Chapter 135: Chapter. 120: Preparations for the Heart

“Realm Breaker…” He gritted. “If⁠— revive your master at all costs. I don’t⁠—” He coughed with pain. “I should be able to survive, for a few hours since he just hit my sides⁠— fuck that hurts so bad.”

I took sharp breaths as I realized what had just happened. I hurriedly took out some of the beads from my ring and knelt to The Light Maker’s side.

“How to remove your helmet?”

“Just⁠— twist.”

I listened to his instructions and after some struggle I managed to flip him to face me. His face was drained of color, but I reached with my hand and fed him all five of the available beads. The relief was almost instant as he managed to speak.

“That was… The strongest Monarch in this Star Cluster. The Drinker of all Blood. His actual name: unknown.” He gasped with labored breaths. “If he finds us⁠⁠— no, he knows where we are. Once he reaches us, we won’t be spared from a painful death. The most painful of all deaths possible…”

I frowned.

“But then, what am I supposed to do? If he finds me⁠— if he finds us.” I emphasized. “Then we will just die.”

The Light Maker let out a pained groan. “It doesn’t matter if you go alone or with me, we both will die if your revived master isn’t strong enough. Just focus on reviving them, and let’s hope we can just survive and get out of here.” He gasped as blood pooled beneath him. “Man, that hurts so fucking bad.”

I frowned. “Why did you save me?”

“Instinct.” He answered after a breath. “I know I’d most likely die if I failed to protect you just from the oath, but I wasn’t really thinking about it. I guess I consider you my ally, Realm Breaker.” He closed his eyes. “Though, what do I know? I went senile a long time ago.”

I nodded. “Right, then I should get going.”

He nodded from the ground. “You got this Realm Breaker.”

“Yeah⁠—” I felt as if my heart had just been torn and blood sputtered forward mid sentence. I cursed. “Fuck, the treant just died.”

“Hurry.” He urged.

I nodded stiffly, now feeling pain and dizziness all over my body. It really was the worst, then again from what I could tell, there was absolutely no way the treant would survive anything. I limped past The Light Maker with a grumble as I took seeds out of my ring, sprouting a Royal Azalea within my hand⁠ as I stepped into the darkness of the cave, my boots squelched on the fallen blood of the monsters from before, I could still see lingering mana particles.

Finally, as I reached the end of the cave and onto the forest, the Royal Azalea bloomed, making its nectar. I plucked all of the beads and took one into my mouth, before finally kneeling and letting the Royal Azalea on the ground. Its roots dug into the dirt as it made itself part of the forest. I could feel its happiness as I stood up. It kind of felt bad to just throw it away, so it was the least I could do.

I looked over to the horizon, at the endless expanse of trees as I saw the World Treant, except it was frozen in place, tilted as if it was mid-step.

“Interlopers. You can’t hide for long…” An all-powerful grumble buzzed through the forest. I saw my vision glow red for a brief second, as if the world became covered in blood but it vanished into nothingness.

[You’re immune to Mental Attacks, effect: voided.]

I gulped. The Blood Drinker was coming. The warmth through my body finally eased my pain as I managed to begin my run towards the treant, I was unsure about where Lumina was ⁠— her body ⁠— but it was probably no longer at the center of the forest. At least that’s what I thought, or maybe her body was destroyed: that would certainly be the worst case scenario out of all of them. No⁠— why would her body be inside of the treant?

I switched directions and headed towards the center of the forest. Sometimes I would see distortions, I would see the trees around me bleed, I would see the sky fall, but after a blink they would always vanish. Every time it happened, I would get the same notification.

[You’re immune to Mental Attacks, effect: voided.]

At that moment I simply felt lucky to be Elasia’s Champion, or I would be long dead⁠— My thoughts stopped as I realized that I was only in this position due to Elasia and nothing else. If I hadn’t taken the trial, this entire place would still be here. I shook my head. The Blight Corruption would’ve still happened, and The Light Maker probably would’ve died too. There was no use trying to deny things.

I ran towards the center of the forest. Entering the inner forest without trouble much to my relief. The plants gave way to me as if they knew my destination.

◇ ◇ ◇

I didn’t know for how long I ran but eventually I saw the clearing. The dirt and grass was ruined, deep rifts ran through the ground towards the south-west. The gashes ran deep into the earth as if they were small ravines, I could see the wriggling roots embedded deep into the dirt, trying to connect with each other. The moonlight was strong, as I took a deep breath.

