Chapter 69 - Repairing Estraia

<p> When the healers had done everything possible to get the two out of danger, one of them stayed behind to explain their conditions to Eniyala and Gaslion.<br/><br/> "The boy is in a pretty critical state, so we had to put him into a coma just to heal up his damage. We don't know when he'll wake up… or if. The good news is, if he does, his body will bounce back — perks of being young. Of course, we'll keep an eye on him every day to care for his needs and monitor any changes."<br/><br/> This had stunned Raeki's dad, and all he could do was nod mutely. <br/><br/> "What about him?" Eniyala asked, gesturing to Klum nervously.<br/><br/> The healer shook her head. "I'm surprised he's even alive. His right eye is ruined, the extended dislocation of his left arm combined with that deep cut probably means he'll never use his arm again, and his Mana veins look as if they've simply… burst. A normal human usually wouldn't survive something like that, and his are unusually frail, as if he isn't made to use magic. Actually, the only things he should be capable of is moving small bits of Mana. This is really the guy who saved thr town?"<br/><br/> The azure-haired woman glares at the older girl, who threw her hands up defensively. "Sorry."<br/><br/> "Anyway, there's no guarantee he'll even be able to move properly for a long time, and even less chance of him waking up anytime soon."<br/><br/><br/> Now, as Eniyala undoes the ponytail her hair was in while she was helping, she thinks of how peaceful Klum looks as he slept. It was a stark contrast to his usual self, as he often had nightmares, resulting in restless sleep.<br/><br/> The nightmares made sense to Eniyala. Reincarnates were usually born into the world, and the jarring trauma they recall from their death and being suddenly transported from one world to the next troubled them for their first few months, but as their mind adjusted to their new age, their past life became like a disconnected memory, like a movie rather than a life they lived.<br/><br/> But Klum seemed to be around the same age as he was in his past life, and had also only had transmigrated barely over a month ago, so not only was his trauma fresh, his mind wouldn't naturally reset.<br/><br/> Eniyala is yanked out of her thoughts as the nursing lady from yesterday enters the room, and she drops the basket of items and points at Klum with a twisted face of anger and grief. "There you are! Why didn't you tell me he was such a monster?!"<br/><br/> The woman stares blankly at the healer for a second. "He woke up and did something horrible?"<br/><br/> "What? I said he was a monster, not an assaulter."<br/><br/> "Oh." Eniyala seems a bit disappointed that she doesn't have a good reason to beat Klum's ass, but moves on. "So what is it then?"<br/><br/> The lady huffs, bringing a wet rag each over to the two boys. She starts with Klum, gently removing the bandage over his eye to wash it. The softness in which she touches him irritates Eniyala for some reason, and she impulsively snatches it away from the lady. When she gives her a strange look, Eniyala hastily says, "I'll wash him, so you can tend to my brother."<br/><br/> She stares for another moment before shrugging, grabbing the other rag and undoing Raeki's bandages to wash and rewrap him instead.<br/><br/> Eniyala sloppily follows suit, brushing Klum rather harshly. "Careful, he's already injured," the blond healer teases her, causing her to tinge pink in embarrassment. She slows her pace, looking at her brother and copying the woman's movements.<br/><br/> "So, what did you mean by him being a monster then?" Eniyala asks after a while, studying Klum's injured face as she carefully cleans it.<br/><br/> "We checked him about fifteen minutes ago, and…"<br/><br/> "Is something wrong?"<br/><br/> The blond glares at the young man. "Of course there is! He's already healed up his Mana veins. I understand they were weak and small, but they've completely reconnected in a stronger formation to better handle magic. Spending all night using healing magic on him wouldn't do that kind of repair. His left arm is bruised and battered still, but it will make a full recovery now. And craziest of all, it won't be able to work for a while, but his eye looks like it wasn't ever injured in the first place! Other than a scar under his eyelid, it'll be just fine. Well, except…"<br/><br/> The taller blond lady finishes rebandaging the young boy and comes over to the two on the cot. Leaning over the unconscious man, she brushes a strand of hair out of her face and reaches for his face. Eniyala takes note of the view, but doesn't stare for too long as she pulls open Klum's eyelid. Rather than his normal amber eye, his iris is shaped into a purple crosshair, and emits a faint glow.