Satori woke up coughing, filling his burning lungs with fresh, clean air. Unsure of where he was, the young healer began to panic, eyes wide, and he flailed about.

[???] - "Woah there! Easy! You're still injured. We've already lost enough people, no need to add another.

Satori turned and looked up at the voice's source to see an older Wolf, his muzzle grey with age, but eye still sharp as any blade. The man stood and reached out his hand, pulling the young healer onto his feet.

[Baron Ashdale] - "I'm Baron Levi Ashdale. You're Satori, right? Squad 7's Healer? I'm glad to see you made it. It was touch and go there for a moment."

Satori held his head in his hands and tried to shake the fog away. Not having much luck, he croaked out through a throat raw with dried blood.

[Satori] - "W-where are we? The last thing I remember..."

The Baron sighed and shook his head.

[Baron Ashdale] - "Was being grabbed by something? I'm in the same boat as you. I don't know where we are now, but according to the others, we were used as bait to lead them into a trap... I... it... I don't think many made it."

Satori shook his head.

[Satori] - "Others? Wh-..."

The still groggy healer finally took in his surroundings.

They seemed to be in a cavern the size of a large room, the cold, stone walls lit by a strange glowing orb on the ceiling. The only exit was blocked by a large bronze door that looked as heavy as it was thick and radiated enormous spiritual energy. Including himself and the Baron, there were nine in the room; seven Wolves, a Dragonkin Satori remembered staring at in awe when the expedition had gathered outside the Swamplands. And finally, a lone, rarely seen Rooster, rocking in the corner as it mumbled to itself.

All were in various states of disrepair, though some were worse off than others. One Wolf, in particular, seemed to be in pretty bad shape and was laid out on the floor, her face flush and her fur damp with sweat, as she tossed and turned in her fever-induced sleep. Satori rushed to the woman's side, quickly scanning over her body, draped in the strange white long shirt he now noticed all of them wore, rather than their standard equipment.

He paused for a moment in surprise, marveling at the strange material that looked and felt like expensive cotton, but didn't have the same earth scent, but shook his head clear. He could worry about such things later; there were more important matters at hand.

Satori, with practiced hands, removed the garment from the woman's body. Her bare body drew the stares of a few of the male Wolves, though there were quick to turn their heads away after a heavy glare from the Baron and one particularly large Female Wolf. The unconscious woman was in pretty bad shape; several wounds on her chest and abdomen had already starting to fester, and her right shinbone seemed like it had been crushed by falling rocks.

If it was anyone else, She might not have made it, but the Spirit Wolf's naturally high resistance, coupled with his own skills, left Satori confident she had at least a fighting chance; he just had t-.....

[Satori] - "AARRRGGGAHAHAHAH!!"

As the young healer tried to channel his Mana into the injured woman, His body lit up with an arch of lightning, as his body bent and twitched against his will. After a long moment, the lightning and the pain faded, leaving the young healing on the ground, breathing heavily and slightly smoking.

The Baron helped the young man to his feet, apologizing as he spoke.

[Baron Ashdale] - "I'm sorry, I should have warned you about that to start with. I guess I was hoping our Captor wouldn't have accounted for your Mana, given how rare a Path Magic is around these parts. It seems that small hope was unfounded..."

As he spoke, the man pointed to a small bronze collar with a thick silver band running through its middle, wrapped around his neck. Satori had noticed it before but passed over it as some Noble accessory, but a quick glance around the room showed that the others were wearing the strange collar as well. With shaking hands, the young healer touched his neck to feel the same cold metal device placed there as well.

[Baron Ashdale] - "If you try to channel any spiritual energy, and apparently Mana as well, the collars will give you a very nasty shock. I don't recommend trying to break them either; you'll find them quite durable, and you'll end up like that poor fellow over there."

The Baron pointed to a corner where a bulky Wolf lay on his stomach. Satori had thought the man was asleep, but on closer inspection, his wide, open eyes, dilated pupils, and the slowly growing puddle of drool spoke of a different reality.

Satori struggled to his feet and croaked out once more through the numbness,

[Satori] - "B-but if she doesn't get help soon, She's not..."

The Baron sighed and put a hand on his shoulder.

