Rex Mansion, In a certain hidden room.
"So, what, you are trying to say is that... there is a chance to wake up my father and Professor Jin with this method?..."
Link had a baffled look on his face as he raised that question in a tone filled with questioning and doubt.
"Yeah, that’s what I am trying to say..."
Link went silent for a bit and then looked straight into Rio’s eyes before speaking.
"A-are you secretly a demon perhaps?"
Rio felt annoyed by that question and rolled his eyes in defiance.
"Why is everyone’s first reaction always this when I tell them about my skills... ugh, it’s getting too repetitive..."
Anna who was sitting on a chair beside the bed on which Jin was lying down unconscious, frowned at Rio’s words and said,
"It’s not a wrong reaction... I almost attacked you just now, in fact..."
Rio could only give a wry smile at those words; he waved his hand helplessly and said,
"No way, don’t do that. I will lose if someone I care about attacks me..."
It’s not that Rio is weak and can’t fight Anna or that Anna is too strong; it’s just that Rio’s sword intent will refuse to work against her and will not let Rio fight her properly.
Anna once risked her life against Alverto’s subordinate to save him and everyone else, and then Jin risked his life to stop Alverto and weaken him tremendously in the Spire of Ascension.
If not for the two of them, Rio could have never reached the level he has reached today and might have even died by now at the hands of Alverto or his subordinate.
Although Rio does not have many emotions left in him, he still has to pay the life-saving debt burdening his shoulders; his clever sword intent won’t attack those he cares about.
"As you all know already... even an SS-rank healer has healed both of them but it didn’t do much..."
Rio glanced towards Riya who was standing beside Raji and said,
"Even the legendary skill capable of healing everything is not able to heal them two because of their natural defensive capabilities as SS-rankers..."
"If we keep them in this state, the two of them might take years to wake up... Professor Jin might not even wake up at all... I am proposing this idea to give a new ’path’..."
Rio looked at Anna’s complicated expression before saying,
"I am not forcing you all to do anything; I am just telling you all that I have found a possible ’cure’ to help the two of them get better..."
"I informed you all about this before because you are their family or loved ones. I won’t do anything against your will. they are both important people to me too and I respect whatever choice you all want to make..."
Anna could not say anything for a long while; Raji was massaging her temples, and the tiredness on her face was clearly visible as she was genuinely confused about what to do next.
Link on the other hand had anxiousness and doubts written all over his face.
"B-but messing with their soul... th-that... that seems very risky... t-this I-i..."
Just when Link was faltering and couldn’t figure out what to say, a calm voice rang out in the room.
"So, what you are proposing is that you have found a method to penetrate their resistance which has been stopping me and others from healing them properly..."
Riya threw away the candy she was chewing in the dustbin and walked over in front of Rio.
She looked straight in his eyes and asked,
"What are the resistance reduction parameters? Success ratio in healing magic application level increase? Quality of healing magic penetration? How much would the degradation of healing magic affect the soul when passing through your sword intent?"
"Do you have any healing skills capable of controlling the possible risk factor? What about the possibility of cracks appearing in the sea of consciousness? What about soul fluctuation movement when interfered with like that?"
Riya fired off so many questions at once that everyone could not even keep up with her anymore.
Raji and others could not even understand the topic anymore and felt as if Riya was using some foreign language.
All her questions were very complicated and so difficult to figure out that it was overwhelming to just hear them.
"Uh... can you slow down a bit..."
"Resistance reduction parameters will depend on my Sword Intent mastery and the person I am using it on... It might be a bit difficult to do on Link’s father but it might be easier on Professor Jin, as he’s in a much vulnerable spot..."
"As for all the healing stuff... actually I don’t really have a powerful healing skill or ability at all; that’s why I informed everyone beforehand..."
"I want you to take care of healing, and other stuff that you mention; the only thing I can do is just bypass their physical and mental resistance, and make a pathway to their sea of consciousness and soul..."
Riya’s eyes narrowed at those words.
"So, you were planning on getting me involved from the get-go... that’s quite a good idea; I don’t think anyone else will be qualified enough anyway... even an SS-ranker might not be able to do this ’miracle’..."
Riya dubbed the plan a ’miracle’ because she knew that the success rate was too low for such a plan.
"Only the ’Heart of Eternal Nirvana’ can offset most of the damage and can increase the success rate by several times..."
SS-rank healers can do a lot of unbelievable stuff, but someone like Riya, who’s not even an S-ranker yet, cannot do all that.
The only reason why she has so much confidence in her skills is because she has the legendary skill that no one else has, and most importantly, she has absolute faith in her talent and skills as a healer.
Riya looked at the two patients she has been trying to heal for several months now, and a look of determination flashed through her eyes.
"This plan is feasible... If it’s me, the success rate is more than 50 percent."
Link looked at Riya and questioned,
"B-but Riya... This is too risky. I don’t want to risk my father’s life like that. Can’t he just wake up on his own if given time? Why use this risky method..."
Riya sighed at Link’s question and replied in a calm voice,
"Truthfully speaking... I don’t see any chances of Professor Jin ever waking up; that’s the harsh truth..."
Riya’s words pierced Anna’s heart and made her even more sad than she already was, but Riya had no time to sweeten her words anymore.
She couldn’t hide the truth for too long and can’t just keep giving others false hope like that; it goes against her path of being the world greatest healer one day.
After Jin, her eyes fell on Ashtel and her voice became even more solemn than before.
"As for him... He’s not just your father Link; he’s a protective father for this entire nation..."
"Every citizen is a child protected by him, and everyone is genuinely worried about him. I am not so different; I also know the risk... if possible, I also wouldn’t have used this risky method on him either..."
Hearing Riya’s words, everyone in the room went silent as if a bomb had been dropped, and they could not comprehend what Riya was trying to say for a second.
Riya looked at Ashtel and said,
"I and the Elven queen... we both have worked with our best capabilities... we have already healed him back to full health; all that’s left is him recovering his mana and power after waking up..."
"We both assumed that it will take at most three or four months to wake up and a few years to get back to his peak condition..."
Link’s eyes widened at those words.
"Y-you mean..."
Riya nodded her head with a sad look on her face.
"I don’t know what’s going on; he healthy in every way, but he’s just not waking up. It’s already been nearly half a year! He’s not even showing a single sign of waking up..."
"It’s as if he’s refusing to wake up and is stuck in his own deep sleep; this happens when a person has suffered some kind of severe mental trauma..."
"I don’t know what he went through in his fight, but he’s not recovering from what happened in that fight... I am powerless against it, and I don’t know if I can continue to hope that he will wake up on his own..."
Riya looked towards Rio’s sword placed on the sofa near him with a determined look on her face as she wiped away the tears from her eyes and spoke.
"We don’t have the time to just ’hope’ and ’wait’ anymore... we will have to make a choice now or it will be too late for them both..."
"Even if we have to use the methods similar to that of a demon, it’s worth giving it a shot..."