Chapter 27

“All right, I have found her pulse, now what?” Frank asked.

Hearing that Dr. Evans just stared at Frank with dumbfound confusion. This was meant to be a test to show the student that this beast, this monster wasn’t alive, but here he was saying words that seemed to contradict everything that she had known up until this point.

“Are you certain?” Dr. Evans asked.

Pausing, Frank looked down, but then after a second answered confidently, “yeah.”

Well no matter, the existence or lack thereof of a heart beat was not the true intention of this particular exercise, Dr. Evans thought to herself as she decided to press on in the lesson.

“Okay, barring the heartbeat aside. I take it you can feel the raw energy running under her skin?”

“Yes, though it sort of tingles.” Frank noted, as he spoke, Dr. Evans looked to see that there was indeed a reaction of sorts happening. As his fingers seemed to glow slightly pinkish-purple, before returning to a normal pale fleshy color, only to return to the purple color the next. Seeing it, Dr. Evans wondered if there was something to the heartbeat, as there did seem to be a sort of rhythm to the ebb and flow of energy that appeared to be reacting to his touch.

“Okay, well in that case. Try for to focus on her energy, then if you can try to slowly pull some of her energy away from her body and pull it directly into you.” Dr. Evans stated.

Hearing that, Frank nodded, then turning away from Dr. Evans he turned to face the monster.

There was clearly something there between the two. Dr. Evans knew all too well that the monster was a noted vixen and seducer if allowed to move and operate, which was why she was bound and gagged here. Still, Frank was young and that meant hormones, though for now he seemed to be handling himself correctly.

“I am going to try to slowly pull your energy from you.” Frank stated, repeating for the monster.

At first Dr. Evans wanted to warn him about talking to the monster, but then she stopped herself as this was good bedside manner. Seeing him, she realized that he might be a natural, someone that naturally took in the patient’s mental health in addition to treating their physical health. If that was the case, then she was all for this decorum. In fact, right now his focused attention on the monster before him and her comfort was in a way, exactly what she wanted. As such she let this go on without stating anything about the possible attachments that this boy might be forming with this dangerous patient.

The two locked gazes, and then the monster seemed to nod her head in acceptance.

At that, Frank began drawing in energy from the monster.

Fwoom.

Even from a few feet away, the amount of energy that was being released was palpable. Dr. Evans felt the hairs raising on the back of her neck as she had to involuntarily take a step back.

Wince.

There was a slight wince from the monster, and then just like that the pull of energy stopped and Frank pulled back his hand shaking it out and moving his fingers.

“Describe what you are feeling right now?” Dr. Evans demanded, trying to understand what her prized pupil was feeling. There was a slight wince of his own, almost as if Frank too had felt discomfort from the procedure.

“It feels slightly numb, like my fingers have been flash frozen and are only now able to feel warmth.” Frank said, turning to face the doctor as he spoke. Then turning back to Constance, he asked her. “You felt it too didn’t you?”

Nod.

With that Frank could only nod himself in seeming agreement.

“Are you saying you felt a mental connection with her?” Dr. Evans asked, wondering if this was the bad first class to offer.

“No, I just assumed that she felt as I did, but in reverse.” Frank responded.

At that, Dr. Evans was again reminded of just how sharp this new student was. Also, he seemed to understand things about the monsters that plagued mankind better than she and likely dozens of other experts who were on the front lines ever would. His very existence alone spoke of such insights and understandings, but it wasn’t until she saw the possible effects firsthand that she realized just how much more insight this newly awakened child might have.

Realizing that she needed to be gentle, she decided to give the boy an out. “So was that enough for your first day, or do you think you can try again?”

Then to her astonishment, Frank said the unthinkable. “I can go again.”

“You can?”

“Yeah, it’s hurting her.” Frank responded.

“Wait, what is hurting her?” Dr. Evans asked, suddenly wondering just what she had been missing.

“The darker energy.” Frank stated.

“Darker energy?”

“Yes, she seems to have dual affinities like we would, but she has two. One is a darker version, while the other is a lighter version of the darkness element.” Frank stated.

“What?” Was all Dr. Evans could ask.

Shaking his head, Frank clearly felt frustrated. “I, it’s just that…”

Frank paused, trying to find the correct words but clearly unable to find them. Then taking a deep breath, he braced himself and forced himself to hang onto the breath before continuing.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“She clearly has the corruptive power of another coursing through her.” Frank stated.

At that, Dr. Evans turned from Frank to look at Constance, then a dawning realization filled her mind as she uttered the words “Christie?”

At the word, Constance turned to face Dr. Evans and just nodded.

There for a moment, she saw her. Dr. Evans saw the ghost of the old Constance. The one that sent shivers down the Doctor’s spine as all she could do was cover her mouth with her hand that was fitted into an overside rubber glove more suitable for pulling hot pans out of the oven than any type of real surgical work.

