Volume 3 - Chapter 4 - Healing the Soldiers

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Arriving at the underground shelter the leaders of Dawn City built, he saw his own soldiers being placed on beds covered in bloody bandages while the ones who were lightly wounded watched over their comrades and ensured their safety.

When they saw Vlad followed by Oliver enter inside, the ones faring better quickly reacted, militarily saluting him.

"Commander! You are fine, thanks, Sol!" called out the soldier who from his clothing was a lieutenant

Hearing the words of the lieutenant, other soldiers and citizens who got wounded, along with the doctors, turned to look at this young man wearing noble clothes that didn't match the kingdom's style.

"Salute Commander!" shouted most of the soldiers who could speak, making Vlad wave calmly at them and slowly walking to each of those wounded soldiers, lowering himself at the ones who were bedridden.

As he was watching those soldiers of his with a calm gaze, he placed his hand on their wounds, swiftly enough, his eyes turned crimson.

"Your Highness, no need to waste your powers on me. My body will heal on my own." said an officer that had the rank of captain that had a missing leg.

"It is fine. While you, my valiant soldiers, serve me, I will also serve you and do everything in my power to assure your own safety. Has anyone got his severed limb?" asked Vlad while patting the officer's head, giving him a warm smile, awaiting an answer from the soldiers watching over the captain.

"Yes, Commander! Captain Mesud's leg is wrapped closely in a protective bag. Just a second." said a soldier, who moved a bit limping but nevertheless getting back with a bag that he opened and showed a leg.

"Good, now you can retreat a bit. Mesud, I will perform an operation on you and attach back your leg, grit your teeth because you will feel it."

"Can you do this, Your Highness?" asked Mesud, skeptical about what Vlad's true powers could achieve.

"I have done my trials on this power, so I shouldn't fail with you. Give Mesud a rope to clench his mouth in." ordered Vlad to a doctor who came with a skeptical expression on his face, trying to figure out what this young man was doing.

"Young man, are you a doctor by chance? You don't look like one. Also, what are you trying to do there?"

The soldiers gazed sharply at the doctor who asked that question spooking him a bit as if they were insulted only hearing how he was talking with their leader.

"I have some experience, but my knowledge and expertise are mostly on the body structure. Does this make me a surgeon by the common terminology of the healing school? Am I right?"

"Sir, are you one of the pristine surgeons? My apologies if I sounded offensive." apologized the doctor, after quickly figuring what path Vlad had expertise on.

"Well, you can say that. Also, don't worry, just don't disturb me when I start my operation. Ready, Mesud?" asked Vlad after seeing that the soldiers brought a rope from somewhere, giving it to the captain, placing it in his mouth.

Mesud nodded his head, giving his signal, and so, Vlad took the bandages of the severed leg and creating a set of surgical tools using his blood powers. He started his work while being watched by the curious doctors and soldiers who hopped for their captain to recover to his healthy state.

With a surgical knife, he started cleaning off the dead meat while isolating his bleeding using his blood powers. Doing the cleaning calmly while Mesud was groaning in pain, Vlad later used his blood powers like tentacles to grab the leg. As he grabbed into the leg, he started cutting off the dead meat and any possible infected parts.

Then connecting his leg, later releasing his blood powers to create a bound, before he worked his mysterious powers to start reconnecting the nerves and also start the regenerating effects of Mesud's own body, increasing his metabolism.

The doctors were stunned when seeing Vlad perform his surgery. The swift and emotionless movements of his hands while cleaning the infected areas of Mumuds leg and seeing him bind together the severed leg was something never achieved in history, except for when using a mythical devil fruit power.

"No way, he wields the legendary Operation fruit powers?" asked one doctor another colleague. (A/N: That's Ope-Ope fruit, I am just not that big of weeb to use jap version)

"Most likely, it is written in all the books related to medicine that only the mythical Operation Fruit can allow someone to perform a reconstruction of severed limbs."

