard. 

"Get his coat off! And his tunic! Hurry!" Mencius yelled out. 

Most of what he heard only sounded like slightly abnormal ringing in his eyes as the world felt as if it was spinning beneath his back. 

"Ren?! Can you hear me?!" 

It was Jae-Seong's voice, accompanied by soft, continuous pats to his cheek as if trying to coax him back into the conscious world. 

...I...can...hear you, he thought. 

His only response was spitting up blood that rained back down onto his face as he felt himself momentarily choking. 

"Iris! I'm going to need you to help me! Keep yourself composed--for him!" Mencius yelled. 

"...Okay," the girl's voice came out through plentiful tears. 

Why is she crying? What's making her so sad? He thought. 

An extreme warmth overtook his body while he was motionless against the grass, seeing only darkness as his eyelids refused to part. 

He recognized the feeling instantly; restoration magic--from two sources. Against his numb body, the warmth was all he felt; like a calm, nurturing wave of waver, flooding over his skin, it plucked the strain from his pores. 

In the darkness isolated to himself, he felt a presence by his side; an entity with a cold origin that separated itself from the living warmth of the others. 

"...Astraeus…" He spoke, only to himself and the darkness. 

He knew the man was there, somewhere beside him, but even in the abyss secluded to himself, his eyes could not find him. 

With the voices becoming blurred against his ears like the muffled rain past the window, his consciousness fleeted from him. 

--It would be a temporary respite as he suddenly jolted awake with a long, drawn in gasp for air. All at once, feeling returned to his body as every square inch ached from the marrow of his bones, from his head to his toes. 

His eyes were as wide as could be, though as he instinctually sat up, a visceral pain stretched across his torso, forcing him to fall back down as he winced through clenched teeth. 

"Don't move so suddenly!" Iris' voice met his ears. 

The familiar sensation of her lithe fingers caressing his body was met against his bare skin, though he could hardly see past his incredibly shaky, blurred vision. 

"Grhhh…!" He groaned. 

It was a migraine worse than anything he had ever felt, holding his own head as though it was going to split open. 

Even past his blurred vision, he could make out Iris looming over him by her lengthy, azure strands. More surprising was the close presence of Mencius, who also held an unmistakable set of locks with his emerald hair. 

"Bear with the pain, Nakamura," Mencius advised him. 

"...It feels like my head is going to explode…! Grruagh…!" He held his face as even the slightest light against his eyes made his head throb with more intensity. 

"Forgive me, but it was the only way to heal such egregious wounds. Neither Iris nor myself are true healers, so to handle such wounds, we had to also accelerate your own body's restoration process," Mencius told him. 

Though the words of the Jinyuen scholar fell on deaf ears as he was mainly focused on surviving the plague of agony etched into his skeleton. 

"Is he okay?...He doesn't look so hot," Jae-Seong's voice sounded distant, yet close. 

"I've seen this before. He'll be alright," Hongse assured. 

"Ren…" Aiko's meek voice traveled. 

"Rest, Nakamura," Mencius' voice was the most potent to his ear. 

It was different from the side-effects of his ability; contrasting the burning sensation that crawled over his skin, the agony resembled his skeleton being hammered with nails being driven into the marrow of his bones, contorting his muscle fibers and fiddling with his sensitive nerves. 

There was no control he had over his body, unable to pilot it as he convulsed from the overwhelming flurry of muscle contortions, limb spasms, and overall pain sent through every inch of himself. 

Such pain was enough to make him foam at the mouth as his eyes ran bloodshot with such extreme strain--before again, he passed out. 

It wasn't until a rest in the empty abyss that filled a thoughtless, slumbering mind that he once more awakened; this time, slow and gently as his eyelids parted. 

He was greeted by the soothing sight of illustrious, sky-like locks and a smile he could never mistake. 

"Iris…" He spoke faintly. 

The pain he experienced previously had faded away, but its memory was left in his body in the form of an exhaustive soreness. 

"You're a handful, you know that?" She smiled small with her gentle words. 

"...Yeah, I know," he replied quietly. 

He recognized the feeling under his head; it wasn't one he'd forget even if he lived a hundred years without it. 

Thighs. Yep. Soft. Yep. That's her lap pillow, alright, he thought. 

