This was probably the longest Elemental Order - Heal spell Benjamin ever maintained.
After maintaining drizzle and mists around half an hour, the room became similar to that of a shower room. While their screams continued throughout the process. If not for healing through magic, even if they didn't die, there was no telling on what would become of them.
However… fortunately enough, the backfire effects of the potion lasted for only half an hour.
"There shouldn't be any more problems, the bizarre potion within their bodies had disappeared completely." After scanning, the System slowly replied, "Their crucial organs within their bodies had recovered nicely under the spell's treatment. However, it won't be unusual for any damage to their spiritual energy."
"What do you mean?" Benjamin dispelled the rune, rubbed his slightly dizzy head, and asked.
"What I meant was, their cognitive states might had sustained irreversible damage. Memory loss, becoming retarded, odd behaviors… are not entirely out of the question."
Benjamin listened, and shook his head.
It took him in great lengths to save the lives of these two, the last thing he wanted was unexpected accidents. Understanding the foreign cult's spell casting system aside, the king was in dire need of his treatment!
With no other solutions for now, he could only stand in the room, and silently wait for the siblings to regain consciousness.
"Nghhh….."
Around five minutes passed, the siblings tied to the chairs woke up simultaneously. They struggled to open their eyes, rasping sounds involuntarily escaped their mouths, and their faces were sheets of white.
"How are you feeling? Do you remember who I am?"
The two relaxed themselves for a while, as if they just woke up from a deep coma. The young boy blinked a few times as he looked at Benjamin, before spoke in a somewhat delirious voice, "You're… that mage Ben-whatever."
"..."
Benjamin shook his head, ignoring the mocking laughter from the System reverberating in his mind, said, "My name is Benjamin, I just saved you from the potion's backfire effects— the one which the elders gave you."
The young boy stared blankly, and met the young girl's gaze. He suddenly dipped his head, drained of his strength and will. The young girl's face looked dismayed as well.
— In one night, perspectives and values that were groomed into them since young had shattered. Perhaps these were not the kind of feelings that a ten year old child could bear.
Only Benjamin had already lost any patience in reassuring them.
"Tell me the way to dispel the spiritual energy shard in the king's mind." He spoke slowly, "After what happened, I believe that you guys understand who are the ones that truly desired to take your lives."
The two remained silent at the moment. Finally, the young girl spoke, and gave out the answer.
"To remove the seed planted by the high priest, one must possess enough spiritual energy that rivals him. Then, through a special method, control the seed to eliminate itself."
"My spiritual energy is not weak compared to his." Benjamin nodded, then continued, "Tell me about the special method."
"This method... can only be applied by our cult members."
"You teach me then." Benjamin shrugged, "Enough deceiving yourself that only one with a strong faith towards the Goddess could do it, once you learn the technique, you can apply in however you can. It has nothing to with the Goddess."
The young girl took in a deep breath, nodded in the end.
Soon after, she spilled all that she knew regarding the spiritual energy casting techniques.
In the overseas regions, those people would refer it as "psychic powers", it can be described as an advanced technique that relied solely on spiritual energy. These people would use spiritual energy to deceive humans, control wild beasts, establishing a systematic religious society in the foreign islands. There was no secular ruler, only elders and high priests… the cult members governed everything, reaching a degree of unified religious government, a goal that the Church of Holy Light could only dream of.
As for the foundation of this kind of psychic powers, the key to it was spiritual energy.
— Before they would cast it, they need to alter their spiritual energy to resonate to the rune structure in the pure blue world.
Regarding to how to achieve this, the people of this cult had finalized a rather advanced method, called "Prayers". They would drink a special potion, absorb a part of pure elements, then use them to "bend" their spiritual energy. In this process, these people even utilized powers from some runes.
In the midst of it, there was a rune that Benjamin had never saw before, which represented "Reform", drawn by the young girl on the ground.
"This is the cult's transcendent totem." The young girl explained, "Through it, we can open a path to… the Goddess's world, feel the atmosphere there, molding our souls into various shapes."
Benjamin was awed into disbelief.
The Goddess's world, was undoubtedly the elemental plane, only the foreign humans had somehow already intercepted similar signals. This was truly shocking to say the least.
Moreover, through molding spiritual energy into various states in the elemental plane, how could it affect the spirit of others?
As Benjamin asked this, the young girl replied, "I don't understand what you meant, but… the elder told us, that the spiritual energy of every living beings were gifts of the Goddess. As such, if we allow ourselves to take in the Goddess's breath, our spiritual energy will be imbued with unimaginable powers."
Benjamin rubbed his chin, deep in thought in the moment, suddenly an answer came to him.
If this was true, due to the effects of the elemental plane on this world, stuff like magic, divine arts, as well as psychic powers of all things came to be. Spiritual energy also came to existence as a mutation from the elemental plane radiation on humans. As such, the spiritual energy within the elemental plane transcended everything.
Through mimicking that form of spiritual energy, one could emit radiation from deep within their consciousness, which then converted into energy that affects the minds of others.
But… before trying it out, Benjamin apparently still had other things to consider.
"By molding spiritual energy into that state, will it affect the casting of spells in any way?"
The two shook their heads as they had no idea themselves, "We… don't know."
Benjamin couldn't help but felt a slight headache from this.
His spiritual energy was rather special, able to hold an entire space of consciousness, it guaranteed his mastery in magic till this very day. It was clear that molding of spiritual energy can't be reversed. What if upon doing so, it'll affect his usual casting techniques?
To resolve this problem, Benjamin taught the two some spell chants on the spot, forcing the siblings who were near the limits to learn magic in a rushed pace. As expected, the results he got from this were quite a disappointment— this form of spiritual energy really does affect spell casting techniques.
Not to say that it will result in complete loss of casting ability, but… by looking at the siblings' performance, even a breeze technique took them a great amount of effort to cast. They might as well be normal people at this rate.
By molding spiritual energy into a state similar in the elemental plane, why would it affect conventional casting techniques? Benjamin couldn't come out with an answer for the time being. However, the bigger problem came to his attention.
What about the king?