Epic Of The Demonic Sage

The Healer who had arrived in the hall was an old man who looked to be in his sixties. He had salt and pepper hair, while a long scar went from his left ear to the forehead. Just from the way he walked and his demeanor, Lucius could tell that he was a warrior… or at least a former one.

"YOU IDIOTS!" As soon as the healer saw the way the guards were handling Keith he yelled at the top of his lungs.

"YOU NEARLY KILLED HIM!" The healer said upon checking Keith.

"But…. But… the bleeding stopped?" One of the guards barely managed to speak.

"YEAH? AND SO DID HIS BREATHING! DID YOU IMBECILES JUST CHECK HIS BLEEDING AND NOT HIS BREATHING?!" The Healer scolded.

"How in the name of Etara were you even deemed worthy of being guards?" The healer said before pushing the guards aside.

He checked Keith\'s wound realized the glass shard had cut his jugular vein and had gone diagonally into his throat, before coming out from the back. It was simply a complex wound that would be immensely difficult to heal.

The healer checked Keith\'s pulse and saw that it was still there, albeit faint.

"Quick! Hold his legs up!" The healer ordered.

The guards hurriedly responded and lifted Keith\'s legs up as far as they could.

~drip~drip~drip~

Blood gushed out from his mouth, as Keith started to cough. All the blood that had been filling his lungs was finally pushed out and he could barely breathe again. But this was not enough.

The healer put his hands on Keith\'s chest and activated his gift. 

~Thud~~thud~Thud~ 

A faint pounding sound could be heard as Keith\'s heart was made to forcefully beat. This caused more blood to spurt from his neck, but then the healer placed a green paste on his neck. This paste let out a sizzling sound and started to stick to Keith\'s neck, fully stopping the bleed.

The Healer then carefully pulled out the glass shard before putting more of the green paste on the wound. Once that was done, he lifted his hands from Keith\'s chest and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"He\'ll be stable for a bit but this is not enough. We need a healer who can mend internal injures as well as a herbalist who can make blood replenishing medicines. He has lost a lot of blood and will not be able to last for long." The healer said hurriedly.

The guards simply nodded their head while a few of them quickly ran out of the mansion; evidently to get the necessary healers. 

~tch~

Lucius watched the entire thing and was a bit disappointed that the healer managed to stop Keith from truly dying. Though Lucius was impressed by his skills at the very least.

\'While he can\'t heal the wounds directly due to the restriction on his gift, he can still use other things to supplemental that. Plus from his actions, I can tell he is quite experienced. Though I do wonder what his gift actually is…\' Lucius thought.

He wanted to use Nexus on the healer but chose to wait, just in case something unexpected happened. All the guests were gathered around in a circle, while Keith was lying in the center. His eyes were now closed and his breaths shallow.

From time to time, the healer would put his hand on Keith\'s chest and would make his heart pump more. This did give Lucius a little idea about his gift. He reckoned that it was a gift that helped increase the pumping of the heart, thus keeping the blood circulation active. Though he did not know what mechanism it used to do that.

It could either be stimulation of the hormonal system to secrete adrenaline, which would make the heart pump faster, or it could be electrical stimulation that made the cardiac muscles contract. 

Or… it could just be a gift that simply made a heart pump more, with no intermediary mechanism in between. Lucius knew gifts could have some unexplainable effects; they were quite similar to magic in that way.

Still, magic could be explained up to a certain extent due to the immense amount of research that had been done into it by countless mages, and scholars. But for gifts and the energy that powered it \'Aether\' there was barely any extra research done.

Lucius had tried to find more, but all he got was that the Gifts were made by the divine power of the gods. There was simply no \'how\' or \'why\' when it came to the gods and people just accepted it as it is.

Soon the carriage was brought to the front, while the guards made a makeshift stretcher to carry Keith. While they were about to move him, Lucius took this chance to get closer. The guests all made way for them to pass in two lines and watched on.

Many of the women still had tears in their eyes; they were simply too terrified and many of them had not seen someone nearly die before. At least not while being so close. As for the males, they were covered in a cold sweat and their hearts couldn\'t help but throb with anxiety.

\'Let\'s see if this works… I haven\'t tested it before, but Keith will serve as the perfect guinea pig…\' Lucius thought to himself as he made his way forward.

He easily reached the front and secretly touched the leg of Keith when the guards passed by carrying the stretcher. No one noticed that Lucius\'s hand had faintly glowed red for a moment. This red flow was then transferred into Keith and faded away into his body.

A smile appeared on Lucius\'s face again as he saw the hell energy easily entering Keith\'s body. 

\'Wonder how long it will take to act… or will it fail in the end.\' Lucius thought.

"Still… just this was worth coming here… the viscount should be busy for the coming few days…" Lucius said after moving back.