<h4>Chapter 250 - Refining War Tactics (3)</h4>
The child had jade-colored eyes and long, turquoise hair. Though he had never seen this boy before, Henry knew instinctively that this was gon.
After building up his courage, Henry nervously swallowed and tentatively called out, “gon?”
<i>- Khu!</i>
gon had pale white skin. However, like in the case of half-dragons, the turquoise scales on his body revealed that he was a polymorphed spirit, not an actual human being.
After giving a cheerful response to Henry’s call, gon quickly rushed over and embraced him, just like he had used to do in the good old days.
“You really are gon.”
<i>- Khu!</i>
Although gon clearly looked like a human, it seemed that he could still only say ‘Khu,’ most probably because he hadn’t yet developed the intelligence to usenguage. However, that wasn’t a big issue because Henry could always teach him how to speak, and gon could understand Henry anyway.
“It’s good to see you again, gon. I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”
<i>- Khu!</i>
Henry was genuinely happy, and gon could feel the affection in his voice. He, too, was happy to see Henry; his affection for him hadn’t waned at all.
Henry then snapped his fingers, summoning a strip of cloth that wrapped around gon, turning into a set of neat clothes.
“Do you feel any kind of difort?”
<i>- Khu!</i>
gon felt especially energetic because he had never absorbed as much mana before as he had done that day; he had never been in a better mood.
Having been in an egg for so long, gon felt a sweet sense of freedom after his evolution; he felt liberated and anew. The best part of it all was that gon didn’t seem to remember the time Henry had forcibly awakened him during the Fief War to use him as a strategic weapon.
gon hugged Henry like a child embracing its father. He then pulled away and extended his hands, releasing mana.
<i>Slosh.</i>
A sphere of water formed above gon’s palm, floating. The sphere froze and thawed repeatedly until the clear water shifted to a violet color.
<i>‘Poison?’</i>
It was indeed poison, and a very potent one at that. This was one of gon’s four attributes, which had been brought about by the influence of Henry’s poisonous blood.
However, the violet poison quickly turned back into clear water.
“...!”
Henry suddenly realized that this clear water wasn’t just ordinary water; it actually had healing properties, simr to the holy water of any religion.
“Ah...!”
The water sphere soon vanished. gon then put his arms behind his back as if he was embarrassed, rocking back and forth.
<i>‘I’m proud of you.’</i>
gon was definitely endearing; he was like a child that was showing off something he had learned to his parents, and sure enough, Henry was very pleased with gon, so he patted him on the head.
“You’re getting pretty good at using your abilities now.”
<i>- Khu khu khu!</i>
gon understood that Henry was praising him and nodded emphatically.
Next up, Henry tested a few more things before he feltpletely relieved.
<i>‘I haven’t tested his strength yet, but I have a good feeling. He’s evolved well.’</i>
It was already great progress that gon could use his healing powers at will. By managing to get gon to finally evolve, Henry had seeded in one of his goals ining here. He picked up the two concentrated ck Tears from the desk and waved them in front of gon.
“gon.”
- Khu?
“Do you remember what this is?”
- Khu...
gon carefully looked at the ck Tear, and after sniffing it, he frowned.
He had to recognize the ck Tear as it had yed a huge role in his rapid growth. Moreover, gon had saved Henry from dying because of it when he had attempted to awaken the 7th-Circle in his previous life.
gon raised his right hand, irritated.
- Khu! Khu khu! Khu khu khu!
Henry didn’t know what gon was saying, but judging by his tone, it couldn’t be anything good.
Henry smiled and said, “I’m d you recognize it. I’m going to drink this, but if I fall into a critical state, will you help me like you didst time, gon?”
- Khu?
gon raised his eyebrows and held out both of his hands as if to say that he didn’t understand why Henry would attempt to drink something so dangerous.
Henry pat gon’s head again and said, “There’s no point in trying to stop me. Anyway, if I get really sick, I’ll count on you... W-wait a minute. I actually don’t need to wait for you to save me.”
As Henry was asking gon to help him in case things went south, a brilliant idea suddenly shed through his mind. He figured he could use the healing water gon had shown him earlier.
“gon, can you create the healing water again?”
- Khu?
Along with his answer, gon held out his index finger, and a water sphere the size of a fist formed at its tip, and Henry quickly collected the water in a sk.
gon found this interesting, so he continued making the healing water, but Henry quickly tried to stop him.
“Stop! Stop! That’s enough. You can stop making it now!”
