A few days later. In the alchemical workshop.
Karen sat on a specially made iron-backed chair, his hands placed neatly on his knees, though his ten fingers fidgeted restlessly, his knuckles turning slightly white from excessive force.
The room was somewhat dim, surrounded by various glass jars filled with strange specimens, and the air was filled with a peculiar scent of mixed herbal ash and magic potions.
He was surprisingly quiet and very stiff, like a child who had done something wrong, only occasionally turning his head to peek at Klein with eyes that were somewhat clouded.
Klein was sitting behind a wide mahogany desk, flipping through a heavy ancient parchment book.
The title of the book was written in Ancient Common Tongue as 《Soul Resonance and Detachment》, its pages yellowed and the edges even slightly curled.
He read very slowly with a focused and gentle expression, occasionally scratching a few notes on a piece of scrap paper with a quill, recording several obscure and complex alchemical runes.
Only the rustle of turning pages and the occasional gurgle of bubbles from a crucible in the corner remained in the workshop.
Lyra had not come in today; she was left waiting in the first floor hall.
The quiet environment made Karen increasingly uneasy, and he felt the slimy whispers in his head starting to surge restlessly again.
He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down, before he finally couldn't help but mutter in a low voice, "Um... do jellyfish fly?"
The quill in Klein's hand paused slightly, and a drop of ink fell onto the parchment, blooming into a stain.
He looked up, moving his gaze from the pages to Karen's face, which was filled with confusion and anxiety.
"No."
He answered curtly, but his tone was as gentle as a spring breeze, without the slightest hint of impatience.
"Oh."
Karen let out a long breath, his tense shoulders slumping as if he had set down a thousand-pound weight.
"That is good... that is good. Otherwise, they would entangle the clouds, and it would always rain that salty rain."
Klein looked at him, a flicker of pity crossing his eyes.
He let out a long sigh, placed the quill on its stand, closed the book, and pushed it aside.
Although Karen's symptoms had eased considerably after leaving the west coast, the residual pollution from the sea monsters deep in his soul had not been cleared, causing him to occasionally say strange things filled with deep-sea visions.
He stood up, smoothed the wrinkles on his robe, and walked over to Karen.
"I have carefully studied your blood samples over the past few days," Klein said, getting straight to the point without any redundant pleasantries.
He knew that for the current Karen, explaining complex magic theories and alchemical terminology was meaningless and would only increase his burden.
Hearing this, Karen's eyes widened suddenly, and his hands gripped the edges of the iron-backed chair so hard his nails almost dug into the wood.
"The good news is that you have not completely become a kin of the sea monsters, and your soul can still be saved."
Klein pulled over a high stool and sat down opposite Karen, his gaze level with the other man's, attempting to soothe his emotions with his own warm and calm aura.
"The bad news is that those voices in your head, those whispers from the deep sea, cannot be driven away simply by drinking soothing incense."
Karen's expression froze instantly, his lips trembling for a long time while a flash of fear appeared in his eyes before he managed to choke out, "Then... do we have to use a knife to dig them out?"
As he spoke, he fearfully raised his hands to cover his head, shrinking his neck back like a startled quail.
Klein was amused by this simple and somewhat comical reaction, letting out a soft laugh and shaking his head repeatedly.
"No knives. This is an alchemical workshop, not a slaughterhouse."
He extended a slender finger and pointed to his own temple.
"You must use your own will."
Karen looked completely blank, clearly not understanding.
Klein explained patiently, "There is a power within you, a life force belonging to your source, that has been instinctively resisting the erosion of the deep sea, though you cannot perceive it yourself."
"I have found a way over the past few days to forcibly awaken this power."
"Once it grows strong, those messy voices will naturally no longer be able to bother you."
"Really?"
Karen's breathing suddenly became rapid, his hands clenched into tight fists, and a strong longing erupted in his eyes.
"The prerequisite is that you must cooperate with me."
Klein stood up and turned toward the workbench.
He carefully picked up a glass tube containing a deep blue liquid from a constant-temperature crystal box.
The liquid seemed to possess a life of its own, flowing slowly within the tube and emitting a bone-chilling coldness.
"The process will not be very comfortable, and it will even be very, very painful."
Klein turned around and looked into Karen's eyes, his tone becoming serious.
"But I believe you can endure it, right?"
