Not much longer than a minute has passed since the silence started, but that was enough for Ben to take over all the subsystems he needs.

He now has control over most of the arrays formed by the engravings.

After receiving the confirmation from Eloise, he turns to Ginn.

“Take over the control unit. I will need your support in the process. Also, you can send Yuri in, and he can be the one keeping an eye in the process.”

Beforehand, they had agreed if the treatment needs to be too aggressive, Ginn himself would assume the array control and use his advanced mastery in energy control to increase the chance of success.

“Hold on there babe, I will be in the next room,” Ginn speaks with his wife in a lovely tone before leaving.

—

Once he feels the controller of the room finally changing, Ginn begins ordering the people around. Over at the side, Yuri is already overseeing them.

“The four elemental array masters can assume the four cardinal positions, but don’t connect the asked support direct to the main system. I will be tipping your array directly when needed.”

He then looks at the five medicinal specialists and points.

“You get me set B and F, the other four can begin filling the medicinal pool.”

Looking towards the two left, Ben pleads.

“Also, Array Commander, please don’t interfere, even if I don’t follow your standards. Since I don’t have your formal education, don’t expect to see me following the set of rules you find fundamental. Also, Don’t expect to see me knowing how to react when confronted with a commander changing the flow of the array, even if to correct something or make something better. In this situation, I can only ask one thing from you: please focus on keeping the array core working, even if everything else begins to break down, do your best to keep it running. That would be the best help you can offer a misfit like me, and the only reason I accepted the help of someone who can screw me over and use misunderstanding as an excuse later.”

As he finishes what he wanted to say to the Array commander, the woman with blueish hair that he asked some sets earlier comes back with a tray.

Ben begins to check the things on the tray, as the woman holds it. He then begins to talk with the Main Doctor.

“As her doctor, your job will be to keep your eyes open and remember whatever you can that may help when dealing with her post-treatment recovering. However, if you can’t understand something, I’ll not be explaining it later.”

[swish] As Ben was returning one of the scalpels to the tray after checking it, he inserts it swiftly in the assistant’s heart. At the crucial moment, right before the fatal attack, her expression changed, and she tried retreating. However, she wasn’t able to move, as Ben had used the array to immobilize her.

[swish] The scalpel is removed.

While everyone is on their feet due to the surprise attack and struggling due to the array pressure that filled the room, Ben stays calm. From his pocket, he removes a small bottle. He then inserts the bloody scalpel inside one of the filled containers momentarily, and drops some liquid from the small bottle in it after, mixing it all.

He puts the bottle away and the scalpel down in the tray calmly, as he takes the container that doesn’t show any reaction to his nose. He takes his time smelling it and looking closer to it before he finally puts it down.

He then begins to hold the tray with both his hand, removing it from the woman’s hands.

The dead body is lowered by the light engravings that appeared all over it and has been supporting it.

“I asked for trustworthy people, so why have you chosen someone who plays with repressive poison? Are you only using your holy eyes to filter such shady characters? I advise you against such ignorance. You can do much better than this, thus avoiding such potential trouble. Don’t be overconfident. Never.” Ben voices loudly in the room.

He then withdraws all the pressure he had suddenly imposed and speaks towards Yuri.

“Come and help me put this tray somewhere and bring me the set A and D.”

Yuri waits a moment before following the orders.

With his hands-free, Ben turns to Eloise.

“I will be putting you to sleep, are you okay with that? I don’t recommend staying conscious while going through the pain.”

“I have chosen to put my life on your hands, so please do as you believe fit best the treatment.” She looks down on the floor, but the body is out of her field of vision. “If you can do what we can’t, I am sure the rest we can take care of.”

As she finishes speaking, Ben touches her head, putting her to sleep.

The staff surrounding him went back into focusing on their job. But, the shadow of fear stayed in their hearts.

Yuri comes back with a new tray. His eyes hold a bit of expectancy as he finds himself in the same position as the woman that was alive a few moments ago.

Ben explains nothing, but retrieves the tray and put it in the bedside table.

He finally lets go of his backpack, putting it on the floor. He then opens it, withdrawing from it a few bottles of medicines.

At the tray, Ben mixes a recipe in one of the cups. Its content begins to emit a blue-red gradient color, and a strong smell of anesthesia fills the room.

Yuri, who is closer, notices Ben dropping one small white pebble-like object in both the cups available in the tray.

Ben then takes the cup emitting the anesthetic smell and, surprisingly, drinks it.

Yuri’s shock doesn’t stop there, as he begins to notice the outline of blood veins become more and more apparent on elder exposed skin.

He stops looking at the man with his gaped mouth because he turns his head towards the tray as he notices some changes in the white medicine.

Unfortunately, despite knowing what went into it and for what it is used, he is unable to pinpoint what has a single pebble done to it, but his intuition screams to him that the medicine has changed somehow.

As Yuri returns his attention to Ben, he catches the moment the old man opens his now bloodied eyes, looking at Ben’s serious expression somehow calms him down.

