“Are you serious when you say you haven’t seen such a spell before?” I asked Duchess Morgiana as we performed a surgery together. She and her daughter were the surgeons while I was the miracle healer helping them out.
“Yes.” The duchess nodded without letting her eyes escape the area of operation, keeping her fingers going as she spoke. “Like many talented human mages, I and so many others studied in Aleistunum at some point in our lives to elevate our knowledge of the arcane. The Magical Capital is extremely close to the borders of the Folschreck Empire. However, Aleistunum was founded by the God of Magic and Knowledge, Istari. An elf.”
“Immeasurable amounts of magic can buy you neutrality. That is why the Magical Capital is not a vassal of the Empire,” Thyra continued for her mother, also diligently working through flesh and blood. “All blessed of the Church of Aurena are managed by Aureolis and the Empire’s state church. Which means, if you do not have a good relationship with them, they probably won’t ever send you a visit from a blessed. Saintess Eshe was the first saint in so, so, so, so many years. Similar to you, Lady Hestia. Except you’re a Champion, of course.”
“Hmm… Eshe was a special case. The Goddess asked her to teach me, after all.”
With the topic having suddenly switched to Eshe, the room fell into silence as my mood soured a bit. I wish I could have saved her. She will be a constant reminder to me that I had to become so much more powerful. With what happened in Estralia, that became even more apparent.
“Okay, Lady Hestia. We’ve removed one of his lungs. Please, prepare the spell.”
I nodded and pinpointed the location I had to heal with [Miraculous Grace]. I looked up to the owner of those lungs, seeing his manly face asleep, unconscious from a potion the duchess brewed.
Farron, just hang on a bit.
Farron Nordor, my nephew-in-law, you could say. Husband of Yorshka and father of Priscilla. It’s been a while since I last met him, back when I hired Priscilla for Tamae’s bistro. I had promised him and Priscilla I would help heal his physical ailment, his crystalized lungs. Originally, the plan was to make an elixir which we had to gather the ingredients for, but thanks to the fact I had [Miraculous Grace] now, we now had another option.
From what I did when I gave Parilostro a new heart, I realized I could give Farron a new set of lungs if we removed his damaged ones and then regrow them with the spell. Still, I didn’t want to perform the surgery myself. Unlike my other healing spells and [White Flame], [Miraculous Heal] wasn’t instantaneous. It took a bit to heal somebody, so there’s the potential for the patient to die before the spell finishes.
I did not know this when I fixed up Parilostro. That was why I had so much trouble with his surgery and, if it weren’t for everybody being there on that day, he probably would have died through blood loss. Blood was something holy healing magic couldn’t regenerate. If only we had a hemomancer.
That was why I called Duchess Morgiana and Thyra for help. They did my surgery, so I knew they were good, and we had a good relationship, similar to my friendship with House Greenveil. I could trust them and Farron would have the best experts we could get.
Okay, parallel minds, lung anatomy, please. First, inside to outside. Left primary bronchus first and then…
The operation went smoothly. I managed to fix up Farron’s lungs and made sure his status ailment [Crystallized (Lungs) (Moderate)] was gone. Once I did, the two Morgianas began fixing up his mana paths, something I couldn’t do for Parilostro. I had to schedule a surgery for him.
After they were done, I sent my white flames out to heal Farron's chest. It was more accurate and cheaper than using a potion for this, after all. With his chest closed and with nothing bad happening, I gave a thumbs up to signal to Yorshka and Priscilla. Success!
After I cleaned up, I gave them a rundown of what happened. They thanked me for what I did, but joked about how much money Yorshka spent on the ingredients and now there was no way for us to use them. Yorshka was flabbergasted at this, falling onto her chair from the headache. With the money she spent, her family could have lived comfortably without having to work for many years.
“Still, thank you, Hestia.” She recovered before giving me a big fat hug. Her tears dampened my head a bit. “This is the best birthday present you could have given me. Thank you for giving Farron back his time.”
“Don’t worry. We’re family, and family supports each other.”
A week had gone by since the events in Estralia. After taking a good rest from everything, it was back to business for me. There were a lot of things on my check list I had to do as soon as possible. I had to go somewhere before the start of HarvestFest.
So, the first thing on my agenda was to give Yorshka the best ever present possible — a healthy husband. With how much Farron had done for me in the past, it was obvious I would repay him for that.
