The Record of Unusual Creatures

The uniquely armored knight had been moved by Hao Ren and the rest to a flatter surface close by and had turned him around to run a thorough check, but just like what they had detected earlier, the knight’s wounds had been totally cured.

And the MDT’s advance scans had discovered that his body was completely healthy, and not only was he free of any wounds, but his internals were also working fine, and it was not a stretch to say that other than being “unconscious”, he was pretty much fine.

Hao Ren even had the MDT check if the knight of the Broken Blade had any signs of mechanical implants in him, but the conclusion was that he was no different from your normal person. So it seemed like the Broken Blade and the Ebon Blade had used completely different methods of ‘production’, and the former’s superior combat ability against the later seemed to be cultivated using a different method.

“I have a guess,” Awenna suddenly spoke as she looked at the unconscious Broken Blade knight, “His wounds are probably healed by the tree.”

Hao Ren turned towards the giant tree in the middle of the ruins and the tree formed by the ancient holy king’s sacrifice stood silently over the land, and while the holy king and the country that her people had died defending were now gone, the surging life energies continued to emanate from the giant tree, just like the battle so many eras ago.

“That is very possible,” Vivian nodded, “He had escaped here wounded and had fell near the ‘Tree of Life’ and the powers of the Tree of Life had healed his body, but due to his severe injury, his vitality had dissipated away, and was now in this healed yet unconscious state.”

“But his soul is not totally gone,” Rheia suddenly interjected, “I can see it, his spirit is still within his body, but it is very weak, and due to the effects of the Black Forest, his spirit is being led towards the Black Forest and warping, that makes it even more difficult to rouse.”

Lily’s eyes widen, “So he would really be in a vegetative state?”

“We need to figure a way to wake him up and understand what was going on,” Hao Ren nodded, “My generic healing equipment is not up to task against a condition like this, anyone wants to try?”

Vivian, without a word immediately summoned a cackling lightning orb, and before she could even toss it out Lily immediately bounced up, “Battie what are you thinking! That orb will really turn him into a outright vegetable!”

Vivian rolled her eyes at Lily, as she tossed the orb onto the knight, “What do you know. Electrotherapy is a thing! I know what I’m doing!”

A crack later, the knight’s body literally bounced up in shock, but aside from having a new afro there was no change.

Lily shook her head, “Does that even work… Forget it, let me threw to press his philtrum…”

But before the werehusky could do anything, Rheia pushed her aside, “Ah forget it, let me do it. You will probably kill him ten times over with that press. I have studied the soul anyhow, and who knows I might actually be able to convert his soul back.”

The Goddess of Creation who had created countless of lives now took to the field, and the two half-past-six ‘healers’ pretty much piped down and focused on Rheia working her magic.

But even Rheia’s method was crude as well, she directly held her hands towards the knight’s chest and when her arm got close to the knight it became a semi-translucent shape and this weird hand went directly into latter’s body and after some grabbing she pulled out some glowing object right out of his body!

Seeing that Hao Ren immediately realized that what Rheia was doing could never be done by others. While it may look simple, this is probably a complex idea conversion and data extraction process, or else she would not be able to extract the formless spirit out so easily!

“Say… can this really work?” Vivian asked upon seeing Rheia’s actions, “It doesn’t look like healing at all…”

“Relax,” Rheia said as she worked on the spirit orb, “My methods have always been steady, I won’t take unnecessary risks…”

Hao Ren immediately rolled his eyes when he heard that: If she was so steady would she have almost killed herself ten thousand years ago? And also that sideshow where everything will blow up once she dies…

But even if her methods may look unreliable to the observers, Rheia’s still managed to stabilize the ‘spirit’ after some work, and after a series of dough-making actions, she stuffed the glowing orb back into the knight’s body, and snapped her fingers by his ears. “And… done!”

The knight then started to rouse…

Lily was of course surprised. “Wow, that actually worked?!”

“Why not? While I may not have received formal education, but I still have some handicraft knowledge,” Rheia rolled her eyes at lily before looking at the dazed knight who had just been roused from a deep slumber. As the latter slowly recovered, she noticed the obvious cautious and nervousness in his eyes, “Don’t worry, we are not your enemies. We have just actually saved you. Do you remember? You had fallen right there.”

The knight found himself surrounded by a group of strangers the moment he woke up, and at least half of them were armed, so his natural reaction was caution, but Rheia’s innocent and calming voice did helped in calming him down a little. He quickly scanned his surroundings and ascertained the general traits, position and identity and their weapons before contemplating his current situation.