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Vlad didn't bother much with what those doctors were whispering with one another as he prepared for the last stage of the surgery, sewing his leg to create a better bound of his still fragile leg.

"Well, Mesud, how do you feel?" asked Vlad after finishing sewing his leg with a blood thread made from his own powers.

"Barely awake, Your Highness. But I can feel my leg and also sense when you touch my toes."

"I see. This surgery was a success then. The war is over, so I recommend you to stay here for one week so the leg can heal up a bit before going home and enjoying a well worth vacation. Same for the rest of you guys. I will summon you to your duty when you recovered yourselves. For now, make a list of everyone who lost their limbs and who managed to take them with them. I'll move to my little disciple Robert, and after we will start the surgeries."

"Your Highness, will you be fine if you keep using your powers like this?" asked Mesud from his bed, looking at Vlad, who was followed by the brown-haired man with glasses and a fit body.

"My devil power expenditure is smaller than you might think since I only have to boost your bodies to start its own recovery process, while I only do the sticking of your bodies. Let's go move, Oliver."

"Yes, Prince." responded the assassin following after Vlad, while the doctors also walked toward the back of the young noble.

"Young Sir, one second, please." requested one old doctor with a long beard as he tried to hold Vlad for a brief moment.

"Not now. Once I finish sticking up everyone, we will talk. Do your jobs as doctors and look after the wounded." said Vlad without feeling annoyed by the doctors that walked next to him.

The doctors stopped in place, and only after Vlad walked deeper into the underground shelter did they went to check on the other wounded civilians and soldiers.

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In such a way, Vlad and Oliver passed different soldiers and civilians, stopping when arriving at where a young man about 15 years old with raven hair and brown eyes with sharp features sat beside 3 middle-aged guys who seemed to be sleeping and had their bodies covered in bandages.

The young man swiftly turned his head, seeming to be vigilant with his surroundings, but when he saw Vlad, the sharpness in his gaze softened up, turning weaker before he got in his feet and walked to give his mentor an embrace.

"Sorry big brother, I failed you and almost failed in getting out from the fight."

Looking at Robert, he raised his hand and ruffled his head, saying with a calm voice. "It is fine. You are still young and have plenty of space to grow in the future. What matters for me is that you are alive. There is an old saying I know, 'To become powerful, you need to be alive to achieve that. Come, don't be a sissy that would start crying."

"Have I raised a little boy that needs my attention to feel secure?"

Sniffing a bit, trying to calm himself, he turned his attention to Oliver, who just bowed to him with a serene expression, greeting him. "Young master, I am Cranfon Oliver, pleased to meet you. To add completion to the Prince, your future is bright. I have seen you fight against Wincester and how you stood your ground."

"Big brother, who is he?" asked Robert looking skeptical at Oliver.

"Cranfon Oliver, former leader of Dark Union, now joining our side. I'll fill you with more details later since we get to heal those three."

"Indeed, big brother, can you really heal them back?" asked Robert, looking at Gif, Vem, and Ramoth standing side by side on the beds Robert got from some people who didn't need them that much.

Vlad, who approached them, placed his hands on their bandaged wounds, and closing his crimson eyes, he was taking their pulse.

"Their pulse is stable, only Gif's is lower than normal, hmm, what is this nasty stuff?"

As Vlad said that, he created another surgical knife, cutting open the bandages and revealing a deep dagger wound, where the wound started oscillating.

Oliver, who watched with a calm face, informed Vlad of what happened to Gif.

"This man was hit by 'Departing Soul' poison. A poison concocted by the alchemists of the Dark Union under the supervision of Elder Allestar.  Its efficiency is so big that even the strongest people that have mastered Haki and how their body works can be inflicted by the poison. It might kill them slowly, but nevertheless, they will die with time."

"Would you look at that? There is such a poison in the world?"

"Prince, there are many things out there that even I don't fully understand."

"No problem as we live, we also accumulate more information. First, I will extract this poison and do my research on it. Ahh, right, so I don't waste my time finding the ingredients. Do you know the recipe?"

