The place was dark.

  That was the only way Vera could describe it. An empty black void, bereft of everything except the ever expanding nothingness. There was nothing out there.

  She didn't think she was dead.

  Sure, she received a pretty gnarly knife wound on her stomach, but she didn’t think it was enough to kill her. She thought back on the phantomic voice that caused her to fail during her fight. This was the second time she heard it, and now she knew it wasn’t a trick of the mind. It was real.

  Strangely, both times the voice only talked about protecting Arden.

  “Why is he always at the center of things?” she asked no one.

  But someone responded.

  “Because he is a latent paradox.”

  A woman with perfect proportions appeared in the void in front of Vera. She had big blue eyes and black hair with streaks colored a very light pale blue, like ice.

  Other-Vera spoke.

  “Just like you are now.”

  *****

  Arden quickly dismissed Rogier’s Tree. Its role was over. Now it was Arden’s turn.

  He sprinted over to the fallen Vera. She was pale from blood loss, but not quite to his and Sya’s level yet. She was breathing shallowly and sweat continued to form on her face no matter how much he wiped it away.

  He looked down at her stomach and shuddered. The attack looked much worse than it did during the fight. Copious amounts of blood spilt from the gash in Vera’s stomach. It looked like she was in the process of being gutted or exsanguinated.

  “Damn it…” he muttered.

  He was joined at Vera’s side by Sya. She saw her wound as well and quickly got to work. She tore a strip of clothing off of her and tied it around the wound. She tightened it as much as she could without forcing any more blood to sill. The pressure was important to keep her from bleeding any more, but if she tightened it too much it would have adverse effects.

  “We need a healer,” Sya whispered.

  “We have one,” Arden responded coldly.

  He turned to the armless Podren lying on the ground a small distance away. He was the first to be defeated in the fight, but his sacrifice gave Sya enough time to free Arden and Vera. Unfortunately, Podren needed healing as well.

  To heal Vera, Podren needed to be healed first.

  But Vera was more fragile than Podren, as she was still just a mundane.

  “Damn it all!”

  Cirai cautiously approached the mundane trio on the ground. Of the three of them, the only one that wasn’t suffering from grievous injuries was Sya. Somehow, those three had managed to do what a pair of Starborn hadn’t been able to do and defeated a rogue Starborn.

  She felt conflicted.

  On one hand she was proud of Arden for seeing him grow to the point where he could stand up for himself, but she didn't like that he killed someone to prove it. Reluctantly, she admitted to herself that Frozhe brought it on himself.

  When she got close to Arden, she noticed his expressions and it scared her.

  He looked scared.

  Arden didn’t look scared when he was detained by her colleagues. He didn’t look scared when he continued to fight after his arm was destroyed. But seeing Vera bleeding out on the ground right in front him was enough to terrify him.

  His mind raced, looking for a solution.

  Was there any way he could influence life energy? Could he do something to heal her with his own power?

  No, that wouldn’t work. His Legacy flooded him with eternal energy, whatever that was, not life energy. The only one who had a shot at healing Vera would be the healer.

  Was there a way to heal Podren, then?

  Vera told him that circulating stellar essence was a universal method of healing for Starborn, and that most of them utilized it after fights, both as a way to rest and heal, but also as a way to meditate and glean insight on their fight.

  But Arden couldn’t do that either.

  Only someone with stellar essence could circulate it.

  He gasped and looked at Cirai.

  “Do you know how to circulate your essence?”

  Cirai looked thrown for a moment before she answered.

  “I mean, yes. All of us can.”

  “So you know the pathways?”

  “Yes.”

  Cirai’s eyes widened as she realized what Arden was trying to get her to do.

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  “Wait, I’ve never done something like that!”

  Arden bowed as deeply as he could.

  “Please try,” he whispered. “This is the only way we can save them.”

  “But what if I screw it up?”

  “Even if you do, we won’t be any worse off than we are right now. Please Cirai. You are the only one who can help us now.”

  Cirai wanted to decline. How could someone like her be responsible for the lives of several people? That kind of responsibility should only go to those who were strong, not her.

  "You are the only one who can help us now.”

  But being strong didn’t matter now. If someone as weak as her was needed, then strength wasn’t a factor.

  “I’ll do it.”

  *****

  Cirai sat down on the floor in front of the unconscious Podren. Like Vera, his breathing was weak but his heart was pounding.

  As her golden moment approached, she started to get cold feet. Inferiority welled up inside her.

  A few minutes ago, Arden dashed off towards the infirmary as directed by Sya to find medical supplies after a short conversation with Sya. Their volume had been intentionally muted so that Cirai wouldn’t be able to hear its contents.

  She wondered how much of the conversation was about her ineptitude.

  She was a Starborn and she had to rely on two mundanes and a Blight Walker to win that fight. They were unafraid to get hurt, while she was paralyzed at the mere thought of getting injured.

  It wouldn’t surprise her if they were keeping information from her because she was weak.