[Baron Ashdale] - "I know, my boy, but there's nothing we can do for her right now. Not when we can't even help ourselves. If it comes down to it... I won't let her suffer through a fever death. We can at least give her that."

Satori's eyes went wide with shock before filling with a quiet sadness of a healer who'd had to let go of more patients than he would have liked in his short life, before nodding and sitting down beside the woman. He quickly tore off large strips of his garment, and balling them up, tried to clean up the woman's wounds as best as he could.

It wasn't much, but it was all he could do right now.

As the group talked and discussed their fate and their future, a time passed, and Satori tried his best to care for the woman in front of him, despite her slowly getting worse. A few hours later (at least he thought it was a few hours, it was hard to tell the time in their cell), and a click came from the far wall.

As one, the started group rose up stared towards the large metal door. Instead of swinging open, the metal door split down the middle, with half sinking into the walls. And through the now opened door, walked... an Ant. Satori stared in both confusion had disbelief as the seemingly ordinary Soldier Bomber Ant stared at the group in silence from the doorway. The Ant simply looked at them for a long moment, then seeming to see that everything was in order, move to the side as several smaller workers dragged in a large vat of crystal clear water and a large chunk of steaming (poorly) roasted meat.

Satori stared at the meat in amazement as he swallowed, and his stomach rumbled loudly. He didn't know what the creature had been when it was alive, but just by the spiritual waves coming off it, it had to have been at least at the {Elemental Dominance} Step. Even a small chunk of meat like this would have gone for a small fortune back in the City-State. How much would a slab this large, enough to easily feed everyone here twice over, have cost? Satori doubted he'd ever see that much money in his life.

The group stared in shock and confusion at this turn of events, staying perfectly still in case there was some kind of trick or trap. Eventually, however, hunger won out, and one of the Wolves nervously made their way to the meat. They tore a small chunk off and threw it into their mouth as the rest watched on in anticipation. After a long moment of nothing, the first brave Wolf began to ravenously tear into the roasted meat. With that, the flood gates were open, and the rest of the group rushed over, pushing and shoving as they reached out to grab fists full of meat.

However, Satori stayed behind, staring wide-eyed at the Soldier Ant, as it watched the group with what young healer could only call a mix of both disgust and amusement. Though how he could read the expression of an Ant, he didn't know. What drew Satori's attention the most, though, was not the Ant itself, however, but rather what he could sense from it.

Or rather, what he COULDN'T sense.

The Soldier didn't have a speck on Mana in its body, not a single iota.

That shouldn't have been possible.

Spiritual Energy was the energy of the World. It permeated and saturated the things around it. Not everything HAD spiritual energy, but spiritual energy could be found in anything. Animals, people, rocks, even the very air. But Mana? Mana was different. Mana was the energy of life. It was generated by Living things and leaked out into the world around them. Those that had the talent could mold and shape this energy, much in the same way Cultivators shaped spiritual energy. But even those who didn't (or couldn't) still generated varying amounts of Mana, even those that followed different Paths.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Mana was all-encompassing when it came to life. There was no such thing as a living creature that didn't generate Mana.

At least, that's how it should have been. Satori stared at the strange "creature," brow furrowed and mouth agape as he tried to make some sense out of what he was seeing. What was it he was looking at? The Ants in the Colony were most definitely alive; they had used his Mana sense to track down the Juvenile Queens through the winding maze of tunnels that was the nest. So what were these then? And why were they pretending to be Ants?

They definitely seemed to move and behave like Ants, to a degree that seemed to jar his senses as he tried to reconcile the contradicting messages his eyes and his Mana Sense were giving him. Where they some kind of puppets? No, there would be no reason to make puppets as intricately designed as these, and their spiritual signals should have been far higher. W-were they the Risen Dead?! He'd heard legends of the dead rising back to a false life, but those were supposed to be just myths, stories told to scare children into bed.

Besides that, the Risen Dead were said to be mindless, soulless hunks of flesh that could not think or act but on their most basic instincts. But there was an obvious Intelligence behind these Ants, one far greater than simple insects.