Karen stared fixedly at the glass tube emitting cold air, his throat dry.
He looked back at the closed door again.
He thought of Lyra waiting in the hall, of her hands that had become rough from working day and night, and of the silver anchor pendant she never took off from her neck.
He grit his teeth, took a deep breath, and sat up straight again, the cloudiness in his eyes fading slightly to be replaced by a desperate resolve.
"Do it."
He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, assuming a posture of being at someone's mercy.
"As long as I don't have to hear those singing fish anymore, and as long as Lyra doesn't cry anymore... I don't care what happens."
Klein walked over with the glass tube and lightly tapped his shoulder with the back of his hand, giving him a silent word of encouragement.
"Open your eyes and drink this first."
Karen snapped his eyes open, grabbed the glass tube, tilted his neck back, and without any hesitation, drank the deep blue liquid in one gulp.
The stuff was freezing.
There was no sensation of it sliding down his esophagus into his stomach.
As soon as the liquid passed his throat, it turned into a freezing storm that directly permeated his entire body.
Pain.
A bone-piercing pain that felt as if even his soul were being torn apart erupted instantly.
"Ugh—!"
Karen's hands gripped the armrests of the iron-backed chair so hard his nails made a grating, ear-piercing sound against the metal surface.
He grit his teeth, the veins on his neck bulging, and his already pale cheeks turned deathly white, with a thin layer of frost even beginning to form on his eyebrows.
At this moment, he felt the dark deep sea in his mind boil completely, as countless monsters with tentacles screamed, trying to drag his consciousness into the abyss.
Klein stood by the side, calmly taking back the empty glass tube, his tone steady but carrying an unquestionable power.
"Focus your attention on those messy voices in your head!"
"Do not run away! Use this pain to crash into them!"
"If you smash them, you win!"
An oppressed groan rolled out from Karen's throat.
His entire body was shaking violently, and sweat mixed with icy water dripped down his temples, but he forced himself to bite his lip hard, suppressing the scream that was about to break from his throat.
He would win this battle in his mind for Lyra.
Meanwhile, in the first floor hall.
Bang— Thud—
Dull impact sounds and suppressed groans penetrated the thick floorboards, faintly drifting down.
Lyra jumped up from the wooden chair as if she had been electrocuted.
Her hands were twisted tightly together, gripping the silver anchor pendant on her neck with such force that her knuckles were stark white.
She tilted her head back, staring straight at the ceiling, her eyes instantly turning red as tears welled up.
"Karen..." she murmured, her voice trembling violently.
That was the man she had loved for so many years; she could not bear to hear him suffer even a little.
Her reason was completely defeated by worry in this moment, and she stepped forward, about to rush toward the stairs regardless of everything.
However, a slender but powerful hand wearing an exquisite leather glove steadily blocked her path.
"Go back."
Ophelia's voice was not loud, but it carried the chilling majesty of a Knightess who had spent years giving orders, and it brooked no resistance.
Lyra stopped in her tracks and turned to look.
She was like a mother wolf protecting her cub, her eyes full of anxiety, defensiveness, and even a hint of hostility.
"Treatment is being performed upstairs. If you rush up now, you will do nothing but interrupt the progress and make him suffer in vain."
Ophelia's face was calm as she withdrew her hand and pointed to the chair beside them.
"Since Klein promised to cure Karen, he will never break his word."
Lyra bit her lower lip until blood almost appeared, hesitating, but her feet did not retreat.
Seeing Lyra like this, Ophelia slightly raised her chin.
"Klein always acts with discretion."
Ophelia's voice softened a bit, her tone carrying a hint of pride that she couldn't hide.
"He is much more reliable than you imagine. Instead of going up to cause trouble, you should wait here quietly for him to come down."
Lyra took a deep breath, and her tense shoulders finally slumped slowly.
She knew Ophelia was right.
She slowly retreated to the wooden chair and sat down again.
Her hands, however, still tightly gripped the silver anchor pendant as if it were her only lifeline.
"It will get better, right?"
Lyra asked in a low voice, her tone full of deep supplication, as if asking Ophelia, or perhaps asking the gods.
Ophelia walked over, pulled out a chair, and sat down opposite her.
She looked at this resilient yet fragile woman, recalling the image of Klein's back as he stayed up all night in the study researching the formula, and the corners of her mouth curled into a very slight arc.
