Autophagy

"Step back a little bit. Things are going to get dirty..." Aston said as he pulled out a soul dagger from his backpack. Seeing the dagger, the girl behind him frowned.

"What are you going to do with that?" She asked. Her voice was shaky. She was probably thinking that Aston was some kind of murderer.

"Don\'t worry..." Aston said. Of course, his words did no good in relaxing the woman, however, he didn\'t really care about her. The woman didn\'t dare to say anything as Aston had a pretty sharp-looking dagger in his hands. The only thing she could do was to watch.

Aston walked next to Aston and raised his hand. He slightly pressed the dagger into Arthur\'s arm and left a small cut on his skin. As soon as he did this, he took a few steps back and watched Arthur using his soul monocle.

With the help of the soul monocle, Aston saw Arthur\'s soul shaking.

Normally, people would have white soul gates in their bodies that would act as a bridge between their bodies and their souls. It would vary in size from person to person, however, the color would always be the same. Pure white... It would normally be in a calm state, however, Arthur\'s soul gate wasn\'t like that.

Instead, it was flailing around as if it was suffering from something. Its pure white color was long lost, replaced by a greyish color. It also looked as if it was leaking some weird substance from it.

\'That must be the reason for this smell...\' Aston thought. Suddenly, he saw Arthur\'s soul stop shaking. It shrunk in size and started trembling in its place. \'Oh fuck!\'

"Run!" Aston shouted as he took the woman in his arms and dashed out of the room. After leaving the room. He closed the door and blocked it with his body.

*BOOM!

Suddenly, an explosion sound resounded from the room. The door behind Aston arched forwards as black smoke came out of the openings on it.

"Quick! Don\'t smell it!" He said. Hearing his words, the woman held her nose. She wanted to ask what had happened, however, she didn\'t dare to do so.

They had to wait thirty minutes before the black smoke stopped coming out. It had mostly dissipated into the air. Hopefully, it wouldn\'t be toxic in any way for them. One thing was sure, however, it smelled really bad.

"You should open all the windows and go down to the lower floor. I\'ll take care of the rest," Aston said. The woman nodded timidly and left his side. After sighing deeply, Aston opened the door. As soon as he did so, a wave of black smoke hit his face. Fortunately, he had blocked his mouth and nose with a piece of wet cloth. Although it wasn\'t a perfect solution, it was still better than nothing.

After entering the room, Aston quickly ran up to the windows and opened them. Weirdly, the explosion sound hadn\'t caused the windows to explode.

As soon as he opened the windows, all the black smoke in the room left the room. Meanwhile, Aston took out a test tube from his backpack and stored some of the smoke into it to research it later.

After putting the tube into his backpack, Aston walked to Arthur\'s side.

Arthur\'s pale face had turned back to its normal state. He was still sleeping. However, compared to before, his eyes were darting around under his eyelids, indicating that he had gone into REM sleep.

Aston took out his monocle once more and inspected Arthur\'s soul gate. It had shrunken in size a lot. It was less than half of its previous size, however, it now had a pure white color to it. It had achieved that serene state that a healthy soul would have. This meant that he had healed.

"*Sigh..."

Aston put the monocle into his backpack and left the room before going down to the lower floor.

"I\'ve dealt with it. You can treat him like any other patient and he will heal normally. He will have atrophy from lying down for a long time so make sure that he gets proper rehabilitation," Aston told the woman. He had finished this duty today, So he could leave this place and go meet up with Song Lei.

Previously, they had agreed that they would meet up in White Hart and eat together. They hadn\'t spent any time relaxing these days, so they wanted to catch up and talk about their plans all the while eating their meal.

Aston arrived at their predetermined meeting place and started waiting. Song Lei probably wouldn\'t be here for half an hour, so he could wander around and take a look at the general state of the city. During the days he spent here, Aston spent most of his time forging the soul weapons. The only interactions he had with the city were the times he had to run errands for The Secret Blood Order.

Just as he was about to start his stroll, he heard a familiar voice from the distance.

"Hey," Song Lei greeted him. "I finished it early. Let\'s go."

"That\'s fine..." Aston muttered. Song Lei glanced towards him with an awkward expression.

"Why do you smell that way?" he asked. As soon as Aston heard his question, his heart shook with anxiousness.

"How do I smell..?" Aston asked. Song Lei closed his eyes. His nose moved a little bit as he sniffed the air.

"Nevermind... I think it disappeared..." Song Lei said. They arrived at the White Hart. The place had been repaired after the last time it was thrashed by The Wolf Gang\'s thugs. Unfortunately, Zach didn\'t have the money to restore the place perfectly. After all, this was the second time his store had been beaten down. His money was already about to dry out after the first time.

"Oh hey! Who is this friend of yours Lewis?" Zach asked as soon as he saw them. Because of its bad reputation, only the regulars kept coming to the White Hart. So the place was mostly empty.

"This is Aston. He is my friend," Song Lei introduced. Zach nodded and took their orders. As he was preparing the food, Song Lei cast a glance towards Aston.

"So? Will you tell me about what\'s going on or are you going to keep hiding it from me?" Song Lei asked. Hearing Song Lei\'s words, Aston\'s face soured up. His behavior these last few days had been noticed by Song Lei.

"Umm..."

"You don\'t need to tell me if it bothers you," Song Lei said. Aston was slightly surprised at Song Lei\'s nonchalant attitude. Song Lei would normally act very carefully against other people. He had seen this with his own eyes. Now, however, he was letting such a thing go.

"I... I think I can handle it for now..." Aston said. He turned his gaze towards Song Lei and asked with a timid expression on his face. "However... Can I ask for your help if I\'m unable to?"

"Sure," Song Lei said as a gentle smile appeared on his face. Aston and he had already become much more than friends. Song Lei could even call him his brother and go along with it. After going through hardships together, he didn\'t care if Aston kept a secret or two from him.

Hearing Song Lei\'s answer, Aston went silent. From then on, they finished their meal and retired back to their home without talking. Aston seemed to have a lot to think about, so Song Lei didn\'t disturb him.

As the clocks hit 12 p.m, Song Lei and Aston sat down in their rooms and started contemplating about what they would do tomorrow. Song Lei had gathered all the necessary knowledge by now. Fortunately, he had mostly gone unnoticed by the Gang. Although he would have to fight against some low-level thugs now and then, he never exposed his true intentions.

"So they were really a drug organization huh..?" Aston asked as he supported his chin with his hand.

"Yeah. Their organization is much bigger than the intel we were handed," Song Lei explained. He took out a few paper bags and handed one of them to Aston. "I think they are handling more than half of the United Kingdom\'s drug trade."

"Hmm..."

Aston took the bag from Song Lei\'s hand and looked inside of it. There was a beige-colored powder inside the bag. Aston picked some of it up with his hand and smelled it.

"This is Cocaine," he deducted from the smell. Cocaine had a distinct chemical-like smell to it all the while keeping its floral scent. They had learned how to discern all kinds of drugs back in the orphanage, so it was easy for them to identify them.

"Exactly. I have found other types too. You can take a look at all of them," Song Lei said as he handed the other paper bags to Aston.

"Let\'s crush these devils...."