'What about picnic? You said picnic. I'm hungry. Tired.' Jack wrote.

'We'll eat a little. Then we'll keep on moving. This isn't a place to linger.'

'All-nighter? Damn.' he wrote.

The boy wanted to ask more, but his other arm started to wobble beneath him. He couldn't spare an arm to write any longer. Moving forward required all the focus and strength he had left. The boy still felt great, despite his exhaustion and awareness of the long night ahead. He could see the end of the tall grass ahead of him and he was practically giddy at the thought of being able to stand up again.

Jack pressed forward with renewed gusto, reveling in the warm night wind. Sweat poured down his back and neck, thicker than before as he pushed closer to the edge of the grasslands. Even from above, he felt Alicia dripping sweat down onto his shoulders.

The boy frowned. Although Alicia had been far from cool and dry, earlier she didn't perspire much more a faint sheen. As he shook that thought out of his mind, he tried probing her condition again. Nothing new. The girl was a bottomless dark pit, constantly demanding more of his aura. His growing instincts on healing and reading people's conditions pegged her about the same as before, serious damaged but relatively stable. The boy relaxed.

In front of him, Syraviel sniffed audibly, turning her head around and sniffing again. Jack furrowed his brow, this was the first time he'd seen the Goddess act like this. Syraviel's eyes landed on Jack with a menacing glower as she crawled back to him. She jabbed a finger on his shoulder, giving the boy an accusing look. Jack mouthed a silent 'What?' as he absentmindedly looked to where she was pointing. Blood stained his tunic's shoulder. He winced. He couldn't believe he'd missed it earlier. He quickly scooped up a handful of dirt, trying to rub away and mask the scent as much as he could.

Jack grabbed another handful of dirt when he felt more liquid drop onto his shoulder. He looked again and found more blood on his shoulder. Both his and Syraviel's gaze tracked slowly upward, finding Alicia leaking blood from her mouth. Syraviel's breath caught, she opened the girl's mouth and looked inside. Syraviel bit her lip, looking anxiously at the girl before applying a shadow gag over Alicia's mouth.

'Clean up fast. Don't let her choke on blood. We need to hurry.'

Syraviel made a gesture to the other two, causing them to immediately pick up their pace. Jack quickly cleaned his shoulder off and scampered forward, trying to move as fast as he could without tearing his hands and knees open. He kept his head lower than usual as he moved ahead, his nose inches off the ground. He hoped that was enough to keep the blood in Alicia's mouth from moving back, pooling in her throat and choking her.

They reached the edge of the tall grass and Syraviel halted them. The smaller Goddess turned her head to the sky, constantly scanning the air above them. Jack finally caught up, anxiously waiting for Syraviel to give them the go-ahead. 

Jack grimaced, finally feeling a change in Alicia's condition. She was declining for the first time since she'd gone unconscious, prompting the boy to push his aura even harder.

He waved to get Syraviel's attention, frantically pointing to the deteriorating girl on his back. Syraviel determined Alicia's state in a second and shot a murderous glare at Lisaseron. The taller Goddess moved forward to put a hand on Alicia but stopped last second, a conflicted look appeared in her eyes as she looked upward. Syraviel's gaze also went back to the sky. Jack swore under his breath at the indecision of the Goddesses, giving the girl as much of his aura as he could, while ignoring the widening cracks in his own soul.

Braced Soul Lvl 4 → Braced Soul Lvl 5

While Jack continued to focus on Alicia, Lisaseron went over to Syraviel. The taller Goddess noticed Syraviel's knuckles turning white as she watched her approach.

'We can attribute blame later. Alicia needs healing now.' Lisaseron wrote on Syraviel.

'And get all of us killed? You know my shadow magic is the only thing those golems can't detect at this range. We need to get to the forest. The auras of the crucifix pines will obscure enough for us to use healing magic.'

'She needs stabilization now. Her internal bleeding is serious.'

Syraviel ground her teeth together, clenching her fists.

'Even if I use shadow surgery, it won't hold against her aura. In fact, it'll probably make things worse when the sutures are destroyed.'

'What if we use a blessing?'

Syraviel's eyes lit up for a second, then her face fell.

'Not enough faith.'

'Even if we use all of it?'

Syraviel looked at Jack and Diana with a pitying gaze, then up above at the countless dark silhouettes in the night sky.

'Might as well. They haven't let up their watch at all, we have to try something. If it doesn't work, I can still burn a trump card.'

Syraviel went to Jack and Lisaseron went to Diana.

'Sorry. This might be a little unpleasant' Syraviel wrote on Jack.

The boy looked at Alicia and then back at the Goddess before nodding. A blue box appeared in front of him.

