HideousGrain
patreon
Path to Prosperity - B3 Chapter 45
🕑 Added 2024-12-14 11:00:05 +0000 UTCPercy tried to consume the Demonic Essence coursing through the children, but rescue came too late for some of them. Once the Demonic Essence nestled in the children, consuming their mana and altering their mana reservoir permanently, the demonified couldn’t be salvaged.
I want to free all of them. Can you not…
Percy was drenched in cold sweat. The Abomination wasn’t known for consuming his mana, let alone his lifeforce, but something was different about the red notifications. Using [Consume] on them drained him.
His head was heavy, his sight was blurred, and his legs caved in after he reached the last child. It was a young feline, a child with fluffy ears and a tail jutting from her tailbone. She once had silver hair, probably bright and shimmering, but now it was dark and dirty.
[Feri Thain(Pantherfolk) – Cub/Demonified(100%) – 6911 Prosperity.]
“Too late…” Percy groaned, his voice filled with guilt and sadness, “I was too late…”
His legs gave in at last, and he slumped to the ground before the young girl.
“Human!” The Mythic Healers exclaimed in unison. They rushed to him and helped him up.
Their eyes, filled with worry, studied Percy intently, trying to gauge how they could have misunderstood this Human.
“I’m sorry,” He groaned.
“There is nothing to apologize for, human. You achieved a lot more than we’re capable of,” The elderly Mythic said reassuringly, nudging the younger Beastman to add something, “Yes…Yes, you did a lot. We wouldn’t have been able to… to save as many as you saved in no time. You…You did great…”
The younger Healer of the Beastmen struggled to praise Percy and didn’t make eye contact with him, but the more the Beastman hesitated to praise him, the better Percy felt. Someone who loathed humans reassured him that he had achieved much more than they could.
That would have been great if not for the bitter fact that he couldn’t rescue everyone.
It’s just like my grandfather said. One of the most important lessons of the powerful is…
He took a deep breath.
You cannot protect everyone… All that strength merely allows me to protect more people than before. The stronger I am, the more people I can protect.
The Abomination’s upgrade to the next stage was the best example. Percy didn’t have the means to rescue anyone before. Removing the Demonic Essence that had yet to fully fuse with the demonified was only possible after the Abomination reached the next stage.
It was only possible after he – his Ego/Abomination – grew stronger.
Percy understood his grandfather’s words. He knew they were the bitter truth and that he wasn’t at fault for being unable to rescue everyone.
Suddenly, linen blocking the infirmary’s entrance was pushed aside, nearly torn into shreds, as the towering figure of the Beast King barged inside. Several Mythics hurried behind the Beast King, urging him to stop moving and to stay calm, but it was already too late. The wounds they had just tended to ripped open again. Blood trickled down the Beast King’s body as he reached the children.
Only two had regained consciousness since the demonification had been removed. They sat up straight and didn’t make a sound as the Mythic Healers examined them. The examination didn’t take long, but the children didn’t leave or make a move to ramble and cause chaos even after the adults told them they would be fine. Their eyes were dull, their minds more damaged than their bodies.
“I heard someone saved the children,” the Beast King’s rumbling voice rang out, and he instinctively looked to Percy, whose wet hair clung desperately onto his deadly pale face. “You removed the Demonic Essence?”
Percy’s lips parted, but the elderly Mythics was the first to speak up, “He saved them. The energy corrupting the children was removed by this Human!”
The Beast King stared intently at Percy, whose expression was distorted in dissatisfaction and sadness.
“Why are you sad then?”
“I couldn’t save all of them,” Percy murmured, walking over to the fully demonified child again to use [Consume] a second time. He pressed his hands on the child’s stomach, hoping a different spot would change everything. But it didn’t. The Abomination stirred in retaliation and consumed something within him instead. He backpedaled and swayed to the sides in exhaustion while the Mythics and Beast King stared at him.
Even the Mythics tending to the Beast King’s wounds had stopped to look at him.
