Chapter 382: What happened?
The Grand Maester had sent Seth and the other three to Elaine’s location. And this was a well-thought-out choice.
Knowing Seth, sending him towards the shore would only give him a reason to return to the core, probably to search for the rest of his friends, and if by any chance he ventured back into danger, the ancestors’ hands would be tied.
But now, as long as he saw his teammates with a logical mind, it was only natural he prioritized their escape first.
Elaine’s bull steed rushed towards the unconscious group of four, the soldiers around her too busy fighting for their lives to pay any attention to the heap of unconscious frames that appeared out of nowhere.
Her eyes locked on the four, more accurately shifting between the three figures, one of them the man who just confessed his love to her, the other two being life and death companions.
Her fingertips trembled, her control over essence faltered then went dormant, Elaine was less concerned of how they got here and more concerned of what put them in this state.
Hopping off the undead bronze bull, she landed right beside the three, her eyes scanning their bodies for a few good seconds, her breath caught, her stomach dropping at the possibility of their deaths.
Her tightly clenched fists loosened a little as she caught the subtle sign of breathing from all four.
She sighed heavily, almost as though a great burden had been eased off her shoulders, for a moment there she forgot she could even scan them mentally to confirm their vital status.
She knelt beside Brandon first, gently placing a hand on his chest in order to feel for damage... she might not be a healer, but she could help channel vitality to where it was needed.
Though this wasn’t exactly the same as directly healing, it would help speed up the process of recovery for the injured.
Her essence pouring with a refreshing chill of winter surged through Brandon’s system, giving Elaine a vivid look of what was going on within Brandon’s body, yet...
Her brows furrowed into a frown, her head tilting slightly, "No damage?" Elaine muttered under her breath.
Closing her eyes she tried again... yet still nothing.
Brandon appeared to be in peak condition, his essence flowing dormant, his internal organs working consistently and healthy, his vitality burning like a raging furnace like always...
Elaine couldn’t come to a conclusion, she didn’t know what to even think, so she did the next best thing, moving to the next figure lying right beside Brandon.
Jack!
She didn’t hesitate placing her hand on his bare chest, her energy surging in delicate, fine strands digging into his pores and exploring his system through his energy nodes...
The furrow on her brows tightened, the conclusion was still the same... no damage!
"What is happening?" she gasped, feeling the overwhelming vitality flowing through Jack’s body.
But just as she moved to Seth, her brain seemed to register a possibility, mental attack?
That was the best explanation she could think of, she had faced a charm beast along with Jack and Brandon, and she knew how sinister that creature’s mental attacks could be.
That along with its terrifying physical prowess, the beast truly was fearsome, but this was exactly what made Elaine extremely doubtful.
If a charmed beast had done this, then there was no way the bodies of all three evolvers would remain untouched.
From what she observed, mental attacks weren’t the corrupted’s main instrument of attack, they were merely a backup to support their already ridiculously high physical combat power.
Her hands landed on Seth’s bare chest, her essence plunging right into his pores, unlike when she acted against the other two.
But as soon as the resistance surfaced it vanished almost as though a force from Seth had acknowledged her as an ally.
It was a weird feeling she couldn’t put her finger on, but she just knew that was what happened, her energy surged into Seth’s body, and her expression once more shifted, her brows pinching together, her lips pressing thin.
Seth’s internal system was a mess, one she couldn’t even access properly, because his energy nodes had been twisted out of shape, almost as though his own energy had been ripped out of his veins in a gruesome and forceful manner.
His energy reserves completely dry, he still had vitality flowing within him, working to repair all damaged arteries and struggling to revive the inactive organs.
Elaine went silent for a few long drawn seconds, her lips pressing into a thin line the more she assessed his condition.
This... this was beyond her capabilities, she even doubted a healer could do much at this point, as she sensed even the special cells flickering in his bloodstream seemed to have entered a dormant state.
A chill crawled down Elaine’s spine. What could have done this to Seth?
His state was beyond bad. This was the same man she knew who seemed to have the capability to hold up the sky, yet...
How strong was Seth? Elaine didn’t know, it had been quite a while since they both fought together and one couldn’t even estimate, based on his ridiculously rapid growth.
But one thing was certain, this guy had to have gone beyond the bronze human racial upgrade, from his muscle density despite it being in a degraded state she could still feel the herculean strength oozing off him.
All this strength yet he was put into this state by some monster, the zone boss probably.
A figure she had long admired to the point of near deification was reduced to a vegetable-like state, the dissonance of it pressing on her chest like a weight.
Her throat clenched as she swallowed realizing... All this while they had thought they had become so strong at least when it came to the level of things on their home planet, Elaine had been convinced there was nothing they couldn’t handle.
Yet... for the first time in a long time, the will to get stronger burned even brighter in her heart, as she glanced down at Seth, her hands curling uselessly at her sides.
The only thing she could do for her friend at this point was to get him out of this zone fast enough so his healing factor could kick in without the influence of the abyssal force exerting corruption on their souls.
"Captain Elaine, I came to report that-" Doyle’s voice trailed into silence as he walked up towards her, finally getting a clear glance of Elaine and the unconscious figures around her.
His steps came to a halt, "I-is that?" he stuttered, a trembling finger pointing towards Seth.
Before he could say anything else, another figure, his teammate Lara, walked up behind him, her jaw slackening as she stared at the sight.
Elaine rose to her feet, a flowing glow blooming from space beginning to coat her body, materializing into a visibly damaged genetic battle suit.
Still in a self-repair state, the armour had finally regained the capability for communication...