A wasteland that spanned for miles. He could only observe— utter devastation. His body was in an incorporeal state. Mountains of stone rubble surrounded the area. The air was filled with heavy smoke. All of the buildings in the city had collapsed. Not a presence could be felt. Wait, there was one.

“『???』”

A weak voice could be heard. It was coming from someone behind him. Their words were inaudible. No, not inaudible. He could hear the words but there was no understanding of them. He could tell that the person was speaking the language he spoke but, for some reason, he could not attach meaning to each word to comprehend them. Their words were suppressed. He felt a sharp pain in his head. A visual of something decaying flashed through his mind. It ate away at his mind. He could hear a high-pitched ringing noise reverberating in his ears. His mind was pushing its absolute limit. It tried its hardest to search for an understanding. However, as he got close to understanding the meaning, his vision blurred and began to darken. So he stopped. It felt as if for some reason he was not being allowed to understand those words. He tried to turn his view around to at least understand the context of what was occurring. As he turned, a heavy and suffocating drowsiness poured through his entire body. His head dropped from drowning pressure inching into him. He had fully turned around but was now looking at the ground. As he began to lift his head he finally gave in and lost consciousness before he was able to catch a single glimpse of the person who had spoken.

~~~

Altair slowly opened his eyes. He was drenched in a cold sweat. Instantly, he felt the searing sensation coursing throughout his body, a reminder of the events that had transpired. His eyes darted around to assess his surroundings. He only moved his eyes as moving his body was too painful of a task. All he saw was a wall made of rock. There were dancing shadows on the wall and ceiling seemingly caused by the light of a fire. It appeared to be a cave. Where am I?

[YOUR HEART CORE IS IN CRITICAL CONDITION]

“T-”

A searing pain permeated his severely burnt throat. He couldn’t fathom formulating a single word. The pain had silenced him. Where’s Tobi? The whereabouts of his injured friend, who was unconscious after the hellish flames had devastated their home, became his priority. Fighting against the brutal piercing sensation, as if he was being stabbed thousands of times across his body, Altair began to try sitting up.

“Ahgh”

A pain he had never experienced before. He was now able to look down and see his body. His arms and entire upper body were covered in bandages. He kept pushing further, past the pain.

[YOUR HEART CORE IS IN A CRITICAL CONDITION]

The instinctive warning his spirit body gave him once again was announced. A warm sensation from the pain in his chest was trickling down slowly. His breathing became heavy as his consciousness began to waver. Then, he could hear the footsteps of a person slowly approaching him. Altair looked up to see the face of the one approaching him and before he reached their face, he recognized the cloak. The cloak belonged to the mysterious figure who appeared right before the attack. However, now it was tattered and riddled with burn marks and holes. He finally caught a glimpse and saw the same hooded girl that he saw that night. Then he spoke,

“Y-you–”

As he spoke, he was rebounded with a sharp pain in his throat. Currently, the exchange for a single word was hellish suffering.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

[YOUR HEART CORE IS IN A CRITICAL CONDITION]

“Akk!”

Over and over a pounding sensation could be felt. The sharp pain constantly renewed itself– a warning that his [heart] was in a critical state. A spirit’s [heart] was one of the two [cores] they had. Accompanying that warning was a soft green light appearing from his chest. Its glowing hue was barely visible. It was a warning that he would have to replenish his energy.

“You… are in a critical state. You need to focus on recovering.”

Her voice was weak and her breathing was heavy. She seemed exhausted. She then put her hand on Altair’s chest. Wary of her actions, he decided to struggle and tried to move his arms to stop her but it proved futile. He was currently too weak to do anything. All he could do was squirm like a small animal stuck under a rock. He was completely at her mercy. Then, her hand began to glow and the pain enveloping his body began to ease. Healing magic? Altair was surprised. He had heard of it but had never come across it. He decided to quit his struggle and gave in. Altair also wondered why she was still wearing her hood but now was not the time to ask such a silly question. For now, it seems she’s helping me… Then, he remembered. Right! He began to muster up the courage to speak a single word. He needed to know what had happened to his friend.

“T-tobi”

Altair began to violently cough as he managed to spill out a single word. The healing stopped. The woman was staring into nothing as if lost in thought. It didn’t seem that she understood what Altair had said. After a brief pause, Altair saw a slight twinkle in her eyes. It seems that she finally understood what he had meant.

“Don’t worry. Your friend is alive and I had a chat with him. He’s in a much better condition than you so just take it easy for now.”

She said this while raising both of her hands and slowly waving them around, signaling Altair to stay put. Then she pointed in a direction. Altair traced the direction her finger was pointed at and saw Tobi sleeping on a bed made out of multiple folded blankets. Altair was overcome with a sense of relief. The woman then began to slightly push Altair back into a lying position so that she could continue to heal him. This seemed to take out a lot of energy from her so Altair quickly complied as he let her push him back on his back. She began the healing process again. The scorching pain in his throat was subsiding.

“You’re lucky you know, not everyone could survive an injury like that. Your [heart] was damaged during the attack. It should be stabilized for now but you shouldn’t use your wind magic, or any magic for the time being.”

“How… you... know?”

“You are a [Cloud Spirit] aren’t you? The water types have basic regeneration and you don’t seem like the lightning type… Wait… Those eyes…are you also a [Lif–”

“Yes.”

There were once spirits who were based on the concept of clouds. After becoming Heartbound, they were given the name [Cloud Spirits]. However, my eyes… That was the one thing he did not wish to talk about. He caught a glimpse under her cloak and saw bandages wrapped around her arms and chest. She was wearing bandages similar to the ones that had been placed on him. She was wounded yet she was healing someone like him. He began staring at the cave ceiling, staying silent for a few minutes. Finally, he mustered the courage to speak.

“If you know what… I am… Then why are you helping me?”

“...”

The girl continued to heal him. Not another word was said as the healing continued for hours. The piercing pain had died down and Altair was now able to move a bit easier. The [core] that was his [heart] stopped glowing as well. He noticed that the woman’s head was bobbing up and down as she was trying to fight the fatigue. Then, with her eyes closed as if she had fallen asleep, she leaned too far forward and was soon to fall face forward into the ground. Battling against every fiber in his being, begging him to stay still, Altair moved swiftly to catch her. After she healed him, he ought to have done something. He was a person who repaid his debts.

“Tch.”

He got on one knee and extended his arms forth, stopping her fall. Maybe she overdid it with all that healing. Healing magic was rare. In the world of magic, the more extreme the magic was, the higher the price for casting it was. The most complicated magic was reserved for humans, who had the mana capacity to pay the cost. However, she wasn’t a human.

“This is…”

While observing her, Altair caught on to the small pointed horns sticking out of the sides of her head. His face stiffened. The realization hit him after piecing together her intriguing eyes, her fiery light red hair, and those small horns coupled on her head. They were barely visible under her hair and had an unnatural look. Were they cut off? He was visibly shaken and his lips quivered as they opened. Even if her horns had been cut off there was no doubt about her identity. The most noble of the Heartbound. The strongest race on the planet Soul. Out of all the Heartbound races, they had caused the most trouble throughout history.

“A [Dragon Spirit]?”