I shook my head, dismissing the thoughts of doubt and rushed towards the center of the forest. Where an abyssal crater stood. Soon, I am going to revive Lumina⁠⁠— No, that didn’t matter, even though I liked Lumina, the key point was that I needed to survive. I needed to stay alive.

Seconds passed, my breath rushed and my heartbeat increased by the moment. I gazed over the crater expecting to see something but there were no stone bricks, no source of light, no nothing⁠— just a gaping black hole. There was no Lumina to be seen, or hints that she was even there, no chair or furniture. There was no lingering anything, it was as if nothing had ever existed there.

I craned my neck in the direction of the gashes, where the small ravines within the earth resided. Off in the distance, there was the huge tree, the corrupted World Tree. I didn’t necessarily understand how much danger I initially was, but now I simply couldn’t help but frown.

It was in the direction of the Blood Drinker. At the same time I just had no choice. All I could do was go in the direction of the treant and hope I'd get everything done before it was too late. As my eyes darted around the base of the World Tree I heard the Blood Drinker’s voice once more.

“Scaredy rabbit. I see you looking at me…”

My vision quaked, and the title came into effect once more. I sighed. Things were truly troublesome. Nevertheless, even though I paused for a brief moment I steeled myself and began to run in the direction.

◇ ◇ ◇

Production Instructions of Artificial Heart:

Take composite material: fake adastra wood. And create a heart shaped object with it. Make sure that it has two inner chambers and four valves. Two of them criss-crossing each other across the chambers, and the other two, one for each chamber. Once it is done make sure to fill the left chamber with the heart-wood, or inner-wood of Blight.

Refer to the diagram on the next page for more detailed instructions.

I flipped the page as I ran. I saw white lines of ink pop up on the page as I saw what a heart looked like for the first time. It was strange, almost deformed. I could see the valves and it was bottom-weighed, like some sort of fruit. There were notes explaining each part and how the mana would flow through it, which I did my best to memorize. Ventricles, Septum, Valves, Atriums⁠⁠⁠— I absorbed as much of it as I could as I ran in the direction of the treant.

I decided to flip onto the other page upon reading. Upon making the heart, here are the revival instructions.

The black page manifested more words of Lumina’s writing.

Shove the heart inside my chest cavity and shock my entire body with mana. Once done I might still be unresponsive but the heart should begin beating. Your mana will destabilize and become mine, hold your hand there and share some of your vitality. Make sure to consume plenty of health potions before starting this process.

Successor, you might seriously die from this. But if you do achieve my revival, my gratitude shall be eternal.

You are reading story Blair: A Non-Human LitRPG at novel35.com

I nodded and closed the book with a satisfying clasp. Focusing solely on running. Sweat ran through my body, my armor was dirty and in spite of how many times it had repaired itself I could feel its wear. Its fabric wasn’t anywhere near as comfortable, its plating did not feel anywhere near as strong. The thought of having an armor that would always regenerate seemed to be nothing but a pipe dream. My heart rushed, I didn’t exactly know how long I had been running, but I had to stop once for air.

The illusions had appeared twice in my trajectory, but the last one was much stronger. The World Tree was much bigger, covering close to half of my peripheral vision whenever I looked at it. It made me much more eager to run, as I saw it grow closer and closer.

A quick minute passed, as I saw the thorns, vines wrapped around the gigantic roots of the World Tree. I saw traces of damage, deep gashes of sizzling liquid, fractured wood, and there were even dark plants growing along its bark. I stared for a moment, as I craned my head to look up to its tree crown.

Where is Lumina?

It seemed that there was no clear answer. With a small grunt of displeasure I began to run around the tree. My hair felt wet and tangled, my muscles ached and my stomach desperately heaved for air, but I had no choice. It was either that, or death.

⁠◇ ◇ ◇

There was no entrance, no cave. I simply looked up at the crown of the tree, there really was no way around it. She had to be either inside of the tree or atop of it. With a small frown, I lunged myself over a thick root and followed its path towards the trunk of the tree.

I gripped onto the rough bark and used the spikes on my boots as a foothold as I began to climb. My back burned just at the start from how tired I was, my muscles tensed and occasionally convulsed as my body felt sore. Sweat constantly dripped down as I made it further up.

It was a slow and tedious process, but eventually I got into it. I managed to climb at a good pace. The illusions had stopped, and I hadn’t heard the Blood Drinker’s voice in quite some time. Maybe he had gone towards The Light Maker. I didn’t exactly like to think about that in such a way, however, it was definitely my chance to resurrect Lumina. It was my chance to do things right.

