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Chapter 289  Primal Exarch

"Can I use the bathroom?" Nero interrupted the nurse, getting off his bed even as he asked. Moving felt slightly awkward, and all his muscles were sore, but it wasn\'t really a problem.

"Oh, yes, please, go ahead. It\'s the door on the left. I\'ll go call the doctor in the meantime."

With wobbling legs, Nero made his way to the bathroom, also noting the condition of his body.

Though he felt like he had no injuries, he was far from recovered to his best state. He closed the door behind him, locking it, and then made his way to the mirror, feeling a wave of relief flood through him when he noticed that his hair and eyes were still blue.

He hadn\'t really had time to test it before, but one of his lead theories was that it wasn\'t switching his innate ability that triggered the colour change, but actively using the ability. The more he used it, the quicker the colour would change.

Since he barely used Virtuous Moonlight, the change hadn\'t been triggered at all. Nero took the opportunity to observe his body, and lifted the gown to take a look at his condition.

He had weakened, that much was visible at a glance. He had lost a significant amount of muscle, and there were light scars on his body where his skin had been torn off.

Scars were not really an issue. There were countless cards available that could remove scars, not to mention that generic healing also removed scars. But even if they didn\'t, who in Kolar didn\'t walk around with a few scars, boasting of their various accomplishments?

After Nero used the restroom and left, he found that not only had a few doctors arrived, but so had Corporal Thomas, Lieutenant Earl, Colonel James Carter, Vanessa and a dozen other senior officers.

"Gentlemen, I must insist that this wait until I\'ve done a thorough test of the patient\'s condition first," the doctor said, looking irritated.

"Nonsense, he\'s fine. Look at him, he\'s even been to the bathroom to check out his new scars," said a man in uniform with a hint of a smirk. "But more importantly, it\'s been two days and the Private has crucial information we need. You can do your tests later."

Thomas made a hand gesture indicating Nero to follow him, and Nero quickly began to move behind the group, who promptly brought him out of the hospital and to an office nearby. They entered a conference room, and just from looking at how energetically everyone was moving around the camp, he could tell something had happened while he was unconscious.

"Ah, Nero lad, you had us all worried," said James, the old scientist. "You came back in a truly horrendous condition. We thought we had lost you. Fortunately you have a tough body - anyone else would have already passed on."

"Thank you for your concern, Colonel. I am feeling much better now," Nero said. "You have excellent doctors."

"Private Nero, do you remember the events leading up to your injury?" Lieutenant Earl asked, cutting through the niceties.

"I remember clearly," Nero stated. "The team suffered injuries due to an explosion, and we were trying our best to escape when we were attacked by a… by a monster of some kind."

"A Primal Exarch," Vanessa cut in. "We have records of them back in Nova, from records collected from the ruins. Primal Exarchs come in all shapes and forms, but they retain two distinct features. They are devastatingly powerful, and…"

Vanessa let her words linger as she looked at Nero, as if to confirm something he had previously said.

"The creature spoke to me," Nero said with a nod. "I stayed behind to hold the creature off while the rest made a run for it. Considering our initial clash, in which I managed to injure it a little, I thought I might be able to hold it off, but I was sorely mistaken.

"The creature had some kind of mental attack that slowed me down and shocked me, but I managed to resist initially - or at least I thought I did. But after fighting me for a bit, the creature decided to take things much more seriously.

"It used another mental attack, one I wasn\'t able to detect or resist, which froze my body still. At that point, it could have easily killed me. Instead, he grabbed me and gave me a message before throwing me towards the others."

"What did it say?" James asked with a look of pure fanaticism in his eyes as he listened to the story.

With a solemn expression and sombre tone, Nero repeated the words of the Primal Exarch, "\'Be gone mortal. Do not trespass down into my lands again. This is the dominion of the Primal Aeon.\'"

Nero naturally did not share the entire story, for he had his own secrets to protect, but he honestly shared the rest. A part of it was so that the army would be aware of the situation and act accordingly, but also because he was himself quite interested in the meaning of what he said. This was the second time he heard the word Aeon, and both times they seemed to be referring to some being or entity. The first time was the Virtuous Aeon, and now the Primal Aeon. The Primal Aeon even seemed to have underlings, such as the Primal Exarch, so chances were the Virtuous Aeon might as well. Especially since the Exarch recognised the light Nero gave off, and considered Nero an unworthy vessel for it, whatever that meant.

"That\'s it?" Lieutenant Earl asked. "It didn\'t say anything else?"

"That thing bit my Spartan-II spear in half. I don\'t know if I would have been able to survive it if it used its mouth anymore than it already did. After saying those words, it flung me towards the rest. I don\'t recall much after that."

"Makes sense," Vanessa said. "Almost every bone in your body was fractured when we found you. It\'s a miracle you didn\'t die immediately. If it weren\'t for the fact that all other creatures stopped attacking us after that, we would not have been able to rescue you."

Nero frowned. It made sense that the only reason they survived was because they stopped getting attacked, but he didn\'t like the implications. That meant that the Exarch had complete control over the hill, if not all of Perilith.

"Is there any more information you can provide us with?" Earl asked, his expression just as mean as it usually was, which made it hard to read him. None in the room reacted to hearing news of the Primal Aeon, but Nero didn\'t know if that meant they were unfamiliar with it, or if they were just very good at controlling their expressions.

"There\'s nothing else," Nero said, shaking his head. "Has anyone tried going back to Perilith since? What\'s the situation?"

"The southern part of the hill where the rock outcrop was has been covered in some kind of barrier. We can no longer enter," said Vanessa. "But nothing else seems to have changed. We haven\'t seen the Exarch since then either."

Nero merely heard the news and didn\'t even have time to ponder over it when the Lieutenant dismissed him.

"Private Nero, you can return to the hospital and proceed with your medical check up. There will be a few days of rehabilitation for you, where you will be treated and go through some light exercises. You focus on recovering as soon as possible. You have proven yourself an asset to this mission."

Nero merely saluted and got up to leave, while the rest remained. Corporal Thomas, who was not in the meeting, was waiting outside for Nero.

"Good to see you made it back in one piece, and that you did your mission well," Thomas said with an approving nod, as he walked back with Nero. "There have already been casualties in the missions that went in without you."

"What?" Nero asked, taken aback. "They\'re already doing more missions? Shouldn\'t they wait for everyone to heal first?"

"More Neophytes have come in since your last mission. Now there are three Neophyte teams that are deployed for independent missions each day, but the results aren\'t good. Even your own team suffered a casualty in their one mission without you."

"Who was it?" Nero asked somberly. He had already seen Vanessa, and he found it hard to imagine Bael dying so easily, but the rest…

"I don\'t know her name, but it was some girl with a movement ability. She could move short distances quickly, which should have helped her avoid trouble. But she died in the most unusual way. An autopsy reported that she died due to asphyxiation."

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