A woman with long blonde hair in a single braid put her arms down and stepped into the bubble through a hole that opened, and then reclosed when she fully entered.

I ran over to the other side of the car, causing her to take a step back and put up her guard, and almost wrenched the door off its hinges before I carefully lifted Brad out and placed him on the ground. Upon seeing my actions, she relaxed and jogged over.

“What happened to him?” She asked.

“He got cuts down his chest, I don’t know how deep they are.” I replied

She nodded, and ran a single finger down his shirt. “His soul is giving off energy, so he’s still alive.” She grabbed two sides of the fabric, and pulled them apart, separating it along the line she made. His bloody torso was revealed in excruciating detail, but it didn’t cause her to falter.

She started chanting under her breath for a couple of seconds, before the blood that was out of his body started to flow back in. However not all of it returned, a small portion of blood floated up to fill a translucent orb, about half the size of a palm. Gradually, it began to rotate. It spun quicker and quicker, until there was a vortex within. Then she put all of her fingertips on the orbs surface, and began to move them apart.

The sphere began to increase in size, until it was as big as her head. The spinning slowed down to a halt, and multiple tendrils of blood moved towards Brad’s wounds. Draining the blood into his body only took a few seconds.

After absorbing the leftover energy back into herself, she lowered her hands to the lacerations again. Under her open palms, flesh began to grow back at a visible pace, fibers knitting themselves together. As she did so, Brad began to writhe. Seeing that, I grabbed her wrists and pulled them away from his body.

“What are you doing?” I asked, with a low growl. She huffed and pulled her arms out of my grip. “I’m helping him, he’s in pain because his body is being regrown. Did you expect him to lay there with a smile on his face?”

I looked down in shame at the admonishment, but didn’t respond; she was helping Brad and I didn’t want her to stop because I had to run my mouth.

In just a moment, she had already moved her hands back and was healing him again. I held myself back from stopping her again, as I saw him squirming around unconsciously. Soon she finished fixing the first laceration. And after another minute of torture for him, the other two were repaired as well.

She put her hands by her side and let out a sigh, before turning to me. “He’ll be alright. I’ve overdrafted his soul by accelerating its healing process, so he shouldn’t use any energy for at least three weeks whilst it recovers.”

I looked at him, and the skin that one would never know had been damaged, if it wasn’t for the missing hair, where the wounds had been. His chest went up and down with his breath.

I smiled.

Brad was going to be okay. I wasn’t losing someone else.

—

At some point during the time that I had been fixated on the healing process, the bubble had gone down, and only one woman was waiting. I hadn’t paid too much attention to the defender’s faces, but I didn’t think she had been there before.

She had long black hair, and brown eyes. Her face was very angular and spartan. Her eyebrows seemed to contort, as though she were in a rage; but she was relaxing them. She spoke with a deep, authoritative voice, “Julia, they’ve sworn the oath. You can stop preparing to defend yourself.” At that, the blonde woman smiled and stretched out. I hadn’t even sensed an attack brewing, it just went to show that I had a long way to go.

“I don’t have good news though, what he said was right.” She pointed at me. “An immediate response squad has already been sent who will buy some time for the reinforcements to get there in full. You’re part of the second batch which will leave in a few minutes, so take a moment to fill your energy back up before they call you.”

Julia didn’t even respond, she just went straight into meditation; but the pensive expression on her face was all I needed to see to know how she felt. She took two crystals out of her pockets and held one in each hand, they glowed brightly the same color as her energy, and gradually began to fade.

“David Thompson, I will show you where the medical tent is.” She turned on her heel and started walking. Seeing her figure get further away without rest, I hurried to pick up Brad, and jogged up to her.

“Will they be alright? The analysts.” I asked her, both trying to get more information, as well as see if I could tell Brad some good news when he woke up. She seemed like a leader, so I assumed that she’d be in the know.

She didn’t turn her head and kept walking in a robotic fashion. “I don’t know the extent of the attack, but any that were alive when the first wave of help came will survive.” She said with confidence, but I could tell that she felt it wasn’t misplaced.

“I only saw three there, they were flying around throwing black orbs of destruction at the analysts.” I said, hoping she could provide some insight.

“What were they wearing?”

“Dark green robes.”

She came to an abrupt halt. “What’s the matter?” I asked.

Returning to her walk, she replied. “If it is truly as you said, then Tonford University has begun their offensive. I imagine the Hephean family and the Mandius clan are also experiencing similar losses.” They must’ve been the two forces that the Archive Society had allied with to stop outsiders from stealing their prey.

