The diagnosis of Noah and Lazaus' state, done by a private doctor invited to his home?
Lazarus had been drugged, somehow- and that somehow was actually Promestein- and he had a concussion that was healing over time and a few bruised ribs, but he would live and wake up soon, though he would likely need to be on a liquid diet for a little bit.
Noah, on the other hand, the doctor said that he more or less had no idea what was going on with his body. Not in an "I have no idea how you are alive" way, but primarily the fact that he bore the scars of surgery and magical healing alike and outwards seemed fine, with none of his functions impaired, though he would likely feel soreness and pains while his muscles healed for a pretty long while. The woman couldn't just cut him open to feel what was inside, and x-ray scans were not a thing.
Having thus returned, obtained his sword from showing off to the king that actually, yes, Ilias had sent him a vision of needing to acquire the sword, cashed in his gold reward (for existing, so really, a stipend?), and having passed by the swordsmith's shop for some last minute wardrobe repairs and picking up his new repeating crossbow of Promestein's design, Noah found himself sitting on a chair in his home's living room, staring down at Sophia, who sat opposite of him.
'You know, I still cannot fathom how a proud monster such as a Lamia can stand to hold herself in such a diminutive form without complaint.' Salamander informs him, and Noah lifts an eyebrow.
He didn't feel comfortable enough with the idea of her taking monster form if she didn't have to outright ask as such. Also... "You cleaned the house while I was talking to the King. Thank you, but there was no need..."
"A-ah, no, it was no issue at all! I just... wanted to do my part, and if the Dark Avenger's business is so important that he was sent straight here by the angels, then." She paused, before smiling. "It was no trouble at all, really."
"...sure." he took a deep beath, leaning back. "We still have the issue of Lazarus." And it was an issue indeed, though Noah found himself rapidly feeling detached from the situation. He went after children. The whole reason that Noah felt so incredibly bad with rape was that it was one of the great taboos of his life.
Harming children intentionally was another, and it was arguably worse. He bombed a fucking school. And quite frankly, Noah had no doubt that the man had a streak of potentially worse actions under his belt, including but not limited to murdering his best friend.
Lazarus had not atoned. He had hidden the fact and spun the tale to rally his forces into a frenzy.
The man had done him an incredible solid. Without him, Noah would be dead or worse. And considering that Noah had just gotten his hands dirty for him to survive... he considered the debt, quite frankly, well-repaid. Tonight, Noah acted on his morals, and Ilias Kreuz was as much of a disease as certain parts of Monsterkind.
"A large issue indeed, sir. Do you... wish for me to take care of him?" Sofia asked softly. "I can give him a pleasurable end when I send him to Ilias." she offered, and Noah blinked.
"That would neither be fair, nor just," he replied with a huff. "If he were to get death for his crimes, he would be going out the easy way... and killing him leaves a bad taste in my mouth," he said, though he still felt a bitter taste fill his mouth even without killing him.
She seriously had just asked him permission to rape someone to death. 'It still feels bizarre to me that what you're objecting most is the rape part, not the death part.' Salamander confessed, and he dipped his head slightly as a way of acknowledging that it was a fair argument. Not one he agreed with, but a fair one nonetheless. Still, right now he was looking for a way to make Lazarus pay for his crimes.
"Are you familiar with the layout of Sentora, sister?" he asked, unrolling his own map of the continent. After a moment, she dipped her head in assent.
"I've been traveling for a while, trying to find a place where I belong. What are those marks, sir?" Sofia asked, trailing her fingers on various doodles on the map Noah had made, as well as some that someone from the previous heroic group had marked as places of interest.
"None of your concern... most of them anyway." he gnawed on his thumb, staring at the map. There were a number of spots that, unlike San Ilia, might be willing to prosecute and imprison Lazarus. Grangold... which Noah had instinctively avoided, he realized, Grand Noah... both places would just hook him up to a semen extraction machine or force him to fight in the colosseum. Sabasa might work...
As he racked his brain as to what the way might be, he found himself wondering about Luka's journey, and what Lazarus' disappearance might mean for it. Luka had just gotten to Port Natalia, which meant that he had gotten the bell from there. Tamamo. Yamatai was also a human and monstrous settlement. It would also be where he could actually best be handled in terms of his crimes on Monsterkind... which included, he supposed, killing the Fifteenth.
