The sudden absence of that constant awareness was jarring. He had become so dependent on it it felt weird having it off. Earlier when he closed his eyes to concentrate, he still had ESP on so he could tell when he was being attacked. But now, he was truly going on blind.
[Good. Now feel.]
Darkness surrounded him, but Cipher pushed past the instinctive panic. He focused on everything else. Maybe because he was completely exposed and defenseless, his senses became extremely sharp. First he acknowledged the natural flow of air. It was easy to distinguish this as it flowed constantly around him.
From that, he derived Marcus’s location by feeling the subtle displacement of air as he moved. Next was predicting the teleportation location. First he felt the normal flow of ambient mana. He then narrowed in on the faint unnatural mana fluctuations - but there were two sources.
He assumed that one of the sources was Marcus’s location and the other was where the space portal was about to open. Since he could sense Marcus’s location, he assumed the mana fluctuations closest to him were his own mana leaking as he was about to use space magic.
As for the second mana source - which was just behind him - it was most likely the teleportation location. Seeing as there were mana fluctuations even before Marcus teleported, he guessed the way space magic worked was by first sending mana out that penetrated through space onto the other side. After that, it opened up the portal. And finally, one would be teleported.
Just as he thought of this, he felt the flow of air around what he assumed to be Marcus’s location begin to shift and the mana start to scatter. Marcus had teleported.
Cipher felt it - the mana gathering behind him was finally starting to distort the air, someone was coming through. Next was the concentrated killing intent. This was hard to explain, but Cipher felt it. It was a feeling similar to intimidation but different. Kinda like a sharp dagger stabbing towards his back.
Cipher turned, perfectly blocking Marcus’s attack and capturing him in his powerful grip before doing a flip and smashing him onto the ground. Marcus hit the ground hard.
Before he could teleport again, Cipher was on him, knee pressing into his stomach and his hand on his chest.
Cipher opened his eyes.
[Congratulations! You have awakened a skill]
[Congratulations! You have awakened a skill]
He didn’t waste time to celebrate the new skills but immediately sent his mana into Marcus, using mana circulation to completely destroy any form of mana gathering inside Marcus, stopping him from activating his skills.
[Congratulations! You have awakened a skill]
Now that he had disrupted his mana he could finally use that.
He placed his other hand on his head and activated Resurrection.
...
Two days ago, after the meeting was over, the executives rose from their seats and began leaving.
"Elaine, Iris. You two stay," Cipher said.
After everyone had left, just these three were left in the conference room.
"I think I might have a way to save your sister," Cipher said to Elaine.
"Really?" she asked, rising from her position. "Please help me. I’ll do anything," she pleaded.
"Calm down. It’s not that simple," Cipher explained.
She slowly sat, looking a little down.
"I have a way to help her, but she has to be willing to be helped. Do you get what I mean?" he asked.
"You mean she has to be conscious?" she asked.
"That’s right," Cipher said.
Elaine was in thought. Her sister had remained trapped in that statue body for almost two years now. Although Cipher had confirmed that she was alive, could she be conscious or in her right state of mind to accept the help? Being stuck in a stone body, without being able to do anything and without knowing when you would be set free...
"Well, don’t worry about it too much. I have a feeling it’ll be fine," Cipher said, getting up and gesturing for Iris to lead the way.
Since he didn’t see any mental-related status effects on her, he assumed she was fine. Still, it was hard to say as he didn’t know if mental illnesses would be listed as status effects. Well, they would see.
A few moments later, the three arrived at the area Iris was keeping Elara.
"I’ll leave y’all to it," Iris said as she left, leaving just Elaine and Cipher in the room.
They both walked up to the bed where Elara lay.
"Sister, sister, can you hear me?" Elaine asked.
"It won’t work like that," Cipher said, letting out a slight sigh. He took out a card and placed it on Elara’s body.
"Elara, can you hear me?" Cipher spoke directly to the petrified woman. "You’re like this because you used your Resurrection skill - offering your life in exchange for your sister’s."
Elaine’s eyes widened, her hand flying to her mouth. "What...?" she whispered.
She had assumed that her sister was like this because she had offended the Immortal King. To think that it was actually because of her...
"Wait, if she offered her life..." Elaine began, her voice shaking.
"Calm down. She’s not dead," Cipher said.
He continued speaking to Elara. "Since you were someone who couldn’t die, you were unable to offer your life and thus were cursed."
Elaine had a confused expression, but Cipher kept speaking.
"While I can’t get rid of the curse, I can get rid of the source of the curse. I have a skill that allows me to borrow skills from others. If you give me the Resurrection skill, then the curse will probably disappear." He paused. "It’s now up to you."
"Do you really have such a skill?" Elaine asked.
Cipher nodded. "Now, if she’s conscious and willing to hand over the skill, it will work. If she isn’t conscious or isn’t willing to part with the skill, there’s nothing we can do," he said.
Elaine glanced at her sister. "Sister..." she murmured.
Suddenly, a golden light burst forth from Elara and the stone covering her began showing cracks.
"Sister?" Elaine called out. She then turned to look at Cipher. "Did it work?" she asked.
Cipher smiled. "Yeah," he said, looking at the notification before him.
[Skill: Resurrection (SSS) has been successfully imported]
...
[Name: Import Card]
[Type: Code Card]
[Description: Import a skill from a user.]
[Note: Skill user must consent.]