“I thought they were already fighting?”

Brad’s body was beginning to feel heavy in my arms. She replied “You are correct, but until now, they have only been defending. Sure, they attack our patrols, and our sieging squads; but they haven’t come near any of our bases yet.”

“Sorry, but if they’ve sent people to attack three different locations; wouldn’t the university be under-manned? Why not take the opportunity?” I said.

She smiled as we came to the front of a tent with a red cross on it. “At least not all of our recruits are helpless. Counterattack plans are currently being discussed by the top brass. I imagine they’ll be sending a team to advance on the University, along with the reinforcements. They won’t take such a backhanded move lightly.” She held the tent flaps and walked in. I followed after her.

The inside of the tent had a plastic floor, and was large enough to fit twenty beds in it. In fact, to call it a tent might’ve been slightly insulting. A man dressed in blue doctor’s clothes came up to her. “Good evening Lady Lentanal.”

Lentanal? Wasn’t that Aslow’s last name? How were they related?

“I need you to take care of Brad Cladus.” I saw his eyes dart to Brad’s body in my arms. She continued. “Yes, the one you’re thinking of. He’s already been healed, so he’s low priority. If anyone more in need comes, help them first. If you have a spare minute, take a look over at David’s condition quickly as well. Thank you for your hard work as always.”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Not missing a beat, she turned around and walked out, only stopping by my side to say something else, “The camp will be very busy for the coming period of time, so make sure you’re not in the way. When this is all relaxed a bit, someone will come find you.” Then out the door she went.

—-

After that, I checked Brad in with the medics. They confirmed that he was fine, but his soul was overused. There was a check done on me as well, but there were no issues. I stayed by Brad’s side in the bed for another thirty minutes. However as the minutes passed, I began to feel an oppressive atmosphere gathering.

Small mutterings of ‘what went wrong?’, and ‘how could they?’ could be heard as different people flitted in and out of the tent, going up to the lead doctor’s ear and speaking. Then as he told others, they each gained a grim look. After about ten minutes of this, I lost my patience, and pulled over a short nurse with brown hair to answer my questions.

“What happened? Why is everyone like this?” I asked.

She shied away slightly, “We’re not really meant to tell patients about things like this. It’s not good for your health to worry.”

I held my hands up to put her at ease. “I’m not a patient, I’m just here with my friend.”

She hesitated, “But I saw Gustav treating you?” I nodded, “He was just making sure that I didn’t have any problems.” I said.

She looked over each of her shoulders a few times, “Okay, but you didn’t hear anything from me.” I smiled, “Of course, I don’t even know your name.”

“My name’s Claudia.” Then, perhaps realizing she would’ve been better off not saying anything at all, covered her mouth. “Forget about that.”

“Already forgotten.” She seemed to relax a bit at my words, “Well, I don’t know how much of this is true, but everybody is saying that Tonford University attacked our spell circle research base.” That much I already knew, still I pretended like I didn’t and motioned for her to continue. “They’re saying that all our analysts were wiped out.”

My stomach dropped slightly. We weren’t able to save them after all. How would I break the news to Brad?

“But that’s not even the worst part of it.” She lowered her voice. “When the immediate response team got there, everyone was already dead, our side and theirs; but when they looked at the faces of the assailants, they saw something horrifying.” She paused for a moment. “They were all smiling.”

A pang of fear shot through me, and my heart started to beat faster. “Their mouths stretched from ear to ear and tears in their lips formed from being forced so much. They had wide open eyes, to the point that our team thought they were still alive, until they confirmed their death.”

I controlled my breath, and tried to keep my voice normal. “Do you know why they were smiling so much?” I asked. She looked around again. “They say the attackers might’ve entered into a demonic contract.”

The world seemed to fall backwards, as my mind reeled. There was enough evidence to allude to only one thing. That smiling demon followed us all the way here. Was it just watching the whole time? Waiting for the right moment to come so that it could try and kill us. It said that we would only meet in a year, so why was it coming now? I began to feel lightheaded. Would we be targeted until the date that we agreed upon? Only in the form of regular humans using his power?

“Sir?” The nurse had suddenly changed into a different person as she grabbed my arms to keep me steady. “Are you okay sir?”

No, I wasn’t. “I’m fine, but can you tell me where something is?” I was wasting time here, especially now that I knew that we would be hunted no matter where we went.

She smiled genially, that must’ve been her training kicking in. “Where are you looking for?”

