Chapter 32: [Miasma]
The Guardian, a yellow glowing spirit of humanoid form, somewhat corrupted by the miasma that surrounded the area, was simply sitting in a meditation pose about 50 meters away from the temple.
On reaching closer, one can see his aged facial features, revealing a timeless look that one usually sees on Saint or those of ancient wisdom. Wearing a white robe that covered most of his body, he simply meditated there. His golden beard, perfectly combed, reached up to his chest, and as if he were lost in deep focus, a minimal but noticeable shift in his breathing was present on his body. If not for the miasma constantly corroding all over his body, turning it patchy black, this scene would have been quite nice to look at.
Other than that, there were also people working at the temple. To be precise, inside the temple, scribbling on the walls with their bare hands and nails, blood creeping out of their fingertips as they did so. They looked at us for a moment before continuing their ’work’ again.
It was a gruesome sight.
"[Work]," the guardian spirit spoke, his eyes still closed, making me shiver for a moment. The shiver didn’t come out of fear but as an instinct. As if something foreign had entered my body, forcing it to move before it failed to do so. Then it died within the next few seconds before dissolving into my body. Or at least that’s how I felt it.
Putting one hand on my heart, I forced in some divinity, instantly purifying myself. There weren’t many changes that I felt except feeling a lot fresher than before, but that was something that I would have felt anytime I used divinity on me.
Hard to tell if it worked.
From my left, the old man walked forward.
His eyes dazed as if he was being forced against his own will, he walked towards the temple with this backpack still on his shoulders. His hand shivered as if trying to break through some invisible chains, but he failed to do so as those bindings took him towards the temple, much against his will.
"[WORK!]"
The guardian shouted once more; I purified myself once more.
"[WORK!]"
And then it happened again as I walked one step closer to him.
"[STOP!]"
"[STEP BACK!]"
"[STOP!]"
"[STAY!]"
The guardian tried a few more times, as he did his best to make me stop. Though it did not seem like it was working at all. At most, he was just wasting his powers. I waited for like 2 to 3 minutes for him to finish trying before he finally slowed down. Then, I checked my condition along with observing his as well.
Me? I was fine. Him? I don’t think so.
His powers were slowly dwindling as he got more tired than before. Even his miasma was getting worse than it had been. What had covered barely a few spots on his white robe now covered his entire skin, leaving barely a few open spots of yellow on him.
"All right, buddy. You did well," I said as I reached about 2 meters away from him. His eyes slowly opened as he looked at me. He then forced his body with great effort before he mustered out the words,
"Please... kill... me."
Hmmm?
"Do I look like a murderer to you?" I spoke with a slight sigh before moving closer, putting my hands on his head and applying divinity on him to remove the Miasma.
-SPLAT!
And in the next second, he popped like a balloon, leaving his remains in the surrounding area.
"..."
The workers, including that old man who had reached the gates of the temple, stopped, before turning to me in a slight daze. Many, if not all, collapsed inside the temple, squirming to their deaths in an instant. Others passed out with only a few maintaining their rationality.
As for the old man, he just looked at me, slightly relieved, slightly confused.
Once again, I turned to the place where the Golden Guardian was, making me sigh before mustering out a few golden cursed words.
I stretched a bit, then opened up my system panel, and hit [Restart] once more.
[Restarting from Load Point!]
The restart was the same as last time. Except for me trying to locate the temple without the quest and failing, everything else was a repetition of what we had done the previous time.
Only this time, before I used divinity on the guardian again, I used [Personal Space] to first create this exact scenario and then work on it. I needed the guardian to be well and alive if I wanted to talk to him about the temple.
Inside the [Personal Space] I saw the guardian sitting still in the same meditation position as before. After pondering where to start, I decided it would be better to aim at the area with the most miasma.
For this, I tried using the divinity of the angels, the divinity of different Gods and a combination of these two. The beginning was pretty much as I expected. He either died coming into contact with divinity, or the angelic divinity did absolutely nothing to him. The result for the mixed divinity wasn’t fruitful either, with the divinity of the Gods always erasing him even at the lowers amount of ratio I could make.
Changing my approach, I then tried to focus the divinity on a single area, like his feet or hands, or sometimes just a finger. The result was odd. While it did not exactly destroy the finger, it obliterated all the areas where the miasma was concentrated on the finger.
A few seconds later, the miasma once again filled the places which I had removed with divinity.
The lower the power I use, the faster the miasma fills in. If I do too much, the finger gets destroyed. And even if I were to balance it, it doesn’t really get me anywhere since the rest of the body is still overflowing with miasma. It will be only a few minutes until they fill the space once again. I gave a hollow laugh.
Then I decided to use healing magic along with removing the miasma. A balance had to be achieved, so I went in as focused as possible before beginning to try it.
Because of the healing factor, the balance had drastically shifted. The miasma, finding a new fresh area to devour, raged over the finger to kill and consume it. Hence, the things took more time than I had expected.
A few more trials also made me understand it wasn’t just the balance that I needed to worry about, but the timing as well. I need to make sure that I am healing the finger as fast as possible while also removing the miasma from it.
The reason was simple.
If I am going to heal this guy completely, it would be necessary to do it within a few seconds. Else, I am definitely going to fail.
With that in mind, I did a few hundred trials and errors before I could increase the area of heal from the finger to the entire hand. From that point onwards, it became easy to increase it to the forearm, arm, and then slowly but surely, the whole body.
Funnily enough, the rest of the body took far less time compared to what the finger took.
"All right," I smiled with relief before getting out of [Personal Space] and moving to heal that guy for once and for all.
Putting my hand on his head and applying the divinity all over his body, I saw him heal within a few seconds. His eyes widened for a moment of shock and excitement.
And then...
-FSHHH!!
The miasma all around the area jumped on him, covering his entire body in a blackish goo.
Within the next second...
His entire body was gone.
"Fuck!" I cursed out loud as I sighed.
What now?
"What are you doing here?"
It was then that I heard an ethereal voice sounding from behind. A blue-eyed man with an exaggerated extent of beauty stood there, his eyes looking at me with a confused look as he clicked his fingers.
-Click!
And the miasma paused its raging, calming down, as if it had never moved before. Then, he turned to me once again. His eyes, a bit exhausted.
"Is it something related to the Brotherhood of Salvation?" He asked in a stoic voice, his eyes darting over the temple for a few seconds before turning back to me.
He... was the All-Father, the King of All the Gods, and the most powerful being apart from the Primordials that walked on this planet.