Kain knelt beside Caelus, his expression caught somewhere between concern and wariness.
"Hey... you good, man? Cuz uh... that doesn't look good."
Caelus gritted his teeth, refusing to let out another sound. The pain was sharp, but it wasn't the thing that bothered him the most. Instead, it was the familiar, cold sting of corruption spreading through his veins.
He'd felt this before. Many times.
"I'll live," he muttered.
Rosalina hesitated, glancing between his injury and his face.
"No, you won't. This is the Brand of Strife. It'll keep corrupting you until you're either forced to cut off your whole arm to stop the spread, or... you fall."
"Hah. I'm surprised you even know what this is."
"Does it look like I'm trying to crack a joke right now?!" she cried out, almost screaming. "I'm saying you could die!"
"I know."
Kain rubbed the back of his neck.
"Yeah, no offense, but it kinda seems like you don't. This Brand of Strife, or whatever it is, is creeping up your arm pretty fast there. And if what Rosalina said is true, then unless you wanna be a corpse by nightfall—"
"I said I know," Caelus snapped, sharper than intended.
The words hung in the air. Rosalina exchanged a nervous glance with Kain before she knelt beside him.
"Then stop trying to act tough. Let me see it."
"I don't need your—"
"Don't be stupid," she cut in coldly, kneeling beside him. "I can stop the spread, at least for now. Or you can keep being proud and die out here like a fool."
For a moment, it seemed like Caelus might refuse, but then the pain flared again. He inhaled sharply and extended his arm without another word.
Rosalina drew a small glass vial from a pouch at her hip. It was filled with some kind of shimmering silver-blue liquid. She uncorked it and poured a few drops over the wound. It hissed upon contact with steam rising from the tendrils.
Caelus didn't flinch, but Kain did.
"Well, I'll be damned," Kain grimaced. "What is that stuff?"
"Aether Balm," Rosalina replied coolly. "Rare. Expensive. And wasted on an idiot who threw himself at a greater incarnation like it was nothing."
"Didn't ask you to," Caelus muttered, "but...thanks."
She didn't respond. Instead, she sealed the vial in silence, though a faint flicker of something crossed her face.
"Hey," Kain said, clearing his throat. "Not to be that guy, but why's your super amazing, super expensive potion barely doing anything?"
They both looked down. The tendrils of dark energy still clung stubbornly to Caelus's arm. The potion's effect seemed to only contain the spread and nothing else.
"Shit," Rosalina whispered under her breath. "The effects of the brand must be too severe, even for Aether Balm."
"So what do we do?"
"...I don't know."
Kain threw his arms up as he grew increasingly frustrated.
"Great. Absolutely fantastic. All that bragging about how rare it was, and turns out it's about as useful as a damp rag."
He whirled around, shouting to the sky.
"Hey! Proctors! Instructors, professors, or even the Headmaster herself! Whoever the hell's watching, maybe now's a good time to get off your ass and help one of your first-years before he dies!"
Nothing.
"Tch... Fuck!"
"Calm down, Kain," Caelus said softly.
"Calm down? You want me to calm down?"
He turned on him with gritted teeth.
"Yeah, sure. Let me just swallow my nerves while you're over there getting eaten alive from the inside."
"My well-being shouldn't concern you. If anything, just treat me like a fallen noble like everyone else—"
"Fuck all with your fallen noble crap! Who gives a shit? Cuz I certainly don't! Right now, you're a person. A person whose life is at risk, and I can't do a damned thing about it!"
Caelus was taken aback. Of all the things he expected in this cursed forest, the raw and emotional concern from a stranger wasn't one of them.
Then, Kain shook his head. He had made his decision.
"No. I'm not gonna keep waiting for a miracle that's never gonna come. Lift your arm, Caelus."
"What are you planning to do?" Rosalina asked, her brow raising in suspicion.
With the most serious look on his face, he declared, "I'm cutting off his forearm."
"What?! That's far too extreme!"
"Do you have a better idea?! Any longer, and who knows what'll happen! He might fall right over in the next second, so we need to do something before it comes to that!"
"But—"
Suddenly, Caelus inexplicably chuckled. The others stopped their heated exchange to glare at him.
"You think this is funny?" Kain murmured. "Is your life worth so little that you can laugh at a time like this?"
"No, that's not it. It's just... thank you. Both of you. Rosalina, for dulling the curse. And you, Kain, for distracting me while I gathered myself."
Rosalina arched a brow.
"Gathered yourself? For what?"
Caelus didn't answer. He took a steady breath, and gripped his injured wrist. Then, abruptly, the wound flared with an otherworldly glow. The trails of light seeping into the dark tendrils, which recoiled and shrank under their touch.
"What... What the hell is this...?" Kain gasped.
Rosalina could only watch in silence. Sure enough, it was magic. She sensed the concentration of mana flowing into the injury. However, it wasn't any magic she'd ever seen.
She knew the stories. She'd seen comrades crumble from a single touch of the Brand of Strife. No one survived it. No one fought it off.
No one... until now.
The last of the shadowy tendrils hissed and withered away, evaporating into dust under the pulse of violet light.
Caelus exhaled sharply, his hand falling limp against his lap.
No one could say a word. Kain was far too astonished, Rosalina was skeptical, and Caelus simply didn't have it in him to speak.
Kain finally spoke, his voice low with subtle reverence.
"Well, I'll be damned. You actually did it."
But Rosalina had mixed feelings. Her gaze stayed locked on Caelus's arm, then drifted to his face as if she were looking at him for the first time.
"That wasn't normal magic," she muttered. "What the hell was that?"
Still catching his breath, Caelus simply said, "Survival."
"Don't dodge the question. How do you know how to counter the Brand of Strife? That kind of corruption doesn't just go away. No one survives it. So how...?"
"I spent the last five years trapped beyond the borders of Wyrheim. If I didn't learn how to deal with the Incarnations and their curses, I'd have been dead long before now."
A half-truth but leaning toward a lie.
The real credit belonged to Freya, the fourth seat of the Malevolence. It was she who had taught him how to weave mana into his blood, forcing it to burn away the Strife's corruption.
Rosalina stared at him a moment longer, clearly unconvinced but unable to outright refute it. She knelt in front of Caelus and began forcefully bandaging his arm.
"You're reckless. You're unnatural. And you're hiding something. That much I know for sure."
Kain, sensing the tension thickening again, awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.
"Okay, okay. Let's just take a deep breath. All that matters is that Caelus is fine now. The freaky one-eyed bastard's dead, and we're not corpses. I'd call that a win."
He forced a grin, trying to lighten the mood, though his eyes lingered on Caelus's arm.
"Still... You're just full of surprises, aren't you, Caelus de Luvelaine? Something tells me this year is gonna be an interesting one."
His tone was lighter than usual. Gone was the voice of resentment, replaced by nothing short of respect.
Rosalina stood, tucking the vial away.
"We should move. That fight wasn't quiet. More will come. But... this is not over, Caelus."
"You know that curiosity killed the cat, don't you?" he asked.
"Indeed, but isn't curiosity the reason why the cat made it that far to begin with?"
"I suppose that depends on whether you value knowledge more than your own life."
"Was that a threat?"
"Could've been."
Rosalina glared at him before finally letting out a tired sigh.
"Fine. I'll let it go for now. And..."—she finished the bandage with a knot—"I owe you for saving me. Just no stupid requests, alright?"
Caelus lowered his head and chuckled.
"Sure."