"Don't get too excited," said Hayedalf as they queued for the local [Healer]. "It could be a coincidence, or more likely, it's Mystery's fault, either from all the stress it caused or more directly. Remember that [Field Medic] didn't find anything, and someone working in the capital was likely far higher level than someone in a border town."

That wasn't actually true, at least not for Karn's Vigil. The kingdom took its duty as a gatekeeper of the demonic forest seriously. The garrison there had several powerful healers.

Of course, they were visiting a public healer, not the garrison, but the [Royal Knight] hadn't been completely taken in by the trust-building effects of the [Hero] class, and had ordered them to be kept under surreptitious watch. A [Gate Guard] had signalled their arrival in the settlement, a [Spy] had picked up on where they were headed, and a [Battle Healer] from the garrison had snuck in the back of the building, ready to steal the independent healer's customer.

"More directly..." repeated Kellela, sounding worried. "It has certainly been a stressful couple of weeks. Well, if it's nothing, it's nothing. Best to get it checked out."

And so the pair nervously waited till the front of the line, where a mildly confused receptionist led them to a hastily redecorated storeroom.

"Bit small in here, isn't it?" asked Hayedelf, trying to squeeze himself onto the provided seat without dislocating his knees.

"Sorry, we're a bit busy today, as you saw from the queue," responded the [Battle Healer] smoothly. "We normally wouldn't see patients in here. Now, how can I help you today?"

"I missed a period. Please can I get a pregnancy check?"

The [Battle Healer]—who'd had the relevant points of events in the capital hastily drilled into her as she changed out of her usual uniform in the garrison—looked at Kellela's belly with interest.

"Of course," she answered, placing a hand there and invoking her skills. "Oh..."

Of all the words patients across the multiverse want to hear from doctors, 'oh' is generally several rungs below 'interesting' on the list, and only barely above 'I'm sorry'. Kellela reacted accordingly.

"What's wrong?" she asked in a fluster.

"Your hormones are consistent with an early stage pregnancy. Around a month, probably. There's no heartbeat I can detect, but that's expected at this stage. But there's also no second vitality source, and that's far more serious. I should be able to pick up the vitality of a month-old embryo. I'm so sorry, but you're suffering a miscarriage."

Kellela remained silent as tears formed in the corners of her eyes.

"Are you absolutely certain?" demanded Hayedalf. "And could her hormones be the result of... something else?"

The [Battle Healer] pondered as she considered who she was dealing with. Even the [Infection And Foreign Body Specialist] had failed to pick out the vitality of Kellela's 'guest', so there was no chance she would be able to. It was possible the parasite was mimicking a pregnancy.

It wasn't possible that a month old embryo had picked up [Stealth]. That was a completely stupid idea, and so the [Battle Healer] didn't permit it any space in her head.

"I've heard of cases where something fools a body into thinking it's pregnant," she admitted evasively, under orders not to let the couple know they were still under watch. "But there's nothing I can pick up."

"Can you just give me some general healing magic?"

"I can... but why? What are you hoping to heal?"

Kellela didn't answer, not wanting to put words around Mystery's disappearance.

"Well, you're the ones paying for it," said the [Battle Healer] with a shrug, and blasted Kellela with her [Major Healing] spell.

---

Mystery drifted in unconsciousness, seemingly making up for the debt of three weeks of solid wakefulness all in one go.

"Mmm, warm," she thought as the healing magic washed over her. "Five more minutes," she added, making an attempt to pull her duvet up around her neck. That failed for the obvious reasons, such as not having a neck or a duvet.

"What? Where am I? Why can't I move?" she thought dreamily. For a moment, confusion fought against tiredness, until she awoke fully with a start.

"I'm... alive? I'm alive! Yes, of course I'm alive. I'm the [Hero]. I'm not going to be killed by a bloody bump in the road! So, next question. How am I alive?"

Mystery brought up her message log, starting after her acquisition of [Pain Tolerance].

For successfully tracking a carriage. [Soul's Eye] advances to level 21.
For clinging to life as your soul falls apart around you, [Robust] advances to level 12.
For completing a marathon without any muscles, [Astral Projection] advances to level 16.
For pushing on as your soul falls apart around you, [Robust] advances to level 13.
For wriggling your way into places you don't belong, [Astral Projection] advances to level 17.
For refusal to surrender your consciousness, [Robust] advances to level 14.
For your pure tenacity, [Robust] advances to level 15.
You have successfully wrapped your soul in the protection of an unoccupied living body, forging a new tether for yourself out of nothing more than willpower, upgrading [Astral Projection] with [Tether of Will]. We'd feel better about that fact if the source of your willpower was something better than a refusal to die before assembling your dream magical girl team. Level cap of [Astral Projection] increased by 30.
[Untethered] lost. Level cap of [Astral Projection] lowered by 20.
For failing to die on schedule, [Astral Projection] advances to level 18.
For healing from catastrophic soul damage, [Robust] advances to level 16.
For getting the kingdom's youth hooked on performance enhancing drugs, [Magical Girl Transformation] advances to level 5.
For continuing to put yourself back together after your soul fell apart, [Robust] advances to level 17.
Achievement unlocked: [I Broke The System Again, And Now The Administrators Hate Me].

"Woah, that's a load of levels. I should almost die more often," thought Mystery, unaware that almost dying had cost her over a week of unconsciousness, and hence the grinding she'd missed out on had cost her more levels than she'd gained. "What are those new things?"

