Chapter 329: Act 96 – The Young Girl’s Weaving of Threads (3)
“Foolish method?”
When Charles closed the door and entered, he just happened to hear his lord Duke Toniger murmur such a nonsensical statement. Of course, he wasn’t the only one; Antinna and Medisa also heard it. While they didn’t know why Brendel had suddenly begun to talk to himself, they believed they understood the meaning of his words.
“Lord, do you mean you have a way to save Xi?”
Antinna was the first to ask.
Medisa, standing nearby, was a beat slower; this Silver Elf girl had to glance back at Xi, who was lying on the bed, thought for a moment, and eventually fell silent.
But Brendel shook his head.
“It’s nothing helpful.” He then halted his mental conversation with Otales and turned to address the others.
Charles looked visibly stunned. “Lord, what do you mean?” The usually unreliable young man suddenly appeared much more serious at that moment.
“The resilience of the blood of the gods is beyond your imagination, Charles; you should understand it to some extent. It is not an ordinary matter, and the solutions of the mortal realm are greatly limited.” Brendel looked at the still and quiet red-haired girl on the bed, pausing for a moment. “Not to mention, Xi has already died once. Reversing life and death is a great taboo in this world; if it weren’t for the incredible energy of the blood of the gods…”
He didn’t need to finish the sentence for the others to understand his implication.
“So there’s no way?” Charles glanced at Xi and turned back to ask.
“Sealing into a card.”
Antinna and Medisa didn’t show much surprise when Brendel mentioned this. One had witnessed Brendel seal cards first-hand, while the other had experienced it herself.
However, Brendel continued, “But sealing into a card isn’t a panacea. It merely preserves the subject’s current state and turns them into a summoned creature—”
He paused. “Not to mention that this is inherently very unfair to the person being sealed,” the young man looked at Medisa, but the Silver Elf girl didn’t seem to mind; she quickly shook her head. “Lord, this is Medisa’s own choice.”
“Then what about Xi?” Charles asked.
“Lord, you should ask her directly,” Medisa replied. “I believe Xi wouldn’t refuse; my lord, you don’t understand her heart—”
Brendel fell silent. In truth, he was not oblivious to Xi’s dependence on him, though he didn’t understand why this girl, who seemed so strong, exhibited such unexpected weakness.
But the feeling of being trusted indeed brings a sense of responsibility. Brendel had promised Xi at the Schafflund mines that he would never give up on her, so he could not go back on his word.
Moreover, he wasn’t completely without options.
Yet, after thinking, he finally shook his head. “But I won’t opt for such a risky method until it is absolutely necessary.”
“Why?” Antinna asked in confusion.
“Sealing a fate card is not without risk, because it preserves the state of the person being sealed onto the card, turning it into a summoned creature,” Charles answered on Brendel’s behalf. “So even if sealed into a card, Xi has a high chance that her consciousness will be replaced by the blood of the gods—”
“In that case, all our efforts would be in vain.”
Brendel had discussed these matters with him long ago, so this youthful wizard attendant was the most aware of everything.
“But isn’t that better than having no chance at all?” Antinna frowned. “My lord, we can’t just do nothing!”
“Do not rush when facing matters, Antinna.” Brendel shot a glance at the noble girl and admonished her. “No one here said we would do nothing; it’s just not the time yet.”
“Not the time?” Antinna calmed down a bit at this. “Lord, do you mean there’s still hope?”
“I mentioned there is a foolish method.”
“Foolish method?”
“The transformation process of the blood of the gods first takes over the body and then consumes the soul,” Brendel replied, glancing at the red-haired girl on the bed. “Thus, in the final stage, the person being occupied will lose their strength; this is because the blood of the gods has completely taken over the power brought by their body and this body’s inherent strength—”
Charles and Medisa listened carefully and showed no expression of dissent; one was a wizard, and the other was a princess of a Silver Elf lineage, born during a time of war. They were already familiar with the esoteric knowledge circulating among wizards.
But Antinna felt lost in the fog. Though knowledgeable, her expertise was limited to history, humanities, geography, nature, and some magical lore.
After listening for a while, she couldn’t help but interrupt. “What does that mean?”
“In simple terms, there is a portion of power within Xi’s body. She was originally a warrior close to the silver tier. The blood of the gods also contains tremendous power; thus, after the blood of the gods was implanted in Xi’s body, she gained golden-tier combat strength in a short time.”
“But this is merely the power that the blood of the gods abandoned for merging with this body. It transfers a portion of its own power to the body, depending on the strength of the body itself—then the blood of the gods will lie dormant, allowing this body to gradually adapt to the newly gained power,” Brendel explained. “That is, the power suffused with the essence of the blood of the gods.”
