Natsu had no choice but to cover his ears, watching twelve ancient green characters fly out of Ezreal's mouth, hovering above Maxi's body.
"ח י י ם ו מ ו ו ת, מ ח ז ו ר ג ל ו י, פ א נ ג ש נ ג מ ת, פ א נ ג מ ת..."
"—ע ר ך ה ח י י ם א י נ ו מ ת י ם מ ה מ ו ו ת..."
"ה ח י י ם ה ם ה ה ת ח ל ה, ה מ ו ו ת ה ו א ה י ע ד, א נ ו ב ו ח נ י ם א ת ה ע ו ל ם ב ג י ש ה ש ל ח י י ם, ו א נ ו מ פ ג ש י ם א ת ה פ א ז ל ה מ ל א ש ל ה ח י י ם ל פ נ י ה מ ו ו ת..."
"Return—!"
The moment the last syllable exploded, Ezreal's golden hair all stood up, dancing like a living thing.
The whites of his eyes were swallowed by green, leaving only his pupils, lit by white light, burning.
Maxi's body suddenly arched, his mouth opening to an incredible degree.
A faint green light emerged from his thin body, seemingly wanting to escape him and dissipate with the wind.
Ezreal immediately bit his finger and dripped the blood onto the boy's brow.
The drop of blood seeped into the skin like a living thing, forming complex patterns.
"That's it..." Ezreal's voice suddenly became a multi-layered reverberation, as if countless people were speaking at once.
His left hand pressed hard against his chest, pulling out a pulsating green light, "Soul Alchemy—"
The ball of green light was roughly pressed into Maxi's chest.
Immediately after, a huge green rune magic circle flashed and disappeared.
The boy's body immediately convulsed violently, and his skin color returned to a healthy rosy hue at a visible speed.
Seeing this, Ezreal breathed a sigh of relief and dispersed the white light around him.
The flame barrier extinguished at the same time, and Natsu rushed to Maxi's side.
When he felt the child's warm neck pulse, he was pleasantly surprised: "He really came back to life!"
Happy flew over to check, his wings trembling with excitement: "Aye! It really worked!"
Maxi's eyelashes fluttered a few times, and he slowly opened his eyes.
The shadows of fear still lingered in the young boy's tender eyes, but his pupils had regained the clarity a child should have.
He instinctively curled up, looking around blankly, his gaze finally falling on Ezreal's face.
"My body... doesn't hurt anymore? I... had a very long dream..." The boy's voice was as faint as a mosquito.
Ezreal forced a smile, but in the next second, he suddenly coughed violently.
Blood seeped from between his fingers, dripping onto Maxi's clothes, blooming into several striking red plum blossoms.
"Ez!" Natsu quickly supported his tottering companion.
Only then did he notice that Ezreal's face was terrifyingly pale, his forehead covered with fine beads of sweat, his golden hair soaked with sweat and plastered to his cheeks, as if he had just been pulled out of water.
Happy anxiously flew around the two of them, shedding feathers from his wings: "Aye! Ez, how are you?"
Several flashing white feathers fell onto Ezreal's body, transforming into specks of white light and merging into his body, which made the golden-haired youth's complexion improve somewhat.
"I'm fine..." Ezreal managed to straighten up, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, "It's just that my magic power is a bit unstable."
He tried to show his usual confident smile, but against his pale complexion, the smile appeared particularly strained.
Natsu frowned, and the flames in the depths of his pupils lit up again.
He keenly sensed that something was wrong with Ezreal—the familiar aura of light had become extremely faint, replaced by a strange, unsettling fluctuation.
"What you used just now wasn't Amaterasu, nor was it the Light Magic taught by the old man." Natsu lowered his voice, flames dancing in his eyes, "What was that?"
Ezreal did not answer immediately.
He squatted down, gently smoothing Maxi's messy collar, his movements gentle.
The boy seemed to have exhausted his strength and had fallen into a deep sleep again, his small chest rising and falling evenly.
"A type of alchemy." Ezreal took a deep breath, finally speaking, "An ancient magic that complements my Dimensional Summoning."
Even though the young man was reckless, he was very clever; he heard the perfunctoriness in Ezreal's voice, knew that he did not want to explain, and so did not press further.
Natsu looked at his weak appearance and asked worriedly, "What's wrong with your body?"
Ezreal smiled and patted the cherry-haired youth's shoulder, responding jokingly, "Why have you become as long-winded as the old man? I'm fine."
After speaking, Ezreal raised his left hand, his five fingers forming a claw, and a faint white light lit up in his palm; the distant Comet's skull immediately flew over and was grasped in his palm.
Ezreal closed his eyes, and a green magic circle spread out from his palm, just large enough to cover Comet's head.
However, just as the green magic circle opened, Comet's charred skull suddenly trembled, and then in the next second, it abruptly cracked and shattered, the charred bone fragments breaking and falling to the ground.
Natsu was slightly startled, "This..."
Ezreal frowned, looking at the ashes remaining in his palm, he shook his hand in disgust and explained: "The souls of these people must have been branded with some special sacrifice magic; once they die, their souls are directly taken away by some unknown entity."
"I originally thought it was only these small fry outside who were like this, but I didn't expect the leader of this group to be as well."
"Besides sacrifice, this magic can also prevent the possibility of information exposure, perfectly circumventing any type of memory-searching magic."
"Coupled with standardized weapons and clothing, and similar dark magic."
"And the strange things that guy said, it seems to be evil god worship."
Ezreal frowned in thought, "It seems these people really come from an impressive organization."
Natsu interrupted his thoughts, bending down to pick up Maxi, "Let's take the children back to the village first; we can talk about the organization later."
Ezreal smiled and did not object.
He staggered a bit as he stood up, but quickly steadied himself and followed.
Natsu noticed out of the corner of his eye that Ezreal's shadow was unusually dark in the sunlight, with black mist constantly seeping out and retracting from its edges, wriggling like a living thing.
On the way back to the village, Ezreal walked at the very end, his steps light but firm.
Natsu looked back several times and saw him wiping the blood constantly flowing from his nose with a handkerchief.
When the outline of the village appeared in their sight, an old woman stumbled towards them.
Her withered arms tightly embraced Maxi, tears rolling down her wrinkled face, creating dark little pits in the dust.
"Thank you... Thank you all..." The old woman's voice trembled uncontrollably.
Natsu scratched his head uncomfortably: "It's what we should do."
Ezreal stood a few steps away, a faint smile on his face.
Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, casting dappled light and shadow on him, making his complexion appear even paler.
Natsu noticed that his right hand was constantly in his pocket, with veins bulging on his arm—he was enduring something.
Other villagers also arrived one after another, surrounding the children.
Cheers, cries, and words of gratitude intertwined, echoing over the village in the twilight.
Natsu was surrounded by enthusiastic villagers, his cherry-blossom-like hair particularly conspicuous in the crowd.
Taking advantage of the commotion, Ezreal quietly retreated to an oak tree, slowly sliding to the ground with his back against the rough trunk.
He took off his goggles, closed his eyes, and tilted his head back, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down, as if swallowing some kind of pain.
The shadow beneath him twisted and deformed, vaguely taking on the outline of a wolf.
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