Chapter 249: Do It!
Chapter 249: Do It!
Jim slowly asked and this moment seemed to turn into a lifetime while the two of them glanced deeply at each other.
Hector took another breath of his cigarette before blowing the smoke in the air. He evaded the look over Jim's face, that expectation and hope he had that made Hector feel more bitter inside.
"No," he slowly said, "your body is beyond repair... as a magician... Your life ends here."
Jim's heart was squeezed at this moment while the next moment he screamed inside his head:
'Old man... Old man tell me these are lies?'
Yet he didn't get a response from the old man like usual.
'C'mon, it's not the time to play dead on me,' he felt more nervous and really afraid, 'please tell me he doesn't know what he is talking about... please tell me he... he is lying...'
His eyes were soaked in tears while silence was the only answer he got.
"Roger tried to save you, but compared to my high magical energy yours was very weak and depleted," Hector slowly explained what happened. "That poison... It was enough to kill you at the spot when you got hit by it. Strangely you didn't die or suffer much at this time... Quite impressive and also... weird."
"What do you mean by that?" Jim's voice was getting weaker and filled with despair.
"I... dunno," Hector turned his head towards one direction while sighing. "I'm not that genius in this but according to Roger... Something stood between that poison and your soul... Something protected you at the expense of dying."
Hector gave Jim a suspicious glance as the latter's eyes were wide open at this moment. 'The... old man...' All of sudden Jim realized what happened.
"Damn!" he screamed, screamed in a way that made everyone standing around drop their heads to the ground and some even cried.
"I still held hope until we got here," Hector added, "master Mark examined you and others did. They all reached the same conclusion. Your life was saved on the expense of being... crippled."
Jim's eyes were cherry red at this moment, filled with salty and burning tears that kept falling over his face.
He wasn't crying for himself, he was crying for the loss of his only and oldest friend.
For him, the old man was like his father... The father who didn't give birth to him or related by blood however he was the best father he ever had.
"I... am sorry," Hector said with true regret, "I should have helped in protecting you. But... I was careless..." he glanced all around, "we were all careless."
Jim didn't care about his apology at the moment while Hector took another breath of his cigarette. "That mad master still believes you've got a chance. But no one believes him."
Jim couldn't even see Hector clearly from his tears. "Do you want to hear out his crazy theory?" Hector asked while Jim was lost in his own grief.
Even when he left his home, his world and came here he didn't feel any speck of pain or regret at all.
But this time was different. It was like he lost one of the most treasured people to him, a family member, a true father.
And now he felt lonely, all lonely again.
And this was something he already knew how painful and bitter it was.
"He says your body did a strange counterattack over the poison," Hector kept talking as if Jim's silence was the approving signal for him to explain.
"He said your soul is pretty much damaged, but the position has already infiltrated it deeply. He says... your soul has merged with the poison to the point that using normal magical energy became impossible for you anymore."
Hector shook his head while watching the silent wails of Jim. He could feel the pain of Jim, yet he wrongly thought about its reason.
"So... he wants to inject you again with the poison... Pretty crazy and lame in my opinion. Going back again to that torment and living a life of hell just to be able to use power again... I doubt you can even handle the poison."
Hector kept speaking while Jim's mind started to regain its clarity slowly as he heard these words.
"He believes the toxin that was about to kill you has turned into the fuel you need to run. Crazy bastard... as if he experienced the hell of that toxin before."
"W... What d... does he want?" Jim slowly said, trying to get the meaning out of this talk.
"He wants to poison you again and this way you can use your energy like before," Hector said, "provided that the poison won't kill you, which is the only proven fact here."
"Stop talking trash about me on my back," suddenly this strong voice came from behind Hector as Igory stood there with his grander body. "It's not nice saying bad things to people."
Hector turned to give Igory a deep glance before standing up. "He is all yours," he said, "but stop your crazy sh*t. He got himself lucky this time by a miracle and didn't die. Next time he will!"
"Humph," Igory ignored the mean words of Hector before glancing around, "leave this area now. Go there and wait for the results to be announced later after all the teams are gathered."
"As long as there are still some survivors at our side," Hector couldn't help but say while moving away.
And Igory totally ignored him while glancing at the wretched body of Jim.
"You got yourself a lot of fun this time, right?" Igory crossed his arms, "do you know how you survived that deadly poison?"
"I... don't know," Jim said in a very depressed tone while the memory of his old man was torturing him. He wanted to speak, ask this crazy dragon about the odds of his old man surviving.
Yet he knew he couldn't say a word about that to anyone. He was now powerless, too weak to even raise up his voice and demand answers.
Especially to something so peculiar like having an ancient fairy soul speaking inside his head.
"I think you know," Igory's eyes seemed to see through him. "That punk brought you up one day before the end of the expedition. I don't know what score you'll have but he assured me you'll get first place."
"Getting the first place as a crippled person, right?" Jim bitterly said.
"I have a way to heal you up," Igory slowly said.
"I... heard about this," Jim slowly said.
"Don't make up your mind before hearing me out," Igory felt Jim was about to refuse his proposal, "I know I'm speaking out of no real evidence or experience but this has a very high odds of success..."
"I accept your idea," before Igory could complete his sentence, Jim's firm tone rang inside his head.
"You... you accept this?" Mark's voice suddenly rang before he appeared alongside Rana. Jim titled his head with some difficulty and could see the conflicted expression of upset, anger, and doubt over their faces.
"You will die!" Rana shouted in distress. "This idea is crazy! I won't let you do it even if I had to fight you!"
Igory stayed silent while glancing at the real person with the power to decide everything here.
"What's the worth of my life if I wasn't strong enough to protect it?" Jim slowly said, "please stop it coach, I prefer to die trying than waiting for death to come at any moment."
Rana was so shocked by his words yet she couldn't say anything for a few moments. She knew he was telling the truth here and Mark stepped in to help her.
"Losing your powers isn't the end of the world," he said, "there are many clan members who lost their powers before and did great things in administration."
"They are clan members," Jim said in a bitter tone, "'not someone who is considered the enemy of those big clans here."
The words of him silenced Mark who knew this was the harsh truth.
"I choose not to live in fear for the rest of life," Jim said in a strange determination, "I choose to fight back for my life, even if I die trying."
And his words decided this matter regardless of anything else.