"Of course," she answered firmly.
...
...
In the room, Klein took half a step back, his eyes fixed on the brass dial on the workbench, his slender fingers resting on the edge.
With a click, he precisely turned it to the highest setting on the right.
He didn't intend to just watch.
If he really let Karen, a commoner whose mental barrier was riddled with holes, endure the whispers of the deep sea alone, he would have to replace the entire set of anti-magic floorboards in this workshop today, and maybe even the ceiling would be blown off.
Taking a deep breath, Klein's fingertip suddenly pressed the crystal hub in the center that served as the array eye.
Buzz—
A highly piercing low-frequency hum instantly emanated from deep within the stone slabs, causing even the dust in the air to vibrate.
The previously dull lines of the alchemical arrays seemed like greedy blood vessels, instantly charged by the massive mana.
A deep blue glow seemed to possess life, quickly traveling and weaving along the complex grooves on the stone slabs, eventually forming a column of light that tightly confined Karen in the center of the iron-backed chair.
"Ugh... sea... water..."
A confused, beast-like low growl rolled from Karen's throat as his body began to twitch violently.
Bone-chilling frost spread from his eyebrows to his temples at a visible speed, and even tiny ice crystals formed on his eyelashes.
It was a coldness that did not belong to the human world; his entire body shivered on the iron chair, making the chains rattle loudly.
Klein's expression remained unchanged as he casually pulled over a piece of rough parchment and dipped his pen into the thick ink.
At the edge of the array, three high-purity crystal pillars for testing stood in a triangular formation.
At the moment Karen let out a pained roar, the crystal pillar in the center began to vibrate at a high frequency.
The alchemical liquid inside, which was originally as clear as spring water, suddenly became extremely turbid as if ink had been dropped into it.
Immediately after, several dark shadows like living things condensed within, resembling tangled masses of hair, frantically moving and crashing within the narrow crystal tube.
The manifestation of pollution from the deep-sea will was finally being forced out.
"It actually worked? It seems my calculations weren't wrong."
Klein muttered in a low voice.
His pen flew across the parchment, making a rustling sound as he quickly and accurately recorded the values of the magic peaks and valleys.
Interestingly, as if sensing the crisis of being detached, the shadows in the crystal pillar began to crash against the tube walls even more frantically.
They even produced a sharp, ear-piercing hum, a sound that felt like thousands of steel needles scraping against glass, desperately trying to break through this alchemical confinement and crawl back into Karen's warm brain, which they already viewed as their nest.
"Be quiet. Experimental materials should have the awareness of experimental materials."
Klein spoke in a gentle tone, casually picking up a small brass hammer from the table and flipping his wrist to precisely tap the top of the crystal pillar.
Clang—
The crisp sound of the strike was instantly transmitted along the magic circuits of the array.
The shadows were suddenly thwarted, letting out a shriek inaudible to normal ears as they instantly shrunk into a ball, frantically scurrying at the bottom of the crystal pillar and no longer daring to strike upward.
However, before the lingering sound of the brass hammer had completely faded, Karen on the iron-backed chair suddenly tilted his head back and erupted in a heart-wrenching, short scream!
"Ah—!!!"
The relaxation on Klein's face vanished instantly.
He saw countless fine cracks burst open without warning on the surface of Karen's pale skin, looking like fragile parchment that had been left for thousands of years being forcibly torn apart.
Blood squeezed out frantically from those ruptured capillaries without any obstruction.
Hot blood mixed with the unthawed icy frost on the surface of his skin, gathering into striking red lines at Karen's chin.
Drip, drip.
Thick blood hit the floor, splashing into shocking flowers of blood.
The parchment in Klein's hand was instantly crushed into deep wrinkles.
Something was wrong!
The underlying logic of this detachment array was something he had deduced no less than twenty times in his mind.
The mana frequency had been strictly screened; it should not have caused any substantial damage to human flesh and tissue.
"Ugh... kill... kill me..." Karen gasped heavily, the veins on his forehead bulging like earthworms.
The madness that had been suppressed earlier surfaced again, his eyes rolling back to show the whites, filled with bloodshot lines as he struggled to stand up, only to be held firmly in place by the binding force of the array and the heavy iron chains.
The blood flowed even faster.
Karen felt as if he were about to shatter from the inside out.
...
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