Return of the Mythic Bloodline

"Nnnnnnooooo," I shivered inwardly the moment my eye landed on him.

"Please be there... please be there... please be there."

I climbed onto the bed, sat beside him, and placed my head over his chest.

Lub... dub...

Lub... dub...

Lub... dub...

Very faint, but it was there—the sound of his heartbeat.

With my fingers gripping my forehead, I finally breathed for the first time since entering the room.

"What has happened to him? Even sitting beside him, I can't sense his Soulforce," I asked, my voice low but firm.

"He has exhausted every last bit of his Soulforce," Vyaghra said, standing at the room's entrance. "Due to the lack of Soulforce in the surroundings here, his body couldn't recover the Soulforce. He has been unconscious for the past thirty-eight days."

"Thirty-eight?" I murmured. "He has been on the brink of death for so many days, yet you two didn't find it necessary to inform me?"

"W-we wanted to!" Jambavan insisted, and then continued, his voice lowering, "but we received the clear order from him that yer meditation shouldn't be disturbed no matter what happens."

Ignoring Jambavan's defending words, my arms slipped under the blanket to hold his hand in mine.

However, upon reaching his wrist, I realised there was nothing below it.

My eyes widened, my lips parted, and I immediately lifted the blanket, revealing his mutilated body.

His wrists, along with his ankles, were wrapped in bandages, devoid of his hands and feet.

The instant I saw him in that state, uncontrolled fury erupted inside me. My hair radiated with intense pink, the tails behind me subconsciously unfurled, and the whole room began trembling.

The explanation of why someone targeted him—what they wanted from him, what their realm was, and how many they were—didn't matter to me at all. There was only one thing I wanted to know.

"Who was it?" I demanded, my voice echoing in the room.

"A mortal woman who claimed to be the leader of El Dorado and the ruler of Abandoned Land," Vyaghra replied, his voice carrying a hint of anger. "She called herself Nyx."

"Nyx?" I murmured, my Soulforce pressure inside the room intensifying. "She shall pay a hundredfold for every injury she caused him."

"We also wish for nothin' less, Yer Majesty," Jambavan added. "But ya must suppress yer Soulforce, or ya might cause him irreversible damage. His body won't be able to withstand your Soulforce pressure in this vulnerable condition."

Clutching my fists tightly, I restrained my Soulforce and controlled myself.

"Jambavan, inform all the workers to mine as much Soul Stones as they can," I ordered. "Gather all the mined stones till now in the cave on the basement's second floor."

"As ya wish, Yer Majesty!"

As soon as Jambavan heard my order, he hurried outside.

"Vyaghra, teleport this bed to the cave," I commanded, turning to Vyaghra.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Stepping inside, Vyaghra raised both his arms, exuding dark energy from them.

With the movement of his hands, his shadow extended forward and merged with the bed.

Within seconds, the shadow of the bed moved like a living being and wrapped the whole bed, including me, inside it.

The next moment, I was already inside the cave that I had left just an hour ago. Except, this time, I wasn't alone.

"I won't let anything happen to you," I murmured, gently brushing his soft black hair.

Placing the bed at the centre of the cave, I removed his tunic and slightly lowered his trousers, exposing the lower abdomen where his core should be located.

"Mother, please watch over him as I wield the skills you bestowed upon me."

Taking a deep breath, I moved my energy-glowing finger to his pelvic region and drew the sigils just as Mother had taught me.

"Every movement precise, every bit of Soulforce equally proportionate, every line perfect, or else the entire meaning of the skill will change—" Mother repeatedly said these lines whenever she gave me lessons on the sealing techniques.

I spent four hours wholly concentrating my energy on the index finger and completed the first part of the complicated sigil.

"It looks cute on you," I whispered, gazing at the glowing pink sigils in the shape of a phoenix drawn on his lower abdomen.

The next fifteen hours slipped away in a flash as I extended the sigil from his stomach to the floor of the cave.

The phoenix pattern on his abdomen was linked to two large circular inscriptions etched into the ground on either side of the bed, each connection formed by a thin thread of energy.

Those two inscriptions branched into two more, and those into two again, repeating in a precise sequence until 4,096 energy circles, each as wide as the bed itself, spread across the entire cave floor.

