Chapter 24 S2

"I'll leave you to look after them, I've got to go and help the team looking after the president of the Liore elf council," ordered Lirum to the team of healers who were taking Seiran and Niris away to treat their wounds. Seiran had lost consciousness and Niris, whose eyes were still open, could barely put one foot in front of the other. His whole body ached, and he felt an extreme tiredness that seemed to come from within. It was as if he'd been drained of vital energy. 

If you feel your consciousness slipping away, squeeze my hand," said a nurse standing beside him, running with the stretcher-bearers. 

The angel didn't even have the strength to respond with a shake of the head. He forced himself to blink to indicate that he had understood, and the nurse smiled briefly to reassure him. He felt capable of staying awake, but he simply had no control over his body, which felt like a cold stone. 

He let the nursing team take him away without paying them any further attention. His life and Seiran's were in no danger. But there was something he absolutely had to check. Without closing his eyes to avoid panicking the nurses, he plunged inside himself. 

The experience was painful, but he managed to do it anyway. Once in the meanders of his consciousness, he directed his mind to the place that worried him. Slowly, he approached the deadly seal blocking Nyarii. He stayed at a safe distance to make sure she wouldn't try anything when he had no energy left. There, he observed the mind's lair, the space of her consciousness in which she was carefully confined. The place seemed undamaged, the seal in place. 

Inside, Niyarii's own violet light gleamed without any particular glow. It seemed calm. Suddenly, as he watched her, a shiver ran down his spine. An unpleasant sensation made him uneasy. It was as if she were watching him from the inside. He felt like he was being spied on by a predator that was wisely keeping its fangs out, even though it could tear him to pieces at any moment. 

Niris felt his pulse quicken. The prescience of danger gave him an excitement that was hard to contain despite his extreme state of fatigue. He wanted to make sure that the seal was in place and that she didn't try anything while he was in a state of extreme fatigue. But the demonic spirit seemed calm. Too quiet for her liking, in fact, but she didn't seem to want to do anything at the moment. 

The angel wanted to ask her all the questions that had been going round and round in his head ever since he'd realized that the extra natural energy he'd received had come from Niyarii. Why had she helped him? Why had she given him free access to her natural energy rather than using her rage to conquer as she had the last time? Was she really afraid of disappearing if he died? Even though more than half his fragments were still scattered in the wild? 

He still hesitated to address her directly during this silent face-off between them, but was brought back to reality by the nurses' repeated calls. 

"Come back when you're in better shape, I'll answer your questions." 

Niris immediately recognized the voluptuous voice of the demonic spirit, but had no time to reply. He returned abruptly to the present as the nurse who had spoken to him earlier shook him violently by the shoulder. 

"Your Highness! Can you hear me? Your Highness! 

His voice was urgent. He sounded worried. Niris understood why when he realized he was breathing heavily and that his heart rate had accelerated considerably. 

-Hook him up to a natural energy drip! Quickly!" he ordered his team-mates. Your Highness, can you hear me? Does anything hurt? 

Niris nodded with difficulty. He'd been fine before plunging into his inner fort, so why had his condition worsened since then? 

-Very well, then, blink and answer me. Once yes, twice no. 

Niris blinked once to indicate that he had understood. 

-You're very weak and almost out of natural energy, so don't spend any or I won't be able to guarantee your safety," continued the nurse with undisguised panic. 

The angel blinked again. It was strange because entering one's own consciousness required no natural energy consumption - on the contrary. It was even supposed to preserve it. 

-You're infused with natural energy, so we'll treat your wounds now. Didn't you receive a blow that caused an internal injury requiring priority treatment? 

This time, he blinked twice. 

-The process will be a little long and painful, but as you're too low in natural energy, we can't put you to sleep or dissociate the pain from your consciousness. So we'll be giving you painkillers for the duration of the treatment. Do you feel up to it? If not, we'll just give you first aid and wait for your natural energy reserves to fill up before moving on to more advanced treatments. 

Niris blinked once. 

-Very well, we'll proceed with the treatment," he concluded. 

The angel stopped moving. His breathing had returned to normal and his heart rate was almost back to normal. He looked at the drip he was hooked up to, which was connected to a covinier. He could feel the natural energy flowing into him, yet it didn't feel like he was restoring his natural energy reserve at all. On the contrary, it was as if the natural energy entering him evaporated immediately, and he still had the same tired feeling. 

-Doctor, we've put the patient on a natural energy drip, but his reserve isn't increasing at all, it's stable at 45pico," said a nurse anxiously. 

