Chapter 72: The last home of Salamanders
A pile of ashes were present in the hands of the beings made entirely of flames.
These beings, possessing a humanoid body with no facial features, certainly had a unique vibration to them.
They weren’t ordinary entities. And their extraordinary abilities were not something simple either.
-Oooooooooooooooooong!
"Chirp~!"
As the two creatures watched, the pile of dark ashes started floating on the palm of the great entity.
"Meow..."
With one excited and one worried about her master, the Guardians had already initiated their work.
"Griiim~!"
The place around them resembled the sixth cradle. It seemed like a greenhouse or a giant garden, but unlike an artificial environment, this place was much different.
-Zaaaaaaa...
There were trees long forgotten in history present here.
In these trees and around them, Spirits, Fay creatures, creatures not known to the outside world, and above all, creatures of legend, the Salamanders, were present around them.
"Criiim?"
The salamanders, possessing similar features as Eon and any other lizard, were watching the unique thing happening in the center of this forest.
[ "Beguining physical reconstruction." ]
As the creatures present watched, the dark ashes floating above the Guardian’s palm took a certain, humanoid form.
-Skiiiiii...
In a process that was beyond any being present, They turned the dark ashes into a perfect skeleton structure.
-Miiiiiiiii...
With the heart area as the center, two distinct places became the origin of blood vessels that spread throughout this skeleton structure.
Also, while the right side of the skeleton body was the centre-point of the blood vessels, the left side of the ribcage became the new resting place for the piece of the dragonheart that Nyx had found in the Sungrade treasury.
The heart was reshaped in the form of a real heart, and contained within it was a near endless amount of energy.
-Xeeeeeee...
To channel this energy, like the net of blood vessels that formed around the skeleton, an energy network that resembled a highly advanced electrical circuit of some lost civilization was laid out throughout this new body.
"Chirp!"
[ "Yes, of course." ]
Following the blood vessels and energy channels, organs formed through a rapid cell generation.
-Oooooooooooooong!
Muscles, skin, eyes, hair, the entire body was reconstructed almost exactly like it had been before it was destroyed.
Fundamentally, they had not created something new. They just remade what was there before, just with a few little tweeks.
[ "Now..." ]
When the body was ready and floating on the flame palm, the other guardian who had been ’holding’ a glowing orb of light, maintaining it and sustaining it for the time being, came closer and the two elders placed both the ’body’ and ’spirit’ in the palm of the third elder.
[ "He will need your help now." ]
The three looked– turned their heads towards the two creatures waiting for their master.
"Chirp~!"
"Meow!"
Both of them were ready already, so right as the three focused on the boy’s floating body and spirit, the two creatures focused on their connection with the boy.
-Oooooooooooooooong!
The bond link, the Soul String that still existed between them, the proof of their master’s ongoing life, started manifesting between the soul orb held by the guardian and the two creatures.
[ "Begin." ]
-ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...!
They started fusing the soul, the identity, with the ’new’ body.
"Chirp...!"
The friction produced during the process was not ordinary either. The two creatures were fighting for their life as they watched the bond mark that defined their connection to the boy reappear on the right side of his chest.
At the same time, on the left side of the chest, a new, strange pattern made of the same ancient runes that they had been seeing ever since entering this forest, was formed in the shape of a triangle present inside a circle.
On the outside, the circle was the same orange color as the Guardians while on the inside, the triangle was made of the golden color of the dragon heart fragment present inside of him.
-Oooooooooooooong!
When the physical and non-physical merged, the bond mark on the boy’s chest had finished forming as well.
-Shnnnnnnn!
Their work was done, so, the guardians slowly levitated his body downwards, placing it on a bed of flowers that the other creatures had prepared for him.
"Meow..."
Felix was the first one to rush to him, looking at his blue hair, his face that was more mature now, his body that seemed to have grown a year or two.
The muscle density of his body was greater than before. Comparatively, he was twice as physically strong as he was before coming to this place.
"Chirp..."
Still, none of the things they have done here, none of the things that have happened to him until now, and none of the challenges that he had faced to come here would mean anything if he does not wake up.
"Chirp!"
Felix was licking his face, his hand, caressing his body with her face, but Nyx was not as patient as her.
"Chirp! Chirp!"
He started hitting his forehead with his yellow beak in a familiar manner.
"Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!"
The constant hitting gave the boy a mild headache, making his eyes flinch a little.
"Meow?"
{ "Master...?" }
"Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!"
But the constant hitting of the little bird did not stop. He continued with his work, covering all parts of his forehead.
"Ugh..."
Even as the pain had awakened the boy, the little phoenix did not stop.
"Chirp!"
He hit his nose as well, but it was intentional.
"Nyx! Stop it!"
And the sudden pain on his nose jolted him up as he opened his eyes and grabbed the little menace.
"Chirp~!"
At the very least, he tried to grab the small bird.
"Meow!"
{ "Master!" }
He had failed miserably. But, he had woken up.
"Chirp~!"
First Felix and then Nyx jumped on him and hugged their master with a relieved heart. And following the two, the creatures in the surrounding area who have been cheering them on all this time gathered around the flowerbed as well.
"Huh?"
He did not understand what was happening here right now. He did not remember the kind of hell that his familiars had gone through because of him.
But they managed to do something incredible for him.
"Felix... Nyx... what’s going on?"
The [Mana Decay Syndrome] was still a part of his body, but it wasn’t the same as what it used to be.
Now, his body did not decay all of the internal energy.
[ "They gave you a gift, Young descendent of Sungrades." ]
"Huh?" He was stunned by the strange voice he was hearing right now.
"...?!"
And he was even more stunned when he saw the giant beings of flames, the Guardians of the Sun sanctuary, along with the very place that used to be endlessly mystical for him in his past life.
"Chirp!"
Thanks to the phoenix, his body could now release the energy from the dragon heart fragment as its own.
The hypothesis of the young phoenix that it was possible to counter the decay syndrome by reforming the entire being of an individual turned out to be true.
It wasn’t as perfect as the phoenix hoped it to be, but it was beyond anything that his human friend could have hoped for.
"What... is all this?"
Sam was confused because he did not understand anything going on right now.
The last thing he remembered was waiting before the stone that these two had gone into, but then, everything was blank.
He was unsure of what had happened...
"Meow! Meow...!"
But seeing as how emotional his little Miss kitten was, he could tell a lot of things had happened since he was last awake.
’What in the six hells have happened?’
He wanted to know the answers.
[ "Welcome to the Sun Sanctuary, Prism... no. Professor Sam." ]
And those giant beings of fire seemed to be exactly the kind of entities who would know the answers to the worldly and otherworldly questions of a curious mind.