From Nobody to God Doctor

Chapter 8. White Blood and Forbidden Fury

Chapter 8: White Blood and Forbidden Fury

...Zolda's left shoulder, punching clean through to his back! Thick, crimson blood sprayed out, splattering across Arka Wijaya's face, which was already pale with sheer terror. Zolda let out a harsh groan, his grip on Arka’s throat failing instantly. He staggered and dropped to his knees on the cold concrete floor while the arrow violently vibrated where it had embedded itself in his shoulder blade.

"AAAARRRGH! Motherfucker! Who... who the hell shoots a man in the back?!" Zolda snarled. The deep blood-red hue in his eyes began to flicker, rapidly shifting back to a highly unstable golden glare.

Arka Wijaya fell hard on his ass, coughing and hacking while massaging his severely bruised neck. He broke into a manic, raspy laugh. "Hahaha... you're dead! They finally showed up.... You really think you're the only one with a guardian angel, Zolda?"

"Shut your mouth, Mama's Boy! I'm gonna paste your lips to the floor before I deal with whatever coward shot me!" Zolda tried to force himself up, but a bizarre, paralyzing chill was already spreading from the arrow wound straight into his central nervous system.

"ZOLDA! Don't move, you idiot!" Siska screamed from behind the heavy door of the safe room. She burst out, completely ignoring the direct order Zolda had given her earlier. "That’s the Soul Purifying Arrow! That's not a normal weapon—it's a sacred artifact from the White Medical Sect!"

"White Medical Sect? What kind of detergent brand name is that, Sis?!" Zolda spat a mouthful of blood, his trembling hand reaching awkwardly to grasp the shaft of the arrow in his back.

"Stop trying to be a badass! Do NOT yank it out, stupid! If you pull it out now, the purification toxin is gonna stop your heart completely!" Siska dropped to her knees right next to him, her hands moving with professional speed to examine the entry wound.

"Zolda! Are you okay?! Holy shit, you're bleeding everywhere!" Navi, having just shaken off her blackout, crawled out on her heavily bandaged leg. Her face was the picture of pure, unadulterated panic.

"Nav, get back inside! This isn't your fight!" Zolda snapped at her, though his voice lacked its usual booming power.

"Back inside my ass! We're all gonna die together if you don't get up!" Navi screamed back, her eyes brimming with tears as she took in his miserable state.

Suddenly, out of the blown-apart entrance to the bunker, three figures stepped out of the smoke. They were wearing immaculate white robes embroidered with silver lotus flowers. The one leading them was an old man with long, flowing white hair, holding an ancient-looking wooden bow. His aura was totally calm, yet the atmospheric pressure inside the bunker instantly became so heavy it was hard to draw a breath.

"Zolda, you bring nothing but disgrace to the medical world.... You have abused the Kunao Inner Eye to spill blood. We, the White Medical Sect, have come to seal away that heretical power of yours," the old man proclaimed. His tone was infuriatingly flat and arrogant.

"Heretical my ass, old man! Who threw the first punch? Who attacked who first?! Where the hell is your logic? Stuffed down your pants?!" Zolda forced his head up, glaring at the old man with whatever sheer willpower he had left.

"How dare you insult Elder Bai!" one of the younger white-robed disciples barked, unsheathing a short sword. "Just surrender, trash! The Inner Eye wasn't meant for low-born scum like you!"

"Trash calling me trash? Your face looks like the bottom of a burnt frying pan, acting all high and mighty in your little white dress! Where you going, to a wedding?!" Zolda managed a nasty smirk, despite the cold sweat completely drenching his forehead.

"Zolda, shut up! Don't provoke them right now!" Siska whispered in absolute panic, her fingers frantically applying pressure to the nerve points surrounding Zolda's wound. "Elder Bai, please... Zolda was only defending himself against Arka Wijaya! Arka was the one running illegal human experiments!"

"Siska, traitor of the Shadow Sect... you have lost the right to speak here." Elder Bai took a slow, deliberate step forward, another arrow made of pure, condensed light already nocked in his bow. "Anyone who shields this cursed vessel of Kunao will be branded an enemy of the truth."

"The truth? Please, you hypocrite! Your version of the truth is whatever lines your own pockets, right?!" Navi joined the shouting match, managing to stand tall despite her violently shaking legs. "Arka Wijaya literally just tried to murder us with kill-bots, and you guys did nothing?! Where's the glorious 'truth' in that?!"

"Silence, you harlot! You know absolutely nothing!" Elder Bai shifted his aim and fired his arrow of light directly at Navi.