Blessing: Terror Tempered(Syraviel) Removed

Blessing: Deferred Exhaustion (Lisaseron) Removed

Received: Fatigue(Significant)

Received: Suppressed Aura(Moderate)

Jack's face hit the dirt. He'd lost control of his body as a surge of weariness erupted from within him. Laying face down on the ground, his body and even his very mind shook in reaction to the overwhelmingly powerful golem force patrolling above them. Thankfully, the trembling quickly stopped as his body completely ran out of stamina and his consciousness dimmed.

**

Syraviel jammed a finger into the worn out boy's sides. The boy started.

'No sleep. Must be awake. Save Alicia.' she wrote.

Jack groaned, pinching his wrists to forcibly keep himself alert.

Syraviel and Lisaseron put their hands on Alicia closing their eyes as they pooled Diana and Jack's faith together to create a blessing.

Blessing Granted: Minor Restoration (Syraviel, Lisaseron)

Both of their faces fell.

'I can't believe we didn't even have enough for Moderate Restoration.' Syraviel wrote on Lisaseron.

'This is as much as their minds can give us. Even if they are naturally talented, they have not been trained yet.'

Syraviel took a deep breath, closing her eyes again. When she opened them, her black pupils shine with a determined light. 

'I have an idea. It's not great, but its better than Minor Restoration.' Syraviel wrote.

Lisaseron's face contorted as the smaller Goddess wrote her idea down.

'That could kill her.'

'Yes, but not immediately. If it doesn't work, I'll use Shadow Streak again to take her to somewhere I can heal her.'

Lisaseron nodded, putting her hand back on Alicia.

'This is our best option, right now. Do it.'

Syraviel put her hand back on the girl, pooling faith to create another blessing.

Blessing Granted: Osmotic Body Respiration (Syraviel, Lisaseron)

Nodding in satisfaction, she turned to Jack.

'Can you communicate with her at all?'

The boy shook his head. Syraviel grimaced.

'Just try. If you can reassure Alicia or let her know things are going to be okay. Even if she doesn't respond, it might help.'

Jack nodded, shutting his eyes, tight. Syraviel could almost hear him mentally shouting at the girl from the pulsing veins on the sides of his temples.

Syraviel gathered a layer of translucent shadow along her hand as she raised it up. She did her best not to look at the dismayed boy below her as she struck Alicia's left breast with blurring speed. Alicia's chest barely moved from the blow but Syraviel knew her strike did much more than it appeared. Alicia's heart was no longer beating.

Syraviel quickly moved to expose Alicia's abdomen, piercing a shadow needle and thread through the girl's stomach to suture her internal wounds. The needle exited the girl's stomach a minute later from the same hole, sewing its entry point shut with a single neat suture.

Syraviel felt Jack's shocked eyes on her. She exhaled hard, letting her shoulders sag a bit. Collecting herself, she consciously straightened her posture and calmed herself down before facing Jack. 

'I've stopped the bleeding. I'm not sure how long she can last in this state but she'll be fine for a couple hours at the very least.'

The boy struggled to take in her words, slowly shaking his head.

'Her heart isn't beating. You stopped her heart.'

'And stopping her heart in combination with shadow surgery has solved her bleeding. She is still getting oxygen distributed through her body. Also, she has Superior Nourishment from earlier, which should technically give her enough energy to sustain life and prevent her body from cannibalizing itself.'

'You mean that thing from the stew? If that worked, why am I still hungry?'

'Starvation is a status effect, feeling hungry is not. Just like how you were tired earlier but only just received the fatigue status effect now.'

Jack nodded slowly, looking back at Alicia with a stare that seemed to pass into the distance.

Syraviel patted the boy on the back.

'Don't worry Jack. If this doesn't work, I'll get her safe and heal her. I promise. I won't let your little sweetheart croak on my watch.'

The boy shifted uncomfortably.

'I wouldn't call her a sweetheart. There's nothing sweet about her.'

'Really? Nothing at all? Are you sure? I may not exactly be a Love Goddess but I don't have to be to tell you've got a soft spot for her.'

'What? I'm worried about her because I'm worried for my own life. Like I said, there's nothing sweet about her, and there hasn't been for a long time.'

'So you did like her once.'

Jack immediately regretted saying that, turning his head off to the side as he took a measured breath. When he looked back at the Goddess, all he could see was amusement.

'If you're going to make me stay awake that's fine. But do you have to torment me with this crap too?' he wrote.

Syraviel stuck out her tongue, revealing its forked ends before crawling away.

As the night passed, Jack noticed the usually chipper Syraviel grow more and more lethargic. Having recovered some of his stamina, he crawled over to her.

'Finally ready to sleep? How long have you guys been up?'

'Sleep? No, I'm fine. It's just this damn grass is burning up my mana.' she wrote back.

