"No, no, no, fuck y'all, I don't have time for that!" Glenn yelled with bloodshot eyes, standing up on the bunkbed despite the best efforts of the priestesses around him. His waist bled heavily as the healers hadn't finished regenerating the whole missing chunk of flesh, but the young man didn't seem to even care about the pain.
He stumbled on his steps, holding his left hand desperately as he tried to summon the Nitrogen Wave he had grown so fond of. Sadly, nothing happened besides his heart growing heavier. The priestesses tried to push him back on the bunk bed but they couldn't restrain him. Even though he physically didn't look unstoppable, he certainly was for them.
Tara frowned and glanced at the Paladin who was standing guard in the tent. He nodded and approached Glenn, holding his hands in peace, before getting punched in the head and falling on his back. The Head Priestess sighed, shaking her head slightly before peeking outside the tent toward the other Paladins guarding the camp.
"...We have a recalcitrant patient over here."
A roar came from behind her, startling said Paladins.
"FUCK!! MY MAGIC!? DAMN IT!!"
Three Paladins joined the melee, finally managing to control Glenn and press him against the bunk bed, forcing him to receive the medical attention he needed. The young man was like a rabid dog, his words erratic and his eyes filled with madness. Was it anger, or despair? Tara couldn't tell.
"No, no...I practically died to get this Third Circle, and it's just gone?!? Are you for real, Onnea?!?" The man spat through his teeth, jerking his right arm out and knocking out one of the poor Paladins. Tara raised an eyebrow, and her gloved fist clenched lightly.
'He shouldn't be able to even wake up with such wounds...And he had an incredibly sturdy body too... How interesting,' The Head Priestess rubbed her chin in thought, before stepping next to the mad Fixer. She didn't say anything and punched him hard in the face, his nose crackling under the hit. The screams died off and the Paladins who previously restrained Glenn gasped in relief, looking at her in awe and fear.
"...I simply couldn't listen to him anymore," Tara shrugged off, trying her best to avoid Astrid's gaze full of admiration.
"Half of you stay there and take care of these warriors, the others with me to help the villagers. From what I've seen, they shouldn't require much medical attention, but we never know," She ordered the priests and priestesses, before getting out of the tent. The four Paladins followed her, but she glared at them and gestured back at the tent.
"...What are you doing? Imagine if they're all like that problematic one?" The Paladins looked at each other awkwardly, before one hesitantly stepped up.
"...M'am Mi Lando, we apologize, but what if they all wake up at once? We already struggle with one, so imagine with four of them..."
Tara pulled down on her face, before pushing the Paladins back in the tent, deaf to their complaints. She moved through the camp, ordering two other Paladins to join the medical tent...for safety measures. She looked at the sky above her, the sun still hanging high.
There was still a lot of work to do.
Sigh.
----------------------------------------
Glenn grunted, struggling to open his eyes.
'Ugh, I feel like shit...' His memories were foggy at best, and his movements sluggish. He tried to rub his eyes but his arms didn't move, tied to something. Glenn frowned, and forced his eyes open, closing them back reflexively when he felt the fabric touch them. Something was covering his eyes while each of his limbs was tightly restrained. The young man's mind inevitably derived back to a certain time in a certain prison, and his heart rate accelerated as he tried to force himself out.
"Hey, can someone please untie me before I go fucking mad?" He tried without much conviction, pulling on the restraints as best he could. His body was aching all over as if he had been beaten by dozens of people with sticks. Wait, he did lose consciousness after fighting the Son of the insane deity, The Mother, that probably made sense. It still seemed like there was more to it, but Glenn was unable to think about it for long as his restraints suddenly came loose, letting him take off his blindfold.
The gentle light of the sun coming from an interstice in the tent made him squint slightly, getting used to the lighting. He suddenly jolted awake, checking his waist out. Where a huge chunk of flesh should have been missing, a pristine white skin was there as if everything had been an illusion, the only witness of the previous wound being the difference in the skin's color. Glenn hesitantly touched his waist, surprised that he couldn't feel any pain whatsoever.
'Wait, what about my ribs?'
Those weren't hurting him either at all. Seemingly, a good rest was all he needed to be completely fixed. When did his body become so incredible?
'As if. Take a look around, Glenn,' Diamanes suddenly surged out of nowhere, making Glenn wince in displeasure. He had almost forgotten about him. Nonetheless, he obliged and checked his surroundings, discovering six heavily armored Paladins staring at him while holding their breaths. They were all holding thick steel shields that seemed they could stop anything. Glenn tilted his head to the side, confused.
"...Who are you? No, more importantly, where am I?" The young man quickly questioned, throwing his legs to the side, his feet touching the cold ground in a not-so-pleasing sensation. He looked down, only to find a huge puddle of blood there.
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"...Urgh, who the hell bled out under my bed...? ?" asked Glenn disgruntledly, before looking at the paladins who were watching him in silence. He looked at himself, entirely naked. A quick gaze at the size allowed him to find a pile of bloody rags, probably the precious clothes he paid so much for...
"...I did, didn't I?" He looked at the Paladins for confirmation who silently nodded. One of them suddenly took a deep breath and stepped forward, raising his silver visor. He pushed his shield to the side and pressed his right hand on his chest respectfully.
"...I'm Frederik Lance, from the Order of Onnea's Paladins," said the armored man in a low voice, making Glenn instantly understand what happened.
"You guys are from the Onnea's Church? That means...You guys came to take care of Palancar, didn't you?" The young man asked curiously, un-summoning and re-summoning his clothes. There was a huge slit in the side that was struggling to fix itself, and they were soaked in blood. Glenn groaned and tried to cast his cleaning spell without saying anything, but nothing happened.
