NOVPUB
Chapter 74: THE CURE
His breakthrough to the fourth circle was a success, but there were multiple obstacles in the process. He felt like the mana core in his chest would explode. The breakthrough had to put a massive amount of pressure on his crystalline mana to advance it into the next level and turn it into a gaseous state again.
The amount he needed to absorb for the whole process was downright horrendous. Thankfully, before the breakthrough, already expecting something like that he had made a direct connection of his engravement chamber to the mana well right beneath, otherwise he would have sucked dry almost all the mana in the tower itself as well the surroundings of the tower. Boundless strength coursed through his veins, and a greater qualitative change occurred this time.
He was unable to gauge his strength properly this time; a part of him wanted to test things out. But he suppressed that feeling, for one, he did not want to reveal his true strength to anyone, the reason being? Just his gut feeling. In fact, in the competition, Axel had not revealed all of his strength. As a 3rd circle mage, if he were in the mid or peak stage, he could easily fight any 6th circle being to a standstill.
Maybe not defeat one, but fight to a standstill. But now, he didn’t know, but none of that was important now; he now had to learn the second level of the runic language, the 12 extended runes. Then he would finally be able to attempt the creation of the cure.
So, he invested his all into memorizing the 12 extended runes, then created 12 artifacts with those very 12 runes again and again until he mastered all of them, then similarly, created another polygon circle with the 12 extended runes, but this one was positioned right above the first 4 circles.
But no breakthrough occurred; even so, he did feel an increase in strength. It seems the breakthrough to the 5th circle would depend on the accumulation and deepening of his understanding of the 12 runes’ interactive uses with all the runes in his first 4 circles. Which he did not care about, with a feverish excitement, he immediately started experimenting on cancer cells.
For the initial stages of the research, he didn’t need live patients. He just needed to experiment with the artificially kept-alive cancer cells. And slowly learn how to counter them. He already knew how to initially counter them since he had created the anti-cancer artifact that would work on that particular process, or suppress it for a long time.
But it was far from a cure, so needing to start from scratch to think about a new idea, time passed as he continued to research daily, dedicating all his time to it, and giving some time to his little brother, and going outside just for the sake of it occasionally.
Sometimes, meeting his friends once in a few months, their relationship had become a bit stiff after they understood the sheer gap between them and how they might never be able to bridge it, so he was the one to keep in contact with them once in a while. He also helped them with various topics from time to time.
The more Axel experimented and started to understand more, especially after breaking through to the 4th circle, which brought another great improvement in his runic eyes. He was able to understand more, and it seems there was an incredibly massive misconception he had, the cancer in this particular world was far different from a disease than what he initially knew about it.
It seems that what caused the cells to multiply uncontrollably was not the defective genes. But some kind of magical parasitical existence. No wonder, it was like this. And the creatures were like a hive, and the most adaptable being he had ever seen. Nonetheless, his efforts continued day after day, month after month, year after year. The world gradually forgot about the great genius named Ashborn.
Because Axel never showed himself in the open public after the competition. While mages would often see him inside the tower, running around here and there, but if Axel went outside, he would always hide himself. Not willing to get unwanted attention.
His experiments soon turned to live patients, he picked almost 30 cancer-stricken patients from the streets who would never get a chance for treatment, while explaining the situation, risk, and rewards. None refused when Axel explained to them the things clearly.
Their lives were already doomed; how could they not grasp the only hope given to them? So, his experiments on humans continued with a bloody start, the very first being spectacular failure. Again and again and again and again, Axel continued to fail.
It was as if the damn parasites understood what he was trying to attempt and killed the patient, just when he was getting a tad bit closer. But he was unrelenting, no matter how many people died day after day, his obsession to find a cure grew into a form of madness.
Then he....he....found it, "Yes, yes, yes that’s it???????????????"
"Yes, why couldn’t I understand it. All the cancer cells were connected like a hive-mind, then, which was connected to even other living cancer cells, forming a greater connection. Just what fucking monstrosity, its not cancer, cancer is simply the by-product of it inhabiting a body for too damn long."
"Not only that, the damn micro cellular parasites are actually, a life form between physical and spiritual, and the parasites inhabit the whole body of a infected one, and the only thing stopping it from spreading into every living existence is that, they are unable to parasitize the bodies of non-intelligent and magical beings and not every human can be infected but only a select few. The reasons behind it? Unknown."
"Of course, if a human is affected before becoming a mage or a warrior, then they survive even after the host has become a mage and warrior. But when they start approaching a level that might cure the host, they kill the host."
"Just what is this abomination?" continued to mutter Axel with anxiousness and excitement to himself.
Now that he had found the true source of the problem, pacing around madly thinking about how to exactly solve it, he thought of a few ways, but only one seemed feasible. He had to cut off the connection of the parasites in a single host with anything else outside.
More people died, more time passed, more efforts were wasted, but in the end.....
HE DID IT.....HE DID IT............ HE DID IT............. HE DID IT................
HE HAD DONE IT........
He had done it. Axel had succeeded in finding a way to cure it. His hands and feet trembled in excitement. But he did not waste his time, marveling at his own creation. After he found a way to isolate the parasites in the single host body, he had already put his brother into a coma, there was a chance that the hivemind of the parasite would understand that his real goal at the end of the day was to cure his brother.
Axel didn’t know how intelligent the source of the hive mind was, and he did not want to risk accidentally triggering his brother’s death. Yes, the artifact he created should suppress the cancer cells from multiplying, but he didn’t know if it would hold true if the source tried to control it.
Rushing towards where he had put his brother into a coma, then standing next to Akon, he took a deep breath to calm down. Putting the mana into his fingers, on the bare chest of his little brother, he began to draw the runes, multiple runes one after another, intertwining with each, with very careful and controlled movement. Like he is performing a surgery.
Swosh!....Whoosh!.......
It was done, the engraving was completed, and yes, the best way he found to tackle the parasites and exterminate them is through engraving the runes on the patients physically, the runes would remain on them, without any side effects, but it would also make them permanently immune and uninhabitable by the parasites.
It’s almost like altering the existence of oneself to a certain extent, and, and...and, it was success, Axel could see it, all the cancer cells and the micro parasites being destroyed. His little brother went through a transformation of his own. Axel gritted his teeth, clenched his fists in happiness. Tears fell from his eyes, and he looked towards the sky, thinking of the promise he made to his mother.
A small laugh escaped from his lips, but the tears continued to flow. Soon, his brother woke up and saw his older brother shedding tears with a genuine smile. Akon smiled unconsciously towards his brother, he did not understand the situation; the last thing he remembered was hazy. Why was he sleeping here or unconscious?
He asked hesitantly, "Brother, what’s wrong?"
Axel pulled him into a hug and said, "YOU’RE CURED.""You’re finally cured, Akon."
A thunderous wave of emotions invaded the mind of Akon, he knew he was going to die; he was always ready to die; he accepted and always felt sorry for his big brother. How his brother was always obsessed with making the cure, disregarding almost everything else.
He knew of the reason behind it, the promise his older brother had made to his deceased mother. He often hated his mother, to be honest, why did she give birth to them, just to give them such a disgusting life?
In fact, why had she given birth to a burden like him, then attached such a burdensome promise to his brother? There were so many times he wanted to commit suicide, but.....but.....he did not dare to do it.
He didn’t have the courage to take his own life.
He worried for his brother, considering how obsessed he was with curing him and keeping his word about the promise he made to his mother.
His throat went dry thinking about it, he could feel the tears of his brother landing on his shoulder, tears gathered up in his own eyes, hope bloomed in his eyes, he could live, and truly live, without worrying about his future.