"NAVI, WATCH OUT!" Zolda roared at the top of his lungs. Running entirely on fumes and adrenaline, he launched himself through the air, throwing his hand out to parry the incoming projectile of light.

BOOM!

The energy exploded violently on impact. The blast sent Zolda crashing back into Siska and Navi, knocking all three of them sprawling across the floor. Zolda's right hand was completely scorched black, faint wisps of smoke trailing from his blistered skin.

"FUCKIIING HELL! THAT HURTS SO BAD, YOU BASTARD!" Zolda roared, the veins on his neck bulging visibly.

"Hahaha! Look at that, our little wannabe hero is finally biting the dust!" Arka Wijaya scrambled over on his hands and knees toward Elder Bai. "Elder, help me finish him off! I will sign over every asset of 'The Empire of Medicine' to your sect!"

"But of course, Mr. Arka. We shall clean up this little mess," Elder Bai offered a thin smile—a smile overflowing with absolute hypocrisy.

"Siska... Navi... listen to me," Zolda whispered, his voice dangerously low. "I'm about to pull out my final move. The second you hear the blast, run for the emergency tunnel behind the research desks. And don't look back, you understand?!"

"Are you insane, Zolda?! Your body absolutely cannot handle the strain of a 'Blood Sacrifice' again!" Siska grabbed his shoulder, her eyes wide with terror.

"There's no other way, Sis! Instead of dying like dogs to become trophies in their little temple, I might as well blow this whole damn place straight to hell!" Zolda began rapidly murmuring a deeply foreign mantra. It sounded like an intensely loud swarm of hornets buzzing in the confined space.

"Zolda, don't do this... I can't lose you again!" Navi clamped her arms around Zolda's waist, her tears soaking his shredded jacket.

"Nav... you're my strategist, remember? You of all people should know this is the only play left on the board if we wanna win." Zolda locked eyes with her. The gold in his pupils had morphed entirely into deep, bottomless red, but this time, there was literal fire dancing within them. "I swear to God I'm not gonna die. I got nine lives like a stray alley cat, remember?"

"You're a liar! You're always lying!" Navi sobbed, but she slowly loosened her grip as she felt the unbearable, scorching heat beginning to radiate from Zolda's body.

"RUN! NOW!" Zolda screamed with everything he had left.

Siska didn't hesitate. She grabbed Navi by the arm and practically dragged her toward the secret tunnel she had spotted earlier. Navi kept snapping her head back, watching Zolda's figure rapidly being consumed by a terrifying aura the color of fresh blood.

"What are you doing, Zolda?! Cease that technique at once!" Elder Bai’s composed demeanor shattered into outright panic. He could feel an oppressive weight in the air—the kind of pressure that could easily cave the entire island in on them. "Disciples, attack him! Quickly!"

"Too late, you dumb geezer! Welcome to the hell I just built!" Zolda let out a maniacal laugh as thick blood began pouring from his eyes, nose, and ears.

"ZOLDAAAAA!" Navi's scream echoed agonizingly through the bunker as Siska forcefully shoved her into the dark tunnel.

"HRAAAAAAA! Forbidden Technique: Nine-Tier Heaven Destroyer!"

Zolda slammed his open palms flat against the concrete floor. A tidal wave of blood-red energy erupted outward like a dying supernova. Arka Wijaya, who had the misfortune of being the closest, was instantly disintegrated into fine ash before he could even process the urge to scream. The White Medical Sect disciples were blasted backward like ragdolls, their bodies tearing apart mid-air before they could even hit the reinforced walls.

"IMPOSSIBLEEEEE!" Elder Bai screamed, throwing up a hastily erected shield of light to weather the explosion. The barrier held for a fraction of a second before cracking and shattering like cheap glass.

The entire bunker groaned and convulsed violently. Massive chunks of the concrete ceiling began to cave in, burying the room and everything inside it. At the dead center of absolute destruction stood Zolda. Slowly, terrifyingly, his physical body began to show deep, glowing cracks. The fissures leaked brilliant golden light—the lingering remnants of the Divine Healer trying desperately to stall the massive cellular damage wrought by his own suicidal technique.

Deep inside the tunnel, Navi and Siska were running for their lives. The violent tremors knocked them off their feet more than once.

"Siska! What about Zolda?! Is he really gonna survive that?!" Navi screamed over the deafening roar of falling rock and swirling dust.

"I have no idea, Nav! Just keep running! If we stop moving, we're gonna be buried alive in here!" Siska took deep, gulping breaths, fighting down the suffocating wave of grief threatening to choke her.

