Blue slowly woke up, but just as her eyes fluttered open, she felt the need to close them again. It was too bright. Way too bright to be where she remembered being. She wasn’t dead, or at least she didn’t think she was. After all, there was a dull pain in her arm. In both her arms, actually.

Suddenly, the memory of the last few days rushed over her. Frostbite showing up at her parents’ house, telling her that she had to come with her. The meeting she had with Morgan, the CEO of the New Dawn. How he offered to buy her legacy, but she refused, only to then be knocked out and dragged some place else.

She remembered the experiments. How they tattooed her left arm and removed it, without even using any anesthesia or a spell to numb the pain. She remembered how they came back frustrated with something and put another set of tattoos around her neck, this time being even rougher with the procedure. How Morgan came not long after and told her that if she didn’t give him her legacy, he would not just kill her, but also send her family members to the lab so they could join her.

Without any other options, she gave him the legacy. She gave Stormcloud away. There was a chance Morgan was lying, and that he would bring her family there even after she gave up the legacy, but she had to try. She had to protect her parents and her siblings.

After that, there was another jumbled mess of memories. Of her coming in and out of consciousness, dreaming about being saved by pretty much everybody she’d ever met. There were times when she was flying in the clouds, other times when she was stuck in the depths of hell. Even Hera had shown up in her dreams to take her out of that laboratory. Somehow, Insomniac was a part of that dream.

She felt a tear forming in the corner of her eye and instinctively pulled her hands up to cover her face. Despite knowing it wasn’t going to work. After all, she was constantly bound by the restraints. But it was something she did without thinking. Yet, she felt her fingers touching her skin.

"What?" she said, or at least tried to. Her voice was extremely hoarse, as she hadn’t drunk anything in several days. The only reason she wasn’t more dehydrated was the IV drip that the New Dawn had placed in her arm.

"Blue!" Hera gasped, standing up by the side of the bed.

"Hera?" The controller tried to speak, but once more, it didn’t work properly.

"I’m here. I’m here. You’re okay. You’re safe. You don’t have to worry about anything anymore."

Still, Blue pushed herself to say, "My family."

"I believe they’re okay. It’s been only two days since we got you out of that place, but your family wasn’t there. If they were threatening them, I don’t think you have to worry about that. We kind of destroyed the whole place, or at least killed everybody who was there," Hera explained.

"Morgan?"

"I killed him. And… he had your legacy. I know that because he had another legacy, so he was still digesting yours."

Blue smiled, another tear falling from her face. "Thank you." But the sigh of relief that came out of her body caused her to flinch. Her hand reached to the missing arm, but not to the stump. Instead, it reached to the middle of her forearm it, only to find nothing.

The controller made a face as if she was about to cry, but Hera took her friend’s hand.

"I’m here with you. Don’t worry, we have ways to fix this. Worst-case scenario, it will just take a few months for you to become an Ophidianite," she turned to the side. "Nimbus, get Neria."

The Sentinel kissed the Empress’s hand and dashed out. There was no one better suited to bring a healer quickly than him.

"Options?" Blue asked, looking at her stump.

"I don’t know all of them, but I know that prosthetics are an option. There are some people who can make transplants using monster arms. And like I said, I’m pretty sure that if you become an Ophidianite, your new body is healed from anything. You can regrow an arm, a leg, anything. Maybe we can even make sure that your hair is actually blue. That way, you don’t have to keep spending money on dye. You’ll probably be able to buy a house in a couple of months if you’re saving with that," Hera joked, gaining a smile from her friend.

It didn’t take long for Neria to arrive, together with Marina, Wild Born, and Michele, the human healers. Currently, Blue was the only patient in a dangerous condition. Everybody else was already in a state where there was nothing more to heal. Not that they were completely uninjured, but healing would only do so much. What they needed now was rest and medical assistance.

The group of healers checked on Blue and did their best to heal any wounds she still had. Once they were sure she was in a good enough condition, they also discussed a few options about her arm.

There were the three alternatives Hera mentioned, but also a couple more. Marina was aware of a project that had developed synthetic arms, a mix of robotics and bioengineering that could work. Wild Born, on the other hand, talked about how some people decided to use spells and train skills to supplement the lack of limbs. It would take a lot of effort, but it was possible for her to create a magical arm that she could turn on and off whenever she wanted. He had worked with someone who was able to acquire a skill like that, and if Blue needed, he could connect them.

That was a lot for Blue to take in. Once they finished their conversation and were sure the controller was stable, they left, allowing her time to think and to rest. Hera stayed by her side the entire time, refusing to leave her friend.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

For a while, Blue didn’t say anything. She was just processing everything that had happened. The Empress understood that and stayed quiet. She herself was still trying to cope with everything that had happened, but at least now there was a weight lifted from her chest.

"So? You have Stormcloud now?" Blue asked after about an hour of silence.

"Sort of. I don’t have everything yet, but parts of it are already with me. I asked Daskka if there was a way to save it and give it back to you, but it doesn’t work like that."