'...The fu—oh, I forgot...My Third Circle...Shit...' Glenn's expression suddenly changed as he sat back down on the bunk bed, splurging bed all around. He rubbed the sides of his nose tiredly, before focusing his Mana in his hands.
"...Mundare," A gentle light appeared on his hands, ridding them of all the blood left. With a distraught sigh, he channeled the spell all over himself, repeating the process until he was completely cleaned. It had been quite a while since he last used a spell of the School of Words. He had gotten so used to the Dragonic School that he simply didn't see the use in them anymore.
'Well, what good did it do to me?' He thought derisively, trying to see if he had missed any part. After ensuring he didn't, he looked back up at the Paladins who still hadn't answered his questions.
"...So, uhm, Frederik, mind telling me what's going on?" Glenn pressed the Paladin, who flinched in response.
"Of course, sir. The Church of Onnea sent a detachment to march on Palancar after receiving a revelation from the Goddess, a month after your team left King's Rise," the Paladin began explaining. Glenn frowned. A month after? That didn't make—wait, actually, it did, even more when considering the extent of the Mother's powers. So he lost a month to this cursed village?
Unaware of the young man's storming thoughts, Frederik continued like a soldier making his rapport.
"We marched on the village but were blocked by a powerful distortion barrier that even our Head Priestess couldn't break," Frederik's face darkened, and the hand on his chest clenched tighter.
"It was powered by the evil magic of the Fallen Mother, hence the struggle of M'am Tara. She would have eventually opened a rift in it for us to open, but that would have probably taken another week."
'A week we probably wouldn't have been able to afford,' Glenn thought as he looked back to the injuries he sustained.
"We then finally entered Palancar's vicinity and began the rescue and purging mission. That's when we found you and your comrades," The Paladin said, before nodding in some other bed directions that Glenn hadn't previously noticed. Glenn's ears perked up and he walked past the Paladins who had finally begun to relax a little, heading for the beds. He sighed in relief when he found the Black Heir and the two Pale Sons still well and alive.
'All in one piece. Phew...' Glenn grinned, crossing his arms in front of him.
'Actually...that might not be entirely true,' Diamanes interjected in a sad tone, making Glenn's smile disappear.
'I think Sahro...' The entity couldn't finish its sentence that Glenn was next to his friend's bed, paling when he realized that Sahro's left arm was gone. There was nothing at all where the limb was supposed to be, and a bandage was covering the Black Heir's shoulder. The young man brought his hand to his mouth, covering it in shock. He held himself on the side of the bed, suddenly feeling like the ground was spinning under him.
'I...This is my fault...If only I didn't choose this request...If I wasn't so greedy and impatient..! Glenn's spiraling thoughts quickly deteriorated, and the sudden realization of this mission's death toll only made it worse. Tarana, the reliable teammate he survived the Heart of Darkness with was now reduced to a puddle of flesh and blood, gone from this world without even having the chance to say her last words.
'Just like with—' Glenn's fall was suddenly interrupted by a loud voice in his mind.
'Tsk! Stop the melodrama, you narcissistic bastard!!! Do you actually think you're the reason they're dead? It's that pagan god's fault, you idiot!' exclaims Diamanes, exasperated, as he manages to pull Glenn together. The young man rubbed his forehead, forcingly calming himself. He pushed his guilt back where it belonged, which meant in the furthest possible place of his mind, and focused back on the matter at hand.
'...You're right. Sorry... I'll try to make sense of it all instead so I don't think about it,' Glenn thanked his mental companion, before strolling for the tent's exit, ignoring Frederik and the other Paladins. The sun blinded him once more as he found himself in Palancar's ruins, ruins that he had created himself.
The surviving villagers and workers were staring at the rubbles with blank faces. Most of them had already dried their tears, and Glenn didn't doubt that they had all been deeply scarred by the events that occurred in Palancar's ashen plain.
Who wouldn't be?
Priests and priestesses were moving around, proposing food and water to the survivors, often met with mute refusal and dead eyes empty of any desire. Glenn suddenly squinted when he recognized a female figure treating a man with a nasty burn. He walked slowly, looking at the destruction and chaos he technically caused. Well, it was an ill for a good, considering that all the survivors would have probably died crushed instead at the Fallen Mother's whim.
"...There we go. Make sure to apply that cream, and it should go better in a few days," Astrid said to the burned man, holding a small clay pot to the man, who took it wordlessly. She smiled reassuringly before standing up and turning around, secretly sighing.
"What's up?" Glenn smiled, startling her. Her eyes widened and her face quickly transformed into a frown.
"What—What are you doing here? You should still be resting!" The priestess grabbed Glenn by the wrist and pulled him back toward the medical tent.
"I swear I told those idiots to keep you in bed," She disgruntledly spat, before pushing the young man back in the tent. Glenn was about to say a word but she only pointed a threatening finger at his chest.
"No! You shut up. We all struggled like hell because of you," Astrid poked at his chest violently, "...So you do as I say and you d.o.n.t m.o.v.e. Understood?" Astrid stared at Glenn, who silently held his hands up in surrender. Astrid shook her head with a sigh, before grabbing both sides of the tent.
"I'll bring the Head Priestess here. So please, don't cause any problems and stay put, alright?" She asked with a nicer tone, Glenn smiling awkwardly at her.
"...I'll try my best."
Astrid wordlessly closed the flaps of the tent. Glenn turned around and went back to sit on his bloody bunk bed, not forgetting to clean it thoroughly with a Mundare. The Paladins hadn't moved from their spots since he left and didn't seem too surprised to see him come back. The young man sighed, before looking at the mute men in front of him.
"...Anyone has cards?"