Yet now, Dr. Evans could only look on in shocked horror as to what this meant.

In her mind she tried to place together all the components of what this meant, but she couldn’t quite understand it, not fully. There were parts to what was happening, fantastical parts that meant so much, or at least parts that could mean so much.

“All right before I begin to let you try this again, describe to me in detail what it is you are doing.” Dr. Evans stated with more feigned professionalism than she thought possible.

Pausing for a moment Frank looked at Dr. Evans with a slight look of confusion before answering. “She like you, had dense pockets of dark energy within her. Packets that were being held back and restrained by the energy within her body, but restrained packets nonetheless.”

Hearing that, Dr. Evans couldn’t help but let her mask slip slightly at this revelation. The fact that this monster had darker chunks from a stronger monster within her meant that well it could mean so many things. Chief among them was that if those packets were pulled from Dr. Evans before she was fully consumed, then did that mean that they could be removed from Constance? Clearly, they could, but then what? Would Constance be an unbound monster? Or did it mean that Constance would be able to be, no, there was no chance of that thought. It was best to quench that thought right here and now. Despite how much she might want that very act to happen to Constance, there was no chance that it would. Still freeing Constance of Christie’s influence might be a start for atonement.

“You can do that from her wrist?” Dr. Evans asked.

Pausing, Frank seemed to think the question over before nodding.

“I can, though I don’t know how much I can accomplish today. I will likely have to come back to get all of it, though I assumed that was part of the lesson.” Frank stated.

“Lesson?”

“Yes, of knowing and setting limits for yourself and your patient.” Frank said, staring at Dr. Evans’s face and then looking surprised when he read something in her gaze that Frank had not been expecting. Before Dr. Evans could say or act on his look Frank had already turned back to the patient.

“This next one I would like to try from your neck.” Frank said, staring at Constance and locking gazes with her.

“Why is that, didn’t you say that you could do it all from her wrist?” Dr. Evans asked, her mind spinning at the sudden change.

“I could, but it seems that there is a clump of this dense energy that is dangerously close to entering the brain of Constance. I would like to remove that first, before I leave for the day. I feel that trying to pull that energy through so much of her body would be taxing and likely cause an issue once we got near the heart region.” Frank admitted, his eyes flashing with an intense energy as both green and dark purple flickers of light pulsed in his gaze.

Hearing that, Dr. Evans paused, and realized exactly what he was talking about, as that had to be the initial infection site, the one that was used to first turn her Constance.

“Okay.” Dr. Evans finally relented. Then she watched, “Constance, if you can hear me. Please let him help you. Please.”

At that Dr. Evans’s normally strong demeanor shattered, if only for a moment. This was too much too fast, why had she chosen her of all the candidates. Then her mind answered her unspoken question, she knew why she had chosen her, it was for something like this, a miracle, that or hopefully a way to end her suffering. Either option would be preferable to the state and condition her Constance was currently in.

Constance for her part just stared coldly at Dr. Evans, in that stare so many emotions were shared that Dr. Evans could only stand there and stoically take it all as her punishment for all that has happened.

“She’ll be fine,” the calming voice of Frank called out. His deep voice all but beaming with power as he moved his hand calmly and confidently towards Constance’s neck. While there was a restraint around Constance’s neck that prevented her from moving her head about violently, the area covered by the strap was massive, leaving small gaps that one could easily lose a finger to if they in fact tried to place a finger in between said gaps. This of course was exactly where Frank moved his fingers, gently placing them and exhaling slightly as his fingers made contact with her skin.

“You okay?” Dr. Evans asked.

“Yeah, just a bit cold,” Frank responded. “I’m sorry, just know that this is hurting me as much as it is hurting you.”

The two locked gazes, and ever so gently Constance nodded indicating that she was ready.

FWOOM!

Once again Dr. Evans immediately noticed the moment that Frank began to pull the energy from Constance. Even staying at her previous position that she had retreated to during the last attempt caused the hair to rise even higher up on her neck. Though this time her body was also responding to the unspoken emotional tension that had been building, at least in Dr. Evans’s case.

Gasp.

Dr. Evans watched as Constance’s eyes dilated slightly while staring directly into Frank’s eyes. She even watched as Constance drew in a deep breath of air, something that seemed to speak to her still being human, at least on some primal level. Then to her amazement she watched as Constance took the breath and held it, using that singular breath to hold and force her body still. Yet, even as this happened Dr. Evans saw the all too familiar signs of pain. The way Constance flicked and flexed her toes, almost like she was tap dancing away the pain.

For a moment, Dr. Evans remembered how much Constance loved to dance. Then a morbid part of her wanted to point out that Frank was also quite good at dancing. Then she immediately stopped that train of thought, as it would be too painful to share.

Shaking.

Frank began trembling slightly.

