Chapter 11: Eloise Breaker
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Ben Higgs spends the last few hours of the second leg of the trip recovering his complexion.

Sitting down and working on nothing, Ben’s thoughts begin to wander towards the last rumors he heard.

While wondering, he takes the little golden statue and examines it.

‘Survivors. That would have been amazing.’

A world filled with life, history, scars, and mysteries. Hearing about rumors and legends has always been Ben’s favorite hobby, this obsession of his became the main reason for his time spent on ruins searching, exploring, and studying whatever he finds.

‘Were they trying to rise again farther from their last home? Is their collapse due to some people discovering their plans?’

A big smile appears on Ben’s face when he begins to digest the new spicy gossip.

There are many rumors about Myriacs. Ben’s favorite is the mystery about their origins and the associated speculation of them being aliens. Despite resembling humans, gossip went around saying otherwise, that they lived in such a high and cold place because they were exiled from a world with such characteristics.

‘If they were killed or not because of that, I will probably never know, but this made me again wonder who those poor things angered so much.’

Their uncanny destruction was overnight, with no prior warning about wars or conflict. At least not one big enough to be recorded in history as the main reason for their fall. Hence such mysterious sudden ending led their tale to fit perfectly on Ben’s list of [“poor bastards that angered someone they shouldn’t”].

‘Maybe I should go to their ruins someday, but it’s so far and too cold…’

After thinking for a while, Ben then closes his eyes to rest for a bit. Even if he would rather not sleep while surrounded by people he doesn’t trust, he can at least relax his tired eyes and mind.

After stopping again, Ben only saw Ginn from afar, as he seems to have become busier as they got closer to their destination.

After having his meal, Ben went to the spacious balcony adjacent to the dining hall.

Its modern style with overused curves and exaggerated smoothness beget a style that embodies the employment of humans with super abilities.

A clear difference exists between the architecture from mortals and cultivators. The later not only is seamless, but it is also always cloaked with magical engravings. However, its most distinguishable feature lay on a simple rule that they always follow blindly: if you can, you do it! Exaggeration is a noun you can attach to almost everything.

As Ben gets closer to the balcony railing, he ignores the architecture and begins to observe the weather.

The sky is covered in dark clouds, filled with lighting sparks, hiding the sun away despite it being a few hours before sunset.

The unnaturally high trees from the garden seem to cry, as they shake due to the slightly strong wind that unceasingly bombards them.

Ben notices that the temperature has dropped drastically since the time they arrived here a few hours ago.

“The weather has turned bleak fast.”

Looking downward, a few new costumers are traveling through the front garden towards the hotel entrance, and distantly, he sees the crowded city street.

“The storm is coming sooner than I anticipated,” he whispers.

As the wind stops for a moment, Ben turns around and gestures with his hand calling his guard.

Yuri appears shortly after.

The first few water drops begin to fall.

Yuri then notices the hand now extended, waiting for something.

“Give me money. I need to buy some things,” Ben says.

Confused, Yuri stands there without knowing what to do.

“You can ask Ginn for reimbursing. Tell him: traveling fees!” Ben explains humorously in an exaggerated tone.

Even while slightly surprised, Yuri still retrieves a wallet-like object from his pocket and gives it to Ben.

Checking inside, Ben finds ten cards. Spirit imprinted cards are a high-value currency. Despite its beautiful design, Ben only takes a partial look at it before closing the wallet and putting it away.

“Thank you. I will be back soon,” Ben says before turning around and jumping down from the balcony.

Yuri, the one left, gives a signal to someone else in the shadows before disappearing again.

Ben silently lands on the ground and begins to walk fast towards the street.

His movements are swiftly, and the wind, that seems to be of a slight inconvenience to others, seems to not even exist at all for him.

He ignores his surroundings, always looking ahead, his destination: a pharmacy down the street.

While Ben is gone, the caravan began to show movements again, preparing to leave abruptly.

Not long after, the whole caravan is ready to leave.

Outside, Ginn seems to be overseeing the preparations.

In the distance, he sees at the corner of his eyes the elder coming back, and at his side, Yuri appears.

Yuri begins to whisper to him as they seem to talk about something important.

“Is the storm coming?”

“Yes. It seems the fight against the monkey aggravated nature more than expected. Taking into consideration how much we had to act, the side effects should persist for weeks,” Ginn responds.

“The old man probably noticed it too.”

“Interesting…” Ginn nods.

Life may be capable of altering the laws and causing phenomena, but the laws of nature don’t respond passively. While small skirmishes have unnoticeable side effects, as the power used in such matters rises, nature’s response afterward increases too.

When too much energy affects an area, the natural cycles respond like a sea filling back a hole caused in it.

Storms are the most common side effect, but it may not be limited to such. Earthquakes, change in the landscape, laws instability, change in the atmosphere, ecosystems balance breaking, are only a few examples of what may happen when energy manipulation is overused.

“What did he buy?” Ginn inquiries.

