Chapter 18: No Different Than A Cripple

A breeze of refinement blew and passed in every reach of Zax's consciousness. The force of perfect completion originated from Zax's newly transformed soul.

Deep within the soul itself, the embodiment of existence, the spirit, has taken the shape of a petrified, curled up ten years old boy.

"Puah!" The boy opened his sealed mouth, releasing a breath of black particles. The small lifelike particles spun around the spirit and merged with the inward layer of Zax's soul. When the inside of the soul reverted back to serenity, a beat of awakening transpired from the spirit and the shut eyes of the boy rekindled in black luster.

August twenty nine, year 5785.

Little by little Zax opened his eyes as if they were rusted shutters. The lights in the room were turned off, but a machine that was also connected to him and hummed next to his right ear had a small bulb that kept on blinking in green light.

"I can't see much". Zax said in mind. For some reason it felt like a burden to use his voice. "It hurts when I try to move". It more like felt like he was shackled to the bed he was lying on. "Why am I so weak?" Yet, somehow, despite awaking to find that he was having an extreme discomfort to even let his eyelids stay open, Zax still asked himself coolheaded.

"My head ... my mind ... it feels so refreshed!" Zax lowered his eyelids and mused on the great feeling in his sea of consciousness. "Is that my soul?" What he found nearly made his body flip, if only he had the strength. The blur that he could never grasp clearly, its appearance was still intangible; however there was something new to it. "No way! Why does it emit the black radiance like the..." Just when he was about to think of it, Zax found it. "The Black Core is in my dantian and also ... the E level Earth's Core also there, and its color also changed to black?! How can that be possible?"

Thoughts ran through his mind, sharper, faster and calmer than ever before, regardless of how puzzled and distracted that made him.

"I can't make up what's happing, how can I have two Earth's Cores? Or is it one and another which is ... a Black Core?" For whatever reason the Black Core did not seem to him the same as a regular Earth's Core now that he was in possession of it. Or rather he knew that the two were different, but he could not point out in what manner.

"Maybe big sis will know, or mommy or daddy". Even though he was not affected by the passage of time because of the dormancy and before that was partly under the control of the Black Core, as Zax thought of those he had not seen since the Great Earth's Core Pursuit and were missing to him in moments when he was alone, thinking that he will die in spite of his confidence, a pressing ache surge in his heart and tears began to flow from his eyes.

"Moooom! Daaaad! Zetsaaa!" Zax cried. His memories of his experience in the beasts' territory were clear and unhindered by strange sensations or black radiance. The tiny bit of his awareness that was present and witnessed back then emerged from where it was submerged and made all the pent up stress erupt in one go.

"Mom! Mom! Dad..." Zax called for his parents. He barely gave notion to how in one moment his mind was so sober and in another he lost himself to mere feelings. But children do not acknowledge their weaknesses and limitations. Those things are a part of them that they do not question and can only concur by slowly maturing. Zax might have a soul that is on an equal level as a D level Mist User and most definitely more capable. His soul can grant him a clearer insight and comprehension than anyone whose soul level is lower, but having a better tool does not affect the proficiency of the user until they diligently train in it. Thus, Zax kept crying in a hoarse voice like a lost child.

"Heavens, Laylen! Thank our Supreme Rulers! Our son has opened his eyes!" Marco burst, shirtless, wearing only pants, into Zax's room, roaring for his wife as he flung to son's side. He heard to voices from his son's room in his sleep and awakened before his wife.

"Daaad!"

The tears were mutual. Marco knew that he cannot lift Zax from the bed, so he bent his back and hugged him gently, caressing one cheek with his hand and rubbing his face and tears in the other.

"Dear!" Laylen screamed. Unlike her husband she did not approach her son instantly. When she saw that Marco was already there and her son crying on his shoulder, like the child that he actually was and sometimes she forgotten about since he grew so fast and chose to follow her daughter, Laylen stood on the threshold of the door and fallen to her knees moping. How could a mother lose her child and be depended on others to find him?

"Mooom!" When the sound of Zax's hoarse voice reached Laylen, she stopped thinking and ran to him with red eyes.

"Oh! Zax, Zax, Zax, Zax..." Laylen's cheek replaced Marco's hand and she called for her son and kissed him.