Jack looked at this grass around them.

'This grass drains mana?'

'No silly. Look over there. I'm growing us some cover, slowly so they don't notice it and so I don't run out of mana all of a sudden and drop our concealment. It should let us make it safely to the forest.'

Jack squinted in the dark, noticing long patch of grass about a foot and a half tall, extending from their current location to the edge of the forest.

'Give it another foot in height and we can crawl over and get Alicia fixed up.'

**

Alicia hovered just outside of a mess of a traditional sword practicing room, looking in as if she could see through the tattered walls. The shards of shattered swords littered the practice area while sword scars marred everything from the floor to the weapon racks surrounding the practice area to the ceiling. An eleven foot long, double edged greatsword stood tall in the center of the practice area, covered from pommel to point in ephemeral shifting patterns and fractals while radiating a vicious aura of destruction. A feminine figure stood against the greatsword with a half broken sword in her hands.

Alicia knew her situation was bad, she could catch glimpses of Jack's emotions filtering through with his aura and even with everything she'd done before, she'd never felt him so worried and desperate about her. A slight smile came over her face without her realizing. Certainly, she knew her body was deteriorating earlier and she still felt extremely unnatural, but her new and improved perception told her that she was fine for now.

Alicia kept working within her Innate, diligently analyzing the attack trajectories and results of each clash between her swordswoman and the giant sword. It was painful and frustrating work, with only a few patterns revealing themselves after her burning through two thirds of the swords in the room.

The girl sighed. Her swordswoman got slightly better at defending against the sword but all of her insights and observations did little to slow down the destruction of her soul. Alicia withdrew her swordswoman from combat with the giant greatsword, letting the swordswoman rest her wounded body. Alicia grit her teeth. She couldn't spare much time for the swordswoman's break. If she let the greatsword's aura rampage around too much it would escape into her body through the damaged walls  and wound her like before.

As time passed, her situation wasn't improving. She managed to gather a few minor offensive insights but the fight to defend her soul and body was the real issue. Alicia anxiously watched as new swords occasionally appeared on the weapon racks. Even without rigorous accounting, she knew she was replenishing them at a far slower pace then the swordswoman was breaking them. She could tell the walls of her Innate grew stronger compared to when she arrived in her Innate earlier today but only slightly. They weren't toughening up fast enough to deal with the greatsword.

She made her swordswoman confront the giant sword again, noticing her movements dulled and some of her prior wounds didn't  heal during the break. Alicia wanted to scream, cry and fight someone all at the same time. She knew what her swordswoman was going through. She'd experienced that slow, inevitable decline in matches before, the persistent downward slope leading to a loss. She knew it right then and there. She knew she couldn't beat this opponent. She knew she was completely outclassed.

Alicia shook her head. It didn't matter whether or not if she was willing to die, the greatsword would kill her either way. In the midst of her dismay, a surge of Jack's aura reached her like a faint ray of sunshine in a blizzard. She closed her eyes, basking in the all too quickly gone soothing sensation, noticing his aura carried a light touch of hope this time. She laughed. If only he knew how bad things really were, she thought. She shook her head, as she guided the swordswoman against the sword. Even though she knew this fight was lost, she couldn't bring herself to give up. It was her life. If the greatsword wanted to claim it, it was going to have to earn it slowly and painfully. If she was anything, she was competitive to the end.

She smiled, as she thought about the hope Jack sent her. Maybe he was onto something. Sure, she knew she stood no chance against the sword herself, but she was never by herself from the start. This was never just her fight.

A ferocious grin took over her face, as her swordwoman clashed with the giant sword. Maybe it didn't matter that she couldn't win against the greatsword. Maybe all that mattered was how long she could stall for reinforcements.

TheAscendentQuill

Alicia got to shine in a big way earlier with the Stellar Direwind but she's just Level one and Rank one. Actions have consequences and there's no way she gets off lightly with how far she pushed herself. For those of you who predicted that our travelogue would derail into a medical drama, congratulations. Syraviel's treatment is certainly... unconventional. There are larger issues with it(I do have some medical experience, so my head was hurting a little bit writing this thinking of all the MOI and factors that would be nullified instead of compounding into something else) that I won't bother getting into but with the combination of magical surgery, blessings and magical food status effects, I believe most of them are addressed in the short term(Again, not a doctor but I do have some medical experience. Only some.)

On another note, I've been loving all the feedback I've been getting recently, whether it's been the excellent recommendations in the comment section or the very nice reviews you've given me. I appreciate all the advice and encouragement from you guys!

 

As always, let me know if you see any errors or inconsistencies. If you have any ideas or adjustments you'd like to see, feel free to share and get my creative juices going! Thanks for your support!