In the room underneath the main Kashiwagi home that is surrounded by what is probably the roots of the most powerful tree in the world, Healer Eriana is getting ready to wake up Helo. She has been checking over the boy prince every day for fifteen days. She has done all she can for him. Now if he completes his healing or hurts himself again, that’s all on him.
What she does know is that her treatment and healing has allowed his body and mind to acclimate with his bloodline to a much higher degree. He still has a long way to go. Whatever trapped this boy in the body of a human, when he was possibly born from a primordial, was an idiot. The amount of pain and energy that is needed to completely go from a human, to a species that was born before the dawn of time, is obviously enormous.
Taking out a vial of medicine, she gets ready to inject it into him. It is a concoction that will completely clear his body of the other medicine in his system. It is to keep him in a medically induced coma. When some of her assistants first used the concoction on Helo, they were way off the mark when it came to necessary dosage. Helo needed way more. Now they are ready to flush it out of him.
Injecting the energy Healer Eriana sits back in a comfy chair and pulls out a book. “It should still be a good few minutes. It will give that young man the time he needs to tell the princes friends about who he is.”
Slowly blinking his eyes Helo expected to feel immense pain. But in reality, he felt great. He didn’t acknowledge the feeling of being okay, first he let the fact that he was still alive hit him. He knew that what he did was stupid. But if he didn’t do what he did, then his friends would have been dead.
Letting out a sigh, Helo then smiles at the lack of pain. Before he can take in his surroundings, he hears the voice of an older woman speak up. “Your still in pain deary. I am just suppressing it.”
Turning his head Helo looks into the eyes of a white-haired woman. “Is everyone okay?” He quickly asks.
“Mhhmmm you’re a good boy. Don’t ever lose that little princeling.” Helo looks at her in confusion, but she ignores him. Waving her cane at him she says. “Now you better take good care of those cute little heiresses you hear me.”
“Ah… Yes. I mean. Yes Ma’am.” Helo stumbles at first but then he gets it.
“Mhmm good. Before I left your friends in, I will tell you what happened.” Helo doesn’t argue and she continues. “So, your obviously an idiot.” Not arguing with her, Helo just nods. “Mhm good. Anyway. You did a lot of damage to your channels, the kind that might cripple you for life. Good thing, it was all fresh and the Kashiwagi family had the resources to save you. You have been asleep for two weeks. A team of Healers and I, have been manually cycling energy through your channels to repair them before they could solidify into the mess you left them.”
Looking inward Helo can find no broken channels. Everything still looks damaged, but it is still flowing. “Now, you still have two months and about two days before I am guessing you will be ready to use your energy again. In the meantime, you can only use the smallest amount.”
Nodding Helo acknowledges her, she just shakes her head. “Not like you will listen anyway.” Then she turns to the door. “You should thank me; the healing process boosted your awakening considerably. But keep in mind, the further you go, the harder progress will be.” With that the woman leaves the room. Helo is assuming she is getting his party.
Before anyone else can enter he looks at his system and status.
Due to your bloodline further awakening you have gained +3 to all stats and an additional +5 to Will and Vit.
Name: Helo Vital
Tier: 1
Bloodline: Redacted (20.0%)
Title: Nature’s Alpha (Epic), Spirit Blessed (???), Yin-Yang Balance (Rare)
Gear: Alpha Wolf Hide Bracers (Epic), Boxers of Infinite Regeneration (Epic), A mother’s first gift, a father’s first lesson. (Mythic/Hidden) (Rare)
Aura: Null Presence
Age: 15
Class: Shaded Predator (Pseudo Tier 3)
Level: 40
Stats: 529
- Str: 31 (+5%)
- Agl: 85 (+15%)
- Dex:56 (+15%)
- Per: 63 (+30%)
- Vit: 112 (+50%)
- End: 34 (+15%)
- Int: 33 (+5%)
- Will: 112 (+50%)
Racial Skill: 5
- Greatly Enhanced Perception (Instincts) (Rare)
- Greatly Enhanced Natural Energy (Mental/Physical) (Rare)
- Regeneration (???)
- Major Vitality Siphon? (???)
- Dark Curse (???)
