51 Death Comes Uninvited

"What is that?"

"I'll tell you all about it later, now follow my instructions. Refining these objects will make their size decrease and increase their potency.' He said

'How do we refine them then?' I asked

' use your energy to force the impurities out of the wing and enhance Qi, as you do to your body you will force this item to undergo the same treatment. Due to it being infused with Qi, it will not need external Qi to improve its quality but will use its own Qi to become purer.' Said Nocturne explaining the matter.

Using the black flame, the wing was almost instantly covered with it. I didn't even feel that I exerted a fraction of the energy but a huge curtain of black fire covered the wing.

Almost immediately the wing began to shrink. And after a few seconds, it was the size of my palm.

'You have successfully refined it. The flame is very powerful yet gentle. It is only natural for it to refine something like this. Now around us lay hundreds of usable medicinal herbs, take those' said Nocturne as my vision dimmed out. Only focusing on three different herbs.

'This is a ten-year spirit grass' he said as I grasped at a normal looking batch of grass. However, it radiated a huge amount of Qi.

A purplish flower that had more thorns than anything I had ever seen was also valiantly swaying against the wind.

'That is a purple demon thorn,' it is also usable, get as many as you can they can be used later for other things.' Said Nocturne as I collected a whole batch of them suffering from some injuries in the process. The thorns were stronger than steel it seems.

'Finally, shadow wolf's blood' he said as I looked at me.

'Blood? Using blood in rituals is forbidden, aren't we committing a huge sin here?' I said

'Indeed, for your world right now, they all fear them, however, they fear what they don't know and at the same time don't try to understand it. The only way to help this person is using this, afterward, they can complain however they want. Saving a king's daughter should be overlooked even if one uses forbidden means. Without this, she might not survive until you reach the gates of the school.'

'Alright let's hurry, how do we use this then?' I asked

'Open your book there you will see the method.' Once I opened the book its papers turned until a black paper showed up. Golden words began being inscribed on it until the method of a Concreted Qi and Body Restoration Pill was shown.

A refined butterfly wing added to few strands of spirit grass of at least 10 years of age, with the essence of a purple demon thorn. These three items must be refined with an intense spirit flame. While being submerged in the blood of a dark beast.

I already have the three items, and I guess the dark beast is the shadow wolf, it seems that any dark beast's blood would work, however.

'Where would I get a spirit flame?" I asked

'You don't need it, you have the hottest flames of them all. Use your flame of creation' said Nocturne

'However, without a proper furnace, it will be hard to contain the fire. Still, this pill is not hard to make just the ingredients that are a bit difficult to come by.' Said Nocturne

"Now let me take over lest you ruin it, now you must watch carefully how a Reciptarier does his job." Once he took over the items floated and their essence was extracted.

The grass released a green lustrous fluid while the flower and the wing each released a corresponding color to their nature. Their remains becoming dregs and falling to the ground.

The beast's blood swarmed the essences and condensed itself until a small red pill, the color of blood was all that was left.

'This is a perfectly refined Qi and Body restoration pill.' Nocturne said, then went towards Lady Lissandra. Gently flipping her over and opening her mouth the pill was swallowed.

'Normally it is unreasonable to force pills down one's throat while they are unconscious, however, if one was proficient in guiding Qi, they can assist in helping the other party using the pill's effects to heal their body' said Nocturne.

He positioned Lady Lissandra on the lotus position and gently pressed his palms on her back.

I instantly felt my world change as I entered Lady Lissandra's sea of consciousness.

Unlike mine, her sea of consciousness was a gigantic sword of fire that had five separate parts hovering around it. They were smaller swords. Representing her Dantian and meridians.

However, one of them was cracked and the middle sword was glowing faintly about to fade and be snuffed out.

I stood there alone looking at the scene until Lady Lissandra showed up.

'Who are you? What the hell are you??! What are you doing here? How come you managed to enter this place?" she asked many consecutive questions with a lot of shock on her face she looked weary and stood still.

She then pressed her right hand forward and a sword of light showed up on her hand. However, she instantly fell to the white floor unable to use any ability

"You lost your consciousness and your meridians have been damaged, don't use any Qi else you will die. Said Nocturne.

'How come she doesn't recognize me? I asked

Then Nocturne looked down. What I saw was strange… it was nocturn's body. I entered lady Lissandra's sea of consciousness using Nocturne's body...

