‘Yes, he might be trying to communicate. But I can’t say for sure. Whenever that person is trying to reach out to you, it is completely blocking me out. Since it hasn’t been much time with our contract, our souls aren’t used to each other that well lacking in synergy. This is very well the reason how he was able to form a bond with you without me knowing. But that Azmiel insect is quite shrewd… he was able to sense that you had a bond because of the trap he set infused with his mana.’ Miracle explained.
‘Then should we try to reach out to him?’ Alex asked.
‘We definitely need to reach out to him otherwise…’
Alex furrowed his brows seeing as how Miracle became silent. ‘Otherwise, what?’
‘It seems I can’t delay this any longer, as we are now, even I can’t reverse this cursed effect.’ Miracle sighed.
‘Cursed? What do you mean?’
‘Try not to make it obvious to Blake and listen carefully. You need to stay calm. Understand?’ Miracle asked in a firm tone.
Alex nodded feeling that if he didn’t approach this seriously Miracle might actually not tell him about it.
‘Your body is cursed right now kid. The stone… it is rotting your body. This is the affect of you using the stone’s powers. I had only heard of it but there do exist some legendary treasures which upon their use harm their wielder in some way or the other. It was pure rotten luck that you actually got one.’
‘W-Wait… you’re joking right? Rotting? What does that—
‘Peek into your t-shirt.’ Miracle intercepted.
Alex though hesitant looked down inside his t-shirt. And just as Miracle had said, almost like a virus black markings had covered his chest and stomach. Alex was flabbergasted wondering how did he missed this?! But then he realized, the day he and Blake went to Bevis’s hideout, he had a sudden itch and had discovered a black like spot on his body. It was safe to assume that it had taken its root then.
‘W-Why didn’t you tell me about this before?!’ Alex asked trying his level best to not freak out.
‘It wouldn’t have done you any good about knowing it. Not to mention I wanted to try everything possible to stop this curse myself but it remains unmoved, as if it doesn’t recognize my actions at all.’
‘Then what’ll happen if this spreads to my entire body?’ Alex asked terrified.
‘I think you can pretty much guess it. Just like how a rotten apple becomes lifeless, that’s pretty much the same thing that’ll happen with you. Not to mention the speed at which it’ll happen.’ Miracle said being brutally honest.
Alex suddenly felt his heartbeat quicken. The weight of Miracle’s words was sinking in.
‘However, I won’t let you die like this!’ Alex’s eyes widened at Miracle’s statement.
‘I believe the key to reversing this curse lies with the soul of the person trapped inside the stone. Though not a 100% chance, that guy is the best option.’
‘I see… then shouldn’t we try to communicate with him quickly?’ Alex asked.
‘We should but you see this is where the problem lies. That soul doesn’t want contact with me, or more or less it might not be able to because to the stone I am like a foreign object. It doesn’t recognize the existence of our contract and thus doesn’t indulge me. As a result, only the soul trapped inside the stone can contact you. It might be something similar like the dream earlier. But this time when he approaches you, I won’t interfere and pull you out of the dream like last time. You need to get answers from him kid, at any cost for your survival as well as for mine.’
Feeling that Alex needed some time to process his thoughts Miracle went silent and let him organize all this information.
Few days went by, Alex kept getting weaker and weaker because of the rotting. It was not a typical rotting as one would expect to occur to a dead human body if kept idle for too long. Whatever, type of rotting it was Alex understood this much that it was infesting in his body, deeper and deeper. As for Blake, Alex hid it from him pretty well by often engaging him in an argument. It wasn’t a bid deal for them to do that anyways.
Regardless Blake was aware that something was wrong. Since the first day that Alex abruptly woke up, he’s been squirming in his sleep, sweating continuously. One-night Blake got a slight glimpse at Alex’s neck. Black and purple marks almost like an infection had formed on it. He didn’t talk about it with Alex as he already knew that the latter had realized what was happening to his body.
Did Blake know what was going on with Alex? No. But did he care? Not in the slightest. He already had enough on his plate and he wasn’t so soft hearted to care for a human he only considered as annoying and a hindrance.
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