Mark looked down at his handiwork.

Zirrilit was freed from her stone prison, laying face down in the broken hallway.

Now that she had been freed, Mark could focus on survival, fortifying a location and waiting for allied forces to take control of the area.

“We need to move Zirrilit into the room over there.”

Niko raised an arm, began concentrating and then Hans seized her arm.

“I will not allow you to continue teleporting Zirrilit around; you fail to enact proper safety procedures for emergency removal techniques.”

Niko shook her arm, screeching loudly before realizing she could not break Han’s grip.

“I did it perfectly! I got her out! She’s just fine and not even-”

Hans raised his voice. “You teleported her what? An inch or two above the ground? Two feet away from any surface is standard without any measures to prevent clipping, and now you want to teleport her into another room without a proper line of sight? She’s going to end up halfway implanted with a brick wall.”

Niko fell quiet as the much larger orc manhandled her, ripped the teleportation bracer off and then settled into an actual leadership role.

“Mark, we won't be able to carry Zirrilit away, so start piling up some of that rubble around her. If we can make something of a wall it should provide her cover against bullets. It won’t need to be high because she is prone but- Niko you keep watch.”

“Understood mas-” Niko started out of reflex before pausing, “-Hans.”

The orc shuddered slightly, but decided to focus on what was important.

He squatted down and lifted a rock that must have weighed as much as Niko and Mark combined and dropped it into a doorway to Zirrilit’s right. Then moved onto blocking the next doorway.

Niko paused, crouching over to glance out of one of the hallway windows. Her eyes were birdlike, and she could see individual blades of grass even from so many stories up into the air.

Mark lifted a few fist sized rocks up, and then dropped them into the middle of the hallway.

The orc locked in onto the blocked-off end of that same hallway. It had collapsed inwards, filling the corridor with chunks of concrete and partitions of wall. He lifted an entire section of wall and dragged it in front of Zirrilit.

Niko turned, hearing something from one of the empty rooms and sighted in on an end table with a missing leg through two walls and in total darkness. Her vision heavily focused on detecting mana rather than light, and it would take a proper stealth type to evade even a passing glance.

Mark piled some more rocks down before Hans pushed him out of the way and dropped a boulder where the human had been working.

The orc began piling rocks, while Mark stood and began looking for something he could do.

Hans, he noted, had already finished blocking off multiple doorways and had shifted a significant amount of the rubble from the hallway. Mark walked towards the obvious pile of large, boulder sized stones.

Rebar and stone were piled high and mixed with odd impurity, tangling with each other and forming an enormous mess. Small stone shards filled the cracks between the larger pieces, removing obvious handholds he could grip onto.

He reached down towards a piece of bent rebar and tugged, before shifting himself and ripping it out of the mound.

Mark panted slightly and observed the twisted piece of metal in his hands. A long, thin section warped slightly and was attached to a thicker base and a small pile of barely attached wood.

The human stared at the wreckage for a moment before his eyes found the trigger and the small sights imprinted onto the ruined rifle.

He held it in his hands for a moment, then looked towards Hans to see the orc busy moving the rubble and so the human pulled at another crushed piece of metal.

After freeing as many of the destroyed weapons that he could carry Mark turned towards the one room Hans hadn’t barricaded.

The human walked into that room and tore open a drawer, leaving his prizes and walked back into the hall. Mark went back to the pile of rubble that had once contained Zirrilit and shifted one of the larger stones, finding another twisted broken-

A hand was beneath the rubble. A crushed mangled hand that led further into the piles of rock.

He didn’t know if he screamed or gagged first, but Hans sprinted across the hallway and pulled him back.

The orc shouldered in front of him, before realizing that Mark’s fears weren’t from any sort of physical threat.

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For a moment the greenskin closed his eyes and sighed before turning to Mark.

“You should get back to work, there is no saving them now, so put it out of your mind.” Hans advised.

Mark stared at the rubble beyond the orc, calming himself again he pushed back into pragmatism.

“Do you think that they have any intact potions?”

“I do not believe they will have any high level ones, like what I used earlier. Those are expensive and difficult to produce. They should each have a standard healing kit, but that probably won’t completely fix Zirrilit. If we just wait then-”

“Can we use a lot of them? Or at least get her up on her feet again?” Mark asked.

“You can’t take as many healing potions as you want. It may lead to liver or kidney failure, and in serious cases it can give you blood cancer.” Hans explained. “Look, I’m not trying to trick you. Medical professionals will be here soon and they can handle this. Zirrilit is stable. You do not need to be doing anything.”

“But there could still be assassins or slavers or-”

“Mark, you are panicking.”

“I am not! There’s actual people running around and shooting people and I killed a guy and-”

“Mark, look at me. Standing here in the middle of a hallway is not a good idea no matter what is happening. Zirrilit is okay, just not conscious. If she is the only person injured we can take care of her very easily, but we can’t focus on her if you also get shot. Okay?”

“Okay.” Mark mumbled.

“So then, go crouch down in the room with Niko, stay away from the windows, and wait for me to let you know that help has arrived. Okay?”

“Okay.” Mark muttered again, before turning to the one room who’s doorway was not blocked off with rubble.

Hans turned and kneeled behind some of the rubble, staying adjacent to the room Mark and Niko were waiting in.

His task had been simplified. He needed to ensure the safety of three patients and deliver them safely to the task force he knew would be deployed to this location.

The only complication was that he had no idea how he would identify who was friendly. They had callsigns, hand signals, everything that could have been planned was planned. The problem lay in the fact that there were traitors in their midst who likely knew everything he knew.

