Apocalypse Healer - Path of Death-Chapter 19B3 - Wastelands

Life and…nothingness were fighting. They battled fiercely right before his eyes. Yet, from the looks of it, nothingness was not on the victorious side. If anything, it looked more like the living would emerge victorious.

Life and nothingness were fighting. They battled fiercely right before his eyes. Yet, it seemed that nothingness was on the losing side. If anything, it looked like life would emerge victorious.

But why did life prevail against the Void’s nothingness? Was the Void truly too potent to lose? Or did the Voidlings leave behind a deeper form of Void within the nothingness? If that was the case… what exactly were the wastelands?

David had first assumed there would be remnants of the Void left behind in the wastelands, but it appeared his initial assessment was wrong. Did the Voidlings really just drain everything from the surrounding lands?

But if that were the case—if they had truly consumed everything—why would there be a repelling force?

Although confused by what he saw and sensed, David wasn’t disappointed. If anything, his curiosity flared up, pushing him to watch the brawl between life and nothingness for hours. He first relied on all his senses to grasp what was happening, but within hours, he closed his eyes to focus entirely on the ambient Aether and the information [Healing Link] provided.

Yet, as much as he wanted to learn more about the Void and its mechanics, David learned little from the struggle between life and nothingness. That didn’t mean he stayed oblivious, but his newly acquired knowledge was not as extensive as he had hoped.

Zachariah and Maja had already left when he opened his eyes to the glint of the rising sun, leaving him alone to fix the nothingness. But what exactly was he supposed to do here all by himself? frёeweɓηovel_coɱ

“Well.” David leapt to his feet, his head flicking to the left. “It’s not like I’m actually alone.”

It had been a while since he encountered powerful monsters, and it appeared that wouldn’t change anytime soon. A small group—no more than two dozen lifeforce clusters—approached from the open plains, skulking toward him on four legs, their eyes glimmering faintly as the first rays of sunlight bathed the plains in warmth.

Thick hide, a pair of curved horns jutting from the sides of their heads, and long, gleaming fangs shimmered threateningly as the monsters pushed forward.

“Perfect timing,” David snickered, retreating to the edge of the wastelands where he waited for the skulking predators, their lithe bodies slowly closing the distance.

The closest monster, radiating the most strength, was also the first to attack. Its claws dug deep into the ground, pushing the dry soil aside as it propelled forward with surprising velocity. It accelerated faster than David had anticipated, but he reacted quickly. A strong gust splashed against his face, telling him everything he needed to know to respond accordingly.

He stepped forward, materializing a small, yet overclocked [Blood Blast] in his right hand. Once materialized, he applied [Herald’s Blessing] on the bloody projectile and ushered a few Words of Power—just as the monster leapt at him, wind carrying the creature farther and faster than it normally would.

David’s [Heightened Vision] and Bloodthrone Dominion revealed everything he needed in time, and he twisted to the side, releasing the augmented projectile into its lower belly. The monster missed him by a hair’s breadth, yet David’s hit struck true. [Blood Blast] pierced through tough hide and dug deep into flesh and intestines before erupting in all directions, creating a small but mighty shockwave inside his victim’s body.

The monster leapt past him and crashed to the ground with a loud thud, whimpers reaching his ears. He could have turned around to finish the creature, but he didn’t bother. His focus turned to the other beasts, Serpent Fang conjuring in his hands just in time.

[Blood Armor] coated his body as the remaining monsters reached him, and he triggered [Phantom Rush] the instant they crossed the barrier into the wastelands. David closed the remaining distance to the monsters instantly and cleaved through four with a decisive strike. Black lightning currents crackled alongside Serpent Fang, burning their victims from the inside out as the weapon cut through hide, flesh, and bone.

David cast two spheres with [Origin Lightning] and willed a pair of pristine-white lightning bolts into existence, instantly piercing the heads of two unfortunate souls.