...was he going to use Lazarus as a Litmus test for the ancestor's moral character?
'It is not the worst idea you've had, I suppose. We want him out of our sight, don't we?' Salamander piped up, and eventually he nodded. It... wasn't, an ideal solution, but short of jailing the man himself and staying in San Ilia forever under constant threat of being discovered, he didn't know other ways.
"I'm gonna get to writing a letter that I wish for you to deliver to Tamamo of the Heavenly Knights. It is a long journey, but only you can bring this man to justice." In his current state, Noah doubted that Lazarus could put up much of a fight against a monster that, if he remembered, was strong enough to put up a fight against part 3 Luka. "She resides in Yamatai Village in the Noa region, around these parts."
He got to writing the letter, which was, essentially, a very polite way of informing her of who Lazarus was, what his vocation was in life, and to give him a fair trial.
'What does put your money where your mouth is mean? Is it a prostitution thing?' Salamander asked, and he sighed, about to rewrite it, when she chuckled. 'Kidding, kidding. Seriously though, you've got balls to say something like that to her.'
'She can put up or shut up. I'll have my answer either way.' He gave one last glance to Lazarus, trying to find some semblance of goodwill left in him that would have him change his mind or for the man to suddenly rise up, reveal he was not actually out of it, and drop a smoke bomb, ninja-style, and disappear, or do anything else. After a moment of nothing happening, he shrugged, drying the letter with a quick application of fire magic. "Time to go, sister."
"O-of course. And... should I get hungry on the road, may-"
"No. Remember Ilias' commandments." Sofia flinched, at that, but nodded, dipping her head as she held Lazarus like a ragdoll, dragging him away into the night. "Bloody fucking hell..."
As Noah sat in bed, listlessly working his dexterity to get used to handling his new crossbow while he should've been resting, Salamander watched him silently. His muscles were ravaged, the healing magic reconstructing them in a weaker state, because it was stupid like that, restoring things to a 'better' state, ignoring that the blood, sweat, and damage one took, was the point to rebuilding from better.
Noah's prize sword, the one he would have gotten for his return to the capital, sat in the corner. It was... well, it was certainly something. Technically speaking, it was a sword. Of course, the fact that it would work more akin to a blunt instrument of force provided it didn't snap first because the craftsmanship was just that poor, was also to consider.
Salamander had pretty much prohibited him from using it as anything more than raw material to help forge his current sword to a better state. If nothing else, it was a hunk of raw angelic steel infused with a ludicrous amount of holy power.
Power... up until this point, Noah had used hers responsibly, but right now... It didn't undo all his hard work, but it would be weeks before he was back where he used to be.
...of course, that was just the damage that the healing magic was able to heal in the first place. That's what it was about, wasn't it? The angel. Throughout that whole fight, Salamander had been useless. She couldn't help Noah fight... and she couldn't keep him alive. Promestein had done so; she was the one who gave him the idea to punch through with some alchemical abomination of electricity that turned water into fire when all Salamander could think of was to counter the water with more fire, hotter fire.
Issue was, Noah was too fresh, too inexperienced in handling her power. In the fight between the elemental powers, he was the weak link- the one who ended up scorched. Electrolysis, Noah had called, though there were other terms floating around in his head that Salamander couldn't really understand, like hydro-gen and oxy-gen. The knowledge of his mysterious civilization that he had no way to return to. It was also Promestein swapping out his lungs with some creature's or another. His lungs were charred, his vocal cords ash, and Salamander had been terrified as she watched the angel girl brandish a scalpel, carving into his body like a fresh kill.
Noah glanced in her direction with a questioning noise, making a sound that was decidedly not his voice, looking up from his crossbow, and she could only avert her gaze. Even now, she could picture his internals, the wrongness of what was going on inside. How long would it take before Noah realized the swap? He'd already been violated in both body and spirit; what would it do to his mind, to learn that a part of himself was forever gone, replaced by something alien? The only reason that he didn't realize his voice wasn't his own was that he spoke with a heavy rasp from the damage to his throat, but that would heal. That, and the fact that, according to Sylph, hearing one's own voice gets "really funny", which was just her way of saying weird, so he probably wasn't picking up on it.
