Chapter 36
After the Music
Squelch.
The music ended, but more then that, there was a terrible feedback, a vibration of magic being set free. Death magic stones that had been painstakingly struck into the bodies of all the most powerful cultivators present suddenly began vibrating and pulsing.
At first the messages were simple, danger, stay away.
But ever since the stones awoke, or became activated, sitting in their upright position, they had gone crazy. Well for a time, as it seemed that each stone was awoken, set to an active state, and then left.
Frank for his part told the only person he trusted with this kind of information. This was also the only person who could remotely believe him when he said the crazy information that he had passed.
“You wanted to talk?” James Holsy had asked.
That’s when James had told him about the stones, how they were warning him to stay back, but that the stones had done something crazy.
“That’s it, they are now standing upright?” Holsy asked, his voice a bit incredulous.
Frank for his part had a hard time explaining the difference between the stones of now, and the stones from before.
“You don’t get it; it seems like they have been activated. That their state now will slowly drain away their residual power and will eventually cause them to be dormant, meaning there will not be any residual power left within them.” Frank stated, trying to show the problem.
“But, isn’t that a good thing?” Holsy had asked.
Honestly, that is what Frank too would have thought, but he just shook his head.
“Normally, yes, in fact, I think I know how it was activated like this to begin with,” Frank said, thinking back to the time when he instinctively used this same Death Energy against his long-time rival Luther Camello. Now feeling the energy frequency again, he felt more than confident that he could mirror that, and likely set the dormant stones to this seemingly active and wasteful state. Yet, that wasn’t the point of this warning.
“Oh good, so you could do this to others and safely bleed away the energy?” Holsy asked.
“No, well yes I could, but you seem to be missing the point.”
“What point?”
“The fact that all of these dormant energy nodes all coming alive and active at one time hints that there is likely something larger at hand.” Frank stated.
“What? Like what?” Holsy asked, but then after pausing for a second, he realized “wait does this have to do with why your hair was all glowing?”
“Probably?” Frank asked, reaching up to touch his hair, wondering if his hair had in fact been glowing.
“All right, I’ll go take care of it.” Holsy said.
That was it, eight words used to signify that the world would be safe from danger. After that Frank began dancing, he met a few nobles who he slowed down to dance at their pace and style. Then he even met a fairly attractive raven-haired girl who sounded familiar somehow, but he couldn’t quite place her. To be fair, with the dark lighting everyone had a bit of anonymity to their facial features.
Then he got to dance with Yolinda, not only was she attractive, but she could move. Their feet and bodies seemed to move as one, in what had to be the most fun he had ever had in a dance. With that, it should have come as no surprise that what would happen immediately after was quite possibly the worst thing. No, not Holsy having a burn out with his shoes by dragging the opposite foot of the one he was supposed to keep still. Instead that served as just a minor laugh that he and Yolinda both shared with a smile and a knowing shake of the head.
Instead, the true issue came from the fact that almost immediately after that song, when he was about to finally get a slow dance with Yolinda, that is when danger struck.
The tension was slow at first, almost like being downstream from a broken dam. First, he felt the flood of energy being released all at once. Then just as his body and hair recognized and reacted to the threat by glowing brightly, that was when the lights and sound abruptly cut off, leaving only dim emergency lights. Well dim emergency lights and the glowing hair of those from the underground slums, like him and a few others.
“What is happening?” Yolinda asked, her eyes shooting up to see Frank’s hair standing on end.
Then just when Frank was about to say that he didn’t know, he first felt the pulse, then he heard the warning.
“Impact in ten, nine, eight, seven…”
In horror Frank could only look around to all the powerful cultivators. Seeing them, and their recently activated death nodes, Frank saw that they were now not only standing upright, but were beginning to shake and vibrate violently.
At that, Frank didn’t know what exactly was happening, nor how to fully stop it. Instead, all he did was close his eyes and react. His mind went on instinct, trying to prevent the clear danger that was present all around.
Without even thinking, without even pausing to contemplate how dangerous of an action he was taking, he acted.
Mentally, he reached out, finding all the dark little voids of energy that were in the various cultivators nearby. Voids that were slowly poisoning the cultivators even now.
Then once he had as many as he could find and feel, he grabbed ahold of them, all of them and then pulled.
“AHH!” Cultivators with bodies as hard as iron felt their insides being ripped apart by the tiny dark shards that Frank grabbed and yanked with violent force.
Gurgling chocking.
“What the?” Was what some managed, while others began choking on blood, though even now their heightened healing from cultivation was already kicking in helping to seal what would normally be a life threatening wound.
Then before anyone could react violently to Frank’s blatant provocation, the count down finally ended.
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“Three, two, one.”
Then at one, all the freely floating shards that had been activated, and all of the still lodged shards on the people that were too far away for Frank to accurately grab and pull all exploded.
Boom-pop-pow.
