Eureka’s long, black skirt gave her a solemn look in the chamber full of icy, misty air. She was quietly looking at the transparent coffin in front of her.
“Miss Eureka.” Both Angor and Leon bowed their heads.
Didn’t Leon just say that Eureka hasn’t been coming here in a long time? Angor wondered without showing his suspicion.
Or is she expecting me?
“Come in,” Eureka said without looking back.
Angor decided to ignore his other concerns for the moment and fully focused on the ice coffin in the room.
Even though he expected to see Jon in a bad condition, he was still shocked by what he witnessed. Leon wasn’t lying at all when speaking of Jon’s “hopelessness”.
Jon already looked skinny four years ago. But now... his outer husk did not look like human skin at all. It was almost useless to make Jon appear any less skeleton-like.
Anyone who saw the coffin right now would probably agree that it was someone’s corpse inside.
There was a tube connected to Jon’s heart, where the other end of it ended at a filtering flask that contained two layers of separated liquid. The bottom of the flask had black fluid, which took up about 80% of the container, and there was some green fluid on top of it.
“This is ‘Vitalizer’,” said Eureka. “When the green liquid you see fully turns into its black counterpart, which is tainted Vitalizer, the man in the ice coffin will have his last bit of life wither away, with no way of saving him.”
“Xien’s Vitalizer?” Angor looked at her.
“Huh... you know about this too?”
“It’s a very precious material that contains the primal energy of the Xien Plane.”
“I see you’ve read your books.” Eureka gave Angor a thoughtful glance. “As you see, the Vitalizer is what helped this man cling to this world.”
There was no way Leon could find any Vitalizer liquid, so it must be Eureka who provided it. It was obvious that Eureka meant to tell Angor that Jon stayed alive all thanks to her help.
Angor silently scoffed in his mind.
“The proper way of using Vitalizer is ‘Triple-Knitted Culturing’. We use this method to produce the Vitalizer solution with the proper density in order to minimize its side-effect. But you used such a radical way because there is a giant hole in Mister Jon’s heart.”
Angor easily saw that Eureka was misleading an important fact by implying that cutting Jon’s heart open was necessary, which was not the case.
Eureka didn’t seem troubled at all when her plan was found out. “Since you know Triple-Knitted Culturing, this means you’re not a complete amateur when it comes to alchemy?”
“To save Jon’s life, of course I need all the knowledge I can find,” Angor replied as he moved ahead to scan Jon with his spirit power.
Eureka didn’t stop him from doing so. While Angor worked, she would occasionally ask random questions to speculate Angor’s information. However, Angor simply dodged all the inquiries while perfectly maintaining his manners.
Eureka slowly lost patience as she put on a colder look. “You know I’m the ‘Bloodied Stabber’, which means you know what I’m doing at the Marginalized Island as well.”
Angor was already regretting his reckless words earlier today, but he could not undo it now.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Then you should also know that I won’t mind having an extra hunter after me, after being wanted by Goman King for so many years. And no, even THE Mister Phantom won’t make a difference.”
This was a threat, both Angor and Leon could see it.
“I didn’t press on and finish you off today because I know this is your home. And that I don’t want to offend Sunders without a good reason. But if you keep acting like an arrogant little snob, then I’ll just get rid of you. No one will blame me for that.”
“Miss Eureka, I wasn’t in the right mind when seeing my teacher in such a state. Hope you can forgive me.” Angor decided to take a step down since he couldn’t oppose Eureka for real.
“Leon told me that you and Jon always stuck together when you were young. Is this true?”
Angor nodded. “Jon was my mentor of life before I left to study wizardry.”
“Do you know where he’s from?”
“The ‘Earth’. Jon once told me that he came from a fantastic place called Earth, a foreign plane with amazing machinery technologies.”
Even though Leon claimed that he never told Eureka about Earth, a wizard like Eureka always had other workarounds to learn what she wanted. Angor believed that Eureka already knew about Earth by now, so he’d be careful not to annoy her by telling lies.
Besides, Leon never asked Jon too many questions about Earth before, which meant Eureka only found out minimal information about Earth.
There were countless foreign planes out there—Eureka would probably see Jon as a traveler from an uncharted plane and nothing else.
“Machines... I’ve heard about similar places, such as the Grand Plane, famous for their machine puppets.” Eureka pretended that she was finding random things to talk about. “Is this Earth place the same?”
“Compared to the Grand Plane, I’d say the Earth resembles the nation of Evory. According to Jon, there are trains made from metal, buildings that could reach the clouds, cities built upon concrete and steel... It has most elements you can find at Evory.”
Eureka carefully observed Angor’s expression and found no trace of lying. What Angor said also went well with what she read from Leon’s mind.
Of course, Angor wouldn’t mention more “advanced” knowledge he learned about the Earth such as the parallel universe, physical constants, and important scientific discoveries he read before. He didn’t believe Eureka had a chance to find such information.
While they talked, Angor had finished examining Jon. Not surprisingly, Jon was in a VERY dangerous situation, most of which was caused by the corruption brought by the world’s consciousness. The consciousness had left many complications in Jon’s body that seriously damaged his vitals. Even without the corruption, Jon wouldn’t have very long to live.
“Is there something I can do now, Miss Eureka?” Angor felt his mind overwhelmed by despair.
Eureka was glad to see Angor being “obedient”, so she answered this one without a problem. “Both his body and his spirit are at their limits. His condition has been somehow placed into a delicate balance by the corruption and the effect of the Vitalizer. Even the smallest disturbance will break the balance and kill him immediately. I’m afraid it’s beyond us now.”
“How long does he have if we leave him like this, Miss Eureka?”
“Half a year, at most, on condition that we keep this ice coffin intact.”
Angor took a deep breath and took out a small card from his bracelet. “Will this help him?”
Eureka widened her eyes just a little. “This is Inscription... Where did you find such a thing when it’s strictly forbidden by the Supreme Cult? No, wait, this is not ordinary Inscription.” Eureka scanned Angor’s card using her spirit feeler. “It’s Abyssal Inscription, created by the Vulgar Sage?
“It’s a weaker copy that only reduces the corruption effect by half. This can give Jon about 20 more years in normal circumstances, but as of now... 2 years, I’d say, and we must know how to keep the balanced state I mentioned. I don’t see how you can apply this card to him without breaking that balance, as it will add a different source of power onto his body.”
“Can we make this work if we increase the effect of the Vitalizer at the same time?”
“That’s... one’s way to do it. But very difficult. One other problem is that the Vitalizer is very costly. I got this flask of it by paying all the money I could find before leaving Fey Continent. And even if you have the money, you won’t find anyone selling it easily.”
Angor took out a bottle of green liquid from his bracelet. “I have more here.”
“Wait, what?” Eureka stared at the bottle with an uncertain look.
Did something happen at Fey Continent that made the Vitalizer so cheap? Apprentices can afford it now? I spent 10,000 crystals when buying mine!
She checked again and ascertained that what Angor provided was pure, genuine Vitalizer, and she suddenly grew a lot more curious about Angor himself.
“Where did you find this?”
“I purchased it from someone.”
“You can afford something so expensive?”
“Why not?”
Eureka knew Angor wasn’t mocking her, but she still felt bad when Angor spoke of the precious liquid like talking about everyday goods.
“Are you sure you want to use this just to give Jon another two years to live?”
“I don’t have a choice, do I?”
“He’ll still die after two years, you know. And when that happens, even Vitalizer won’t help.”
“I’ll think of something in the meantime. I WILL get him back.”
Angor felt great hopelessness discouraging his actions, but he had not completely discarded all hope yet. He could not.