Realm Lord
Chapter 191: Laughter is The Cure

Chapter 191: Laughter is The Cure

The conversations that followed Arthur’s disturbing episode had been stilted and uncomfortable. Each question had been met with increasingly evasive answers, and each concerned glance had only deepened the furrows of worry that creased everyone’s brows. The atmosphere in the vehicle had grown so thick with unspoken fears and barely contained anxiety that it had become almost suffocating.

Eventually, Cara had decided that some distance might help ease the tension that had settled over their small group like a heavy blanket. She had quietly suggested that she and Myah step outside to eat some of their rations, ostensibly to give Arthur some space to process what had happened, but also to allow herself and Myah a chance to discuss their concerns away from potentially sensitive ears. The two women had settled on a patch of relatively clean ground beside their vehicle, sharing the meager meal in hushed tones while keeping watchful eyes on their surroundings.

The sun beat down on them with relentless intensity, creating wavering heat mirages that danced across the desolate landscape. The air was dry and still, carrying the faint scent of dust and decay that seemed to permeate everything in this broken world. In the distance, the skeletal remains of dead trees stood like silent sentinels against the pale sky, their twisted branches reaching upward in what seemed like a perpetual plea for mercy from an indifferent universe.

Inside the vehicle, Arthur and Aziel remained seated in the exact same spots they had occupied during the earlier interrogation, as if moving might somehow trigger another catastrophic episode. The silence between them stretched on and on, punctuated only by the soft creaking of the car’s metal frame as it expanded and contracted in the heat, and the distant murmur of the women’s conversation outside.

Arthur’s gaze was fixed firmly on the floor of the vehicle, his eyes tracing the worn patterns in the metal plating as if they might contain some hidden message or revelation. His mind was a chaotic whirlwind of guilt, confusion, and barely suppressed panic. The memory of his friends’ faces when he had awakened from his episode—the fear, the uncertainty, the way they had looked at him as if he were a stranger who might turn dangerous at any moment—played over and over in his consciousness like a broken recording.

’What’s happening to me?’ The question echoed endlessly through his thoughts, accompanied by a growing certainty that whatever was wrong with him was getting worse. The episodes were becoming more frequent, more intense, and now they were affecting his waking moments as well as his dreams. The way his body had responded without his conscious control, the involuntary denial that had spilled from his lips—it all pointed to something far more serious than simple nightmares or stress-induced hallucinations.

The weight of responsibility for his friends’ safety pressed down on his shoulders like a physical burden. If he couldn’t control whatever was happening to him, if these episodes continued to escalate, then he was putting everyone here at risk. The thought of potentially harming Aziel, Myah, or Cara filled him with a cold dread that settled in his stomach like a stone.

Aziel, meanwhile, had been watching his friend with growing concern. He could see the signs of Arthur’s internal struggle written clearly across his features—the tension in his shoulders, the way his hands clenched and unclenched rhythmically, the hollow look in his eyes that spoke of someone wrestling with demons that couldn’t be fought with conventional weapons. As someone who had known Arthur for much longer and had fought alongside him through countless dangers, Aziel recognized the signs of his friend spiraling into one of his darker mental spaces.

The awkward silence stretched on until it became almost unbearable, thick with unspoken words and suppressed emotions. Aziel knew that if he let it continue much longer, Arthur would disappear completely into his own head, lost in a maze of guilt and self-recrimination that would be impossible to navigate out of. Something needed to be done to break the spell of despair that had settled over his friend, something unexpected and jarring enough to shock him back to the present moment.

With the kind of mischievous calculation that only came from deep friendship, Aziel began to formulate a plan. He leaned forward with deliberate slowness, his movements careful and measured to avoid drawing Arthur’s attention away from his intense floor-gazing session. His injured arm protested the motion, sending sharp spikes of pain through his shoulder and down to his fingertips, but he gritted his teeth and ignored the discomfort.

