As if the tree had finally completed its last mission, it immediately started to wither away into thin air.
"W-what's happening!?" (Link)
Everyone was taken aback by the sudden turn of events.
Just a few seconds ago, Zach was standing there unharmed, and after a few seconds he suddenly fainted and the tree of Blood started to collapse and wither at an extremely fast speed.
"Let's take him to the upper floor first, I guess I know what has happened..." (Aaron)
Everyone nodded their head.
Link took Zach from Riko's hands and carried him on his shoulder. Everyone followed Aaron to the upper floor.
Only Riko remained still. Her eyes widened as she stared at her hands.
She was suddenly reminded of how her own younger brother fell into illness in her own hands.
Seeing the unconscious Zach fall right into her hands made Riko stunned. (As before mentioned, Zach reminds her of her already deceased younger brother...)
After a while she finally came back to her senses, she looked around and found that nobody was around her and the tree had lost its original red color, it's whole body had withered away.
Only the dead stump of the tree was left. A sticky black liquid slowly flowed out of the tree stump, wherever the liquid fell it corroded that place horribly.
The situation was indeed unique, but Riko didn't pay any attention to it all. She hurriedly got up and dashed towards the stairs.
She wanted to find out about Zach's health.
...
On the upper floor.
Link placed Zach on the sofa and Aaron hurriedly checked Zach's condition while Riya observed the situation from the side. (Aaron is an S-rank healer himself...)
Aaron placed his hand on Zach's forehead and used his 'state detection' skill to evaluate Zach's condition.
While Aaron was running the detection on Zach, Riko also came up and stood beside the sofa with a look of concern.
After a few seconds, Aaron nodded his head and said:
"As I guessed earlier, he has received the 'blessing'..." (Aaron)
"You mean from that tree?" (Kai)
At Kai's question, Aaron nodded his head and replied:
"He is in normal condition, nothing is wrong with him... no need to worry." (Aaron)
"Um.. t-then why is he not waking up?" (Riko)
Aaron shrugged his shoulder and replied in a helpless tone:
"Ugh, that's basically because that d*mned tree of mine poured all of its vitality in one single blessing!" (Aaron)
A confused look appeared on everyone's face after hearing Aaron's words.
"Uh, how do I explain..." (Aaron)
"You see, there are three ways to cast a blessing.." (Aaron)
...
(Details bombs ahead...)
The First method to cast a blessing is the most straightforward and simple one. The user will cast the blessing using their mana reserves and bless the intended person of their free will.
This type of blessing generally has no side effects. No matter how much mana you use to cast the blessing it generally doesn't harm the other person.
The second method to cast a blessing is an indirect one. In this method, the user burns their own life force to bless the other person regardless of their will.
This type of blessing has one side effect that is if you use too much life force to bless the other person, it will cause the person to temporarily enter a coma or it can cause the other person to display abnormal behaviors.
And Lastly, the third method to cast a blessing is the most devious one. In this method, the user casts the blessing using forbidden spells and sacrifices innocent souls as a price of that blessing.
This method has major side effects. It can harm both the user and the blessed person's mental state to a major extent. Most demons use this method to torture others.
After casting this blessing many times on others, demons go berserk and lose themselves to insanity. (In fact, I have no idea why this method is even called a blessing when it clearly sounds like a curse...)
To cast this type of blessing you have to do a very complicated forbidden ritual which is mostly only known by the demons.
Aside from demons, most individuals don't even know about the existence of this type of blessing.
...
(Back to the chapter...)
"Simply speaking, the reason why Zach is currently in a coma is because the tree of blood used Its immense life force to cast an extremely strong blessing on him..." (Aaron)
"Zach is still only an A-ranker, thus he couldn't bear the immense load and fainted on the spot... if he was an S-ranker or above, he would have been totally unfazed by this mere blessing..." (Aaron)
Hearing Aaron's explanation, everyone felt relieved, they were all worried about Zach's condition and didn't want something to happen to him.
