Chapter 8: A Confusing Evening

In the Velmont Manor during the winter inside John's room...

{ It's already been 3 weeks you know? }

"..."

{ Wake up already! If I had known you were gonna go into a coma I might as well not have helped you out that one time and left you to die! Dying would be a better alternative than doing something boring like being in a coma. }

"..."

{ Why do I even bother... }

It has been 3 weeks since Arbor received the results of the investigation conducted by Manticore and through all that John remains asleep.

After the 1st week after the day John fell unconscious, Arbor and Aina started to worry about their son's condition.

They worried that their young boy would be lost and end up sleeping forever. First Chelsy and now John? It was just too unfair when they have only lived normal lives and had strayed away from the darker side of the nobility, determined to live out their lives in peace for future decades. But then this happens? It was truly unfair the 2 of them thought.

Thinking like that they refused to lose their son and went on to contact the doctors that were the best of the best to come and treat John.

Yes, the price for that was a lot but they didn't care. If things get rough then they would use the personal wealth Arbor has gathered during his time as a general and rewards from his achievements.

Now inside John's room were doctors and nurses all were hired to bring John back.

For Dweller seeing them do their job was the only way to appease his boredom while his host body is asleep. Since he is a being that has no physical body he lacks the need to sleep and eat.

So for almost 2 months, Dweller had spent his time watching the doctors, looking out the window and lastly looking at the ceiling.

{ This is my life now I guess... To think my retirement would be in the head of a kid... sigh... }

While Dweller was moping inside John's head, the doctors continued to work on finding out the reason why John wouldn't wake up.

*Knock* *Knock*

2 gentle knocks on the door caught the attention of the workers. From the door came Duchess Aina.

Seeing who it was, all of them gave her a short bow in respect of her status and quickly went back to work.

"How is he doctor?" Her voice was quiet so as not to disturb the others.

"I apologize but we still have yet to find the cause. Although he shows symptoms of severe magius usage or SMU, there hasn't been anything else other than that."

"Will he be ok at least?" Aina hoped for a positive answer.

The one thing that Aina never let go of, Hope. She kept hoping that as long as John was alive then maybe there would come a day he wakes up again

But it turns out that hoping isn't enough.

"That's... That's highly unlikely your grace... All living beings each absorb different amounts of magius around them throughout their lives and we humans are also part of that, It is basically another form of oxygen, without it, we'll die. But when we checked the amount of magius in your son we noticed that with every day passing by his amount is decreasing with no signs of increasing."

"What do you mean? I'm having a hard time following." A sense of dread and confusion.

Hearing her words the doctor materialized a glowing blackboard out of thin air, making it obvious he was in the Creation class.

With the board, he began to draw a diagram of a brain surrounded by a small circle and a head.

Pointing at the brain the doctor began to explain.

"When a human passively gathers magius from around them, all of it goes is absorbed by the brain and kept there. With every action we do, we end up using a small amount of magius to perform that act just like how we use the energy we get from food. The used magius is then guided back to our brain to be sent back out into the surroundings."

the doctor checked to see if Aina was following only to see her eyes focused on the board, completely ignoring the doctor's stare. Seeing this the doctor continued.

"And that is where this little circle comes in. For him, this circle acts as a barrier that can differentiate between used magius and freshly gathered magius. Right now your son's circle is like this."

The doctor took 3 of his fingers and erased a large chunk of the circle, leaving a large opening.

"Because of this opening, the amount of magius your son uses and loses is slightly higher than the amount he absorbs a day."

"Then what happens if my son runs out?"

This was always the hardest part of being a doctor. A pained expression flashed on the doctor's face which was not missed by Duchess Aina, following this He raised his holographic chalk and in 2 slow strokes... drew an 'X' over the brain.

"...I promise to do everything I can to try and patch the hole but with this being a first of its kind, I'm not sure if I can do it, your grace..."

Aina suddenly slumped down on the ground and started tearing up from hearing the news.

' Even my baby boy too? Why... why are you taking everything away from us god? Just why... '

Peter that was just outside the room came in and crouched beside her to rub her back and comfort her.

"Be strong your grace. There is still hope! Don't let go of it until all the way! Please stay strong."

Hearing Peter's words of comfort and encouragement, Aina could not help but latch onto him and cry on his shoulder.

Peter gave and the doctor gave each other the look and nodded to each other to have everyone leave for Aina to be alone for the moment.

Meanwhile, an invisible spectator was there watching everything. Dweller could not help but scratch his head in annoyance after hearing the doctor's explanation.

=======

{ Well shit... So it's my fault. }

The circle the doctor was talking about was actually the same thing Dweller forcefully broke through by constantly beating John's mental until it broke.

He didn't think his selfishness would end in his demise yet again.

Not wanting to die so soon when things are getting interesting, Dweller decided that he should try to fix the mess he made.

{ Hmm... Where the hell do I even start? I can't perhaps conjure some duct tape can I? }

Right now Dweller stood right in front of the hole. Now that he's taking a good look at it it was a large hole, it was as big as a football stadium.

Despite looking around He couldn't see anything that looked like magius. John's described it as a flow but there wasn't anything flow-like or anything at all.