What would he do when he learned that, without literal divine intervention, she would have killed him?
Granberia had spoiled her. She wasn't her only student, just the one she'd trained for the longest time; often, she'd just train power in the intelligent and intelligence in the powerful, but Granberia... Granberia was everything one might desire in a student; smart enough to understand, but not too smart for her own good; powerful, talented, brave, and most of all, resilient; both in body and mind, there had never been a single thought to ever give up. For the girl, Salamander had long since become obsolete, but she'd maintained the respect for the one who raised and taught her.
Granberia, her latest student, was also the most perfect one. In Salamander's eyes, most of the merit for that was uniquely Granberia's, and... and honestly, she'd never been that great of a teacher. The way she'd resorted to teaching her how to fly was simply to toss her off the top of Gold Volcano over and over until she "figured it out"- it was mostly an annoyance for Granberia, or maybe she'd get a bruise if she hit a particularly sharp rock.
Humans were fragile, as the way he blinked repeatedly to try and get moisture in his eyes, which were still red from being dried out by her fire despite a whole day having passed. No, she'd most definitely done Noah a disservice. It was too easy to think of the past, to overlap students past on top of him and get mad when he failed to perform adequately. Most of all... Noah was not Heinrich. No matter how much she wanted that to be the case. That realization came to her like the whimper of a flame being put out.
Noah was not Heinrich. Oh, she'd seen the similarities... just like Heinrich, Noah believed in justice, and tried his best to keep a lid on his anger, only to explode in white-hot rage once pushed past his limit. And just like him... Noah would actively destroy himself, given the chance. Maybe it was a selfish delusion, but Noah was hers. One of the angels didn't care for him, the other seeing him with some sort of hero worship, and he was terrified of them in return; of the monsters he'd met over his travels, he ranged from disgusted to tolerant of; and even the lamia that had caught his eye for a moment, he seemed more torn between pity and interest. Of the humans he'd met, none had the credentials to stand by his side as equals- those few that were yet above him in terms of skill had devoted their entire lives to a craft he'd picked up in under a year, but he didn't have three other spirits and a Monster Lord to care for him. He didn't come to her with swordfighting that put hers to shame, two spirits mastered and a third underway. If he fucked up, that was her issue.
Noah was hers. And, for a while, it felt nice to be depended upon; to have his first resort to be her power. With Heinrich, she'd been part of a set, and hardly the most dependable; by the time he'd figured out how to use her power properly, he was carving a path of death through Hellgondo's Dragon Clan, figuring out her power a spur of the necessity to carve through their scales. She didn't provide defense like the other three spirits; she could only enhance his strength and spirit. For a pacifist, that wasn't very useful. And she hadn't realized that allowing him to depend on her was such a stupid fucking idea. Salamander was born into this world, eons ago, exactly as she is now; but despite not growing, she really should have known better.
Noah was like a moth, and she'd been enabling his tendencies with her flame. His desperation was not just self-destructive, it was downright suicidal. His firm belief in the idea that death was one of the less bad things that could happen to him if he lost made him fight as though he was in a race, and exploding himself was fine as long as a piece of him made it past the finish line.
Salamander had been in denial, that things would get better as soon as he learned to not hurt himself with her power. He would never not do that unless forced to, because in his eyes, it was not a priority. She was pretty sure that Granberia had even warned her of this.
By projecting her desires to go back to adventure, to have the Heinrich experience without having to deal with others, to chase the high of Granberia's talent rather than what she believed to be good for him, she'd failed Noah. For the thing he'd sought her out for, she'd given him a few pointers on magic for him to train when she was busy, without bothering to even tell him that doing halfsies like he was doing right now was idiotic because his ability to store and even obtain magic was tied to how much his body could handle it and how quickly he could beat his opponent's lifeforce out of them. He didn't even know enough to know how much he didn't know. So much so for being the teacher he'd sought out.
"...Salamander?" Noah looked at her, and all she could see were the scars that crisscrossed his skin, burns that hadn't healed, and parts of him that weren't injured enough for Promestein to replace.
…she'd let Heinrich kill himself for the sake of striking a blow against Heaven. She'd almost let Noah kill himself with her power.