For those that still had the chunks still lodged within their body, the explosions were violent and chaotic. As painful as they were getting ripped out, that was still a singular point of exit that would be healed quickly by most cultivators, even if slightly annoying to do so. As for those that Frank couldn’t get to, those that were not near the dance floor, their level of damage was far more severe.
Many looked like they had miniature grenades detonate within their bodies. Worse, the residual death energy had a corrosive like effect on the bloody wounds that were formed, causing even more damage and necrosis to occur.
The attack wasn’t limited to the cultivators here at the dance either, as all around the base, tremors from explosions could also be heard and felt.
For a moment, Frank wondered why the effects didn’t take hold on him. Though he realized that it likely had to do with the fact that he constantly cycled his death energy, never letting it gain a single foothold for the corruption to take root. Given that he was so adamant about cycling his death energy, the commands, those to weaponize the stagnant death energy shards within his body never had a chance to work on him.
Only now, after having time to realize everything did the sensations that he had been feeling and experiencing finally begin to make sense.
Unfortunately, this was not the time for self-reflection. As even now, he could feel the dark commands calling to him, telling him what was to come.
“Move out, free our imprisoned brethren and destroy the polluted.”
By now, people had already begun to panic, as most were running everywhere, frantically clogging arteries and bleeding infected wounds with their hands. That or trying to get to their friends to help them.
Those that Frank had managed to save, well only cause minor injuries from pulling out the activated shards were already heading out to help others.
“They are coming!” Frank shouted, scanning the area, then finally seeing a blue body on the ground Frank saw that James Holsy was fine, though he was with Captain Perinne who was clutching at her side. Though Frank knew for a fact that she would be fine, as she was one of the people that he was certain he managed to pull the activated shard from. For his part, Holsy had not been infected, which was almost surprising.
“What do we do?” Yolinda asked.
At that, Frank felt his mind take over.
“Tell Holsy to tell the others that it has started. That what I warned him about is starting now.” Frank said, then pointed towards Holsy who was kneeling over Captain Perrine who was just staring with large doe eyes at Holsy.
“Got it,” Yolinda said, then ran off.
With that Frank suddenly found himself alone. But, he realized that this was his chance to prove himself, he was also a healer after all.
“ANYONE NEEDING Medical Attention come here!” Frank yelled at first, but then found that he was able to get everyone to stop screaming, at least in his immediate vicinity, and that was all that mattered.
Then Frank began healing. He focused on the method of triage, sorting by those that were least injured, AKA those that he had managed to pull the dark energy clumps from first. Those that had been in his immediate area.
“Thank you, what do you need me to do?” The first person that Frank healed asked.
“Start a line, get others to come. Least injured first, as we are about to go to war.” Frank said, as he was already finding the trivial wounds on the next cultivator who also only had one line in and out. Fortunately, with this, it was just like healing a stab wound, well a stab wound in reverse. Then if there were any remaining death energy signatures, Frank would absorb them as well.
This still increase in his dark energy to life energy absorption threw off his normal balance that he had been striving for, but in this moment, he didn’t think that mattered. Instead, all he did was focus on drawing out the death energy, while healing the wounds, rinse and repeat.
Within minutes, Frank had managed to heal all of the closest cultivators, somewhere in his mad shuffle he even healed Captain Perinne, though to be fair he only vaguely noticed the Captain by her hair, and even then it was only after she was fully healed.
Frank moved wobbly, trying to reach for the next patient, but then was gently guided to the ground.
“Stay, you’ve done enough.” Captain Perinne said, her strong hand pushing Frank down. Frank normally would be able to resist such an act, particularly as the cultivator in quest was not actually exerting any of her Qi behind the gesture. But still, he couldn’t find anything more than a token resistance to the method.
Looking around, he still saw that there were other healers who were also working, though their efforts were mostly futile as they were having to first grow out, or remove necrotized skin and then begin healing.
“Bring them here,” Frank said, finally admitting that he shouldn’t get up any more. Even now he could almost feel the dirt and grime of the dance floor, along with blood and viscera seeping into his nice uniform, but he didn’t object to staying put. Instead, he just wanted the others to come to him.
“You have done enough, more than enough. Take a breathe.” The Captain stated.
Blurry vision.
Frank tried to shake his head, but found that this was not the best of ideas as he quickly found the world swirling about him.
“No, I need to clean out the necrotized energy first, then the healing will be faster.” Frank said, then pointed towards the way the other healers that were still slow on their own had gobs of dark and decayed flesh by them.
Seeing that, Frank could see the Captain mentally calculate what was happening before standing up, scanning the area and then coming up with a plan.
WOLF-WHISTLE!
Captain Perinne placed her pointer finger and her pinky finger in her mouth and then managed to release an ear shattering whistle that Frank could only be jealous of.
“New plan. All those first injured come here to our Dark Energy expert to have their wounds disinfected. Healers, you will then take those that have been cleansed and patch them up until they are able to walk away. We are not looking for anything perfect, just for people to survive.”
Silence.
After a second the Commander continued, “any questions?”
More Silence.
