Chapter 33: The Crystal Disease

    Shortly after, Merlin flew the kid down in the area before the village. He did not want to stampede people with his visit because being someone who could fly was not such an ordinary thing.

    If it was not an elemental expert, that person had to be an archwizard to be able to fly in the air.

    This place was a typical village located in the middle of the forest, which was a thoroughfare. There were no more than sixty families in this whole village.

    It was quiet inside this place probably because it was in the border area between the Church of Light and Aragon Kingdom.

    There were not many stores in this village and only a few people walking around on the roads. This place was profoundly desolate.

    Merlin carried the boy with one hand. Although it was a child, this one was even bigger than Merlin.

    Merlin’s appearance now looked like a ten-year-old boy. Achieving the stem-building stage had both good and bad sides because if one achieved it when too young, his body would look like it stopped growing.

    In the zone of the stem-building stage, Merlin had to wait for another five years for his body to grow one year older. Although he was twelve now, his body was frozen at ten.

    Walking along the road, Merlin found a bar. It was nameless, which was possible because it was the only bar in this village; people knew it well so it was unnecessary to have a name.

    Merlin brought the boy in immediately.

    There was a possibility that the villagers would know this child.

    Ding! Ding! Ding!

    The bell rang when Merlin pushed the door.

    An old man behind the bar showed his face smilingly and was prepared to do the service when he heard customers coming in.

    “Hello, what would you like…oh! Children! What are you guys doing here?”

    The owner’s manners changed instantly after he saw the two kids.

    Merlin seemed a little upset after seeing how the bar owner was acting. He left the boy on a chair in the bar and asked,

    “I have something to ask.”

    The owner gave a disdainful smile and answered,

    “Huh… young man, this is not your playground. Get out of my bar before I kick you out myself.”

    The old man crossed his arms and yelled loudly.

    “Is this how you welcome your guests?” Merlin started to get mad. Although they met for the first time, he could not be polite to this type of person.

    “HA HA HA HA, do not make me laugh. A kid like you, my customer? Go get your parents first then you can be my customer.”

    The bar owner saw that Merlin was just a child; approximately from what he saw, he could not be older than ten years old. Without having to guess, this child must have no money to pay for his service.

    It might be that this one was an aristocrat, but he had no followers by his side. So, the bar owner could guarantee that the customer in front of him definitely did not have any money to pay him. The boy sighed; he was trying to cool himself down from getting any angrier.

    Disdain was not something people could easily handle. Even though Merlin used to be a servant, it was a different situation then; it was different now, with his present skills and status, they had revived his dignity.

    Merlin’s pride was not easily erasable.

    BANG!

    Ten thousand zenis were heavily put onto the table. This amount of money was more than enough to eat and drink anything in the bar.

    Merlin glared at the owner and said boringly,

    “Alright, do you have time to talk to me now?”

    When the shop owner saw a lot of money put in front of him, right away, his eyes glowed; his manners completely changed.

    “Oh, my dear guest, what can I do for you? I am willing to give you the best service there is.”

    Human behaviors could be changed so easily by money. The bar owner was almost like a different person. It was definite that the customer had a heavy pocket. Normally, it would not cost anything more than six hundred zenis when someone wanted to have an extravagantly good time; but this child in front of him paid ten thousand zenis without even thinking.

    In the middle-of-the-forest village like this, business was slow. With the village’s situation being like this, there had rarely been any customers.

    “I want to know if you know this kid?”

    The shop owner looked confused; he forgot to notice the other child that he brought with him.

    “That kid is so dirty; can I look at him closely? I may know him.”

    The owner walked closer to the boy sleeping face down on the table. To see his face clearly, he used his hand to brush the hair covering his face off.

    “This is!…no way! He is Jerald from the back of the village. I’m doomed. I am so doomed. He caught a contagious disease: the crystal disease.”

    In shock, the shop owner was taken aback and stepped away from Jerald. He looked extremely nervous; he did not even know what to do when he saw that this kid was Jerald.

    Just horrible! The disease was crawling into his place!

    “I have to apologize; please take your money back and bring this boy out of my place right now.”

    The reason why this village was so quiet was that there was a contagious disease. If anyone knew that an infected person was in his place, this bar would not make any money. Although this was a generous amount of money, he did not want to risk taking it.