He conjured [Bloodbound Bastion] a moment later and controlled the blood all around him freely, transforming the blood of the dying monsters into weapons against their kin. Blood blades, spears, and needles took shape, draining his mental power. However, at his current level, David had no trouble maintaining multiple abilities that required a considerable amount of concentration. So he did.

Weapons made of blood whistled through the air. Although slower than [Blood Blast], they were still quick and did considerable damage once they hit their target. And they did.

The fight ended in no time. No more than a minute could have passed before the last monster of the pack succumbed to the oversized claymore. It fell apart, and a sickening splash resounded as intestines gushed from the split body.

“Now that that’s done… What the fuck happened here?” David turned away from the final predator, eyes lingering on the monster corpses—or what was left of them.

The blood that had dripped onto the ground was no more. The corpses had yet to be fully drained, but it did not look like that would take much longer.

Not wasting too much time overthinking the situation, David retrieved the Maelstrom, trusting a gut feeling to test something. He pressed the Maelstrom against one of the corpses, applied [Healing Link] to it, and watched it drain rapidly.

The bodies crumbled to nothingness, and the frail trace of the Void inside the Maelstrom grew stronger. It was no more than a fraction, and would have gone unnoticed if David hadn’t studied the Void trace intensely for weeks—but he did notice the change.

“The corpses fall apart once drained, whereas the drained soil remains. Why?” He ruffled the back of his head. The soil and wastelands survived, whereas the corpses disintegrated slowly.

David ignored the remaining corpses for a moment and returned to the fresh soil. He dug out a handful of dirt with several fresh-looking blades of grass, including a small flower, and placed it onto the wastelands near the monster corpses.

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This time, he sensed something interesting. He could barely sense it before, but with the corpses present, radiating a similar sensation, the subtle shift of the fresh grass blades and flower was easier to detect. Something shrouded the grass blades and every bit of life and everything that carried energy, including nutrients.

Yet, the wastelands did not consume the living or the corpses. It merely coated them all—presumably for future use.

He used the Maelstrom again, this time applying [Healing Link] on the shard. Maybe it was foolish to provide the Maelstrom with the means to grow, but David was too curious to stop. Using his Spark on the shard for the first time to establish a connection felt oddly normal. It was almost too normal, considering everything he had learned about the Void. Still, it worked out, showing him everything he needed to know to study the Void intently as it consumed the next corpse.

The fading lifeforce was devoured near-instantaneously, and the rest of the body followed shortly after. However, the corpse was not the only thing being consumed. The repelling force shrouding the corpse and the nearby lifeless soil was also affected—devoured.

Interestingly enough, as soon as the repelling force around the lifeless soil disappeared, David could sense something similar inside the Maelstrom. But while it felt similar at first, it was entirely different. The repelling force changed and shifted, transforming into something far more pleasant.

It felt like a message—a call of the Void.

That is… David tilted his head, unsure what to make of it. The Void clearly didn’t want to harm him, but that didn’t mean absorbing it wouldn’t damage him. The power residing within the Void did not necessarily have the intent to harm him to destroy him from the inside out.

Regardless of the Void’s intention with him, David could resume work and remove the repelling force all over the wastelands. With the Maelstrom in his hands, that gargantuan task of fixing something that would take the Earthen Union years turned out to be rather simple. He walked around the edges of the wastelands, removing the repelling force layer by layer, while [Healing Link] provided him with more and more information.

Not that he could do much with the information at first glance. David felt the call grow stronger by the hour, but he did not even think about letting go. He held the Maelstrom tightly and felt the Void trace within tremble ever so slightly by the time the wastelands had been cleansed of the repelling force.

However, as interesting as it would have been to watch the Void trace grow stronger, he couldn’t afford to provide it with more resources to nourish the fragile Void trace. If anything, David had to keep it as weak as possible to survive long enough to carry out the plan he was nurturing.

Although connected to the Maelstrom through his Spark, the fears torturing him in the back of his mind never occurred: the Void trace never infested his mind with the gift of power. It never tried to convince him to use its power, nor did it attempt to escape the confines of the Maelstrom. It merely wanted to… be with him.