Those guards who are armed to the teeth were clearly a threat, and while ordinary warriors would not stand a chance against a Broken Blade, considering that he was still weak and dazed, but his body was still suffering from an unusual numbness, the threat of these soldiers could not be discounted.

Close by were two sibling-like figures with gray-white hair, and while they were not armored, but there were obvious pulses of magical items on them, and the man had a sword on his waist, so it was clear that they too were combatants, and were possibly stronger the soldiers around them.

And the closest to him were a man and three ladies which seemed more harmless, they were totally unarmed, at least on sight, and there was a child among them, and it was obvious that she would be the weakest…

Hao Ren had no idea what this Jedi-like Broken Blade knight’s thought process within that short span of time, but he noticed the latter was now awake and calm, so he asked, “Are you feeling better? You remember how did you end up here?”

“I felt like… I had a very long dream…” the Broken Blade knight struggled to sit up right, and in that process his body shuddered quite a few times as there were faint electricity moving between the gaps of his armor. “I had went through a battle against a foe which I could not make out their identity, and finally I became a tree… and got struck by lightning…”

Everyone’s gaze immediately fell on Vivian.

Vivian turned away, blushing slightly, “At least my electrotherapy had some effect, and hit the cause in the gut…”

“You are not imperials,” the knight shook his head as he tried to dispel the buzzing and weakness in his mind, and in the process he was even more clear minded now, “Who are you?”

“We are travelers from Izzo,” Without waiting for Hao Ren to speak, Charlemagne spoke first, “For some reason, we were being pursued by the Knights of the Ebon Blade, and had to escape into the Black Forest, and we found you in this ruins.

He did not directly expose his identity, and while they had shifted their target to Princess Constance, the leader of the knights of the Broken Blade, but without knowing more of the knight, it paid to be more cautious. As for the pursuit, it was an event that could be mentioned, as Princess Constance had now rose in rebellion, and the Knights of the Broken Blade and the Knights of the Ebon Blade were now enemies.

“Izzoeans pursued by the Ebon Blades…” The Broken Blade knight expression in his eyes changed slightly before sighing, “That will be normal, they have lost all sense of reason, and it will be dangerous for a foreigner like you to be in the south of the Empire.”

He then stood up groggily as he performed some formality gestures that were foreign to Hao Ren, “I am a loyal knight of Princess Constance, Graeme Glawoz, your kind deeds will not be forgotten, and Princess Constance will definitely reward you richly for this.”

“We can put that aside, we did not save you for that, Mister Glawoz,” Hao Ren waved dismissively, “Well, guess we have introduced ourselves now? So can you let us know in detail, what is a knight of the Broken Blade doing in the heart of the Black Forest? We have already know of the Empire’s civil war, and also know of the battle between your order and the Ebon Blades. If I’m not wrong, you were one of the knights involved in the battle at the Copulus River? Your armor bore burnt marks and marks of shock disintegration, that is only possible with the Ebon Blade’s chainsword. What happened after that? Did you stray away from your team?”

Graeme was of course suspicious and cautious when a group of Izzoean travelers that appeared out of nowhere asked him those questions, but seeing how these group of strangers had saved him and what they were asking were not actually a secret, his suspicion and cautious really amounted to nothing. With a nod, he said, “Call me Graeme, and just as you said, I was one of the Broken Blades involved in the fighting a few day ago.”

He then described what he went through.

“That was an unexpected encounter, and it quickly turned into a massive battle,” Graeme said, “We were originally planning to head north to answer the Princess’ call, but we ran into a roaming imperial company near River Copulus, and a detachment of Ebon Blades were nearby as well, so that was how the battle escalated so quickly. We had lost many good men in that battle, but most managed to escape, after that we split into two and one half headed elsewhere for their mission, and another false followed the plan through the Black Forest, I was the latter team.”

“But all of the paths into the Black Forest were sealed by the Ebon Blades,” Charlemagne frowned, “Greenway is definitely out of the question, and both western roads, and the eastern Woodville have a knight’s encampment, and seeing how you’re dressed… I don’t think you were in disguise to pass through the checkpoints, don’t tell me you lot fought your way through?”

Upon saying that the prince felt a little awkward, he was reminded that he and his men too had took the trouble to disguise but in the end still broke through the Ebon Blades and the imperial soldiers’ blockade all the way into the Black Forest…

But Graeme shook his head, “We did not enter from those places, we went over the Longwind Mountains.”