Lillene

Enjoy!

Several more shouts and some gunfire were the only clues Serenity got before the others crossed back out of the stream. Ita was fine, as were two of the soldiers; of the other two, one walked with Ita’s help and the other was carried by the other two soldiers.

The basilisks definitely didn’t go down without a fight.

Blaze took a quick look at the one being carried then carefully didn’t shake his head as he turned to handle the obviously shredded shoulder of the one Ita helped stand upright. “You’re on that one; see if you can break his curse in time.”

The soldiers laid their commander on the ground before Serenity got there. The reason two people had to carry Roberts was obvious; the front of the upper half of his body was stone. Serenity wasn’t a cursebreaker, but on the other hand he didn’t have much of a choice; the other man was clearly going to die without Blaze’s help. Serenity couldn’t heal that kind of an injury.

Blaze could probably save the petrified man, but he’d clearly decided that the man he could definitely save who would die without his help was the better choice. That might be an overstatement, but Serenity wasn’t certain it was; yes, there was a clinic on the island with replacement blood, but they only had so much. Blaze’s decision was reasonable.

Especially since Serenity had broken curses before. Only one wasn’t Death magic, but that was still one and Serenity knew he’d told Blaze about it. The Night Fire was totally different from petrification. It was strange how many curses he’d seen since he came back in time; he didn’t remember nearly so many when he was Vengeance, especially early on. Maybe he’d just been blind to them?

He screwed up when he worked on Rissa’s brother Jacob. He was lucky he hadn’t caused anything worse than he had; he could easily have damaged Jacob worse than the curse had. He’d known that at the time and for a while worried that he had done so. It worked out in the end, but killing a god by nearly dying himself definitely wasn’t the recommended way to destroy a curse.

The curse on Rube, the student who found the first Solomon vase, could be counted as a true success. At least, it was a success at cursebreaking if he considered it a curse; it was more of a possession attempt, really. It might have been a curse; curses were a broad, odd category that Serenity didn’t even pretend to completely understand. He’d never wanted to.

He hadn’t had the Path that gave him the assistance at breaking curses yet; instead, he’d consulted with Blaze on the best way to handle it. That was probably why he received the Skill, now that he thought about it. He’d demonstrated some capability with curses so he got a Skill to help.

With luck, he’d succeed again. All he had to do was do well enough that the man lived. Blaze could probably fix anything he screwed up. Oddly enough, Roberts wasn’t dead yet; the basilisks’ petrification was gradual and apparently hadn’t actually penetrated to anything immediately vital yet. He would die all too soon, however, if he couldn’t expand his chest to breathe. Serenity couldn’t tell if his heart was still beating or not; all he could tell for certain was that the telltale feel of death wasn’t there.

Cursebreaker

Faith energy may be used to assist when breaking a curse.

It wasn’t very specific on how it worked, but he’d done it once. Maybe he could do it again?

The Skill didn’t activate the normal way; it felt more like a descriptive passive than a true Skill. What had he done against the Night Fire?

He’d tried to remove it the only way he knew how, or at least the only way he was willing to use on a living person: by washing it away with mana. That was like leftover mana; maybe this would be more like a spell and he could cut it up? That would be faster.

The only way to know was to look. Serenity pushed on his manasight, expecting to see something like what he’d seen in the past. He wasn’t surprised when it was completely different; they all had been. What did surprise him was what he actually saw. It wasn’t a structured spell, attempted possession, or apparently undifferentiated mana that hid behavioral control. 

It looked kind of like a swarm of gnats, but these gnats clearly held the Affinity of the petrifying attack. They were what was turning Roberts to stone. If he could deal with the gnats, he’d at least halt the process.

Serenity tried to tear them away from Roberts with his mana, but it was like trying to swat gnats. Sure, he removed some of them, but it didn’t reduce the swarm enough to notice. He needed something bigger. Something that could go after the entire swarm at once. 

He probably had several tools that could do it, but one came to mind immediately: the Quickrunes he’d made when he prepared to head in here. They could kill anything, at least as long as he could apply them properly. He could see this and get at it. It was lower power than he was. All he had to do was power the rune and direct it at the curse.

It wasn’t normally something to use near a person; it created too much Death Affinity mana residue. Roberts was from Earth, however. He was almost certainly far more tolerant of the Death Affinity than humans elsewhere simply because Earth’s environment always had a tinge of Death Affinity to it as background. Knowing that made some strange things make so much more sense.

Serenity fed mana into the rune. It burned as it activated; clearly, using his flesh and bones as a spell’s components wasn’t good for him. He’d heal, but he’d also save the ability for emergencies. He’d only just used it for the first real time and he probably wouldn’t use it again any time soon. For anything smaller than a full runic inscription, it simply wasn’t enough better than infusing a spell except as an emergency measure and a full runic inscription was not only painful but draining. He didn’t think he’d be able to fight to his fullest while activating something like this.

