Just as the very last vestiges of life began to sweep out of Adonis, a writhing mass of black and red tentacles suddenly burst forth from the wolf corpse behind him.
They were thin, sinuous, and pulsating with otherworldly energy, rising up high into the sky like alien spires.
These twisting appendages then suddenly dove into Adonis's body, encasing the half dead boy in this mucus like cocoon of flesh and then injecting much of it into the infant's body.
These tendrils carried with them a fresh set of life, with a force so potent that it produced almost immediate results.
New bones started to almost spontaneously grow from the damaged and burnt ends as Adonis's skull, chest, and limbs were quickly reformed, which were swiftly clothed with masses of new white and red muscle tissue that spooled and bubbled out of all the wounds.
Next came the restoration of the much more complex biological structures- the body's organs. And the alien tentacles did this too.
It stopped the boy's immature lungs from collapsing, fully reformed his burnt to a crisp heart, reconnected all the veins and arteries, and brought sensation back to all the different parts of the body by rejoining all the nerve endings.
It also restored all the organs located in the lower torso such as the male specific parts, then gave the boy a fresh set of bone marrows that was perfectly compatible with him.
Penultimately, it recreated the largest organ in the body- the skin- once again coating the boy in a pristine, fair, perfectly smooth layer of soft, creamy flesh. From the hands and feet, to the lips, to even the earlobes, the new skin perfectly covered it all.
But as impressive as all these feats were, without doubt, the tentacles' greatest achievement was its work on the brain.
It was able to regrow the destroyed half of the brain within seconds, then meshed the newly produced grey matter perfectly with the old one, leaving not even a slight seam as evidence of the trauma behind by the end.
It was such a perfect 'stitch'.
In this way, by replacing the destroyed and injured body parts, these mysterious tentacles managed to bring the boy back from beyond the gate.
The entire thing was like green leaves blooming out of a dead tree in spring, breathing fresh life into the decaying boy and resuscitating him.
And if there had been anyone to see all this, even if it was the Grand Iudex, he would have been shocked beyond words.
High-level magic to heal from injuries, and even grievous ones of course existed.
But even he did not know of any spell module capable of doing this, of basically bringing people back from the dead, never mind doing it so quickly.
Not to mention no magic had been used here. At least there had not been the slightest movement of mana around the vicinity.
So how did this miracle happen?
….
"Haha, the Great Mother has not abandoned me. Hahaha, the Great Mother has not abandoned me."
As Adonis was miraculously healed, suddenly this loud, rumbling laughter burst out from inside him, echoing out to all four corners.
The boy had not spoken these words from his mouth but announced it from 'all over his body', which then suddenly produced six thick tendrils from the back, piercing open the infant's back and landing on the ground.
Adonis was thus strangely put in the same shape as he was when in that artifact, only now he was 'standing' on his 'own six legs', like a spider.
Using these new limbs, 'he' then began to quickly scuttle across the battlefield, working to gather all the destroyed metallic pieces scattered all around, wrapping them in his tentacles before absorbing them into his body.
The alien creature which was really the one in charge was doing this to quickly consume the shards of the destroyed magic crystal that had been sprinkled all around the area, with its greatest concentration being found around these parts- because they had been the closest when the crystal had exploded.
It would not surprise anyone to know that the terrifying explosion had destroyed the artifact's power unit, and with it much of the crystal powering it.
Most of the 'meal' had been simply vaporized, while the tiny fraction that did manage to survive got blasted into millions of small particles, scattering all over the area and beginning to lose all its stored energy rapidly.
Hence the urgency.
In the end, the boy tentacle hybrid managed to scavenge whatever it could in the short time available, before it was forced to stop as the monster's keen senses began to pick several terrifying auras, all rapidly converging on its location.
The reading did not surprise it at all.
Given the terrifying explosion and the enormous burst of mana released at the destruction of that ultra pure mana crystal, the surrounding powerhouses would have reacted as such even if all of them were deaf, dumb, and blind.
And given the two party's extremely bloody history, this alien creature was not in the slightest of mood to meet with them in such a vulnerable state.
Hence it willed its six writhing appendages to quickly dig underground, wishing to go as deep as it could go.
And just like a mole rat, it managed to burrow into the earth at an astounding rate, escaping to an impossible depth of several hundred meters within mere minutes.
At those depths, it made detecting it all but impossible, for it almost perfectly meshed with the ambient soil, rocks, and stones.
Moreover, the tentacles also did not just stay in place upon reaching the point, waiting for the danger to pass.
Rather, it switched its command, now asking its limbs to start digging forward, thus tunneling towards a very specific direction at a breakneck speed.
The malevolent entity was gone long long ago by the time the various powerhouses arrived.
….
Flap! Flap! Flap!
The first to arrive at the 'scene of the crime' was an elderly looking lizard, with dark green scales and snow white beard, dressed in a colorful multi colored robe.
His chosen transport was a flying black wrym, and being the first one here, he surveyed the area with great caution, tightly gripping the reins of his beast with both hands and a golden staff with his thick tail. The way the latter thing shimmered and glowed made it very obvious the 'man' was locked and loaded.
"Elder Cinthalo!"
This great mage only slightly lowered his guard when he heard this familiar shout, and looked down to see an enormous snow white leopard with magnificent black and golden runes, looking up at him with a sort of kind, relieved smile. At least the type of kind smile a leopard could produce anyway.
"Fairy Agatha. Hahaha, it seems I was faster this time." Spotting the familiar face, the stony looking lizard man at last broke into a gentle smile upon, quickly asking his wrym descend to meet with her.
While the snow leopard lightly pouted, musing out aloud in a greatly exaggerated feminine voice, "That's only because you live closer, Elder," before transforming into a fairy, her true form.
About the size of a regular human's palm, this great mage floated in the air with four translucent pixie wings. She was dressed in a tiny, yet extremely elegant lush green gown, covering her from neck to toe, her snow white hair was bunned and decorated with various gems each more valuable than entire cities.
Yet, all this did little to add to her beauty, at best they could compliment her.
Possessing a very mature face with a voluptuous body and thick red as apple lips, even the elder lizardman felt a stir in his heart when this noble woman gave him a thin smile as a greeting.
This famous mage seemed to have a natural aura of seduction.
However, these two old acquaintances did not get the chance to catch up, as quickly following them were three more people-
A stern looking silver haired female human dressed in golden armour who got here in a flamboyant jetpack,
A regal looking pale white man dressed in a jet black suit button up with navy blue buttion who flew here on his own, and
A thick bearded mermaid man in splendid blue robes and an enormous blue fish tail who streaked across the sky on a dark thunderstorm cloud.
And as the five great powerhouses of this area gathered, they all produced varied degrees of alarm as well as relief.