Spring leaves

Year 118

Mirei’s condition deteriorated, despite my best efforts to heal her. A part of me feels conflicted about it. If she dies, I get a titan soul. If she doesn’t, well, one more hero to fight the demon king. 

“I’m going to die, isn’t it?” She asked. 

“Why is she deteriorating?” Harris asked. It didn’t make sense to him, and it didn’t make sense to me either, but somehow, she just deteriorated like a sudden relapse. I spent months looking into her body, and I kept trying to suppress the demon king’s curse, but it’s... weird. It’s able to break through whatever my means of suppression and create new curses. 

“If she deteriorates, you might too.” I told Harris. “I’m trying, but I don’t know why it behaves this way.”

“It hurts...” Mirei said, while she sobbed. The pain she felt was intense, and it was throughout her body. She described it like she was being roasted alive. 

Some days, Mirei was absolutely delirious and she just kept screaming, shouting, and struggling, as the pain possessed her. 

“Can’t you sedate her or something?” Harris said, upset at his screaming, semi-conscious friend. 

“Uh, really? Do I have permission?”

Mirei herself shouted. “Yes. Do it! Just knock me out!”

She’s a hero. Status effect resistance is the norm for heroes above Level 100. My attempted sleep drug wasn’t strong enough to have any effect. “Not working, I need to overcome your natural hero resistance.”

“How?” 

She screamed. She yelled. 

I tried more things. Injected sleeping pills. Didn’t work.

“I don’t get it.” Gerrard, who was also around. “Why doesn’t it work?”

“Maybe she must want to sleep herself.” Harris said. “I mean... her body must let Aeon’s drug do its’ thing.”

“Oh, you mean like my alcoholism.” Gerrard said. “Mirei, try to uh... disable or suppress your hero status. You can do that by thinking about your hero class and then think about turning it off.”

Harris glared at Gerrard. “You can do that?”

“Uh, I don’t recommend it to everyone.” Gerrard shrugged. Mirei’s screaming was blocked by the panel. 

“Is that a good idea?” I asked. “It’s entirely possible her hero class is what’s helping to delay and suppress the demonic curse.”

The two heroes nodded. “True. Didn’t consider that.”

Mirei continued to scream for days, my attempts at suppressing her pain or putting her to sleep not working. But, she really needed sleep, and yet her body’s pain doesn’t let her. 

“This is just cruel.” Harris said. “I never imagined our hero’s resistance to status ailments would sabotage us in this way.” It’s really this ‘cliff-effect’, where the hero’s resistance of status ailments does not prevent a demon king’s curse, and yet it prevents all attempts of ‘suppressing’ the symptoms of the curse. 

“It’s partly your level.” I remember being able to put Meela to sleep, but then, she was a lot lower level at that time.

“What?”

“The effects of the hero’s natural resistance to afflictions is correlated to the level. The higher your level, the stronger your natural resistance.” 

“She can’t give away her levels, we need her for the demon king!” Harris complained. Gerrard just stared at his fellow hero. 

“Is her life more important, or the demon king is more important?” Gerrard asked. 

“No. That’s not what I meant.”

“It sounded quite like what I think you meant.”

“Now’s not the time to argue. Let me see what I can do to put her out of her misery. Get me the strongest painkillers and sleeping potions and items in the world. My own sleeping and pain-suppression abilities are not strong enough, but together with the world’s best items, maybe I can still do something.”

The two heroes did so. Mainly Gerrard, since he’s free to travel. Harris’s condition had to be monitored, his condition may suddenly deteriorate too. They acted quickly, and within days I had all kinds of strange medicines and ointments from all over the world. Such is the power of heroes to mobilise their immense financial resources. 

And we attempted to use each and every of those ointments. Apparently, the ‘sleep’ status, unless internally done, is viewed as a status ailment. Surely, there’s a way to trigger sleep, even if her body is in pain?

The body naturally sleeps. That’s a fact, and the hero system doesn’t intervene with that. Yet, all these ‘inbound’ influences that attempt to put her to sleep does not work.

So, logically, if I could somehow fake the system to think that I am ‘natural’, wouldn’t that work? I am a tree with a nature domain. If I can’t do it, who else can?

