Ah, Exalibar thought, the memory searing itself into his present reality. So that's how my life ended. Was it a previous life? Does that mean reincarnation is real? Or is this a manifestation of how it will end? Helping others? Me? It can't be.
He struggled to push himself up from the rubble, chunks of concrete shifting around him. Warm blood trickled down his face, obscuring his vision in one eye. He laughed, a raw, broken sound as he wiped the blood away with the back of his gauntlet.
"And yet, here I am," he muttered to the empty, dust-filled air. "Bleeding for the sake of children I don't even know. Ironic, isn't it? I'm not even a hero."
Kaelen, clutching his own injuries, let out a derisive snort. "You have finally lost your mind, haven't you—"
He didn't get to finish. Exalibar moved.
It wasn't the graceful, mana-fuelled burst from before. This was something darker, with more sinister intent. He crossed the room, closing the distance before Kaelen could even register the movement. He grabbed the man by the face, his fingers digging into flesh, uncharacteristically silent, he slammed Kaelen's head into the solid floor with a sickening CRACK.
"Fuuuck," Exalibar exhaled , staring at the crater in the tile. "That was supposed to decapitate you. Don't worry, the next one will."
Kaelen groaned, dazed and bleeding from his nose. "Have you lost your mind? Heroes don't have the jurisdiction to kill diplo—"
"Like I said," Exalibar whispered, pinning Kaelen's head to the ground with one hand while the other grabbed his wrist raising his hand to his back. "I am no hero."
With a brutal, twisting yank, he pulled. The sound of tendons snapping and the shoulder joint ripping from its socket was a wet, horrific tear. Kaelen's scream was a high-pitched shriek of pure agony. He rolled himself around, scrambled backward, free from Exalibar's grip, his right arm now completely gone. Desperate, he used his onehand to summon a spark of electricity, cauterizing the bloody stump. The air filled with the nauseating stench of searing flesh.
Gasping through the pain, Kaelen turned his wild gaze toward the children, who were still standing motionless over Theo's bleeding form. "Children! Turn your focus to—"
Exalibar didn't let him finish the command. "No, you don't."
In a swift motion, he threw the severed arm he was still holding. It boomeranged through the air, the dead hand smacking Kaelen square in the head and sending him stumbling back against the wall.
"I wonder," Exalibar mused, his voice chillingly calm, "if your mind control will still work if you are dead…"
Kaelen's bravado shattered, replaced by pure, animal fear. "No! Please, I beg of you! Don't!"
"Call off your troops at the gate. Now."
"Yes! Yes, immediately!" Kaelen fumbled in his pocket with his remaining hand, pulling out a comms device. His voice trembled as he spat a few coded words into it. "Done! It's done!"
"Now remove your control from these children."
With a final, weak crackle of electricity emanating from Kaelen, the three children collapsed to the ground, unconscious but finally free.
Kaelen looked up, his face pale and slick with sweat. "Now… will you let me go?"
Exalibar knelt down, bringing himself to Kaelen's eye level. He leaned in close, as if to whisper a secret. Kaelen flinched, expecting a final word.
"no"
BAM.
Exalibar's hand, wreathed in a faint blue aura, shot forward and plunged straight into Kaelen's chest. There was a final, wet gasp. No grand speech, no dramatic line. Just efficient, brutal finality.
As the life drained from Kaelen's eyes, Exalibar allowed his mind to drift. The scent of blood and dust was replaced by the sterile smell of a white room now covered in blood. He was surrounded by the dead bodies of the kids he had massacred, their lifeless eyes staring at him. Looking up at a blood-red sky that wasn't there, he wondered if he would ever truly escape that place.
A faint, wet gurgle snapped him back to reality.
Theo.
He rushed to his teammate's side, his own injuries forgotten. Theo was still alive, but barely, his breathing a shallow, faint rattle. Exalibar rolled him onto his back, his mind, despite the exhaustion and trauma, switching into a cold, analytical mode.
The body knows how to heal itself, he thought, placing one hand above Theo's head and the other over the stab wound. But it takes the shortest possible way. That's why self-induced regeneration requires anatomical knowledge, or you'll cripple yourself. This is risky. But healing someone else... that's a different kind of calculus.
"Okay," Exalibar whispered, his voice hoarse. "I don't know if you can hear me, but this is going to hurt… a lot."
He focused, his eyes glowing blue once more. He first tried to force healing information directly into Theo's mind. It failed; the brain was too complex, and his skill insufficient. Plan B.
He hijacked Theo's nervous system.
It was a violation on a fundamental level. He bypassed Theo's brain entirely, his own will becoming the central command. Instead of letting the body panic and rush to seal the surface wound, he forced it to first focus inward, knitting the punctured organ back together with brutal, focused intent. Then, he flooded Theo's body with his own remaining mana, providing the raw energy to rapidly create new tissue, muscle, and skin.
The entire process took less than five seconds. But for Exalibar, his mind accelerated to process the torrent of biological data, it felt like an eternity. When it was done, he severed the connection.
The backlash of exhaustion and pain hit him like a physical blow. He collapsed to the ground beside Theo, his vision darkening, barely clinging to consciousness.
Theo gasped, his eyes flying open. He sat up frantically, his hands patting the place he'd been stabbed. He was whole. He looked around, saw the three children safe but unconscious, and then his gaze landed on Kaelen's mutilated, lifeless corpse.
A wave of nausea so powerful it made him dizzy washed over him. He had to clamp a hand over his mouth to keep from vomiting. The entire ordeal, from the stabbing to now, having taken less than a minute.
He stared at the boy lying unconscious next to him, the one who had just torn a man apart and then performed a medical miracle.
Who… no, Theo thought, his mind reeling with a mixture of gratitude and sheer terror. JUST What was he?