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MAZE - Chapter 990 - Strength Healing
🕑 Added 2025-01-02 07:37:29 +0000 UTC#### Author's note ####
You didn't expect to get another chapter so soo did you? Neither did I!
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Hera was holding Blue while Nimbus dashed through the passages. Thankfully, everything here was mostly flat. And even in situations where it wasn’t, the Sentinel could simply turn back to his titled form and carry the two of them up or down while flying.
In just a handful of minutes, they had arrived back at the corridor that led to the elevator. The Empress noticed the large number of bodies in the area. Looking back, she could even see Ziltan moving between the corpses on the ground, finishing them off one by one. The elf looked ragged. His clothes were covered in so much blood that was hard to tell if it came from him or someone else. There were several wounds all over his arms. And he was clearly struggling to walk. The man noticed Hera and gave her a curt nod before turning back and continuing his duty.
Nimbus didn’t stop for long. He slowed down so he could make the turn without forcing the Empress to press too hard on Blue. He had to be quick but also careful, as any abrupt motion could worsen his friend’s situation.
Speeding off towards the central lab, he went along the twisting paths for what felt like hours, despite his speed. Hera and Daskka constantly cast spells on Blue to keep her stable, which was already a struggle for them to do.
They eventually reached a large open door with a pile of bodies in front of it. All of them were cut in half at some point or another. Most had been decapitated, but a few had burn marks over their chest and shoulders. Among them was a single person who was just staring back at the bodies in shock. They saw Nimbus and Hera but didn’t say anything, just looked towards them and continued staring.
The Empress saw the two paths, but she failed to notice the plaque marking the direction of the security area and the lab. So instead, she picked a random path, in this case, left.
Nimbus quickly continued to move, following Hera’s directions. After the second turn, they saw Blade running towards them.
“Hera? What are you doing here? Frostbite didn’t have the legacy, she gave it to someone else,” the human asked but also delivered all the important information as fast as she could.
“Morgan had it. He’s dead. A bunch of humans were trapped. I freed some of them. Where’s Neria?”
“She’s on the other side, towards the lab. Where are the humans?” Blade asked.
“On the path I took, they were in the centaur assault. They could use help.”
Blade nodded as Nimbus quickly turned around to go after Neria. They had made the wrong choice when picking the side, and the more time they wasted, the worse Blue’s odds became. Just as she left, she heard Blade calling Marina over, saying something about going to the other prisoners.
What Hera didn’t realize was that one of her snakes was there. It recorded the entire conversation. At first, only a handful caught on to what was happening, but the more intense the fight became, the more people started to watch.
When the broadcast started, it was just a novelty of seeing an operation inside the MAZE being live streamed. But as more and more of the horrific actions taken by the guild were displayed, more people started to share the live stream and talk about it on various social media. Currently, due to a mix of the Mind Control offset and the sheer spectacle of what was happening, over half a billion people were watching as the alliance invaded the lab, fought off against the Soldiers of Strength, and found their people.
But the one event that took the broadcast to another level was Hera’s fight against Morgan. People already had complicated feelings related to CEOs of various companies. Hearing one of them lay out in the open, the reason for their actions in such a wrong way, made them even less enthusiastic about supporting him. More than that, seeing how he was treating not just the people from the alliance, but humans tipped his support over the edge.
Almost everyone who was watching the transmission and was under mind control was able to break free from the spell. Only a few of the more fanatic ones held on to the ideals presented by the New Dawn. Hera, screaming at the man about retail, was a lighthearted moment for those watching. It felt like a joke in a movie scripted to break some of the tension, and at the same time rally the masses who also believe that their bosses would never be able to survive while doing their job.
But that wasn’t the only thing that made people like Hera. From the moment she admitted who she truly was, searches for ‘Hera Kingsley’ skyrocketed across all search engines. And the alliance, together with the help of one of the best reporters on their side, was ready for that. They had several articles across multiple websites to go live in case Hera’s identity was revealed.
This was something they had prepared a long time ago but never imagined would be using live. Still, each of those articles presented a heartwarming story about a woman who failed to join the guild but kept on fighting for her dream. It talked about how she won a raffle to get her level up, then formed bonds with various people thanks to her kindness and care.
They talked about how she found a lost Dwarven civilization and how she fell in love with one of them. But because of their differences, they grew apart and had to separate. The article embellished that situation a bit more, saying their breakup was due to pressure from elders of the city who did not approve of their relationship.
It talked about how she had to travel to help a friend, and when she returned, she discovered that her ex, whom she still loved, had been kidnapped. The article continued, explaining the first discovery of the Soldiers of Strength project and how the woman she loved died in her arms after Hera was able to rescue her.