    “Hang on!” Merlin looked at how the shop owner was reacting in confusion. He just wanted to know why he was so terribly scared.

    “Please do not touch me. You have touched Jerald; maybe I’ve already got the crystal disease.”

    The shop owner ran back to hide behind the counter. He wanted to keep the furthest distance from Merlin and Jerald because he was so afraid of getting this disease.

    Merlin sighed and walked to check Jerald’s condition. At first, he thought that this boy got scared by the beast and passed out. But it seemed like he was wrong; this boy probably passed out because of the symptoms of this disease.

    In the past, in one period of his life, he used to be a doctor healing people. So, he had some basic healing skills and was not scared of any contagious diseases because being a stem-building practitioner, his body was cleansed and re-created as a supernatural creature. Human poisons and disease did not have any effects on him unless they came from a practitioner who used Xian vital essence.

    When Merlin checked Jerald’s pupils, he found something wrong. Some of Jerald’s tears became crystallized. And when he looked at the pustules, he saw that some of them started to crystalize too.

    “So…this is why the villagers call it a crystal disease.”

    Suddenly, the information from Lemegeton came rushing into his head.

    “Living Spirit Crystal” These crystals were similar to the spirits of the fairy remains: being parasitic. They absorbed and lived on human life energy which was different from the spirits of the fairy remains of the same type. The Spirits of the Fairy Remains would fuse and consume the magical power without touching human life energy.

    So, for human beings, Living Spirit Crystals were awfully frightful. If lucky, that person might die; but if not, he or she might live on in the crystalized body forever.

    In the past, there were people who garnered up Living Spirit Crystals; they turned them into Crystals of Life; they were tremendously powerful. and could give the possessors an unimaginable amount of power.

    Rumor had it that the Crystals of Life could even bring people back to life; that was why they were also called by another name “Miraculous Crystals.”

    Thus, these Miraculous Crystals were considered the crystals that brought death to countless people. Whenever they appeared, there was always bloodshed. People would do anything to get them.

    While Merlin was in his reverie, a group of people walked in. From the way they dressed, they must be people sent by the kingdom; some of them were soldiers and sorcerers.

    This village was going through a disease; they were sent to handle this problem.

    “Shop owner, notify the village’s leader to bring all the villagers to the village yard.”

    Someone in the group spoke in the voice of a powerful person.

    With his powerful leader aura, the guy in the griffon armor was maybe the leader.

    “Huh…such an eyesore” The leader looked at Merlin and Jerald scornfully.

    “Soldiers, get these dirty rats out. It is bad enough to be sent here; take them to the other villagers. Hurry up!” The leader ordered his subordinates in a discontent voice.

    With the power of Lemegeton Eye, Merlin could detect that this pompous man’s power was at the top-end section of the sorcerer level. He was another high-ranking wizard that Merlin had met and even more skilled than that Milazz, the Twisted Lazz.

    Having received the order, they followed it immediately.

    But before they had a chance to, Merlin said,

    “No need to, we will get out by ourselves.”

    Merlin did not want to cause any trouble right now. He just wanted to watch this soap opera scene and see how the kingdom people would handle the situation.

    Merlin helped Jerald up and walked out obediently. Noticing Jerald’s condition, they suspected that he was infected. So, surely, they did not wish to touch the diseased one. The two kids leaving, therefore, was a good thing for them.

    Shortly, everyone in the village gathered in the yard. The ones with the disease and those without were evidently separated.

    Merlin noticed the people who had a severe case of crystal disease; their arms, legs, and some parts of their bodies were crystallized into solid masses. Their faces showed that they were in pain and piteous.

    The symptoms of this disease were that when someone got it, they seemed like they just got normal flu, a headache, and aches all over their bodies. But when time went by, those aches would turn into pain. And the most terrible pain would lie where their flesh started to turn into crystals.

    Some people who could not tolerate it would even commit suicide. However, some of them did not even have a chance to do so when the disease spread so quickly that their whole bodies turned into crystals. And when that happened, they would be suffering from something worse than death because they had to live in the crystalized body without being able to move until they died, or someone destroyed the crystal.

    The kingdom people led by the guy in the griffon armor marched into the big yard like those with authority.

    “Who is the leader of this village?” A soldier shouted.