Suddenly, a massive secondary explosion rocked the structure behind them. Tons of rock collapsed, permanently sealing the entrance to the tunnel they had just escaped through. They were trapped in total, pitch-black isolation.

"Zolda..." Navi whispered, collapsing to her knees on the damp dirt floor. "You promised you wouldn't die, you bastard.... You promised..."

"Nav, look at that!" Siska pointed toward the far end of the passage. A faint, eerie glow was spilling out from a hidden chamber up ahead.

They cautiously approached the light and stumbled into an ancient, cavernous laboratory that completely dwarfed the bunker they had just left. Dead in the center of the room sat a massive silver casket. Suspended mid-air around it, defying gravity entirely, were thousands of silver acupuncture needles.

"What... what is this place, Sis?!" Navi frantically wiped her tears; her natural instinct as a strategist briefly overriding her panic.

"This is it... the 'Tomb of the Divine Healer'. This is the holy grail both the Shadow Sect and the White Sect have been hunting for centuries!" Siska stood utterly speechless. Her hands trembled violently as she traced the intricate ancient engravings etched into the silver coffin. "Hold on... there's an inscription here."

Siska translated the ancient text adorning the casket lid. The blood immediately drained from her face. "Nav... this text says... the Kunao Inner Eye can only achieve absolute perfection if the current host dies... and is subsequently resurrected inside this very tomb...."

"Are you saying...?! You mean Zolda actually has to..." Navi choked on the words.

Out of nowhere, the heavy thud of footsteps echoed from the shadows lurking in the corners of the lab. A man swathed in a long black trench coat, his face obscured by a sinister silver dragon mask, stepped casually out from behind a stone pillar.

"An excellent piece of analysis, Dr. Siska," the man stated. His voice was cold, clipped, and heavy with authority. "It is a pity Zolda will never reach this coffin. Because I have prepared a very different final resting place for him."

"Who the hell are you?! Show your face, coward!" Navi instantly shifted into a defensive stance, raising her iron pipe high.

"My identity is irrelevant. What matters is... the Kunao Inner Eye must be harvested immediately, before it rots away completely alongside Zolda's corpse." The man casually raised his hand, and immediately, dozens of the levitating acupuncture needles pivoted seamlessly in the air, pointing directly at Navi and Siska.

"Zolda isn't dead, you bastard! I can still feel his pulse!" Navi shouted, reckless defiance fueling her.

"Is that so? Then let us find out exactly how long that blind faith of yours lasts." The dragon-masked man casually snapped his fingers.

The suspended needles shot forward like hyper-velocity bullets. Siska reacted with lightning speed, grabbing Navi and tackling her out of the trajectory, but one stray needle managed to graze her arm. Instantly, Siska went limp, her entire body breaking out in an unnatural, sickening shade of blue.

"SISKA! Oh my god, what did he do to you?!" Navi panicked, struggling to hold Siska’s dead weight.

"Nav... run... Soul Melting Needle..." Siska barely managed to slur out the warning before her eyes rolled back into her head.

"Hahaha! Well, well. Just you left, little girl. Where is that brilliant, much-hyped strategist Zolda was bragging about?" The masked man sauntered closer, twirling a coldly gleaming scalpel between his fingers.

Navi tightened her grip until her knuckles popped. She shot a look at the silver coffin, then leveled her gaze at the man in the dragon mask. "You want the Kunao Inner Eye, right?! Come take it over my dead body!"

She charged forward recklessly, bringing the pipe down in a heavy swing. But the man effortlessly sidestepped, snatched the pipe out of her grip, and planted a vicious front kick into her stomach. Navi was sent flying backward, slamming hard into the side of the silver casket. A smear of her blood stained the pristine silver surface—and the second it made contact, the casket erupted in blinding golden light.

"What?! Your blood... your blood acts as a catalyst for this tomb?!" The masked man's eyes widened behind his visor in absolute shock.

A fraction of a second later, the wall of the laboratory connecting to the collapsed bunker was obliterated. A silhouette engulfed in pure, blood-red flames stepped out from the settling dust cloud. Every square inch of the figure's skin was fractured, exposing raw, glowing muscle underneath, but his eyes... his eyes burned with a golden radiance far more catastrophic than anything seen before.

"ZOLDA!" Navi shrieked with ecstatic joy, momentarily forgetting the intense pain in her gut.