  “Eyes up, Cirai,” Sya advised. “No use getting worried now. If you have time for that, you also have time to hype yourself up.”

  “Right,” Cirai responded.

  She recalled Sya’s words about being weak. Admittedly, she had some good points, but it was moot for someone who was strong to talk about how the weak should disregard their perceived strength. It was the same when a rich person told the poor that they shouldn’t be greedy for money.

  All of a sudden, the spell broke for Cirai.

  Why was she subconsciously marking herself as weaker than a Blight Walker?

  Everyone had strengths and weaknesses, and fighting was one of Cirai’s weaknesses while it seemed to be a strength of everyone else who fought. But why did it matter? She didn’t have to fight. There were plenty of other things she was good at. So why was she constantly comparing herself to other members of her Starborn combat squad?

  “What do I want to do?” she asked.

  “What was that?” Sya asked.

  “Nothing. Just talking to myself.”

  Cirai closed her eyes and began to circulate her own essence. She was already intimately familiar with her own circulation pattern, but there was no harm in doing a quick once over before she did the same to Podren. The warm stellar essence moved throughout her body as she willed it.

  She was the one in control of her powers, her essence, and her life.

  “I'm going to begin. Don’t interrupt me. It could get messy.”

  Sya grinned at the Starborn’s change in attitude. It wasn't quite confidence, but assertiveness instead. A welcome change to the timid truth-seeker.

  *****

  Arden found the infirmary without problem. Thankfully, it was also intact despite the battle against a superhuman. No one had tried to flee and hide in here. Only now that the battle was over did anyone come in.

  Arden stumbled into the room and collided with the hospital bed. The adrenaline had worn off, as had his battle trance that kept him on his feet despite having his equilibrium disturbed.

  Between blood loss and losing the functionality of his arm, he now found it increasingly difficult to remain on his feet. Hence, why he fell into the hospital bed.

  He pushed himself off of the bed and hit the floor, eliciting a groan of pain and exhaustion. He stood back up on shaky legs and made his way to the medicine cabinet.

  He saw himself reflected on the clean metal casing and paused. He saw his heavily wounded form and clenched his fist in rage.

  He was mad at himself.

  What happened to Vera never should have happened. If he didn't get greedy with his attacks, she would never have exhausted herself defending him. Her sword wouldn't have broken at such a key moment if he fought with her together.

  He should be the one laying in a pool of his own blood, not her.

  “It's my fault! We were supposed to fight him together! And I ruined it!”

  In a fit of rage, he punched the wall as hard as he could. Only the sound of his fingers breaking could be heard.

  Infuriatingly, the only mark left on the wall was a bloody fist print. He wasn't even strong enough to damage the wall. He forced himself to calm down. Getting angry would solve nothing. At times like this, he needed to follow Vera's advice and keep a cool head.

  He took several deep breaths before opening the medicine cabinet. Each shelf was filled with simple drugs and antiseptic solutions. Arden loaded them all into his inventory. He didn't know what to take, so he took it all.

  He moved along to the doctors desk in search of a set of tools. In one cabinet, he found a roll of the weird paper that lined the bed. In another, he found boxes of disposable gloves. In the third cabinet, he found what he was looking for, and added it to the inventory, along with the rest of the tools.

  He could use the rest of them later, if needed. And even if he didn't need them, it was better to keep them for someone who did, should they come his way.

  Arden turned and began to run back the way he came, but again he caught a glimpse of himself in the reflection. He looked haggard.

  Reluctantly, he activated his Legacy Ability. His body began to glow with an otherworldly divine light, mostly focused on his shattered arm. Bones mended themselves back together as if they were never broken, and his blood flowed back into his open wounds before they were sealed. He didn't want to rely on the ability again, but he was in just as bad a shape as Vera, but lacked her overwhelming strength and skill.

  He already let Sya know that he would probably heal while collecting supplies. She was not the biggest fan of him using it again, and he wasn't either. They both saw how it had the capacity to backfire.

  Reluctantly, Sya accepted on the condition that he would be the one to explain how he miraculously recovered to Cirai. He didn't like having to tell another person about the Legacy Ability, but he liked the prospect of bleeding out even less.

  When Arden’s body fully recovered, he broke into a sprint back the way he came. This time, his balance was just fine.

  By the time he returned, Cirai was already attempting to stimulate and circulate the stellar essence inside of Podren. Sya gave Arden the universal sign to keep quiet, and pulled him to Vera’s side.

  Arden pulled out several things from his inventory. He knew a few things that were needed from when he was healed after being attacked by the Celestial that ruined his family years ago. The memory of the piercing antiseptic smell stuck with him after all of these years, and he still hated it.

  The things he pulled from his inventory was a case of isopropyl alcohol, gauze, a suture, and a lot of string used for stitches.

  “This stuff will work, right?” He asked.

  Sya looked over the selection of medical goods and nodded.

  “It should. Remember, our goal right now isn't to heal her.”

  “It's to keep her alive long enough so that she can be healed.”

  Sya nodded her head, and got to work.