Looking up at the darkness that embodied the absent sky of the paramount floor of Purgatory, it was impossible to garner any sense of time--at any point, the darkness remained in its same, stagnant state. 

"How long was I out?" He asked. 

His answer came from one of the others he didn't notice were sitting right beside him--specifically, the golden-eyed, fellow otherworlder. 

"Just about two days," Jae-Seong answered. 

"Two days?!" He called out in surprise. 

Attempting to sit up, he was pulled right back down by Iris as his head plopped back onto her cushion of a lap. 

"You need to relax, Ren. You're still not fully covered…" Iris told him. 

It was when he looked at Mencius, who sat quietly, did the passage of time seem real; clear wounds, though tended to, persisted on Mencius in the form of small bruises, and some cuts. 

"She's right. You were lucky to even be alive, I'd say," Mencius told him, "we made a mistake, Ren--all of us." 

"Yeah…" He replied slowly, "...even with what happened with Fedrin, I still thought it was the right choice to go out. This place is no joke." 

That much seemed awfully clear by now to the entire group as a dreary atmosphere hung over their heads. 

"Is Aiko alright?" He asked. 

Though the azure-haired girl nodded her head to confirm this, a further answer came from Macheo, who was sitting beside the girl in question. 

"Luckily, she wasn't in as sorry a state as yourself," Macheo huffed. 

By the lack of words from Aiko herself, or hardly movement for that matter, he could gather was slumbering quietly from the single glance he took. 

"That's good…" He laid his head back down with quiet words. 

Even though he apparently had been out for two days, it didn't feel as if that rest afforded him any luxuries as his entire body still felt like a hunk of lead; dense and arduous to make even the smallest movements. 

Looks like I made it--somehow. I guess I have you to thank for that, Astraeus, he thought. 

After spending the rest of the day resting while the group stayed cautious in their ventures; it was a new rule to head out in no fewer than groups of three, and to keep the distance they travel to a minimum. 

"You sure you should be up and moving?" Valerie asked. 

He bent over to stretch before straightening himself out with a smile, nodding to the draconic knight. 

"I'm fine! I slept for a whole two days--it'd be embarrassing if I was still out of commission," he assured her. 

Hongse slumped his fluffy arm around the young man's shoulder with a hefty laugh bellowing from his maw, "Ren's tough! I heard he gave those dogs hell!"

"Rest assured, it's for the best if he moves his body. Movement will help his body readjust; it likely hasn't had such a long resting period since before Purgatory, I imagine," Mencius added in. 

Speaking from his position in the center of the small camp, he tossed a few sticks into the constantly burning campfire. 

Meanwhile, Jae-Seong was on the other side of the campfire, laying in complete relaxation--quietly getting shut-eye as he used the toasty warmth provided by the flames to sleep like a log. 

As always, Macheo and Aiko sat close together, and even though the prince held that tough exterior expression--it was obvious he was enjoying her company. 

Looking at the group, he couldn't help but smile as their spirits seemed to be good; even in such dreadful conditions, respite was found in one another. 

We'll make it. I just know it, he thought. 

As he looked to the side, he was greeted by a soft smile from Iris; a smile that hadn't dulled in the slightest, no matter how many times he saw it. 

Even as he postured himself high, a sickening sensation flooded his body as for a moment, he grabbed his stomach, almost keeling over before stopping himself. 

I don't feel good. I don't feel good. I don't feel good, he thought. 

"You're really feeling okay now?" She asked. 

"Well, I've still got a bit of soreness, and a headache, but otherwise--I'm fine!" He assured her with a smile, "ah--hold on, I've got to...uh,..."

By the way he shuffled his legs, she let out a quiet sigh as she understood the universal gesture for having to use the restroom. 

Not good. Not good. I feel sick. I feel sick, he thought. 

"Go use the bushes then," Iris sighed. 

"Be back in a jiffy!" He set off. 

He raced off past the treeline, not venturing far enough for danger, but far enough so that he couldn't be seen or heard doing what he had to do. 

Spilling from his lips, he released a buildup of bile that felt like it was going to force its way out if he didn't relieve it then and there. 

I can't let them see this.. After how much they've worried about me these past two days, I can't worry them any further, he thought.