"H-how long will it take him to wake up?" (Riko)
"Hmm, well he is a talented kid, his body might adapt to this blessing faster than ordinary people... I guess a few hours should be enough... but..." (Aaron)
"But?" (Riko)
Aaron shook his head and said in a helpless tone.
"But, to return back to normal it might take a bit longer... after all even if he wakes up, this immense life force will affect his thought process for a while-" (Aaron)
"Big brother I want ice cream!!" (Zach)
Aaron hurriedly looked down and found Zach sitting on the sofa. He seems to have already woken up.
"Hmm, what did you say?" (Aaron)
"Big brother, I want ice cream!!" (Zach)
A confused look appeared on Aaron's face, he glanced at the students and asked in a solemn tone:
"Wh-What's an ice cream? Is it some kind of weapon?" (Aaron)
Black lines appeared over everyone's face when they heard Aaron question them about what an 'Ice cream' is.
"Uh, it's an edible thing… uh… it have a stick below and it's round from above…" (Link)
Hearing Link's description of an ice cream, Aaron's face turned red for some unknown reason.
"How unscrupulous!! Are all human kids so unscrupulous nowadays!?" (Aaron) (Bro thought about something else from that description Link gave, oh what could it be, hehe…)
Black lines appeared on Link's face as he tried to explain.
"Uh, it's not what you are thinking, it's actually an edible thing… many people like it…" (Link)
The more Aaron heard Link the more redder his face became, he hurriedly backed away in fear.
"Y-you guys even eat it… h-humans are more terrifying than I thought!!" (Aaron)
Aaron backed away several steps as if he was trying to guard himself from these terrifying human eyes.
…
After a while, Link finally cleared the misunderstanding.
Aaron wiped the sweat on his forehead and smiled bitterly.
"It seems my knowledge about human society is lacking a lot, perhaps I should visit the human cities in my free time… But I guess I will have to take permission from the SS-rankers guarding your territories for that…" (Aaron)
While Aaron was contemplating about 'visiting the human cities', Link pointed to Zach who was trying to bite Aaron's head.
"Uh, what's going on with him?" (Link)
Hearing Link's question Aaron came back to his senses and replied in a tone filled with complicated emotions.
"Uh, as I said before, it will take him a while to become normal, that blessing must have affected his thought process, that's why he is behaving like a young kid right now…" (Aaron)
"Perhaps, he thinks of my head as a large ice cream and wants to chew on it… actually this is also my first time seeing the effects of this type of blessing with my own eyes…" (Aaron)
"This might help in my future research…" (Aaron)
While Aaron was talking to Link, Zach opened his mouth and bit Aaron's hand. He used his sharp teeth like a chainsaw and tried to bite Aaron's hand off.
Riko tried to pull Zach away, but Zach didn't let go at all.
"If I was an ordinary person, he would have bit my hand off by now…sigh~" (Aaron)
For the first time in a while, Aaron felt happy to have been born as a dragon. His body was naturally extremely strong, no matter how much force Zach was using not even a single scratch appeared on his hand.
Liam who had already finished his ascension the moment everyone came up, whispered in Link's ear.
"Doesn't he look like a father who is already used to his children causing chaos all around him…" (Liam)
Rio also nodded his head and added.
"Zach Senpai certainly fits the role of the 'naughty younger son'… and Aaron looks like a father who is already used to the everyday mischief of his younger son…" (Rio)
Everyone looked at this harmonious moment and sighed.
Finally, the earlier stress-filled atmosphere returned to the relaxed one.
(Meanwhile, everyone seems to have forgotten about, Fade and Kira's existence altogether…)
…
…
Author's Notes.
Yo! It's your beloved author here! Actually, I was going to write paragraphs on Fade and Kira too, but I totally forgot about their existence for a while just like you all, so I guess we will delay it for now…
Question of the day.
Should I write a proper chapter on Fade and Kira's situation or just a few lines would suffice?
1.A few lines (Who even wants to read about them…)
2.Who? (Fade and Kira? Who are they?Never heard of them?)
3.Beat them more! (Write something about them being beaten again?)
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.