Days of struggling. Weeks. There are days when the pain somehow becomes more tolerable, when the demonic curse somehow subsides. Perhaps it is the alignment of the stars, but I could totally relate to Mirei's pain. After all, I too went through something quite similar. 

If she could somehow gain levels to be Level 150, would heroes gain a  domain too? Wouldn't that mean they become even more overpowered if they get their heroic divine blessings, and a domain?

I tried all my healing and sleep skills. 

From [suspended animation], to [mystical dreams], to even trying to use [hibernate] on her, but nothing worked. 

The heroes tried using their own heroic energy to help suppress the demonic curse, but somehow it just made it worse, so they had to stop. They cursed, and wondered how the demon king managed to create a curse of this strength and persistence. 

They left again, and went to look for other kinds of cure. Gerrard, it seemed, tried to go visit other healers and spirits.

< Lilies, are you familiar with demonic curses? >

> No <

Ah.

How? 

I mean, is there a way for a doctor to reach to the soul and just... turn off the [hero] class for a while? Like general anaesthesia or something? 

< Are you then familiar with how to... disable a class?  Temporarily. >

Lilies paused. They replied to me a week later. 

> The system has the power. <

Well no shit, the system gave us the power of levels, pretty damn sure it has the power to remove it too. < How do I acquire it? >

> Such power is beyond mortals. <

Well thank you for telling me nothing. I’ll have to find some other way. 

-

Mirei would have days where the pain subsided, and I would do extensive tests. Some days, the demonic curse just... shrinks by itself. It’s behavior was erratic and annoying. I didn’t understand why a curse didn’t behave consistently. 

So I wondered whether it’s outside interference, like... Maybe something is remotely controlling the curse. 

Could I form a magical barrier?

I have shield abilities, but do they work with demonic curse... uh... erm... entanglement? I mean, I guess if the heroes’ magical transmission towers are somehow intertwined with each other without any obvious connection, that does suggest that a curse that is intertwined magically to something else is possible!

So I tried just that. Layers on layers of magical barriers.

It did nothing.

Maybe the type of barriers wasn’t right.

She yelled and screamed every now and then. It reminded me of a mental ward, where some people just couldn’t control their own mental state and frequently descend into shouting fits. Is this one of those?

Frustrated, I took Mirei to the soul forge within my body. I wanted to try to use my soul forge powers to temporarily suspend the effects of her hero class. Maybe I could then put her to sleep.

So, with the power of the soul forge, I examined her body again. At first, everything seemed the same. 

Her soul spring was there, there were two massive vases that poured sparking star mana into her spring. The spring is massive and it’s large, and there are large chunks of it that resemble white marble. The curse was there too.

Right next to the spring, a massive swirling black pool of stuff. The swirling curse was fenced up, by little bushes, which I think is the result of my various healing abilities. 

What powered this curse?

I used my soul forge, as I did before, to try and suppress the curse, but it did nothing. It’s already fenced up.

Was it something else?

There was nothing else in here, in this inner body of hers. All... except the spring. 

So, I went back to my earlier idea. Could I turn off the hero ability temporarily? To do so, I attempted to reach for the spring, and nothing happened. With the power of the soul forge, I pushed at the spring itself. It creaked, but didn’t do much. 

Then I pulled. In a way, the entire spring is made of blocks, kind of like large legos stacked on one another to form a spring. Each of them represents a skill, or some, a class. 

It was then I saw it briefly. A small black thing. Something hidden in between the blocks. Then the blocks’ pulled themselves back together. Kind of like magnets snapping back once you let go.

“There’s something in your soulspring.” I told Mirei, Harris and Gerrard the bad news. “I don’t know when it got in there, but I’m guessing it’s the cause of your pain.”

“Uh...” They didn’t understand the concept of a soulspring, of course. It probably felt like a young child listening to a doctor going about medical jargons. 

So I had to explain in detail what I was doing, and described what I saw. They got it rather quickly. One of them described it like, “oh, it’s like Naruto! That shikigami thing that pulled out the snake guy’s soul and chopped his arms off! So even if he had arms, he didn’t have arms, right?”

“Yes?”

“Cool. So, now we know that in her soul, that’s something that’s living inside the central key part of her soul. That central part is tied to all our levels, our mana and stuff, right?”