[Deep breath] Ben then removes his overcoat, exposing in his lower back a single simple dagger that no one had noticed so far.

Dropping the overcoat, he retrieves the dagger with his right hand and uses his left hand to retrieve and throw the last cup of medicine on the ground area at his back.

The amount of force used was enough to break the container, spreading medicine and pieces of the glass-like material all over the floor.

Yuri moves two steps back, as he looks at the medicine thrown at the floor.

Somehow, he feels attracted to it, so he sees when the engravings begin to absorb the mixture, including the pieces of glass.

It takes a dozen seconds or so only, and the floor is clean again. No sign of the cup found.

Not long after, Yuri begins to hear a fast movement in the air.

Looking at the old man, he sees him moving the dagger with fast and circular motion above Eloise.

Yuri ends up stepping far back, as the room begins to tremble due to the abrupt flow of energy.

In his corner, the Array Commander groans, as he struggles to try to keep the array as stable as he can.

However, he isn’t able to stop the tremors, because Ben keeps stimulating the array beyond its limits more and more.

Yuri can see, even while far back, the veins bulging out from his neck, almost popping.

“WOW!” Yuri exclaims.

The engravings in the surfaces begun to levitate, as they seem to have gain life.

The sight is incredible. As the lines float in the air, they braid together and begin to emit more and more light. This change transforms the place into a bright room.

Some of the engravings flew towards the bed, others in the direction of some medicines and tools.

The elemental array master all held a shocked expression, even while trying to focus on running their arrays. This interference is too alien.

The medicinal specialists feel their medicinal energy pool drain at an incredible speed.

Yuri looks to one side and another, he is lost without knowing where to focus his attention.

He can see medicine disappearing on the tables, as the stronger light illuminates all the corners of the room.

He can also see the old man simple movements but chaotic presence, as his weak aura precisely orders these beautiful phenomena, like a master and his orchestra.

He can feel the array cracking and coming back together multiple times every second, despite being suffocated by the thick flow of energy in the air.

“AH!” he screams. He sees Ben abruptly inserting the dagger, that now doesn’t seem so simple, in Eloise’s stomach.

[clink clink clink] The sound of needles hitting each other permeates the room, as the needles by the side table zooms from the tray at high speed and stops floating at precise positions above the patient.

As the needles halt on Eloise skin, the room calms down.

The flow in the air becomes gentle. The light level decreases until a point of comfort.

The compound array stops struggling, but it mutated so much that the people that worked in it would never recognize it as their own.

All over the thick braided engravings, smaller branches have grown, stabilizing the system.

While the whole structure looks mystical, any array specialist would also say it is archaic, rudimentary, and lacks finesse. Because the knowledge applied was a mixed mess and abided by no order.

Yuri moves around to look at the dagger from a better angle, and, fortunately, he doesn’t see any blood, but with his focus on Eloise, he notices engravings all over her body.

Time passes. Seconds. Minutes.

[Releases breath] Yuri finally breathes again, as he frees himself from a haze, for some reason he had begun to hold his breath.

For some moments, he thought the elder had died due to the change of pace and increasingly silence, but the small changes he could see here and there on the room notified him that Ben is still working, somehow.

Although the room looks calm on the surface, the only ones not struggling are the ones only watching: Yuri and the Doctor.

While the others, they all look tired and are soaked in sweat, and Ben looks like a tomato, completely red.

Over the minutes, the needles were slowly injected into Eloise, and only the tips could be seen now.

Yuri feels the room changing again, a few seconds after the needle stopped moving.

However, the room didn’t become as chaotic as before.

Yuri sees some lines moving towards Eloise, before feeling the energy accumulated in the room flowing towards the bed. While Ben absorbs some, the majority is distributed among the dagger and needles.

Even from some distance, Yuri notices, not long after, some transparent liquid begins dripping from the tip of the needles.

The process kept going wanting to suck the whole room dry.

From time to time, the sounds of things breaking comes from the tables.

Two minutes later, the liquid finally stops dripping, but three from the nine people helping passed out in the process. Fortunately, the Array Commander held on.

As to signal it all has ended, over a few seconds, the needles are steadily removed from Eloise’s body.

[clink clink clink] They are thrown in the floor.

[swish] The dagger is removed.

Ben staggers as he takes two steps back.

[Really deep breath]

[Heavy breathing]

Ben tries to stabilize himself, but he struggles to stay standing.

He uses the bed to support himself.

However, even after the tension left his body, he still tries to focus on the room status.

Some small arrays begin to crumble down, while others fall flat on the ground.

The room keeps changing until everything goes back to a more stable state.

By then, from the group of helpers, only the Array Commander and two medicinal specialists are conscious.

Ben finally turns around, picks his bag, and begins to weakly walkout. However, he still looks towards the doctor and speaks with his horse voice.

“Your turn.” He says, leaving the room without saying another word.

Yuri is filled with excitement, as he looks forward to the confirmation that the treatment was a success. It has been months since he felt this much hope.