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Chapter 251 - Refining War Tactics (4)

“Cough!”

Henry suddenly emerged from the water, coughing violently and gasping for air.

“Ha... Cough! Ha...!”

Henry continued gasping for air, his complexion ghastly pale. Elagon was also still there, holding him tight.

- Khu?

Compared to Henry, who was struggling to breathe in between the coughs, Elagon was completely fine because he was a water spirit.

Henry staggered as he grabbed onto one side of the tub. He swept his wet hair back, his hand shaky, and tried to calm himself down.

‘I almost died.’

Henry’s first thought was short and straight to the point: he had been one step away from dying. The pain he had experienced in the past after taking the Miracle Blue and the less concentrated version of the Black Tear was nothing compared to what he had just been through.

However, just like those times, Henry had barely survived, which proved that it had been the right call to speed up Elagon’s evolution. Without that, Henry’s plan wouldn’t have worked out.

Even though he had survived, the pain was still lingering. Henry wished he could just soak his throbbing guts in the healing water to wash away the pain, but since he couldn’t do that without dying, he had to settle with a few more sips of the water.

Gulp

“Ha....”

Henry got out of the tub, the healing water spilling on the lab floor. He wanted to use Clean to wipe the water from the floor, but he really didn’t have any strength left in him.

Like a wet cotton, Henry slumped into a nearby chair, and Elagon followed him and sat on his lap.

- Khu khu khu.

To Elagon, it didn’t matter how bad Henry’s condition was. All that mattered to him was the warmth of Henry’s body against his own, the reassurance that he was fine.

Henry understood how Elagon felt after that whole ordeal, so he didn’t push him off even though he was heavy. Instead, he closed his eyes and tried to sense the two thousand units of the Black Tear which had threatened to burn a hole through his stomach.

Shhh...

The excruciating pain had left Henry exhausted, but as he began to concentrate, he could feel the mana flowing through his body.

As he concentrated even more, he managed to block out all the background noise. He could clearly feel his heart beating as he tried to find the connections between the vibration of the Circle on his heart and the large amount of mana that flowed throughout his body.

Finding those connections wasn’t difficult. In any case, Henry had succeeded in holding down the exploding mana from the Black Tear, so all he had to do now was to control it.

Henry’s concentration was at its peak. At first glance, he looked like a corpse on a chair, but he had actually just reached a state of complete focus.

Elagon looked up at Henry a couple times because he had gone completely quiet, but then he felt Henry’s warm body, causing him to close his eyes as if he were being soothed by lullaby, leaning his back against Henry.

The sun had already set, and by the time the moon ascended on the night sky, Henry had finally opened his eyes, sluggishly.

“Ha...”

The healing water on the floor had completely dried up.

Henry looked down at Elagon, who was sleeping soundly on his lap. He gently stroked Elagon’s hair and thought to himself, ‘You’re miraculous.’

Although Elagon hadn’t done it intentionally, Henry had benefited from the fact that he had slept on top of him. His healing powers had worked on Henry the whole time they were asleep, which allowed Henry to recover in just half a day.

In addition, whenever the malignant mana was about to wreak havoc inside Henry, Elagon stopped it unknowingly.

That was why Henry considered Elagon to be miraculous.

After concentrating and reflecting on what had happened, Henry thought to himself, ‘Such bullshit... After that whole ordeal, I still haven’t reached the 8th-Circle. I haven’t even gotten close to it.’

Henry had consumed two thousand units of the Black Tear, and yet he hadn’t even come close to reaching 8th-Circle.

‘This is horrible.’

Henry couldn’t even think about how many more units of the Black Tear he would have to drink.

He stopped thinking about that and closed his eyes as he was going to make a contract between his soul and Elagon’s in order to strengthen their bond. The reason for this was simple.

If before, Elagon had helped Henry purely because of his fondness for him and because he saw him as his nest, now he would become a trusted servant like Klever, giving Henry complete reign over him.

Henry gathered the mana in his palm and stroked Elagon’s head. Elagon responded to the warmth of Henry’s gesture and opened his eyes.

“You’re awake.”

- Khu...

“Elagon, can you stick out your pinky?”

Elagon extended his finger and Henry followed suit, making a pinky promise. There was no need for fancy statements to form this contract. All that was necessary was for there to be a strong bond between Elagon and Henry; they had to be united by friendship.