- Primary(N/A)
- Secondary(N/A)
Primary Class Skill: 5
- Forced Still (Rare)
- Dark Blade Projection (Rare)
- Defiled Wound (Uncommon)
- Bloodline Awakening (Rare)
- Dark Hand (Rare)
- Negative Weakening (Uncommon)
Skills: 3
- Nature’s Flow Meditation (Uncommon)
- Detect Weakness (Uncommon)
- Appraisal (Common)
Styles: 2
- Moon-Staff (Uncommon)
- Moonshines Afterblock (Uncommon)
- Twin Fang of the Beast (Uncommon)
- Attacking from a step behind (Uncommon)
What he can see within his status leaves him in shock. His previous stat total was 492. He gained 34 stat points while he was unconscious. But Helo does realize that this probably has a lot to do with his bloodline reaching twenty percent.
But this was still a major boost in power. It makes him wonder if other people get power boosts like this. He assumes that they do. Or if they have a fully awakened bloodline they might start off as strong as someone in tier 1 already.
While sitting there in shock Helo hears the door click closed. He is surprised to see Akira enter the room and not Hinata or Alli.
Seeing his confusion Akira says. “I asked them to wait a minute. I have something I wanted to tell you. I planned on talking to you before you left. But I think now is a better time to talk to you.” Then to Helo’s complete and utter surprise Akira bows to him.
Helo just sits there with an utterly bewildered expression. What is going on. This is really weird. “Wah… What are you doing?”
Akira stands up and looks at his expression; with a chuckle he tells Helo exactly the same thing he told the people in the other room. He started with his message from his goddess. Which Helo just nodded at, turns out he met her already. So, it made the next thing much easier to hear. The goddess knew his mother, this Helo also knew. But she never said anything about her.
“The only information she gave me on who your mother is, is that she is Royalty.” Akira stares at Helo and asks. “You read the book I gave you about multiversal hierarchy, correct. Specifically, about the Divine Beast Empire?”
Helo nods his head. He doesn’t make the connection, but then his eyes go wide. Akira nods at this and Helo’s mind starts racing. Royalty is a term reserved for the most powerful of creatures. Specifically, the creatures are called Primordials. “So, my mother was a primordial?”
Akira just shrugs. “I don’t know. She could be, she could be the daughter of one or have primordial in her ancestry. She could also be married into the family. It could all come from your father’s side” Akira just shakes his hand from side to side. “I am not sure. All I know is that when it comes to who on earth has the most powerful backing. It is you. Then through you us.”
With this Akira takes a deep breath. His face looks troubled, but he quickly firms his resolve. “I am prepared to swear both clan Kashiwagi and clan BrightMoon to you right now.”
Helo completely freezes at his words then he aggressively shakes his head. “Ah-ah. Nope. Nodda. Let’s forget this conversation ever happened. Royalty? Not me.” Helo waves his hands around and looks panicked.
Akira chuckles. “Hahaha yeah, I expected that. Things will stay the same, and we will keep things quiet. But years from now when earth opens and the integration enters the phase where outsiders can enter earth. We will have to have a talk about what to do.”
Helo calms down and nods at this. He might look mature for his age. He might be powerful. Well… Not right now. He thinks well looking at how ridiculous he looks in his hospital gown. He might be able to push through pain, but a lot of that is his instincts. In truth he is a fifteen-year-old kid that is just trying to push through with stealth and a lot of stabbing.
But it doesn’t really bother him. He has always been different, and he always knew it. Meeting Alli and Hinata all those years didn’t give him relief that he wasn’t alone. It just showed him the world was bigger than he expected.
But when it comes to running two clans. Yep, Helo will push that off for older Helo to deal with.
Akira leaves the room feeling glad that he got that talk out of the way. Opening the door, he nods inside and says, “You can see him now.”
Alli and Hinata give one another a look and then giggle before getting up. Entering the doorway they both knock. This isn’t unusual for Hinata, but it is for Alli. Both girls look that their feet and bow deeply. “This humble servant greets the young master.” They say in unison.
Akira just laughs. If I was his age and two beautiful women did that to me. I would have been on cloud nine. From inside the room, he can hear Helo groan. Laughing louder he exits the area.
Back in the room Helo is debating on tossing a pillow at the two girls. The only thing stopping him is that whatever Healer Eriana did to stop the pain is slowly starting to ware off. She said in a stern voice. “Now I wanted you to wake up comfortable. But I don’t trust you not to hurt yourself further if you don’t feel how hurt you are.”
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Realizing just how correct she was, Helo ignores the pain and tosses the pillow anyway. “You two better stop that!”
He can hear laughing outside the room and even with his blush and how uncomfortable he feels. He does like that everyone is still joking around.
