Y/N POV
When walking with Stelle, or rather, practically being carried by Stelle, you found out that Kafka and Blade were hiding out in the Divination Commission. "She says she's not able to leave the Luofu and was in need of my help. And that I had someone to pick up along the way... I suppose that someone is you," Stelle glanced at you curiously.
"Are you a Stellaron Hunter?" She asked you curiously.
"I'm not... I've heard of the name but truthfully I don't know too much about them." You'd say as you knew it must be strange for Stelle to see someone who is associated with those from the Stellaron Hunters.
"Okay... but you hang out with the ones who are a part of that group. Does this mean you're going to join them?" Stelle asked.
You'd raise an eyebrow, "How do you know that Kafka and the others are a part of the Stellaron Hunters?" But you patiently listened to Stelle explain her story. How she joined the astral express and how she is a part of the Nameless.
It seemed that Stelle had some coordinates to find Kafka and Blade. Your heart began to speed up the closer the two of you were to Kafka and Blade. You already were looking forward to seeing him again.
When you both turned a corner, Kafka was standing outside of a building tucked in the middle, yet it still was inconspicuous. You'd notice Kafka smile when looking at Stelle. There had to be history between them in some way.
Kafka went on some long tangent about time and choices that you could care less about. But perhaps this is a prelude into who you will be working with later. She spoke of Elios which caught your attention as well.
Kafka smiled to Stelle, "So was this your choice? To respond to my request for help?"
The question made Stelle think for a moment. Before she replied, "Yes, it sounded like you needed help."
"I do, Blade is in a prickly situation. On the Xianzhou... you two are the only ones I could turn to." Kafka let out a mysterious smile to both you and Stelle. But the smile would fade a little as she turned to look at Blade.
Your eyes fell on him and you could see that something was wrong. It looked like he was meditating. As if he were containing a monster inside him he didn't want to let out. You could feel your chest ache slightly as you noticed that he was hurt too. What the hell happened?
"Being stricken with mara is the inescapable destiny of the long-life species. It is a madness triggered by the accumulation of emotion and memories," Kafka explained to Stelle. You merely listened in with them. "Blade doesn't remember much, but the mara still haunts him in some form..."
You frowned at this. But Kafka continued, "After we arrived on the Xianzhou, the mara flared up so violently that even my Spirit Whisper couldn't suppress it. He's not fit for interstellar travel in this state." This was worse than you thought as you wondered what made him shut down like this.
Spirit whisper? You'd wonder... what you could gather was that it was Kafka's power. Something that could suppress Blade's mara. Yet your eyes couldn't leave his fresh wounds. The bandages on his body were bloodied from his most recent battle. One you didn't know about... just what sort of work do they do here?
"I plan to use Spirit Whisper to temporarily seal the mara by reducing its potency. I need to focus all my concentration so I'll be vulnerable for some time. I need you to protect me while I suppress Blade." Kafka said to Stelle. "And Y/N... I figured your presence would be a calming factor for Blade. With your current condition you can't help Stelle fight the nearby monsters so, you won't mind staying in the room with him, will you?"
There was a lot on your mind but you slowly nodded. "I'll stick with him." You got help from Stelle as she set you in a nearby chair. You would hear Kafka and Stelle's voices outside but you weren't really listening to them. Blade had his eyes closed. He didn't seem to respond to any sort of sound or touch.
Eventually Kafka entered the room with you as Stelle went off to fight monsters. She smiled to you, "I'm sure you have a lot of questions... I've weakened Blade's senses to the outside world so that he's only able to hear my voice and feel my touch— he's oblivious to everything else. But..." Kafka looked like she was thinking. "If my Spirit Whisper is not enough to suppress the mara, are you able to help?"
With that you would nod. "I'll do anything and everything I can to help... is it possible for me to try and heal his wounds?" You'd ask as your eyes looked over Kafka who just chuckled in response.
"You can, but those wounds will never heal fully..." Kafka seemed to hold a sadder tone in her voice when she said that.
"Why is that?" You'd ask as you raised your eyes to meet hers.