Blue nodded. "Yeah. I kind of figured. Wasn’t really expecting to be lucky enough to be able to keep it. And I probably don’t deserve it either."

"What? Why?"

"Because we only got to Boothudurn because of you. We talked about this back then, and yeah, you were always the one who should have gotten this legacy."

Hera rolled her eyes. "Yeah, we talked about this. Neither of us knew it was a legacy, and you got lucky. You got lucky. Not me. You deserved the legacy."

"Hera… I killed people. People who were just trying to protect themselves from a bunch of assholes who think they’re better than everyone else."

"You were doing that to protect your family. You make it sound like you chose to participate in the war. They were forcing you to do that. It was self-defense. I’m not saying it was a good thing, but you didn’t have another choice."

Blue shook her head. "Would you have done the same? If someone was threatening your dad?"

Hera didn’t even need to pause. She had considered this possibility before. Ever since she discovered what was happening to Blue, that thought had been in her mind. "Yes. I would. And I probably would be kicking myself like you are right now, too. And I hope that you would be telling me the same thing I’m telling you. It sucks. It was an awful thing, and I don’t know if you’ll ever be able to forgive yourself, but it wasn’t your choice. You were forced to do that."

The controller glanced out of the tent, seeing a few people walking about.

"Is the war still going?"

"I don’t know. After rescuing everyone, we went dark. We were supposed to arrive at the Underground Babel today, but we had some delays. There was a bad path that we wanted to take that kind of messed everything up. So we should be there tomorrow."

"What’s the Underground Babel?"

Hera scratched her cheek. "Right. You don’t know that. It’s a shortcut that the Alliance found to connect a bunch of different areas of its territory. Once we get there, it should only take us a few hours to reach an actual safe place. Then we can get more information about everything. And I’m sure we can find a way to check what’s happening with your family."

"I see," Blue nodded.

There was another pause where neither of them said anything. But eventually, the controller continued. "What did you already get?"

"What?" Hera asked.

"For the Stormcloud legacy. What did you already get?"

"Oh… Are you sure you want to talk about that?"

"Yeah. I mean, I had that for a while. Maybe I can help you understand something about the skill."

Hera opened the skill. Cloudform Manipulation had turned into Noble Shroud. Apparently, that wasn’t all. A part of Tempest Summon, the part that allowed the storage of spells inside the clouds, had also been added to this skill, while the secondary effect of binding a storm to the element of the spell had instead been added to Blade Graveyard. But instead of adding a random element based on a spell, it would now add poison because of Venomous Arsenal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Noble Shroud - Legacy skill.

Allows the user to create and shape clouds around the court. These clouds can be used as a defensive barrier or to manipulate objects. In addition, spells can be stored on the clouds to be used at a later moment by any of the court members. If a cloud is dismissed, the magic stored inside it will vanish.

The clouds do not require mana to be created if they are under a certain size and strength. If they go beyond that, they have a cost that increases the bigger and sturdier the cloud is.

Maximum volume without mana: 8 m³

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blade Graveyard - Legacy skill.

Those who join your court will be forever bound to you, even when they are no longer in this world.

Using this skill, you can invoke the spirits of court members that have been left behind to fight again by your side. These spirits still have the memories of the blades they once were, but any new memories will be lost once the duration of this skill is over.

The resummoned court members maintain the same attributes and skills they had when they were dismissed.

Each of the resummoned court members gains a buff based on the normal rarity weapon of the Venomous Arsenal skill. In addition, every resummoned court member will gain poison-based attacks in addition to their own elements.

Duration: 1 minute for each current court member available.

Current duration: 19 minutes

Cooldown: 168 hours

Blades in the Graveyard: Beam, Brute, Executioner, Swift, Ooze, Scythe, Armory, Frost, Autumn, Tide, Dusa, DJ, Chris, Dao, Ember, Gale, Ink, Juuchi, Glacia.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hera made a pillow out of clouds and passed it to Blue. "I can just make clouds now. I can also store spells in those clouds, but I can’t make the spells fall like storms. That part of the skill became something else."

Blue took the cloud in her hand. "Honestly, this is better than what I could do. My clouds could never be this solid. Then again, they were much bigger."

"Yeah. I can only create smaller things, up to 8 cubic meters without spending any mana. Anything beyond that will have a cost."

With a nod, Blue placed the cloud under her head. "That’s very different. I’m going to wait until you get everything, then we can talk about the things I learned. If we’re lucky, I can help you a little bit," she yawned, though it was a fake yawn that was very obvious to Hera. "I’m tired. I think I’m going to sleep again."

The Empress just nodded. "Rest well. I’m going to stay here and do my best not to make any noise. If you need anything, I’m here."

"Thank you," Blue smiled, but her face turned serious as soon as she shifted in the bed, looking away from her friend. Despite trying to be positive, she had lost so much. The only silver lining was that maybe, just maybe, her family was safe. And if so, then all this would have been worth it.