Zolda said nothing. He locked eyes with the man in the dragon mask, delivering a stare cold enough to freeze hell over. He took a single, deliberate step forward; the concrete beneath his boot immediately sizzled and caught fire.

"Impossible! How did you survive an energy detonation of that magnitude?!" The man was physically shaking now, backpedaling until his back hit a rack of dusty medical vials.

"I told you already... I've got nine lives, monkey," Zolda finally spoke. His voice no longer sounded like his own—it sounded like a chorus of a thousand ancient, echoing voices overlapping. "And right now, I’m in the market for a new mask to mount above my toilet bowl!"

Zolda launched himself faster than the speed of sound. The dragon-masked man desperately tried to shield himself by throwing up a barrier of needles, but the steel melted into slag before it even made contact with Zolda's aura.

BAAAAAMMM!

A single, devastating right hook shattered the silver dragon mask into jagged shrapnel. The face hiding behind the mask was exposed to the light—and both Zolda and Navi froze, absolutely floored by what they saw.

"You... you're that doctor from the hospital that day?!" Zolda gaped in disbelief. "Dr. Hendra?! The top neurosurgery specialist in all of Jakarta?!"

"Hahaha... hell of a surprise, isn't it? That glorious, sanitized medical world you worship? It’s nothing but an industrialized slaughterhouse, Zolda. And I’m the head butcher!" Hendra smirked wildly, wiping a line of blood from his split lip. "But you're too late. 'Project Resurrection' has already begun!"

Hendra stomped hard on a floor tile, and instantly, thousands of black cables snaked out from beneath the silver casket, jabbing aggressively into the unconscious body of Siska lying on the floor.

"SISKA! Let her go, you bastard!" Zolda tried to charge again, but Hendra quickly raised his hand.

"Take one more step, and the residual energy built up in that casket will fry her brain to ashes! Make your choice! Do you keep the Kunao Inner Eye, or do you trade it for the life of your loyal little assistant?!" Hendra threw his head back and cackled, utterly drunk on his own supposed victory.

Zolda stood absolutely still. His raging aura slowly began to dim. He looked down at Siska, whose body was violently convulsing as highly unstable, foreign energy surged into her from the casket.

"Zolda... don't listen to him! Save the world from this psycho!" Navi screamed desperately, attempting to crawl over and manually rip the cables out, but a massive shock of electricity immediately blew her backward.

"Shut up, noisy bitch!" Hendra ruthlessly kicked Navi in the ribs while she was down. "So what's the verdict, Zolda? I'm counting to three. One... two..."

"FINE! FINE! I'll give you what you want!" Zolda threw both his hands up in surrender. "Just cut Siska loose first!"

"The eyes first! Then she walks!" Hendra smiled a toxic, oily smile, closing the distance while brandishing his specialized extraction scalpel.

Zolda shut his eyes. Deep within his mind, he could feel the sentience of the Kunao Inner Eye throbbing with sorrow. Forgive me, Master... I have no choice...

Hendra was right in Zolda's personal space. The surgical steel of the scalpel physically brushed against Zolda's trembling eyelid. "Finally... the absolute power of the gods is mine!"

But precisely a millimeter before the blade pierced his eye, Zolda whispered softly into Hendra's ear. "You're forgetting one crucial detail, Doc..."

"What?!"

"I'm a healer... and healers know exactly how to flatline a man without ever needing a knife!"

Faster than thought, Zolda clamped an iron grip around Hendra's wrist and drove his own index finger violently into a cluster of lethal nerve points situated directly on the side of Hendra’s neck.

"Ghhhk... what... what are you..." Hendra gagged, his eyes rolling back until only the whites were visible.

"It's called the Reaper's Touch. You've got a generous ten-second countdown to unplug Siska before your heart physically ruptures into confetti inside your chest." Zolda jammed the digit in deeper, showing absolutely zero mercy.

Absolute panic overrode Hendra’s mind; he wildly flailed backward, desperately slamming his hand down on the control panel. The system powered down instantly, and the cables detached from Siska’s body, sliding away like dead snakes. She collapsed onto the stone floor, her chest beginning to rise and fall with regular, ragged breaths.

"Now... give me the antidote... please...!" Hendra whined pitifully, clawing at his chest as his heartbeat spiked into a dangerous, chaotic rhythm.

"The antidote? There's only one cure for you, Doc," Zolda said, leaning his face uncomfortably close to Hendra. "And that's... FOR YOU TO DIE!"

With a brutal twist, Zolda grabbed Hendra’s hand and snapped his neck in a single, fluid motion. The brilliant doctor-turned-madman dropped dead instantly, his face locked in an expression of sheer terror.