“I need somewhere to meditate, and if you know of anything; something that I can use to supply myself with more energy than what’s just in the ambience.” I said.

She nodded. “There’s a long line of meditation tents further along, you won’t be able to miss them.” I sensed she was still considering whether to continue, so I waited. “If you want crystals, you’d normally have to do an assignment, we have some that we’re allowed to give out to help patients recover. But you said you don’t have anything wrong with you. I might get into trouble if they find out.”

I grabbed onto the sides of her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “Please, Claudia.”

She was stunned for a second, before hurriedly nodding and pulling away. I wasn’t sure if I noticed, but I thought her face had become slightly red. She walked over to a table filled with medical supplies, and slowly opened a metal tin near the center.

Her head swiveled from side to side, signaling her guilt to any onlookers, but thankfully, none were paying her any attention. She reached her hand in and pulled out a glowing blue crystal which she quickly stuffed in her pocket. Once she had gently closed the tin, she turned on her heel and walked back to me.

When she was back sitting down next to me, she reached into her pocket with one hand and grabbed my hand with the other, then she placed the crystal in my palm and closed my fingers around it.

“Thank you so much, Claudia.” I said. “I won’t forget this.” I slipped it into my pocket and strode off to leave, not wanting to spend a single second waiting, when I knew that the demon could send people after us at any moment. I had to trust that Brad would be safe as well, these people were all stronger than I was. And with him out of commission for the next few weeks, I would have to take more responsibility to keep us safe.

After a few steps, she called out. “Excuse me!”

I stopped and turned around to look at her. “What’s your name!” She asked.

“David.” I said, and left the tent.

---

It was just as Claudia said, the meditation tents were impossible to miss. There was an endless amount of them, all marked with the word ‘meditation’ on them, as well as a sign that could be turned to show whether it was in use or not. Just like the rest of the camp, they were made from beige fabric; but they were very small. There was only enough space to lie down, and if you were particularly tall, then your legs would go out the front.

The inside was lit by a lamp which was attached to the door, it was needed, as with the zipper shut, no light could get in whatsoever. I sat on a cushion in the middle, and pulled out the crystal to examine it.

In the dark environment, I could see its pale blue glow better. If I didn’t have an actual lamp, I was sure that I could’ve used it to highlight the details of things close to it. Maybe I could use it to read a book, but that was the extent of its range.

When I held it, I felt my soul get excited by its presence. It seemed to kick my soul’s processes to become faster, just by being in my hand. I felt a strong urge to claim the energy within, stemming from the core of my being. So, resentment at my lack of strength burning, I settled into my foundation technique.

Breathing according to the cycle and visualizing the flow of blood in my soul. I began to form my ‘dam’ which would enhance the cells as they passed through, then, I placed it in one of the veins which lead to my soul’s heart.

As it began to improve the cells, I felt the energy I had gathered rapidly fade away. Sensing this, I began to draw on the energy within the crystal to fuel the technique. Even though I had been expecting some difficulties, there were none. Taking the energy for myself felt almost instinctual, and there was no resistance either. It just went from inside the crystal, to inside my soul.

I felt that I could have taken a massive glut of power all at once, but I held myself off. The idea behind partially improving all the cells over time was so that I could keep them equal and need to use less mental energy to better them. Of course, even if I just completely enhanced each cell, they would mix into the blood as a whole and their effects would still be equal. But this was also helpful in showing me how far I had to go before they were all completed. I could just take a look at any cell, and see to what extent it had been enhanced.

Time passed as the tendril of energy continued to flow from crystal to soul dam. It felt soothing, a nice way to take my mind off recent events. Then, without warning, the flow stopped. I tried to absorb more, but all that came now was the modest trickle from the environment. I opened my eyes. The crystal wasn’t glowing anymore. I turned the lamp off. Still nothing.

Had I finished it in that short space of time? It had only been something like ten minutes. I checked my watch and found myself shocked.

Three hours had passed. My perception of time had been warped. I wondered whether it was the meditation, or the crystal. I didn’t think anything else could have been the cause; as I hadn’t done anything else. Though still confused, I pushed it to the back of my mind, it was time to see the results.

Closing my eyes and focusing on my soul, I picked out a random blood cell and a normal muscle cell to compare them. It was almost unnoticeable, but the blood cell was better. It felt like it was only one percent better, but it was better. I checked another, and another, and another. They were all better. My technique had worked, and the crystal was what I had needed to fuel it.

I just needed more.