Reborn Healer Chapter 57

I stared down the Highmaster. Just as before, my danger sense was going off at every possible opportunity. A major difference, however, was that Lanaeus wasn’t the only one causing it. In fact, he wasn't even responsible for most of it. That honor went to the plague, or seemed to be very happy to consider other targets in the area but was still primarily focused on me.

The upside of dealing with a weapon that targeted specifically healers: I had a way to guide it around.

Highmaster Lanaeus wasn't the only person standing before me. Based on nightmares' call, I guessed that there were about a dozen people not far behind him.

“You want to talk,” he replied to me, flabbergasted.

“Yeah. Is that too much to ask?” It was definitely an odd position, but enough of his feelings had slipped through that I could tell he was very unsure. “I assume you know what this plague does now?”

“Is this your doing?”

“I'll take that as a yes.” I frowned. “And no. If I had it my way, I would have been well on my way out of here, and I assume you'd be dealing with the Federation or something. I have no idea who's behind this, but I have my guesses.”

From his reaction, it was pretty likely that Lanaeus did too.

“You claim not to be affiliated with this attack, yet here you stand bringing plague inside my walls. Give me one reason I should not cut you down here and now.”

“If I had just wanted to hurt you, I wouldn't have come back alone,” I said. “I would have done it with a proper offensive. I'm not a fighter.”

“I watched you kill two of my people. I struggle to believe that.” Lanaeus didn't have the pain I would have associated with someone losing two people close to them, but I suppose they had been subordinates, not friends.

Besides, dealing with Sebastian was more than enough proof that there were psychos leading the guilds.

I hoped not everyone in a high tier was like this.

“You ambushed me in an alleyway, interrogated me, and then executed me,” I replied. “Excuse me if I don't shed any tears for your comrades.”

“I don't expect you to.”

“And as to your original question,” I continued, “The reason why you won’t cut me down here and now is that I will release all this plague that's on my body if I die. And I'm not that easy to kill. Before you manage to even land your first attack, I will use every healing spell I have to propagate this to you and everyone behind you.”

“Threatening a Highmaster in his own guild. Bold.”

“Not bolder than what you did, I think.” I shrugged. “It’s not a threat, either. I’m just saying what’ll happen. I’ll try to preserve myself, just like any healer would, and that’ll exacerbate all of our plague problems tenfold. It’s just a fact that if you kill me, you’re going to have a much worse plague on your hands.”

“You would kill many, but not me.” Lanaeus’ visage was impassive, but I could feel the turmoil underneath. He didn’t want more people to die on his watch, and he wasn’t a hundred percent sure he could deal with what I could dish out, either.

Great, I thought. At least he’s not a complete sociopath.

“I don’t want to do that,” I said. “I just want to get my lifel—my magical focus back. I know where you’re keeping it. I walk into your vault, I walk out with one item, and we call it even.”

The Highmaster eyed me with trepidation, and I resisted the urge to grin. I was playing it cool, but I really didn’t want to get into a fight here.

“Your magical focus,” he repeated slowly. “The spear.”

“That’s the one,” I confirmed. “One hundred percent deep obsidian. You’re keeping it close.”

I pointed towards it to emphasize my point.

“Grancrest cannot overlook your violation of magical law,” Lanaeus said.

“The guild might not be able to you, but can you?” I gestured towards him. “If you really wanted to follow exactly what they say, you would’ve just killed me with one spell instead of trying to wrap me up in your web of spells earlier, surely.”

His expression didn’t change, but I could detect his chagrin with Nightmare’s Call.

“Yeah, I figured as much,” I said. “Look, we both have bigger problems to deal with. You can go right back to trying to catch or kill me afterward, but this one time, can we just make life easier for both of us?”

Lanaeus stared me down. He was visibly wavering, but he still wasn’t making a decision.

Time was ticking. Was he waiting for more of his people to come? Surely not. As far as I could tell, he was the strongest adventurer in this area of the Grancrest guild by far, since nobody else triggered my Danger Sense nearly as badly as he did.

“Make up your mind,” I ordered.

It was a risky gambit, but I didn’t want to take more time than I needed to. I had a bad feeling about staying here for too long, and I had heard that instinct enough times that I was definitely going to trust it.

Nightmare’s Call lvl 3 -> 4

The last time I had tried using this skill on Lanaeus, it had entirely failed, but that had been when he’d been sure in himself and amped with all his mana and willpower. He’d been fighting Locke earlier, which must have exhausted a good chunk of his mana given how much power that freaky supposed “teen” had. On top of that, he was in a situation where he had very little control.

Even then, the gap between me and a Highmaster was a lot to surmount. My skill formed a connection between the two of us, and I let the Nightmare in. Lanaeus pushed back with overwhelming force… but he couldn’t stop all of it.

His eyes unfocused for a second before a glare sharp enough to cut through steel came back to them.

