"What has that kid gone ahead and pulled now." Heimer thought as he laid there bleeding.
Heimer snapped his fingers and the shield vanished, in quick succession and armour manifested on his body.
He finally dismissed his halo and the sword staked to the corpse of the beast vanished, yet his armour remained.
-
Leo laid on the ground with his face to the ground, he rolled over to the gaze of Rud.
"THIS was not in the plan." Rud stretched his palm out to Leo.
Leo grabbed it, raising his back off the ground.
"Can you stand?" Rud asked.
Leo felt his trembling limbs, he shook his head.
"Dan!" Rud called out loudly.
Dan ran over in response to the call, while still avoiding the corpse.
"Help Leo back to the horses." Rud said, then he ran to the distance.
–
Some time later.
Leo sat beside Heimer who was now also seated.
"Aren't you pushing yourself?" Leo questioned in worry of Heimer's safety.
"I would be lying if I said I wasn't.
It is taking all I have to just stay awake." Heimer chuckled a bit.
[Cough! Cough!] Heimer was in quite some pain.
"..." Leo looked up to the cloudy sky.
There was a moment of silence between them.
Laura just sat there with mind was elsewhere, while Dan and Rud were nowhere to be found.
"I'm sorry for disobeying orders." Leo apologised genuinely with a subtle tone.
"Orders?
I only told that boy what he should be beware of, he formulated the plan on his own.
You have to break some rules once or twice to get to the top.
…
It is quite a bit overdue, but I don't think I would be here without you and the others.
Thank you." Heimer said with a warm tone.
Leo had an innocent little smile on his face.
-
Moments later Rud and Dan could be seen helping Paul to the horses.
By the time they got there he was already walking by himself albeit clumsy.
The others couldn't tell, but Leo could see dark energy seeping out from the corpse of the beast.
From the moment it was slain up to now, it had been flowing to each of them respectively, until it finally ceased.
"What was that just now…
It wasn't aether.
Did they not feel it? It flowed towards us" Leo wondered.
He gulped.
-
Moments later, Heimer stood up to their greatest surprise.
"Alright everyone gather up" said Heimer with a voice sounding better than before.
"Not everyone has a armour that heals like you do…
My ankle is still far from good, yet he's already up" Leo whined internally.
"Must feel good getting a clean cut like that." said Dan as he stretched his hand to aid Leo up.
Leo gave him a thumbs up with a smile.
A little while later, Rud got on his horse and rode away from them on receiving orders from Heimer.
Laura was still staring at the corpse of the slain beast, her look hinted worry.
"What is it girl, you've been looking concerned for a while now." Heimer noticed.
Laura looked at him with worried eyes.
"I don't think I'll sound sane if I say this." said Laura, her tone hinted fear.
She held her left shoulder with her right arm.
"Say what you want to, I'm listening…" Heimer said with a bit of concern now.
The others also showed keen interest.
"I don't know if I'm right cause this is the first time I'm seeing a dead creature since awakening.
…
But, there are still faint glows emanating for that creature.
My eyes are telling me one thing, but the gift is telling me another, I can't say it with certainty.
But that thing might still be alive." Laura said as she pointed at it.
Leo's brow raised, his face looked stressed, the thought that his efforts were pointless relished in his mind.
Nearly breaking into anxiety until Heimer's words pulled him back.
"How can you say that when we can all see for ourselves clearly.
I for one can say for certain, that thing is dead." said Heimer as he pointed to it.
Laura had a stressed look, she looked at Heimer again.
"My gift…it's never wrong, or never has been.
Wouldn't it be safer to check it?" Laura put both of her hands to her chest, and said with determination.
Heimer looked split apart, he couldn't just dismiss her claim.
He sighed.
He released his aether.
?!
"Sir your head!" Leo called out.
The others were quite amazed as well, though Laura's mind was still clouded by her worries.
"What is it" Heimer asked.
Leo pointed to his halo.
"Your halo…" said Leo in astonishment.
Heimer looked up, this time the halo didn't hover around to follow the movements of his head.
"Five thorns?!
If killing it staked a thorn then was it a sprout or spawn?
This isn't adding up." Heimer frowned at the questions pooling in his mind.
His worries were eating at him, but he couldn't show weakness due to the role he played.
He waved it off, then walked to the corpse.
At the back of his head, he feared that Laura might have been right, yet the beast showed no signs of life.