“He cares…” One of them mumbled, the confusion in the Beastman’s voice apparent, “A human cares for…”
“Us,” Another Mythic added, equally confused as Percy returned a third time to the child, his expression distorted in pain and exhaustion. He was unwilling to give up even though he knew what was about to happen.
Percy didn’t know how much time had passed, but the Beast King grasped his shoulders tightly at some point, stopping him from approaching the demonified children in the infirmary.
“You did everything you could,” A trace of sadness lingered in his voice, but it was suppressed by the gratitude fueling the Beast King, “Thank you, Percy. My people…I…we owe you, crown prince!”
***
The following days were exhausting. Melissa and the rest of the royal envoy wished to finish their mission to leave the Beastlands again, but the Beast King was busy with more pressing tasks. He didn’t have any time and attention to spare to renegotiate their peace treaty.
Even though the Demon Lair was no longer there, the Beastmen were still furious. Their rage didn’t extinguish just yet, but maybe that would never be the case.
Therefore, they tackled the remains of the collapsed Demon Lair. They freed the tunnels again and cleared them with the help of their underground shapeshifters. The Beastmen had a tribe of Molefolk as well. They could shapeshift into moles. Some were Mutants with steel-like claws once they had morphed into moles, whereas others were given metal gloves to put over their claws.
The moles dug through stone almost as fast as they could remove dirt.
They cleared the tunnels and collected all Demon carcasses. Then, the Beastmen used everything they could to find those Demons who’d survived the Demon Lair’s collapse. Fortunately, that wasn’t further difficult. There had only been one entrance to the Demon Lair, so no Demon escaped.
They were all either killed by the invading forces, the collapsing tunnels, or by those who thirsted for their blood to take revenge.
Percy understood the Beastmen’s rage but would have loved to finish his business in the Beastlands as soon as possible. The longer he stayed in the Beastlands, the worse he felt about being unable to rescue the remaining demonified children. He met the children whom he’d rescued a few times. They visited and thanked him for everything, but seeing them made everything worse. All Percy could think about was the children he couldn’t save.
He knew it was foolish to think like that because he gave his utmost to rescue as many as possible, but his mind didn’t give him peace. On the contrary, it tormented Percy, telling him he was weak. Useless. Pathetic.
He sought distraction and descended the mole tunnels to check the mana vein. Telling Melissa and Fiona about the mana vein and his suspicion hadn’t been helpful. The heiresses were certain something was wrong with the Demons and agreed with his point of view. They were certain the Demons used the open mana veins for something.
Melissa immediately messaged her father and requested the Reeze Duke to tell Baron Levian Darkai about their worries. Bringing foreign forces into another noble’s territory without permission was forbidden, yet Baron Levian Darkai only allowed others to enter his lands during Imperial training. That was also why nobody except the Baron had been in the Moonlight Forest, checking up on the open mana vein in the forest since the Imperial training ended early.
Percy was unsure what to think of Baron Levian Darkai since he’d never met him, but one thing was sure: The Baron loved money even more than Percy. His highest priority was to earn a fortune, no matter how much danger the Kainesh Kingdom was exposed to.
He demanded a fortune from the Reeze Duke to allow his Glacia Knights in the Moonlight Forest. Fortunately, the crown intercepted and forced the Baron to check out the Moonlight Forest’s mana vein.
That had been several days ago, but the royal envoy had yet to receive an update.
Percy didn’t focus on the mana vein in the Moonlight Forest. Melissa could inquire for more intel while Percy was busy checking on the mana vein underneath the Beastlands. He returned to the deepest part of the Demon Lair, where he found the mana vein. While others could only see small streams of the purest mana that was on the verge of liquifying, Percy could see everything even without his Augmentation.
Unfortunately, what he saw wasn’t pleasant.
The mana vein is weaker and dimmer than before. Others might not have noticed it…maybe I wouldn’t have noticed it either under normal circumstances but with [Hawk Eyes] active, it is obvious.
The dark mass was no more, which Percy would have considered as an advantage, but the Abomination roared restlessly inside him.
Something was off. Something was terribly wrong.
