Having abruptly stopped what he had been attempting, Marcus was met with confused stares from Daniel and the other undead.
They could see that something had occurred since Alyna's form was now lighter than it had been before, but they were still not sure of what had really just happened.
None of them knew that Marcus had nearly purified Alyna and sent her on to her next life.
'I suppose that approaching this like I did with the shadow demon and Tyler. When I destroyed the bonds keeping Tyler's soul bound he stopped being a ghost and ascended. I will need to try something else for Alyna.' Marcus thought pondering what to do next.
However, not long after she regained her some of her strength, Alyna fixed Marcus with cold eyes and began shouting at him.
"Why!? Why did you stop?! For the first time I finally felt the ever-crushing weight on me being lifted. I was so close to be released from the pain I feel every day. Please finish what you were doing. I can take the temporary sharp pain if it finally ends my suffering."
Shocked by this outburst, Marcus had not been expecting Alyna to beg him to continue what he had been doing.
If he completed breaking her bonds, she would no longer remain on Mirrion and would have to leave her friends alone.
Of course Marcus had felt just a small portion of the intense and violent emotions that permeated Alyna's soul and could understand why she wanted relief from it.
While her madness resistance skill kept her from losing her mind, it did not stop her from feeling all of the intense negative emotions that normally drove a dread wraith to become a mindless killing machine.
"Marcus what is Alyna talking about? Were you close to unbinding her?" Daniel asked, concerned for his longtime friend.
"Yes, I was close to unbinding her, but doing so would have been the equivalent of cleansing her. For a ghost that is stuck here only because of their resentment, it would be pretty much the same as death. Which is why I stopped." Marcus explained.
Yet while Daniel and the others were willing to accept this, Alyna was not.
"I do not care anymore; all I want is for the suffering to stop. I would rather be sent on my way at this point without all these negative emotions rather than stay and continue to suffer. Please finish cleaning me." Alyna begged.
"Alyna, what are you saying, we have worked for so long to free ourselves of this place and cure our undeath. We have finally made some progress and you want to give up now?" Daniel said, his voice frantic and laced with anger.
"Yes, I just want it to be over! I have held on all this time since all of you are so determined, but I am worn out. Every day I think about simply turning off my madness resistance and allowing myself to be consumed so that I no longer have to exist in this undying hell. I finally got a taste of peace when Marcus was freeing me, and I cannot stand being like this anymore. Sometimes I think that Hina made the right call to simply end her existence. We have fought so hard for centuries and what has it gotten us. Nothing but pain! I cannot keep holding out for hope that anything will change." Alyna said, black shadowy tears falling down her face.
After her outburst, Daniel went silent and cast a sorrowful look towards the chair that Marcus had been sitting in before.
Seeing this Marcus could infer that this girl named Hina had been among their ranks, before she ended herself. No longer able to take being undead.
"I can understand your position Alyna, but it is too soon to give up hope yet. If you really want to go that is fine, I can send you on peacefully enough. But there is a chance I might still be able to help you. I still have a few more tricks to try. Are you really ready to give up on your friends now?"
Pausing for several moments Alyna carefully thought about what to do next, before eventually answering Marcus.
"I do not want to leave my friends, but I also do not want to exist as I am any longer. Try what you can, but if you still fail, please purify me instead." Alyna said, resignation in her voice.
Her friends moved to interjected and try to sway her, but Marcus held up his hand to stop them.
"I know that you have all been together for centuries now, but none of you truly understand what it is like for Alyna. I understand that it must be difficult for you to have been turned into undead, but none of you have to endure the same paint hat Alyna does. Knowing that she is constantly suffering, can you really ask her to stay?"
Feeling outraged and searching for an outlet to vent his frustrations, Cassius began yelling at Marcus.
"What do you know about us!? Alyna is one of us and there is no way we would let you kill her! Just because you helped free Daniel does not give you the right to make such a decision. If you try to harm Alyna, I will kill you!"
Feeling hostilities rising again, Marcus took a step back towards Mrazivý and prepared to deal with any attacks that came his way.
He could feel that along with Cassius the others were close to bursting.
Thankfully, Daniel stood between them and put an end to the growing tensions.
"That is enough! Marcus has already proven that he is capable of helping us, and we would be fools to give him reason to abandon us. I understand, I cannot bear to lose Alyna either. But if she wanted to go on that is her decision. I am sure that all of us have had similar thoughts."
With Daniel's interjection, the dangerous fervor that had been building up died back down, and Cassius, Soren, and Vira hung their heads.
Naturally with the situation that they were in, all of them had thought about ending their existences before. And if they had been alone, all of them likely would have.
But as a group they were able to stive tighter and have a sense of comradery that kept them going. They were not just looking for a way to become human again for themselves, but for their friends as well.
"Now that we have all cooled down a bit, I would like to get back to work. Only if I fail to help Alyna will I be cleansing her and sending her on to the next life. And I am actually pretty confident I have a way to help her." Marcus said.
His assertion received confused stares, as none of them thought that Marcus would be able to unbind Alyna and allow her to remain on Mirrion after his first failure.
"Are you sure you can do this Marcus? There is no need to get their hopes up for no reason if you do not have a plan." Mrazivý whispered to Marcus.
She was afraid that if he truly did fail that they might have to fight their way out of here.
"Don't worry, I think that it will work. Though it will be up to Alyna if she wants to accept."
Once he had finished assuaging Mrazivý's worries, Marcus approached Alyna again.
"I have a single method that I think is likely to free you from the curse of being a dread wraith, but if I do this it will likely be impossible for you to become human again. Do you still want me to try?"
A confused look on her face Alyna was unsure what Marcus meant, but still nodded her head.
"I care more about stopping the negative emotions that torment at every waking moment than becoming human again. Please attempt whatever it is you have in mind. I will accept any outcome." Alyna said.
Cassius and Vira wanted to interject again and tell Alyna not to give up on returning to being human, but Daniel stopped them. He was willing to respect Alyna's choice.
With Alyna's permission, Marcus let out a deep sigh and began focusing.
'Remember what it was like. All I need to do is recrate what happened to me.' Marcus thought going back to one of his most vivid memories.
When he felt ready, he held out his hands towards Alyna and two orbs appeared.
On the left was an orb of pure darkness and on the right was one of pure light.
After a moment of hesitation, he released each one towards Alyna and gave her the blessing of light and the blessing of darkness.
The two orbs passed into her and immediately her entire from was wrapped up in light and darkness and she let out an ear-piercing shriek.
"Do not interrupt. If you try to stop it, your friends is certain to perish." Mrazivý said, stepping in front of the other undead and preventing them from reflexively intervening.
Several minutes then passed by and Alyna at some point became wrapped up in a cocoon of light and darkness.
Eventually it began to fade away, and once it was completely gone, the shadowy figure of a dread wraith was gone. Replaced with a figure that looked like a young human girl.
"Congratulations, you are no longer a dread wraith. Now you are a superior spirit of light and darkness."
Chapter 839 A New Spirit of Light and Darkness