No more.
"Look, I'm sorry." He muttered, awkwardness radiating from him. "I know you wanted me to pull out of that fight since I wasn't fighting with my heart but only with my anger, and all that… I get it. Fulfilling my debt to Lazarus was an excuse, I recognize that. Can you stop glaring at me like you're trying to burn a hole through my skull, though?"
She blinked, staring at him for a moment. At times like these, she found herself baffled that with all the emotion she picked up from him, he couldn't understand what it was she was thinking of. He thought she was angry… technically speaking, she was, but at herself. She was burning with shame so potent that drowning felt like a preferable alternative.
"I… have decided to no longer grant you my powers as a spirit. For now." she quickly tacked on at the end as she watched his eyes widen in betrayal. "Besides the fact that any more fire magic would cause your body to burn up like tinder, I've realized that up to this point, I haven't been giving you the tools to grow, only that which will land you into an early grave. And, what I'm hoping for…" Salamander's flames go out for a moment, her breath catching in her throat. For a moment, looking in his eyes, she feels small and slimy like a treacherous worm, at the thought of giving him any less than 100% of herself. "What I'm hoping for, is that not having the option available to you will make you think twice, before doing something so…" Reckless. Stupid. Pointlessly risky. "Dangerous." Is what she settles on.
For a few moments, he looks at her, and she allows him the privacy of his own thoughts, despite wishing to know what he's thinking about. Eventually, he simply says, "I thought your draconian honor meant that you couldn't refuse the victor of your duel?"
She wants to scream at him that Yes, it does, and that it's exactly because I'm throwing away my honor that you should see how serious I am about not wanting to lose you, but she does neither. Because he doesn't understand. Because he's young and desperate, and right now, she's the worst person in the world in his eyes because she's betraying him in his worst moment. "I'm not going to stop teaching you. And I'm not going to leave. But right now, you're not ready for my power. Letting you use it was a mistake you paid the price for."
".. so I'm not worthy of your time." He replies flatly.
"Do not put words in my mouth, Noah." She growls. "I mean to say what I mean to say and nothing more. I will still teach you and be your companion unless you decide all I'm good for is to let you immolate yourself."
Noah remained silent for several more moments, and Salamander held in a wince as all he replied after was a quiet "I see."
"Look." She closes her eyes. "I understand that you are desperate to get home. And I understand that you're not comfortable here. But it won't be by killing yourself that you'll get back. And the sky won't fall on our heads anytime soon, so… we've got time. I promise to do my best to help you reach your home, but you need to be intact to get there."
Had Salamander maintained her eyes open, or chosen to not allow Noah his mental privacy, perhaps this would be the moment she understood just how bad things would get, instead of completely missing the way Noah flinched.
"…so, what now then?"
"Now… I've figured out which direction your training must go. Your innate capacity for holy magic and your physique are something to take advantage of, even if you'll take time to heal. You also will want to work on building your body more, since your current physique doesn't cut it."
"I see… and what about Grandine?"
Salamander blinked. "What about the replica?"
"She can allow me to use water magic... but I can't let myself fall into a state of Serene Mind, with her." And yet another random thing he knew. "Could you teach me, since the Spirit Ignition is off limits?"
Salamander breathed a sigh of relief. He seemed to be taking this decently… even if he really shouldn't be stressing himself. But then again, she wasn't sure he knew how to relax. "I can. But achieving a Serene Mind and using it in battle are two completely different things, and I won't be teaching you that until you're fully recovered and beyond your old prowess. Honestly, for these weeks, the most you should be concerned about is being pampered by pretty girls who no doubt will want to get the Dark Avenger's Dark Avenger."
He groaned at her crude joke, letting his head hit the bedpost, wincing. "…alright." He muttered, putting his crossbow away. His smile was brittle, but there. "I guess I haven't taken it easy since… actually, since the last time that I was here before we met. Wow."
"I guess that for once, I can wait around for a bit for things to happen." He muttered cryptically, and all Salamander got out of that was the mental image of the boy Noah had bumped into in Port Natalia and his obviously monstrous in-disguise girlfriend.
be a shame if Salamander learned that the sky would in fact fall on them
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