Chapter Twenty Four-- Just One More (Trigger Warning: Blood)

Trigger warning: The following chapter with had references of blood and gore. Viewer discretion is advised.

I arrived back at the tent, basically pulling myself in by sheer force of will. My fingers had turned blue and purple from bruises and swollen, my left shoulder basically useless. I looked at the sea of people I had to save, and I managed a hard gulp. My eyes locked with Mason-- more exactly the cape he was wearing. I cocked my head over to him as a gesture to get his ass over to me as I shuffled to a Theosian man with his throat ripped open. He was focusing on breathing, sweat pouring from his chocolate skin. The gold bubbled were around his throat and providing him oxygen. I placed my good hand on his throat, feeling the warmth of his blood beneath my hsnd. Immediately pain bloomed in my own throat, crushing crushing esophagus and burning.

"You wanted me, Lady Rhea?" Mason bowed to me, his white uniform covered in a messy red.

"I need you to get me something I can use as a sling, bandages, four small but thick sticks and as many mages as you can find." My throat was hoarse from the pain I was receiving but I did not waver. I was expecting him to question me, but instead without hesitation he ran off. Thank God for that, because even just breathing now was hard. My mana was draining quickly as I held up the stasis halo, but I knew what I had to do. I had to hold out until he returned. I fluttered around to the most severe patients barely hanging on except for stasis halo. All I could smell was blood, body oder and sweat in the air. I had managed to get four out of the roughly sixty patients I had, feeling every inch of their pain striking me. It would fade and I would go to the next person and feel it. The blood bounced off the holy garment I was wearing, but my skin was covered in it as was my hair. The white in my hair was coated red, and it was all sticky. I was about to collapse, the halo magic circle flickering as my mana ran out. I refused to give up, pushing my mana mixed with my souls force to keep it coming. The world around me was spinning like I was drunk back at the Spigen Ball. My body was on fire, and my eyes watering. I almost collapsed but someone caught me, another grabbing my hand and holding them to the imperial knight I was healing. I blinked my blurry vision away and saw that the one eyed Cretor woman from earlier had her arms wrapped around my waist and was holding me up. The Theosian woman with the amethyst eyes was holding my hand gently against the gurgling wound of the man beneath us.

"Thank you..." I tried to say it but my words were slurring as my vision blurred again.

"Lady Rhea I'm back!" Mason's voice barked.

"Get one of those mages over here now and give her their mana!" The Theosian woman barked back, her eyes burning with resolve. I stopped my healing spell, only focusing on pushing my force into the halo. Someone laid their cool hands on the back if my neck, and I felt cold mana like water flowing into me. It pushed away my fever, making my vision clear. The stasis circle shone even brighter as the mages mana flowed into my chest and filled me back up. I felt energized again, but my drunken state made it more bearable with the pain. I turned and saw Mason being followed by twice other mages, the drained one with brown hair being sat down by another solider. His usual aloof and unreadable face looked a little worried as his eyes scanned the waves of injured.

"What do you need this for?" Mason held up a small bundle of thick sticks he clearly cut from a tree, a roll of cloth gauze and what looked to be a thin sheet torn in half. The Cretor woman let me go and grabbed them, the gem eyes woman jumping in with her. They led me to the next patient, and horn of a monster broken off into her abdomen.

"Do your thing." They started to gently work on my free hand. I motioned Mason over and pointed to the horn. I would need him to remove it. He knew without words what I meant. He came over, placing his brawny hands around the broken piece and looked at me.

"This is going to hurt." I said aloud, looking at the woman's brown eyes as I could feel the woman gently touch the pain of my broken hand. The woman beneath my hand gave me a small and grateful smile.

"You, or me?" She chuckled, coughing up a heap of blood. I gave her a smirk as I let my mana flow through her.

"Both." With that word I nodded to Mason who took a deep breath and ripped out the ribbed horn. She screamed out loud and I could see the horn was slightly curved upwards, and looked similar to the texture of a rams horn. I had to hold back a scream as the pain in my abdomen increased as hers decreased. Not only that but the women were splinting my mangled fingers and busted arm, my shoulder screaming in absolute mad pain like dozens of bees were stinging me. The amount of pain was almost maddening, driving me to the brink of insanity. Everytime I was brought back to the edge with every patient I went to. One by one, that mages poured their mana into me so I could uphold the magic keeping their comrades alive. It was taking a toll on my body and my mind. I felt like I was fracturing, coughing up blood, blood pouring from my nose. My arms and legs felt heavy, Mason and the two women following me closely. Even though I kept getting mana my body was deteriorating. All eyes were on me.

"Please God, let me save one more." I mumbled like a mantra whenever I finished a patient once my mind and body have become numb from the pain. My insides felt like they were being torn apart, but the soldiers were looking at me with eager and pleading eyes.

"She won't be able to do it."

"People are going to die."

"She might die."

"She's taking so much mana her soul is going to fluctuate."

"That damned healers guild. If they were here none of this would have happened.

"Please... one more..." I croaked, almost having an out if body experience. It was like I was watching myself out of my body as the women and Mason moved me from person to person. It was like all I knew was how to pour mana out of my body and into another. I felt my consciousness slipping from me. Is this what dying felt like? Was I dying?

"You can do this Lady Rhea." Mason whispered to me. His voice was barely a whisper over the screaming of my nerve endings. The pain from my patients I began to follow me, not leaving my body like it used to. My veins were a startling black, skin pale and almost translucent. My body was eating away at itself as my my soul was being damaged from excessive mana use. This was a thousand times worse than the Spigen ball. This insane trauma even worse then the beating I got at the Roswell estate. It was too much to bear, but I kept being carried by my companions and my somehow unshaken resolve.

"One... more..." I kept saying. I just needed one more. I didn't want anyone to die. My mind started to break down and the world around me was the ER not the tent. I was me in my scrubs, healing those of tragedies. Their pain melding with me and becoming my own. It was like I didn't even had a body anymore, I was just a wisp of consciousness spreading pieces of my soul into my ER patients. Someone was trying to say something to me but I was able treat patients until the last one was discharged.

Discharged? Last one? What did those mean any more to me? My mind went blank as I felt myself collapse. The world collapsed around me, faces of soldiers and ER patients mushing together. I was being surrounded by demons, pulling at my hair and skin, sinking their talons into my flesh and tearing me apart. I wanted to scream but I couldn't. I was trapped, unable to move and unable to even call out for help. Hands were touching me, caressing me and digging into my flesh. I was a shattered husk in this darkness. This nightmare consumed me, and all I could do was let the pain and burning over take me as I was dragged down into hell.