Frostbound [LitRPG Apocalypse]-Chapter 201 - Demonic Essence

"Do you need anything?"

"Are you hungry?"

"Do you want me to make you anything?"

"How's that? Are you comfortable?"

The stream of questions was never-ending and while her concern was endearing, it bordered on annoying.

"No Mom, I don't need anything. I'm not hungry and yes, I'm comfortable." I droned for the hundredth time since waking up.

For the past two days, she'd been fussing over me like I was a newborn baby again. I tried to bear with it to make her feel better but I wasn't sure how much more of this I could take.

Thankfully, a distraction was about to take place that would make her cool her jets. It wasn't like she could continue her tirade of questions while we were meeting about things.

Right?

Injured as I was, it was difficult to get a sense of things happening outside my tent. I spent most of my time lying down in [Cold Meditation] trying to recover as best I could which didn't leave a lot of time to walk among the people and get an idea of how everyone was doing.

I knew we lost a lot during the battle, I had the numbers already, but I wanted to feel it rather than hear about it.

While a fight with the other City over the Mine wasn't likely, it wasn't out of the picture, which meant I had to spend my day trying to get as fighting fit as possible instead of walking around the camp.

Doing that involved a lot of Ice, a Healing Rune, Ashley's continued help, and a liberal but constant use of [Cold Meditation].

The source of this c𝓸ntent is frёeweɓηovel.coɱ.

The self-healing skill was great for the small stuff but being as injured as I was highlighted the limitations of the skill. It didn't work at all towards regrowing my arm and its efficiency at healing bigger things was abysmal.

An actual Healer was the fastest way to get back together, as crazy as that sounded.

My natural Vitality helped, along with the ice-cold chill pumping through my veins, but the state I was in wouldn't be fixed naturally any time soon.

I still wasn't sure how or why there was a chill pumping through me, but I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Over half our Council was back in Frostheim, but the couple that were here started to trickle into my tent. Besides my Mother, Hal was the only other one here.

To make up for that, Gabriel and Rachel joined inside the tent.

The rest of the Council stayed behind. Abigail and Jonathan for obvious reasons. Sam didn't wish to come and Vincent wasn't a fighter. The last member was Austin but his absence was accounted for.

I had offered Ashley the chance to sit in for her missing mother, but she was busy with the other wounded. I wasn't her only patient and she needed to check up on the rest.

It was half the usual size, but it would have to do.

My tent wasn't spacious, but it was big enough that it could fit the four additional people. Hal and Rachel stood together near the opening while Gabriel and my mother were at my bedside.

"Well, tell me the thick of it," I asked.

"Tension with the other City is still heightened, but going down. With your appearance, I don't think they will fight us over the mine." Rachel said.

It was good news but there was more she was leaving out.

"But?"

She paused for a moment, "There have been some... developments while cleaning up the battlefield."

If my ribs didn't hurt so much, I would have laughed, "Other than uncovering a massive Crystal Mine." I chuckled.

"While everyone here are mostly fighters, there are some that have advanced their profession as well." She started, "Specifically, the Alchemists are the ones who discovered it. The bodies of the Demons can be refined for various materials and one in particular is... a problem."

After an expectant look and a dramatic pause, she answered the unspoken question.

"They distilled them down into Demonic Essence." She said.

The breath left me after waiting for the answer. It wasn't as bad as I thought. The way she said it was a problem made me think they were trying to resummon them or something. Reanimate them maybe? Both were the worst options and I expected her to say something on that scale.

I didn't know where my mind went, but it heard problem and thought the worst.

All told, Demonic Essence wasn't that bad. It was frowned upon and distasteful, but not the end of the world.

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"I don't understand, what's the problem with that. We can't use the bodies anyways, why is turning them into Demonic Essence bad?" Gabriel asked.

It was easy to forget he hadn't spent months with us during the tutorial. Abigail was an information freak and tried to get her hands on every scrap of it made available to us which was why we knew while he didn't.

I turned to him, "It isn't strictly bad, but it can be used for distasteful things." With that answered I turned to Rachel, "What do they plan on using it for?"

"When asked, all but one said experimentation."

"And the other?"

"In his words, 'To make Vampires.'"

I was afraid of that.

Demonic Essence was one of the key ingredients involved with any Demonic Bloodline. While having a Demonic Bloodline wasn't bad, per se, it was generally looked down on.

There was a stigma tied to it that dragged it down. A stereotype. While not all who chose Demonic Bloodlines were evil, there were those who chose it for that specific reason.

It was a case of a few people ruining it for the rest.

I, myself, didn't feel strongly one way or the other. It didn't much matter to me what kind of Bloodline people chose for themselves, but some Demonic Bloodlines were inherently bad.

Angelic and Demonic were pushing the boundaries for equal and opposite reasons. Both Bloodline's influenced the Bloodline Holder more than any other. While animalistic Bloodlines would influence a person to walk differently or do things more stealthy if it was in the Bloodline's nature, it wasn't strong in its influence.