After we moved the resting Farron to his own medical room, I waited there with Yorshka and Priscilla until he woke up. When he did, we gave him a run down of what he missed, including having Duchess Morgiana give him some medication and also instructions on what to do for a swift recovery. His lungs and connected muscles were new, after all, so he couldn’t push himself.
“Well, that was about it, Captain Farron. Hope you don’t ruin your new set of lungs too soon.” the duchess smiled, addressing Farron with his old title.
“Hehe… Lady Duchess, my time as a knight has faded. I’m too rusty to be called something like that…” He pointed out his deteriorating health and physical condition due his ailment, but still grinned as he took in a deep breath. “But, yeah, this feels so much better. Probably better than when I first became a griffon knight. With these, I can return to being a dragoon.”
Watching Priscilla and Yorshka embracing Farron was heartwarming. Family really is the best, huh?
“What are you planning on doing now, Farron?” I asked. I was a bit impatient since I had to do a couple more things today, so I tried to move things along a bit.
“Hmm. Well, I never thought I would get the chance to do it myself, really. But… with my lungs repaired, I think I need to get back to training.” Farron clutched his chest as his sharp eyes flared up with spirit.
“Revenge, right, my love?” Yorshka already knew what he was planning.
“Yes… Tempestclaw. But, I know in my current state, I’m nothing more than a lion without his fangs. I cannot defeat that basilisk right now. As such…” He turned to me. “Kiddo, at this point, I’m just an old soldier and adventurer. Nothing like my wife. Still, will you accept me in your service? Honestly, that is all I could think of to thank you, but even then, I’m doing this for your title. Sorry.”
He wanted [Hestia’s Retainer]. He wanted access to the SP shop. Honestly, after how long he had to live with those ailing lungs, I couldn’t fault him for that. This was the time to be selfish. He was allowed to be like that.
“Sure, get big and strong, Farron.” I casually agreed to his request.
<[Human, Farron Nordor] have received the title [Hestia’s Retainer]>
“Hahaha!” he suddenly burst into laughter. “Knowing you, I figured getting the title would have been casual like this, but I still imagined it to be more formal. The last time I dedicated my life to royalty was an entire ritual.”
“Father!” But, unlike her careless father, Priscilla looked made at him. “I’m glad you’re happy again, but don’t forget about your own health! Just because Hestia helped you doesn’t mean you can go wild again. You need rest, and you still have your job at the guild!”
“Your daughter is right, Farron. Your lungs are technically new, and your body is rusty from disuse. You need to train yourself up again. I think you noticed your maximum Stamina falling, right? That is the consequence.” Despite replacing his old, damaged lungs, his Stamina still went down. Honestly, that told you a lot of how strong his previous were. “Anyways, I have taken up too much of your time. Stay here for another day. You may leave tomorrow if you don’t show any issues.”
With Duchess Morgiana about to leave the room, I said goodbye to the Nordor family, letting them have their personal moment. After all, my next destination needed Duchess Morgiana and Thyra.
After both of the Morgianas switched into more travel-ready clothes, they got onto their gargoyles while I spread my wings. The three of us took to the skies, flying out from her castle and towards the west of the capital of the Morgiana Duchy — Phaleisha.
Looking down, the capital was quite pretty to look at. Not only ‘cause they combined the surrounding forest with human architecture, but also the numerous wizard towers to the north of it, surrounding a single towering one. The Tower of Morgi, they called it.
The main Morgiana family were all half-elves, being conceived through the union of their house with the elves of Saelariel. The Tower of Morgi was the original home of the Morgianas until after the War for the Faefolk, where they rebuilt Phaleisha and turned it from a hamlet into a city. It was a relic of the past relationship between House Morgiana and Saelariel, you could say.
Nowadays, the area was used as the central area for all sorts of magical learning. Doing any of it within the capital was too dangerous after all, since an experiment could cause a catastrophe if it failed. At least around the Tower of Morgi, there were numerous protective measures.
“Lady Hestia,” while I was looking down at the city, Thyra spoke up. “Considering your mood, nothing probably happened, but I will ask regardless. Were you and Aurora alright after you stopped your concert so suddenly?”
Oh, right.
