Chapter 220 – Waking Up
“Big brother, please get better…”
“Shhh, don’t disturb him.”
“You need to become stronger, Calron. The prophesized day is almost upon us. You must…”
The face of his Ancestor, Raizel, loomed over him and he could see the creases of deep worry on his face.
The dream abruptly ended before he could finish.
“How is he?”
“His wound’s healed, but it’s impossible to attach his arm back. Quiet, he’s shifting in his bed.”
“…. the Divine Element is unlike anything that exists in this universe, Calron. Its secrets are vast and unknown, and that is why you need to learn quickly. As its next inheritor, only you have the power to change what is about to come.”
Calron was flying next to Raizel in his human form, his ancestor’s long dark hair fluttering in the wind.
“Are you real?”
Calron asked, stretching out his hand towards the man but only to meet with the touch of empty air.
“In a sense. You will understand everything once you unlock the last ability of the Divine Element. Calron, you must never give up hope. Whatever struggles you face now, it will only make you stronger. Never despair.”
Raizel smiled at Calron’s attempt to touch him and shook his head. A look of sadness passed through Raizel’s eyes as he gazed at Calron, almost as if he knew what Calron had gone through at the battle with the Heavenly expert.
Before Calron could respond, the dream ended once again.
“It’s been days, why isn’t he waking up?”
“I don’t know, Patriarch, he should have woken up by now… something inside his body is stopping him from regaining consciousness.”
“I swear, the King and the Tower Lords will pay dearly for what they’ve done to him.”
Calron’s consciousness drifted in and out of reality until even he himself couldn’t tell it apart from his dreams. He remembered hearing the voices of Roran, Kail, and others who visited him, but he couldn’t summon the will to talk.
Once again, he lost his consciousness.
Unbeknownst to Calron, the divinity inside his heart was now spreading over to his other organs and some parts of his bones. His golden heart thrummed as it continued to pump and deliver the divinity to the rest of his body.
The golden substance was also the reason why Calron had yet to wake up.
It was unknown as to why it had picked this precise moment of time to spread within Calron’s body, but it was sure to change the young man forever. After a few minutes, the golden liquid stopped moving any further, and his heart returned to beating at a normal pace.
Calron’s heart, lungs, stomach, spine, and parts of his skull were now covered with the golden divinity. If this transformation were fortuitous or not, only time would tell.
Once divinity had stopped expanding, Calron opened his eyes for the first time in days.
Calron groaned, his throat parched and his eyelids hurting from opening them. His body kept bumping up and down on the bed, and Calron realized that he was currently inside a moving carriage.
His blurry vision slowly grew clearer until he could distinguish the inside of the carriage and notice the old woman sleeping across from him, her body leaning against the side of the carriage. Several jars and pills of medicine were spread around her, some half-opened and others untouched.
Calron didn’t try to wake her up but instead observed the rest of his surroundings. Using his Divine Perception, Calron figured out that he was at the front of the trail and guarded by over twenty clansmen on horses. He could sense the Patriarch and the rest of the Elders including uncle Kail, all walking ahead. Just walking behind his carriage were his friends, Roran, Ellie, Rebran, Linda, Asra, and the rest. Thousands of ex-slaves followed the trail resolutely, their emotions full of hope and dreams of a brighter future for their children and family.
Returning to his carriage, Calron ended the ability and closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see what he’d been purposefully avoiding since he woke up. After taking a deep breath, Calron glanced down his left side and saw the stump at the elbow where his arm should’ve been.
Only now, it was covered with a mysterious bubble of water.
What is that?
Calron raised his other hand and gently poked the bubble.
“You’re awake!”
The old woman abruptly woke up the moment Calron touched the bubble. She rushed towards him and placed her hand on his chest.
“Everything’s normal…”
She murmured and then inspected the stump on his left arm.
“You can’t attach it back?”
Calron didn’t even bother to ask for her name as he knew the Patriarch wouldn’t have let her treat him if she was a stranger.
“Unfortunately, no.”
The old woman said with a sad smile as she withdrew the bubble of water and checked the stump for any infections.
“So, I have to live as a cripple for the rest of my life.”
Calron sighed, his chest tightening up at the thought.
“You should be glad that you managed to survive against a Heavenly stage expert. Not many do.”
The healer said softly, sensing the bitterness through the young man’s words.
“Where are we now? And how many days was I asleep?”
Calron remembered that they were still on the journey and he had no idea how far they’ve travelled or how close they were to the destination.
“Stay still, your body still needs to recover. You haven’t eaten anything besides soup or sipping a few mouthfuls of water every day. Let me get you something solid.”
The old woman pressed Calron down to the bed and then shuffled towards where her bag of equipment was. Calron heard her talk through the communication crystal as he contemplated on how he was going to live without an arm.
Would I be able to use the crossbows with only a single arm? Will I lose one of my wings if I shape-shift into a beast?
Calron tightly clenched his right fist.
“CALRON!”
The Patriarch’s voice boomed inside the carriage as the old man burst inside and went straight to Calron’s bed. The carriage creaked under the elderly man’s weight but kept on moving albeit the horses’ tears.
“Thank you for saving me.”
Calron said quietly, recalling the old man’s timely rescue.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t come in time. I should’ve expected those scums to attack our backs instead of coming straight at us. I promise you, once we finish constructing the new city, I’ll send our clan’s top experts to exact revenge on your behalf.”
The Patriarch placed his hand Calron’s and gazed into his eyes, conveying the seriousness of the promise.
“No…”
Calron whispered, causing the old man to raise his eyebrows in shock.
“I’ll kill the ones responsible myself.”
He finished, returning an intense stare back at the Patriarch while blue lightning flickered across his azure irises. Even without an arm, he was still the inheritor of a Divine Element.
“Good.”
The Patriarch nodded his head in approval and patted Calron on the shoulder.
“How far away are we from the new city?”
Calron changed the subject, eager to know about their progress.
“What’re you talking about? We’re already in the territory of our new city! We’ll stop at the center in about five minutes and start issuing orders for the construction of houses and divide the ex-slaves into groups of professions. The Raizel clan will make this the biggest and strongest city this continent has ever known! Calron, look outside.”
The old man grinned, obviously excited at the prospect of their new home and city.
“Shh, he needs rest, don’t make him get up.”
The woman chimed from the side, displeased at the Patriarch’s interference.
“Our blood’s not that weak, Gina.”
The Patriarch winked at the old woman and then glanced at Calron, deepening the woman’s frown even further.
“Haha.”
Calron smiled at the Patriarch’s attempt to cheer him, and slowly got up from the bed. His muscles protested at the movement, but Calron didn’t care.
He wanted to see the outside.
“It’s perfect…”
A/N: This chapter has a lot of time lapses because I wanted to portray the time distortion Calron was undergoing with his injury. Just wanted to put this out here, as I feel like a few people will complain about the too many breaks without considering why I did it or the effect I wanted :)
(LIMITED SPOTS)
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