For a moment Frank wondered if they too were just as enamored with the wolf whistle as he was. Maybe it had some type of hypnotic effect? Thinking back that was an effect of water users, being able to take and bounce sound waves long distances so they are heard like normal. Was that what she was doing? Frank thought to himself, his tired mind getting more than a little lost at the moment.
Clap!
At that, with no one objecting Captain Perinne just clapped her hands loudly and nodded. “Okay, make it happen. Healers to my left. Injured begin the healing line to my right on Cadet Fotos here.”
Then with that people started moving.
A few of those that could move on their own went over to Frank, who quickly grabbed the residual death energy and then gestured for them to move on.
With this, Frank slowly felt himself become more awake, as if slowly sipping caffeinated drinks. This was a delicacy of the top layers that he was quickly finding the appeal of, as they seemed to awaken parts of the mind that were otherwise closed, except during times of intense cultivation.
Everyone had a job.
Yolinda ended up becoming Frank’s personal assistant, a fact that he couldn’t help but smile as he waited for her to guide the next person towards him. Or if he needed a moment, a quick hands up would let her know to slow down the cadence between patients.
Somewhere in the middle of this, Captain Perinne was given a communicator that allowed her to more easily tag and direct traffic.
“You two, go out and help with the reinforcements.” Captain Perinne would say as she tabbed two of the first people that Frank healed to head out. At first there almost seemed like there would be an issue, but then they saw her and her still white uniform and just nodded.
At this point, even pulling the residual death energy from patients was becoming sort of mechanical. Though to be honest, Frank was more than happy that he was forced to stay inside. While he might have experience in near death events, fighting the monsters that were even now storming the base seemed to be something Frank was not mentally capable of.
It was at this point that Frank also looked down and saw that the other healers that were still working also wore the same exact white uniform that Captain Perinne and Yolinda sported. During this time Frank also noted how staff members in similar white uniforms ran about gathering boxes and distributing them to the healers that were still on healing duty.
Those that went to go and gather the equipment and needed cleaning supplies, along with those that ended up cleaning up after the different healers were called runners. At least that is what Frank thought they were called when they were being ordered around.
“Runner go get this.”
“Runner clean up the mess here.”
“Runner, gather all of this necrotized flesh and burn it in the pits.”
Everything and anything was done by the runners, and Captain Perinne was in charge of making sure everything went smoothly and that the places were cleaned out periodically.
In fact, given the rank gap between the Captain and those around, Frank almost wondered why Generals, Colonels, and the like would stop and listen to the Captain. Then it suddenly made sense, that if this was a healing unit, or a unit that specialized in combat healing, then of course people would get out of their ways as they knew what they were doing for this particular instance.
“I’ve got the last one?” A female runner said, holding up what was clearly a hermetically sealed box.
“Give that to Cadet Fotos over there,” Captain Perinne stated, while gesturing to Frank.
Pausing for a moment, the runner looked at her Captain, then with a questioning voice asked, “to the Cadet?”
“Yes, to the Cadet.” Captain Perinne answered almost annoyed.
“Mam, you know this is the regulation sized ration right?”
“I am fully aware. I also realize that this is a half ration pack in your hand, and I would like to point out that Cadet Fotos is already on the second realm of cultivation.” Captain Perinne noted.
“Second realm, so he what?” The runner asked, clearly wondering something deeper.
“He clearly needs that packet and for you to stop asking me questions Sergeant .”
“Right.”
Then with that, the Runner came over and opened up the satchel where she looked like she was about to tell what everything was.
“I’ve got it Sergeant,” Yolinda stated.
The runner looked at Yolinda, and almost looked like he wanted to tell her off. “What are you doing?”
But before he could get too far in his inquiry, the Captain cut him off. “Sergeant , if you are done delivering the supplies, perhaps you can go out and tell us exactly how the battle is going?”
“Not good,” Frank replied, though only after a moment did he realize that everyone was looking at him.
“What do you mean, not good? We have them at a stalemate, and they seem close to pulling back.” Captain Perinne stated.
At that Frank just shook his head.
“No, they are getting closer,” Frank replied.
“How close?” Yolinda asked.
Rumble.
At that, the far wall of the complex began to collapse in on itself, as a wave of giant death infested rodents began tearing their way through the far wall.
Chitter.
Hearing their sounds, Frank’s mind went back to that dark time when he was fighting for survival within the confines of the abandoned tunnels of his home. Hearing them, and feeling the surge of dark energy rising, Frank replied honestly.
“Really close.”
Then he watched as the beasts began to charge forward, corrupting teeth trying to dig into and bite at each and every disabled enemy. It was the perfect trap, set up a decoy unit outside, while a surging unit burrowed down deep to bypass security measures and then strike at the enemy where they were the weakest.
Fortunately for Frank, he was already feel the surge of an abundance of death energy. Also, after feeling the way different ways death energy could be used, Frank felt invigorated.
Jumping to his feet, Frank held out his hand and fought back. The all too familiar burn of death energy coursed out of his hands as he began his own counterattack.