Satori frowned and closed his fist, finally coming to a decision. He rose and slowly approached the Soldier. Seeming to finally notice him, the Soldier turned its head and stared at the approaching healer, as the feasting group took notice themselves. The other Prisoners looked at the young man as if he was mad, and several stepped out to stop the man from doing something stupid. But to all of their surprise (including the Soldier, if its clicking mandibles was any indication), the young healer didn't try to attack the Ant.

Instead, he fell to his knees in a deep dogeza, as spoke in a loud voice, as the group gave the man a strange look, questioning if he'd gone mad, trying to talk to an Ant.

[Satori] - "I don't know who you are or why you've brought us here, but I'm begging you. She needs help, or she's not going to last much longer. Please, I can save her, but I can't do it with this..."

The young healer pointed to the barely breathing woman lying nearby and then to the collar on his throat.

[Satori] - "... I'm willing to do what you ask, I'm begging you just this once to let me save her."

The Soldier stood still, staring down at the young man, clicking its mandible. A long moment passed as he remained bowed, head to the cold ground, and Satori began to fear that he had made a mistake. Who was to say these things could understand him, even if they were intelligent? But to his (and the rest of the group's) surprise, the Ant quickly moved past the kneeling man and walked towards the injured woman.

The creature stopped in front of her, and a blinding beam of red light flashed from its eyes, making the group jump in fright. The red light flashed over the injured woman, but instead of ending the woman's misery as they had expected, the light seemed to pass over her harmlessly. It swept over her still form, sweeping from head to toe several times before blinking out of existence. The group stared in shock as the Soldier Ant turned back towards the young man and stopped a short distance away, its massive, metal shearing mandibles inches away from the boy's lowered head.

Then, to everyone's shock... it spoke.

The Soldier Ant spoke out only a single word, in a deep, masculine, and gravely voice.

[Soldier Ant] - "Heal?"

Satori lifted his head for the first time, eyes wide in shock, trying to process what he'd just heard. Then, heart pounding in excitement, he began to vigorously nod.

[Satori] - "YES! HEAL! I can Heal her, Please! I'm begging you!"

Again, the young Wolf slammed his head onto the ground.

Another long pause passed before he heard a small click and felt a weight fall from his neck. Satori stared down at the collar in wonder. His excitement was quickly doused, as if hit with a bucket of cold water, though, as he lifted his head, only to see the Soldier Ant staring down at him, its multifaceted eye only inches away from his. It rumbled again in the same deep, gravelly voice.

[Soldier Ant] - "Watch."

With that word, lightning arched between its open mandibles, sending a tingle down his spine and making his fur rise. The young healer nodded, understanding the message, before rising and making his way to the injured woman, the Soldier Ant following close behind, its mandibles still crackling and sparking.

Satori took a deep breath, then pulled at the core of Mana deep within his being. As the cool rush of Mana filled his body, Satori nearly choked, hearing the crackling from behind him increase in intensity. Still, he focused his mind and slowly directed his Mana into the woman in front of him.

He first scanned her body, wincing slightly as the damage was more extensive than he'd initially assumed. A few more hours, and She would have been beyond even his ability. With no time to lose, he spent the next 30 minutes slowly knitting flesh and bone back into its proper place. Though he flinched every time that eerie red light flashed from behind him, moving over both their forms every few minutes.

Then, with a final burst of Mana to encourage the woman's own to do what it did naturally and speed up the healing process, he was done. The woman's breathing had returned to normal, and her fever had been reduced to a more healthy temperature. He would have preferred to have something to splint her leg with, as the manipulated bone would still need time to settle, but for now, a tight cloth wrapping would have to suffice.

The young healer stood and turned away from the quietly sleeping woman and bowed deeply towards the Soldier Ant.

[Satori] - "Thank You. She's still got some recovering to do, but I managed to pull her through the worst of it."

The Soldier Ant seemed to consider the young man for a moment before scanning the sleeping woman with the red light once more. Seeming satisfied with what it found, it turned to Satori and flicked its still crackling mandibles towards the collar on the ground.

Satori gave the collar a look before giving a resigned sign and walked towards it. He bent down, hesitating for just a moment, before picking it up and placing it back around his neck. It wasn't like he had much choice in the matter. As soon as the collar clicked, it gave a strange beep, and the Soldier Ant's mandibles when silent. Then, as one, it and the other Ants began to head back towards the door.