    “I, Sedan, am the leader of this place. And as the leader, I have to thank all of you for sacrificing your precious time to help our village.” The village’s leader said with gratefulness because his village was going through a crisis at this moment.

    A lot of villagers evacuated because they were scared of the crystal disease. There were only a few people left; they were those who had already been infected or those who could not let go of the village.

    Soon, this place would become an abandoned village in the middle of the forest.

    “Here is Lord Exel, Baron of Cesena,” said a soldier introducing the commander to the villagers.

    Lord Exel stepped to the front lazily; which clearly showed that he did not want to do this mission.

    “Alchemists, check their condition quickly.” He did not even glare at the villagers; he just indifferently ordered his subordinates. His voice was the voice of boredom.

    Hearing Lord Exel’s command, the alchemists started doing their job immediately. Their examination process was careful because although they all were excellent healers, they could not underestimate the crystal disease.

    They checked both the healthy and the sick ones for they were afraid that there might be some people who got infected with the symptoms unshown in the group. They even took some pus and flesh for the diagnosis.

    Jerald, the boy that Merlin had helped, woke up during that time. His eyes were scanning all over the yard; shortly, they started shaking when he found his mother, who was also brought to the assembly at this large yard.

    Little Jerald struggled hurriedly heading to where his mother was.

    The reason Jerald was risking his life in the forest had to be because of this woman who got the crystal disease at the front.

    Seeing that, Merlin could guess what Jerald was trying to do; he did not stop the boy. Merlin only watched and let Jerald do whatever he wanted.

    Half a day later, the alchemists’ diagnosis was finished. Their faces were full of worry; many of them seemed uneasy. Facing the crystal disease made it hard for them to smile.

    The alchemists, looking serious, went to consult with Lord Exel.

    After an hour had passed, loud arguments slipped out constantly.

    Then, Lord Exel and his followers walked out of the accommodation, which meant that they got the conclusion to this.

    Not a word came out of Lord Exel; he only raised a hand and pushed it out as a sign.

    In no time, all the soldiers were surrounding the villagers. Because of this siege, it was hard for someone to slip out.

    “This might be cruel for all of you, but for our kingdom, do not blame me. You guys must sacrifice for the whole.” Lord Exel paused, then continued, “All of you here cannot go anywhere. Soldiers, kill them.”

    After Exel’s order, the villagers felt as if they had been struck by lightning. Commotions and tumultuous cries came occupying that huge yard; a lot of them got beaten up by the soldiers trying to corner them together.

    The alchemists could not watch the scene in front of them; they turned away to the other directions to avoid the villagers’ pitiful eyes.

    Surely, the conclusion of that meeting came out as their death sentence.

    Not long after, all the villagers were rounded up together.

    Lord Exel wanted to burn them to stop the disease from spreading out.

    It was the best controlling method for the spread of infectious disease now. Because from the opinions of the alchemists, this crystal disease was hard to cure. And they were not sure if there was anyone else in the healthy group whose symptoms were not showing yet.

    Therefore, they needed to get rid of every villager to prevent this crystal disease from getting out in a wider range and causing damage to the kingdom.

    Fireballs were lighted on every soldier’s palms; even Lord Exel did so too. They wanted to completely vanquish this disease.

    However, right at that moment, a boy in a white cloak got up and walked out of the crowd of villagers.

    His appearance really astounded everyone because his walk was not stepping on the ground; he was pacing in the sky.

    Every step got higher and higher.

    His walk seemed like he was climbing strong stairs.

    Shortly, the boy in the white cloak stopped walking; he looked down like a mighty figure.

    Barely with his eyes gazing upon, everyone got struck by a bizarre pressure coming out of the child. Even Lord Exel could not resist this feeling.

    The silence took over the place for a long while; finally, Merlin began doing something.

    His eyes and manners showed that he was full of mighty-figure power. Those mysterious eyes stared at Lord Exel; he said,

    “Your solution disappointed me; I could not accept your ineffective way of work. If I am still here today, right in this place…” Merlin looked at him with disdain and continued, “I will not let the villagers die.”

    His short statement almost froze everyone. Although those words were filled with arrogance, unfortunately, it seemed like this kid was qualified to say them.

    The aura sensed around the boy made the soldiers scared to even breathe loudly.