Heimer looked through it with his all seeing eyes, even with that he could barely see anything, as if the skin blocked his vision.
He circulated more and more aether to his eyes, amplifying his gift.
Only at that moment could he see it.
His eyes might have deceived him, he put his ears on the body to listen, and alas — A faint heartbeat.
"What the…" Heimer lost his grip on the situation.
He took a step back, he was fazed.
"Alive without a head?" Heimer felt disconnected from reality.
Even as unbelievable as the events that had occurred since the appearance of the sprouts had been, this was something even he couldn't handle.
"If they refuse to die, how do we kill them.
And if this one was relatively weak what would the strong ones be capable of.
How do we go on from here." Heimer had lost composure; he felt discomfort; tensed up even.
But nonetheless, he had to do something.
The axe vanished from his hand and in quick succession a massive sledgehammer manifested, he coated it in thick aura.
Raising it up with both hands.
–
[Dum! Dum! Dum!] A loud consistent sound echoed through the atmosphere, an uncomfortable melody.
"Haa! Haa! Haa!" A voice synced with the sound.
"What a horrible sight." Dan muttered, he stood beside Leo, Laura, and Paul.
They averted their eyes from the unrestricted violence Heimer was instilling, yet one of them looked right at it — Leo.
They watched from a bit of a distance as Heimer continually hit the beast, absolutely mauling it.
Yet no reaction from the horrendous creature.
"Perhaps you were mistaken?" Leo asked Laura in a thoughtful manner.
She shook her head.
"I can still see it.
It is glowing even brighter" she responded, sweat rolled down her cheeks.
–
Heimer kept at it, his armour drenched in blood, his still recovering body screamed in pain with sweat drenching his body.
[Huff, huff, huff] Heimer stopped his screams and began breathing heavily.
He took a look into the stomach that was now torn open by himself.
Heimer dropped the sledgehammer and unhelmed.
"Ha…ha, ha" Heimer started an oddly crazed laugh.
"Perfect!
Absolutely perfect" The smile went off his face.
What he had saw was absolutely horrific in the context of the consequences it would entail.
"Kids!
Come along now!…" Heimer said whilst he attempted cleaning the sweat off his eyes, in the process he smudged blood all over his face.
Leo and the others responded the call by treading cautiously towards Heimer.
Even with his - Heimer's - presence the fear from Laura's words lingered.
Finally arriving at the spot Heimer was.
They were welcomed by Heimer gesturing with his palm to its stomach region.
Leo used his hand to cover his mouth, the sight of the brutality was enough to trigger his weak stomach.
While the others seemed disturbed but not as excessive as he was.
The sight was sickening but that was not what Heimer was there to show them.
Leo's eyes moved to a specific region of the stomach, he tensed up.
"Told you it was dead…didn't I" Heimer said with a loss of breath.
It was supposed to be a good news to dish out but his tone said otherwise, same as the look on the faces of the others.
The look was that of stress mixed with skin crawling disgust from its entrails spilling out, but the former quickly overshadowed the latter.
***
In a certain house in the second sector.
Gentle breeze blew the curtains on the window.
And in the room there was a boy.
He laid on his bed, he looked lifeless yet he was just sleeping.
On the table in his room, a book was wide open.
The sentence written on the bottom of the page was;
***
In the stomach of the beast there were multiple eggs, clumped together the number was well above tens.
"Those are…
Eggs?" Paul said with no hint of his usual brash tone.
"Well they certainly don't look like organs that's for sure." Dan remarked.
The other three turned turned and looked at him weirdly.
Heimer began chuckling.
"Let the kid be, I like his humour." Heimer's tone was returning to its norm, although it was more light-hearted.
"What do we do with them Supreme?" Laura asked.
"Of course we're just going to leave them here" Heimer replied with a hint of sarcasm.
"Wouldn't want us to kill any potential threats that could end humanity as we know it.
That would be devastating." Dan followed up with more obvious sarcasm, he shrugged.
"How are they so carefree in this situation" Leo stopped to think.
–
The night sky without illumination crackled with thunder, and released strobes of light.
Several cracking sounds reverberated in the surroundings.
Heimer disposed of the tens of eggs by smashing them, it wasn't a particularly pleasant sight for the eyes as most of them looked away.
"Leo, you've got any more fire left in you?" Heimer asked calmly.
Now in addition with the blood his body was covered in goo.
"I've recovered enough." Leo responded.
"Good, now set it all ablaze." Heime