“Medicine commonly used against motion sickness and cultivation volatility. Should we change our itinerary? Did the bumpy traveling hit him too hard?”

“I assume he bought whatever he needs. Since he didn’t mention anything, we may keep going. He voiced no disagreement either when I presented the itinerary. He was, rather, quite happy.” Ginn answers while considering their journey so far.

He then continues, “The arrangements should be completed by the time we arrive. Leo seems as hurried as me to proceed with our agreement. [sigh]… It is sad how he treats us like monsters ready to pounce on him. How unfortunate.”

Having finished their talking, Ginn turns around and looks directly at Ben.

When the man finally comes closer, Ginn speaks.

“We are leaving soon. Are you ready?”

Ben takes the wallet given to him from his pocket and presents it to them. He is now holding a new package with one of his hands while keeping the bag that he never separated from on his back.

“I am ready. Do you need it back?” He asks.

“You can keep it and don’t hold back if you need anything else,” Yuri responds.

Putting the wallet away like it has been his this whole time, he comments.

“It will be such a good ride, so I will be going to my carriage first to prepare.”

“Sure,” Ginn answers. “Do hold tight. It will be quite fast.”

After Ben leaves, Yuri than asks.

“Are we riding the wave like that? He is as crazy as you for even mentioning such a thing as a good ride.”

“It is indeed better to take advantage of the storm’s spirit energy wave than wait too much and be impeded by it. I wouldn’t choose to wait for it, but since the timing can’t be better, how can we ignore such a good ride?” Ginn smiles widely.

“Crazy…” Yuri disappears without finishing his sentence and returns to his job as Ben Higgs’s shadow guard.

As the weather went crazy, the streets all around the region begin to become empty.

From inside the buildings, people can hear the wind scream outside as all the structures struggle, but the most discomfort comes from the stronger flow of spirit energy in the atmosphere.

The flow makes it hard to move and breathe, so the world feels suffocating.

Even more distressing is the experience for those who evolved.

Whoever learned to bend the laws of nature feel like the energy inside of them is pulled around. As the core of the miracles they can make struggles, shakes and tries to exit the shell that is their body, they feel like the world wants to rip their achievements apart.

However, there were preparations.

Inside of all houses, some candles burn calmly.

Wherever you go, you can find charms on the walls, floors, and ceilings. Even in small villages, people draw using acknowledge inherited over generations.

In big cities, the trees that eventually fall don’t fly around. They attach themselves stronger to the ground, and their leaves fly and dissipate, forming a weak glow that covers the urban area.

Important structures have the same aura. The only difference is that in those, often, the glow is more concentrated and stronger.

Despite the strength of the disaster, the preparations refined over the ages are everywhere. As people use everything they know to mitigate the danger.

While most are hiding, Ginn’s caravan is riding the wave as they use the spirit energy wind to propel them further, faster.

Their location and perfect timing allowed them to catch one of the strong gusts from the beginning of the storm, causing their speed to even double in certain times of the journey.

By going through this, they indeed arrived earlier at their destination. However, the caravan lost its luster because of the harsh conditions.

By the time they arrived, all the carriages have scratches all over the place, and some even have pieces of it falling. Also, the beautiful creatures which pulled them looked worn-out by now, and all the people leaving the carriages looked pale and sick from the travel.

< ‘Ah, we look so discolored. Like it was a washing machine.’ > Ben thinks as he looks at the people around.

He leaves his carriage with only a backpack. Left inside is an almost empty package with very little medicine in it.

< ‘Ground! Such a beautiful thing!’ > He steps firmly, but he still feels the world spinning, and the grogginess due to overly medication.

Right outside his carriage, Ben keeps closing and opening both his hands as he takes deep breathes. He forces his blood flow and focuses on trying to make his body regulate its condition.

However, he then senses, not that far away, the boss appearing, so he begins to walk towards Ginn.

“Should we go?” Ben asks.

“Are you okay with seeing her first?”

“If I don’t see the patient first, then I would feel like this whole experience was worthless.”

[chuckle] “Alright, follow me,” Ginn says before moving towards the mansion.

Before following, Ben takes a last look at his surroundings. He fails to recognize the tree densely surrounding this multiple story white building. Those high trees, 50% higher than the house, works like an obstructive curtain isolating this place from the urban area surrounding it.

‘My instincts says those are somehow involved with the protective array, but I can’t sense the link…’

As he enters the mansion, he senses the change in the atmosphere one generally finds in protected structures, but he still ends up puzzled about the slightly unnatural trees outside.

Indoors, Ben finds the decoration expensive-looking but forgettable. He then follows Ginn to the stairs. They end up going up three floors before finally stopping for a moment.

On the third floor, they encounter a group of people, at what looks like a waiting area.

Ben notices that the group is wearing a sect uniform, but their style is different from Ginn’s sect.

When the crowd’s eyes finally focus on the small new group that arrived, Ben feels a prickling on his skin and the tension in the air raising.