“You’re pushing your luck, boy,” he said. “That would have earned you an instant death sentence anywhere in the seven kingdoms.”

I shrugged. “That holds a lot less weight when you’ve already followed through on one death sentence. So? Are you going to make a decision?”

Lanaeus continued affixing me with his gaze, which actually carried the weight of the mana pressure he could put behind it.

I didn’t falter. Compared to the sensation the Nightmare plague within me was still levying upon my body and soul, this was nothing.

A tired sigh escaped the Highmaster’s mouth, and his shoulders slumped. “Remain here. When you have obtained your weapon, leave immediately.”

I couldn’t help but laugh nervously, relief apparent in the sound. This had been the result I’d been betting on, yes, but I had harbored a mountain of doubts about whether or not it would even come close to working.

Lanaeus’ gaze grew long, affixed to something I couldn’t see, and he barked out a few quick orders. Within a minute, I felt my lifeline growing closer through my link to it, my skills growing more alive as it approached.

The second I felt Call Lifeline snap into place, I drew on it, summoning my spear. Judging from the startled reactions, none of them had been expecting that. Lanaeus jumped to attention, spell formation bursting into existence at the tip of his staff.

I caught the lifeline as it whizzed by him, glad to finally have its familiar weight in my hands. The spear hummed with energy, completing the circuit of mana through my body. Holding it lifted an invisible weight from my shoulders, the accumulated stress of not having every part of me in the same place dissipating at once.

After giving it an experimental spin, I nodded, satisfied, and turned around. I didn’t sense any danger from the spells they were creating now. I knew if I made a move towards them, a dozen mages and warriors alike would would release their readied attacks, but I had no interest in dealing with that.

The collective sigh of relief I felt rather than heard came from their side as I left, not mine. A grin tugged at the corner of my mouth.

All these people trained in the arts of magic and combat had gathered in one place, spearheaded by their Highmaster leader, and they were scared of me.

“See you soon,” Lanaeus said darkly, watching me retreat.

“Not if I see you first.”

I applied Nightmare Forged to it, void black energy enveloping the already-dark weapon. From the tip of the spear, I grew a curved blade out and inwards. It wasn’t the most practical shape, but with the skills of a warrior, practical weapons weren’t always the most effective ones.

Nobody bothered me as I left, but the weight of all the eyes on me was a bit unnerving. I didn’t have a sense that could detect all of the spells around me, but I had enough awareness of the balance of existence around me that I could at least get some idea of the fact that many, many people were watching me as I walked away.

My Danger Sense popped once or twice, but it never got to the point where I needed to immediately take action against something. People were thinking about acting against me but giving up before they started.

Outside, the situation hadn’t changed much. It had already been silent when I’d been walking in. This time, the only major difference was that most of the buildings that had been in the process of falling over had now fully collapsed. There had been few survivors, if any, but there were definitely none of them of them left now.

Maybe it was my imagination, but the plague seemed like it was clearing up at least a little. At the very least, it wasn’t constantly clinging to me like it had earlier.

At first, I thought that was because I was managing my healing spells earlier or maybe that I’d hit a certain amount of plague saturation that meant the weapon would no longer try to attack me, but my Danger Sense wasn’t even popping anymore, not even when I walked through a cloud of it.

It was the lifeline, I realized. That was the only difference I had here. The lifeline completed me, and it reverberated with the same otherworldly energy that the plague brought upon all of us. My deep obsidian weapon repelled its like, preventing it from infecting me further.

Nightmare Forged lvl 2 -> 3

I honestly couldn’t believe that I’d managed to proceed this far without further trouble. Since the lifeline was providing me protection, I experimented further with my mana further now. Empowering the lifeline with Nightmare Forged was easier than ever. Doing so with enough force even drew in some of the plague around me, increasing the mana flow even further. The difference between regular Nightmare Forged and the plague-empowered one was so apparent that shadow was actively flowing off of the spear like sublimating steam, which was encouraging enough that I even tried to see if I could clear the area of plague with it.

No dice on that, unfortunately. Neferi’s weapon was ridiculously energy-dense to the point where only a small cloud of it could run my Adept-tier skill beyond max capacity for ages.

It was harder for me to find my way out now that I was leaving from the center of the darkness, but I just needed to keep going in the same direction until I got out, heeding my Danger Sense to keep myself from walking into any problems.

Danger Sense lvl 3 -> 4

Harmonic Awareness lvl 3 -> 4

Both skills leveled, the amount of effort I’d expended using them to keep me alive paying off as their efficacy increased just a little bit.

Individual skill levels didn’t seem like that much on the surface, but they added up. Each of them granted me just a little more power, and over the course of a tier, that accumulated. When I’d first acquired Harmonic Awareness, it had essentially just been a short extension of my own body.

I had barely noticed, but little by little, it had expanded to encompass a significant bit beyond that. Rather than essentially an extended awareness of my clothes and the air just beyond, I had something like a dome of awareness that emerged from my body, giving me a much better understanding of my environment.

