A Time of Need
The dead guards' corpses had to be left behind due to the urgency of Luke's treatment.
Multiple of his broken bones penetrated into his organs, with some of them even sticking out of his body, such as his thigh bone on one of his legs.
Those penetrated organs would cause internal bleeding within Luke's body at best, and would kill him in less than five minutes at worst.
The external bleeding caused by some of the broken bones wasn't as bad, but it still didn't look like the bleeding would be stopping any time soon.
Between failing organs and rapid blood loss, Luke had to be treated as soon as possible.
Using unknown techniques, Anastasia and Ellios moved as fast as a bolt of lightning.
Ellios sighed in annoyance as he spoke to Anastasia.
"We shouldn't go much faster than this, considering Luke's injuries. I just hope we'll make it in time."
Anastasia wore an amused face and smirked at Ellios.
"Weren't you the one who said something along the lines of: 'Live with greater strength or die!' though?"
Ellios looked away from Anastasia and cleared his throat.
"Khm… I… Of course, I didn't really mean it! I said that in hopes of motivating my disciple!"
Anastasia raised one of her eyebrows and her lips twitched at Ellios' poor attempt of an excuse.
"Oh, really now? In that case, why'd you let your precious disciple get to the point of hanging on the verge of life and death?"
Ellios mumbled out another excuse, but Anastasia didn't even bother listening to it.
'I know all too well that the geezer has good intentions, but his methods are… brutal. No other way around it.', Anastasia thought to herself.
She glanced at Luke's tattered body and sighed internally.
'The poor guy doesn't know what he has signed up for.'
The trip that took half a day while walking leisurely took less than 10 minutes for Ellios and Anastasia, as they arrived in front of Naiccos' eastern gate.
The two of them didn't seem to be exhausted at all, even after closing such a distance in so little time.
They walked right past the line of people awaiting entry into the city, which made the people in line protest.
A burly man wearing a sleeveless shirt and a pair of ragged pants shouted out.
"Hey, fuckers! Who do you think you are?!"
He had exaggeratedly large and defined muscles, with his brown hair being as messy as it could humanly get.
If Luke saw him, he'd think that this person came straight out of a certain manga series that had to do with grappling and brawling.
Ellios and Anastasia ignored the man and continued walking closer towards the gate.
In the next instant, the burly man appeared in front of the two people.
He looked akin to a giant when standing in front of the disguised Ellios.
The man bent forward, allowing him to bring his face close to Ellios'.
He was glaring so hard at Ellios that it looked as if his eyes would pop out of their sockets at any moment.
Ellios still appeared to be looking through the burly man as if he wasn't there, even though their faces were, at most, 20 centimeters apart from one another.
The burly man grit his teeth and was about to teach a lesson to the shameless line-cutters using his advanced martial arts techniques, when he noticed something weird.
He couldn't move at all.
Every joint and muscle in his body were fixed in place by an unknown force.
He understood immediately what this phenomenon was, and shrunk back in pure regret; cold sweat formed on his forehead but strangely refused to flow down his face at all.
"E-e-elementalists?!", he managed to barely mutter out.
Although a stammer, it was loud enough for the other people who were complaining earlier to hear.
A sudden silence struck the area. Only the ragged breathing of the burly man could be heard.
None would dare say anything now, except if there was another elementalist in the line, which Ellios already determined wasn't the case.
Ellios glanced around and spoke with a nonchalant expression.
"Excuse us, but we are in a hurry."
Anastasia, with Luke on her shoulder, took the lead and went around the burly man, and Ellios followed behind her.
Just as Ellios passed by the burly man, he lightly twirled his index finger without anyone noticing, causing the fear-stricken man to fall to the ground face-first after the power of Ellios' elemental disappeared.
With the commotion finally settled, Anastasia took out a certain paper out of her robe's inner pocket and showed it to one of the guards regulating entry into the city.
Seeing the paper's contents, the guard went to the other guards and whispered something to them before they all nodded amongst themselves.
The guard then came back and returned the paper to Anastasia while slightly bowing at the pair of people.
They were granted immediate entry into the city, no questions asked.
Luke's breathing had noticeably gotten slower and weaker along the way, and he was barely hanging onto his life at this point.
Ellios frowned and clicked his tongue.
"With Luke in this state, there's only one option…"
Anastasia narrowed her eyes and frowned slightly.
"You don't mean…"
Ellios closed his eyes and nodded while sighing.
"Sadly, I do. We have no choice but to pay that woman a visit."
Anastasia protested.
"But there has to be another choice…!'
Ellios crossed his arms and spoke.
"You know as well as I do that no one else in this city apart from her would be able to treat him in his current state."
Anastasia looked away from Ellios in denial with a deep frown on her face.
'He's completely right, but I…'
Seeing her reaction, Ellios grabbed Luke off of Anastasia's shoulder and placed him on his own shoulder.
"I'll go by myself. We don't have the time to stand around and chatter about past grudges. Luke will die at this rate."
Anastasia was surprised by Ellios' initiative.
'He should be even more opposed to this idea than I, so why? Why is he going so far for Luke?'
Anastasia looked Ellios in the eyes, and she was faced with a look of pure determination.
'…!'
She almost gasped in shock. While Ellios wouldn't look any different to any onlooker, Anastasia knew what that glint in his eyes signified.
A sense of reminiscence came over Anastasia, as she remembered a bygone part of her past.
'That… it can't be! I'm overjoyed, but… why?!'
Her thoughts were chaotic, as if a hurricane had swept through them.
'Whatever I say at this point isn't going to change his mind…'
Anastasia's head dropped as she sighed in resignation.
Knowing that Luke's time was running out by the second, she nodded weakly.
"Fine, old man. Let us both go."
Ellios glared at Anastasia with a grin on his face.
"Who're you calling an old man?!"
His reaction aside, the pair of people had already rapidly started rushing to their intended destination.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Among the numerous districts of Naiccos, there was one that most people would always avoid if they could help it: the slums.
It was the southernmost district, and although it was the most underdeveloped district in the whole city, almost half of Naiccos' total population resided here.
Makeshift shacks and tents littered the street in no particular order, and since it was late in the night, many people were lying down in the middle of the street and sleeping.
The whole district looked like a war refugee camp, and not a place anyone would like to call their 'home'.
Rodents and bugs had free reign in this district, causing many people to easily fall ill and die, without anyone caring.
Twice a week, there would be a small team of elementalists sent over to 'take care' of the corpses however they wished, even causing a small underground organ trafficking ring to spring up in the city, causing the said corpse 'clean-up' job to skyrocket in popularity due to the newfound profits that could be earned on the side.
And in this place, there stood a particular shack, which could almost be called a small house from its size alone.
In front of it stood two people, carrying a wounded person with them.
There were many people sleeping on the streets who couldn't notice the sudden appearance of the elementalist pair even if they wanted to.
The exception to this were some of the people who were still awake and nearby, but still wouldn't dare look in the pair's direction.
Ellios knocked on the door of the makeshift shack, with Luke still bleeding out on his shoulder.
Anastasia stood behind him, with a deep frown on her face.
'Between the woman we're about to meet and the godawful stench of this place, which one is worse?', Anastasia wondered.
Before Anastasia managed to decide between the two, the door in front of them slowly opened.