The light in the opposite room was blinding, but over time their eyes got used to it, and they saw first the figure of the dog and the prophet, and then Homer lying on the bed like a dead man in a coffin: arms at his sides, legs straight, a pillow under his head, eyes closed.
Egon went inside, the prophet did not turn in his direction, he was concentrated, his eyes shone the color of lightning and not a single part of his body trembled. Light pulsed in the palms of his hands, from which barely noticeable microscopic needles came out, stuck into the wound and, like white blood cells, passed through the venous vessels and arteries of the whole body, destroying the poison little by little. Homer twitched after each pulse and froze. Yet, his skin has regained its warm shade. The breathing was no longer accompanied by wheezing.
"I'm not against metovis," Egon said. "Don't worry."
The Prophet, without moving, replied:
"I'm not worried, I remember how you tried to save one of us in the square.
Guillotine and Ofir came up and looked in surprise.
"This is the first time I've seen metovis used for good," Ofir said.
"It was always used like this before."
Guillotine's heart began to beat very quickly, his adrenaline rose, he watched the process with his round, greedy eyes and wanted to ask him to teach him to do the same, but he restrained his emotions. There'll be time for everything. Now everyone was standing and watching the process, and the prophet said there was not much left, and then added:
"My name is Marcellinus."
"I am Egon, this is Guillotine and Ofir, and you are treating a guy named Homer."
"Nice to meet you."
Egon did not stop smiling, he clenched his fists and thought about how to thank the savior, but he did not come up with an idea. At first, the idea of money crept into his head, but he decided that this would only offend the prophet. The light coming from Marcellinus' eyes and hands went out, the room plunged into darkness, lit by a single candle. He got up and said:
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"We'll leave him until morning. He needs to get some sleep."
They nodded and left.
"And the dog?" Ofir asked.
Marcellinus turned to him and answered with a kind smile on his face:
"It'll stay to look after him."
He shrugged in response. They sat down around the table, whose years were already numbered. Marcellinus spoke first:
"I couldn't get rid of the poison completely. The metovis of darkness is very strong, especially if it's a neglected wound."
"We didn't do it on purpose," Egon said.
"I didn't say that. I’m simply too weak to transform light into the level of metovis that I possessed many years ago. I just gave your friend some extra time. But it is not enough and you need to act right now."
"Teach me how to use the metovis of light," Egon said.
Guillotine looked at him, but said nothing.
"Impossible," said Marcellinus. "Only those who have reached the top in the use of the first element can become a metentis with the element of light."
"Earth, wind, fire or water?" Egon asked.
"Yes. But these four elements are included in the first group, consisting of three numbers. You named the elements with the number one. There is a number two - lightning and number three – a unique, distinctive element. I won't go into its details, because I don't know much about it myself."
Marcellinus bared his shoulder and pointed to the numbers.
"Here. Look. The first number shows the element number, the second number shows the skill level."
Egon looked closer and saw the numbers four and five.
"The number five is an indicator of the highest level. When I first became a metentis, I had the lightning element, number two in the first group. Then I reached the last level of skill, went to the altar of light and got new numbers - four and one. Of course, all my original skills have been preserved, but now I have the opportunity to go further, to improve. The second group includes two elements darkness and light…"
"And how many groups of elements are there?" Guillotine interrupted.
Marcellinus shook his head and added that there were countless elements, as he believed, but he had personally seen only once an element of the third group, number five, but he did not understand what kind of element it was, and the metentis, who used this element, was killed before the «Great Metentis war» started.
"Is it possible to learn all the elements of the first group?"
Here Egon flashed his knowledge and told that the elements are connected with our blood and depending on its group, we get our own element.
"You know something, Egon. I'm surprised. You're right. Metentis can have only one initial element. But every rule has its exceptions. There is a metentis still living in our world, who was able to learn to master all of them. You've heard of him. This is Alba. I knew only one metentis stronger than him, but he was recently killed."
"Who?"
"Metyr."