I looked forward to seeing what this could become.

For the time being, I just used the skill to get out, avoiding the worst of the damaged buildings and steering clear of the bodies on the ground.

Sensing some of them as I passed by, I felt the slightest twinge of regret that I hadn’t gotten involved in worshipping any of the gods here or at least understanding a little more about them. I was sure the priests in the various churches, as odd and cult-like as they could be, would have some better words of repose for these fallen than that sucks.

As it was, I could do nothing more than regret that innocent people had died and keep moving. I couldn’t have saved them no matter what I tried. There was no point in shedding tears over it.

Eventually, the plague did start to actually thin out. Unlike normal diseases, it didn’t seem like it was spreading all that far, all things considered. It behaved more like I would expect something like napalm to do, sticking to people and buildings but staying within reasonable confines. By the time I was maybe a half mile out from the tower, sunbeams poked through gaps in the dark clouds, illuminating the rotted, poisoned ground beneath me.

My Danger Sense slowly started to notify me of a potential threat as I continued, though it wasn’t immediately on or near me. In fact, I wasn’t sure if it was a threat at all or if it was something more mundane. This skill was evolving too, giving me more nuance about what I could expect to face rather than just being a huge placard saying THINK FAST, MORON.

As I continued through the fading darkness, I tried to make sense of what I was feeling. This wasn’t quite a direct threat, but it was something I had to deal with, right? I could also just turn the other way and try to distance myself from this as far as possible, but now that I was so involved with this I no longer thought that leaving it alone was the best option.

Who was this? Was this the Federation? Who else could it be?

I upped my pace, trying to get to a point where I could actually use the five senses typically granted to my human body.

The shift from plague-ridden hellscape to hills was so sudden I nearly stumbled over myself when the edge of my perception arrived into grass that had only been trampled on, not torn to shreds by the weapon.

Once I was out, shaking the darkness away as I finally saw the sun again, I had to squint to see. The sudden return to daylight was blinding, almost invoking the same sense of wrongness that the plague has. After so much darkness, the sun just looked wrong.

My vision returned quicker with the help of a Basic Heal, though, and then I was looking over the fields I had been trying to cross earlier. I was significantly further along than I’d been before the plague portal had opened—somewhere just past where Cale and his group had been before they’d cut and run.

After everything I’d seen, I couldn’t blame them.

They were nowhere in sight now. Given the fact that they’d had previous experience with this, they must have assumed that they had to cut and run immediately.

…and they would probably be right, I reflected.

My Danger Sense was itching at the edges of my awareness now, and I brought my attention to where it wanted me to look.

Off in the distance, just over the bend of a gentle hill, a number of people were arriving on horses, which at least differentiated them from the Federation. That was no portal.

The second thing I noticed was the colors they wore. The Federation was blue and gold, Grancrest red and white. Every single one of the dozen-odd people that were actually visible outside of the carriages were dressed in the royal purple that the newer generation of city guards wore.

Ah. So this had expanded past the purveyance of the guilds alone. I had figured that would happen at some point. It tracked that this would be what drew Liaren’s attention.

Because I could see them, they of course could see me. They were a unit from the city—a formal one, not that hastily-slapped-together band of shitheads who had tried to capture Mizuki a few months ago. They would have someone on reconnaissance.

Well, running would only make it worse at this point.

They came to me much faster than I could get to them. Someone dismounted from the frontmost carriage while it was still moving, hitting the ground without missing a step and sprinting to keep up with the horse carrying it, ending up standing a good distance in front of it. He held his hand up, and everybody behind him stopped in a much less dramatic fashion.

This man… the same kind of pressure that I was getting used to seeing from people above Master rank roiled off of him in waves, but my Danger Sense wasn’t quite screaming at me.

Huh. Interesting. Did that mean he wasn’t powerful, or was the skill just not registering him as a threat to me?

I had the vague feeling I’d seen him somewhere before, accompanied by a plain old bad feeling in my gut.

This situation was not growing any less complicated.

The first person to speak was not him but someone who was still seated atop her horse.

“You are in the presence of Lord Prince Gerald Halcyon,” she announced, clearly battling through exhaustion even as she attempted a grandiose introduction.

“Thank you, but that is quite enough,” the Lord Prince before me said, raising his hand again. He looked down at me. “So you’re the blind spot.”

I tilted my head. “Blind spot?”

“And you carry… interesting.” He removed his helmet, revealing shoulder-length blond hair and a grave, hardened expression that I hadn’t expected on someone who looked maybe thirty-five. “I take it that you are Red.”

“I’ve been called that, yes.”

“Then, Red, you have thirty seconds to explain why you carry the Nightmare plague with you.”

Danger Sense lvl 4 -> 5

Nothing changed in Gerald’s disposition or posture, but suddenly, my instincts howled.

RUN.