Ignite the Sun

"Not necessarily." Calen said. "Now we can accurately guess what responses they will have to our actions and use that knowledge accordingly."

"What do you mean?"

"For example, considering the fact that they refused to execute Nickolas we can assume they aren't willing to do anything too drastic – which means that if we can turn the rest of the order against them, they'll be powerless to do anything."

"And that's when we can go directly to Arthur." Leon nodded. "But how do we turn the masses against them? Most of them have large groups of loyal followers."

"Well, I'm hoping that exposing the truth about the evidence will be enough."

"Hopefully."

"Leon, I think we should rest here for today." Damien looked around the temple. "Greg is feeling weird, and I'm not wur he'll be able to continue now."

"Is he sick?"

"No, from what I understood he's not feeling bad just... weird."

"Strange..." Leon's gaze stopped at the steel giant sitting in one of the corners, holding his head.

"Greg is technically a corrupted creature, isn't he?" Isara asked.

"Yes, why do you ask?"

"Well, the altar doesn't only prevent corruption like the city barriers... It actively destroys it."

"Are you saying he's being purified by just staying here?"

"It's possible, but it could also be slowly killing him – we're not sure how the altar affects partially corrupted creatures or those who had the Blight suppressed like Greg."

Leon shook his head.

"I don't understand, he went to Mountainfall once and everything there was normal, their barrier also destroys Blight, doesn't it?"

"It works slightly differently." Calen stated. "The barrier set up by Sylara aims to separate the Blight from the body, this means that completely corrupted creatures die,while those affected partially can live – like the animals the keep, or kept I suppose. They're all purified now."

Leon perked up a little.

"Lady Sylara found a way to completely purify things? How? When?"

"Just before we left." Calen nodded. "And it wasn't her who purified things, technically."

"Who then?"

"Me – sunfire is especially efficient in cleaning things apparently."

"Could you... purify Greg then?"

Calen was partially expecting the request, but he wasn't sure how to approach it.

"It may prove difficult without Sylara, she helped me in the process by healing the wounds left behind by the removal of Blight roots." He explained. "I can at least check what's happening to him, that should at least tell us whether we can stay here."

He activated True Sight and looked at the giant.

"And?" Isara pronpted him for a description.

"I've got good news, and not-so-good news."

"Let's start with good news." Leon propped his chin on his hand.

"Due to the prolonged suppression of the Blight, the roots in his body are extremely fragile, and most of them fall apart after some time of being exposed to the altar's power."

"So he's being purified? That's good, right?"

"That's where the problematic news comes in – the process is nowhere near fast enough, the altar is also damaging his body since he's technically corrupted, and it's much faster than the purification. If this continues he'll die before he's purified."

"What can we do then?"

"The most obvious solution is to get him out of here, if you allow him to heal from these wounds completely you'll be able to come back here with him in a few days. A few trips like that and he'll be purified."

"The caveat being...?"

"We'll have to stop this trip immediately and get back to castle right away."

"That would be terrible for our plans, but we can't just let him die – any other solutions?"

"I could try purifying here and now. This could damage him even further, but it'll be done in a few minutes. Once he doesn't have any Blight in his system anymore the altar will start slowly healing him – combined with Ellie's medicinal knowledge we should have him back to full health by tomorrow."

"Are you going to use Martyr?" Isara questioned.

"No, I'm still not sure I could take on anything more than a core, and in this case the old fashioned way will be faster."

"In the end we should ask Greg for opinion, it's his body after all." Leon stated.

"Right." Calen nodded and kneeled in from of the giant. "Hey there big guy, did you get everything I said earlier?"

Greg nodded weakly.

"Great, what do you want us to do then?"

His great hand moved, and one of the steel claws pointed at the lantern at Calen's belt.

"I understand." He turned around to face Elira. "Prepare everything you'll need in case he needs urgent medical attention afterwards."

"Um, actually... I would like to try healing him like Lady Sylara did."

"She thought you how to do that? Why didn't you say anything, this is going to make all of it much easier."

"That's the thing, she didn't teach me – I just sort of, pieces together how it works because of how many times I've seen her do this."

"Did you at least test whether it works?"

"Sort of? I can replicate the flow of divine power perfectly, but I haven't had the chance to test it on actual living being yet."

"...we'll try it, but prepare what you'll need in the case of an emergency anyway."

"Already did."

"Alright, this will be much shorter than what I did with the cows, but you'll need to follow my actions and heal in the exact place where I remove the roots – got it?"

"Yes." Elira nodded with a determined expression.

"Good, I'll start near the left lung, there's a relatively small and weak section there that was cut off from the rest of the system."

He started the familiar operation of incinerating the roots, but he was slower this time to allow Elira to follow him.

Calen couldn't exactly sense how the healing was going, but he did feel that something was happening with a different divine power in there.

"How did it go?" He asked once they were done with the separate section.

"It worked, I think."

"Good, keep doing what you're doing but slightly faster, we're going to purify him completely."