His task complete, Zolda's knees buckled. His reserves were truly, absolutely drained to nothing. He fell heavily to the ground, staring numbly as Navi struggled to prop herself up.

"Nav... we... we actually won...." Zolda managed a weak, exhausted smile before a massive, uncontrollable bout of coughing forced an alarming amount of blood from his lungs.

"ZOLDA! Keep your eyes open! Sis, wake up! Siska, please! He's dying!" Navi practically threw herself across the floor, frantically dragging herself over to pull Zolda’s head onto her lap.

"Damn... your lap is surprisingly soft, Nav... makes a decent pillow...." Zolda mumbled softly. The edges of his vision were completely blacking out.

"Idiot! You're literally dying and still making jokes?!" Navi sobbed uncontrollably, her tears falling directly onto his face. "Siska! Siska, wake up! I need help!"

A few feet away, Siska groaned, her eyelids fluttering open. It took a second to process the utter devastation of the lab—and then her eyes locked onto Zolda’s rapidly fading state. Running entirely on muscle memory and panic, she scrambled over to them.

"Zolda... you've got to get into that coffin... right now!" Siska commanded, weakly gesturing toward the massive, open silver casket.

"Huh?! The hell you talking about?! You want me to actually become a corpse?!" Zolda tried to argue, his voice a pathetic rasp.

"That tomb acts as an organic incubator—it will forcefully regenerate your destroyed cells! It is literally the only option to keep you from permanently flatlining, Zolda! Hurry up!" Siska gritted her teeth, helping a weeping Navi heave Zolda’s massive dead weight off the floor.

With extreme effort, they hauled him over the lip and lowered him inside. The coffin wasn't empty; it was filled with a translucent, golden liquid that gave off a deeply calming, fragrant scent.

"Woah... this is warm... kinda like soaking in a five-star spa resort..." Zolda's body immediately began to unclench as the liquid lapped against his fractured skin.

"Just shut up and soak! We'll stay right here and guard you until you snap out of it!" Navi tenderly brushed a blood-soaked lock of hair away from his forehead.

"Nav... when I get out... I want a double order of that goat fried rice, okay?..."

"Yes, you asshole! I'll buy the entire damn street cart! Now just close your eyes and rest!" Navi pressed a desperate, fierce kiss against his temple.

Zolda slowly let his eyes slide shut. The heavy silver lid automatically glided shut over him, sealing itself with a soft, humming vibration that settled into a peaceful hum. The massive laboratory fell dead silent.

"Siska... how long is he gonna be locked in there?" Navi asked quietly, dragging the back of her sleeve across her tear-stained face.

"I have no clue, Nav. It could take a day, maybe a whole month, or maybe..." Siska cut herself off mid-sentence, her head whipping around. The massive iron door serving as the lab’s main entrance was suddenly echoing with heavy, deliberate knocks.

Knock... Knock... Knock...

The rapping was unsettlingly polite, yet considering they were trapped in a hidden, collapsed subterranean bunker, the sound was blood-chilling.

"Who's out there?!" Navi screamed. Adrenaline flooded her system; she snatched her iron pipe back up, placing her body squarely between the door and Zolda’s tomb.

A calm, highly sophisticated, and familiar voice drifted through the thick metal. "Good evening, Miss Navi. The Grand Patriarch has dispatched me to collect the Kunao Inner Eye. Please cooperate fully, so we might avoid shedding any unnecessary blood."

Navi and Siska shared a horrified look. They recognized that cadence. It belonged to the ever-loyal personal aide of Mr. Wijaya, an elite hitman widely known as the 'Shadowless Executioner'.

"Don't even dream of touching Zolda, you bastard!" Navi yelled defiantly.

The heavy lab door squealed open slowly. Standing casually in the doorway was a middle-aged man in a tailored suit and blackout sunglasses. Cradled under his arm was a sleek, black titanium briefcase emitting an electronic tick-tick-tick, mimicking a bomb's timer.

"Such a shame. I have always harbored a professional admiration for your tactical prowess, Miss Navi. But orders from the top remain absolute. If you choose resistance, then this facility shall become..."

The man flipped open the clasps on the briefcase. Inside was a high-pressure red canister bearing the stark white warning label: 'PROJECT OMEGA'.

"Zolda... you really gotta wake up right now, or we're all going to be..." Navi stared helplessly at the sealed silver coffin. Pure, crushing despair washed over her as the suited executioner reached out, twisting the release valve on the gas canister, and...