27 Power within Vitality

Inside Squad 42's room. Before help arrived.

"Oh shit." Amelia's arms were trembling from continuing to try and drag Fen away from the Training Hall. Her eyes were wobbling as if she was about to burst into tears; Fen's condition was the only thing preventing her from doing just that. The arrival of Gray and Qin helped give her hope.

Qin was quick to start giving orders.

"We need help- Gray, go find someone! And hurry! Heavens, how did he end up like this..." Qin urged Gray.

The candidate glanced sideways at Amelia, questioning her explanation of how Fen ended up in this condition.

"...what kind of magic did she use on him?" Qin asked aloud, not expecting an answer, his hands moving as he talked. Amelia didn't want to give him one either. She had used her explosion spellwork because of his healing... How could she tell them about Fen's regenerative abilities when he obviously wasn't healing now? They wouldn't believe her.

Gray had only managed to snap out of his trance after both Qin and Amelia had yelled at him to get help. Panicking, the young candidate was only able to reach the interface with his trembling hands. He searched and searched, but he couldn't find a button or anything that might get them help.

Meanwhile, while Qin and Amelia were attending Fen, they could hear the sound of his breathing getting fainter and fainter. With a closer look, the candidates could see that there wasn't any area on his body left untouched by the explosion magic. His left leg was twisted unnaturally around the bone and was extremely nauseating to look at.

"Fuck, move out of the way Gray!" Qin put on a calm façade, but he was also getting swept up in a panic. His hands were covered in blood from checking on Fen, but his check to see what was damaged had devolved into a check to see what wasn't damaged. At this point, he was struggling to convince himself, not mentioning others, that Fen would survive from his wounds.

Muttered words came from Gray's mouth, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," as the young candidate was pushed out of the way by Qin. His entire body was shaking and his eyes couldn't look in Fen's direction.

Fortunately, as soon as Qin's bloody hand touched the interface the screen flashed red, before the inscriptions and energy veins on the walls also flashed red. Quickly, long tendrils of red energy spread out with the interface as it's center.

The tendrils of red energy reached out to alert the Foundation of a possible emergency requiring treatment in Squad 42. Within some of the still operating Opfer Training Halls, the walls flashed red before their interfaces started activating on their own. The Foundation member's personal rooms were also activated, such was the scale of this emergency.

The Foundation was content with letting the candidates die during the Tasks and with the Points Table, and while it seemed hypocritical, the organization wouldn't let them die from anything else besides that.

Raisen, Fen's instructor, was one of the first VPF members to see the alert. The old man was doing nothing again and was using the interface in the Training Hall to keep himself entertained in his boredom. Seeing the alert however, the instructor jerked upright and quickly got on his feet.

The alert told him that there was an injury in Squad 42.

'Wasn't Fen in Squad 42? Wait, even if he was, he shouldn't end up in a condition like that...' Other than the location, all the alert told him was that there was a candidate heavily injured; the interface worked through testing the blood of the candidate it received. The blood's oxygen density told the machine that whoever the blood came from, they were losing blood fast.

'Argh, screw it. Not like I'm doing anything anyway.' With that, Raisen rushed out of his Training Hall and met up with several other Foundation Members along the way, all carrying grim expressions on their faces.

When they all arrived at Squad 42's room, the blood was the first thing that caught their attention. Amelia's efforts to drag Fen's broken body to the entrance of the room left a viscous trail of blood coming from the personal Training Hall.

Several of the Foundation members were confused at why the personal Training Hall appeared so early without them hinting at it's existence to the candidates, all except for Raisen, but they let their questions go unasked when they saw who was making the trail of blood.

Raisen's face paled as he saw his favorite candidate in such a state, but then his mouth opened and roared outside the room, his neck trembling from the force of his yell.

"GET THE HEALERS! AND A DOC!" He could tell at a glance that Fen's lifeforce was barely hanging on, any more mistreatment and his Vitul student might be gone for good.

"What happened to him to end up like this?" Raisen snarled, his emotions flickering between worry and rage.

"We were-" Amelia started to speak.

"Shut up! I don't care anymore." The old man could already tell that some kind of flame magic was used to cause this amount of damage; fire was the natural element to prevent healing via regeneration, and the only thing that might pose a danger to Fen with his current abilities against other Opfer.

Amelia faded to the background as Raisen and the other Foundation members hurried to secure Fen for transport to the Healers. They should already be on their way, but it would be better for Fen to meet them halfway to increase his odds of living.