Marco buried his face in Zax's small head. He did not express the sorrow that he felt, the thoughts of his incompetence as a father by calling up his son's name. He just cried silently.

It was not long before Zax fallen asleep between his parents. Marco and Laylen were awake for a while longer. It was the middle of the night, but to go back to sleep felt like abandoning their son, even though nothing that happened had anything to do with them. Eventually, they fell asleep. Laylen was lying carefully beside Zax and Marco leaned on the bed while sitting on the floor.

Per Doctor Nijima's instructions, on the morning of the following day Marco changed the fluids in the supportive care unit to a different medicinal fluid which Doctor Nijima prescribed for Zax after he will wake up. The first type of medicinal fluids were to sustain and nourish Zax's body during the past months, the second type was to rehabilitate his body to perfect shape and could be given only when the body was completely healed.

As a side effect of the rehabilitation process, Zax slept for four consecutive days. By the time he awakened again the supportive care unit has already been returned to the hospital the committee of the Great Earth's Core Pursuit rented it from. It was also for the better that Zax remained a sleep for a little longer. Since his parents were not much of cultivators and it was their daughter who was in contact with the committee. Since his Qi channels were clogged and his soul jumped to level Zetsa asked of her parents to call her the instant Zax would wake up, before they will replace the fluids, knowing in advance that it will take her a few days to come back. Three days later Zetsa arrived to her parents' home and a day later she was by her beloved brother side when he woke up.

Zax cried right when he recognize his big sister, the one person beside him. She was there, sitting on his bed as if by intuition she knew that he was awakening. However, Zax's back to normal voice quickly faded away as he remembered how he wronged his big sister. By looking in Zetsa's eyes, it was easy to detect that she had similar thoughts, as well.

"Did you calm down?" Zetsa asked. In her voice or facial expression she did not express the same longing for her little brother as their parents did. Zax nodded.

"Good. Sit up".

Zax was sniffling and rubbing his eyes. He looked away when his big sister made eye contact with him and he noticed that something was amiss in the clear blue eyes that were always smiling at him. That sort of look in his big sister eyes purged his mind from his own selfishness, he was willing to trade everything he had for his big sister's smile and his parents' forgiveness, whom he did not forget how they shed tears for him even more so than he did for them.

"Listen to what I have to say and don't interrupt me". Zetsa said solemnly, intending to convey for him everything of the past couple of months.

Zetsa first imparted, not immediately rebuked, the kind of repercussions that she and their parents had to deal with because of his incomprehensible thoughtless actions, both from the event's committee and their own suffering.

"You were lost. Lost! Zax! Taken by a beast!" She gritted her teeth. "An E level Earth's Core was not enough for you?! How could you be so irresponsible?!"

Hearing his big sister's voice cracking, Zax was afraid to talk back.

"Well? Tell me, I want to know what was so wrong with an Earth's Core most people can't even dream about!"

Realizing that she really was waiting for an answer, Zax gasped for a few seconds and began to narrate his side of his time in the Great Earth's Core Pursuit.

An hour later Zax's voice silenced and Zetsa was in the midst of processing his bizarre story.

"And you say that there was an orange mist in the cave?" She said while thinking of something her Martial uncle told her the day he found her little brother and a day before he, unexpectedly, secluded himself in closed doors training.

"Yes". Zax replied softly, unsure of the temperament in his big sister's words.

"And the Black Core..."

"There were two, but one is now in my lower dantian with the E level Earth's Core ... It changed its color to black ... Big sis, I was waiting for you because I wasn't sure what to do. My soul I feel has become so much stronger, and my body also feeling better than ever, but I can't feel my Qi anymore..." Zax pleaded for Zetsa to impart him some guidance.

"Little Zi..." Finally, a shred of affection came out from Zetsa's lips and the expression on her face softened.

When Doctor Nijima checked Zax's three aspects the only abnormalities were in Zax's Qi channels and soul. In regards to his body, something caused it some internal injuries but nothing further. He did not mention the existence of another Earth's Core in Zax's dantian nor the a change in the coloring of his E level Earth's Core that he had yet to crack, and now and in the future he most likely will never succeed in doing so.