Hinata steps into the room and smiles at him. Her smile sets his already beating heart beating harder for a different reason than the joke. Smiling back, he watches her as she enters the room. Stepping out from behind her Alli jumps forward and hugs him.
Groaning in pain, she quickly gets off him. “Sorry! I am just glad your okay.” Then she pulls his head between her breasts. Again, Helo’s heart might just pop and this point.
Letting him go Hinata steps forward and pulls out a cane. It was the same one he had before. “You dropped this.” She says as she hands it over.
Putting his hand through the curving tails and grabbing the handle Helo can feel the tension leaving his body. He didn’t know how much he missed the effects of the cane until it was gone. The description only says that it helps ‘ease movement’. Helo doesn’t know exactly what that entails, but he can already feel it making his joints feel like a freshly oiled car. His entire body relaxes just a little. Holding the cane and laying back in bed he almost falls asleep right there.
Alli laughs and grabs him. “Let’s get you back to our house. Yoeko made an array for everyone to meditate in. But she said that she made yours special. With that the two girls each get under one of Helo’s arms and help him leave the room.
On exiting he notices Rocco and Arisah, they both notice them and bow. Out of their mouths comes a chorus of greetings at all three individuals. Alli, Hianta and Helo all look at one another and chuckle.
It is pretty funny hearing both of them trying to greet two heiresses and some kind of prince. “Come on, and both of you stop that.” Alli says to them, but Helo raises a hand.
“Arisah. You pulled me back. You called me ‘Prince’.” This causes the dryad woman to nod and blush.
“I already knew… My father is an elder and one of the few people that Akira-Sama told.” She bows again and Helo just shrugs.
“Ah. Okay.” Then everyone starts leaving the basement of the central house. Walking across the courtyard Helo gazes up at the massive tree and smiles. “Can we sit on a bench for a while?”
Nobody has any issues, and they all take a seat. While seated the girls tell Helo about everything that happened after he passed out. They even when into specific details about how heroic Rocco was standing over his fallen form.
Rocco is visibly fidgeting on the other side of the bench, but it would be improper for him to interrupt them. So, he just internally cringes.
Turning to Rocco, Helo bows his head. With a small wince he says, “Thank you.”
Barely audibly and with a grumble Rocco says. “Think nothing of it.” Then he turns his head away.
Chuckling a little, Helo goes back to listening to the girls talk about what happened. Finally, they got to the end and Helo was impressed by how well his spell worked. He was lucky though; he channeled his entire body’s worth of energy. It did well, but the enemies had very little resistance and at the same time they only used their bodies. If they had mages things probably would have turned out different.
Sitting back and enjoying the nice July weather, Helo just closes his eyes.
An unknown time later a hand shakes his shoulder. Slowly waking up he blinks his eyes. Looking around he is lying on the bench with his head on Alli’s lap. Hinata is leaning over him and waking him up. “Come on. You can sleep in your bed.”
Nodding his head Helo follows her through the courtyard and into their home. Going up the two flights of stairs takes a few seconds but getting to the third floor leaves him a little confused. Looking around the space things have changed. Normally there is a nice meeting place, with a tea table and nice seats. But now it is empty.
In its place there are three very complex arrays. Each array has from what little Helo can feel, extremely powerful catalysts situated within the array. Two of the arrays are pretty much see through.
But the third, it is filled to the brim with swirling energies of gold and black. Each one is taking up one side, and they are following one another endlessly. “Woah.” That is all he gets out.
Alli steps up and nods. “Yeah, the array creates some kind of containment. We have been using ours for the last two weeks. So, there isn’t so much swirling energy. But yours is a little different.” She smiles at him. “We kept feeding it the catalysts, even if you weren’t here to absorb the energy. So, this it two weeks’ worth.” She waves her hand like some kind of tv show host.
Hinata steps further into the room and says. “Yoeko warned us that the containment runes can’t hold much more. But if you absorb what is inside…”
Helo just stares at the energy, and he can feel his tired and sore body hungering for it. At the same time the mass of swirling energy gives him a very ominous feeling. “That is wayyyyy to much.”
Both girls just smile and Alli pulls out some kind of belt. Using his ‘Appraisal’ skill he gets a slight read on it, but he can tell that there is a lot he can’t see.
Cultivators Stomach Wrap (Uncommon)
A wrap created to slow the absorption of outside energy.
“You both just think of everything.” Helo says with a weary shake of his head.