"Blades fighting style requires him to... sacrifice some life in order to perform powerful attacks," she worded it in a way that made you go stiff. He hurt himself to... perform powerful attacks? Why? Your face looked pensive that made Kafka chuckle. "You two seem to have a lot of history for you to react this way... I do hope we get to know one another better after all of this is over."
It was hard to tell if Kafka was telling the truth or not. She always gave off an aura that she was hiding her truths behind lies and her lies behind truths. It was confusing but... you did not detect any falsities in her words. As you watched her perform her Spirit Whisper on Blade, Kafka would sigh and look bothered.
"What's wrong?" You'd ask with a look of concern.
"My Spirit Whisper isn't enough to suppress this..." Kafka hummed as her eyes roamed over to you now. "Change of plans... I am going to numb his senses to focus solely on you now. I need to make sure Stelle is doing alright." There was a tone of slight care and worry in her voice. Did Kafka care for Stelle? And how did they know one another?
You merely nodded in response though. As you were now left alone in the room with Blade. Your hand slowly wrapped around his, as your eyes landed to his face. His handsome features couldn't be hidden behind his long side bangs. You let out a nervous breath. "Ren... are you in there?" You felt a little silly for doing this.
But you felt the slightest squeeze on your hand as your eyes looked to where your hand held his. A soft smile spread on your face as you realized he could hear you. But he still was in a state of meditation. So you took the time to look over his wounds for now.
Kafka's words earlier continued to replay in your head as you looked over each wound he had. He hurts himself? You frowned and unwrapped the bandage that was around his hand. You'd close your eyes and summoned your power to heal him but... something was wrong. Something was very wrong.
Where was your power? Why weren't you healing him? This predicament caught you off guard as you slightly panicked. Every time you tried to heal him the wound on your back pulsated and ached. The wound that the roots of the Arbor caused. What was going on?
You would continue to hold his hand, his blood trickling slowly down your hand as you held his hand even tighter. "Why can't I...?" You felt helpless for a moment. Blade was in so much pain and you couldn't heal it nor soothe it. A tear trickled down your cheek and you wondered why it hurt you so badly... that you couldn't help him.
Kafka returned as Stelle needed to protect the area from guards. But her eyebrow raised at the sight she walked in on. "Something wrong?" She asked.
"My healing abilities... don't seem to work anymore," you gulped as you explained it to Kafka. "It's like my ties to the Abundance is no longer..." you mumbled softly.
Kafka inhaled sharply as she nodded and looked to the side. "So this was the unforeseen setback Elios talked about..." she would murmur to herself with a mischievous smile. "Even so... I will use this time to transfer his conscious elsewhere and cleanse his memories of some people he saw while here. You do not need to panic..."
You let out a deep sigh as you wondered what you could possibly do in this situation. It's like you came out here for nothing but... you looked up to Blade's face with a soft smile. At least I'm by your side... you thought to yourself.
"Uh oh... I've got to go," Kafka sighed. "Don't worry, Stelle and I will hold them off if you wouldn't mind to still keep trying. After all you said you'd do anything and everything, right?" She smirked with a wink before she left from the door.
Something about that ticked you off but she wasn't wrong. You let out another sigh and closed your eyes, searching deep within you. His warm hand was still in yours and you held it tightly. How long... how long has Blade been suffering? You felt your throat tighten as you tried not to get worked up over your thoughts and questions over the matter.
Y/N...! You'd hear a voice come to your head as you still concentrated on finding your ability. But there was nothing, it was gone. So you had to search deeper... Y/N! Y/N. Many different voices speak to you. People of your past. This should've been scarier to go through than it was... you found yourself being quite calm as you continued to search inside you for your power.
If ever you forget... remember.... That feeling... the voices kept fading in and out until you found yourself in a memory... one from a life you don't even remember. It must've been so long ago, you would've never guessed this image coming to your mind.
A deep warmth started in your stomach and spread to your chest. It was an ancient power that you could only unseal every so often. Your horns began to glow and elongate as a tail slowly traced itself behind you. All with a white glow. Slowly you elevated off the chair you were sitting in, but your hand and Blade's remained intact.
