Epic Of The Demonic Sage

Lucius and his entourage entered the hospital and saw the same nurse as before sitting at the reception. Lucius smiled at her and spoke.

"Can you take us to Keith Drew again? We've come to check up on his condition." Lucius stated.

The Nurse who was busy writing something in the register looked up and saw the handsome face of Asher. A slight blush appeared on her face before she managed to control herself.

"Please come with me, Young Lord Asher." The nurse spoke and guided them to the top floor.

Upon reaching there, Lucius could see that the security had been greatly increased since before. The number of hospital guards was more than tripled while the number of healers had also been increased. Though most of them were junior healers.

"Head Healer Berk ordered to increase the security considering the condition of the patient and his identity." The nurse explained upon seeing Lucius's curious look.

Lucius simply nodded his head as they came to a stop in front of the entrance of the ward. The doors were locked from the inside and two strong looking guards were standing at its sides.

They blocked them from progressing and simply stared at them.

"Please inform Head Healer Berk, Young Lord Asher has arrived." The nurse requested.

One of the guards nodded his head and opened the door before walking inside and closing the door on his back. A minute later, the door opened again as the guard gestured to the nurse.

"They can enter," he spoke.

"Thank you," The nurse spoke, while Lucius and the rest entered the ward.

Inside the ward, Lucius could see ten different healers surrounding Keith's bed. This was in addition to Head Healer Berk, who was sitting at a desk nearby while reading a book. There were multiple stacks of thick books kept all over the table, and some of them looked to be quite old.

'Seems like the Head Healer is at an impasse and needs to revise his knowledge.' Lucius thought upon seeing the titles of the books.

There were all related to the medical field, with a few of them dealing with the effects of certain gifts as well.

"How are you, Head Healer Berk?" Lucius asked after approaching the old man.

~Sigh~

"Seems like this is going beyond my capabilities, Young Lord Asher." Head Healer Berk spoke.

"Oh? What's the problem?" Lucius questioned.

"We are unable to truly understand what is wrong with Keith… we tried many methods of diagnosing but all of them either give a wrong answer or just don't give any." Head Healer Berk admitted.

"Hmm… can I see him?" Lucius asked, wanting to observe a bit more.

"Sure. You may as well see him." Head Healer Berk replied, letting Lucius approach the bed.

The Ten healers that were surrounding the bed parted, and Lucius could finally see Keith.

"Oh Etara!" Lucius inadvertently let out.

~Sigh~

Berk let out another sign and shook his head.

"EEK!" Suddenly a shriek was heard, making everyone turn around to look at it.

The source of the Shriek was none other than Bethany Harrels. The girl who had not spoken much since her capture had done this upon seeing the state of Keith. Fear was visible on her face as her eyes trembled.

For a normal person, this was expected, as Keith did look quite different from before. There were red markings around his eyes that had appeared, and small fangs protruded from the corners of his lips.

There were veins protruding on his arm, and its color had changed as well. His nails had grown by an inch and had turned black while his skin itself had taken a deep maroon tone. There were even some cracks appearing on his skin, letting one see the pink flesh hidden underneath.

His eyes were currently closed, but the rapid movement of his eyeballs could be seen below the eyelids. One could tell that he was either having a nightmare or was struggling.

"What is your current diagnosis, head healer Berk? I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before." Lucius spoke.

This was actually true, as the kind of transformation Keith had undergone was different from what he had expected. It was not the same as that of the 'Lost' and seemed to be much tamer.

'Though it could also be the lack of hell energy. Perhaps if more of it is supplied, he'll finish the transformation.' Lucius thought.

"While we haven't reached a concrete diagnosis, we are considering him to be under some kind of a gift's effect. According to all our knowledge, only a gift can cause something like this." Head Healer Berk stated.

"A gift? You don't think it's a curse?" Lucius asked, as he was sure that they would have picked up on that.

"No… actually, I did think it was a curse at first, but then the changes in Keith started and I discarded that idea. I read through all the information that we had on the curses of the Farland's Tribals and none of it matched this.

This leads me to believe that it was either a curse that has never been seen till now, or that it is something completely different. After goings through a few more options, we ended up coming to the most obvious one… A gift." Head Healer Berk stated.

Since times immemorial, gifts have been considered to be miracles that had been bestowed upon the beings of this world by the divines. Thus anything that was inexplainable or could not be understood by the humans was said to be due to the effect of a gift.

It was similar to some civilization's superstitions that Lucius had seen. They were quite backward and their worlds did not have true magic. All they had were charlatans and false prophets. The people were so ignorant that they would claim everything that was inexplainable as magic.

Even some scientific discoveries were considered to be magic and would lead to the execution of the person who discovered them.

  Inventors and pioneers died due to the rule of the church and false gods.

"A gift?" Lucius questioned.

"Yes… the only way something like this could be done would be through the power of a gift." Head Healer Berk replied.

"Do you know what gift caused this?" Lucius asked, wanting to know the thought process of the man.

"Hmm… while we don't know the exact name, we can estimate that the gift must be at the Epic Rank at the very least to be able to cause a transformation of this level.

A rare ranked gift can cause a transformation of this level too, but that would only be on the owner of the gift. But we know that in the case of Keith, he does not have a gift like that. His gift is Whip Kick, and not a transformation type of a gift." Head Healer Berk stated.

Lucius listened to his words and would have found them to be valid had it not been for the fact that he knew what was the cause behind this. After all, it was he himself who had done this with the use of Hell energy.

"It could also be an artifact though!" One of the junior healers suddenly spoke.

The senior healers looked at the junior healer who had spoken out of turn with stern gazes. No matter what, they had to follow decorum and did not scold him right away. Had it not been for Head Healer Berk being here, they probably would have given him a verbal lashing.

"Oh? An artifact? How would that be possible?" Lucius asked, wanting to know this man's perspective.

While Lucius knew the real cause behind this all, he still wanted to know how the people of this world would react to it. In a way, this was a survey he was doing, the results of which would determine if he would be able to do his own experiments in this.

If the people of this world were able to tell that this was due to hell energy and get wary about it, Lucius would have a harder time. There may even be someone among them who might be able to link him to it.

Still, Lucius did not fear that as much because he could very well purge all the hell energy if the need came. While the hell imprint was difficult for him to form, he would destroy it in a heartbeat if it was going to risk his survival.

Lucius could make a thousand hell imprints if he was alive, but if he was dead, nothing would matter. 

'If I live I'm Superior, if I die I'm trash.' This was the ideology that Lucius went by.

It was something that was ingrained into him by birth and he had experienced it very well during his childhood at the Great Barrom clan. The competition there was harsh and death was not uncommon.

Lucius himself had seen many of his siblings die and had even killed a couple of them with his own two hands. He knew what true survival was and did not stand for the false, hypocritical morals of most people.

There were many people who died for the so called honor, but Lucius would never be one of them.

The Junior Healer had become nervous upon seeing the gazes of all his superiors and did not know if he should speak. 

"Go on, answer Young Lord Asher." Head Healer Berk prodded on.

~gulp~

"Yes, please do speak freely." Lucius also encouraged.

"Okay, but I'm not fully sure if this is correct." The Junior Healer said before he began his explanation.