Rise of The Anti God

Damien decided to leave first as Valentina wanted to stay behind and focus on cultivating as she said it was time for her to absorb the ethereal cores of the beasts she had hunted down.

By now, she had accumulated a lot of ethereal cores for a consecutive breakthrough as all this time she had been stabilizing her present cultivation on Damien's advice.

Damien made sure to put on a new set of clothes as he came out of the cultivation room. Even though Valentina had chosen the cultivation room in a secluded spot that only the elite disciples had the privilege to use, there were still some elite disciples going in and out.

So when they saw Damien coming out of the cultivation room where Valentina was sitting, the men could only look at him enviously, wondering if this guy was a holy saint in his past life to be blessed with such fortune.

Damien's expression didn't falter because of their gazes, and he walked away with a firm back. He was happy to indulge his girlfriend anytime and enjoy the time as well.

After leaving the Xeton Ethereal Foundation, he put on the disguise of Alchemist Azrael as he entered the imperial palace. Even though it was evening, he was allowed to enter since the crown prince requested his presence.

Otherwise, guests weren't usually entertained during evening times.

Before he knew it, Damien was already standing before Arthur's room after being led towards the room by Arthur's maid, Lina.

She lightly knocked on the door once, and not a moment later, Arthur opened the doors with an expectant expression. It seemed as if he was impatiently waiting for Alchemist Azrael's arrival.

"Alchemist Azrael, thank you for coming! Please enter," Arthur eagerly gestured to Azrael as he entered while Lina silently entered as well.

Damien nodded, and as he entered, he said in a slightly apologetic tone, "I am sorry for being late. I know Your Highness must have been waiting for a long time. If it wasn't for the Pandemonium Needles being so hard to get, I would have come earlier."

Arthur smiled and said, "Please don't be senior. I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for you to procure those Pandemonium Needles. I am only grateful that you took the effort to treat my mother."

Arthur then parted the curtains on the bed to reveal a sickly woman looking pale and old, resting on the bed.

Her skin had shriveled up slightly while her body had become thinner than the last time Damien saw her. All these characteristics were proof enough that she was dying and probably had less time than he initially expected.

"Senior Azrael, my mother's condition has been worsening as the days pass. I don't know how long she can struggle like this. In fact, she doesn't even have the energy to talk like before and only sometimes opens her eyes to look at me. Will the treatment still work?" Arthur asked in a worried tone while Lina felt sad for Arthur and was silently looking at him with watery eyes.

Arthur's fingers were restlessly rubbing against each other in anxiety, and he knew that the reason his mother was still alive was for him. Otherwise, she would have given up a long time ago instead of enduring so much pain and suffering like this.

Damien gently lifted Maria's wrist and checked her pulse, which was quite feeble and weak. 

He could see that Arthur's worries weren't unfounded as Maria's volatile ethereal core had devoured most of her body's vital nutrients and proteins like a blackhole.

Her organs were failing her, and only mild medicines were keeping her up. If she took any strong medicines, it would only have a backlash, and Arthur knew about this as well.

Still, Damien felt that there was a chance and said, "Not all hope is lost. The best we can do is try, though I request Your Highness to be ready for all possibilities as I cannot guarantee anything. I hope Your Highness understands this," Damien wanted to make sure he didn't give any false hope to Arthur since that would just be too bad.

"Of course...I understand...Senior need not worry. I have already prepared myself for anything. I just want to try my best as long as she is still there with me. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself…" Arthur said with clenched fists.

"Your Highness…" Lina mumbled softly as she wanted to comfort him but knew she couldn't.

Damien took out the two Pandemonium Needles while Arthur was surprised to see the pair of sharp light green needles that looked quite beautiful in a way.

Lina also curiously took a peek to see the precious needles that this senior had to go through a lot of trouble to procure.

Damien then took out the vial of Valentina's blood, much to Arthur and Lina's curiosity, wondering whose blood was that. They speculated that it must be some ethereal beast's blood though they weren't entirely wrong.

Arthur knew Azrael had proposed to use a strange healing method known as Blood Array that involves the use of ethereal formations but using blood as a medium.

Damien dipped both needles in the vial of Valentina's blood and began to draw formations over Maria's forehead and over her chest, where her ethereal core was located. Since this treatment involved formations, Damien was able to draw the formations over her clothes without worrying about them obstructing the treatment.

Damien had learned to draw this array by what Reva taught him, and fortunately, he didn't find it much hard, especially since the Pandemonium Needles were making his job easier by being able to draw the ethereal formation that would perfectly infuse Valentina's blood into Maria's system and let her ethereal energy channel around her body for healing purposes.

After drawing the formation, Damien took a deep breath as he placed one of the needles on her forehead by slightly inserting it on one of her energy points on the head and the other needle on her chest.

"Let's start," Damien mumbled as he activated the Blood Array as the ethereal formation began to radiate blood-red light.