The concert I held on the day of O’Bloom’s attack had something like over half of its seats filled, I believed, according to what Amelia told me. So, when I had to cancel it mid-way through the performance to come to help Saori and the others, I did let down quite a lot of people. Not really good for my idol reputation there.
Thankfully, I didn’t sell any tickets to people this time. All the funds we received came from the food stalls and merchandise sold. I already thanked Duke Greenveil and Arcanuess Helvas for salvaging the situation, but I hadn’t really explained what happened in detail to everybody. The King and the Dukes only knew we won and had recruited Reajaen Resclave for our goals.
“Just a bruise to our egos, honestly,” I answered. “Tatsuya and Kyouya were the ones most heavily affected by that fight, they almost died before I got there. They really should be resting, but they’re already training like madmen after three days. Grimnir also was in a bad spot, but nothing stops a stubborn taz dwarf. There’s even something we have to do today together.”
On a more positive note, we managed to celebrate everybody’s birthday yesterday, including Yorshka in advance. Ellaine’s birthday was yesterday, on the 16th of HarvestBloom, and we also included Saori and Haruka, as we couldn’t give them a birthday surprise with everything going on.
It was a fun day, and it became even better for Yorshka today. Still, with everything going on, nobody wanted to rest more than a week. It was time for Aurora to move on.
“Mhmm, I guess those boys will probably be working even harder now with the System update and the triple Job System, right?” Duchess Morgiana brought up.
That was right, the most interesting thing that happened today was actually this:
“Would it be rude to expect the Goddess to have spoken with you about it, Lady Hestia?” the duchess asked, curious.
“Mhmm, she had. The moment the message appeared. She gave me a Divine Quest to unlock the ability to receive an Unique Job, which involves sending me to the Principality of Yeos.”
The main function of the Job System for most people was the ability to level up your skills and increase your stats by acquiring and then leveling them up to max. Once they were done, you would replace them with something else to level up.
However, the problem was that for most people, they also relied on the Job skills you received from them. For example, mage Jobs gave you skills like [Mana Efficiency] and [Fire Amp], which stack with the ones you had on your profile normally. With every fight possibly being your last, leveling Jobs was difficult if they had some useless skills.
And this Job System update seemed to be the answer for that issue. Now, the Main Job would be the one you wanted the skills for, while the Secondary Job could be used as a slot to level whatever Job you needed. It was more efficient this way. A quality of life update, in a sense.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
But, that wasn’t too important for me, since the restrictions of the Job system never mattered to me when I could power grind Jobs easily. But, what did interest me was this Unique Job slot. From what Aurena told me, the Job system was created to give humanoids the possibility to grow in a similar manner to how monsters evolved. However, over the years, it didn’t become what the Origin Gods envisioned.
That was why the Unique Job slot was created. Once you unlocked the right to receive one, this Job would be yours alone. It would grow with you, becoming stronger as you become more powerful. It would have no levels, simply adapting once you fulfilled specific requirements. Once a certain breakpoint was reached, you could choose to “promote” it in a way reminiscent of monster evolutions.
Details aside, there was also a mention of how the current Job system would be completely overhauled. Aurena told me the Origin Gods had a whole debate on how the current System was too unrefined and filled with more clutter than necessary. There would be less overall Jobs in general, as they were planning on redirecting the Divine System’s Job creation function to the Unique Jobs.
They were planning on streamlining the Job System by reducing the amount available and making each Job harder to level, but making each level and the Job acquisition more meaningful. The Unique Jobs would be hard to acquire now, but once the entire rehaul was released, they would be easier to unlock.
And, when would this second update be released? In four years. How suspiciously close to the time when I would lose my “young” prefix, no? Coincidence? I think not, even if the System message explained it was to give everybody time to adjust to everything.
The explanation in the System message warned people another change to the Job system would happen soon. It reassured everybody that this new Job System would work retroactively with our current progress, so there was no need to worry about our efforts becoming redundant.
Once again, the Divine System is sooooo game-like. This is literally something you would find in an MMO!
Regardless, with the future of the current Job system 100% over in four years, Aurena recommended that I unlock my Unique Job as soon as possible and begin developing it. FOMO, honestly; fear of missing out. And for that, I received a Divine Quest from—
“Lady Hestia, we arrived.”
But, I could think about it later. First, I had to make sure everything was going well on Asaka’s side. Hopefully, her Divine Quest was fulfilled.