“Yes.”

“What if.... We give you more power?”

“Huh?”

“You can’t move it with your power. But you have two heroes here. Me and Harris. We’re both heroes who have star mana, and star mana’s like crazy juice. Could it work?” Gerrard asked. 

I thought about it for a moment, and I supposed it was worth trying. The star mana didn’t do much in suppressing the curse, because well, it was already suppressed. That made sense in many ways now. We were targeting the wrong source. 

“I don’t know, but it is worth trying. Will need both of you in the pods.” I wrapped their bodies with so many vines and branches. Simply because star mana is immensely powerful, and I’m not sure regular vines by themselves can draw their mana. 

Then, I started the soul forge again, and telepathically gave them the signal to start the star-mana transfer.

The overwhelming quantities of star mana. These heroes easily have a hundred times of my star mana, each. As it flooded through my body and into the soulforge, I had to quickly increase the quantity of vines, so much so it essentially wrapped them up entirely. 

Then, with their star mana and all my power, I pulled at Mirei’s soul spring again. It felt amazing, I felt like I was working with a small hammer before this, and now I’m given a massive excavator. So much... power. 

I pulled, and indeed, the soul spring started to come apart. Piece by piece was dismantled, and then I saw it. 

A large, entirely black piece of rock. Rotten, and festering right in the soul spring itself. When did it get here, I have no idea. 

But with their power, I pulled it out. 

Mirei was in intense quantities of pain. Pulling apart one’s soul spring is like ripping through their very core. I sensed all her readings and measurements shoot through the roof, and if she could scream, she would’ve screamed and fainted. 

I flooded her with all the sleep powers I have. [Mystical Dreams], ]Psychedelic Dreams], [Suspended Animation], [Tree Sap - Sleep]. Everything. I threw everything into her body, hoping it worked this time.

And it did.

The soul spring was broken, so the [hero] class could not play it’s part. 

I then added more pain relief and pain suppression tree saps. She quickly calmed down, and entered into sleep.

A black piece of rock stood before me. It oozed a blackish liquid. What in the fuck is this thing? My [inspection] just went [????]

I decided to just destroy it then. I hit it with all my borrowed might. A massive root. It cracked, and broke, and turned to small black ash. Then it disappeared. 

Mirei’s soul spring was still broken. I had to start repairing it. 

‘My star mana’s running out’. The two heroes telepathically communicated. 

“I used too much to destroy that thing.”

‘Is Mirei alive?’

“Yes, but let me do some basic repairs.” I tried to put her soul spring back together. I could move the lesser pieces, those that did not look like white marble. But the [hero]pieces, I couldn’t budge them at all, unless... I had their star mana.

“My mana’s out.” Harris said.

Ugh. “Fine, let’s stop here.”

The two heroes came out, absolutely exhausted. “I’ve never had so much star mana used up except when we fought the demon king!”

It’s only expected, isn’t it? Altering one’s soul is such a difficult thing, especially a hero’s soul. 

Mirei was in the longest, deepest sleep in a long time. She was in a dream. I could sense it. A long, long dream. I think I detected that she cried at parts. 

The two heroes needed a few days to replenish their star mana before we could get back to repairing Mirei’s soulspring. I had, in the meantime, did all the other pieces, and with each piece her condition recovered. But throughout these few days, she just slept and dreamed. 

The heroes said that their star mana used to refill a lot faster. When they fought the first demon king, all they needed was a 4-hour nap and they were good to fight again. These days, a few days was the minimum. They claim it’s the ‘downgraded’ blessings.

We got to work, and again, with their star mana, I’ve finally managed to put everything back together. Without that one piece that rotted.

Done, I jolt Mirei out of her dreams. 

When she woke up, she screamed briefly, then cried for an hour. Then she gave Harris and Gerrard both a hug. 

“Mirei, are you alright?”

“...no.”

“What, it didn’t work?”

“Whatever you all did, it worked. I’m not in pain anymore.” Mirei said. “But I’m not alright. Not anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“I saw home.”

“Home?”

“Earth.” Mirei said. “I dreamed of earth, but it was so real, so vivid. I was back in school again. Friends. Our family. I could remember all their names and faces again.”

