Chapter 25 – The Choice to Leave

Fenrad Church.

Ever since the village residents had been relocated, the church had served as a shelter for the wounded. A group of patients afflicted with Bloodblight had been restrained in separate rooms.

The priests had not abandoned them. Instead, they had notified the patients’ families in the hope that one or two might still be saved.

Today, the smell of blood in the church was many times stronger than usual.

The wounded kept arriving, and a large share of them were gravely injured.

“Graaah! Let me go!”

Without Holy Light to suppress the Bloodblight for so long, the afflicted patients were becoming increasingly violent.

Acolyte Marvin struggled to hold one of them down while his companion tightened the ropes.

“This won’t work. We still need Holy Light to suppress it. Where is Priest Glenn?”

His companion glanced at the snarling patients around them and shook his head.

“Still outside treating the wounded. Two more critical cases just came in. The priest may not have enough strength left to help these people.”

“I’ll ask him.”

Marvin went outside. Sure enough, he found the priest pushing a soldier’s intestines back into his abdomen with one hand while casting Healing with the other to keep the man alive.

Only after the soldier’s condition had finally stabilized did Marvin step forward.

“Priest Glenn, we have to suppress the Bloodblight patients with Holy Light. I’m afraid they won’t last much longer.”

Glenn turned around, and Marvin saw that the usual light had vanished from his eyes. He looked utterly exhausted.

It was a clear sign of mana depletion.

Marvin suspected the priest had no Holy Light left to cast.

Sure enough, Glenn spoke with anguish on his face.

“Marvin, take a sword in there. Give peace to anyone who can no longer hold on.

“I cannot abandon people I know I can save for Bloodblight patients who have almost no hope. I will bear the consequences.”

“Yes...”

Marvin took a fallen soldier’s sword from beside the wall and returned to the side rooms.

Several more patients had begun thrashing in their bonds.

His companion understood the moment he saw the sword. Unable to watch, he walked out.

Marvin approached the man struggling most violently and took a deep breath.

He knew this patient. The man had been captain of a patrol squad and had come to this fate after drinking from a stream that had been deliberately contaminated during a mission.

“Forgive me. May Ixion, Lord of Light, deliver your soul.”

The sword pierced the man’s neck and ended the patrol captain’s suffering.

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Marvin released a long breath and moved to the next patient.

She was a young adventurer who had reportedly been attacked by bats while completing a commission.

Half of both her eyes had already turned red. That was the precursor to complete transformation, and the most agonizing stage.

Yet she gritted her teeth and refused to cry out, letting only a few muffled groans escape.

Even Marvin could not help admiring her resolve.

What a pity.

The young adventurer smelled the blood on Marvin’s sword. She did not resist. She merely closed her eyes and trembled as she prepared to meet her miserable end.

“May Ixion, Lord of Light, deliver your soul.”

Bang!

The door burst open. The sudden interruption stopped Marvin’s sword in midair.

A figure in a tattered cloak charged over like a madman the instant he saw the young adventurer, knocking Marvin to the ground.

“What are you doing? I was trying to free them from...”

Marvin assumed the stranger had misunderstood. He clutched his aching waist as he rose to drive the man away.

Then he saw what the stranger was holding and froze.

“A Reversion Elixir!”

The cloaked man was Dylan. He had not heard a word Marvin said. All he could see was the pain on his daughter’s face.

With his uninjured right hand, he took out the elixir and carefully helped her drink it.

“Dad?”

“Don’t be afraid, Bella. Dad’s here. This medicine can save you. You’re going to be all right.”

Bella seemed unable to believe her father had appeared at such a moment, but she obediently swallowed the potion.

As it entered her body, a stabbing pain spread through every limb.

“Ah!”

The sudden surge of agony tore a cry from Bella, and then she fainted outright.

“Wh-what’s happening? Is something wrong with the potion? What do I do?”

Dylan panicked completely. If this one hope had been a fraud, he would go back and kill that goateed merchant and his entire family.

Marvin understood what was happening and hurried to explain.

“Calm down. This is normal for a Reversion Elixir. Turning the altered parts of her body back means she has to endure the pain of the transformation once more.

“It’s better that she fainted. When she wakes up, it will all be over.”

“R-really?”

Dylan seized Marvin’s hand. His grip was so powerful that the acolyte grimaced in pain.

“Really! Now let go of me!”

Realizing how he had behaved, Dylan released him at once and apologized awkwardly.

“Forget it... I understand.”

Marvin picked up the fallen sword and walked toward another patient on the verge of transforming. He still had a duty to finish. Not everyone received the good fortune of escaping disaster at the final moment.

Bella’s brow remained tightly furrowed. Even unconscious, she seemed able to feel the pain.

Dylan gently stroked her face, tears shining in his eyes.

At last, he had saved his daughter.

The sounds of battle outside had almost disappeared. The attacking Bloodghouls were not numerous compared with the soldiers. Their only real advantage had been surprise.

Whoever commanded this place seemed capable. Before Dylan entered the church, he had seen the man rally the soldiers outside, forming ranks and beginning a counterattack.

Dylan himself had been allowed through only because he smeared blood across his face to conceal the hyphae.

Order would soon return here.

“She’s a fortunate young woman. You two must be very close, if you charged into the village in the middle of all this.”

After killing every patient who had lost control, Marvin tried to make conversation. He needed someone to talk to so he could ease the strain on his mind.

His words seemed to remind Dylan of something. Dylan rose in alarm and ran outside.

“Hey... what?”

Marvin stared after him in confusion. If the man did not want to talk, he hardly needed to flee.

Dylan rushed out of the church and looked around. Once he confirmed that no Bloodghouls remained nearby and the church was no longer in danger, he slipped out of the village before the soldiers fully restored order.

It was not that he did not want to watch his daughter awaken.

He was afraid.

He flexed his left hand as feeling returned to it. The hyphae fused with flesh at the wound reminded him that he had already become something unnatural.

He was not afraid that his daughter would reject him. Quite the opposite.

Just as the acolyte had said, father and daughter were very close.

So close that even if Bella learned what her father had become, she would stand beside him without hesitation.

That was exactly what frightened him.

Sooner or later, someone would discover his condition. Whether judgment brought life or death, he could not know.

Bella possessed extraordinary talent and had a bright future ahead of her. Dylan could not bear the thought of her destroying that future for his sake.

He had to stay away from Bella.

But where could he go now?

Dylan even wondered if he should find some secluded place and end his own life.

Yet every living creature yearned to survive. He could risk his life for his daughter, but now that she was safe, he found himself reluctant to throw that life away.

If he could, he wanted to hide somewhere and occasionally ask for news of Bella, just to know whether she was doing well.

After turning the matter over in his mind, Dylan chose a destination.

Some instinct told him he might find a way to survive there.