The voice that answered him was unknown to Niris. 

-Aaaah," she sighed. 

He heard her grab a tablet and wanted to turn his head to see her, but his body didn't obey her at all. 

-Stay put, you're going to spend energy for nothing," came the voice of a woman in her forties. 

The sound of a finger tapping on a screen was heard, then suddenly she leaned over her patient. The doctor's head entered the field of vision of the angel, who was surprised by her appearance. She was an Aesethean. Her brown skin, long neck and almond-shaped eyes gave her away. This was surprising, as Esetheans showed little interest in medicine in general. 

-You studied flow before you fought, didn't you?" she remarked with total disrespect to his rank.

Niris blinked as he had earlier. He couldn't see how she could have known that and why she was asking him such a question. 

-Haven't you ever thought of asking an expert for advice before trying things out for yourself? 

He stood a little dumbfounded at the remark, unable to answer anything. Yet he had spoken at length to Ascarm, who knew the field very well. Besides, he didn't see what this had to do with the situation. 

-Selanps are physically weak creatures, so they've developed a wealth of knowledge and a way of protecting themselves through alliance, but they don't protect themselves directly with what they've developed. 

Niris still couldn't see what she was getting at. You could tell by the look on his face as the doctor continued. 

-Their techniques aren't for fighting, you idiot! They're used to maximize the body's ability to circulate natural energy and increase its quality, but only when the body is at rest or engaged in daily activity. You've tried using their technique in real combat, haven't you? 

Niris blinked once, a little dazed by what he heard. 

-Tsk! That's why we should have an intergalactic academy, to bring together all our knowledge and compare it with that of others! We'd avoid a lot of stupid accidents with that! 

She ran a hand through her hair in exasperation. 

-Not only did you use the acceleration of circulation and the increase in the quality of natural energy in real combat, but you also mixed your energy with NIyarii's! Didn't you think at some point that it might crash? 

Niris blinked twice. He was beginning to be interested in what the woman doctor was saying. With confident gestures, she placed one hand on his chest and the other on his forehead. There, she closed her eyes to concentrate. Niris felt her natural energy come into contact with his and run through his energy channels. Suddenly, he had the impression that the energy that had been passing through his body without staying there was becoming more and more palpable. He felt energetic again, whereas until then he'd felt like a pierced basket through which all the energy flowed once it had entered his body. 

The experiment lasted a few minutes. When the doctor withdrew her hands from his body, he felt himself gradually regaining his strength. He was impressed by what the Aesethean had done, and begged her with his eyes to tell him more. 

-Ah, so that's why they say curiosity's a bad habit! she scolded him before softening to give him the explanation he was looking for. By increasing the circulation in your body, you've increased the pressure of your energy on your energy channels. Especially as you've also tried to increase the quality of natural energy, which has doubled this pressure. If your body is at rest, this is not a problem, but in a combat situation it's another matter. 

She paused and tapped on her tablet before showing him a colored diagram of her energy channels. 

-This is what happens when you fight a powerful enemy," she continued. Your natural energy flow becomes twice as powerful, your channels swell to accommodate this energy and then, as you don't take breaks and constantly ask for more during a fight, they eventually break through. 

Niris's eyes widened. This was it! This feeling he had that his natural energy was evaporating from his body even though it had barely entered it! 

-You've become an energy sieve," finished the doctor, switching off the tablet. Add to that the fact that you used Niyarii's energy to defeat the President and you've got an explosive cocktail. 

-His natural energy level is rising! He's at 56 pico now! exclaimed a nurse monitoring his condition. 

The Aesethean nodded. 

-I've resealed your channels, they're as good as new, but you had a close call," she said in a deep voice. True, it gave you access to a large amount of natural energy and enabled you to fight an extremely powerful enemy, saving the lives of thousands of people, but don't ever do anything like that again! You came so close to death. Any more and your body would be drained of all its natural energy. 

She watched him for a moment, then continued more gently. 

-Now rest, you'll need time to fully recover. And you can thank Niyarii, without her intervention you wouldn't have lasted as long as you did, even if it did increase the corrosion of your canals. 

She turned to leave when Niris caught her sleeve with his fingertips. He'd caught what little strength he had to hold her back. 

-Co...how..." he tried to say, but couldn't finish his sentence. 

The doctor sighed again and massaged her temples. She seemed to have a somewhat explosive temperament, but for all that she remained sensitive to her patient's condition. After a moment's hesitation, she finally made up her mind and turned back to her patient. 