Raising his pointer finger with theatrical precision, Aziel began to call upon the electrical abilities that had served him well in countless battles. Tiny sparks of brilliant blue-white lightning began to coil around his fingertip like miniature serpents, crackling softly as they built in intensity. The energy felt alive in his hand, eager to be released, humming with barely contained power that made the air around his finger shimmer with heat distortion.

With surgical precision and timing that would have made a stage magician proud, Aziel pressed his electrified finger against Arthur’s back. The voltage discharged instantly, sending a controlled but potent shock straight through Arthur’s nervous system. The sensation was like being struck by a bolt of pure energy, every nerve ending suddenly alive with crackling electricity.

Arthur’s reaction was immediate and spectacular. He launched himself high into the air with a startled yelp that was part surprise, part pain, and part indignation. His upward trajectory was so violent that his head collided hard with the car’s roof, producing a solid thunk that echoed through the confined space. The impact sent stars exploding across his vision, and he crashed back down to his knees with all the grace of a sack of grain dropped from a height.

For many long moments, Arthur remained on his knees, whimpering softly as waves of pain radiated from both his head and his back. The electrical shock had left his muscles twitching involuntarily, and the collision with the roof had left him seeing double. He cradled his aching head in his hands, trying to process what had just happened while his nervous system struggled to recover from the unexpected assault.

Meanwhile, Aziel couldn’t contain himself. Laughter bubbled up from deep in his chest, starting as quiet chuckles but quickly escalating into full-blown, uncontrollable mirth. He doubled over with the force of his amusement, tears streaming down his face as he struggled to catch his breath between fits of laughter. The sight of Arthur’s spectacular launch and undignified landing had struck him as so absurdly funny that he couldn’t have stopped laughing if his life had depended on it.

As the initial waves of pain began to subside, Arthur finally found the presence of mind to respond to his friend’s assault. He scrambled to his feet with righteous indignation blazing in his eyes, his earlier melancholy completely forgotten in the face of this outrageous betrayal.

"What the hell is the matter with you?!" he shouted, his voice cracking slightly with the intensity of his outrage. His hair was disheveled from the impact, sticking up at odd angles that only added to his appearance of offended dignity.

Aziel’s laughter stopped abruptly at the sight of Arthur’s enraged expression, but only for a moment. As he took in his friend’s appearance—the wild hair, the indignant posture, the way Arthur was rubbing his head with one hand while pointing accusingly with the other—the absurdity of the entire situation struck him anew. He erupted back into his fit of laughter with even greater intensity than before, his entire body shaking with uncontrolled mirth.

At first, Arthur stared at his friend in shock and disbelief. How could Aziel find this situation so amusing when he was clearly in pain and distress? The audacity of it, the sheer nerve of shocking him and then laughing about it, was almost beyond comprehension. But as he watched Aziel’s genuine joy, something began to shift in his own emotional landscape.

It started as just the tiniest crack in his wall of indignation—a small appreciation for the ridiculous nature of what had just occurred. Then, despite his best efforts to maintain his righteous anger, a smile began to creep across his face. The expression felt foreign after so many hours of worry and self-recrimination, like a muscle that had been unused for far too long and was slowly remembering its function.

The smile grew wider as the absurdity of the situation fully sank in. Here he had been, drowning in guilt and fear about his mysterious episodes, and his friend had responded by literally shocking him back to reality with a precisely applied jolt of electricity. There was something so perfectly, ridiculously Aziel about the solution that Arthur couldn’t help but appreciate the twisted logic of it.

Soon, giggles began to escape from his throat, quiet at first but gaining strength as his natural sense of humor reasserted itself. The giggles grew into chuckles, and the chuckles evolved into full-blown laughter as he gave in to the infectious joy that radiated from his friend.

They both stood there in the confined space of the vehicle, laughing with an intensity that bordered on hysteria. Their mirth echoed off the metal walls, creating a cacophony of joy that was so different from the oppressive silence that had filled the space just moments before. Arthur realized, with a surge of gratitude that caught him off guard, that he was thankful for something as simple and stupid as Aziel’s prank. It had accomplished what hours of concerned conversation and worried glances had failed to do—it had pulled him out of his own head and back into the present moment.