"No, but Wincester might know. He was a spoiled rat even in the Dark Union, always looking down at other members because of his grandfather."

"Heh, that is good. I have one more reason to destroy his mind. Anyway, hand me the antidote. I know you got one."

"How comes you are so sure, Prince?" inquired Oliver with a calm face while gazing at Vlad.

"Someone like you wouldn't be leaving his guard off against anyone, meaning you were prepared for that Wincester guy to strike you."

"Correct assumption." answered Oliver before placing a hand in his trouser pocket and taking out a small vial, and handing it to Vlad.

When getting that vial, Vlad moved Gif's head up before opening his mouth and pouring the vial in his mouth. Minutes later, Gif began convulsing around, similar to a possessed person, and when he stopped, he spewed a mouthful of black blood.

"Where am I? What happened with the fight? Arghhh, that cursed bastard, I couldn't kill him."

"Calm down. Take deep breaths and focus on your recovery. Put your worries to the back of your mind because they are unnecessary right now."

"You? It is you, little Zagreus. Does this mean we have won the war and stomped on the noble traitors?"

"That is correct, so breath at ease. Soon the old man will come to check on you, but since I could leave Sofiya alone, I left him to guard her."

"Sigh, so even the old man is fine. What about Vem and Ramoth? Are they fine?" asked Gif, looking up at the ceiling, before he sensed his friends standing close to him, in a sleeping state.

After sensing them, he tried to move, but his body couldn't allow him, and so, Gif closed his eyes while gritting his teeth.

Vlad moved to Vem, whose bandages barely contained the blood he lost, and cutting off the bandages, he saw a nasty cut on his stomach that eviscerated him.

"So much blood lost."

"Can you save him, big brother?" asked Robert with a quiet voice.

"I am not a Saint to do miracles. All I can try is to work according to the laws of nature and let everything else to his body function. Let's cut his nerve system connection, for now, so he doesn't suffer too much."

Getting to Vem, he started jamming his fingers around different points of his neck and back until he adjusted Vem's position and started his surgery on him.

He arranged his stomach organs in the correct order they were supposed to be before isolating the zone and checking other organs that might have been wounded.

"He has been poisoned too. Sigh, to kill off the substances in his blood system. Before that, let's close his wound."

Using his blood-morphed tools to operate on Vem's body, with his blood threads that he was sewing back his body, he later placed his finger in his chest area, right on his heart, inserting his own blood inside Vem's heart.

Quickly he pushed past his heart and started to follow the primordial pathway of the circulatory blood system and search for evasive substances harming his body.

Robert could see that Vlad was sweating a lot while frowning. Minutes passed, and only after 15 minutes did Vlad open his crimson eyes, and Vem coughed from out of nowhere a mouthful of blood.

He opened his eyes but couldn't speak or move, just looked around as if he was paralyzed. It was when Vlad touched his nerve points that he shut down, Vem said with a weak voice.

"Little Zagreus, it was you who brought me back from the abyss gate?"

"Quiet down and focus on your recovery. Rather than thanking me, prepare for when the old Nius would visit you.

Moving toward the last of the royal guards, Ramoth, who was full of cuts and also missing a leg, he executed a reattaching surgery like the one he had done for Mesud.

Finishing their surgery, he turned at Robert and told him with a slightly exhausted voice.

"Stay here until Nius arrives. After that, I want you to come to the Palace and look after Sofiya while I am dealing with the aftermath of the war."

"Did big sister get harmed in the war?"

"A bit, but she is a tough woman and will recover quickly, be back on her feet."

"Understood, big brother. I will watch over the uncles until then, keep them company, so they don't get bored standing tied on the bed."

The three royal guards who regained tried to laugh but cried out in pain.

"I told you to not talk and not move until three days. What is so hard to understand, you meatheads? I will not sew your opened wounds if you by chance do something I haven't mentioned."

"Aye, doctor. We can talk, but slowly." said Gif, making Vlad shake his head and depart with a smile on his face, arriving at the section where his wounded soldiers were stationed.

