Corrupted Soul

While examining the body of Zan, Herman felt no pulse from him. After failing to feel any pulse from Zan, Herman started to panic. Panic stricken Herman hesitated to inform Fey about the condition of Zan.

But even so he couldn't avoid informing Fey about the present condition of Zan.

He tried to rack his brain to think of an excuse or a lie to not disappoint or worry her.

He then slowly turned his head towards her and while trying to sound cheerful, he told her that there's nothing to worry about Zan.

Fey who has been intently looking at him since he started examining zan, noticed slight changes in his behaviour and way of speaking.

"Is everything really fine? Are you sure about it? If you're really telling the truth the why are you trying to avoid eye contacts with me? Tell me Herman! Tell me."

She stammered as she questioned Herman about his judgement.

Herman deliberately tried to avoid any sort of eye contact with Fey. He couldn't muster up his courage to explain her the truth. Every time he tried to tell her the truth, the sight of devastated Fey worried him. And thus he decided to lie to her about the condition of Zan.

Upon hearing the words of Fey, he started to feel a sense of guilt for not informing her the truth. And thus he decided that it would be best to tell her the truth than keep her in dark while lying to her.

As he slowly rolled his gaze towards her, while meeting her eyes, he noticed her eyes filled with tears. Her teary eyes made him doubt his resolve. But despite that he told her the truth regardless of the consequence.

Upon hearing the truth tears starts rolling down her face.

"No you must be lying. It can't be.... Tell me that you're lying Herman."

While shedding tears she refused to accept the words of Herman.

Herman remained silent with his head bowed down after listening to her. He had prepared himself for this situation, but still the sight infront of him saddened him, leaving him unable to speak. Thus he remained completely speechless for the entire moment.

Fey continued to shed tear constantly denying the reality which had befallen.

The mourning continued with Fey shedding tears and Hermon mute.

After that a period of silence followed through. Both of them, while lying down in their respective position remained completely silent without uttering a single word. Only the sobs of Fey could be heard and the heat rays of the sun could be felt.

The sun has already reached it's Zenith. The surrounding areas have gone quite and heat rays of the sun had already started to evaporate any drops of liquid present in the ground. With Fey's tears being no exception.

At the middle of nowhere both of them laid in the scorching sun, while mourning the death of their friend. Or so as they thought until a dark energy engulfed the body of their friend.

A layer of black energy seeped out from within Zan's body. Unaware of the black energy seeping out from their friends corpse, they failed to notice the seeping energy.

"Urgh it can't go on forever like this. What has happened has happened and no-one could change it. Crying and mourning won't change anything. Let's just send him with smile and in peace. I'm sure that's what he'd want as well."

Herman uttered and finally broke the long dread silence.

And such the period of silence which lasted for a long time was broken by the words of Herman.

Upon hearing Herman two voices ran inside Fey's mind. One voice told her to accept the reality as Herman said and move on, while the other one told her, how could she move on right after the death of a friend.

Devastated by her friend's death, she was unable to reason what's right or what's wrong. Her mind told her one thing while her heart pointed her another thing. Her face looked all gloomy while her eyes still full of tears.

Just then her gazes turned toward the corpse of Zan. She looked at him intently, still with hopes of him returning back to life.

'I must be really crazy to even have such thoughts. How could a person come back from dead? But what actually caused his death in the first place?'

She thought while trying to force a smile in her face.

But little did she knew, her whimsical wish was about to get true. Just moments after she wished about his resurrection, Zan's corpse started to levitate in the air.

The sight of his body floating in the air scared them both.

Herman quickly back down from his corpse. Fey back down as well as she trembled in fear. But a tiny glimpse of hope permeated her face despite her fear. Hoping for his resurrection, she watched his levitating body from afar.

As they both watched his levitating body with fear and curiosity, sparks of black lightning seeped out of his body. The temperature around them dropped rapidly as the sparks got more bolder.

With the appearance of black lightning sparks the sky was dyed dark quickly as well. Just a moment ago the sun was scorching hot but now with the black clouds filling up the entire sky not even a single ray of sun could be seen.

As the black lightning releasing from within his body multiplied in number, wind started to blow violently. Several sandstorms could be observed in the far-off distance.

Both of them grabbed whatever's sturdy near to them, just to not get swept away by the violent windstorm. Dust particles made it more harder for them to keep looking at Zan. While covering their eyes with their hand they tried to observe Zan from within the small gap between their fingers.

What seemed to be like a catastrophic event was occurring right infront of their eyes. And the cause of the calamity was non other than their friend.

The lightning strikes only got more severe as the time passed. And the situation got even worst with every severity of the lightning strikes.

"What? What has befallen upon us? Is this the end?"

Herman exclaimed with a worried face.

As the lightning tribulation neared it's end, the situation started to get better. The black clouds started to dissipate and the rays of sun permeated from within the gaps of the black clouds.

As the ray of sun stroked the city of Babylon from within the gaps of the black clouds, whole babylon started to glow in golden colours. What seemed to be like a deserted city was now filled in the colours of vitality.

And finally at the end of the lightning tribulation the once thought to be dead Zan came back to life.

With that event the hell had lost a fragment of it's energy while Zan had gained a fragment of the demonic energy. Nobody knew whether that event would be a blessing or a boon.

The black lightning was merely a by-product of acquisition of the demonic energy by a mortal. Demonic energy which was different from mana was something a person couldn't absorb until their soul was corrupted.

Zan despite being a mortal with pure heart was able to acquire the demonic energy due to the fragments of the demi-human which resided inside of him. The only explanation to the phenomon was that the previous owner of the body of Zan possibly could have a corrupted soul which made it possible for Zan to absorb the demonic energy.

The possibility of the corrupted soul residing inside of Zan would explain about his split personality. There's a whole bunch of mysteries surrounding Zan and the previous owner of his body.

Upon the completion of the lightning tribulation Zan's body experienced a lot of changes. The most significant one being the change of his physicality and his hair colour. The previous blondish hair of Zan has completely turned into deep black.

Fey and Herman who have been observing the whole event were baffled by the change in Zan's appearance. Never had they ever encountered such bizarre turn of events nor have they ever heard about such events in the first place in their whole life. They were left dumbfounded by the event which unfolded ahead of them.

While they continued their observation of Zan, he finally opened his eyes. After more than hours of unconsciousness he finally regained his consciousness.

Fey started to cry as she watched him open his eyes. But this time it was not tears of sorrows but rather tears of joy. She rejoiced with happiness upon fulfillment of her previous wish. Back then she had wished that he'd revive. And now after seeing him open his eyes her happiness knew no bounds.

Zan who just opened his eyes after a long time was left dumbfounded by the tears in Fey's face. He wondered why she's crying while looking at him. But little did he knew how much she cried while he nearly died.