Chapter 257: Deceased
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hilda's sudden collapse shocked everyone present. Hao Ren, who was the closest managed to recover his wits the fastest and he quickly lifted Hilda by her shoulder. "Hey, hey! What's going on?!"
The elven queen was thoroughly unsconcious and Hao Ren felt as if he was clutching a corpse. Her body was stiff, her face pale, and he could not even sense any breathing from her. Vivian, who soon recovered quickly conjured a block of ice to shock the queen, and she also used her blood magic to jolt her circulatory system. It was only after a good while that Hilda started breathing again. However, there were no signs of her gaining consciousness.
"My god, what's going on? Did she go into shock after getting that burden off?" Hao Ren wondered aloud as the possibility crossed his mind.
Vivian's expression was grim but confused. "No... doesn't seem like it. I don't feel any... 'life' in her. I force-started her circulatory system and muscle activity to 'revive' the body, so she should've woken up by now..."
As Vivian previously stated, Hilda's bodily activities had ceased completely within mere minutes, she felt totally like a corpse. Vivian's unique blood magic had revived her physical body, but she was still out, with no signs of gaining consciousness any time soon. It looked like her spirit had left her mortal shell, and all that was left in front of them was a mere husk of an active body.
"Stand aside, let me do a cursory scan." The MDT seemed to have something in mind and it started scanning Hilda's body with a faint blue light. "Basic health scan completed... Low level biological functions detected. No brain activity detected, no signs of nerve impulse, no signs of polymorphic spiritual energy... Initial diagnosis... Death... Holy sh*t, this elf may very well be dead."
"You gotta be sh*tting me..." Hao Ren was stunned. He never thought such a good news would be the end of Hilda. He quickly recovered and turned to Vivian. "Quick, use your.... resurrection spell or something!"
"It's no use." The MDT interrupted Vivian's preparations. "She already used her blood magic to revive Hilda's body. Technically, the body is still alive. Her current state however... There's something deeper to this. There's a general use medi-chamber in the ship. We need to get her there to do a full scan.
Y'zaks immediately got up and turned towards the elevator as he heard this, but Vivian quickly stopped him. "Hold it. Let's keep this on the down low... Panic will ensue if this goes out."
"They will know sooner or later, no?" Y'zaks turned around.
"I agree with Vivian." Hao Ren nodded. "We need to buy some time until the medi-chamber comes up with a proper report. MDT, teleport us to back to the ship. Vivian, you're the smart one, stay back and deal with the elves... If anyone asks, just say that the queen led us out to inspect some parts of the city..."
"Can we fool them though?" Vivian was confused. "How do we even trick the elevator guards? How would the queen leave the room?"
Hao Ren pointed towards the window. "Didn't a white, furry beast go wild and jump out of the window yesterday? I think the guards should be somewhat resistant to surprises like this. Besides, their queen has been in our company for quite a while, so I think that excuse will be able hold for a while. Whether the medi-chamber works or not, I'll try to get you something within two hours. Also, if Lily comes back, just get her to behave... No... Just let her run wild outside. She's one spoiler we don't need right now."
Hao Ren was usually slow and steady, but facing such an emergency, he seemed to be in his element. He calmly gave out orders while Vivian nodded as she took everything in. Before he left, he pulled out a small, shiny cube from his Dimensional Pocket and placed it in her hand. "Hold on to this. This is the ship's unregistered passenger's communicator. I'll ring you if there's anything."
Hao Ren's tenants did not have any authority in the Imperial Data Network and thus, could not connect to the mental communication network. The Petrachelys on the other hand, was a ship designed for inspectors and inspectors had to frequently work with commoners who had not access to the Data Network. As such, the ship came with such communicators. They could only access a singular secured channel that did not cross with the Data Network. A convenient tool indeed. Hao Ren had grabbed a handful and stuffed them into the Dimensional Pocket before he left the ship. It was only at this point that he recalled having done that.
