The Town

The group of adventures slowly made their way into a town. Though Zeke insisted that there were people living here, the old town reeks of abandonment and neglect.

"This place looks awful." Iris mumbled to herself as she examined the old brown houses and tattered curtains that hung in front of each of the house's windows, not allowing anyone see what's going on inside.

"How can we gather supplies in a dump like this?" Iris asked Zeke,

"Well, we can make do with what we find. We need more supplies to continue on our journey, and as you can see Hero can't help us. He's already showing the beginning stages of energy deficiency." Zeke informed pointing to the shivering Hero wrapped up in a couple of blankets. his brown lips were currently turning blue, and his dark skin was becoming pale, his friends and 'lover' hate seeing him this way.

"D-don't worry, I-I can still help." He stuttered, showing that speaking is becoming more of a difficult task.

"Let's split up, search for anything useful in these houses." Zeke instructed, ignoring Hero.

The three left the cart and searched for houses that were already unlocked, when they reached inside it confirmed their suspicions.

"Oh my-" Iris shouted, tumbling back as she found a decaying corpse no more than three weeks old. She wanted to exit the house immediately but the fear in her legs wouldn't allow her to move as she clutched her hands over her mouth. The pungent odor made her gag as she looked on at the scene in horror. It seems like there was a vicious struggle that led to the demise of this small family, maybe it was an animal attack or something else. Iris managed to back out of the house and ran to the cart, deciding that it's not worth searching through these houses. She entered the cart and looked around.

"Hero?" She whispered, noticing the pile of shivering blankets were gone. She looked around some more, searching the horse drawn cart, hoping the idiotic Hero didn't feel the need to help them. Iris ran out of the cart and searched for Alex, she entered the house Alex entered which, unsurprisingly, had the same scene as the house Iris entered. Iris saw Alex trying to get her legs to move so Iris swiftly grabbed her and guided her out of the house.

"W-what happened here." Alex asked horrified,

"That's not important right now, Hero's gone!" Iris informed Alex.

Zeke was heading toward the two when he heard this.

"What do you mean he's gone?" Zeke asked, dropping the stack of items he found in the house after he ransacked the place.

"Weren't there bodies in the house you went to."

"There was." He responded. The girls questioned for a moment how he managed to find anything among the odors.

"That's not important, where's Hero?" Zeke asked,

"I don't know? Him and the blankets are gone."

"We weren't even gone for so long; how did he manage to disappear?" Alex questioned.

"D-don't worry, I-I can still help." He stuttered, showing that speaking is becoming more of a difficult task. Hero was confused as to why he was losing energy much quicker than usual. He would usually be at this state halfway through his journey to the lake. He couldn't think about the reason before he fell asleep from energy loss. While the others searched the house, Hero felt something in the air. It was like it was calling him. He got up and decided to follow it. He wasn't fully in his right mind, so that's why he followed the feeling without a second thought. It was like a hungry dog walking to the smell of a cooked meal, unaware of the dangers that will follow him if he approached it.

He stumbled inside one of the houses that were filled with decomposing bodies, a sight that he grew accustomed to over the years. He headed up the house's stairs and found himself in front of the steps leading to the attic. He opened the door as his mind was in a daze and stared at the beautiful plant that stood in front of him. Its luminescent vines filled the whole room and its flower covered the window, though light still managed to peak its way inside through the curtains and behind the flower, this emphasized its beauty. Hero felt himself walking closer to the plant, he was no longer in control of his body. The plant let out some of its own energy in order for it to wrap around Hero's, it was almost the same way in which Hero's sacred sword takes the red energy from the mutated beast.

Hero tried struggled to break free from the plants hold as the plant began to forcefully pull the sword from his soul. It was a painful process and he his mouth opened as he screamed in pain as the sword pierced through his soul and slowly pulled its way out of his chest.

The others heard this scream and rushed towards the house it came from. The door was locked even though Hero entered just find. This locked door however didn't stop Zeke as he brook the door opened and sprinted up the stairs past the decaying bodies. Alex and Iris forced themselves to ignore the smell and headed up with him. Zeke was the first to reach inside the attic and shoved the door open, breaking some of the vines that has moved its way to the door to keep it close. Alex and Iris stared at the plant bewildered as Hero was on the floor, the sword slowly emerging from his wound. Hero slowly turned his head to the group as his face was filled with agony,

Save Yourself.

He mouthed as his face began to crack as though it was porcelain. A white light shone through each crack. The cracks only formed on the right side of his face, and it wasn't too much to worry about. Soon a strong pressure pushed down on everyone and everything, sinking them to the floor. It was from Hero. Zeke grabbed Iris and Alex's hand and dragged them out of the attic and through the house as he knew what's going to come next.

An Error has Occurred, Reloading system in

3

2

1

A bright light shone from the attic as Hero suddenly released all his energy, Iris Alex and Zeke were already long gone from the house and were watching in amazement at the sight before them. The sacred sword that was now almost out of Hero's soul plunged its way back in, hurting the young man. Achilles hunched over as he stared at the sword knowing full well what's going to happen next.

Purifying the Area, this will take a minute

The energy that Hero released started to dissolve everything in the attic and turn it into red energy, as a last-ditch effort the plant grabbed Hero by its vines and launched him out of the window before it too dissolved. Then the energy grew brighter in color,

Reabsorbing the Remaining Energy

All the red energy then rushed itself inside of Hero. Soon Hero landed on the ground with a loud Thump the unstable energy swirled around his body.

"Hero!" Zeke screamed, putting his bow on his back and running to help his friend. Zeke carried him back to the cart where the others were and placed him in the back.

"Here make him drink this." Zeke instructed, tossing the container of condensed energy to Iris. Iris clumsily caught it before looking at the container in amazement, she thought that she was the only one who knew how to condense energy to this level.

"You can be amazed later, quickly feed Hero." Zeke instructed, Iris nodded her head before gently pulling Hero closer to her chest and slowly pouring the condensed energy into his mouth. She sighed as life slowly entered the young man's body.

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Different ways to consume energy:

Through ingestion

Direct entry into the bloodstream

Direct entry into the heart

Absorption (Slowest method to feel the effect, but most common)