The story pivoted to how the guild was using their power and influence to threaten those close to Hera, and as a way to protect them, she made the ultimate sacrifice. She gave up her own Humanity, becoming something completely new, never seen before in the MAZE, just to protect those she loved.
Anyone who read the article could see how the Ophidianite Empress was hero material. And now, they were watching that live. They saw her fight, they saw her see one of her friends being ruthlessly tortured, and even in that situation, they saw her trying to help others as well. Even this last moment hit hard. For those watching, they witnessed someone who was carrying their dying friend in their hands pick the wrong path just so she could find someone to help the other prisoners.
It didn’t matter that she made a mistake. That’s what most of those watching believed.
Two minutes after leaving Blade enough time for most people to find the read the articles, Hera was able to reach the large operating rooms. The path here was too complicated, and to make matters worse, there were several bodies on the ground at different areas. All human, and all alive, but they had all collapsed for one reason or another. The Ophidianite didn’t have time to worry about that, but her gut feeling was that they were Soldiers of Strength, those who had lost their tattoo.
Nimbus jumped down, reaching the lab as a couple of humans appeared. They turned towards them, already brandishing their weapons, but Hera didn’t hesitate. She sent out a couple of Poison Fangs towards each of the humans, regular people who were not Soldiers of Strength, and called Clay. The Chain blade sent out an [Earthen Cleave], which slammed against both of the humans, making their ankles sink into the small fissures before the ground collapsed on top of their feet.
They were still alive, and Hera continued flying through the passages. Not long after, she reached the last door, the one that had been blasted open by Grimm, where people were inside helping the alliance prisoners.
“Neria!” Hera yelled.
The triton jumped to her feet, without stopping a spell she was casting on a particularly hurt prisoner. They were stable, but she was trying to let them walk on their own.
“Hera! What happened?” Neria rushed over as Hera climbed out of Nimbus, still holding Blue in her arms.
“Blue. She’s a new experiment. They were filtering all the strength daemons into her. I killed the man with the tattoo legacy, but it wasn’t enough. She’s still...” Hera couldn’t finish the sentence. “The connection is still there, but it’s too weak. If we don’t do something about that, she’s going to die.”
“Wait. You want me to heal the connection to keep her bond to the Strength Spirits?” Neria frowned.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what we can do. Can you break the connection without killing her?”
Neria glanced at the human with blue hair. Thanks to her role, the triton could tell Blue was struggling to stay alive. And that there was something slowly killing her. But at the same time, that was the only thing keeping her alive right now.
“I don’t know.”
“It doesn’t have to be permanent. All we need to do is find Alex. She can remove the rest of the connection without a problem, but we need to keep her alive until then.”
“Hera, I don’t-“
“Please!” Hera gasped, the tears she was holding back so far started to stream from her face.
“Okay. I’ll do my best. Make sure I don’t get interrupted,” Neria glanced to the side, seeing all the prisoners screaming for help. “Can you do something about the noise?”
Hera nodded, wiping the tears away and summoning her court to help those in need. At the same time, she created a soundproof barrier around the triton so she could work in peace.
While the Empress took a look around to properly understand what was going on, Neria started to work. She understood what Hera was asking. She had to use her Strength Healing to do something with this connection. Maybe heal it enough so Blue wouldn’t be killed by it, or at least that she could outheal the damage by herself, just for a few days.
Taking a deep breath, the triton prepared the spell. She first had to change her own water mana into strength, and then turn it into a liquid while maintaining the element to apply the heal. It was a complicated thing, and the moment her mana flickered to the wrong element, everything would collapse.
Water suddenly reached her feet, and with a quick glance, she saw some humans arriving. A couple who had the strange coloration of the second version of the Soldiers of Strength. Unlike the basic ones, those still seemed to be working properly.
Trusting her team, or what was left of it at least, Neria used the stone shape spell Hera taught her to make an elevated rock platform under Blue. She didn’t want to be disturbed by the constant waves of water hitting her patient, as weak as they were.
The triton focused on the tattoo around Blue’s neck. The sickening red thing that was on her neck, still exposed and without the black to cover it. She pushed the Strength Healing into the tattoo, not aiming it at Blue herself, but only at the connection that linked the human and the Spirit.
At first, that seemed to work, and Blue’s breath was a bit less strained. It was only working the edge of the tattoo. Once the magic went deeper, it spread out as if it was being split into dozens of different targets. Every drop of mana Neria created became a particle in that transfer.
She started putting more and more mana into it, hoping to overwhelm the link with sheer numbers. But the more mana she put inside, the more she strained the entrance of that connection.
