Before leaving the slavers’ village and resume his flight towards the Fallen City of Kaduria, Lith would have liked to spend some more time with Kamila. However, she was too busy supervising the rescue operations.
Some of the prisoners were in desperate conditions and the army needed all hands on deck. Lith took care of those whose health was beyond the help of normal Healers. Thanks to Invigoration, he could resupply their life force and fix their bodies so fast that as long there was still a spark of life they could be saved.
’Solus asked me to save them, not just to delay their demise. I’ve kept my word at the best of my abilities.’ He thought.
The other Healers clicked their tongues at Lith’s "Speed Healing" session, thinking he was doing a poor job to rack up merits fast and leave them to fix his mess. Rangers had a bad name. Not because they were easy to corrupt or cruel people.
Their ill reputation was due to their poor social skills, usually coupled with a contempt for teamwork. In a system were relying on others to watch your back was the norm, Rangers worked alone.
"He picked the worst cases and spent a few minutes per patient." One of the Healers said while double checking Lith’s work.
"Let’s hope the terminator had at least the decency to stabilize their conditions before leaving. I swear, Rangers belong with beasts, not with humans. They..." The words died in his mouth when the diagnostic spell gave its report.
Aside from the malnutrition, there was no sign of injury, neither past or present. The scars had disappeared and the bones, albeit thin, showed no sign of previous fractures. The Healers were so shocked that, even knowing it was a breach of the protocol, they went to Lieutenant Yehval to ask about Lith’s identity.
"The patients- they-" The main Healer was so excited he was at loss of words. "Some of them were in such a state we could only ease their pain and wait for the inevitable. Now they are fit as a fiddle. I would like to ask the Ranger to take me as his apprentice."
The man was double Lith’s age, but he didn’t sound embarrassed at the idea of serving under someone so young.
"I’m sorry, Captain." Kamila replied. "Until the end of his tour, I can’t disclose any of the Ranger’s personal information. I can relay your message to him, though."
’He’s so young yet has already reached the rank of First Lieutenant.’ She couldn’t avoid feeling a tinge of envy considering it had taken her a decade to obtain the same promotion.
’Healer, Necromancer, ruthless warrior...’ She thought while watching at the corpses whose head had been ripped off or the heart removed from the chest.
’I wonder how many other things he is good at.’ She giggled while looking at Lith’s contact rune on her personal communication amulet.
Meanwhile Kamila planned on calling him as soon as his rune went back online, Lith was speeding through the barren lands of the north. His journey was dull. He didn’t meet any settlement even after flying for hundreds of kilometers at a height that allowed him to check far and wide.
Kaduria was relatively close, yet Lith didn’t plan on going there. At least not before resting. The moment Solus’s mana sense spotted a mana geyser, they checked the surrounding area for kilometers, making sure that any life form in its proximity was just an animal.
After meeting Gadorf the Wyvern, Lith didn’t trust much Evolved Monsters too. He was now reluctant to expose Solus’s existence even to magical beasts. First Scarlett and then Nalear had tried to take her away from him. Both had almost succeeded.
He wouldn’t allow for a third time to happen. Once the mage tower was formed, Lith had Solus activating her cloaking abilities and hid the tower underground. Only then he allowed himself to relax.
"Thanks for saving those people." Solus’s wisp form appeared in front of him looking for an embrace which he didn’t hesitate to offer her.
"Don’t mention it, partner. Is it me or the thing inside your wisp form has grown bigger again?" At first, when Solus gained the ability to materialize herself inside the tower, she was just a firefly the size of a tennis ball.
Over time, the wisp had become big enough for them to notice that something solid was at its center. Its nature and purpose were unknown, but after their last fusion, Lith supposed it was the embryo of Solus’s light body.
"No, you are right." She replied. "Now that your mana core has upgraded to blue, my nourishment has become even better. I can’t wait for my core to become bright green, if not even cyan!"
In Solus’s mind, the former was the threshold to obtain the body made of light, the latter was the one where she expected to gain a true physical form.
Lith took note of her words and started to use Accumulation. Thanks to the combined effect of the mana geyser and the tower, he could absorb much more world energy than usual with every breath.
Refining his core would help Solus to promote her own even faster.
"I won’t enter Kaduria until I’ve properly recovered. My body is a mess after not sleeping for so long. Using Invigoration so many times only made things worse. First thing, I’m taking a bath. Giving that scum such a clean death made me feel dirty inside. I wish I could have made them suffer more."
"Take your time. Would you like something in particular for dinner?"
"No offense, Solus, but your cooking sucks. Until you can smell or taste, everything you prepare is a coin flip at best. Also, why aren’t you joining me? I know you enjoy a good bubble bath with hydro massage every time we are back in the tower."
"Yes, I do. I prefer to take them alone, though." She replied while flying toward the kitchen she had just created.
"Your behavior doesn’t make sense. The whole tower is your body. Even if the wisp is away, we can talk, you can watch, and we can interact. Why are you acting shy all of a sudden?"
’Maybe because if the wisp is away I’m not forced to watch?’ Solus thoughts oozed sarcasm. ’Does he not realize he’s not a little kid anymore just like I’m not a naïve little girl? I don’t know if Lith is so dense towards me because he considers me like a sister or what.’
’Or what.’ Lith replied honestly, making Solus and all the lights inside the tower turn beet red.
’It’s not that I’m shameless, but we spend every single second of the day together. Plus, because of our mind fusion, you know all the most embarrassing details of all my lives. At this point, modesty is as useless as a third nostril.
’Sorry if my request made you uncomfortable, it’s just that I’m used to having you by my side. I miss you already.’ Lith closed the bathroom’s door before stripping.
His words made Solus’s mind spin in turmoil, forcing her to rush outside the tower and getting as far as she could before allowing herself to think again.