They just smile at him. So, he steps up and prepares to put on the wrap. “I might as well get started.”
With his words both girls go through the process of changing out all the catalysts. The energy had already been drained and is within each array. Then they head to their rooms and come out wearing matching robes. Hinata is wearing a deep green color and Alli is wearing silver. Then both girls plant themselves in their rituals.
Helo heads to his own room and puts on some comfy clothing. About to enter his own ritual he puts on the belt. Stepping into the circle all the energy swarms around him and tries to enter his body. The belt creates some kind of funnel and pulls the energy directly into his core.
Helo quickly takes a seat in a meditative position and closes his eyes. Focusing on his core Helo can see how the energy creates another spiral within his center. It is acting in the exact same manner that it was within the array. The only difference is that the longer the energy stays within his core area, the more control he has over the energy.
Taking conscious control of the energy, he winces slightly as he is forced to use his strained will. But it doesn’t last long, the energy is flowing easily within his core. The first thing he does is control the flow so that as he gains more control, the energy starts to get closer to the center.
Energy continues to flow in, and he continues to do what he assumes is refining the energy. As more energy comes completely within his control, he can apply more pressure on the center. But, to his dismay he never even sees the greyish silver color that he once saw.
Helo doesn’t really know what he was expecting, but he wanted something to happen. Letting out a sigh the echoes within his consciousness Helo starts to reverse the flow. Pushing the energy, he can control outward he starts to create a vortex that draws the energy from the belt into the center of the swirling mass. As the energy pushes outward, he slowly refines it so that it is ‘his’.
This is a complicated technique he is using. Most people would just try to will the energy to stay together. What he is doing is closer to what a cultivator would do. But Helo is just following the ideas and practice he has had with controlling his own natural energy. Physical and Mental energy isn’t like mana. It can’t just be willed around. It must be contained and led. So, without even thinking about it, he is using a relatively advanced technique.
Continuing to draw in the energy, Helo lets the gold and black energy that he is in control of flow outward through his channels. Sending the golden energy into his body and the black into his spirit, Helo grunts as pain sweeps through him. He isn’t actually damaging himself any further. His channels are just sore and injured. But letting the non-violent energy flow through him helps.
His own bloodline energy is more powerful than he is, it also has a vicious will. It doesn’t actively try to hurt him, but its mere existence is too much for his body. Helo is excited to try out ‘Bloodline Awakening’ when he is healed. Reaching twenty percent in his awakening was a huge achievement and he thinks that he could keep the skill activated for much longer now.
Looking through his body Helo can see how golden energy that is now flowing through him is filled with vitality and life. It is speeding up his healing and the newly split off cells are just a little more golden each time. The main thing that excites Helo is that the physical energy his body is producing is slowly turning from red physical energy to pure golden life energy.
Letting the energy do its thing Helo now looks into his spirit. With his own ‘Mind Sight’ and the blessing from the Kitsune goddess Hikari Kashi, Helo can now see into his own spirit. What he is seeing is his spirit slowly goes from a deep purple to a pure black. There are already what he would describe as veins of darkness seeping through his spirit.
Focusing on the veins Helo is happy to see that they don’t feel like what one might expect. If Helo saw someone with a black spirit, he would probably think they were evil. But Helo just feels a since of nihility. The idea that nothing can hold up before it. It isn’t evil or filled with death. Just the idea of breaking things back down.
Happy that he doesn’t need to put much effort into his cultivation Helo goes back into his core. The energy is being used to heal him, so it is just following a natural process, there isn’t much for him to do there. Unless he wanted to speed it up.
Back in his core Helo focuses on pulling energy into his body at an increased pace. Outside the spiral starts to pick up, the revolutions are slowly increasing. At the same time the ritual continues to siphon new energy from the fresh catalysts.
Helo doesn’t know how long he sits in the ritual. But he does know that he was drawn slight pain and constant focus. Eventually he entered some kind of trance. He was broken out of it by a flash of color he didn’t expect to see, greyish-silver. He would describe it as a vibrant metallic gray. Like a suite of freshly polished armor, if it was a deeper color.
Dropping his intense focus the vortex in his core slows a little and the whirlpool outside follows suit. Looking toward where he can see the flashes of silver, Helo doesn’t know what to expect from the energy. It almost feels hollow, like there needs to be something that it can merge with. In the end he has no idea about what to do. Honestly, he is just a little thankful that these two opposing concepts aren’t just blowing up in his face.