However, when Raisen sent his own Knight's Vitality into the young candidate he could feel the pitiful amount of energy the boy had healing his wounds, starting internally and slowly moving out. While it wasn't much, it proved that Fen would pull through if given enough help.

Relieved, Raisen ordered the only Healer among them to start directing healing spellworks to transfer some of their energy into Fen to help his body heal before they could transfer the candidate to the professionals.

Meanwhile this was all happening, the Mark on Fen's chest was secretly glowing, or appeared to glow as it absorbed the energy around it, slightly distorting the space.

The gift It had given Fen had many different functions. It's main purpose was to accelerate the changes occurring in Fen's physique by injecting pure Mana from the surroundings. However, there was also the secondary function; the Mark could connect Fen's being with It's reality, by poking a small hole in dimensions. Through the mysteries of space time and the quirkiness of It's reality, the hole was the size of a pinhole but it allowed Fen to exist in two different places at the same time, allowing the Foundation to 'heal' him while It simply intercepted all their magic and turned it back into pure Mana, which would be assimilated by Fen's physique.

The Healers from the Foundation met up with Raisen and the others on their way, discovering a bloody corpse suspended by energy tendrils which was in turn carefully observed by a group of sweating Foundation members.

The reason for their nervousness was the vicious aura coming from an old instructor with graying hair. Raisen's face was scrunched up in a snarl as he dexterously touched Fen's body all over (in a medically examining way), making sure that there wasn't a single limb, a single cell without healing energy. So diligent was his work that the Healer that was transporting Fen had to stand to the side so that he wouldn't get in the way.

If it was anyone else doing this the Healer would have immediately pushed them out the way so they wouldn't cause any accidental damage to the patient, but the person in question this time was Raisen York, respected Knight of the Foundation.

Not only was Raisen extremely powerful, but being a Knight, he had a thorough understanding of human physiology because of his training with Vitality. A trained Knight could be an extremely powerful warrior, but they were also qualified to be Healers, manipulating Vitality to aid in the body's natural healing and development.

While Healers used magic as an external force to heal their patients, a Knight only strengthened what was already there and was especially effective for younger patients or those with a strong lifeforce. In Fen's case, Vitality was the best option to help his young and strong body heal itself. Healing magic would only cause issues because of his nature as a Vitul, not that anybody in the Foundation knew about that except for Raisen and It.

This in turn caused less issues for It, who didn't have to manipulate as many healing spellworks back into purer Mana because of Raisen's actions.

The Healers quickly took the floating corpse back with them, only to find out that the body was, in fact, alive and breathing. However shallow the breath was, it proved that the candidate was struggling for life.

The Foundation Healers led the group back to the infirmary, a grayish room filled with equipment and vials holding strange liquids within them, the Foundation's attempt to liquify Vitality to decrease the workload of its Healers.

Though currently unsuccessful, the trails were steadily progressing.

Fen was carried and then set down on a rock table, which then liquified into a rocky magma-like substance and morphed into a black bed for him to rest on. A cloth was thrown on him, to hide the burns and broken bones which told the severity of the candidates injuries. The cloth was with the intention of keeping the candidate warm, but it also prevented the Healers from having to see the state he was in.

However, after he was set down, the Healers simply let Raisen do his thing and carried on with their experiments. The old Knight would do the work of all them anyways without them asking for Fen, so they gave up trying to interfere and just let him be.

A flash of movement in the entrance of the infirmary revealed the movements of Amelia, Fen's Squad mate, who had followed the group into the infirmary. The Healers noticed the young girl but their eyes glanced over her, not caring enough to see what she wanted.

If she caused any trouble though, the Healers would show that they didn't know just healing magic.

Amelia hurriedly went over to Fen, who was still be checked on by his instructor.

Raisen finally raised his eyes up from Fen, retracting his energy from within the young candidate at the same time.

"What are you doing here? You're not his girlfriend, are you?" Raisen was a little confused about her appearance here, but he didn't know much about his Vitul student's relationships so just assumed, forgetting that none of the candidate knew each other before they entered the Program.

"What? No, I was just checking to make sure he wasn't gonna die." Amelia's cheeks turned slightly red, but that was her only reaction to the old man's words. Her emotions, unsurprisingly, have been completely worn raw because of the stress she experienced within the last hour leaving her emotionally numb temporarily.