I climbed further up. What felt like hours of struggle and intense exercise passed. At times it felt as if I was carrying the world on my back, each step upwards would take numerous seconds of breathing in and out from tiredness and pain. Eventually, I reached the top of the treant for what felt like numerous hours. It was almost like an instant slope where the top was dirt. I rolled over heaving with tiredness, but unfortunately I couldn’t pause and wait all day long.

After a few precious seconds of recovery, I stood up and looked over the horizon. I could see the large expanse of forest, and the clouds loomed just barely over me. The patches of forest were of different colors, and some were evidently destroyed, sometimes I could see the forest move, the deep patches of fantastic greenery tremble. And off in the distance, I could see the calm desert and the Adastra Sapling.

I shook my head and turned around, the tree crown⁠ — aside from looming branches that extended outwards ⁠— was like a forest. Everywhere I looked there were smaller trees, I felt some uneasiness but stepped forward and walked through the forest, simply trying to head for the center of the treant.

I weaved in between the normal unassuming trees, there were barely any spikes, they didn’t drip poison, they didn’t even move much. They were dark plants, but not sentient ones. Eventually, rounding a tree I saw a stone hut. It was like a box⁠— I recognized it.

Rushing, I opened the door in an instant and I found myself in the familiar room. Lumina was peacefully seated on the same wooden chair. And the wall behind her had a doorway that led to more forest, the stairs were long gone.

With a deep sigh of relief, I took out the Encyclopedia of the Dark from my ring. I opened the right page and got to work. Standing near the table and behind Lumina. Though there was a brief moment of pause as I wondered what the fake Adastra was⁠—

“The tree you called, heart of the deep dark.” Lumina spoke in my mind, however she sounded weak.

It felt as if everything clicked at that moment. As soon as I named the tree, the quest had started.

I nodded hurriedly and took out some seeds. Sprouting the tree in an instant and cross-referencing the book to mold the heart out of its branches. Sweat trickled down my forehead as numerous thoughts passed by my mind. But one of them was that I had to hurry, I had a limited time.

If the Blood Drinker showed up now, before Lumina’s revival. I would⁠—

“Aaaah.” A deep voice entered my ears, susurrating through my head. “Yes, that is what I was searching for. I decided to leave it here last time since it could only be taken by Dark plant users, turns out you took it.”

My head snapped to my side only to see a looming figure standing right behind me. I froze as my vision became clouded in red danger, deep pain assaulted me, my pores bled and my vision nearly vanished.

“Interloper. You have earned the right to die a not-so-painful death.” He said with a pleased sound. His hand trailed around my chin. “And a fine specimen too.” He looked at Lumina. “She was particularly angry for her.”

“She?”

“Yes, some crazy Monarch. Not important.” He dismissed. “What is important is⁠⁠—”

“Who did you call crazy, you senile man?”

A familiar voice entered my ears as a flash of light passed through my vision. I saw the Blood Drinker’s body curve for a brief second before he disappeared with an explosion of wind and dust. The stone of the wall broke and flew apart. Dust slowly fell mid air as the light vanished.

A sigh echoed. “Stupid.” I turned only to see Elasia standing there. She smiled at me. “I am here Blair.”

“Took you long enough.”

I felt relief as I nearly collapsed. I felt all my build up fatigue hit me at once. The pain from my dead treant came back as I almost fell down.

Elasia stumbled a bit to hold me up, and then smiled. “Stuff happened. I need you to help me revive⁠—” Elasia paused looking at Lumina, her voice growing quiet. “I need you to help me revive her… please.”

I nodded. “The Blood Drinker.”

Elasia snorted. “I already killed him once. Don’t worry about it, I’ll keep him occupied.”

Her reaction of confidence made me pause. She killed him once already?

“Do you think you can revive Lumina? If you need my help, call my name.” She added with a small smile. “You know. Elasia. Not The Illusionist.”

I felt somewhat awkward from her sudden vulnerability. “I’ll revive Lumina.”

Elasia helped me stand up. “Good. You got this Blair. You are my Champion.”

I nodded as I turned to Lumina and the tree⁠— that was now broken. It was time to revive Lumina. And maybe even… I slowly turned to Elasia who was frowning while looking at the forest of trees. Maybe kill the Blood Drinker? I briefly looked at Lumina’s body.

If two Monarchs fight a single Monarch, shouldn’t he die? I smiled at the thought of that rotten person dying. It was also suitable revenge for The Light Maker. Maybe if I got lucky, I could also get a few levels.

“I’ll leave you to it now.” Elasia said as she walked out.

I nodded once more, this time getting to work without rush. It was time to revive my mentor.