Seeing him, Dr. Evans immediately rushed forward. Perhaps feeling her presence, or seeing the shift in focus as Constance’s eyes moved away from focusing on Frank’s face and turned over his shoulder, Frank reacted.

“I’m fine,” Frank said, holding up his left hand in a halting gesture.

He wasn’t fine, his voice had decibels of tiredness to them. They were the sound that a cultivator made when they pushed themselves too hard for too long.

Dr. Evans wanted to protest, but stopped herself.

Even as Frank began to twitch and spasm slightly, Frank held on, pulling in the dark energy until finally the sudden tension in the air ended.

“I’m done,” Frank called out, before his body collapsed, his last gesture moving his fingers away from the neck of Constance as he pushed himself violently backwards. Only afterwards did Dr. Evans realize that even in this state he was careful not to push or touch Constance, but instead used the metal reinforced gurney behind her as his leverage to push back and away.

Seeing him wobble backwards, Dr. Evans rushed forward reaching out and easily grabbing the muscular boy, only to find that his body was amazingly light in her arms.

Scanning him with her eyes, Dr. Evans realized that he was out of balance. Worse, she knew he was close to breaking through between stages. Realizing that he needed an immediate infusion of life energy to stabilize his balance and hopefully keep his life energy as the primary affinity as he began the process of pushing through to the Blood Cultivation layers, Dr. Evans reacted.

“Get help, a 100 CCs of pure life blood extract!” Dr. Evans shouted, knowing that the two observers would react to her orders immediately.

Then pausing Dr. Evans realized that any infusion might come to late, as Frank’s body began to shake and convulse on its own. Realizing this was a life or death moment, Dr. Evans reacted, the only way she knew how, as a healer. Moving quickly she pulled off her protective gloves, by first dropping to the ground, then knocking off her mask with her right hand before biting off her glove and yanking her hand free.

Once her hand was free of its protective layer, Dr. Evans placed her bare head against Frank’s head. It was cold to the touch, despite the apparent coldness, it was clear that Frank was pale and sweating profusely.

“Not good,” Dr. Evans said to herself as she immediately began forcing her highly condensed healing energy directly into Frank’s body. Such a discrepancy between realms of cultivation was dangerous, and something that should be avoided at all costs, as Dr. Evans was well on her way through the Mid-Realm refinement stage, the layer after Earth realm, which was yet a realm above the Skeletal refinement realms. So many different realms bleeding through one body would normally be dangerous and could lead to Qi poisoning if one wasn’t careful.

Fortunately, Dr. Evans was an expert and her life energy was considered to be some of the purest energy around. Also Dr. Evans’s level of control over her own Qi was considered to be the best, which was why she felt confident in her actions to press forward and infuse the dense life Qi into her star pupil’s body.

Shiver.

The moment her Qi entered Frank’s body there was an instant reaction as the two opposing forces met and seemed to violently combat each other.

Realizing the opposing element, Dr. Evans realized that she had to be extremely careful as she had to provide enough life energy to overwhelmingly force back the dark energy raging through Frank’s body, without exploding the meridians. Simultaneously, she couldn’t expend too little as given their connection, and the chaotic growth rate of death energy, any hesitation on her part could allow the death energy to enter her body, forcing her to be yet another casualty.

Dr. Evans was so lost in her own thoughts on how to preserve Frank that she failed to realize where she was. How perilously close to death she was, as she was kneeling with Frank right next to Constance’s gurney.

Fortunately help arrived almost immediately.

“We are here.” The voice called out.

“Remove the subject from the room. And give the doctor some room to work.”

“GRRR!”

“She’s violent today,” Technician Doppler stated.

“Yeah, normally she is only violent when we take her out, but this time she is violent going away as well.” Lead Technician Harper responded.

“Must be our lucky day.”

“Must be.”

The two technicians joked with themselves as they began first moving the open gurney away, then proceeding to close up and double lock and restrain a violently resisting Constance in place.

Before that moment, Constance had been calm, but suddenly when threatened with the chance to be taken away from Frank, that was when she grew violent. With that many different thoughts and scenarios plagued the doctor’s mind, everything from the two somehow establishing a joint bond, to Constance showing more humanity by bonding with a human for the first time since her turning.

Then Dr. Evans felt slightly weak, yet another possible answer filled her mind, that of whether or not Constance had somehow managed to establish control over Frank, the same way Christie had done to Constance all those years ago.

With that Dr. Evans paused, but only for a moment as she let the now increasingly violent Constance get carted away into her staging cell while she dealt with Frank.

With the gurney gone, more medical staff came forward. Seeing them all approach, Dr. Evans shouted out.

“Be careful, he is about to experience a violent realm breakthrough.” Dr. Evans exclaimed, while trying to wave people away from the two of them. This was her first-time being part of a realm advancement where Dark energy was involved, and with this it could be dangerous for anyone involved.

Unfortunately, before anyone had a chance to react to her warnings, it happened.