Chapter 16: The Cost of Failure

Violet's eyes turned a gemlike purple as she activated Soul Seer. Quickly she saw the souls of numerous people across the city, 20 total. She attempted to push out her vision further but nobody else appeared in her range. Among the souls she did see, 4 of them were moving, meaning they were likely applicants.

“I can see 20 souls, but 4 are likely applicants.”

“Can you tell where the closest one is?” Roland asked.

Violet shook her head. “Soul Seer messes with my depth perception, unless there’s a large difference in proximity I can’t tell the difference.”

Roland nodded, his eyes closed as he thought deeply. Violet began to examine his face closer as he did so.

His jawline was well-defined and looked strong. He was completely clean-shaven, without even a hint of hair on his face. His blonde hair appeared to be exquisitely well cared for without even a hint of imperfection or uncleanliness as it waved beautifully in the wind.

‘If hero work didn’t go well then Roland could probably do decently as a model.’

Roland now opened his eyes, unfortunately, this time, no bright twinkle filled it at all.

“Yeah, I got no ideas. Let's just head in one direction and see if we can find anyone. Violet, you lead the way.”

Following Roland’s orders, Violet began to walk at the front of the group, followed by Roland and then Mark and Vivian. While climbing across hills of rubble and valleys of destroyed pavement, Violet noticed that not once did Mark and Vivian stop holding hands.

“Why do you think they’re doing that?” Roland whispered.

“I think Mark is just trying to comfort Vivian, she was pretty stressed after that last area,” Violet said, mimicking Roland’s lowered volume.

Roland nodded in agreement. Vivian had seemed rather disturbed after the minefield, she could be traumatized from seeing such brutality. Hopefully, this section won’t prove to be as damaging to her psyche as the previous one.

Violet looked around and began to feel a sense of sorrow come over her as she viewed the destruction. Everywhere she looked there were destroyed lives. Homes and stores had been destroyed and were surrounded now by nothing but a firey tragedy and a flooded city. They had done nothing wrong, but they were caught in the crossfire between heroes and villains.

‘How many people does a hero kill unintentionally like this?’

Violet thought about how she might feel if she killed someone. Even if it wasn’t her intention, even if it saved more lives by doing so, how would she feel? She would always feel some sense of responsibility for that death. Maybe if she had trained harder, or if she had gone to bed at a reasonable time last night, or was a bit more careful, maybe someone could have lived.

Violet shook her head and pushed the thoughts away. This was no time for self-doubt and depressing thoughts. That could come after the task in front of her.

Violet activated Soul Seer again to look at her surroundings. She immediately saw a soul beneath them to the left.

“Everyone wait. Someone is close.”

Violet could feel with confidence that the soul she was looking at was extremely close.

“They’re beneath us and to the left, but I can’t see a way in.”

The other 3 quickly began looking around for any place that might have an underground portion to their buildings or for a sewage entrance they could use.

“We can try that parking garage,” Mark said, pointing his finger in the air.

Violet's eyes followed Mark’s finger and she quickly saw a parking garage that was hidden behind two large collapsed buildings. It was only just barely visible and even with Mark pointing it out it still took several seconds for Violet to realize what it was considering how damaged the garage had become.

A side of the garage had collapsed and beneath it a large hole was in the ground, likely caused by a collapse from the garage.

“Nice catch Mark, how did you see that?” Roland asked, his facing, beaming with excitement.

“I have brilliant eyesight. The only one in my family to make it through high school without needing any glasses.”

Mark puffed up his chest and lifted his chin a little as he said this. Clearly, it was something he was oddly proud about.

The team then began to worm their way through the two collapsed buildings in front of the parking garage. Roland, the largest of the 4 of them, was barely able to squeeze his way through a crawling section and hit his head numerous times as he wormed through.

Arriving at the hole in the ground, Violet saw a man at the bottom, seemingly carrying something. As Violet looked longer she began to hear small weeps and sobs coming from the man at the bottom.

“Hold on sir, we’re coming down to help you!” Roland yelled out.

“Hurry, please! My wife is dying!”

It was then that Violet realized that the man was holding a woman in his arms. Their two souls had been layered over so closely that Violet didn’t realize that there were two people.

Violet quickly lept down the hole along with the rest of the team, filling their legs with psychic power to absorb the shock of the landing.

The underground area appeared to be an underground section of the parking garage as cars surrounded them. Several pipes had burst and had begun to quickly flood the area with water that reached up to their ankles.

“HELP! MY WIFE, SHE DOESN’T HAVE LONG!”

Violet and her roommates quickly turned to see the man, he had begun walking to them slowly. His leg appeared to be severely injured and he walked with a lopsided limp. He suddenly fell into the water and Violet rushed over to help him.

Mark created two floating slabs of psychic energy for them to place the man and woman on. The slabs appeared to be some sort of glass that was tainted a light blue. This was a semi-advanced usage of energy projection. By releasing psychic energy outside of one's body into the air and then condensing it, one could create solid objects.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“My wife. Please, help her.”