How bad will it be if someone that looked like a grim reaper appeared within your mind while you were one step away from death?

"It seems that I messed up…' said Nocturne

Indeed you did…

"Anyway, I made you swallow a Body and Qi restoration pill, you must allow me to circulate its energy through your body or else you will die," he said

"Get out of here!" she shouted unable to harness any strength. "I will not be swayed by the words of death," she said

'Take over Basara' said Nocturne as he gave me control. Nocturne was the chatty type, but it appears that that was only toward me.

At that moment I regained my former body and found myself in control.

"Illusion?" she said

"No this is the real me… do you remember when I told you about the one who taught me how to use the sword? You just met him, the bag of bones," I said in a chuckle. "Anyway let me help you, we are surrounded by a lot of monsters and I can't get you fast enough back to the gates.." I said

"Why not use the gold coin to ask for a teacher to come and help," she said gasping for air… can you even breathe in this place?

"The coin that I was given by that old man turned out to be useless and no one showed up, I tried…"

"I can't trust you…" she said

"Then you will die," I replied.

The girl's wary eyes wandered around when she saw the dire condition of her sea of consciousness she groaned and said, "Tch! Fine do what you want"

'Ask her to give you her hand.'

"Give me your hand," I said as I approached

The fearsome, and pride Lady Lisandra looked a bit hesitant, with a look of fright on her face. Yet without any other way, and with the clear deterioration of her sea of consciousness, she understood that she will truly die if she does nothing.

She then gave up and gave me her hand

'Now what?' I asked Nocturne.

'Circulate your Qi into hers' he said

Once I did, a surge of energy flowed out from her ethereal body and began washing over the floating swords in the background.

The broken sword regained its former appearance while the other ones became brighter.

'This should do ask her to wake up and let her finish the job, it seems that there is someone getting closer to us.' Said Nocturne.

"This should be enough, you should now be able to awake from unconsciousness, you will need to guide the remaining energy of the pill yourself. There is someone that wants us harm and is closing on us" I said as I left her sea of consciousness letting her alone and bewildered.

Once I awoke I felt the Qi of Lady Lissandra Surging madly, it was repairing the damaged parts and refining her Qi at the same time, making it more abundant, and cleaner. Circulating rapidly from her Dantian towards her meridians and back.

'She will be well soon, however, a thief that I once thought your encounter with will be far off in the distance is approaching'

'A thief? I asked

'Indeed, someone of old, someone that stole something from me long ago. It is now due time for him to pay, it is now due time for him to repent by giving away his life. And in doing so, once he is slain you shall gain one more secret of the book. Fail and you will die. Now stand forward' said Nocturne his voice serious beyond any time I ever heard it.

As I did and summoned the book, a voice resounded in the distance.

"You don't look like someone who will be easily willing to die. Give me that book, you need it not young one, do that and your end shall be swift."

Surging my scenes all around me I couldn't even feel anyone's presence.

'He has the Death's shroud…, you will not be able to locate him unless he attacks…' said Nocturne.

'What is this Death shroud?' I asked

"That is my cloak. It is that what he stole, and you have to get it back. The torn pages of the book are the secrets that I have lost once I died that day. This one managed to get a paper of the book and in it lay my cloak. You must get it back, without it, you cannot be complete.' Said Nocturne

Lady Lissandra then woke up and looked around

I was standing before her, while she was barely able to remain seated.

"Don't move Lady Lissandra, it seems that we are in deep trouble right now, concentrate on recovering, I think someone very dangerous is approaching us.' I said without turning back. Trying to sense where the attacker might be.

My heart began to beat faster as beads of sweat began to trickle down my spine. A cold wind of the night soon brushed past me forcing me to look at where it came. Then the coldness of death approached from behind.

Space distorted and a figure emerged from it, wearing a black cloak that covered him from head to toe a long sword went forward headed towards my chest. Without a sound, the blade moved forward towards my heart, without me ever sensing the person.

In that brief moment, in that brief second, I had a good look at who it was. It was not someone I knew, however, it was someone that clearly was working for the school. He was wearing the school's teacher's uniform.

Once the blade made contact, I heard Lady Lissandra shouting out my name…

Death comes without invitation…