At that moment you could feel what Blade was feeling. Haunting memories and the tight-knit grasp of mara were trying to take him over and turn him into a mara-struck.
You spoke softly and tenderly, feeling a deep connection with Blade now as you slowly placed your lips on the back of his hand and whispered. "I'm so sorry, my old friend." Your voice cracked, "You were not meant to turn into this... and I have always healed you before. No matter what ailed you. And although I cannot change you back to what you were before... let me help you now."
There was a surge of ancient power that you summoned in your core. A power that you were familiar yet unfamiliar with. It felt natural to use, yet your old memories haven't returned to show you what it was and what it's used for. You felt the power flow through you, and into Blade.
A grimace could be seen on his face as your power began to work. The clutches of the mara loosened around his throat and his limbs. Your power soothed the pain that usually drove mara to become stronger.
Flashes of memories came to mind of many long-life species coming to your aid to 'purge' their curse. In this case, the mara that inevitably comes to be in each long life species.
The memories of old aided you in this circumstance, as Blade seemed visibly relaxed. Once your eyes opened, you'd notice his wounds were healed too. At least your healing powers weren't completely gone. But it still made you wonder why you couldn't heal normally.
You'd find yourself in your chair again, and a couple pairs of eyes were on you once you finished.
"Impressive," Kafka said with a slight smirk. You were surprised to see her and Stelle still there.
"Is everything alright on your end?" You'd ask them both. Although from the looks of it they had it covered.
"Just one more thing to take care of... although I just admit I didn't expect you to have a power to control the Mara," Kafka noted softly.
Soon enough the two of them would depart on their last fight together. A young blonde man entered the area. He looked quite young, still just a kid. And you would stay with Blade as Kafka and Stelle would fight him.
Something about his sword fighting... seemed familiar. You'd notice how he'd summon a blade in the sky and-
"Y/N my friend... let me show you what I've learned," a woman with white hair and a blindfold with a crescent moon would say to you, in a distant memory.
You held your head while breathing slightly heavier. A memory? You felt your heart race in anticipation, as if waiting for the woman to show you what she's learned. Although the memory never continued.
"I'm back," you'd hear Kafka say with a slight smile. "I decided to send Stelle back. Since you've freed Bladie from his mara situation... I will be able to free his conscious. And he will slowly come back to himself. I'm sure you're happy to speak with him again, yes?" She chuckled before you'd witness her use of her Spirit Whisper again.
"Kafka before Ren wakes up..." you'd start off as your eyes land on her. "May I ask you a couple questions to help jog my memory? I'm sure I could ask Ren but... I don't want the mara to flare up again."
"We have time, what would you like to know?" Kafka asked with a mysterious smile, as if analyzing you a bit.
"Do you know much about him after he first woke up as a long-life species?" You'd ask softly.
"I don't know much... not even Bladie knows everything. When he woke up a woman took him and trained him to use the sword. And then killed him over and over again until he couldn't bear it." Kafka answered. You'd feel your heart sink hearing that. "Elio ordered Sam and I to take him in. His swordplay and immortality has its uses..." Kafka wasn't smiling when she spoke of this though. You at least knew Kafka at least cared for Blade a little bit.
Just as you were about to ask something else, Blade stirred in his spot, his eyes opening.
"Welcome back Bladie," Kafka would smile at him. He grunted in reply. That was until he saw you.
"Hello, Ren," you'd say with a warm smile. He didn't reply but he still didn't move his eyes from you.
Kafka chuckled, "don't mind him, he's still 'waking up' in a sense... once he is fully back, I'll have him carry you back to the ship. Elio would like to speak with you." She said to you. And you'd feel your hands in your lap curl into fists. It was time to get some answers... and it seemed this Eilo guy had them.
__________
Hello everyone! I am slowly coming back into this story again. Very sorry for the long wait 😭
There were a string of events that prevented me from writing for so long. But I do hope that you all are as excited as I am with these new updates and side stories ☺️
Guess who I will be adding into the story?? We can't forget Jingliu!