But before they could exit, someone called out from the group.

[???] - "WAIT! What about me?!"

Satori turned in shock to see the Rooster pushing his way out of the group. The Soldier Ant turned and stared at their belligerent, tilting their head as if questioning what they wanted.

[Rooster] - "I demand to speak to your Leader! Do you know who I am? I'm the Heir to the Phoenix Clan! I refuse to be treated like a common Prisoner!"

Satori's eyes went wide in shock. The Phoenix Clan? They were an old Clan of awakened Avian Spirit Beasts who claimed to be descended from Phoenixes. While not the most powerful of clans, they were Old and had deep roots in many nations and even on other Continents. While it was true that Roosters were said to have a good portion of Phoenix blood, why would the Clan Heir have come to such a small City-State like theirs? Let alone participate in such a dangerous expedition?

The Soldier Ant considered the Rooster's puffed-out chest for a moment before turning and continuing out the door. The Rooster seemed to falter and deflate as he stretched out a hand,

[Rooster] - "W-wait! Did you not hear what I said?! My Clan will pay handsomely for my release! Just let me speak to your Leader!"

But the Ant seemed to either not understand or not care, as it continued on its way.

[Rooster] - "H-hey! Wait! I said, wait! HEY! I WILL NOT BE IGNORED!"

With a roar, the Rooster's fists burst into flames, only for their collar to crackle, sending a massive shock down their spine and extinguishing the fire. To everyone's surprise, however, the Rooster didn't stop. Maybe it was their natural affinity to fire that allowed them to more easily resist the lightning, but the Arrogant "Heir" stood back up, small fires flashing to life through his feathers, only to die a second later.

He spoke again over the crackling, his voice stuttering as if he couldn't properly control his words.

[Rooster] - "D-dooon't Yo-ou Igggno-re Meee!! Iiiiiii I am, I-am a Ph-Ph-Phoenix. I, I, I am a G-Go---GAK!!"

Before he could finish his words, the collar stopped cracking and tightened around the bird's throat. The Rooster's eyes bulged, and they struggled to break the collar, their stance becoming wobbly and uneven as whatever the collar was pumping into them started to take effect.

Still, the Rooster seemed unwilling to relent, and with a mighty roar, their entire body lit up like a bonfire, as the group scrambled away from the roaring flames.

Within the writhing inferno, the Rooster's form began to shift and change, taking on a more elegant and regal appearance; the very details and outlines of his body seemed to form themselves from the same flames that wreathed him. Four majestic wings appeared on his back, their swirling flames seeming to shift through a rainbow of colors with each passing second.

It was then that Satori realized what was happening. The Rooster was burning its own Bloodline in a desperate bid for extra power. Effective, yes, but something that could also leave him maimed or crippled for life as well.

The Rooster charged at the Soldier Ant, his voice echoing eerily from the flames.

[Rooster] - "I AM LIFE! I AM DEATH! I AM THE ETERNAL FLAME! YOU. WILL. BO-"

Before the Rooster could take his third step, however, there was a thunderous bang, and the Pseudo-Phoenix's head popped like a ripe berry, spraying blood and other bits across the far wall.

Like a puppet whose strings had been cut, the Rooster's flaming body was extinguished, and it tumbled forward from its own momentum in a way that made its previous elegance seem like a lie.

The group stared at the scene in silent horror, several nervously fingering the collars around their own necks.

The Soldier Ant simply stared at the Rooster's body for a moment before turning around and heading out the door. Several Worker Ants rushed over to the body and quietly picked it up before ushering it out the bronze doors that quickly slid closed behind them.

The now group of 8 stood in silence, staring at the bronze door and the large blood smear on the wall next to it. After a long moment, the group dispersed, each picking their own corner as far away from the gory scene as possible, all thoughts of their meal (no matter how valuable) washed away.

For his part, Satori stared from the blood splatter and back to the woman he'd healed, still silently sleeping despite the commotion.

The young healer didn't know what the future would hold for them, but he did know one thing for sure.

Whether they Lived or Died, it was no longer up to them.