Going for a different approach, Neria sent just a small piece of her Strength Healing forward and focused on it. She felt the mana passing through Blue and going to another few dozen targets, but then it continued splitting into even more targets, which then moved to even more targets. There were hundreds of them, maybe even more.
But that also gave her an insight. This entire link was a mess. The energy from the initial split of targets would go towards Blue, then flow back and split to the others. Without Blue, that link could survive on its own without any issues. But with her, the link was constantly forcing more mana than it could towards every direction.
At the same time, there was another problem. If Blue died, all the mana coming towards her would just be spent, causing her body to collapse violently. Explosion, but it could also result in her flesh just breaking down. But if the connection was cut, the mana that was passing by would rush back and collapse on the other targets that were not prepared to handle that kind of thing.
And just healing her wouldn’t work. The connection would start to pull more and more until Blue couldn’t take it. Healing the connection would do nothing to stop that.
Neria had a choice. She could try to save this human and potentially harm however many others were part of this connection. And she had no way of knowing how badly they would be injured. All she could tell was that it would be bad. Or she could enlarge the connection, making more mana be pulled towards Blue and kill her quickly. In doing so would make sure that all others who were part of this would be left mostly untouched.
Then again, there was a third option. Neria could break the connection between Blue and the rest, and hold on to the Strength mana. As long as she kept going with the Strength Healing for long enough, she should be able to spend all the mana before it could flow backwards. The one problem was that any flicker in her control would make the entire thing collapse and the feedback could be even worse.
It was the kind of decision any healer hated to make. Neria glanced up, noticing Hera fighting off against one of the Soldiers of Strength that was still alive. Tears still streamed from her face as her eyes shot towards Flint’s corpse.
The Ophidianite had been through so much. She gave up who she was. She lost someone she loved. She fought even though she didn’t want to. She gave not just her body, but her very soul to the alliance. It wasn’t fair to take something else, especially not if this choice would be made out of fear.
Making her decision, Neria grabbed the connection and snapped it, freeing Blue from its control while still sending the Strength Healing through that link. That spell was targeting through herself since it required someone to receive the magic, but while the connection was no longer pulling mana from the Spirits, there was still a considerable amount going back to them and it would remain like that until all the magic had been flushed out from this part of the network.
Neria had her eyes closed while she focused on her task. She didn’t bother looking up when a rumbling almost made her fall or when she felt a large wave of water crashing on her feet, almost knocking her down. But once someone fell inside the soundproof and let out a loud yell, the Healer’s instincts kicked in, and for a brief moment, her mana flashed to water.
The Healer quickly returned her focus, but the damage was done. In that link connecting Blue to the Strength Spirits, there was now a flash of water mana.
She didn’t even have time to register what happened, but the moment that magic hit the Spirits they all ignited. They were not simply rejecting that. Instead, the unfamiliar mana burned them, destroyed their very essence and made all those Spirits, all the Spirits that were connected to Blue, literally pop.
In the depths where waves meet stone, amidst the echoes of war, a healer born of Triton blood shall face a trial unseen. Though her heart beat with compassion’s tide, her strength shall falter, and the currents of fate will pull her under. From her grasp, life shall slip like sand through fingers, and in its wake, a shadow shall darken the waters, claiming hundreds of souls in its somber embrace.
Neria was able to save Blue, as the human was no longer on the brink of death. But she had no idea the cost.
Comments
Perizou
That's on me. I wrote that second part, of people not hearing Blade later and realized my mistake but didn't fix everything I should. Should be fine now.
Maren
There seems to be a contradiction in this chapter. People can apparently hear Hera's conversation with Morgan, but not the one with Blade.
Pletter
Reminds me of a quote. If you know, you know: Yet I dare not dwell overlong on my many regrets, for the world is a tapestry of fates, interwoven and inseparable, and we who strive to better it cannot choose but make difficult decisions. For naught of worth was ever achieved without sacrifice.
DrDankness
Sigh. Thats unfortunate. But its very likely that most of these spirits were being pseudo tortured into daemons like Forge was. In a way this was a mercy killing for those poor things. The question is whether or not there were other people also connected. The repercussions depending on what happened are pretty huge.
DrDankness
She's matured past that and no longer is in the position to afford such solitude. But yes she is going to struggle with this.
Pletter
"CEOs of various companies" I see what you did there. Glad you don't cross that line though.
CherMi
Glad that Blue survived, but Flint, Neria and all those spirits... This feels like the kind of thing that will make Hera go off exploring new rooms alone for years. Hope the story will continue past all this.