Serenity watched as the petrifying gnats faded away. The mana went from active and angry to still, calm, and completely controllable as it shifted from whatever the basilisks used to Serenity’s own Death Affinity. Unlike most creatures, the curse didn’t fight death; it simply died slowly and peacefully.

Until it was gone, all Serenity could do was watch.

After the last mote disappeared, Serenity pulled the Death mana away from Roberts. He did seem to be able to tolerate it, or at least he wasn’t dead yet, but that didn’t mean it helped. It didn’t want to leave, since Roberts was clearly dying, but Serenity was able to force it to go. Once it was away from Roberts, it was easy enough to control that Serenity simply ate it. Death mana always tasted good.

Serenity wasn’t certain he could save Roberts. He might have stopped the curse but that hadn’t removed the stone that covered the front of his top half. A careful check told him that the man was actually breathing, but very shallowly; that could be from the lack of flexibility or from the weight of the stone. It might well be from both.

Serenity flipped Roberts onto his front; at least he wouldn’t have to lift however much stone there was that way. It wasn’t like it would hurt him; the stone was sturdy.

Serenity looked over towards Blaze. He was still dealing with the other soldier; the extreme bleeding seemed to have stopped, at least. “I’ve done everything I can.”

“I’m almost done here,” Blaze answered. “I just need to get him stable enough to move to the clinic.”

Serenity watched and waited helplessly. This wasn’t as bad as being on the wrong side of the manastream, but it was close; there was still nothing he could do. He could only watch as Blaze finished up with his first patient, then checked on Roberts. 

“You’re lucky,” Blaze said after he’d had a chance to check on Roberts. He was clearly talking to the patient; Serenity knew he liked to do that. “Your fellows got you out in time, then Serenity was able to stop the curse fast enough and with few enough side effects; you’ll definitely live. It may be a while before you’re back to full health, but I can say you’ll get there. I should warn you; this is going to hurt.”

Blaze didn’t give Roberts any time to think or even brace himself before he turned him on his side and proceeded to break the stone covering his chest into smaller chunks. Serenity was impressed; Blaze did that with his hand. The stone was nearly an inch thick in places; he wouldn’t have wanted to break it simply by smacking it, especially not when it covered the front of the man he was trying to heal. 

Roberts made a wheezing noise as blood trickled from the cracks. It was probably all the noise he could make, under the circumstances.

Blaze took a moment to heal Roberts. “You’ll breathe more easily now. I’m sure it feels strange. Breathe anyway.”

Roberts’s chest did seem to move a bit more; Serenity could see the several large pieces of rock Blaze had created shift apart from each other as he breathed. He didn’t move at all.

Blaze looked up. “He passed out; it’s probably for the best. Ita, I need a portal to the clinic. Can you manage from here?”

“If you hurry.” Ita didn’t sound very happy about it. 

“We will,” Blaze told her. “I need two of you to come with me to help carry the injured. I’d like it if all of you who went to the other side would come to be checked. Other than Serenity, that is; he wasn’t there for the fighting.”

“I can’t make a portal for myself,” Ita reminded Blaze.

Blaze nodded. “I’ll check you before we leave.”

Serenity had to be content with a partial success from that expedition; he knew better than to keep pushing after major injuries without enough people, especially when he had a perfect barrier like the river. It was just like abandoning a dungeon; you never really wanted to but there were times when you had to. He’d learned that the hard way more than once. 

It would be weeks before Roberts recovered under normal circumstances. He required major surgery followed by significant regrowth. With purely Earth medicine, he’d have been crippled for life at best. Magical healing could help, but even Blaze’s skill couldn’t manage it instantly. 

Blaze asked Serenity to provide the materials for that regrowth instead, the same way he’d helped Rube. It took Serenity a bit to figure out what Blaze wanted, but once he did, it was easy enough. Blaze wanted Potential. That was simple enough; he just pulled some through his Rift and passed it off to Blaze to shape.

Ten hours later, Roberts looked like himself again instead of a broken statue or an anatomical model. Blaze kept him asleep the entire time. It would be a few days before Blaze let him return to work; even then, he’d be on light duty for a few more days. It was nothing like the time it would have taken without Serenity’s help.

Not that Serenity was about to admit that. As far as he was concerned, this was all to Blaze’s credit. He couldn’t heal someone with Potential; all he did was provide the material for Blaze to use.

Lillene

I’m looking forward to when Serenity examines the basilisks’ bodies. He’s still not sure what Tier they are, but they’re definitely higher than Earth should support right now. Of course, they’ve been in an expanded nexus the whole time…