Now that they confirmed that Rigel’s flames could dispel the corruption in Sarina’s body, Aster covered her whole left hand in the flames for a couple of seconds, compared to how small were the black spots, there were big quantities of black smoked being expelled out of her body.
A couple of minutes later all the black spots in Sarina’s arms were gone, Robert gave her an elixir to help her recover a bit faster and it worked, for the first time in almost seven years Sarina could move her arms on her own.
The first thing she did was extend them to drag Kana in her embrace, little tears formed in her eyes.
“My child, I’m sorry I couldn’t hug you on the past years… even in your birthdays or when you were sad”.
Kana hugged her mother back, she missed those joyful days when her mother could play all time with her, the garden in the front area of the mansion was personally created by Sarina and Kana and they took care of it every day, looking at the different flowers and plant together was their favorite hobby.
Unfortunately, after the corruption started breaking havoc in Sarina’s body, she could no longer do any strenuous activities first, and after a couple of months she wasn’t able to move anymore.
Now that Sarina could move her arms and a bit of her upper body Aster could see that there were other black spots in her neck, her lower body was covered in a bed sheet but it was safe to assume that her legs also had them and probably other parts of her body.
Sarina separated from her daughter and her husband tried to held her hand but she refused which made him sigh before stopping and walking next to Aster.
…
Robert patted Aster’s shoulder before saying.
“Can you continue with the treatment or do you need some time to rest and recover your spirit energy?”.
Aster contemplated things, to be honest creating Rigel’s flame didn’t use his spirit energy, but controlling it so carefully to not harm Sarina’s body and just refine the corruption did use quite a bit of it, and now there was another thing to consider… he needed to see the place where his flames touched to have that kind of control over them.
“I don’t really need a rest but we need to have a serious talk about the treatment before we continue”.
Robert’s expression turned serious for a moment.
“Kana please wait outside of the room for a moment”, he said.
Alice more or less could guess what her brother was going to say so she took the initiative to leave the room with Kana.
Once Alice closed the door Robert sat in the bed next to his wife.
“Feel free to speak kid, if you need an herb or any other thing, my whole treasury is open for you to take whatever you need”.
Aster shook his head.
“It’s nothing like that”, he turned to see Sarina before continuing.
“Pardon my rudeness but can you tell me… if you have those black spots on ay other parts of your body besides your arms and your neck?”.
“Yes, I have them practically all over my body”, she answered.
Aster sighed; he spoke to Robert this time.
“I need to see the places where my flame touch to have the amount of control needed to just eliminate the corruption without harming the body”.
…
It took Robert a moment to understand what he meant, basically he needed to see his wife… naked, to be honest even he didn’t know all the places where the corruption was already showing in Sarina’s body, the maids have been taking care of her needs while he was looking for a cure or being busy protecting the border cities or assisting to other important things in the capital.
He focused his attention on Sarina.
“How much… has the corruption spread?”.
Sarina had weird expression on her face.
“At this point it is everywhere below my head”.
“I don’t mind, this is just a medic procedure so there is nothing to worry about, but Robert I… don’t want you to be present in the room while it happens”, she added.
Robert felt a bit complex
“Sarina, so far, all the medics that have treated you were women, at the very least let me be here”.
He turned to see Aster before continuing.
“Don’t take it personally kid, I’m just being a stubborn idiot right now”.
Aster understood how Robert felt, he nearly attacked Adil when he focused his attention on Lilia, not to mention that she was properly wearing clothes and Sarina doesn’t have that option.
Sarina had a serious expression when she interrupted her husband.
“If it wasn’t for Kana, I wouldn’t have allowed you to enter this place to be honest, if you insist then… let Kana be here, she has stayed with me all the time unlike other certain person”
Aster felt the room’s atmosphere suddenly becoming tense, there was probably more in this situation than what he knew, still there was no need for him to involve himself into it or at least that’s what he thought.
Robert wanted to argue but he knew his wife would not change her mind no matter what and being honest… he knew the reason, but he was not prepared to speak about that, instead it was more important to continue with the treatment right now.
“Fine, I will return to the capital now… once you have recovered, we will have a long talk understood?”.
Sarina didn’t answer him which made Robert stand from the bed, he smiled at Aster and handed hi a couple of bottles full with pills.
“Once you finish the treatment please give her those pills, they will help her recover faster”.
Robert left the room and he left the door open which allowed Aster to see him saying goodbye to Kana before flying away through a window in the corridor.
Kana returned to the room with a somewhat sad expression but she didn’t say anything, Alice also entered the room but she was confused about what just happened, she closed the door behind her and just leaned against the wall now that Kana’s father wasn’t here, she felt a bit more relaxed.
Aster noticed his sister’s change in attitude, “a woman’s intuition I guess”, he thought.
“If there are no other problems then let’s start already, are you going to call someone to help with… undressing?”.
Sarina smiled.
“Don’t worry, Kana will help us with that… also don’t mind Robert and just continue with the treatment please”.
Aster nodded.
“Okay, then let’s start with your feet so you can walk again”.
Kana removed the sheet that was covering the lower half of her mother’s body, Sarina was wearing a comfortable loose white dress so her legs were clearly visible now.
A blue flame covered both of her feet and legs, this time the process took almost five minutes before the black smoke symbolizing the success of the treatment appeared for a couple of seconds just to be eliminated by Rigel’s flames, apparently the corruption was more concentrated in Sarina’s legs since that was the first part of her body to be affected.
Sarina noticed his curious gaze and she explained.
“I fought against what I supposed was a peak disaster lever corrupted… unfortunately that thing was already trying to evolve to calamity level and although I managed to defeat it, I got infected by its corruption”.
Sarina looked at her hands which she couldn’t move for such a long time and she smiled.
“Still, I’m thankful that the negative effects didn’t start immediately so I was able to spend some time with Kana”.
Aster was surprised, she resisted the corruption’s effects just to spend time with her daughter without complaining even once, although he was also curious about why she seemed angry with Robert he was in no position to ask that.
“Kana can you turn your mother around? we need to remove the corruption in the back of her legs and her heels”, he said.
Kana did as she told and just as Aster expected there were some other small concentrations of corruption on the places that he avoided to cover with the flames.
Once he finished Kana helped her mother lay face up again, Aster gave Sarina the medicine Robert left and after taking it she tried to stand but she couldn’t, her body was still too weak for that but she managed to sit on the bed instead.
Now that there was no corruption left on the visible parts of her body, she rose her arms ad asked her daughter to take her dress off.
“Dear, please help me with my dress so your big brother Aster can continue”.
Kana didn’t think too much about it, she did as her mother asked and after a moment Sarina was only wearing underwear.
Despite having told Robert that she didn’t mind, it was the first time another man besides her husband saw her like this, to be honest Aster was more focused on all the corruption marks he could see… it was really awesome that she was still alive.
There no black spots anymore, instead they formed some kind of crystal over some parts of her skin becoming a strangely exotic but not bad to contemplate spectacle.
Sarina pointed at her neck.
“Start with my neck please, I feel so stiff that is a bit uncomfortable”.