Following the energy backward he finds it coming from his own channels. Now the energy that is being pushed out, but in. So, does it need to come from my own created energy? Helo thinks to himself. After a second, he realizes that it makes more sense.
You can’t just push life and dark energy together. This is a unique reaction between his own personal energy. The energy that is created within his body and spirit directly connected to his bloodline.
Not sure what to do with the energy and not wanting to harm himself, he goes back to what he was doing. The pain has slightly lessened and his own control over his energy and energy that enters his body has improved.
Getting lost in another trace Helo keeps focused on absorbing the energy, refining it down, the refining his body and spirit.
Alli and Hinata are in Alli’s room and talking to one another. “How long do you think he will stay like that?” Alli asks.
“If I had to guess, until all the energy is gone.” Hinata says with a sigh. Peeking out the door into the room, she can see that the swirl of energy is about half gone. “It has been only four days. He has absorbed about a week’s worth of materials in that time. If anything, I am impressed.”
“That’s true.” Alli says with a nod. “I can barely take in all the energy I get per day. It feels like my body is tearing itself apart, about to explode, and thanking me.”
“Yeah… Me to.” Hinata says with a slightly down tone. She is a little sad at how weak she feels compared to Helo.
“Don’t be like that Hina-Chan. Remember he is healing himself and changing from a baseline human. He has a lot to change.” Alli says while hugging Hinata. Then she scrunches up her nose, “And a lot to expel.”
Helo doesn’t know how long it has been, but eventually the constant river of energy turns into a stream, then a trickle, then it stops. Looking at his progress, Helo is happy to see how much growth he has made. It almost makes him want to injure himself again, almost.
With the energy gone he finally got hit by a wave of tiredness. It would have hit him sooner. But the fact that he had so much energy to absorb, and that his injured body was easily creating new pieces, like a muscle after a workout, kept him awake longer. The new ‘muscles’ initially created a burst of energy that kept giving him a slight revitalizing effect. Not enough to heal and be practical in a fight. But enough to keep him conscious.
Taking a look through his body and spirit, Helo is surprised to see how much healing happened. At the same time, he is dismayed by the amount of healing left. When he first started, he hoped that Eriana was wrong, and it would be less than the two and a half months she told him. But if anything, she was underestimating how long it would take.
Without the extra materials, his body has to rely on its own ability to create energy and heal. Now his high reserves, vitality and will, means that he will have an easier time. But still, unless he has a constant injection of energy, he will be tired, sore and hungry for the foreseeable future.
Finally returning back to the outside world, the first thing Helo does is almost throw up. All around him he is covered in a disgusting black mucus-like thing. Jumping to his feet, he stumbles in pain and from his own exhaustion. But he doesn’t let himself fall. Gagging again he looks around. “What is this!”
From Alli’s doorway he hears a yell. “Activate the array!”
“Huh!” He grunts.
“The Array!” Another yell comes out.
Looking down at the array, that he can barely see, he finds a rune that looks like it will do something. Pressing it a small shield appears around the entire array. “Not that.” Trying another one he creates a light, “Why is that here?” Trying for the third time, he hits a rune. A powerful force wraps around him, and Helo almost expands his aura, even if it would have hurt. But before he can do anything a mix of wind, water, and what smells like soap surrounds him.
Letting the array do its work Helo sits there and tries to remain calm. It is about a minute later when the force releases him. Then the mass of black yuck, water and soap get destroyed in a blaze of flame.
Sitting down on the ground with a sigh, Helo stares at the ceiling. “That was not what I expected.”
Hearing the door open to his side, Alli and Hinata step out. They are both wearing what looks like comfy clothes and have scarves wrapped around their faces. Alli pulls hers down and gives two quick sniffs. Pulling her scarf back up she acts like she is doing a taste test. Nodding she looks at Hinata. “Its clean.”
With a laugh they unwrap their scarves. “Ugh, I hate that stuff.” Alli says.
“What was that?” Helo is still lying on the ground. He is too tired to really move.
“That is impurities that your body releases as you recreate youself. Truthfully, we think that the more impurities you release the higher your lifespan rises.” Hinata answers him.
Helo isn’t sure how to take that, but he nods his head to show her he was listening. “Cool cool.” He wants to ask how long he was there, but his eyes are slowly starting to close.
Then Alli runs up to Helo and dives into him. It still hurts, but the pain is much less than before. “It has been nine days!” She yells at him. Looking up at Helo, she sees his closed eyes. “Oh, he’s out.”