Vivian nodded again as she took the communicator. Hao Ren then lifted Hilda up into a cradle, not knowing if the elf was dead or alive. He disappeared with Y'zaks and the MDT in a flash of light.
The MDT set the medical bay as the landing point of their teleportation and as soon as the nausea faded, Hao Ren found himself right in front of the medical bay. The ship had already received orders even before they arrived and the medi-chamber was opening slowly with all the other equipment lighting up into standby mode. Shortly after, a droid came whirling towards Hao Ren. It helped him place Hilda into the chamber before placing itself into the terminal next to the medi-chamber. The droids were fully equipped with all the systems required to run the equipment in the ship. They could take over the roles of crew members in the event that there were no professional crew onboard, medical attention included.
As the scan began, the main computer in the medical bay started its report in a monotonous tone. "Connection complete.... Starting preliminary target scan.... Carbon base, Type IV, living organism with a closed circulatory system. Scan results... Death. Initiating secondary scan... Cause of death, shattering of spirit... Initiating tertiary scan... Cause of death determined as... destruction of spirit... Initiating scan again..."
As all the equipment buzzed in the background, the medical bay's A.I. quickly generated a series of mind boggling reports that ran almost 10 pages long. The details of the reports were so precise that both Hao Ren and Y'zaks were overwhelmed. Neither of them understood the terminologies used in the report. After fruitlessly trying to decipher what the report was all about, Hao Ren got the main computer to generate a simple report. What he received was a spine chilling response. "Death of spiritual body"
"It happened so suddenly..." Hao Ren could not wrap his head around the incident. Hilda, who was standing in front of them, all hale and hearty was suddenly declared spiritually dead. It was too much and too sudden for Hao Ren to accept. He even felt that it would have been easier to swallow if Hilda had actually died from shock, being relieved of her burdens. But he had nothing to dispute the results generated by the medical bay's computer. Hilda was indeed dead. In fact, she had been dead for quite some time already.
The MDT summarised the main details of the medical report and displayed it on a holographic screen before Hao Ren. The latter quickly caught on to a key point in the summary:
"Time of spiritual disintegration... Twenty to thirty days ago... spirit remnants..."
"What does that mean?" Hao Ren had a few ideas but he still could not believe that the report was true.
The MDT explained in an uncharacteristically calm voice. "Hilda has been dead for quite some time... If I'm not wrong, probably about the time she entered The Plane of Dreams. Her spiritual disintegration started 20 to 30 days ago... It's something that only happens once a person is dead. However, in most situations and for most people, the disintegration happens very quickly, in the blink of an eye... hers however, took almost ten full days..."
"That means..."
"The Hilda who was with us the entire time was just her will to survive," said the MDT. It slowly landed on Hao Ren's shoulder, as if to pat him. "It's not just you or me, even she herself didn't realise it."
The medi-chamber hissed opened slowly as Hilda lay still in it, her body still warm. She was really dead, nothing but a corpse in front of Hao Ren. Her face was pale, but she did not show any signs of pain. There was even a faint trace of a smile on her face, almost as if she was having a very pleasant dream.
Hilda was dead by the time the explosion on the Isle of Rainbows occurred, instantly killed like many others on the scene by the power unleashed from the spell. But as the dimensional rift opened, her body was tossed into the rift, into another world alongside the residuals of her shattered spirit. And these residuals formed an undying will so strong that she did not realise she had already died. With that will, she pushed on for almost a month until this very day; to go home, to protect her people, to defend her home. Hilda's undying will drained whatever was left of her spiritual energy without her noticing until that very moment. Once she realised that all her burdens were lifted, the exhausted Queen of Aerym could sleep restfully.
A soul, longing so earnestly for home, was now at peace.
The atmosphere then was beyond sombre. Hao Ren simply stood there, stunned. A cacophony of whys and what ifs rang in his mind until Raven 12345's voice suddenly appeared out of nowhere.