It’s gone in a flash. Leon doesn’t hold back, I don’t even see the sword swing. My arm is now gone. It hurts but the pain is less than the pain of it seeping throughout my entire body. The moment my arm starts to fall a message box pops up.

Due to constant heavy stress on your body, your maximum health, strength, fatigue and stamina reduced by 10% until you’ve recovered.

I can’t help but laugh at how unlucky I am sometimes. I’ve lost both of my arms in my short 14 year lifetime. I feel far older than I actually am… It feels like my entire life has been training or fighting… I’m sick of it… I just want to spend the rest of my days lazing about like an old man. I laugh at that thought, it wont ever happen. I yell at some of the guards that weren’t injured now.

They hesitate, most likely because their leader just asked for his arm to be chopped off and isn't acting any differently. I yell at them again to go gather more men, we’re on a time crunch right now. I turn to face Leon again. He has the sword facing himself and he stabs it into his own heart. WHAT!? I rush to him but he gurgles out.

“Don’t you fucking heal me Kite. I want to die. I can’t… I can’t take this anymore. There is no cure for this and I’m getting too dangerous to be around. Just let me die in peace.”

He twists the blade and coughs up blood. He pulls the blade up again and cuts in deeper finally digging the sword completely through himself. It’s still not enough to kill him, he has an almost innate ability to live but he continues to soldier through the pain and stir the blade around in himself. He’ll bleed out soon. It takes me an incredible effort not to move to him, not to help him in some way. WHY! Why is this happening? He’s loses consciousness.

I look at Kline, hoping he’ll know what to do. He just stares at Leon now, clutching Silky and holding her close as she looks away crying at what Leon just did. I feel helpless, the second my arm was injured by Leon I knew exactly what to do but right now I have no idea what to do. I feel defeated right now. The only remaining guard, the one that was injured and has been healed… I call out to him now.

“Please, go get Leaf.”

He gets up and runs off, the tattered leather armor and cloth shirt loosely hanging off his body. This doesn’t feel real, I look down at Leon and he isn’t moving anymore. It feels like a dream, all I can think about is could I have done something for this to not have happened. Since he’s left I haven’t even thought about him. He’s stopped by once or twice through the portal to restock on food but I didn’t see him any of the times… If I had maybe.

DAMN! DAMN IT! If only I had been paying more attention… I feel tears begin to well in my eyes. I should have seen this coming, why didn’t he say anything. I WOULD HAVE HELPED HIM IF I KNEW HE WAS GOING THROUGH THIS! FUCK! FUCK!

I fall to my knees in front of him and hold him in my arms. He’s already starting to get colder, he feels… Weak, so weak in my hands as his head hangs limp. I pull the sword out of him, I handed him a normal unenchanted weapon since it was going to cut me. If it was enchanted with fire or ice it would have done further damage to the skin as it cut through. He’s still slowly bleeding, even if I wanted to now I still might not be able to save him by healing him.

I weep heavily as I hold him. Even if I could save him he wouldn’t want me to. He’d rather die than continue to be put through this. Some of my generals enter the room, I don’t look up. They speak but I can’t understand them. It almost sounds like everything is distorted like it’s in slow motion or underwater.

More and more people keep coming in. The room is almost completely full but I still can only focus on Leon right now. I think some of the men leave, it is hard to tell. Their is some shouting by someone, even through the heavy fog I have on my senses right now I can tell it’s Green yelling about something. I must look like a fool right now, my men must see my blubbering like a baby but I still can’t help it. I try to stop crying but the tears continue to flow to the point I can’t see.

A voice cuts through the fog I’m in right now. It’s Leaf.

“Kite… Your arm.”

Leon’s point of view

This feels weird. That’s all I can think about. I don’t have any arms or legs, or a body for that matter. I feel both warm and cold at the same time as I slowly float towards something in the distance. Huh, so this is what it’s like to be dead. I can barely make out the several objects now as I get closer. One of the objects is a person. Beside that person is a spirit of some kind. Getting alittle closer I can make out that the person is an old man holding a baby. I expect the man to talk but I hear the spirit beside him speak first.

“Hello Leon.”

The voice is comforting. It takes me a few moments to tie it to Kattie. I didn’t think I’d ever get the chance to talk to her again. I only feel happiness right now. It takes me a few seconds to finally say.

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“I’m sorry for keeping you waiting.”

The old man speaks up now.

“I normally don’t do this but I’ll make an exception this one time.”

For a brief moment we’re given human bodies again. I rush over and embrace her. I’m too happy to do anything else. The grin on my face must make me look like a complete idiot right now. We continue to embrace as she shyly whispers in my ear.

“I wish we could stay like this forever. The God of rebirth said that very rarely two people love each other enough that when one of them dies they can wait for their partner to pass on as well… It gives them a chance to be reborn together and fall in love again. I wish we could pass on but he told me what is likely going to happen. The Greater god said you’d be going back soon so we’re only going to see each other for a short time.”

"No! I don’t want to go back. Damn him! DAMN that Kite! Why does he have to ruin this!?"

She speaks one last time.

