Mistwoven Healer

I know a lot about Stygian Mana. How it affects people, how it can be removed, how to manipulate it, and now… how it feels. If I could muster my voice through the paralysis, I would be screaming in pain as the doctor's tattoo gun injects its taint into my unresponsive arm. The feeling of the Stygian Mana entering my body… it's indescribable. Scorching metal branding my skin, ice filling my veins, and the worst part… a deep throbbing need for more. This mana feels so much different than my Tributary Mana; this is pure, undiluted power. Stygian Mana requires no fighting, no earning; it's just there, ready to be used… and it knows exactly what it wants to be used for, maintaining the intent of the doctor forcing it into my veins.

[Serena,] Celeste whimpers in my mind, her mental voice raw with the pain neither of us can escape. [We… we have to control it…]

"I-I… know," I manage in response, but even that is a massive effort. I can feel the mana forcing its way into me, making itself a part of me. Insidious tendrils of darkness writhing under my skin, forcing itself into the eldritch shape of a dark symbol on my arm. When working on Candice's tattoos, I didn't understand how they maintained their effect, even after the symbol was broken. Now, though… the symbol itself is the mana outwardly expressing its intent. The mana within… it will keep doing its work until the last.

This, of course, is my biggest problem. The mana being forced into me isn't inert. The doctor pushing it into me is doing so with intent, and now the mana is following through with that intent.

I can feel it… seeping deeper into me. Tears leak from my still-open eyes as I stare at the doctor in horror. I thought I could resist, but… no… I have to resist. Despite being unable to move, the Tributary Mana within me flares to life. It's a well of power that I earned and is bonded to my soul, and thus, it's much more potent than the foreign element invading me from the outside.

Through the agony, I force my mana into the shape of my Celestial Equilibrium ability, willing it to take dominion over the foreign elements. My control is sloppy, however, and I can feel that this isn't the ability's intended use case. It's meant to control formless Stygian Mana without intent, to channel it and then expel it — as leaving it permanently in my body would be ultimately lethal. That is what would have happened if I pulled in the Stygian Mana in the incursion zone.

This situation is different, however. The mana being forced into me is guided — controlled by another willpower. And therefore, if I wish to control it, I must first push past the opposing will. The doctor wants me to be a slave, a crude magical berserker that will turn on my friends; I just have to want to be free more.

Joining my will to my familiar's, I slam my mana into the dark power gathering in my arm like a hammer into a skull. Like fighting a physical battle within myself, I need to batter down the opposing will if I want to take control. If I can do so fast enough, then perhaps I can still stop the mana within me from becoming permanent. If I could, that would probably save my life… I think.

The hammer of my power clangs to a stop against the foreign elements in my arm as if hitting an anvil instead of a skull. Whatever willpower is backing that mana… it's more powerful than mine, more powerful than I could imagine. If they could have, my eyes would have widened as a fresh surge of fear twists in my gut.

"What?!" I think frantically to Celeste, forcing myself to think through the agony. I expected to be able to simply crush the doctor's willpower. The man isn't a sentinel and doesn't have any method of directly controlling mana, not to mention that my body should be my palace. So close to my soul gem, there shouldn't be any will here that can oppose mine… unless.

[The overlord,] Celeste sends with despair, arriving at the same conclusion as me.

An overlord… only the reinforcement and invisible support of an A Ranker could give this doctor enough willpower to contest mine within my own body. Even still, Celeste and I spent days practicing within the safety of our soul gem, and while our willpower is weak in comparison to an A Ranker, it isn't unrefined. Our power might still be sloppy, especially when considering the benefits of a higher rank, but our control should still be absolute within our own body.

"We keep… trying!" I force my thoughts to Celeste, and I feel her silent agreement in my soul. Together, we form our willpower together and start to slam it into the mana building in my arm, again and again.

For a moment, although our invisible battle continues, the doctor above me stops injecting more mana, staring at the trembling shape of the tattoo forming on my arm with curiosity. "How strange," he says, caring not for my battle to survive. "I've never seen it behave this way."

Whatever else he might have said, I don't hear it; every ounce of my willpower focused absolutely on my goal. Everything starts fading away as I throw everything I have into the task, slamming my power against the will opposing mine again and again and again. My vision slips away, my hearing deafens, and the world becomes nothing but unimaginable pain between clashes of willpower.

As we fight, I can feel the iron will behind the tattoo starting to weaken, but it isn't enough. I need it to relinquish control over the mana to me. It might already be too late to entirely-

A fresh surge of horror washes through me as new mana stops being injected into my arm before immediately starting again on the other. The tattoo is finished… and its corruption already starting to spread. No! I would scream my fury if I were able to!

Celeste and I continue our battle, now fighting on two different fronts — each of us taking one. At the same time, however, we have to stop the spread of Stygian Mana from reaching our soul gem, for if it does… that will mean instant death.