Gerrard and Harris looked at each other. 

“We’ve known for a while that the gods suppress our memories of home. But during that long sleep, all I dreamed of...was home.”

“Aeon, what did you do?”

“I put you into a dream state, but I have little input on what actually happens other than the type of dreams. I gave you a pleasant one.”

Mirei bowed briefly. “Thank you, Aeon. I needed that reminder of home. Harris, Gerrard. I want to go home.”

The two men didn’t know what to say.

“I had enough of playing here. Thirty years’ we lived here. Fought this stupid war of the gods. I want to go home now.” 

What do they even say to that? How do they even go home? How do I even go home?

“Mirei...”

“I’m not going to kill myself, but if I’m heavily injured in the next battle, don’t save me.” Mirei said. “I had enough. I want to go home.”

“Mirei.”

“Harris, you had your fun. Don’t you miss your parents? I saw them in my dreams. They were there. The gods told us if we died, we’ll be back where we started. I had enough, Harris. It’s time to wake up from this silly game.”

She looked at the two dumbstruck men. 

“I’m going to need some time.”

“Yes.” The two answered and quickly gave her space. 

Mirei was alone, and physically she was fine. She sat on a chair inside my [secret hideout], and spoke. “Aeon, was that real?”

“I gave you dreams. But I don’t know exactly what is in it.”

“Can you give me more of those dreams?”

“I... don’t know whether your hero power will interfere with it.”

She paused, and then she asked me a question I never expected. “Can you take my hero powers away? If I give it to you willingly, is that something you can take away?”

The answer was yes, of course. It’s entirely possible to give away one’s levels and skills. It had happened before so many, many, many years ago. “Yes.”

“I see.” She said. “Harris probably wants me to fight with him the next time. But I’m tired of this artificial life. I miss my parents. I miss home. I miss being... normal again. I hate this hero thing now.”

“Things may not be well back home.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Mirei sobbed. “I didn’t realise how sad it is to never dream of my parents, or my siblings all these years. That we’ve somehow accepted and rolled with this new role of ours as heroes so freaking easily. It’s just fucked up. So fucked up, and all I want to do is quit this game.”

“It’s not a game.” Well, who knows? 

“It might well be, with how they’ve been toying with our feelings and emotions.” Mirei said. “The worst thing is I didn’t even know until you’ve disabled my hero class! I never even realised how weird it is for us to just roll with it and forget so many important things about our world!”

I didn’t say much. I just gave her some tea, and now that she’s not in pain, there’s no reason to lock her up in here. Her curse still remained, though, and that’s something even with the heroes’ star mana I still can’t solve. Maybe, not yet. 

She rested for quite a long time, alone. “Aeon. I have a favor to ask.”

“Yes?”

“When it’s time for me to die, can you take my levels away?”

“I can’t do that. Levels must be given away freely.” 

“I can give you my levels now? Or can I make it into a magical contract such that you take my levels the moment I die?”

“Why not give it to Harris, or Gerrard?”

“...they don’t realise it, Aeon. Maybe Gerrard knows, but he is drinking away his worries. Maybe he knows and doesn’t want to admit it. It’s a kind of suffering to continue this game, knowing that our old life, our real family are all waiting for me over there, on the other side. Giving them levels just prolongs their suffering”

“It’ll help them.”

“It’s a twisted kindness, that heroes die frequently. Imagine never being able to die, and stuck in this world. If you realise that your loved ones are still there...” 

Hmm, at this point, well, if she wants to give it to me...

“I’ll give it to you.”

But then again, I can’t use it. If I remember correctly, levels surrendered are converted to [experience seeds]. It just goes into my growing pool of [experience seeds]. But, “Sure.”

-

That day, I gained a level. I think it was when I used the hero’s star mana to crush that black [????] thing.

[You gained a level. Level 156]

[Skill : Natural Mana Overwhelming upgraded]

[Skill : Soul Forge upgraded. Improved control and abilities over soul forge functions]

I’m really slow at gaining levels. The last time I gained levels was 5 years ago!

That’s slow, right?

Spaizzer

Thanks for reading. (Subtly points to Patreon having 3 chapters ahead).