-Listen carefully, combining acceleration and quality enhancement during a fight requires a very advanced mastery of natural energy manipulation. You're a creator-manipulator, aren't you? You inherited your dual use from your father, if I'm not mistaken. 

She paused and met her patient's sparkling gaze. She twitched and almost made a remark before pulling herself together. This eager young man was just like her when she was his age. It was hard to push him away. 

-It takes years of experience to master such a technique, but it's not impossible. However, to be able to practice it, you absolutely must learn to repair your energy channels yourself, otherwise you'll die during the experiment. So get it right if you want to survive and learn something useful! That's assuming you manage to master it... To date, I know of only one person capable of mastering such a thing.

She hesitated for a moment, her eyes plunging into her patient's green gaze. He had his mother's eyes, there was no denying it. And her father's monstrous energy capacity. She could tell just by the way he'd thought up his attack on the president and the way he'd survived. 

You'd have to be an expert in the use of natural energy and a little crazy to think such a thing, especially when faced with an opponent like the President. She didn't have the reputation of being particularly powerful compared to the Emperor of Angels, but she possessed spell techniques inherited from the sylvan elves that were not to be underestimated. Extremely powerful and often deadly, they enabled her to rival the mighty of the intergalaxy, and that was no mean feat. 

This young man had only studied the science of energy flows, but he had still managed to put it into practice in combat. It was a feat few could claim to have accomplished, even if it had been at the expense of his own survival. Without Niyarii's help, he would undoubtedly have died. Yet...something seemed strange about all this. 

When she had rebuilt her channels, she had felt fragments of Niyarii's energy and with a faint sense of the deadly seal that held her captive. It was very recent, and the way Niyarii had moved through the channels indicated that she was not under the angel's control. She had deliberately lent her strength to him. 

Which was strange, since she had no absolute interest in helping him. No one really knew what would happen to the seal if the angel died, even though Niyarii was theoretically supposed to disappear with him. In reality, these seals were little-known because they were rarely used. Not surprisingly, they were particularly dangerous. The common assumption was that if the spirit was more powerful than the wearer, it would survive the seal regardless. And right now, it was obvious that Niris was weaker than Niyarii...

So something was wrong. Or rather, there was only one possible option. Niyarii had deliberately helped Niris. Either because she wanted to keep him alive for some purpose, or because she believed in his ability to survive the fight. In either case, it meant that Niyarii valued her wearer as an individual capable of power that could be of use to her. 

If that was the case...The Aesethean shook her head. She didn't want to think about it. Hypothesizing about something so uncertain made no sense. She had to put it out of her mind. She turned her attention back to the angel, who was still patiently waiting for her explanation, and sighed for the umpteenth time. 

-Why don't you talk it over with your father? she finally blurted out. 

The angel gave her a surprised look. 

-The only person I know who can master such a technique is your father. The Phinikon is the result of this feat. He never told you about it? He must have trained you, though, given that you have the same mastery and energy techniques as he does. 

Niris's eyes widened. He'd expected anything but this answer. Just as he was about to ask her for more information now that he'd regained some of his energy, she turned back, ordering the nurses to treat his wounds without putting him to sleep before he lost too much blood. 

She disappeared behind the door as the angel's vision filled with white coats busily settling him in. His body was covered with open wounds that had only been disinfected, and the larger ones would have to be closed quickly. The rest would simply be bandaged. Repairmen, experts in energy medicine, came to assist the nurses in suturing the skin by reattaching skin cells using natural energy. 

Niris was given a painkiller which relieved the pain immediately, and the operation began. In his mind, Niris was beginning to make the connection between all the information he had just learned. His father had always refused to tell him anything about the phinikon for two reasons. The first was that he wanted his son to find his own path in energy use. The second was that it was a secret technique that he guarded from envy. By passing it on to his son, he risked endangering his own life. 

He had therefore taught his son all the basics of how to use it, but had passed on no technique as such. Niris had developed his own techniques from the knowledge his father had passed on to him, but he never imagined that one day he'd be walking in his own footsteps without knowing. He felt his heart swell and was moved at the thought. He couldn't wait to see him again and tell him all about it, to rest his forehead on his shoulder and breathe in his reassuring scent and let him stroke his hair. 

He knew it deep down, and even if he resented her for certain things, if he had long resented her for not telling him about his mother, he knew very well that his father was a very good father. That he had always given him the love and comfort he needed to live, always putting his best interests first. And that was why he loved him so much, as a son. He was grateful to her for raising him to be the person he was today.