Mark took the initiative and tore off the woman's shirt, which had become blood-soaked. For a moment Violet froze at the sight of the woman's abdomen.

A metal bar had gotten lodged into her side and had torn across her stomach. Seeing the applicant who had been blown up was horrifying, but now they were seeing a severe injury up close. In every detail they could see the rust spreading throughout the woman's body, the torn organs spewing blood, the stomach acid seeping out. A pungent smell quickly became noticeable and Violet wretched involuntarily.

‘Illusions can only affect the eyes. These are real injuries. What is AGH doing?’

“Vivian, Violet, Roland, take care of the man. I’ll help the woman.”

Mark stabbed his hand into the woman's wound and the wound began to heal. Smoke began to emit from the woman’s wound as psychic energy flooded into her body, the bones, and organs beginning to reform.

“You three, tear off a part of his shirt and take a pole from the ground, I’ll tell you how to make a tourniquet,” Mark said quickly, his brows furrowed in intense concentration as he continued healing.

Violet quickly grabbed a nearby smooth metal pool as Roland tore off the man's shirt to begin making the tourniquet. But Vivian stood frozen, her eyes wide and her arms shaking. Soon Vivian began to hyperventilate and start walking back from the man, terrified at what she was seeing.

The man's leg had bone completely visible and it was broken with a large fracture down the middle. The surrounding skin and muscles were burned heavily, with blisters and bubbles forming all across the leg. Even Violet, having seen herself with serious injuries before, struggled to look at the injury before her.

“VIVIAN!” Mark yelled out to grab Vivian's attention, who quickly turned towards him, her eyes, desperately seeking escape from the horrors around her.

“Keep your eyes on me and only me. Grab the exact middle of the man's head and output a tiny amount of psychic energy. This will numb the man's thalamus and reduce the amount of pain he feels.”

With Mark's orders, Vivian began to tiny amounts of psychic energy into the man's brain, directly into the thalamus. Quickly, the man's wincing face began to relax as he turned to look at his wife.

“April… just hold on ok? The heroes are here, they’re gonna help you.”

April was in too much pain to respond correctly, instead, she merely groaned in response to the man's encouragement.

“Violet, Roland, wrap the man's shirt slightly above his injury, then slide in the pole and knot it.”

Violet and Roland quickly performed this task, soon the metal pole was knotted above the man's injury with his shirt wrapping around his leg a few inches above his injury.

“Now twist the pole to tighten it, then form another knot to keep it in place. If he stops bleeding then you’ve done enough, if he doesn’t then you need to make it tighter.”

The man winced in pain as Violet twisted the pole further, tightening it enough to cut off all circulation to the injured part of his leg.

Now Violet observed Mark’s healing. She was stunned at his speed, such a severe injury to vital organs would take extended amounts of time for a B-Rank to even begin to heal, yet Mark was operating at the speed of an A-Rank.

‘What secrets do you hide Mark?’

Suddenly Mark stopped healing. His eyes widened as he looked at the woman’s chest. He then placed his head down next to her mouth and waited for a few moments. His face began to pale rapidly.

“SHIT!”

Mark removed his hand from the woman’s wound and began performing CPR on the woman.

“VIOLET! HEAL HER!”

Violet hesitated for a moment before pushing her hand into the woman's wound. She felt the broken ribs poking at her hand as she slid her fingers into the tight, wet, disgusting injury. She began to pour psychic energy into the wound. She felt the woman's body begin to move slightly as it responded to Violet’s energy.

The man on the opposite table got up suddenly and began to move towards his wife.

“Sir please, stay down,” Roland asked him, placing his hands on the man's shoulders to try and pull him back down.

“No!” The man tore away from Roland and grabbed April, his wife's, hand.

“Please. Hang in there. Just a little bit longer. Don’t leave me behind.” The man began to cry horribly as Mark and Violet continued healing.

2 minutes…

3 minutes…

5 minutes…

8 minutes…

This whole time Mark worked tirelessly, shoving down on the woman’s chest over and over and over again before breathing into her mouth. He had begun to sweat significantly and Violet could tell he was physically exhausted. Adding psychic powers while performing CPR without proper training was too dangerous, as a single pulse could potentially damage the heart. As such, Mark had to operate using only his physical strength.

Violet began to feel herself losing progress on the woman’s wound. It was barely healing in response to Violet’s psychic powers. Despite her efforts to pour more energy into the woman Violet simply couldn’t return to the healing pace she had at the start.

‘Why? What’s going on?’

Violet felt the woman’s flesh go cold. All movement in her wound ceased completely, no longer reacting to Violet’s psychic energy. Violet began to slowly draw her hand out of the woman’s body and saw it covered in blood.

“Mark…” Violet said. “She’s no longer responding.”

Mark stopped his CPR. His eyes were wide and full of a storm of emotions. His arms drooped by his sides, swaying limply as he looked at the woman.

