Damned Healer
Chapter 126: Most Impressive

Chapter 126: Most Impressive

Darian opened the door. Standing in front of him was a High Human he’d never seen before. He was a middle-aged man with short golden hair, dressed in elegant clothes.

"Hey, Darian. We haven’t met yet. I’m William, a support from the Empire," he said kindly. "Rhea hired me to take care of an egg..."

Darian nodded as he remembered. That egg had been left in William’s care — a very well-known support. According to Rhea, something was wrong with the fetus, and William had started studying it to find out the cause.

Darian invited him in and called everyone to the room. When they all gathered and saw William, an air of expectation filled the place.

The Empire’s laws were pretty strict. Freon had taken the egg after his son returned from the mission where Oliver died.

After Raon lost it in the arena, he couldn’t damage it without facing serious punishment. But if he’d done something before the bet — and could prove it — no one could hold him responsible.

When William realized something was wrong but couldn’t figure out what, things got very complicated. They had to find the source of the problem to even try to save it.

"You figured it out?" Darian asked, his tone serious.

William let out a heavy sigh. "Yeah. I’m sorry. It’s bad news."

A cold chill hit everyone in the room, like an invisible dagger stabbing their hearts.

"Until just a few days ago, I had no idea what was wrong. But the Empire’s massive investigation into Freon recently brought something... disturbing to light." He paused, struggling to breathe.

"We found out that in one of his clan’s hidden facilities, Freon had a secret lab. He was getting extremely premature beast eggs from other universes and using all sorts of artifacts to try to shape them into something dark."

Darian narrowed his eyes. When he saw Freon’s karma, there had been no trace of that. The only explanation was: he was messing with eggs at such an early stage that the souls hadn’t even connected yet. If there was no trace in the karma, it meant all the experiments had failed, and the eggs never hatched.

Technically, he hadn’t killed anything... because the eggs were just empty shells, still forming. But... doing that kind of experiment was so horrible that not even the Empire would allow it openly — which is why it was all done in secret.

William went on, his face heavy: "I was called in to inspect one of those sites. Thanks to my blessing, I could understand its purpose. Freon was altering the forming bodies not to give them life. The goal was to create a perfect vessel — an empty container, just waiting."

"As you might already know, his clan had a second Supreme Artifact. One of its uses was to split off a piece of someone’s soul and store it. That artifact wasn’t made for combat, only for investigation. When someone died, if a part of their soul was in there, they could use it to investigate and then release the soul."

"Freon’s plan was to use the Supreme Artifact’s power to make sure none of his Spiritual Guardians would ever be lost on a mission. These ’vessels’ would hold their souls. With a new body and enough time, the soul would adapt — and their ring powers would come back."

"It was a bold idea, but he never succeeded. And in every egg from that lab, the first step was always the same: destroy the body’s connection to the heavenly laws. That way, they’d never get a soul."

Everyone looked shocked and horrified.

William finished, his voice low: "As you might’ve guessed, your egg went through the same process. Inside, the body’s 90% complete. But it’ll never come to life. It’s been permanently blocked from receiving a soul. The fetus is, unfortunately, just an empty shell now."

He looked each one of them in the eye. Then he nodded and activated a ridiculously expensive spatial ring — the kind that could store ’living’ beings inside.

A square incubator appeared, about two meters tall. It was see-through, and inside it rested an egg. The egg was nearly a meter long, and inside it was a small body about the size of a human.

That egg came from the union of two Mannaz with Divine Dragon blood. They were half-human, and their child was a mutant who had awakened an atavism — that’s why it wasn’t born like a regular human, but from an egg, like a dragon.

There was no Yang in the egg, due to an early condition. That’s why the small body was clearly female.

"Anyway... I’m sorry I couldn’t help," William said with a sigh. "The fetus is still developing normally, but in the end... it’ll never have life without a soul. It’ll never be born."

He handed over the egg and stood up. Darian thanked him and calmly walked him to the door. When he came back into the room, everyone was gathered around the egg... all four of them in tears.

They had failed.

Oliver had entrusted them with his Summoner’s egg — and they still let this happen. The pain was overwhelming. They sat in silence, heads down, tears falling.

Darian sat beside them, clearly shaken. This whole thing had been cruel for all of them.

Right then, Rhea materialized and approached the egg. Her face was twisted in pain — her body didn’t produce tears, so she couldn’t release her emotions, and that only made it worse.

Darian watched as she touched the egg...

"!"

Darian’s eyes widened, as if a sudden idea had hit him.

He sat in silence for a few minutes, deep in thought.

Then, he let out a sigh and said, "This body never had a soul. But maybe we can make sure this cruel sacrifice wasn’t for nothing."

Everyone turned to him, surprised.

"When we return to that universe, I’ll gather the Mannaz who aren’t Summoners. We’ll take care of Oliver’s Summoner and tell her everything. I’ll ask for permission to use this body. In return, I’ll make sure it helps save her universe."

Everyone was stunned. Darian didn’t say another word. He had no idea how the Summoner would react — or if his idea would even work.

***

The next day, Darian went with Leander to the center of the Empire. There, they met with the leader of the Amazon Sentinels clan.

He got straight to the point, explaining that Nayara was preparing for the rookie presentation tournament. She was completely focused on mastering the Solar Bow, no matter what it took. He also mentioned that the Empire would soon announce the tournament’s official date, but he already knew it was happening in less than a year.

Then, he handed Darian a card containing one billion Merit Points — the first of three payments for the bow.

After that, Darian and Leander headed to the ruins of the old clan. The place had been completely destroyed. Now, with those resources, they could rebuild everything in a grand way.

"You can use all the points, and everything the clan already had in its treasury too. Try to get this done as fast as possible. Don’t hold back — rebuild the clan in the most impressive way possible. Focus on training artifacts — they need to be the best and most diverse you can find," Darian said calmly.

Leander nodded. "I’ll take care of it. With the discount we get from the Empire and all this funding... we can build something on par with Earth’s top clans. If you want speed, I can hire a ton of people and get it all done in a month or two."

Darian nodded, satisfied.

Leander wouldn’t be going back to that training universe anymore, and he wouldn’t be doing any more missions either. His focus now would be entirely on the new clan — which was allowed under the Empire’s rules.

Still, there was the matter of his Summoner on the other side. Darian asked about it, and Leander explained there was no issue.

His Summoner’s name was Ruoku, and he was a lot like Leander — didn’t like to fight or train. He preferred going on adventures and finding rare items to sell.

Ruoku was born into a family of merchants and loved the trade. But unfortunately for him, he’d also been born with the talent to be a Summoner, and was forced to go down that path.

Just like Rhea and Damon’s Summoners, Darian planned to meet him in person and explain everything. That way, Ruoku could keep his Summoner status on the surface but fully focus on what he actually enjoyed.

Darian headed back home, while Leander — with Rhea hiding alongside him — started working on the reconstruction.

Time passed, and finally, the day arrived.