The three of us landed inside a village currently being built up by both humans and elves on the border between the Morgiana Duchy and the Kingdom of Saelariel. Even from here, I could see a watch tower looking over at us. A few elven guards were stationed there, but even more were hidden in the trees.
Should I wave to them?
No, there was no need. At this point, with Muraina and the dwarven king knowing my existence, I was 100% sure the elves already knew I was alive. Even the dragonewts of Loatryx knew about it between Yorshka telling Clan Nordor and Mother staying here with me.
Speaking about Mother, she waved at me as we approached her.
“Hestia!” Mother embraced me, pulling me up from the ground as she cuddled me like a sleeping pillow. “From the looks of it, everything went well for Yorshka and Priscilla?”
“Yup, yup. Healed Farron up. He should be good to go after a week or so, I think.”
Mother let me down, where Duchess Morgiana and Thyra kneeled down, greeting the Sixth Empress of the Kargryx Empire. Mother gave them a casual hello, thanking them for taking care of my mana path problem in the past. Suffice to say, the two nobles were exhilarated to get to talk to her.
Leaving them alone, I asked one of the nearby elves where Muraina and Asaka were. After I got some directions, I headed their way, where I saw the elves and humans working mildly well together.
The elves were obviously from Muraina’s group, mostly the ones living in the elven district in Griffonpeak, while all the humans came from this duchy. The former group were tolerant of the humans, but there was a weird atmosphere between them. Awkward, honestly. I couldn’t really tell.
“Uuurgh!” On the side, a weird, unkempt-looking human suddenly dropped his jaw, the bone falling off his face. While the other humans around him grimaced and began moving away, one of the elves tapped his shoulder and helped him put his jaw back where it belonged. “Ahh. Thanks for the help. I lost control of the mana slime for a moment there.”
“No worries. Us Saelari are friends of the fae, after all.”
That “human” was an onnikai. To fulfill Asaka’s Divine Quest, we had to find a place for the onnikais to migrate and live in. This was the place — the onnikai village.
“Hey, Asaka-san,” I greeted the blue-haired girl. She was no longer wearing her white-gold priestess robe; instead, Saori made her some chic, modern clothes.
“Yo, Hestia-san.” She raised her hand before moving away from Emil, the necromancer onnikai, after they finished their talks. “Been only two days. Looks good, huh?”
“Heh, I guess. Honestly, I didn’t think you would be this interested after all the things you said about not wanting to be bothered by it so much.” I then turned around, looking over at the large building in the middle of this village before waving at the approaching Emil. “Seems like the mayor's house is done. The church is probably next, huh?”
“Most likely, yeah.” The ancient onnikai nodded, smiling. It contrasted how crestfallen he looked a week ago. “Thank you very much for reading that letter you received from Goddess Death to us. Now that we are free from that place in Estralia, we can finally start doing what our Goddess wants from us. But, before that, we need a place to pray. A place for her faith to flourish.”
Four days ago, Ilsaphone came back, earlier than she told us she would. She greeted me while I was being a tourist in Estralia. She handed me a letter, addressed towards the onnikais, complete with instructions on how to lead their new lives.
At that point, I had already talked with Duchess Morgiana and Muraina about the onnikais. They were already relocated using my nexus to the Morgina Duchy, where they stayed at the elven outpost until proper plans could be made for the onnikai’s refuge. That was how the onnikais got to know the elves better.
Two days later, everything began. By the wish of the onnikais, their settlement would stay around humans. The bodies they assumed were those of zombies they created from the Resclave dungeon, and were all humans. The memories they received from them weren’t spectacular, but they’ve gotten used to a human form and wanted to learn from human culture in order to properly become “humans.”
Honestly, onnikais were strange. Even Saori’s garms were onnikais at the end of the day, but they weren’t as complicated as these ones. I guess that was due to the garm bodies having a history behind them, unlike zombies spawned from a dungeon. Regardless, that was their wish, so we obliged and gave them a place close to the borders.
“Where is Muraina?” I asked and Asaka and Emil told me she was negotiating with a nearby ranger unit. Probably to find a way to protect this village.