“What are you doing? HELP HER!” the man screamed at Mark as he looked at his wife's unmoving face.

Mark didn’t respond. He stood motionless, his breathing, deep and heavy. Sweat dripped down his face and back, half from exhaustion, half from fear.

The man grabbed Mark by his shirt and lifted him into the air. His face filled with rage and sorrow.

“HELP HER NOW!!!” the man said, his face streaming with tears.

Mark looked at him. His face filled with an overwhelming sadness as he answered the man.

“There’s nothing we can do.”

“Mark there has to be someth-”

“NO!!!” Mark snapped and Roland who had begun to protest. “Her body is no longer responding to psychic powers… her soul is gone.”

Vivian slumped down to her knees and began to silently cry. She completely broke down, no longer able to fight back against the shock that had been building up in the second selection.

The man's arms trembled and his lips quivered. When he spoke again, his voice cracked as he screamed.

“NOT YET! SHE ISN’T DEAD YET! HELP HER NOW!”

He shook Mark back and forth as he yelled this, causing tears that had started to form on Mark’s face to fly everywhere.

“Sir, please stop.”

The man stopped shaking Mark and set him down, his arms shaking. As the man's arms fell by his sides his hands clenched in fists as tears fell from his face. They all stood in an unmoving silence. The flooding water now rose to Violet's shins. The sound of flooding water echoed throughout the otherwise silent parking garage.

The man's breathing shuddered as his whole body began to shake. He pulled back his arm and launched his fist towards Mark. Mark could have dodged it or blocked it with ease, but he didn’t. Mark fell to the floor, splashing into the water.

‘This isn’t right,’ Violet thought to herself. ‘This is supposed to be a test. Why are they doing this? Why is someone dead?’

There was no doubt in Violet's mind that these were truly real injuries. These were real people, and someone had died. No illusion could so completely replicate the human body. Someone had died.

“Damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit, DAMNIT!!! WHY!?!”

The man slammed his fists into the water over and over again as he screamed out his heart through his lungs before quieting down. His voice became nothing but a whisper among the sounds of running water.

“Gods… why? Why have you forsaken us? Why did you let her die?”

The man collapsed onto the ground and screamed. His aching heart, given voice as a scream of tragedy echoed throughout the garage. One could describe the scream in many ways, tragic, vengeful, hateful, depressing, or sorrowful. But there is no word, no phrase, no writing, no language that can truly possess all the meaning contained in the voice of one heartbroken man. There were a thousand stories contained in such a proclamation of grief, a thousand stories that ended at this moment.

Violet began to cry as she could almost see the man the stories contained in such a voice. She could see the man and woman, dancing in the sunlight, happily together as the cherry blossoms opened their flowers and showered the world in a world of pink petals. She could see them welcoming their parents into their home for a family dinner, taking their children to school, or attending the marriage ceremony of a young cousin. But that world didn’t exist anymore, it never would again…

‘Because we failed.’

Violet felt tears run down her face as she fully realized the ramifications of what their failure meant, of how their failures affected the lives of others. There was no such thing as one casualty, each casualty was 5, 10, 15, maybe even a hundred people in heartbreak and grief.

‘It’s our fault… it’s all our fault. If I had just studied more on healing maybe she would still be alive.’

Behind the sound of the crying man, echoes of footsteps began to ring throughout the parking garage. A man in a suit walked towards the group, the water, parting in front of him. He clapped his hands together slowly, as though to insult their vain attempts of healing. On his face was a wide and malicious smile, as if he was entertained by their failure.

“Are you an examiner?” Roland asked.

The man in the suit nodded, “Yes, my name is Jerricho, and as the examiner, I must compliment you for your performance.”

“Are these real people?”

“Hah. Yes, yes they are. Shame you couldn’t save the woman though. You would’ve gotten quite a few points for that.”

Roland’s eyes immediately lit up with a raging fire. Psychic energy began to release around him and the water rippled from Roland’s output. He began to walk towards Jerricho but only got a few steps in before Mark pulled him back.

“Mark…” Roland said, his voice shaking from rage.

“Yeah?”

“Let go of my shoulder.”

“No. I was the one taking care of her, I’m the one that failed. Let me do this.”

This seemed to convince Roland and he allowed Mark to go in his place, although the water around Roland still rippled. At any moment now, Roland could break loose.

Mark walked deceptively calmly to Jerricho. His face was still as stone and his eyes cold as ice. But there was one part Mark couldn’t keep hidden. With each step he took, Violet saw Mark's hands clench tighter and tighter until he began to bleed from his palm. Now they were face to face.

Jerricho smiled at Mark sarcastically, his grin expanding even further as he chuckled slightly.

“What? Do you wanna quit? I can disqualify you from the application if you want.”

Nobody doubted what Mark would do next, and nobody wanted to stop him. They all watched as Mark condensed a massive amount of psychic power into his arm and attacked the examiner.

End of Chapter 16