BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

Chapter 906: Goodbye (2)

Erik clasped his father's hand tighter to hiding his escalating worry, forcing a smile to provide some semblance of reassurance.

"How did you heal that fast?" Lucius asked.

"I got the beast's power. It was a Hevadrin."

"Ah... I see..."

His father's condition was far worse than yesterday.

Lucius reached up slowly to cup Erik's cheek with a trembling hand. His skin was feverishly hot. "My son... so like your mother... so strong. I'm... so proud... and... happy."

"Dad, hear me out; you are going to survive. I will go to New Alexandria, bring a healer here, and fix you up." To see his father this way was unbearable. "You're going to be alright. Just hold on a little longer."

"We both know the truth..." Lucius inhaled, coughing. A spray of blood flecked his lips. His breathing hitched and grew more labored.

"You won't ever make it in time... I don't feel right."

Erik felt numb, helpless to do anything but watch his father suffer. At the same time, there were many things he wanted to ask.

Erik gripped his father's weakening hand tighter. He didn't really want to, but he had to ask; he needed to know, and maybe that was the only chance he had to do it.

"Dad, please tell me how you survived on the Mur Continent. How did you resist those powerful thaids?"

Lucius laughed, though it turned to a cough. His eyes shone with memory.

"That's something good to talk about before dying... Recounting the tales of when I survived... the Mur continent. It was glorious." Lucius smiled.

"I would like to tell you not to fight the blackguards, but I'm not such a hypocrite. You will do as much as I did. As for your question, the truth is that it wasn't easy. The thaids there, they could kill thousands of men in minutes."

"Yes, I know that. The Hevadrin, the wyverns... they were proof of that."

"Things are much worse there than Hevadrins and Wyverns, Erik."

Lucius burst into a fit of cough. "MY-COUGH-My brain crystal power... That helped, but it wasn't enough. I would have starved or been preyed on without the blackguards."

Lucius didn't meet Erik's eyes as he spoke. "I stole what I needed to survive-food from their stores and supplies from their camps. If I hadn't, I would be long dead."

Erik wondered about his father's words. If the blackguards did everything to survive, how did they do it? What did the blackguards do to last in the harsh wilds of the Mur continent? And in what numbers did they go there?

Were their numbers enough to face the thaids that plagued the area?

"But how did the blackguards survive then, if even you struggled?"

Lucius took a shuddering breath. His chest heaved, ribs visible beneath the thin fabric of his shirt.

"The blackguards had... numbers. Hundreds of thousands roamed Mur." Erik's eyes widened. As it meant things were going to be hard for him too, but they would also be easier compared to them, thanks to the clones. However, he did not know whether that was going to be enough.

"Through complex scouting systems, they watched each other's backs. If anything approached that one group couldn't handle, orders went out, and soldiers gathered from across the land." Lucius coughed; his body was wracked with pain.

"Dividing their forces allowed them to live off the land without depleting resources. Scouts always looked ahead, alert for danger, and when threats were sighted, soldiers fell back or flanked in formations. The scouts died most of the times." His voice grew faint.

"Any foe they could not face head-on, they avoided through misdirection and retreat. Working as one massive organism. This let them survive where individuals would perish. Numbers and organization kept them alive."

Lucius' eyes drifted closed as his strength failed. Erik gripped his hand tighter, hanging onto every word, gazing at his fading father.

It was then that Lucius started coughing violently.

"DAD!"

But Lucius coughed more. Erik watched as his father grew worse before his eyes.

Lucius's once-strong frame now lay even more pallid and frail. His skin had turned ashen.

Each ragged breath Lucius took seemed to scrape against his chest, leaving trails of crimson on his lips and smearing the room with it.

"Dad! DAD!!!" Lucius could only gasp in response, his eyes glassy with pain and fever.

Erik's heart clenched in his chest. Erik shot to his feet and shoved open the door, nearly tearing it off its hinges.

"You there!" Erik said at the nearest clone guarding the hall. "Fetch a doctor or a nurse at once!"

The clone started at Erik's outburst, then bowed. "Right away, sir." He darted off down the corridor, shouting for help.

Erik turned back to Lucius, straining to project calm, though inside he raged against his own helplessness.

"Hold on, Dad. Help is coming."

Please, let there be a way to save him. Erik couldn't bear to lose the one real family he had left

in this world.

He had only just regained Lucius's affection; he wasn't ready to let go.

Not like this. Not when there might still be hope.

Lucius's grip weakened, his fingers slipping from Erik's. His eyelids fluttered, and Erik watched as consciousness ebbed.

"FUCK! DAD!"

The room's door swung open. Erik watched as the doctors swarmed around his father, lifting him with care onto a stretcher.

Their quick, terse conversations washed over Erik-words like "infection," "fever," and

"organ failure."

He and the clones followed the medical team from the room, down the long corridor, towards

the infirmary.

Erik strode alongside, gripping his father's limp hand.

In the infirmary ward, nurses bustled to prepare examination tables and medicine cabinets.

The doctors began their work efficiently, removing Lucius' soiled bedclothes to examine his flesh. Their mouths contorted grimly upon discovering what lay beneath.

Erik hovered at the periphery, blocked from the flurry of activity by clones holding him back, no matter how much he struggled.

He kept hearing what the doctors talked about, words that spelled out nothing except Lucius' imminent death.

Rationally, Erik knew there was nothing more he could do here-no skills or powers that

mattered against such internal ravages of the body.

But logic held no sway over the panic rising like bile in his throat, the hot prickling behind his

eyes he refused to acknowledge.

June and Noah got behind him. They put a hand on his shoulders. "Let's go, Master."