Chapter 41: Never Again.
Unfortunately, Levi was turned deaf to the entire world. He just kept repeating more in his mind while guiding the divine light into the seed like he was bewitched by it or the prospects of obtaining strength at last.
It was like putting candy before a child for the first time after watching it on TV for more than a decade. Levi bit hard and refused to let go!
Thirty seconds...Forty seconds...One minute!!
’You little shit, you will get yourself killed and ruin everything on day one!’
As Ash’Kral watched the steaming hot blood seeping down Levi’s nose, he knew that he had reached dangerous levels of heat and he had to stop him. Otherwise, death was a guaranteed outcome!
Without an ounce of hesitation, Ash’Kral focused his spiritual vision on the Three-Body Problem sphere and used his mental prowess to disturb the orbital path of the three seeds!
The moment he did this, the Sun Seed made contact with the Nine Senses seed and sent an electrifying shockwave across Levi’s entire body.
Levi was jolted awake and immediately lost his concentration on guiding the divine light. This interrupted the process and pushed the divine light away at last.
The moment the heat stopped rising, the adrenaline that was keeping Levi conscious went away with it.
Thud!
Levi didn’t even understand what happened before he found himself passed out on the ground. Hearing the abnormal thud of Levi’s fall, Arthur immediately stopped his studies and peeked outside of the room to check on his brother.
"Levi, you goo..Levi!"
When he saw him lying on the ground on top of a pool of sweat and blood while creating a tower of steam above, he swiftly dashed to him.
Just as he wanted to flip him to the side, he yelped in pain after touching Levi’s burning skin.
"What the hell is this."
With an anxious expression, Arthur picked up Levi and took him to the bathroom, placing him inside the tub. Then, he turned the faucet on top of his head.
Not done yet, he turned on the shower head too and started spraying Levi like he was caught in invisible fire.
He had no idea what was going on, and the only thing on his mind at the moment was to cool his brother’s temperature.
Fortunately, his quick thinking saved the day as Levi’s temperature started to decrease significantly. After a minute or so, Levi’s scarlet skin returned to somewhat its natural color, and his nose stopped bleeding.
Still, Arthur kept spraying him with cold water for a couple more minutes...Only then did he try to wake him up.
Levi remained unresponsive, forcing Arthur to request assistance from Astra AI on what to do next. After describing the situation to her, Astra advised him to apply cold compresses, such as wet towels or ice packs wrapped in cloth to the neck, armpits, groin, and wrists.
Arthur stopped the running water and followed Astra’s instructions, knowing that it wasn’t right to keep spraying water on someone who passed out. But it was an emergency, and he had to do it.
After finishing with this, Arthur picked up Levi and wiped out the water with a towel. Then, he placed him on the bed and put a single cold towel on top of his forehead.
Next, he brought his head near his nose and heart. When he found out that both were starting to get regulated, he finally signed in relief.
"You prick, if you are going to kill yourself at least tell me." Arthur cursed while glancing at his burning red palms.
He still couldn’t fathom how hot his brother was and how he managed to survive it. Just one touch was enough to burn some of his palm’s skin off.
Only Ash’Kral seemed to know.
’He might not have inherited the Radians’ heat immunity, but it looks like he did inherit a high resistance to heat compared to the average human...It just needed an awakening.’ He thought.
He understood that no normal human would survive what Levi had gone through, as his temperature had crossed way past 43°C(109°F), which was the known temperature for organs shutting down.
Ash’Kral figured out that when Levi started hitting those crazy numbers, his dormant Radian genetics related to heat resistance were forcefully awakened by one of the three seeds to save him.
When it came to the survival of the host, the seed would do anything and everything to help it survive.
***
Sometime later, at the brink of dawn...
Levi woke up with one of the nastiest headaches of his life. When he touched his head, the cold towel dropped on his chest, confusing him for a moment.
’What happened?’ He asked while looking around him, trying to find Ash’Kral in the darkness.
Ash’Kral popped out of nowhere and scolded him immediately, "You almost got yourself killed, idiot!"
When he heard this, Levi knit his eyebrows and tried his best to recall what happened through the pain of the headache.
Unfortunately, he found out that his memories were limited to the start of the seventh cultivation session. After that, everything went blank.
Seeing his reaction, Ash’Kral went on and narrated what happened and how close he was to an uneventful death if it wasn’t for his brother saving his ass.
After hearing everything, Levi felt a chill course down his spine as he truly couldn’t remember any of that.