Tether of Will (Legendary)
The intricate construction of ectoplasm, anima and vitality that links soul to body may not be as complex as that which it joins together, but it's still pretty irreplaceable. Until now. This double-edged sub-skill replaces your tether with one of pure willpower, and as long as you have that strong will to survive, it will endure anything. Let your will waver, however, and you shall swiftly perish.

I Broke The System Again, And Now The Administrators Hate Me (Epic)
Would you please stop? A soul isn't supposed to be able to retether itself to a living body. We could understand if you'd managed to turn yourself undead, but snapping your tether and surviving in a completely normal corporeal form is just plain cheating. And I suppose you're going to demand some sort of reward for the stunt, too? Well, tough. You're having nothing. Your survival is reward enough.

"On second thoughts, let's not try that again," thought Mystery. "Is it safe to use [Astral Projection]? I don't want to hang around here for months, but that [Tether of Will] thing sounds pretty darn ominous."

True to her personality, she managed to resist the urge for a full ten seconds before popping out and doing a lap around the womb. The fact that she could no longer see any tether with [Sense Soul] was alarming, but leaving and entering her body seemed to work.

"Hmm? Did my body used to be that big? Relatively speaking. It's still pretty titchy, obviously."

Her confidence somewhat restored, she poked her growing blob of ectoplasm outside, no longer finding Kellela an impenetrable barrier to her soul.

"Where the heck am I?"

She found herself floating down the street of a bustling town. Unlike the capital, where each noble estate had been closed off with tall, white walls, the street was lined with haphazard structures of different sizes and architectures. Tall walls were visible in the distance all around, where flags matching ones in the capital flew from tall towers. The towers had a more functional than decorative air to them; they'd been built for defence against a foe that was never going to be intimidated by architecture, so weren't trying to make any sort of visual statement.

The streets were different, too. The capital had paved white roads, with few pedestrians and most travellers hidden in ornate, closed carriages. Here, the streets were rougher cobblestones, packed with people in a multitude of outfits. Armour, but muddy and stained, unlike the shiny, white plate of the capital's knights. Old and worn clothing. Dirty robes. Many people were openly carrying weapons. Open-top wagons were pulled down the street by working horses. There wasn't a single carriage in sight.

Hayedalf froze suddenly in the middle of the street, causing a muscular man with a heavy two-handed sword strapped to his back to crash into him.

"Oi! Watch it!" exclaimed the buff warrior with a frown, his trio of party mates stopping too and glaring at Hayedalf. Hayedalf ignored them.

"[Detect Scrying] just fired!" he exclaimed to Kellela, who froze up in turn.

"Hey! Don't ignore me!"

"Mystery?" she asked, looking around. "Mystery? Are you there?"

Despite Mystery's disappearance, Kellela had kept up her training to earn [Sense Soul], but there was a reason people generally didn't bother. Unlike skills that interacted with souls, earning a simple sense wasn't impossible with her [Court Mage] class, but it certainly wasn't easy, and if she tried to force it, she ran the risk of having her class overwritten by something far less savoury.

"Oh great. A pair of mental patients. If you two want to have a moment, do it somewhere else," demanded the wall of muscle, grabbing Hayedalf by the head and lifting.

A lot of things happened very quickly after that. Hayedalf—the talented enchanter that he was—had enough personal protective items on his person that he had to wear a coat two sizes larger than his measurements would otherwise require. One of them activated, a void shield intending to defend against surprise melee attacks, and their attacker found himself without a hand.

The [Spy] who'd been tracking the couple through the fortress town fired an [Anaesthetising Dart] from his blowpipe and one of the guy's party members—who'd pulled a throwing axe from his belt and was about to throw it at Hayedalf—went down snoring.

The remaining pair of party members—deciding Hayedalf's protection was something they didn't want to deal with—moved to grab Kellela instead, hoping for a hostage. Kellela, having no combat experience, missed them sneaking up behind her.

Mystery didn't, and a dull light flashed in front of one of them. Even a dim light could be quite startling when it appeared a few millimetres from someone's eye, and the black-cloaked [Knave] reeled backward. The second one continued onwards, wrapping an arm around Kellela and holding a dagger to her neck.

Of course, being married to Hayedalf, Kellela had her own collection of protective items, and the dagger blackened and corroded, decomposing into dust and blowing away. The surprised [Speedster] reacted professionally, spinning around and aiming a backhand punch at Kellela's head. Kellela—who had no martial training—responded by instinctively shoving him away.

Kellela and Hayedalf watched their attacker go sailing into the air, where he obtained a full ten yards of height before falling and introducing the street to his face. By complete coincidence, he landed in a pile of horse manure, the impact knocking him unconscious.

The original instigator of the fight turned and ran, clutching at the bleeding stump of his arm and abandoning his two fallen teammates.

The [Knave] took a last look at Kellela, standing there with a slight grin on her face, her clothes glowing white. Her robe had shortened, the hem climbing somewhere above her knees and the long sleeves vanishing completely. Her eyes were bright and her hair an even more vivid pink than usual, fluttering in an unfelt wind. She also seemed to have lost an inch or two of height.

The [Knave] turned and fled, following the [Barbarian] down the street.

Hayedalf watched him go before turning back to Kellela, who was her normal height and colour, her non-glowing robe once again covering her to wrists and ankles.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Better than ever," she answered, still grinning.

Meanwhile, the [Spy] was rubbing his eyes, not quite sure what he'd just seen.