22. Elixir of Resurrection (Ingredients)

Constance already imagined that Sofi had a past, especially about being much older than she looked (everyone had known that for years), but she didn't expect that.

Not only was she from a territory beyond the areas contaminated by Corruption, but (apparently) she was over 200 years old, in addition to having endured countless dangers and torments in that time, overcoming them relying mainly on willpower, all for one last ally (well, more than that) that she had been trying for centuries to recover from death, something that only happened in legends, but that she said she was sure was possible based on real events from millennia ago.

Even with all the things that happened recently (on the last day), for Constance this was perhaps a bigger one, less because of the revelation itself and more because of the fragility that Sofi showed, in every memory she had of Sofi since she was a little girl, she appeared as a strong, confident and direct woman, always helping those in need in the village, but not now. Now she was the one who needed help and Constance would do what she could to give it.

Although the only thing he could really do was just stay by her side as she spoke, and cried, showing that he would continue to be there for her, but he also wondered if there was anything else, anything, that he could do.

Instinctively Constance's eyes went from Sofi to the sky and from the sky to the small altar near the two of them.

"Lady Sofi, what if you asked the gods for help?"

After talking so much, Sofi had already calmed down and had regained her calm and composure.

"Of course I already tried that, it was one of the first things I did in fact, I donated more than half of my savings to the main temple in the capital, but it didn't help at all." Sofi said bitterly remembering how the priests accepted the payment, said some prayers and the next day they literally disappeared with all the money they managed to get from the safe.

At that time it became clear that something very wrong was happening to the world, this was the beginning of Corruption and the slow decline of mana in the world, with the decrease in mana the connection that made communication with other planes possible, which had always been unstable, ended being the first thing to fall followed eventually by the different types of magic.

This was one of the catalysts for Sofi to stop genuinely believing in gods, even though deep down she still had a small spark of hope for them that she insisted on burning. But he wasn't the only one, even before the Corruption, communication with divine beings was always, to say the least... difficult.

"Essentially, gods aren't so good as much the temples make, or made, people believe. If they can get something by offering help, they do, but they always charge something in return, I had some friends who even joked that the difference between a god and a demon was that the gods didn't like the taste of human souls but they were fundamentally the same." The older woman said with a slight laugh of derision and resignation.

Constance actually had no reaction to this, if less than half of the stories she grew up hearing from the village elders and occasional gossip from merchants and wanderers could be taken seriously then it wasn't at all difficult to find stories of gods who demanded sacrifices from blood as well as demons. The differences would be in the quantity and frequency with which such offerings were required, in addition to the type and strength of the "reward" for them.

But that was in the stories of the past, in the here and now, Constance, Sofi herself and the entire village encountered an entity that ended up going against these notions easily.

"You know I didn't mean about before, have you tried asking 'him' for help?" She pointed to the altar.

Sofi just remained silent, but that was already an answer.

"Why not?, you yourself saw yesterday that he should at least be able to hear" the young woman continued.

"Because I've tried this before, and even if he responded to you, that doesn't guarantee he'll listen to me." Sofi gave a quick answer, but even a blind and deaf person who didn't know the context could tell that this wasn't a convincing answer.

"'He' has already shown that he has a great chance of responding after today, you saw that too, why not at least try?" She said slightly irritated now.

If Sofi was honest, she would say that she didn't want to turn to 'him' mainly out of pride, yes she had tried divine help in the past (not just with temple priests if she was sincere) and every time she only received silence in response.

 After that, she began to treat the divine with the same silence she would receive, and continued like this for centuries without many problems (at least for her immediately).

However, after seeing what happened the night before, thanks to the immense shock of what happened, this determination to silence the belief in the divine was temporarily forgotten to the point that Sofi herself offered to serve whoever could help them at that time, even if it was a demon. Obviously she never expected an answer, especially one as direct as that.

But as soon as the adrenaline and shock wore off, the skepticism and recentness came with force, ironically even more intense due to the fact that the entity that had helped, had sent gifts after having been as small a sacrifice as a wild boar, altered or no. That even two hundred years ago would still have been considered a small offering barely worthy of attention, but he not only gave attention but also gave compensation.

While she had promised to help with all her strength, offered her own soul and even her body in moments of despair, no one ever responded to her, but they did respond to a wild boar?! No wonder her pride was hurt.

And if there was one thing Constance could see when it came to people, it was seeing bruised egos, even her brother often got that way when he lost to Dan in stupid competitions when they were younger (and even in some nowadays).

"People can hardly achieve anything by clinging to pride, especially when they confuse it with arrogance." Constance said. "In that case, wouldn't it be better to put your pride aside and just ask for help one more time? What's the worst that could happen that you probably haven't already experienced?" He asked in the gentlest tone he could manage.

Against her better judgment Sofi agreed with the young woman. Even though she felt her already broken pride being crushed into dust, she really didn't have much to lose.

According to his estimates, his body had finally reached its limit and if he was lucky he would be able to survive until the end of the year at most. After that, what would happen with Liam still trapped in the iron capsule? Would I be trapped in a suspended state for eternity? , after the preservation fluid lost its potency, would the body decompose leaving a disembodied soul inside the tube?

Wouldn't that be a worse punishment than the original spell?

Under these influences Sofi gave in, for what she hoped would be the last time and approached the altar, knelt down and prayed with all her strength for help. Constance, in turn, wanted to do the same, but felt that she should trust him to answer for himself to Sofi, after all, she had already tried this before but failed, what would she think if she were heard now with her partner?

Sofi stayed like that for a few minutes with Constance watching over her and silently asking for her prayers to be heard.

'As I imagined, I think the heavens really hate me'

Sofi thought, both angry and sad. This also reminded her of her childhood when she was also rejected by her family.

But before he could enter into a desperate state, the altar began to glow with a soft white light, which grew stronger every moment. Seconds later the light turned into a bright flash that blinded the two, when they recovered in front of the altar several items appeared.

To Constance these items were strange, a mixture of herbs and some minerals she had never seen, but even she knew they were not normal. How could something that appeared from a flash of an altar be normal?

She was even more sure by the way Sofi looked at these items, slowly the woman stretched out her hand to touch them. Feeling the texture of each material, its weight and smell, she was sure they were real, they were all real.

Several emotions passed through Sofi in seconds, disbelief, shock, happiness, awe, gratitude, all at once.

In the midst of her emotions, she could only raise her head to the altar and say just one thing while new tears, now of happiness, flowed.

"Thank you"