Suddenly, Arthur’s sleepy voice resounded in his ears.
"Big bro, you are finally up."
Levi turned to face his brother after picking up on his nearby location from his voice. Arthur was indeed sitting on a chair next to Levi’s bed, as he had never left after putting him to sleep.
"Arthy, thank you for everything, and I am sorry for such a screw-up." Levi sighed, ashamed.
While he didn’t know what happened at the seventh session to make him lose his marbles like that, he understood that he shouldn’t have taken such a risk in the first place while being alone.
He knew that seeking to break the limit was too dangerous for his body, but he believed that he had it under control, like the previous sessions. Such overconfidence almost brought him to an early downfall.
"I don’t care what you did, I just want to know what it is so I can be prepared next time." Arthur said solemnly, "Be honest, did you sign a contract with Ash’Kral? I heard about our savior’s description from Shia and the others. I know it’s him."
While Arthur wasn’t one of the brightest minds out there, his instincts were pretty sharp.
"Yes."
Levi nodded, having no interest in hiding the truth from his brother.
"Is it what you have wished for?" Arthur asked, his tone carried a hint of concern.
Unlike the others, who had no idea about what was going on with Ash’Kral, Arthur understood that his brother had been targeted by him for a very long time.
The fact that Levi’s massive hole was healed miraculously had been eating a big portion of his mind, wondering, fearing, that his brother might have signed a Sleepwalker contract to save them.
"It might not be what I have wished for, but I am in control and that’s what matters." Levi smiled as he summoned the Nocturnal contract, showing his brother what kind of terms he signed.
Although he knew that his brother trusted him 100%, he still needed to show him the contract to ease his worries.
After all, Sleepwalkers were able to steal entire identities, mannerisms, behavior, speech, and everything about their partner after absorbing their memories.
That’s what made them so scary as no one could figure out if they were dealing with a Daywalker or a well-trained Sleepwalker.
After Arthur browsed through the entire contract, his eyes widened in disbelief.
"You signed this?"
"I had to."
"Why..."
"It was the only way for us to live."
"I see..."
Arthur lowered his head and kept his mouth shut. His hands were clutched into tight fists. Although the contract was quite decent with only two bad terms, which were no death insurance and no fixed period, Arthur hated this for his brother.
But all he could do was accept it in silence, knowing that if Levi hadn’t signed it, he would be dead by now.
Picking up on his brother’s heavy heartbeats, Levi smiled serenely, "It’s alright, the contract has given me more than I have ever wished for."
"What about your peculiar transformation?" Arthur asked, "You were inked up from top to bottom with golden lines, and you had sun symbols in your stomach and forehead. The symbols resembled the Solar Aegis Sanctuary insignia immensely."
Levi wasn’t caught off guard by the description. Ash’Kral had already explained his transformation during the second session. Unlike Arthur, who found it cool, Levi was just relieved he didn’t have to transform every time he cultivated.
That would be a giant pain in the ass and would always force him to be careful every time he tapped on the divine light.
"You can say so." Levi smiled.
"Damn, I wish my future contracted nightcrawler can give me a similar cool transformation." Arthur eased a bit, showing an envious look.
"Then, you better eat those books so you won’t fail the intelligence trial and attract the strongest nightcrawlers to sign a contract with." Levi shooed him away with a hand, "Go, go, you only have two months and it’s nowhere near enough to cram everything."
"Thanks to Shia and Jojo, I have enough SR pills to last me until the day of the assembly." Arthur said with a resolved tone, "I will show those f*ckers that I have the brains and the muscles."
Levi chuckled as he listened to his brother’s thundering steps while heading to his room. Just as he was about to close the door, Levi remembered something crucial.
"Arthur, don’t tell anyone I became a Daywalker, not until after the assembly."
"I gotchu."
Arthur shouted from inside the room even if he didn’t understand the reason.
’Are you sure about keeping the truth from your brother?’ Ash’Kral snickered, ’I thought you brothers had no secrets between you.’
’This is for the best, at least now.’ Levi replied calmly.
He decided to keep the truth about their bloodline to himself for now, knowing that it would do nothing but confuse his brother.
He was already struggling with his books; there was no point in filling his brain with ideas that would change his entire perspective about their identity and family.
At least, not before the Contract Ritual Assembly.
If Arthur were to become a Daywalker, Levi would check if he could also absorb the divine light.
As for his Three-Body Problem and the inevitable death awaiting him if he couldn’t solve it? He was going to take this to the grave with him.