“Since the entire process is completed under the guidance of the original soul of the body, which means it was guided by Xi, her body wouldn’t show a rejection reaction to this power.”
Brendel continued, but Antinna momentarily felt confused and interjected, “What if Xi had chosen to reject it from the start?”
“Impossible; at that time, she was already dead,” Charles chimed in. “Besides, under such overwhelming power, ordinary people have no chance to resist. Even if one succeeds in resisting, it would only end in mutual destruction.”
Seeing Brendel nod in agreement, this noble girl suddenly felt chills run down her spine. Although she had heard horrific rumors about the Shepherds and the Everything Returns Society, she had only regarded those stories as mere legends.
In her mind, those organizations didn’t differ much from the bandits and robbers outside the city. But today, Charles and Brendel’s descriptions finally gave her a more visceral understanding of these two organizations.
“Too excessive!” The noble girl frowned, somewhat puzzled. “Why would they do such things?”
Brendel shrugged. “Without purpose; from what I know, they simply stand against all civilization.”
He waved his hand. “Alright, back to the point. When Xi’s body gradually accepts these powers, the blood of the gods will awaken. At that time, it will reclaim these powers from Xi—first the ones that originally belonged to it, then those that belong to her.”
“Finally, the force of life itself,” Brendel’s voice turned low, “but once life is exhausted, the entire process will be complete.”
“Xi is currently in this final stage.”
Antinna bit her lip. “Then, my lord, what do you mean by the foolish method?”
“Actually, it’s quite simple,” Brendel replied. “Since we must exhaust the force of life for the entire process to conclude, a foolish method would be to continuously replenish the life potential that is being consumed.”
The noble girl paused for a moment, then her eyes brightened as if she saw a glimmer of hope. “So how do we replenish it, my lord?”
“The speed at which the blood of the gods transforms power is incredibly fast. If we consider the actual consumption in terms of the power that has been transformed, Xi would need to consume the entire yearly output of Duke Toniger just to replenish this transformation,” Charles calculated slightly before making an unamusing joke.
“How is that possible?” Antinna was stunned.
“Indeed, impossible. Another method is holy water,” Brendel answered. “If we have enough holy water.”
“There is some holy water in reserve,” Antinna frowned. The holy water found in Grudin’s private stash was originally meant to be used for the next war, but for her companion, she had to bear the pain of sacrificing it. “How much is needed?”
“If we’re talking about Holy Water No. 7, we’d need at least thirteen hundred vials.”
“So… so much…” Antinna was taken aback.
But Charles’s next sentence drained her of all strength. “A day.”
“Then…” The noble girl seemed to finally grasp an issue. “After saying all this, doesn’t that mean we have no solution?”
This time, not just Charles, even Medisa nodded. In truth, she had known from the very beginning that this method was not feasible; she just didn’t understand why Brendel would bring it up at this moment.
This young lord didn’t seem like someone who enjoyed idle talk.
Just as the Silver Elf girl was in doubt, a weak cough suddenly arose from the bed, instantly drawing everyone’s attention. They all turned around to see the red-haired girl lying on the bed finally slowly opening her eyes.
…
Xi seemed to have just awakened from a nightmare, her whole body drenched in sweat. It took her quite some time to regain her senses—then she weakly turned her head and stared blankly at Brendel.
Who is this?
The young man’s face appeared both strange and familiar to her—it was the lord. The red-haired girl blinked her eyes, as if finally recalling something.
This was the young man who had once softly told her that he would never leave her alone.
The young man whose reply she would never forget, much like the answer given to her by Makarolo years ago. A similar choice, but one was merely a lord she had spent a few months with, while the other was a man with whom she had shared over a decade of mixed feelings, both fatherly and teaching.
Xi suddenly felt a bit dazed.
She lay on the bed, feeling entirely powerless, her mind overshadowed by a lurking demon that could drag her down into a dark abyss at any moment. She understood her condition as clearly as ever—there had never been a moment clearer than this one.
She knew she would soon return to Lady Martha’s embrace, tranquil as when she first entered this world.
But Xi seemed unfazed instead, appearing somewhat indifferent, as if she felt it was enough; she was already tired.
Yet, she persistently clung to her last bit of consciousness, even unaware of what she was clinging to.
But upon seeing Brendel, she suddenly understood.
The red-haired girl weakly blinked her weary eyes, and a crystalline tear rolled down her cheek the first moment she saw Brendel.
“Lord… Duke…” Xi struggled to call out, her voice barely audible.
(PS: Please try to upload the main character’s attributes within this recent period.) (To be continued; to know what happens next, please log in for more chapters and support the author, and enjoy authentic reading!)