Just a void of darkness, a huge broken globe and then a brain. Oh and something like a giant flatscreen for Dweller to see outside.

{ Oh right! Almost forgot about the brain. }

Passing through the hole again Dweller slowly floated towards the brain. Looking at it from afar he could still the familiar aura of his that he forcefully injected still emanating from it.

{ We meet again Mr. Brain. }

After his greeting, Dweller began thinking about what could he do.

After thinking for a while Dweller came up with one possible solution.

Touching it.

The last time he touched the brain, his arms were suddenly sucked into it. Luckily he managed to pull them out before anything serious happened.

When his arms were in it He felt like he was being absorbed. But now that he knows that he could just pull it out he wasn't that scared of it anymore.

With that way of thinking, Dweller reached his hand out towards the part where he was last time.

{ *Inhale* Fuuuuu~... You can do this John. You weren't scared, you were just surprised that's all, yeah! Ok, ok, let's do this. }

While Hyping himself up Dweller slowly moved his hand closer and closer to the brain.

' I'm not scared. I'm not scared. I'm not scared '

About half a foot from impact, the dark aura that was left behind suddenly shot out and latched onto Dweller's entire arm forcefully pulling him in.

{ OK I'M SCARED I'M SCARED

AH WAIT STOP STOP STOP-STOP-STOP-STO-STO-STO-STOOOOOP! }

For a guy that killed 5 thousand people, Dweller was surprisingly weak against anything scary or supernatural.

Anyone would probably be too if they were suddenly being pulled in by a dark tentacle that came from a giant brain.

{ AHH! DAMMIT LET GO YOU BASTARD! }

Upon realizing that He couldn't pull himself out this time, Dweller for the first time in his 53 years of living panicked.

Dweller started to punch and kick and even bite the brain but nothing worked. Inch by Inch, Dweller's entire body sunk further in.

{ Sh*t! This was probably the worst decision I've ever made in my life! }

A few more struggles later and Dweller now only had his face sticking out. At this point, he completely gave up on struggling and accepted his fate.

{ Dammit... How Ironic the man that would take pictures with heads is now being eaten by a brain... AAAAAaaa... }

And with those muffled screams Dweller was gone.

Dweller's attempts to heal John ended in his death and as a failure.... or did it?

The moment Dweller was fully absorbed, the giant hole in the barrier began to fix itself. Tendrils of orange transparent flesh shot out from one side of the hole connecting to the other side like a certain friendly neighbour spider superhero's web-shooting.

Within a few moments, the Hole was completely covered up. Giving John a chance to live all because of Dweller's sacrifice.

Although It was short, Dweller was a friend to John and because of that, he will be dearly missed by John.

Thank you for your sacrifice John Dweller.

========

Back in John's room...

Sitting beside the unconscious John was his mother Aina. She wished to spend the rest of the afternoon with her son alone in peace.

Aina gently caressed his son's cheek while tears fall down her eyes once in a while.

"Oh, John... I'm sorry that I can't do anything to help you... I'm such a useless mother."

"Please wake up my baby boy, Your sister needs you. She needs to see her little brother. I heard from Peter that you were the one that saved her when he got her... When I heard that I felt proud that my son is a hero you know?"

Seeing the sun close to setting, Aina decided to retire to her room for today and continue again tomorrow.

"I'll be back tomorrow John..." Aina says as she leans in to kiss his forehead.

But right as her lips were about to make contact with his forehead...

"AAAAAHHHH!!--- Guh! Ow! F*ck my head!"

"AAHH!" *Thud!*

She was suddenly headbutted by her Unconcious son, causing her to fall off the bed with a thud.

"MADAM!? WHAT'S WRONG?!" Hearing Aina's screams Peter barged in through the door with enough force to break the hinges.

"Your Grace!?" The doctor also showed up when he heard screaming.

"F*ck... Where the hell am I? I thought I was dead?!"

"John" Looked confused as he tried to understand what was going on. His eyes darted around the room.

When he finally looked down to check if his body was fine, He was shocked by what he saw.

"I'm small? Why am I small?!" Cried out "John"

"John?" Staying quiet this whole time, Aina finally spoke a word. The others that were with her followed after and also spoke.

"Young master is finally awake! This is good news!" Peter was Happy.

"He's awake! But how?... " While the doctor was curious.

"John" hearing them turned to face them. When he saw their faces he had a surprised expression.

"Hey aren't you the same people from that large scre -- Oh! sh*t f*ck! *Thud* "

While trying to get off his bed to approach them "John" ended up slipping on his blanket and landed head first onto the hard marble.

"...."

"John?!"

"Young Master!"

"Oh no!"

The three people shouted in shock as the kid that just woke up from a month and a half long coma was once again unconscious on the floor.

But to their surprise John started to move again as he pushed his body off the ground to look up, noticing some familiar faces when he did.

"Oh! Mama! Uncle Peter! And... who are you?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm doctor Chris."

"Nice to meet you, Doctor Chris! My name is John Velmont and I... I..." John's words slowly turned into a mumble as he turned toward his mother.

"Mama... head hurty." With those words, John fell unconscious again with his forehead bleeding.

"....What the hell is going on!?" Aina on the other hand was very confused.