That’s creepy as fuck.

David shuddered as the sensation grew. Still, wanting to be with him was always better than an obsession with devouring him.

“Whatever. Call me as you please. I will fix the chaos you and your kin have caused,” he said, pocketing the shard in his spatial storage to resume work. He moved to the edge of the wastelands and infused a mixture of Blood and Origin Essence into the border where the living grass and nutritious soil met the lifeless earth.

It didn’t look very useful at first glance, but David cast [Greater Restoration] and [Weave of Life] on top, sending waves of lifeforce and healing energies into the ground.

The grass blades and other plants responded almost instantly to the flood of life. They stirred and grew ever so slightly, using the lifeforce infusion to expand and thrive.

Once both sides were stimulated and enough Blood and Origin Essence seeped into the lifeless soil, it started to regrow. It was slow— incredibly slow, to be precise—yet it worked.

“It will take weeks if I stay here, supplying Blood and Origin Essence,” David grimaced, moving along the border to repeat the process. The patch of wastelands was medium-sized, but it was already close to 300 square kilometers. Taking off several weeks to restore that much land was not too bad. However, it wasn’t like David had that much free time.

Still, David didn’t leave all the work to the Earthen Union. He split his time between restoring Blood (hunting monsters to drain their lifeforce), modifying his Sparks, and restoring the wastelands. He had learned a few things in the last few weeks and wanted to apply them.

***

David spent an entire week in the wastelands, fixing most of the destroyed lands. Though he restored most of the land, his reasoning had been far from noble.

As it turned out, the System was more generous to those battling the creatures emerging from the Fissures. That included the damage caused by their presence.

On the first day of his restoration project, David managed to level up several Skills, expand his Source by several Blood droplets, and felt the gap to Gold Rank close rapidly. By the second day, he didn’t have to pay much attention to his work anymore. Stimulating the restoration of the wastelands was already enough to increase his Skill proficiency and push him even closer to Gold Rank.

But he did not reach Gold Rank even as the third and fourth day passed, nor did he rank up in the days that followed. It was not until the end of the seventh day that several System notifications welcomed him at last.

[True to your passion, you do not only seek the blood of your enemies.

You wish to heal: your allies, but also the battlefield itself.

Heeding the call of your very being, you chose to grant the surrounding lands your protection from the tarnishing powers of the Cosmos’ Nemesis.]

[Your Primary Class increased by two levels.

Silver IX → Gold II

[Six Attribute Points have been added.]

[Your Source has grown. +10 Blood.]

[New Class Skill has been unlocked for reaching Gold I with your Primary Class (Lifeweaver).

[Class Skill [Bloodwarden] has been selected. Prepare for the influx of information.]

David caught sight of more notifications, but he was caught up in the last bit of the first message. ‘Protection from the tarnishing powers of the Cosmos’ Nemesis’ sounded not only ominous, it was also the first time the System revealed the threat of the Voidlings this clearly. It told David everything he needed to understand the danger of the situation ahead.

Yet, as dangerous as it may be to keep using the Maelstrom, it was also—quite obviously from the System messages and rewards he acquired over the last few days—the key to success. As dangerous as the Fissure was, using its terrifying powers against it was incredibly useful.

I would have never reached Gold II this quickly if not for the Maelstrom, David thought, acknowledging the fact. The risk was great, but the rewards were even greater. His Source had expanded rapidly, and he’d gained a new Class Skill. Last but not least, his other Skills had ranked up considerably as well, pushing his strength even further.

Thinking about his newest Skill, David began wondering when the Skill Rune would form. The influx of information had yet to reach him, prompting him to inspect the remaining messages.

[Influence of Secondary Class, Herald of Origin, has been detected.

Modifications have been applied to Primary Class Skill [Bloodwarden.]

David rubbed his chin at the message, ready to check out the remaining notifications when the torrent of information impacted at last.

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