The light was beginning to fade when they reached the last mound of corpses.
Shadows stretched long over the ground as the last of the sun slipped through the canopy in amber streaks.
Victor stopped at the edge of the clearing with Arlen in his arms, his breath steady but his expression unreadable.
The smell of old blood clung heavier than before.
Victor shifted his weight, tightening his grip on the boy in his arms. "Alright, kid. This is the last of them," he said, voice uncertain.
Arlen didn't answer; his half-lidded eyes stared at the pile before he raised his hand in a trembling motion.
His fingertips brushed the nearest corpse.
And the next second, the entire mound blinked out of existence with a faint blue shimmer.
Unable to hold it in anymore, Victor finally asked, "How are you doing that? And why?"
"Later…" was all he got for a reply.
[System… sell these goblins.]
-Ding!
{The 400 Goblin corpses are not in optimal condition. Each will fetch only 1.5 credits.}
[Come on, man… don't kick me when I'm down.]
-Ding!
{Would you like to confirm the transaction?}
Arlen's head sagged slightly.
[Yeah, confirm it.]
-Ding!
{Transaction complete. 600 Credits deposited. Advisory: processed monsters sell for higher prices.}
[Yeah, yeah...]
Victor's voice broke through the air, tension bleeding into his tone. "Arlen… You there, kid?"
"Yeah…" Arlen muttered, his voice rasping low. "Just… gimme a sec."
Victor looked around, scanning the deepening forest line, especially the dipping sun.
"Hurry it up. It's getting dark soon… and I can't be around you when that happens."
Arlen's brows furrowed faintly. "Why?"
Victor's reply came after a pause, too quiet to sound like reassurance. "Just hurry."
Nodding weakly, Arlen turned his gaze back to the faint blue panel flickering above his vision.
[System, show me the cheapest thing that'd cure these diseases I got.]
The interface flickered once before settling on a single entry.
{
Shop
Lesser Cleansing Water
Description: Water blessed by Kali, the Principal Deity of the Eryndor Empire, diluted with mountain stream water. Capable of purging minor monster-inflicted ailments.
Warning: the purification process will be extremely painful.
Cost: 500 Credits.
}
[Heh, so… basically overpriced, watered-down holy water… and what do you mean minor? You call what I got a minor ailment?]
His cracked lips twitched faintly, half a smile, half a grimace.
[Whatever works, I guess.]
-Ding!
{Purchase complete! Lesser Cleansing Water is available in the inventory.}
Victor barely had time to blink before a small glass bottle shimmered into existence above Arlen's palm, clear, faintly blue, and cold enough to mist at the edges.
"Wha-? Arlen, what the hell is that?" Victor stammered, eyes widening.
"Put me down," Arlen rasped, his voice hoarse but certain. "Somewhere clean."
Victor didn't argue.
He crouched, lowering the boy carefully onto a patch of dirt less stained by blood.
And with a groan, Arlen's trembling hand lifted the bottle to his lips.
[Alright… here goes everything.]
He tilted it back and drank.
The liquid hit his tongue cold, almost tasteless… and then the pain came.
It wasn't divine, or gentle, or light. It was fire.
Every vein in his body flared alive as though molten metal was being poured straight into them.
His back arched as a strangled sound ripped from his throat before it became a full scream that echoed through the trees.
-AAAH!!
Victor took an instinctive step forward, then stopped.
The look in Arlen's eyes wasn't the pain of poison; it was that of purging. Something inside him was fighting.
The boy's breath hitched, each exhale a gasp that sounded closer to a sob.
His shoulder, where the goblin bite had festered, began to move.
The green pus bubbled out, drawn toward the wound's edge, squeezing itself free like poison forced from a vein.
The smell was putrid, burning, and sharp enough to make Victor's stomach turn.
The swelling began to sink slowly, color returning from purple-black to red.
Arlen clawed at the dirt, trembling as the veins in his arm turned dark from the rot seeming to crawl under his skin before bursting out through his wounds in thin, oozing trails that pooled over the soil like a thick sludge.
Steam rose faintly from his skin, not the steam of holiness, but of infection boiling out.
Victor stood frozen, every instinct screaming to help, but knowing if he interfered, he might stop whatever process was at work.
Minutes passed like hours.
Arlen's screams thinned to gasps, his body shaking as the heat faded, leaving only the echo of pain behind.
The forest fell silent again by the time the last of the green fluid had bled out and the smell had thinned.
The swelling had mostly gone. His wounds, though still raw and red, looked cleaner now.
Victor exhaled, the tension in his chest finally breaking.
Arlen's hand dropped to the ground, the bottle rolling from his fingers as he whispered in a voice that was a little less hoarse.
"…Guess it worked."