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Standing there, he looked at an officer who was watching over the safety of others and was holding a list in his hand. Moving with a limping step toward Vlad, he greeted him and handed the list.

"Your Highness, this is the list of everyone heavily wounded. About 87, while the rest 230 have medium wounds. We haven't placed those with light wounds on the list, such as myself." reported the officer after handing the list with a salute.

Looking at this officer and other soldiers who were ready to bring the heavily wounded smiled at him before touching his chest and pushing a tiny fragment of his blood energy.

The office immediately felt the hot sensation in his chest that later manifested in an all-around sensation of being in a hot bath, a pleasant hot bath.

His wounded right leg started feeling better, point where he bowed hard at Vlad, telling him.

"There was no need for Your Highness to waste his power on me. I could heal up on my own."

"Because I like how you proceeded organizing the list, prioritizing the heavily wounded regardless of army rank, and the rest of the wounded. I will remember you."

"My name is Decib, Lieutenant of the Black Army of Company S056, Your Highness." answered the officer, reminding Vlad of who he was talking with, visibly not mad or affected because he knew he was just a lieutenant in an army composed of thousands of people.

Nodding his head in an acknowledging manner at the officer in his mid-twenties, he walked to a free bed, taking himself a chair and calling out the names on the list.

The soldiers able to move and lightly wounded began carrying their wounded comrades who were eviscerated, either had lost limbs and other nasty wounds they gained from fighting against the Dark Union assassins.

Like this, he spent most of his time healing his soldiers that made it out of the war with their lives intact, yet as he moved from soldier to soldier, even he had to take some breaks.

The soldiers saw this side of Vlad and looked with amazed eyes at how their own leader, who fought the same with them in the war, lowered himself to treat each of their wounds.

From that moment, in some of the soldiers' minds, a new image of Vlad was formed, of a devilishly handsome man holding a crown made of thorns on his disheveled long crimson hair, with one angel wing on his right side and a devil wing on his left side. With his angelic side, he would cure people, bring miracles upon their lives, and with his other side, he would bring chaos upon his enemy.

'Only Gods and Saints can bring miracles of such nature, healing people and bringing them back from Tartarus Gates.'

Thought some soldiers and especially the doctors who brought it upon themselves to assist Vlad with anything he was asking them, also watching his masterful hands operate on the soldiers.

After about 3 hours of meticulous work, Vlad asked for a pen from one of the doctors where he drew a line, leaving only the ones with a medium type of wounds that weren't in a life-endangered zone.

"Guys, I will resume looking after the rest with medium-type wounds after I recover my stamina and energy. However, don't get depressed. As I reminded you in my small break, everyone who still wishes to return to the army or leave has free choice. As war veterans, this is all I could do for you, in addition to giving you a pension for fighting the enemy."

"Please, Your Highness, no need for such words. You brought us up from the slums of the Forsaken District and other badly handled villages. You gave us a purpose in life and showed us that by training ourselves and always being disciplined in combat or outside, our lives would look different, in the good aspect. Don't get rid of us after serving you for just so little." confessed one officer that generated a chain reaction from the other wounded soldiers.

"That is right, Commander. You can't get rid of us. We will fight for you until death would part us."

"That's right, that's right. You are our eternal leader."

Hearing all of these comments, especially from the one he just operated on, he slapped him on his head softly before starting to laugh cheerfully.

"Haha, do you guys like to be soldiers so much that even the thought of me letting you retire makes you react like this? *Chuckling* I have never expected such a thing. Hah, fine, but I stand by my word. If any one of you wants to retire because of the wounds suffered in this war, write a letter to your above leaders requesting for your leave, and the high officers will follow up the other procedures."

"NO WAY! WE ARE THE PROUD BLACK ARMY SOLDIERS."

Oliver, who was beside Vlad, watching those soldiers interact with their leader, that almost brought a genuine smile to his cold expression.

Vlad still laughed, visibly affected by the sincerity of his soldiers, something he will forever have ingrained in his memory.