Chapter 8: Chapter 8 - Repentant
Third person POV
And then, Basilio woke up over 2 months later, only to find out that he was in a hospital ward that had some modern hospital equipment like a heart monitoring machine but had the medieval-style look of the room. "Where am I?" he asked himself, before getting up and looking around his surroundings.
The room was empty, and the heart monitor machine was beeping constantly in low tunes of sound.
[Beep…beep…beep…]
Basilio's right hand was hooked into an IV pole, which contained a blood bag, through a tube and a needle into his right hand, much to his chagrin and shock.
"Woah, what?" Basilio commented on himself surviving the attack by the Vamzoms in Fresa de Ard. "…how did I survive?"
And then, the system screen popped before him, informing him that, because of his survival on the said attack, he had achieved two things: a hidden ability known as Short-Term Survivor, an S-ranked one, and an achievement known as "Survived!".
To explain both of them, Short-Term Survivor is an ability that enables a user to survive any attack, whether internal or external, but it isn't an elixir for immortality. "Survived!", on the other hand, was an achievement that often comes with the Short-Term Survivor ability when someone managed to survive an attack that could have taken that person's life away.
These achievements had given him a lot of points to the next level.
His new level is now at Level 5.
Basilio was stunned with amazed shock. "What in the…?"
And then, after the system screen disappeared like a hologram, someone opened the door and went into the room, startling Basilio suddenly. It was a Vamzom soldier named Artem Rusu. Upon seeing Artem, Basilio gets terrified at his appearance as a hooded Vamzom. "Ah! Please don't hurt me!"
Trying to calm Basilio down, Artem said to him, "It's okay, kid, I won't hurt you. I am now good and docile now."
"A-Are you s-sure?" replied Basilio while shivering in fear still.
But then, Artem laid his left hand on his forehead and gently stroked it, calming and subsiding his fear gradually. "There…there, see? I am not hostile to you anymore. My human senses had been restored somehow."
Basilio was calmly taken aback by his now gentle nature and attitude at him. "Huh?"
"Yes, I guarantee that we won't hurt you or anyone from now on," Artem softly spoke to him.
But then, he started tearing up from his and his race's guilt on slaughtering blood creatures like humans and elves for their blood. "So sorry for what we did to you and everyone other than as Vamzoms…so sorry!"
Artem then removed his hand from Basilio's forehead and started crying from his guilt so, so badly. "…Sorry…sorry…"
Basilio was taken aback by his shift of emotions and expression for the second time, and then he became concerned for him and felt bad for him.
His mind said, "Man…I felt bad for him. And also, that was the name of his race…"
Basilio's memory flashes back to the bystander's words on the day of the attack at Fresa de Ard.
Because of this, Basilio quickly figured out the name of the race and asked Artem for confirmation. "Yes, it was the name of our race," replied Artem calmly and briefly.
"Oh…" Basilio responded.
And then, just as Artem was wiping his tears with the sleeves of his Vamzom military uniform, another Vamzom came in. This time, it was his older brother, Timru Rusu, one of the combat helicopter pilots of the Vamzom race-army. "How was Basilio-kun?" he asked Artem. Basilio and Artem then glanced at him.
"Um…how did you know my name?"
"Oh, big brother, this kid is now fine."
Timru then looked at Basilio and was relieved to see that he was okay and alive. "Ah, Basilio, you're actually okay. It seemed that you're lucky to survive."
"Yeah…" Basilio replied back, avoiding his gaze in a bit of fear.
Seeing and reading his expression, Timru became concerned for him. "Look, we're sorry for what we did to you and everyone else…"
"Yeah, it's okay…" Basilio responded back while looking back at him, "…how did you know my name?"
Timru then took something from his red and black military uniform pockets and handed it to Basilio.
It was Basilio's precious journal notebook from his previous life, alongside his magical, black, 0.5-sized, gel pen.
Upon seeing that, Basilio was stunned and grabbed them from him quickly. "Those are my stuff!" He then looked around his notebook and glanced at Timru. "Where's the rest of my stuff in a backpack?" Looking surprised at him, Timru replied back, "Don't worry, right at that corner."
The combat helicopter pilot then looked at Basilio's backpack, which was luckily dusted by a couple of traces of dust.