“No!” Hans ran to his fallen friend, “I refuse to believe this! Work harder!” His voice broke on the last word.
“I have nothing left to give.” Adam sobbed, “I’m drained to near death myself.” He shook, his body wracked with sobs.
“Here!” Rose ran over to them, vials in her hands, “Pour this down his mouth!” She held out a healing potion.
“Rose, he is gone… It won’t help.” Adam informed her morosely.
*SLAP* Her hand rocked Adam to the side, he looked at her startled and astonished out of his depression. “You will do what I say! Now!” She screamed in his face.
He took the vial, handing it to Hans, who poured the potent healing potion down his fallen friend’s throat. No effect was visible, no miracles appeared.
“Now you drink this!” Rose directed, handing Adam another vial that blazed with concentrated Essence. She gave another to Hans, directing him to administer it to Dale. Reluctantly obeying her, Adam drank the contents of the vial. It never reached his stomach, the potent Essence being absorbed directly into his Center, lighting it up like a dawn forcing away the hold of night. The Essence rushed through him, filling him to his maximum potential and then continuing, the overflow of Essence beginning to burn out his meridians.
Quickly - full of panic - Adam returned to Dale and attempted to revive him. The Essence in Dale from the vial was now sitting in his center like a lump, unmoving. No matter what technique Adam tried, it refused to move, to connect to Dale’s life-force. His ministrations restarted Dale’s heart, but the man refused to regain consciousness.
“I’ve done… all I can.” Adam slumped. “He is alive, but… I think not really. Let’s get him out of here so we can at least give him a proper burial.” The stunned, sickened members of the team gathered his body and prepared to leave.
~Cal~
“He isn’t all the way dead though!” Dani gasped. “You won’t get his Essence anymore!”
<I got all the stuff in his center, but you are correct; I didn’t get his life-energy. They must have revived him somehow.> I looked at them wonderingly. I couldn’t absorb him since he was alive, so the others had placed him near the exit as they moved to take a trophy of the great Beast they had slain. With the human auras no longer blocking him from my sight, I was able to inspect Dale carefully. Since he was dead - but not really - I was able to learn everything about his body near instantly, as I had with Dani. I was quickly able to determine what the issue was and corrected it in his body, as I would a stone in my walls.
This did not bring him back, the Essence in him was no longer funneling into his quickly dimming life force. Even the liquid Essence in him began to sputter and make its way out of his body. There was still more Essence in him then there had been; truth be told the overdose they poured into him would have made his chest explode if his body were alive to contain it. Now, it was just dissipating into the air.
<Dani, if he gets out of here before he dies, I don’t get that rush of energy. If I fixed his Essence, do you think that would wake him up? I want another chance at his death Essence.> I explained, looking at the residual Essence in Dale's body. <I think I could do it.>
“Will it cost you too much Essence?” She reminded me, to which I responded with a negative. She kept asking questions, the primary being, “What will happen if it doesn’t work?”
<It may kill him, which isn’t really an issue I suppose. It doesn’t feel sporting to just kill him though. He did just do us a huge favor, even if he doesn’t know it. Plus, well, I want to see if I can fix him. If I don’t do this I may never get another chance to know if I could do it. You know me, I have pride in my work, if I try this I want to do it right.> I bent my will to the task at hand despite her protests. I extended Essence into him, trying to reestablish normal flows to his life-force. I tried dozens of different things, but the thick Essence in him refused to stay in a cohesive pattern. It seemed that it wouldn’t unless he were to apply his own will to the task. I could make it stay - if I were to always have him in my dungeon - but the group was already preparing to leave. He showed no signs of waking up, nor of being damaged enough to die properly.
I was getting frustrated, <Dani, nothing is working! The Essence is just... Floating out of his body! It won’t stay where he needs it! Too fast to be good for him, and too slow to kill him before they leave! What can I do?>
Dani had no idea either, obviously. “You know his pattern better than I do, Cal. If you don’t know what can help him, there is nothing I could do.”
<His pattern? His pattern! That’s it!> I compared his pattern with the things I was able to create, and found a single match. Me. One of the first things I had ever really understood was the body that I resided in. A soul gem, not just a Beast Core. Dani had told me that this was as large as I would ever become, from here on out the Essence would be poured into me like a dimensional pocket, always able to be filled but never being full.
I shifted Dale’s intestines around a tiny bit; creating a perfect soul gem around his center, just below his heart and almost against his spine. The Essence which had been escaping him was quickly drawn back into what had been his center, now a highly refined Beast core - a Masterwork Soul gem. Now, the issue was that no Essence was able to leave the gem and all the Essence contained in him was being slowly drawn into it. Working quickly but carefully, I surrounded the Gem with a perfect layer of Runescripted diamond.
Diamond, I had found through exhaustive testing, allowed for all Essence types to move through it well. It was a spectacular conductor for all of it. Each type had a gem that allowed for perfect flows, but needed to be purely that type of Essence. For instance, the topaz head on Adam’s staff allowed celestial Essence to flow perfectly, but would greatly impede all other types.
Where his cultivation had drawn in the Essence of the Heavens and the Earth, I made a Rune - which would activate by cultivating - to draw in that power to his Center/Core. At each place around his meridians where energy would flow out into his body I placed that same Rune, but inverted it in order to send energy out. At each corner of the new Soul Gem I placed tiny yet powerful Beast Cores, which would absorb only the Corruption his cultivation produced. With luck, I would be able to use that for something in the future.
I had done all I was able for his body; his mind would need to heal on its own. Luckily everything I had created was small, therefore quick and easy to make. His organs were repaired, and drawing in Essence should be really easy for him now. The only question I had was: Would this work or kill him when everything became active? I was really excited to find out! I kick started the fractal pattern of the Essence and forcefully activated every Rune within him. Then I moved my mind back to enjoy the show.
~Dale~
Hans turned back to his fallen friend and began walking toward him. From the dead Cat they had gathered each tentacle, the last good eye, all of its teeth and claws, and a few other samples of strange organs. The Cat weighed nearly half a ton, they certainly couldn’t carry everything. Hans’ eyes were shining with the light of Essence, which he used to find the important bits of the Distortion Cat. He definitely wasn’t using it to hold back tears. He glanced over at his fallen friend and saw Essence streaming around Dale in an incredibly advanced, incomprehensible pattern. With a shout of rage, he started to run to Dale’s rescue, but pulled up short as his eyes followed the trail of Essence to its source.