The Forsaken Hero
Chapter 396: The Grip of Justice

Chapter 396: The Grip of Justice

I awoke to someone shaking me. The motion was soft and gentle, like a ripple on a pond, but even that sent waves of agony searing through me, scattering my already bleary thoughts. My tail quivered uncontrollably as I curled into a ball, shrinking from the hand that brought me such pain.

"P-please!" I whimpered. My throat was bloody and raw, like I’d been screaming. It made sense, considering the pain I was in, but why did I hurt so much? Not a single cohesive thought or memory made it through the fog caused by the fiery ache in my shoulder, and I was left afraid and confused.

"Xiviyah, get up! Please!"

The voice was familiar, but strained and desperate. A memory flickered through my mind: a girl with short brown hair, piercing green eyes, and a teasing smile. Korra.

Slowly, as Korra continued coaxing me into opening my eyes, bits and pieces returned. There were the demons, then someone showed up...Victor, it was Victor. The demon fought him, and his party ambushed us. And then...then...

I groaned and shrank back from Korra, caught between the pain and my memories. My tail curled protectively around me, the tip twitching somewhere near my head. I grabbed it and hugged it to my chest, struggling to recall the final events leading up to the pain.

A wave of heat washed over me, and I heard Korra grunt. Something hot dripped onto my cheek, dribbling over a crust of dried blood on its way down my face.

"Xivyah, please. Wake up!" Korra sounded frantic now. "Luxxa’s going to die!"

Luxxa.

My eyes shot open and I gasped, letting fresh air flood my lungs. At the same time, I allowed a trickle of mana to seep into my soul, imbuing me with comforting warmth and bringing clarity to my mind. I shuddered as my mind cleared, improving my perception of the pain, but it also allowed me to have the presence of mind to finally open my eyes.

As I blinked away the crust of dried tears, more blood splattered across my face. I flinched and struggled up, groping blindly for a supporting wall of fur to lean on. But Fable was nowhere to be found, so I summoned my staff and staggered to my feet on my own strength. The moment I showed signs of stirring, Korra had gone from my immediate surroundings, leaving me alone.

I looked around anxiously as my vision cleared, taking in the sights, scents, and sensations of what I now remembered as a battlefield. It was hot and yet cold. Ash and snow danced together in the air, weaving a chaotic gray tapestry across the gently rolling hills. Thick plumes of smoke billowed from crevices and craters spread all over the ground. Thick ribbons of mana coiled here and there, lingering remnants of powerful spells.

I’d never seen a battlefield as devastated as this, where sixth-circle spells and techniques were thrown around like common fireballs. And all around me, fights still raged, my allies locked in a bitter struggle against the Star Guard. Korra and Orion led the assault against the berserker and armored swordsman from before, while the back lines of both launched spells, arrows, and support forward.

The fight shouldn’t have been close–the enemies had a seventh-level mage on their side, yet my friends held their ground. The reason immediately became apparent when the older mage launched a sixth-level Explosive Cascade. This spell had once threatened the lives of mine and the entire last light company when we were ambushed outside of the ice gate.

The first explosions of the cascade descended on the Star Guard with a vengeance, but Korra rose to meet it without fear. She thrust her arms out to the side and used a fourth-level magical art, the Aegis modified by the crawler’s ability. Golden light spewed out of her open palms, forming a shimmering shield that acted like an umbrella. It was an entire two levels below the Explosive Cascade–not to mention being weaker than the qualitative threshold of the sixth level–yet it barely even trembled as the explosions detonated.

The explosions cut the two parties apart, a veil of fire and ash, allowing them to catch their breath. I frowned as Korra’s words returned to my mind concerning Luxxa, and looked around her for. She should have been on the front lines, and yet...there.

My chest tightened as I found a pile of shining steel crumpled on the ground not far from me. Luxxa lay on her back, her armor and hair slick with her blood. None of the Star Guard were talented in healing, not to mention they were caught up in the fight. They must have left her to me, hoping I would wake up, but...was she even alive?

I stumbled forward, reaching for the female knight, but my legs were weak. Fable was at my side in an instant, catching me before I fell. His silver fur was matted with blood, parted in places by gaping, chasm-like lacerations. He had deliberately soaked as many wind blades and lightning strikes as possible to protect me and paid the price.