As soon as Henry and Elagon interlocked their pinkies, Elagon could sense that Henry wanted to establish a spiritual connection with him, so he didn’t hesitate.

Although Elagon wasn’t from the spirit world, he could still instinctively tell whether Henry was a good or bad person. So, Elagon accepted Henry’s proposal, and that moment, an invisible thread passed between their interlocked fingers, connecting their souls.

Thump-

Thump thump-

Immediately after their souls were connected, Henry could feel Elagon’s tiny heart beating. This was the second contract Henry had ever made, the first one being with Klever.

This contract would allow Henry and Elagon to share more things between them than before.

‘I look forward to working with you again.’

- Khu...

After finishing the contract, Henry told Elagon through his thoughts that he was eager to work with him again in the future.

At that moment, Henry’s mana started to seep into Elagon like a giant but gentle wave, enveloping him.

Elagon slowly closed his eyes due to exhaustion, and he continued to glow until he turned into a jade-colored bracelet on Henry’s wrist, just like before.

“There we go.”

Henry had finished absorbing the Black Tear, Elagon’s evolution was complete, and they had established a spiritual connection through a contract.

Henry had replenished all of his powers.

***

Whenever there was a full moon, Herarion performed a ritual for Janus, the god of death who protected Shahatra after the darkness of the night enveloped it. This was a tradition passed down the royal family from generation to generation, and it was the Khan’s duty.

At each full moon, when Janus’ power was at its peak, Khan had to offer a sacrifice to Janus in order to appease him.

The task was troublesome, but despite that, Herarion got something out of it. As the one and only representative of Janus, Herarion received access to the power of death, which no other mortal could wield.

Of course, Herarion couldn’t use the power of death just by simply performing a ritual for Janus.

Every time he used that power, he had to sacrifice to the god a being with red blood and mana. Therefore, Herarion didn’t abuse this power and used it sparingly because there were only a few beings in this world with both red blood and mana besides humans.

As usual, Herarion placed the living sacrifice for Janus on the altar in the temple. This time, the sacrifice was a live pig, but of course, Janus wouldn’t be satisfied with just an ordinary pig.

The blood of pigs was red, but animals didn’t have mana. Nonetheless, the people of Shahatra had been sacrificing animals to placate Janus for a long time now through an expedient method that the royal family had come up with.

Herarion went to the pig, which had its legs tied up, and plunged his dagger into its stomach, slicing it open horizontally and exposing the pig’s innards.

However, the poor pig didn’t die right away. It was tenacious enough to not die instantly from a laceration this size, but that didn’t mean that the pig wasn’t in extreme pain. It most certainly was, but he didn’t squeal because it had inhaled a paralyzing incense.

After slicing open the pig, Herarion took out a small lavish bottle that contained a liquefied version of the finest type of Mana Stone. It was essentially liquid mana, and it was generally known as Mana Essence, considered to be one of the most precious substances in existence.

Mana Stones were already very precious, so turning them into pure liquid mana through a complex process made them ten times more valuable.

Herarion looked at the Mana Essence in the bottle. The money required to buy a single bottle of Mana Essence was enough to buy several palaces in a large city.

However, Herarion was the ruler of a nation, so the price of the Mana Essence was insignificant to him. But even so, he couldn’t help feeling bad about the fact that he used this extremely expensive essence once a month.

After all, in order to afford this one bottle of the Mana Essence, the people of Shahatra had to work day and night. However, thanks to Henry’s Pink Swamp, Shahatra had a good financial situation, which slightly alleviated Herarion’s burden.

Pop!

Herarion opened the stopper on the bottle with the Mana Essence. Since this was pure mana, it was tasteless and odorless.

He poured the Mana Essence onto the pig’s organs, causing them to quiver. The pig was paralyzed because of the incense, but its muscles contracted from the unique coldness of the Mana Essence.

Herarion quickly emptied the bottle and then took a thread and a needle and proceeded to sew the pig’s belly shut, closing up its wound to keep the Mana Essence inside.

After he finished, Herarion opened his arms and chanted a spell to summon Janus.

“......Ekdldjxm sjan glaemfek!”

After reciting the final words of the spell, Herarion closed his eyes. Soon, the ceiling of the temple would be covered by darkness, similar to a starless sky during the night, and a fierce wind would blow.

But after some time...

“...?”

Nothing happened in the temple.

- OINK!

Instead, the agonized squeal of the pig echoed throughout the temple as the numbing effects of the incense were subsiding.