Rules of Biomancy: A LitRPG Healer Fantasy

Cas looked up at the sky. At that moment, the sun had already started to fall, allowing the buildings to obscure it from a normal person's eyes. Not his. He could see the sun where it had been an hour ago, as well as every position of the celestial object for the past centuries. He could even see how it would fare in the centuries to come.

Some days, it would be obscured, either by the moon or by asteroids, but it would stay in place regardless. It would stay there for millennia, for thousands of millions of years, before it would turn red and swallow up the ground beneath Cas's feet.

It was inevitable. Cas had seen it. Out of every potential in this reality, out of every possible path that could be taken, it would all eventually lead to the ground being consumed in an endless heat. What came after, Cas couldn't say, as everything he could observe now would be gone. That fact did intrigue him most days.

To not know what happens.

"Right on cue," Cas murmured as the screaming of the people began. The young, the old, and every other unfortunate soul unlucky enough to have been in the central streets of Kulvik had suffered the traps from Castilla's spies.

As written, Elijah, Aleksi, and fifty other agents from Vera's repertoire had tirelessly emptied the emergency bunkers. The first and largest of the bunkers had been found with an unknown device, causing the immediate removal of all civilians from the potential death traps.

A mistake, since the device was a simple box, enchanted to be hard to open and disassemble, with no offensive abilities to speak of. It had taken weeks of planning to get the device into the bunker, as it had been heavily guarded day in and day out, with mages inspecting every movement like hawks.

In the chaos that came with getting over a hundred thousand people out into the streets, however, the ability to spot malicious actors vanished, allowing infiltrators to plant fire bombs at people's feet.

Cas could almost recite the way that the people screamed. Those distant echoes had replayed in his mind many times in the past years. Tens of thousands of civilians died immediately, and twice that would follow in the next hours, as the enchanted fires would spread across the gatherings. Hysteria would break out as well, causing those who fell to be trampled, and creating no end to the disaster that would haunt the minds of the survivors for a long time.

But there will be survivors.

A mantra, one that had carried him through the many decades of his life. The knowledge that the end would justify the means, that the pain and death all had a reason to be there.

He would not deny the gruesomeness and brutality of his methods in the short term. Cas knew it would've taken a single sentence to stop those screams from occurring. One single warning sent Elijah's way, and the Biomancer wouldn't have made that crucial mistake.

But… without that mistake, Elijah wouldn't grow, wouldn't reach that breaking point which would highlight the right path, and Aleksi wouldn't decide to go through with his destined finale. So much depended on those screams. Songs would go unwritten, passion would stay cold, and the spirit of those who survived would be tempered in the wrong way.

This is the way.

Keeping up the pace, he passed by the final horrors. His powers allowed him to see the consequences of his every step, of his every breath, reminding him what was at stake. Cas did not falter, entering the rundown house on the outskirts of the slums. A decrepit place, with a wooden ceiling that would collapse in mere days and a foundation infested with various rodents that had spent decades digging out their perfect home.

More importantly, the house was already occupied by another man. An Earth Mage, whom Cas had known for longer than most.

"Cas," Alin said. The old man tried to seem emotionless, stone-face,d and without a twitch in his features, but Cas could see the truth. He knew of the nervous pacing, the sweating, the knowledge that the tale of the Oathbreaker was approaching its end. "I am here."

"So you are," Cas agreed, ducking his head to avoid the bits of dust that the wind carried. "Just at the right second of the right minute of the right hour, on the second-most gruesome day that Serenova will ever see."

"Your instructions were precise, and you made it clear that they were to be followed," Alin replied. He sounded mildly bitter, that thin shell of passiveness breaking. "I thought your powers wouldn't have allowed for anything like this timing, but I guess I've been proven the fool."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Cas almost smiled at the memory of their first interactions. Six decades ago, Alin had sat in Castilla's clutches, with an angry mind, angrier thoughts, and a path meant to be set in stone. All of that had been crushed after Cas had revealed what the future entailed and what would happen if he didn't break the regular path and allow this moment to come.