‘I don’t seem to be very welcomed here…’ he looks at the walls.

While Ben was feeling the dangerous gazes, Ginn finally begins to talk.

“Up ahead, we will pass through the systematic measures implemented to make sure everything that goes inside Eloise’s Room is safe. We did everything we could to avoid unwanted external interference on her recovery.”

“From where is she?” Ben asks while trying to endure the pressure.

The surrounding unwelcoming eyes seem to want to pierce through him even harder, and Ginn can only answer awkwardly.

“She is a core disciple from Volcano Sect.”

“The sect from that Volcano? The man that had such a name first but then refined an enormous volcano later?”

“Ha… Yes.”

“Such a background…” ‘Holy crap! You look like a little cub when compared to those monsters protecting your wife…’

Not able to fully endure the auras that kept growing stronger since the moment he entered this room, Ben’s hands begin to tremble.

While trying to lose his collar, he struggles to breathe but still asks.

“I can only ask nicely, but could the masters from the shadows stop the poking at me? I may pass out here.” His clear voice carries a sense of unwillingness and sorrow deep inside.

He asks openly, but those making him uncomfortable aren’t even within the visible group.

At Ben’s side, Ginn’s expression becomes serious as he activates his eyes. The glowing eyes make the group on sight tremble.

The heavy pressure inflicted at Ben slowly retreats.

[cough, cough] Ben tries to recover his breathing. ‘Self assured idiots.’ He thinks, but his expression doesn’t show the feelings he holds deep inside.

Silence fills the area, as the loudest thing they can hear is Ben’s troubled breath.

Only after recovering a bit, Ben finally whispers in a monotone voice: “Lead the way.”

At his side, Ginn keeps his serious expression but doesn’t say anything and only begins to move, as he walks closer to the door his eyes finally goes back to normal.

They enter a smaller hall. There they are given new clothes and are led to changing rooms. Inside those, high tier arrays clean them.

In the new set up, they look like a mixture of medical staff from earth and cliche looking cultivators. Ben finds the combination somewhat funny.

Still, it was only after having Ben’s bag checked that they were finally allowed inside another room.

Finally, arriving at the patient room, what Ben encounters is a big dim-lit room with a bed straight at its center.

Surrounding the bed are many apparatus, and many tables and boxes are straight up against the walls.

In the bed, floor, walls, and ceiling there is all kind of engravings. The light that such a system emits is the only source of light in the room.

The patient is in bed, but she isn’t alone. Present in the room are also eleven people, and they seem prepared to work immediately.

“They implemented the changes in the array as requested, the one responsible for leading the process is here if you have any question. All the personnel you requested is also here if you need more people they are all waiting for your call.” Ginn begins to speak after the door is closed.

Feeling every connection with the outside broken, Ben finally is free from all that pressure.

Nodding to Ginn, Ben walks closer to the bed and finally sees the poisoned maiden.

Anyone sensitive enough could smell the sickening overuse of medicine and feel the brutal energy of the poison suffocating her shattered aura.

‘Cruel… Her presence is so weak. She’s barely alive’

“Are you still well enough to prank people?” Ben asks in a playful tone.

Behind him, Ginn shakes his head as he understands his wife well enough. However, some of the people around show confused reactions for a moment.

In the bed, the young woman slowly open her eyes. Despite trying hard, she can’t hide the tired expression of someone who has been fighting death for months.

“Hello, I am Eloise Breaker. Pleased to meet you. Unfortunately, I can’t stand to greet you formally.”

Ben bows slightly. “Leo Moon. Please stay there, or I really wouldn’t know how to proceed. Not like I am someone experienced with formal customs. Anyway, how have you been feeling?”

“Much better lately, I heard it was because of you?”

“Only a few temporary changes. Nothing effective long term, your doctor should be able to explain further to you later, if you desire so.”

“Can you treat it?” Eloise asks suddenly, going directly to the point.

“Treat isn’t a suitable word, more like destroy it, or extract it. The process would be as painful and destructive as being beaten to almost death. However, against such substance, I can’t think of any subtle counter-attack.”

“The way doesn’t matter, how effective would it be?”

“What I would consider success should be around 80%. If anything interrupts me, the chances then would be around 20, but continuing would implicate on my chance of surviving later. Permanently stopping in the middle would mean you had at best a few months in comma, by then nothing their money or might can get would keep you in this world.”

[sigh]

While Eloise seems to be considering the options, Ben hears Ginn sigh. He also notices that they begin to look at each other. He was not sure if this is a staring contest or if they were talking with their eyes. Probably both.

In those few moments, Ben begins to feel comfortable as he gets used to the surroundings. His presence rapidly adapts to the multiple arrays.

While no one notices, he begins taking over many subsystems of the complex array, like a silent virus spreading.

“Go ahead.” Eloise accepts the treatment.

Note:

[Ben mumbles ‘highway to hell’]

[Ginn mumbles ‘fast car’]

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