Chapter 565: Retrieval

After Warden Gunton saw the seal, the process became very easy. In fact, the man was downright pleasant to Julius. Even offering him a drink from his own collection of alcohol. Julius, of course, declined, but it was a nice gesture nonetheless.

They were taken down a hallway, past several layers of security. Until they arrived at a metal door. The warden had to use some kind of key as well as manipulate his mana in such a way that the locks on the door were unlocked.

When the door finally opened, Julius immediately entered without another word. The warden didn’t stop him, simply standing outside patiently. The only person who followed him in was Freya.

It was dark. Very dark, almost as if the room was draining all the light that entered. It was only due to his spatial perception that he was able to sense a form chained to a bed. There was nothing else in the room, just a lone bed with a single blanket.

“Edwin?” Julius called out.

He didn’t get a response and so he walked closer.

“Is there a way to turn on a light or something?” He called back to the warden.

Not even a second after he requested that, a bright light illuminated the entire room. The change was so sudden that Julius had to blink out stars in his vision.

He felt his heart drop to his feet when he saw the form lying on the bed. He had clearly seen better days and looked the most disheveled Julius had ever seen, but there was no doubt that this was Edwin.

The thing that worried Julius the most was the fact that Edwin wasn’t moving at all. He hadn’t reacted to him entering the room and was lying completely still on the cot.

Julius immediately dropped to Edwin’s side, his breath shaky. He didn’t waste any time and used his senses to examine the man. He frantically ran his aura and senses throughout Edwin’s body, but to his concern, he wasn’t able to detect anything wrong with him.

Other than signs of exhaustion and some slight injuries, nothing was wrong with the man. But that only made Julius more concerned, because Edwin still wasn’t waking up.

“What did you do to him?” Julius snarled, directing some of his leaking anger at the warden.

“According to reports, he has been like that for the past couple of weeks. We suspect it is a self-induced state. Likely some kind of mental skill he has, but we haven’t been able to rouse him out of that state. Our mind mages haven’t been able to access his mind either.”

On one hand, Julius was glad to hear that. Knowing that the mind mages weren’t able to mess with Edwin’s head alleviated a lot of his concern. He wasn’t so worried about physical torture, but was more worried about Edwin’s mind not being the same if Empire’s psychics put his mind into the blender.

On the other hand, he was angry that Edwin was even in this state in the first place. The only thing that kept him somewhat calm was knowing that this was just an unfortunate situation caused by Edwin’s having infiltrated the Conclave of his own volition. If it hadn’t, then Julius would have been a lot less forgiving.

Still, he was anxious because he had no idea how to get Edwin out of this self-imposed catatonic state.

While he was worrying about this, Freya had already dropped down beside Edwin. Her strong and potent aura had enveloped his old teacher with a gentleness that Julius couldn’t hope to replicate.

He let her do her thing, not saying a single word that might otherwise interrupt her. He kneeled patiently by Edwin’s side for the next several minutes as she inspected what was going on.

Finally, she seemed to come to a conclusion and looked over at Julius.

“He seems to be fine for the most part. I concur that this is likely the result of his own skill. It seems to be a skill that touches upon various aspects of shadow mana and a focus skill. Maybe even a combination of several skills working together. The main thing I am worried about is his soul.”

He felt his heart pound in his chest. It was reassuring that Edwin wasn’t a shattered fragment of the man Julius knew, but hearing that his soul might be in trouble was disturbing.

“What is the problem with his soul?” He asked her.

“Whatever skill he is using, it is taking a toll on his soul. The requirement to uphold such a technique must be immense, and his soul might not hold up if it continues to power the technique,” Freya explained.

Julius cursed under his breath. That didn’t sound good.

“Is there any way you can forcibly cancel the technique for him?” He proposed.

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She frowned slightly. “I am not sure if that will be the best action to take. I am confident that I can cancel the technique, but I am not confident that I can contain whatever backlash he might face if that were to happen. It is a very complex technique, and unless I had full access and control over his skills, I don’t think it would be a good option.”

He chewed on his lip. “So what? We have to wait for him to deactivate the technique himself?”

“It would certainly be the safest option,” she agreed.

“What about his soul? What if he isn’t aware enough to deactivate it? What will happen to his soul if it continues to run?” Julius asked in a rush.

Freya laid a hand on his head. “Calm down. His soul isn’t in such a bad place that it will collapse within the next month. And with our help, his soul will be fine. The main thing to worry about is when he will wake up.”

Julius took a breath of air to calm himself, as well as using [Sage of Savagery] a little more heavily than usual. Now wasn’t a time to panic.

“So what? We just wait?”

She nodded. “Yes, sadly, until we can take a closer look at him. That is the best option we have.”

Julius clenched his fists but let his shoulders deflate. “Okay, let’s at least get him out of this shithole.”