"You need to remember that most actions in this world aren't too important," Cas reminded Alin. "It is those that have the most impact, the ones that shake the foundations and adjust the trajectory of the timeline, that I see so vividly. This moment is one of those."

He'd memorized this conversation when he was seven. He'd known about it since he was five years old, but the proper steps to get here hadn't been found until two years later.

"... It's terrifying when you can't see the whole picture," Alin commented. "I know that telling me will stop the future from coming true, but that hasn't made my mind stop spinning. Six decades of waiting, and I still don't know what will come after."

Two meanings.

"The advice I've found to help the most is to simply trust in the process," Cas supplied. He smiled, even as Alin's shoulders shook just a little. The heavy, purple robes hid it well, but nothing could truly be hidden from a Chronomancer. "Think of yourself as an actor who can speak no wrong word, for you've already been guided by a stagehand."

Fatalism at its worst.

"You do realize the grimness of those words?"

"I do, but that doesn't make them any less true," Cas fired back. As he spoke the last word, they began to hear the sound of distant explosions. The work of Jack Larson, the Harbinger of Dawn, had adjusted his constructs and had started to fire upon Castilla's forces yet again. A beautiful deterrent, which would slow their charge to a crawl, giving Serenova those additional days of fighting that were needed. "I believe that is your cue. From the south, twenty of your old colleagues will have gathered, intending to tear down the walls and allow the armies to flood inside. Your job is to stop them, no matter the cost."

"And that will be my final act?" Alin questioned, to which Cas nodded. "Fighting to the death against the people who declared me an Oathbreaker… How fitting. For whatever comes next, I wish you the best of luck."

I won't need it.

As Alin headed for the door of the old house, he paused, looking back at Cas.

"I've also brought her, like you asked," the Earth Mage added. "She's sitting in the backyard, on the bench."

"I know," Cas assured him, causing a chuckle to leave Alin as his feet carried him away. "With any luck, we will meet on the other side."

Those final words didn't carry through the air, and Alin left without hearing them. He didn't need to, after all. Nobody did. Whatever Cas said in those precious seconds, where he stood alone, would not matter. Five seconds, where anything he muttered carried no consequence.

A freeing experience.

It did not last, but that was fine. Cas had already practiced his next movements, and he returned to that ethereal state as he left the house through the back door.

As he knew she would be, Mila was there, sitting on the half-rotten bench while eating cookies. Alin had been worried sick about what would happen to the Stormcaller since she had arrived, and the Earth Mage fully believed that this would be her final day as well.

And… maybe it would be. It all came down to those last moments.

"Hi there," Cas greeted, snapping up one of the cookies from the tray before Mila could stop him. "Are you ready to meet Sasha?"

The way Mila's eyes lit up did bring Cas some minor bursts of joy. And, honestly, who wouldn't? To see the Savior of the World brought him nothing but happiness.

Scooping her up in his arms, they ventured forth, avoiding the distant screams and crowded streets as they headed for Cleo's establishment together.

"When we get to her, she will be feeling a little unwell," Cas warned Mila. As they got closer and closer, the cookie tray became empty, and the Mana-Enhanced emotions started to swell. "She'll sound angry and sad, but that's okay."

"Will she be hurting?" Mila asked.

"She will," Cas confirmed, hugging her a little tighter when that small face instantly grew teary-eyed. "With your help, though, she'll be just fine. You just need to be brave when you see her. Even if she's scary, and even if you're afraid, you just need to remember that it's Sasha and that she needs our help. Can you do that?"

"Yes!"

In a way, it was amazing how the minds of children worked. When tempered correctly, their bravery and determination could be leagues above what any human adult could accomplish. Cas had seen countless iterations of the next few minutes, and he knew that only this single setup would have any chance of working.

After all, the vortex under their feet, which threatened to pull the world into non-existence, would've made any rational mind run away in fear.