For long moments, our fight continues to feel more and more hopeless. More alien mana is forced into us, causing more pain and eroding our willpower bit by bit as my very soul starts to falter. However, I can feel the overlord's own willpower starting to fail as well. It isn't here in the room, and extending its will into my body at all has to be taxing on the creature. Even as an A Ranker, I'm willing to bet the only reason it can do this is because of its innate ability to suppress our mana from exiting our bodies as abilities.

For every clash of will, the overlord has to contest me from taking control of the Stygian Mana within me. But, due to the nature of our battle, Celeste and I only have to win one clash, while the overlord has to win each and every one. If we gain control over the mana for an instant…

The overlord's willpower slips just a little, and for the briefest moment, I take control.

The moment I take control of the Stygian Mana within me, I feel the iron willpower lift from my body and mind like a heavy blanket being swept away. As soon as it leaves, my power reasserts itself absolutely. Not taking the time to read whatever notification just appeared, I get to work.

In my mind's eye, my body lights up as a starfield of shining sapphire lights in the same way I view others when I heal them. I see myself as shining nodes of light, the ones on my arms filled with nodes of black taint — foreign mana working for a hostile purpose. The moment the overlord's influence is gone, though, it becomes my mana working for my purpose.

The second I gain control of the Stygian Mana, I know that it's too late. This Stygian Mana is a part of me now and is outside the bounds of Celestial Equilibrium to expel. If I had gotten to it faster, perhaps… but no. I… I'll have to worry about that later. Maybe Calan or Kaipo will be able to help me, or maybe this mana within me will keep spreading until it eventually kills me. Either way, at least I've managed to negate its effect for now.

For the moment, it's on to the bigger problem. While the doctor's willpower is easily crushed by mine, I'm not going to allow him to just continue injecting dark power into me. An unconscious surge of Celestial Restoration washes through my body like a cleansing tide, and my eyes open wide as I realize that, somehow, I can heal myself now. My head feels clear of my previous dizziness, and my limbs feel strong.

I've miraculously managed to bypass both the overlord's control and my own limitations. My ability cleansed me from the paralyzing agent, and now the good doctor is going to see what happens when you attempt to experiment on a pissed-off sentinel.

My control over my own body reasserts itself slowly, but the second my hand begins to twitch, the doctor stops with his tattooing, his eyes going wide as they meet mine. Then, he frowned. "The paralyzing agent wore off? Perhaps I underestimated the enhanced metabolism of-"

In a flash of blue light, I'm in my assault state, sapphire power flaring around me in a nimbus of light as wind and mist begin to swirl around the table I'm strapped to. I tug at the straps but annoyingly find them still strong enough to hold me, if barely. No matter.

My body dissolves into blue-white mist and reforms beside the doctor, who no longer looks so confident now that I've escaped my bonds.

"W-Wait," the man stammers, jumping to his feet and backing away. "Your powers should be suppressed; how are you-"

I don't give the evil man before me time to finish his sentence, surging forward far faster than any normal human could move and seizing him by the throat. My eyes burn with sapphire power as I stare deep into this evil man, looking past his features to see the life force burning within him. Even as the terrified eyes of the doctor look down at me, all I can see is the black sludge his life force has become. Echoes of the pain he just inflicted on me still burn my body and mind. I want to break down, to scream, to lash out at those who hurt me like an injured animal.

Over the course of my time as a sentinel, I've felt a string being pulled taut within me. With each disaster, each near-death experience, and every horrible moment, that string was pulled tighter and tighter, fraying at my nerves. Now, with this monster of a man standing before me… the string snaps.

I am a healer… and so I will heal my world by removing people like this. People who cause so much pain and suffering. Sometimes, one must cut out the cancer for the body to heal.

In an instant, I shift my hands around the doctor's head, gripping his chin in one hand and his hair in the other. Then, I twist savagely until I hear something snap. Perhaps the man was screaming, perhaps pleading with me to spare him. I don't hear it as, with a savage scream, I twist his head around so far that it's on backward.

Letting go, the doctor falls to the floor, his neck snapped, and his life force hemorrhaging as his body struggles to stay alive. Not wanting to offer this monster even the chance of survival, I withdraw a simple hunting knife from my inventory and slam it down into his skull. I stab the man again and again, keeping at it long after his life force is snuffed out. Breathing heavily, I look down at my work with a mixture of satisfaction and horror. The room reeks of blood and fear, and the sight of my own crimson hands gripping the knife is surreal.

I… I did this, and… I don't feel bad about it in the slightest.

In a swirl of mist, Celeste appears beside me. She glances at my hands soaked in blood… my arms still permanently stained by the black marks of Stygian Mana.