Together, we limped over to Luxxa’s limp body. Please be alive. Please.

At last we reached her and I collapsed at her side. Her chest rose and fell faintly, and her eyelids fluttered as I took her hand in mine. I let out a sob, weeping with relief, and let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding.

"Restoration," I breathed.

My soul shuddered as the four magic circles resolved, and the sunpurge tingled. It was risky to cast a fourth-circle spell, but I had already suffered everything the sunpurge could inflict on me. The laceration on my shoulder still burned, constantly threatening my consciousness, but I would have taken another cut, or even two, if it meant saving her.

As life magic flowed into her, Luxxa took a shallow breath, some of the color returning to her ashen face. A few shockwaves exploded behind me, but we were enough away from the fight to ignore it, allowing me to focus instead on examining her body. She was covered in cuts, scrapes, and stab wounds, probably three of which were life-threatening.

Two of the wounds were clean, a stab wound beneath her rib cage and a cut on her shoulder that left the bone exposed. But it was the attack from the berserker that really worried me, the one that put us in these dire straights to begin with.

Her armor was crushed and torn where the axe struck her hip, and her flesh beneath a bloody pulp. Her hip bone had shattered, driving bone fragments into the ripped muscles of her stomach and thigh.

Luxxa groaned as the soothing light of Restoration faded, and her pain returned full force. My magic had closed many of the minor cuts and abrasions, but the hole in her chest and side looked practically untouched. Perhaps I had helped with some of her internal bleeding, but a fourth-circle spell wasn’t capable of repairing such severe damage.

"Xiv...yah..." Luxxa groaned, her eyes fluttering open. Her pupils were hazy and dilated, and she raised a trembling hand to touch my cheek. "It’s...alright."

"No! You can’t die," my voice cracked with emotion. I didn’t even notice she had used my name for the first time instead of an honorific title. "Please, Luxxa. You can’t leave me!"

As I choked out the words, a tremor ran through my soul. My mana writhed in warning, and I felt a powerful, deadly presence approaching. Fable growled softly, but when I didn’t react, it turned into a whine, and he pawed at me pleadingly.

"I can’t leave her," I said, squeezing Luxxa’s hand. "Even...even if he’s coming for me. I have to save her."

Gritting my teeth against the pain, I dug deep into my soul, gathering as much mana as possible. When it wasn’t enough, I pushed past that limit.

Black dots danced in front of my eyes again, and I heard myself screaming in the background. As my strength and willpower flagged, fiery heat crept slowly up my side, the sunpurge finding room to gain ground again. But the pain was just penance for my weakness, for being unable to protect those I cared about. It was the cost of saving Luxxa.

"Regenerate!" It was all I could do to quell my sobbing cries and whisper the word.

Five magic circles materialized beneath Luxxa, bathing her in a torrent of life magic. It was only a single circle more powerful than Restoration, but each level of the spell was an exponential increase in power.

The woman gasped, her eyes flashing open, as her body jerked and came together. Bones creaked, muscles grew, and her skin knit together. Regenerate could restore limbs and heal anything short of a directly mortal wound, a power it put on full display now.

I waited with bated breath, crying softly from the pain of it all as I waited to see if it would work. Luxxa took another shallow breath, and then a slightly deeper one. Her thrashing ceased, and her face relaxed, growing loose as she slipped into a deep sleep. The wound in her chest gave a final gurgle of blood before new skin flowed over it, sealing it closed. The crushing cut on her hip was less life-threatening and received less attention, but even that looked far better by the time the power of the Regenerate began to fade. If I could just muster enough mana to cast it again, then–

The powerful presence arrived, and a wave of debilitating light slammed into me. My body was heavy and weak as whatever strength I had left was suppressed by the Light of Justice. Being the sole target of the ability was a thousand times worse than experiencing it at a distance. It had the weight of a mountain, crushing my body and leaving me unable to do more than take slight, shallow breaths.

A gauntleted hand gripped my horn and dragged me roughly into the air. I tried to cry out as the motion sent another wave of pain through me, but all that came out was a pathetic whimper. Through the tears, I made out Victor’s face, but could do nothing more than hang limply in his grasp.

"It’s good you haven’t died yet," he said, voice cold and expressionless. "I haven’t had a chance to thank you for what you did to Levin."