Most of the nurses in this section were now either incapable of fulfilling their duty or missing in action.

Hans sighed, realizing that he had been doing that more often recently.

The human’s strange and ill understood abilities were causing nightmares for anyone studying him. The enigma that surrounded his god seemed to make the human just as valuable as he was difficult to quantify.

A green glow overcame the windows, blotting out the gardens and the light-

Hans kneeled, then bowed in the presence of his god.

Or rather, a reflection of his god, just as humanity’s God possessed angels, the gods who ruled over healers had their own lesser copies. Though these were not considered threatening enough to set off alarms from across the planet.

A person-like being floated on the other side of the window. Humanoid but without the details that most species had.

It possessed no face, nor any identifiable features. It glowed so brightly with a grassy green that it was difficult to stare directly at it.

The reflection regarded the group for a moment, before turning towards the courtyard and finally settling on the pile of rubble that had once trapped Zirrilit.

Hans heard Mark behind him. “Is that on our side or…”

“That is my patreon god.” Hans answered. “Asedile, Goddess of Medicine.”

“Wait, that’s a god? Is it going to melt me for not bowing or-”

The human fell to his knees, but the orc waved him back up. “It is more akin to an angel.”

Without warning, the reflection slashed a hand forwards, and as if by their own accord the rubble that had once trapped Zirrilit was ripped out of the building and tossed into the courtyard, revealing multiple crushed bodies.

It waved its hand again and what looked to be corpses began glowing green.

Mark watched as their limbs reattached; however many had been killed by the explosions and hallway collapse two had managed to survive, buried in pockets of air.

The human hid as the creature settled its unchanging gaze on the human. It lacked a face, and instead resembled something like a green fire elemental that he had seen in games on earth.

It was most certainly inhuman, though its interest in him seemed to fade quickly. It set its sights on Zirrilit, and Mark watched as she too began to grow a deep green so brightly that for a moment Mark could not see her bright red scales.

After the glow faded Zirrilit’s eyes opened.

She blinked and stood, shaking off the stone that had stuck to her body along with a fine concrete powder.

“Zirrilit! You’re alive!”

“Yup!” Zirrilit nodded. “I just got hit a few times, no one tore my head off or disemboweled me right?”

“I know but you were passed out and I thought you might die and there were people shooting at us.” Mark mumbled. “I was worried.”

“Awe,” Zirrilit nosed towards Mark’s face.

Mark turned, “Okay so we're good now? There’s like twenty of those floating green Doctor Manhattans outside, and they are going to handle the bad guys?”

“I don’t know what a Doctor Manhattan is, but yes, we should be fine. Even if we get ambushed, they will teleport to our aid near instantaneously. My gods should be omnipotent within a hospital dedicated to them.” Hans explained. “Look, here comes one now. It’s probably going to guide us to safety.”

One of the large bright green humanoids flew back to the window and Mark tucked slightly behind Zirrilit.

It warbled and Mark focused on its face, questioning what he had just heard.

It warbled again and he realized he too could not understand it.

Zirrilit tilted her head, before shaking it side to side and saying, “That is bad.”

Hans nodded and Niko suddenly paled.

“What did they say?” Mark asked. “Come on, I can’t get blessings so I don’t get an alltongue blessing. I need someone with a [comprehend languages] enchantment to translate.”

It warbled again and Zirrilit gaped, Niko covered her face and Hans adopted a stoic expression.

“Zirrilit! What’s happening! Should I take cover?” Mark shook Zirrilit’s arm. “Why is everyone worried! Should I be worried!?”

The dragonoid snapped her head towards Mark, suddenly taking in his existence. “Oh… It’s uh… Real bad right now…”

Mark raised an eyebrow, “Yeah I got that.”

“So the guys who went to kill us were a distraction.” Zirrilit started. “The guy who enslaved Niko sent them to murder her before she testified and got him in trouble. Then someone murdered that guy while the security forces were converging here.”

“Oh… That’s… Bad?” Mark started.

“Fuck that guy.” Niko answered.

“Well now we have no leads.” Hans sighed. “It would have been nice to learn who the higher tiers were in whatever cults were located here.”

“Oh…” Mark thought about it. “So we can’t like, revive them?”

“No, they didn’t drown, Mark.” Hans answered.

“Okay, but you do have a god here doing stuff, can we summon that person’s ghost or something?” Mark asked, “No necromancy or getting a psychic to conjure the dead or something- Ooh do you guys have a god of the dead who can question everyone who dies to learn about their sins and banish the bad guys to pits of eternal fire or something?”

“No Mark, not everyone’s gods are psychopaths-” Hans stuttered, “Don’t tell your god I said that. Also psychics can’t conjure the dead, you are getting abilities mixed up- Wait do humans have psychics that can conjure the dead?”

Mark scratched at his chin. “I never really tried praying. Well, did I try? I wasn't actually in need at that point so it probably didn't count, and you aren’t supposed to ask for god to rescue you from a fancy mansion where people wait on you hand and foot, only for like, actual emergencies. Should I try asking him for the answer now?”

The orc leveled his gaze. “No one here knows what your god can do better than you, Mark. Whether it is a good idea to bring him here is up to you.”

Mark thought about it, about the demon he had seen and the angel that had ripped people apart while he had been mind blanked.

“Maybe he’s a little too… Extreme for right now… With all the people here.” He decided.

Zirrilit nodded. “Maybe a bit much while I’m still in the building. You can call them if you give me a minute to leave first though.”