“Please Leon, before you go back just listen to me. While we’re here we’re allowed to watch over our loved ones. I just wanted to say how proud I am of you but please live the rest of your life, try your best to forget about me if you can. Live your life, if you still love me by the end I’ll still be waiting here for you. Just, please don't try to toss your life away like that again.”

She pulls away and gives me a stern look. With that, I feel something pulling me away. NO! I don’t want to go! NO! I box pops up now.

You've been cured of ghoulification

Kite’s point of view

What just happened!? He should be dead. He was dead for a moment. It doesn’t make any sense to me right now but I don’t care. I’m just happy he’s alive. I wipe my tears off my face. Leaf moved over and was sitting beside me clasping his hand. Was it her who healed him? No, she looks just as confused as me.

Not only did he just revive but his skin has shifted hues to a lighter more human color again. He opens his eyes and they are the blue they were originally and not the blackish color they shifted to when he became a ghoul. Several large scars are left behind on his body, another set of equipment is ruined by Leon stabbing through it. That thought only passes through my head for a moment, things like that can be replaced.

Leon pushes me off of him. He coughs up some leftover blood that was in his punctured lungs from the sword. Still spitting blood out he says.

“...Why? I wanted to die Kite, why couldn’t you just leave me to die.”

“I… I did. We didn’t heal you… I don’t know how you came back to life.”

He glares at me now. For a moment I become incredibly aware that he may just kill himself again now that he’s been revived. He slowly stands up and checks himself over. Looking at his hand he says.

“Huh, so how’d you cure the ghoul part of me?”

“Like I said… We don’t know what happened. One minute you were dead and the next you were alive.”

It still doesn’t make any sense to me. He fingers the hole in his chest piece where he stabbed himself now. His finger comes out covered in blood. He wipes it off on his chest piece and then looks down confused and says.

“Why am I wet?”

He looks down at his clothing and it is soaked in with my tears… Wait a second. I wipe some of the remaining tears off my face and rub it onto my still open and bleeding arm. The wound heals at a faster rate than if an ace healer were to focus on healing me. Since when have my tears had magical healing properties!?

I dawns on me now that the room is completely filled with people. I start issuing orders.

“Green, take some of the men through the portal here, try to see what’s happening there and bring anyone infected towards the portal. Leaf head through that portal and help Gobber if he needs help.”

I pull out a vial and bottle some of the tears still on my face and hand it to Leaf. I pull out another and get the last remaining bit in a vial for Green. Her's has less but I hope that's enough for now. After I compose myself I’ll head through the portal with Green and help anyone who needs it there. I still need to give a few more orders as they head through the portals.

“Someone without any open wounds on their hands please clean this blood up. Make sure you don’t get any in your body and if you do alert someone. Leon can you take off your chest piece and wipe off any excess blood you can. We need this room clear of non essential people. If you can’t help in here please leave or go with Green.”

I’m suddenly struck with an extreme bout of dizziness. Maybe from lack of blood or perhaps the healing tears I just produced was straining on my body. I’m not certain but something has weakened me. I sit down and collect myself as most of the room exits through either portal or the door. I feel like I’m going to throw up. I’m sweating and cold at the same time. I’m having trouble breathing only taking in short breaths. Even my vision is starting to blur. This isn’t good.

Green’s point of view

I’m the first to go through the portal. When I come out I’m in the middle of some trashy building. It stinks, half eaten bowls of food and garbage are scattered everywhere. With what happened I half expect to be surrounded by ghouls and I was half ready to fight when I teleported in. I look down and underneath my feet is a man. He must have been looking over the scroll and when I came through I knocked him over. I need to know where any injured are.

“I’m looking for someone who was hurt around here. Probably by someone who was crazy strong. You know anyone like that?”

He takes in a deep breath and screams.

“AHHHHHHHH! HELP! HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!”

Ugh, one of these cowards. I pick him up by the front of his shirt but the shirt rips under his weight and he falls back down. He continues to scream bloody murder as he tries to crawl away. What a pitiful man. Two guards come through the door. I think for a second to try to gather information from one of them instead but they might try something stupid against some of the weaker troops that might come through the portal if I don’t take care of them right now. I slam both fists into the ground and two giant dirt fists shoot out from near them.

WHAM! Both go flying backwards, the smaller one took the hit at a worse angle and went flying head over feet. Now with that out of the way… I grab the crawling man by his shoulders now to lift him. He feels so weak, like if I picked him up any harder I could possibly hurt him. I get him up to my face and he screams in it again. I put my hand over his mouth before asking again.

“All I want to know is if anyone was hurt by that strong guy and where are they right now. Your entire town could be in danger if he isn’t restrained before he turns.”

The man just continues to scream. I feel my hand reverberate and start to get wet. Gross he licks my hand now to get me to uncover his mouth. He continues to scream for help. More guards come running in. One of them yelling.

“For gods sake, we already have enough to deal with on the south side of the city. Whats happening in the alchemists house now?”

South, that’s the direction I need to head. I honestly should just kill these men but Kite would probably freak out so I’ll just knock them out and move in that direction. I make a mud trap and throw the man into it then quickly deal with the two guards that showed up. Some of Kite's troops start to appear from the portal. I ask the alchemist.

"Which direction is south. If you continue to scream like an idiot I'll knock you unconscious and ask someone else."