[We need to get to safety,] Celeste says, her voice cold as she too looks to the dead man before us. [There will be more of them, and the Stygian Mana within us is spreading; it's already taking over more of our natural mana. Unless we can find a way to expel it permanently… it will kill us. Perhaps one of the stronger blue sentinels will be able to slow it down?]

"We go back to Akari," I say aloud, surprised not to find a hint of emotion in my voice. My soul is in turmoil, broken and fractured by all that's happened. My mind feels distant and disconnected from my body. I feel nothing as I turn toward the closed door.

[And the Reavers?] Celeste asks, her ears pressed back against her head with concern.

"We kill any who stand in our way."

I remember the way back to Akari's cell as if from a dream… or perhaps a nightmare. I stride forward, bow in my hand, and corpses in my wake. A part of me recoils every time an arrow finds a new home in the heart of a Reaver, but I don't stop… I can't stop. I will not go back to that room, and I will not allow myself to be their experiment again. I just… I want to go home. I want to be with my father, with Akari, and be done with this whole nightmare. I… I don't want this anymore, any of it.

As I fight, I'm only partially conscious of the fact that the Reavers are doing an awful job trying to kill me. In fact, it's almost as if they're fighting battles on several other fronts, men running this way and that in a panic, none of them expecting to meet me.

Still, aside from the stab of pain each death sends through my soul, I hardly notice anything. I don't see the fear in the eyes of those I kill; I don't see the panic or the even bodies I wasn't the one to make. All I can think about is getting back to that cell. I have to get to Akari; she'll know what to do… she… she can make this better.

"Serena?" asks a cautious voice, the voice of someone incredibly familiar to me.

I whirl toward the sound and find the speaker standing in the hallway, her eyes wide with fear and concern. It takes a moment before recognition sparks within me… before I realize that the person I'm seeking now stands right in front of my eyes.

My bow slides through trembling fingers, clattering to the ground. Seeing Akari there, something within me just… gives out. The will to fight that kept me going since I escaped the pain of that room… it's just… gone.

Vision swimming, I watch Akari's lips move, her eyes wide with horror as she stares at something on my arms. Right, the mana, it… my head is spinning and-

"-needs healers now!" Akari is yelling as I blink awake, finding myself still in that dark passage. I… I'm on the floor? Beside me, Celeste is running around me in a panic, a mental mantra of [Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay,] racing through my head.

"What?" I murmur, my head swimming as I try to understand what's going on. Akari isn't the only one kneeling over me; I also see Claire, and Baylee, and… my team. They're all here. What is?

"We have to move her," Baylee shouts from-

I'm being carried, my body being jolted up and down as Akari sprints with me in her arms. All around us, Reavers shout and die under a hail of magic, and I become vaguely aware of something shaking the ground, like the steps of a colossal-

The open sky is above me and is filled with fire. A dark figure radiating more Stygian Mana than I can comprehend is doing battle in the heavens with sentinels that shine with radiance. Audrey and… a woman I don't recognize battle the creature, the overlord, and deafening shockwaves ripple across the city with each blow of the combatants, shattering glass and destroying nearby buildings. The GDF has pulled out all the stops, but… there's more. Hidden gun emplacements are firing in all directions, more battles shake the city in the distance, and chaos rules. This isn't just a raid on the Reaver base… it's a city-wide attack.

"How far from the healer team!" Akari screams, her voice nearly lost to the cacophony of battle.

"HQ says ten blocks!" comes Baylee's reply.

Akari simply clutches me tighter to herself, running even faster. We seem to be running through slum streets, and the battle between the overlord and the sentinels is moving closer rather than further away. Far faster than I can process, the overlord clashes with the unknown A Rank sentinel directly above us, sending a shockwave that-

Akari is gasping for breath as she holds me, looking at a figure standing in the road between her and where she's trying to go. It's nearly impossible for me to think through the pain and disorientation, but even I can make out the dark form of Hikaru Kimura standing in our path. The man's eyes gleam with hatred, but he smiles upon seeing me — the sight sending a streak of panic through me.

"Looks like your little girlfriend isn't feeling too well, Akari," he calls across the distance.

Gently, Akari leans me against the wall of a nearby building, even as gunfire and screams echo in the distance. Setting me down and seeming to find my eyes open, Akari gives me a sad smile. "Don't worry," she says through gasping breaths. "I'm never going to let him hurt you again."

Propped against the wall, I look around weakly, seeing my other team members not with us. Akari is alone, facing her uncle and the source of years of torment. She withdraws a sword from her inventory, letting it flicker violently with soul-rending black lightning. With one final look at me, her face set with resolve, she steps forward to face her own personal demon.

With effort, I try to climb to my feet, try to conjure my bow and help, but… my vision starts to darken.

No, no, no! I need to stay… I need…

Akari and her uncle clash before me in a swell of unnatural darkness as I fall unconscious once more.