After all, one of Ilsaphone’s instructions was that the onnikais had to be hidden from the Church of Aurena. Or, more specifically, hidden from Aureolis. If the Holy Capital learned faefolk were inhabiting the bodies of the dead, and these beings were living in this duchy, there would be some serious trouble. Thankfully, the Church of Aurena had little presence here, since the primary religion of this duchy was the equal worship of all Origin Gods — the Origdinean faith.
Then, once the village was founded, they needed to create a church where they could pray to her, enabling Ilsaphone to be able to continuously monitor their progress. The onnikais were, after all, Ilsaphone’s experiment to create her own patreon race. That was why she had to make sure nothing bad happened to them.
And, lastly, the third point was they needed a mayor. A leader. And that person was supposed to be—
“So, Asaka-san, have you finished the Divine Quest yet?” I asked her with a smug grin, only for her to show me the middle finger and conjure something up in one of her hands.
With one small movement, two comma-looking objects materlaized from her mana. One was white and the other black, looking pretty much like a ying-yang formation.
“Can you not tease me? Seriously… But, this should be the answer, right?”
The last objective was to make Asaka the mayor of this village, which was required for Ilsaphone to accept that she had fulfilled her Divine Quest. Pretty cunning from that Goddess of Death.
“Gone is my unique skill [Saint’s Wrath], robbed and taken away by the scary dragon. No more am I a [Saint Candidate] of ‘Aurena.’ I am now a [Moonlight Guider], a saintess of the Pantheon of Darkness with the unique skill [Twilight Paladin]. Haaaaa, fuck!” Asaka suddenly lost strength in her legs and fell onto her butt, shouting “Fuck!” into the air for some reason.
“Oi, Asaka!”
“Saintess Asaka!”
“Oh, don’t you two suddenly show concern for me! Fucking bitch, that Ilsaphone, honestly! I told her I didn’t want to become her saintess, but what does that two-faced elf do? Fucking make me a saintess, and not hers, but for the entire P—!” I quickly created an [Air Shield] around us before she screamed her next words. “—antheon of Darkness! That means I’m working for Marsven now, too! Ooooh, not only did you take away my role in the Church of Aurena, but now you thrust me back into the exact same situation! Only difference is the sorta person at the very top!”
The Night Sisters had told me that I was able to take away or delete the unique skills and titles the students received since I usurped their control once they became [Hestia’s Retainer]. Since we knew about how the demonkins were literally planning on using the students for something, and how the skills were there as trackers, none of the ten who were with Aurora right now declined my offer to delete them.
The problem was that some of them were currently feeling the aftereffects of what I did. Kohaku, Misaki, and Tatsuya loved their unique skills, and had their fighting styles built around them. It forced them to relearn and retrain everything from the ground up. They might be thankful to me for freeing them from the demonkins’ trackers, but I could see their frustration every evening.
On the other hand, there was also the case that taking away their unique skills also meant we finally decided to reveal a bit of what we could do to the demonkins. Honestly, if those two demonkins had the ability to appraise Tatsuya, Kyouya, and Asaka during their fight, the demonkin forces would probably know the summoned heroes here already betrayed them. With this, they just couldn’t track us anymore.
This was an issue since they could probably tell the 15 other students in the Empire that Tamae’s and Asaka’s party had betrayed them or even died, whatever the demonkins wanted to go with. Either way, with every passing day, we became even more and more the enemies of the Church of Aurena.
And now, Asaka was also considered a Saintess of Marsven. Not only did I strip her of the [Saint Candidate] title, I also took her unique skill. But, at the same time, she just got into a similar situation like before. Then again, at least this time, she wasn’t on the side of the enemy.
Moonlight Guider
A title granted to a mortal recognized by the Goddess of Death and Necromancy, whose control has been usurped by individual [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]. Enables the ability to communicate with all types of faefolk. Enables the ability to control and speak with the undead. The owner of this title will be immune to all mana ailments while the moon is up
Twilight Paladin
A unique skill given to the [Moonlight Guider]. Enables the owner to enchant equipment with either the Holy or Dark element. Enables the user to conjure up Holy and Dark mana into a twinned object of light and darkness, enabling them the usage of the compound element [Twilight]. Dramatically increases Health regeneration when the sun is up, and Mana during the night. Reduces damage received from all undead-related sources by 80%. The skills combined are: [Mana Efficiency Lv. 10] [Mana Control Lv. 10] [Light Magic Lv. 10] [Dark Magic Lv. 10] [Health Recovery Lv. 10] [Mana Recovery Lv. 10] [Arcane Conduit Lv. 10] [Sorcerer’s Power Lv. 10]
Oh shit! Those are some good rewards! Asaka just got an empty vessel magic!