<br/><br/> "What the hell?" Eniyala exclaims quietly, leaning closer. 'That's from the Skill he uses… but which one?'<br/><br/> "Right?? Isn't it so weird?" the other woman asks, peering at his face with her own showing her curiosity. As her face draws closer to his, Eniyala reaches forward to push her back out of Instinct, but before she can, the eyelid slips from the woman's fingers and closes, blinking open. The pupil dilates before focusing on two large… "pillows" in front of him.<br/><br/> "Ahhhhh!" the two girls screech, scrambling away.<br/><br/> "Ahhhhh." the young man repeats, scratching his eyebrow as he sits up with a wince. "Sorry if I wasn't enthusiastic enough. Everything hurts."<br/><br/>* * *<br/><br/> The moment I fell unconscious, I felt as if I was falling through a thick blackness, one that seemed to wrap me up and hold tightly. Flashes of things appeared in my head. <br/><br/> 'Black lightning… Holy Rend… So many messages…'<br/><br/> The last image that I remembered was a hazy figure running to me. "In the end, she came back to help me, huh?" I chuckle, tilting my head back. Something was wrong with my right eye, and I couldn't feel my right hand, right below the elbow — where it was severed. To top it off, the right side of my chest burned intensely as if lightning was coursing through it. Yet, all of this felt as if it was down a long tunnel, and the thought hit my brain. "I'm dead, aren't I?"<br/><br/> A flash of white light splits through the darkness, changing shape until it forms a slender woman. <br/><br/> ''Lucky for you, you are not dead yet. But you sure are dumb," Alyphia sighs, rubbing her thin eyebrows with two fingers.<br/><br/> "The only thing that is saving your life is your incredibly resilient body constitution. If you were literally anyone else, you would be done for."<br/><br/> As I contemplate this, I try to move my body, and realize the black tar-like air around me is holding too tightly to allow me control of my body. I wriggle back and forth, but I only move a couple of inches in response. A bit of panic sets in, and I try to rapidly force my way out, but I continue with the falling motion without my arm being able to drive me up.<br/><br/> "Relax. Well, you will not be able to relax, but just… you are going to have to push through this, my dear disciple. ALSO," she says, her last sentence becoming increasingly loud. Rather than her normal, saintlike and soft tone, this one was much more stern, like a pissed off mother scolding her child who just did something horrible. "DO NOT CORRUPT THE AVATAR OF MY DEAR HOLY REND!"<br/><br/> "Avatar?" I wonder, but her look makes me nod my head furiously — or try to, anyway. My chin edges slightly up and down, but it's enough for her as her hair settles from a more fiery look back to the gentle flow of white reaching to her waist.<br/><br/> "Good. I must go now, but know I am still wishing you the best. Just… do not be so stupid."<br/><br/> She folds into a single beam of light, disappearing. I am alone in the darkness once again. "How long am I going to be here?"<br/><br/> But, no response. <br/><br/> What feels like an eternity later, a face forms out of the darkness my eyes have just become adjusted to. <br/><br/> "Christy!"<br/><br/> "Ew," the dark face says in disgust. "If this is how you were going to be after dying, I wouldn't have helped you all this time."<br/><br/> "What…"<br/><br/> The face is gone, and thirty seconds later another one. <br/><br/> "Raeki, are you okay??"<br/><br/> "No, of course not. You were too fucking weak to save me."<br/><br/> "Raeki, wait!"<br/><br/> More faces came and went, all of them sharing their hateful thoughts with me, until I began sobbing, curling slowly up into a fetal position and closing my eye.<br/><br/> The voices grew louder, surrounding me and growing in number until I couldn't hear anything.<br/><br/> "Let me out," I whisper.<br/><br/> Just then, I feel a tugging on my closed right eye, and I try to force it closed, but my eyelid won't respond and it pulls open. <br/><br/> The dark is tinged purple, and I can see the flow of Mana all around me. 'What…'<br/><br/> I see lines connecting to the faces in the dark, still shouting at me. 'They're… not real?'<br/><br/> A surging feeling fills me, and I fly up through the darkness. I can feel my entire body once again, including the pain, and…<br/><br/> With a few blinks, I squint into the newfound light of a small room. Two human-colored balloons are the first thing I see, and they fly back as two shrieks hit my ears. "Ahhhh!"<br/><br/> "Ahhhh," I copy, trying to sit up. 'I'm back.'</p>