Together, they radiated a soft pink glow that bathed the whole cavern in shimmering light.

"Huff... huff... the sigil isn't even halfway there... and yet I'm already exhausted," I muttered, rubbing the sweat off my forehead. "How pathetic."

"Yer Majesty, Ay have done as ya commanded," Jambavan announced from the gate of the cave.

"Come inside."

Walking carefully to avoid stepping on the inscriptions, Jambavan entered and offered me a bag of a hundred Space Rings.

"These rings hold all the Soul Stones we had left in storage.

We've got fifty rings of low-tier Grade 3 stones, thirty of low-tier Grade 2, and twenty of low-tier Grade 1.

Each ring carries a little over fifty thousand kilos of Soul Stones."

My brows furrowed in disappointment as I muttered, "These aren't enough. Leave them here and bring me more."

"As ya wish, Yer Majesty."

The moment Jambavan left the cave, I grabbed the bag of Space Rings and called in a high tone, "Vyaghra, come here."

In an instant, Vyaghra emerged from the shadow of the bed in a kneeling posture.

"Give me the order, Your Majesty."

Throwing the bag of rings towards him, I ordered, "Place twenty thousand kilograms of Grade 3, nine thousand kilograms of Grade 2, and four thousand kilograms of Grade 1 Soul Stones into each of the inscriptions drawn on the ground."

"Right at it, Your Majesty," he said, catching the bag mid-air.

As soon as I gave my order, I busied myself with the inscriptions again.

"Your Majesty, it's not my place to nag you," Vyaghra said, drawing out the Soul Stones from the ring. "You should rest for a bit. Your breathing is unsteady."

"I cannot, Vyaghra!" I replied, my tired voice laced with sadness. "You are already aware that the more time he spends unconscious like this, the lesser his chances of waking up become."

"I'm aware of that, Your Majesty, but—"

"I don't want to have any more discussion regarding the topic, Vyaghra," I said, cutting him mid-sentence. "Focus on the task at hand."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

After another five hours, the energy at my fingertip began flickering, sounds grew distant, vision turned blurry, and my mind became hazy.

"N... no, not yet," I clenched my teeth, forcefully pushing the energy out of my finger.

"Yer Majesty, Ay brought the Soul Stones the workers mined today," Jambavan's distant voice echoed as he arrived at the gate again.

"How much is it?" I asked, pushing myself to a standing position.

"There are a hundred thousand Grade 3, thirty thousand Grade 2, and twelve thousand Grade 1 Soul Stones in these rings," Jambavan said, extending the bag towards me.

Veins bulged on my forehead as I shouted in anger, kicking the bag, "Not enough! Can't you understand me? I clearly told you to order all the workers to mine the stones. Bring me more."

I turned back in fury, and the moment I raised my feet, my vision blackened, my knees buckled, and as I was about to fall, Jambavan and Vyaghra both appeared kneeling before me and grabbed my arms.

"Please don't push yourself too hard, Your Majesty," the duo pleaded in unison. Their voices were firm, yet I could feel guilt and sadness from both of them.

I hadn't noticed it before, but both of them were layered with soil and dust.

Vyaghra had left the cave the moment he placed the Soul Stones into the inscriptions and only appeared again when I was about to fall to the ground.

"Tell me... truthfully..." I murmured, slowly sitting on the ground with their support.

"You two are the only ones mining the Soul Stones, right?"

"We ain't the only two," Jambavan replied, scratching his temple. "There are about fifty other workers as well."

"But we had more than a thousand," I asked, confused. "Why are there only fifty now?"

"He was brought back in this condition in front of the whole city. As soon as those cowardly mortals learnt that he was targeted by El-Dorado, most of them left the mines. Some of them even left the city, fearing the storm that hunted him could swallow the whole city."

"They did what they did to protect themselves and their families," I stated in a low, calm voice before continuing, "I wasn't in my right state of mind and lashed out at you two like a spoiled child. Forg—"

"Your Majesty, please don't say another word!" both of them pleaded, bowing their heads.

Those two would never let me do it no matter how many times I tried.

Ruru was also the same. Sometimes I wonder if I even deserve to have such loyal companions.

I sighed and asked, "May you tell me in detail about everything that transpired in my absence?"