- Khu!
gon had created enough healing water to fill an entire wooden tub used for bathing, and seeing how many sks Henry had filled, he actually summoned a wooden tub and poured all the healing water into it.
<i>‘Let’s give it a try.’</i>
At first nce, it just looked like a tub filled with regr water. However, the water was strangely warm even though it hadn’t been heated, and it seemed like Henry could heal any of his wounds just by touching this water.
The preparations wereplete. Henry grabbed the two ck Tears from his desk and slipped into the tub with his clothes still on.
<i>Ssh!</i>
Since Henry had made the wooden tub bigger than the volume of water, it didn’t overflow. Seeing Henry enter the tub, gon also jumped in with an excited look.
<i>Ssh!</i>
- Khu khu khu!
gon sshed around in the water, enjoying himself, and Henry couldn’t help butugh at this sight.
<i>‘Well, it might be better for us to stay close anyway.’</i>
Henry took a deep breath. He held the two bottles of ck Tear in each hand and proceeded tobine them into a single ck Tear using magic.
<i>Znggg...!</i>
The two ss bottles started shaking as they slowly rose in the air, then stuck together like mas and continued to shake until they turned into a single ss bottle.
<i>Pop!</i>
There was a small explosion followed by some ck smoke. Henry blew away the smoke and looked at the final bottle, which was small as a thumb. It contained a highly concentrated form of the ck Tear, two thousand units to be precise.
<i>Gulp.</i>
Henry knew how painful it was to ingest five hundred concentrated units of ck Tear, so he couldn''t even imagine how agonizing it would be to consume four times that amount. However, he had to drink it. He knew that not even this would be enough to reach the 8th-Circle, which was precisely why he was determined to drink it.
Even though he knew he had to do this, he was still reluctant, scared even...
Below him, gon watched Henry with sparkling eyes.
Henryughed and asked gon, “What are you looking at? Do you want to drink it instead?”
gon shook his head, and pushed the ck Tear toward Henry with both hands.
“You know what this is...”
Technically, gon didn’t know what this was, but because he remembered this being vorless and painful, he gave it to Henry. After all, nobody in this world would want to drink something that would cause them excruciating pain.
<i>‘Okay.’</i>
Henry gathered his courage and grabbed the ss bottle. Without hesitation, he quickly opened the lid and poured the ck Tear into his mouth. It was merely a sip, but that was more than enough.
The ck Tear slid down his esophagus.
<i>Crack!</i>
Henry threw the empty ss bottle on the floor. He couldn’t taste anything.
Before anything bad happened, Henry quickly cupped his hands together and preemptively drank healing water from the tub
“Agh!”
Just then, Henry felt an excruciating pain in his stomach as though something had exploded inside him. Despite having drunk handfuls of healing water, the ck Tear wreaked havoc in his stomach; he felt like a volcano had just erupted inside his stomach.
Henry almost threw up the ck Tear. He quickly put his hands over his mouth and did his absolute best to hold it down.
“Agh...!”
He felt as if he had swallowed pure evil. The ck Tear was moving frantically inside his stomach like a dragon trying to escape from a cave.
- Khu khu khu!
Seeing Henry like this, gon sshed the water. He found Henry''s exaggerated expressions to be funny, thinking he was ying a prank on him.
However, Henry felt like dying.
<i>‘Arghh!’</i>
Veins popped out on his forehead, and hot steam seemed toe out of every orifice in his body. His eyes had turned bloodshot as the tiny veins in them had popped. He also shivered as if he were bathing in icy water.
<i>‘K-kghhh!’</i>
The pain was so intense that his eyes were about to roll into his head. He wanted to take his hands away from his mouth and swallow the healing water right away, but he couldn’t because he knew that if he did, he would vomit the ck Tear.
His heart threatened to burst out of his chest; it felt like someone had sprinkled coarse salt on it. His whole body was overwhelmed by burning sensations that surged and went away every second.
Henry felt like he couldn’t breathe, as if he were drowning in the depths of the ocean. He felt more and more like he would faint due to the mind-numbing pain; he had never experienced something like this in his entire life.
- Khu...?
As Henry’s agony reached its peak, gon finally realized that he wasn’t joking. Seeing Henry in so much pain, gon started to panic, not knowing what to do. He wrapped his arms around Henry, who was shaking violently due to the pain.
Suddenly, a turquoise light emanated from gon’s body, which expanded like a puddle of ink just after it was spilt. The tub also glowed the same color, and soon, the entireb was illuminated by gon’s strange light.
The light slowly faded away until it eventually revealed the wooden tub. The healing water was still there, but Henry and gon were nowhere to be found.