First she was terrified that she killed Fen, then she was afraid that he would die before they could get help, and now she was worrying about whether he would even be able to recover. Not much about his appearance had changed since they left the Training Hall, and although there was still a cloth covering him Amelia could still see the unique shape of bones pointing out of Fen's skin, even if they had imperceptibly moved a little back to their original positions within his body.

Amelia stood there for a moment to control her throat from closing up and making her break down crying before speaking again.

"So?"

"Is he gonna die?"

Raisen turned back to examining Fen's body, thrilled to see that his body was recovering at a faster pace than he thought.

"Nah, he'll be fine. Might have a few scars though." He winced at the thought of Fen's original pristine Vitul skin being marred brown and white from burn scars and his other wounds. At least his Vitul student would still be alive for studying though, which would give him a source for further research to improve his Knight skills.

Raisen just had to make sure that he lived long enough for him to study.

"Oh. Okay." But, Amelia didn't leave, which annoyed him a little. He intended to be left alone so he could fully observe the process of Fen's regenerative abilities, not knowing that he was only seeing what It allowed him to see, but now he had to deal with a young teenager as well. And an emotional one at that.

But, Amelia stayed silent the entire time, shifting positions so she could be at Fen's side without bothering Raisen. The old man simply sighed and gave up. Her presence wasn't bothering him anyway.

The two remained there for a period of time, as Fen's eyes twitched as the candidate recovered from his horrendous wounds.

****

"How's the training go? Any problems with your Chosen?"

Terrence was currently huddled in his room, gazing with a bored expression at his interface. The screen projected George Urok's handsome face, which was crinkled up in a worried expression.

"Not so far, they've lived up to my expectations. Not that I had very much of those anyways... Fuu, how's being a guard? Is my Foundation treating you alright?"

Despite the difference in position, the two warriors were actually friends who bonded together during their childhood years. But, the two were separated when George's father took him to learn how to nurture his own power while Terrence was left living as a regular civilian. That continued until Terrence too discovered magic and it's limitless applications, and soon joined the Foundation in search of a job.

The two met up again shortly after, and their friendship quickly regrew to what it once was.

The interface allowed the two friends to talk despite the uncalculatable distance between them because they both were in the Void dimension, although for different reasons.

While Terrence was there simply for the job and training, George was there to personally train a group of Chosen as the special forces of the Guardians, meant to spearhead the Foundation's efforts to fight against the spawning monsters.

"Could be better, but the pay's alright, so I can't complain that much."

His expression turned into one of worry, as he recalled what he saw with the Chosen.

"George... will the Program work?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the Chosen are powerful, sure, but they..." He struggled to find the word to aptly describe them, to which George finished for him.

"Lack discipline. I understand what you mean. Years of all that training without any real world experience made them soft. Not like us, y'know?" George said smiling.

The two shared a brief laugh as they remembered their training. Although they experienced it at different times, they both went through pretty similar things.

"By the Heavens, the world they sent me too... Sometimes I'm glad that there's no higher beings on Earth. They really don't do much even when they're there."

"What are you saying? We must've experienced very different worlds. Mine was filled with happy families, friendly people, and, like our dear Rakir would say," Terrence's face twisted up in disgust at the mere mention of his name, "lovely women as well. Though the monsters there were powerful enough to make you forget that.

"Ugh, don't even bring him up. What a character." said George with a small frown.

"Alright, enough talk, tell me, how's the Opfer that you brought in? They doing well?"

Terrence had shared with his friend how bringing in Fen to the Program had made him feel, but George assured him that they were doing the right thing. If he survived, then even better. Although he had the power to keep the candidate safe for the rest of the Program, doing so would go against his ideals as the leader of the Foundation.

His ideals as George Urok were telling him to exactly that however.

"He is, doing well, I think. The last time I checked he was in the infirmary being treated from being blown up-"

George spat out the tea that he was drinking, quickly wiping his mouth with his elaborately embroidered sleeve.

"What?! Bro, go check up on him or something, he might die! Seriously! What kind of care is the Foundation giving our Opfer for him to get blown up?"

Terrence waved away his friend's concerns.

"I would just be bothering him if I showed up; the boy would probably try to kill me. Not like we met in the best of circumstances." Terrence shrugged. "Besides, I hear he's got a girl waiting on him every day since he's entered the infirmary. I'd be interrupting if I went in there."

"Be pretty interesting to see how that turns out when he wakes." He snickered.