“Woah?!” I grabbed Asaka’s shoulder and pulled her up the moment she shared that information with me, not understanding why she was so down.
“Come on, Asaka-san, that is one big unique skill with a pretty nice title! Yeah, I know, now you had to deal with the gods and so on, but you honestly were already part of all that by joining me. Besides, what are they gonna do if you refuse to do Divine Quests or something? Take away the title and unique skills you disliked?”
“… Holy crap, you’re right.” Asaka looked at me in wonderment. “Didn’t expect you to say that last part, Miss Champion of Aurena. But, you’re right. Didn’t Ilsaphone say the gods were only guides or something? Sure, let them take away my skill but who cares! Shit! You know what, now I wished I scream that to Ilsaphone’s face when her message arrived to congratulate me but the problem was—”
“That you still can’t fully read or understand what the gods say? Yeah, I thought so. Too bad.”
Similar to Eshe, Asaka couldn’t really listen to the words of the gods. Only I could due to my circumstances, but that meant I had to continue acting as the translator for everybody.
Fuck me.
With things looking like they were sorted here, I left Asaka with Duchess Morgiana and Thyra. Since the role of mayor was forced onto Asaka, she kinda wanted to just stop and hand the role over to Emil, but since she already started the job, she wanted to see it through. At least, that’s the reason she gave me before Imila and Haruka suddenly ran over to her, wanting her attention for something.
Go have fun, Tsundere~
Regardless, I handed Thyra a set if [Room] runes, telling her to keep it safe since I needed a point here to teleport to. Thyra went crazy at the fact I was willingly giving her the ability to visit us in my subspace, but I just shrugged. She was a magic nerd, so it was kinda expected. I gave her permission.
Anyways, with Mother accompanying me, the first thing we saw the moment we returned to the [Room] were Grimnir, Daichi, and Ellaine. After all, they were the third point in my schedule for the day.
With Mother, the four of us returned to Estralia and went to the headquarters of the Layavete cartel, now fully under the control of Shaturein. There, not only did we meet the Layavete cartel’s boss, but also Reajaen and one of Shaturein’s pillar’s, Jenghil Grengar.
“Princess Hestia,” Reajaen immediately rose up and bowed before me, followed by a confused Jenghil. “I expected you to come a bit later. I apologize, could you give us a moment?”
“Yeah, sure. Take your time.” I nodded to the one-eyed Reajaen.
“An eye for an eye,” as Tasianna mentioned. Before she calmed down and thought it through rationally, Tasianna was fully ready to kill Reajaen, having pierced her eyes in the process. Emil, too, was also in a frenzy back then, ripping through Reajaen’s arm.
I managed to heal up her arm, but the foxian merchant told me she wanted to keep the eyepatch. She thought of it as a reminder of her sins and crimes. Honestly, putting aside our past, Reajaen was now an ally of mine, so I wish she would take care of herself more. Especially since she’ll become Estralia’s president. That eyepatch would only make her look more like a tyrant than a benevolent leader!
Still, with Reajaen on my side, the Resurrection was also there for me to use. Since we had to control Estralia, I had them team up with Shaturein. We kept our deal with Jenghil, now we only had to make Reajaen the president. And for that, I will leave the rest to those two and Gael. Honestly, I didn’t really want to know what sort of dealings they would do, but I did tell them to not kill or torture people without a need.
Once their discussion was over, Reajaen joined us and we went over to the dwarven district, specifically, the train station.
“Huh?! Bladdarg, why the hell are you back, you zueklu—”
The dwarven engineers there tried to start another fight once they saw Grimnir, but since we already experienced this before, Mother’s aura activated immediately, intimidating everybody there.
Now, why the hell would we come back here when our first visit was so terrible? Well, I wouldn’t, but Grimnir wanted to come here to meet somebody. Someone he thought would bring his skills to the next level.
“Where in Crustacia’s name is Jadhund Heimhunter? Bring that inko out!”
We were here to meet up with the person who made the mana batteries for Parilostro’s artificial heart.