The sound of footsteps soon resounded from nearby. Alfia didn't turn her head as a woman with silver tresses walked toward them, a glass beaker clutched in her hand.
Airmid Teasanare.
She stopped some distance from the bed, her gaze landing on Alfia, who sat on the chair beside it, leaving no room for anyone to approach closer.
"Miss... could you please step back? I need to give him an elixir." Airmid spoke while glancing at Bell lying on the bed, gesturing toward the beaker in her grip.
Alfia finally tore her gaze from Bell's furrowed brows and extended her hand toward Airmid.
"Give it to me." Her fingers curled inward once, a clear command.
"Miss... it would be better if someone experienced handled this—"
One glance from Alfia made Airmid flinch.
Yet for one heartbeat—perhaps two—Airmid held those heterochromatic eyes and refused to yield.
A moment later, Alfia's gaze slid past her entirely, already reaching for the beaker as if Airmid's defiance had been too insignificant to register.
Airmid blinked, then swallowed.
When she looked down, her fingers closed around nothing. Her beaker was gone.
She snapped her gaze forward, and there it was, already resting in Alfia's grip.
Under Airmid's stunned gaze, Alfia turned toward Bell's prone form and, ignoring his furrowed brows entirely, drove her fist straight into his abdomen.
"Cough! Cough!"
Violent coughs erupted from Bell's mouth as his torso jerked upward on its own.
Airmid's hand flew to her mouth in shock.
She punched him.She punched an unconscious patient.That's—that's not—you can't—
She watched with bewildered eyes as Alfia, mid-cough, forced the entire potion down his throat—half of it spilling over his chin and onto the bedsheets below.
A moment later, Alfia wrapped an arm around Bell's back and eased him down slowly, more coughs wracking his frame.
Finally, Alfia retrieved a handkerchief from a nearby drawer and began wiping his mouth methodically, almost tenderly. Almost.
The sound of approaching footsteps did nothing to interrupt her careful ministrations.
Another woman—this one with long pink hair and crimson eyes—halted beside Airmid, observing Alfia's actions with an unreadable expression.
Heith Velvet.
Airmid and Heith exchanged glances. Both looked at Bell's arms and reassessed his burns with worry. They were healing, but not nearly as fast as they should under a premium elixir's effects.
Alfia did none of these things.
She continued wiping Bell's mouth as if the room contained exactly two people: herself, and him.
"I'll heal him again alongside Airmid's brew. Combined, it'll be twice as effective." Heith spoke as she began pushing her sleeves up, her movements deliberate, her eyes never straying far from Alfia.
Once her forearms were bare, she took a step forward, arm outstretched toward Bell. A calculated risk. He needed direct contact healing for maximum effect, and surely even this woman could see reason about—
Before she could make contact, her body locked up, every hair standing on end.
Alfia had frozen her in place with a single look. Her gaze carrying an incomprehensible chill that made Heith's spine tremble.
"I'll heal him without touching, from a distance." Heith wisely retreated a step, extending both hands toward Bell instead.
Green radiance bloomed from her palms as she began the chant for her magic: [Zeo Gullveig].
"My name is gold. The arm of the Goddess who took an oath of immortality. Burned thrice, pierced forever."
That emerald glow drifted from her hands to Bell's still form, climbing from his soles upward until it enveloped his entire body within seconds.
His arms began mending faster now, his natural regeneration stacked atop Airmid's personally brewed elixir and Heith's healing magic, all working in tandem.
Airmid glanced at Heith's casting, then at Bell's arms, and raised her own hands.
"I'll add my magic as well, that should help."
Alfia neither responded nor looked up, too occupied with cleaning Bell's mouth to acknowledge her.
It didn't deter her. With a steadying breath, Airmid began to chant her own magic: [Dia Fratel].
"Healing droplets, tears of light, eternal sanctuary. Compose a medicinal hymn-three hundred, sixty, and five. The melody of the healer's almanac saves all things."
A dome of light materialized around Airmid, expanding with each word of her incantation. Soon it washed over Heith, Bell, and even Alfia—encompassing all of them within its luminous embrace.
Bell's burns smoothed away in seconds. Crusted, dead skin flaked from his arms to reveal new, tender flesh beneath, pink and supple.
That dome even attempted to heal Heith and Alfia within its range—to no effect. One was a "Phantom"; the other bore no injuries to mend.
Every wound Bell had suffered healed under their combined efforts. And yet...
"Why isn't he waking up? He should have regained consciousness by now." Heith swiped her arm across some sweat beading at her forehead.
Airmid offered no reply. Her dome of light continued its work... mending status ailments, dispelling curses, restoring stamina.
Nothing worked. Bell remained unconscious.
"Enough. Leave."
Two syllables. Flat. Final. Alfia didn't turn to face them, didn't acknowledge their presence, her attention had already returned to Bell, to the cloth that had just finished dabbing at his lips.
"B-but..." Airmid started to protest.
Heith ceased her casting and placed a firm hand on Airmid's shoulder, silencing her.
With a gentle push, Heith guided Airmid from the room, following close behind, though not before casting one final glance over her shoulder at Bell.
Alfia pulled back from Bell and settled against the wooden chair beneath her.
She gazed at his still-furrowed brows and began humming unconsciously—the same lullaby she used to sing for Meteria whenever she fell ill.
Don't make me wait too long.
...
..
.
Devastation was all that surrounded him.
Thousands of trees lay crushed, splintered, and shattered in every direction. Trenches carved the earth like jagged scars—hundreds of them, borne from repeated clashes of titanic proportion.
Ares sat atop a hill made up of monster carcasses, staring straight ahead with sharp eyes. A spear was buried in his abdomen; another sword had pierced his chest from front to back, its tip jutting from his spine.
Blood poured. Burns traced his limbs. Sword wounds ran up his back, a collection of injuries that would have killed anything mortal ten times over.
And yet he lived. Unwilling to give up.
A spectre composed entirely of abyssal black walked toward him.
Suddenly, a soothing melody reached that silhouette of darkness.
It halted.
The darkness collapsed inward for a moment, warping into a human upper body with white hair and black eyes.
Bell looked down at his fingers, hearing that melody silently.
His steps resumed, skin flaking away with each movement.
Hands went first, fingers dissolving into the dark like ink in water.
Then shoulders. Then torso. Then neck.
Each part of him dissolved into that abyssal darkness—skin and bone, eyes and hair, shed like a snake abandoning old skin.
The last to fade were his lips.
And then—
They didn't fade.
They remained. Pink. Human. The only trace of mortality left on a thing that had become something else entirely.
Those lips tilted upward.
Slightly.
It was not a smile. Not truly. But on a face that rarely expressed anything except indifference...
It was close enough to be terrifying.
...
..
.
***
[300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
[8 chapters ahead on P@tr3on = [email protected]/Not_Aaryan]
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[Dia Fratel]: Dia Fratel is a top class healing magic capable of healing anything such as wounds, stamina, status ailments, and curses within a 5 meter radius. Once cast, the magic stays behind for a certain amount of time as a barrier of light, continuously healing anything that's in its effect range. Airmid can also selectively choose which effects the magic will have when cast.
[Zeo Gullveig]: A powerful healing magic capable of easily restoring someone from the brink of death. However, it still has its limits, since it can't restore lost blood.
...
[Authors Thoughts]
Honestly... I was not going to release any chapters today. In fact, I was watching conjuring at home when a friend urged me to release a chapter... So, I had to come out of my vacation, anyway... It's a small matter.
Have a wonderful day everyone! And take care.