It was easily dealt with and conditioned out of a person.

It could get bad if the person pushed the bounds, and using higher-tier materials while evolving made it worse. If the person wasn't prepared or wasn't strong enough, they wouldn't be able to handle it and turn partially feral.

It was the risk of using materials above your own rank. For every reward, there was a risk.

If I wasn't strong enough for the Young Frost Giant Heart I used, the same would have happened to me.

The other option was the body tore itself apart trying to assimilate the high-ranking material but that was only in cases of extreme failure and usually resulted in death.

Demonic and Angelic were notorious for their difficulty in mastering the influence. Specific Bloodlines of the affinity would never stop trying to influence the holder making it a constant battle that would go on until either the person succumbed, or died. The last option was to remove the Bloodline but not many did that. Why imbibe it in the first place if you were going to remove it?

They were also one of the only few that could completely change a person's race.

I would never turn into a Full blooded Frost Giant, no matter how far I pushed in rank, but Demon Bloodlines were different. Their nature was to infiltrate and corrupt.

Imbibing their Bloodline would change a person the same way any Bloodline would, but as you gained power and strengthened the Demon properties, it would do it to your own body. The Human part. Where Humans would usually only be able to partially change with their chosen Bloodline, a full change was possible with Demonic and Angelic.

Informing Gabriel and my mother of all that made them see the problem the same as the rest of us.

"Is the Alchemist ours or theirs?" I asked.

"Theirs."

That makes things harder.

If the Alchemist was from our City, we would be able to watch over and supervise the procedure, if not stop it completely, but that wasn't the case.

We would be able to warn and advise, but if Ashton didn't do anything, we weren't in a position to force the issue. I was willing to fight over the mine because of what it represented. I wasn't willing to do so over an Alchemist.

"We will need to watch him. I don't care if people take Demonic Bloodlines, but we need to watch for any that go out of control." I said.

Gabriel made a face, "Why not stop it now? Squash it before it even becomes a problem?"

"I won't for a few reasons," I started, "One, it is not my city. I have no Rule over what his people do. Two, even if I did Rule over them, I will not tell people which Bloodlines they can and cannot imbibe. That starts down a road I do not wish to go down. And three, think about the larger picture."

Seeing that he didn't understand my third point, I went on, "If Demons were summoned here, this soon after the Change, how many other places do you think they've been summoned?"

Gabe's face made me know he caught on.

"Stopping the Demonic Bloodlines here is just a patch for the larger problem. They will get out, if not here then elsewhere." I continued.

Gabriel wasn't convinced, "Even if we can't stop the wider world from doing it, we can at least stop it from happening so close to home."

"What's the point?" I said, "Banning it for the off chance that some might go wild? That reasoning could be used to ban a lot of things, not all of which are good."

"So you won't do it because you don't like the precedent it sets?!" He asked incredulously.

"No, I won't do it because I don't want to become a dictator," I said firmly.

"Even if it's for their own good?" He asked.

"Especially if it's for their own good," I answered.

A note of silence held for a few beats while everyone processed what was said.

"Does anyone have anything more to say on the matter?" I asked.

When no one answered, I said one more thing to finish it, "Make sure to get some for Connor. I don't know what he'll do with it, but I'd rather have it than not."

With that, we moved on to the next order of business.

"There have been some who have disregarded your order to not touch the mine." Rachel said, "They sneak out at night to steal what they can without getting caught."

I ordered a watch over the mine for this specific reason. I knew with the amount of wealth the mine held, some would try their luck.

"What do you want to do about them?" Hal asked. He was the one watching most of the time and knew who the culprits were.

"Any from our side?" I asked.

"Yes, but the majority are from Fort Hope."

I sighed. I had thought people under my command knew me better by now.

"Get me a list of who. I will decide when we get back." I said.

I didn't want to get into it now.

"Should we stop them?" Hal asked.

I shook my head, "No, they can't be taking much if they're trying to be sneaky and I'll use it as leverage during the negotiations. The wealth they steal will be offset by what I was already going to give them. Just mark down who did it so they can be accounted for and so we don't award them any."

That was the last of that topic and the last subject was brought up.

"With the cleanup mostly done, we need to know what to do with the bodies," Rachel said.

It was a sad subject as the bodies she was talking about weren't the Demons.

"I will deal with it," I said. "We will pack them and bring them home."

It would make the trip longer, but any who fought for my City deserved a resting place inside of it. To preserve them as best as possible, I would go around encasing them. A personal touch they deserved.

"Anything else?" I asked.

"The messenger arrived yesterday, is your letter to send back ready?" My mother chimed in.

I had forgotten about that. With Abigail's ability to contact me restored after replacing the pylon, the messenger was sent with us during our trip as she didn't need it as much. He didn't have much combat ability and was left in Fort Hope to stay safe.

With the battle over, a scout was sent to retrieve him.

"Yes, it's ready." I said, "Hopefully she isn't too worried."

Oh, who was I kidding. She was probably worried sick.