Magic Tower Defense, situation concluded.
The ice barriers I had erected had all melted from the aftermath of the Star Peace, but that was fine.
Feeling proud, I struck a Peace first.
I grabbed my greatsword with telekinesis and levitated it.
Gracefully maintaining my posture atop the floating greatsword.
Casting Maid's Grace Star Peace.
Reinforcing my body with aura and mana so it wouldn't be overstrained.
Sending greetings into the Mutants' minds while composing poetry in my heart.
「The Maid's Shotgun (A) has been destroyed.」
To think I could even reinforce at the same time.
Drunk on my flexible multitasking ability, I spun round and round.
What can't I do, exactly?
That thought struck me while I was having a narcissistic moment, spinning three full rotations.
Ah, right. Healing arts.
The fact that there was something I couldn't do made my strength drain away all at once.
"Hing-ing-ing."
— ?
Thud. I collapsed powerlessly onto the greatsword and desperately called out the name I missed.
"Ravina-nim, Ravina-nim. Let's talk."
「You cannot summon Ravina yet. Cooldown: 240 hours.」
"?"
Not even one hour had decreased out of 240.
So the cooldown probably starts ticking after the summon duration ends.
Sulking. I'd have to wait at least ten days to learn holy rites from Ravina-nim.
I grew sad and weakly went hing-ing.
— Shall I call Raaga?
— He was at the chicken restaurant earlier.
— He's still at the chicken restaurant talking with Oracle right now.
— Is he a chicken restaurant ghost...? Why is he still there...?
— All the Named Priests went there to learn holy rite applications from Raaga.
— I see.
— So it was an advanced priest training center.
— If even Oracle is learning, Raaga must have been an amazing priest...
Since it came to this, I was going the self-study route.
Even if the Constellations couldn't teach me about healing arts, even if I was in a situation where I couldn't receive Ravina-nim's help, it was fine.
I could do it. If it was me.
I stored the greatsword in subspace and landed gracefully in front of the Magic Tower.
Since I had destroyed the door on the 11th floor, there was no door at the entrance, but I knocked on empty air.
"Knock, knock. Eldrion-nim. I'm here. Let's talk."
After a brief wait, Eldrion-nim and Seria-nim dragged Riette-nim out.
"?"
"As expected, it was you...! The master of that transcendent magic earlier was...!"
"VV."
"We need help! Riette has become a real zombie!"
"???"
"Dorman too can no longer maintain his reason...! I wanted to give him a dignified end as a mage, but for some reason, I thought you might have a way..."
"!"
I felt tremendous despair and desperation in Eldrion-nim and Seria-nim's eyes.
"Awawawang. Awawang. Awawawawang."
Riette-nim, who had completely zombified, kept trying to bite me whenever she saw me.
Even though she had learned last time that biting me would only break her teeth, she had changed like that because she had lost her reason.
"I can fix you. I will definitely fix you."
"There is a way...?!"
— It seems too late, so even healing arts might be too much.
— If it's S-rank, it might be possible?
— But is Yuyeon-nim's healing arts S-rank too?
— As if there's anything Yuyeon-nim can't do; of course her healing arts must be S-rank too.
I can do it... If it's me...!
The moment I resolved to heal Riette-nim, concentrating on my inner divinity.
"Ho, hoeng..."
"?"
Suddenly Riette-nim, who had regained a sliver of reason, smiled faintly.
Then—boom! She detonated her own heart with mana.
"???"
"Riette...!"
"?????"
"She said she would die as a mage, and she really died as a mage...!"
"You were truly an excellent mage...!"
— But she self-destructed before Yuyeon-nim could even try anything;
— Truly a mage through and through...
— (Dead... mage con.)
Rustle, rustle.
I pulled out a suitable item from my subspace pocket.
「Armor of the Blood General (A)
- You will not die unless your heart and brain are destroyed simultaneously.
- Recovery increases the lower your life force becomes.
- Can recover from any type of damage.
- Heart destroyed upon unequipping.」
I wondered if I could equip this on Riette-nim.
I brought the armor to Riette-nim, who wasn't completely dead yet and was trembling while copying my Peace, and the armor shrank, automatically equipping itself onto her body.
"Oh."
— ?
— Why is the General's armor coming out here...?
— Wasn't it broken...?
So this is how equipping works.
Riette-nim was no longer in danger of dying.
If she tried to destroy her brain and heart simultaneously, I would stop her.
"Wh-what is this armor?"
"It's an armor that can save Riette-nim."
Curious whether this armor could solve the zombification too, I watched, but it seemed to only regenerate the flesh without restoring her sanity.
Perhaps because zombification is more of a mutation than physical damage.
"Riette-nim."
"Hoeng...?"
"I will definitely fix you, so please don't give up?"
Anyway, a precious moment to train healing arts had arrived.
***
"Hoeng!! Hoeng!! Hoooeng!!"
Hoeng sounds echoed throughout the Magic Tower.
The problem was the crude, burning divinity digging into her body.
I telekinetically lifted Riette-nim, who was struggling to escape—
Lap pillow, then head pats.
"Riette-nim. When you cry, you should cry quietly."
"Hoeng—"
"Here, if it's hard, bite my arm."
"Awawawang...!"
— What... I'm jealous but not jealous...
— (Trembling... guardian con.)
They usually put a bit in the mouth for painful procedures like this.
I offered my arm like a bit for Riette-nim's sake.
Riette-nim chomped on my arm to suppress the hoeng sounds.
Of course, Riette-nim's bite force couldn't injure my arm.
Giving up on chewing, she began licking as if wanting to savor the taste.
I focused all my senses on divinity, if only to lessen Riette-nim's pain.
"Is there nothing we can do to help...?"
"While I treat Riette-nim, please help Dorman-nim not to give up."
"Understood...!"
"Yes...! We'll leave Riette to you...!"
It would be troublesome if Dorman-nim gave up and burst his heart like Riette-nim too.
Because I hadn't made him happy yet.
"Riette-nim. Ending like this is too sad. Please endure a little longer."
I grabbed the struggling Riette-nim's arms and legs with telekinesis.
Work, flexible multitasking.
Caring for Riette-nim while training healing arts—I could do it, if it was me.
"When you get better, let's Peace together. Doing a Flame Peace together would be warm and nice."
"Awawang! Awawawawang!"
— Why flame peace of all things?
— (Let's burn! mage con.)
— Ah, mages like setting things on fire, so that's why!
My healing arts was currently D-rank.
They had said that to cure mages who were basically fully zombified, my healing arts would need to reach S-rank.
It would be convenient if I could raise it by selecting healing arts as a reward for clearing a trial, but that wasn't possible.
Just like my other skills, I had no choice but to raise the skill rank forcibly through training and enlightenment.
I closed my eyes and looked into Riette-nim's body with my Mind's Eye.
Meaningless. Come to think of it, clairvoyance and the Mind's Eye are different.
Sulking. I continued thinking with my eyes closed.
"Ang ang ang..."
— ?
— (Ang ang ang priest con.)
— (Hing-ing-ing maid con.)
I imagined the greatest priest.
I recalled Ravina-nim, who had flown around the entire globe with me for about 24 hours, instantly healing people who had been driven to the brink of death.
I definitely saw it. The way Ravina-nim wielded divinity.
I clearly saw what laws divinity moved under for the concept of healing to be established.
Divinity flowing from the fingertips.
I reproduced, however clumsily, that warmth of infusing divinity into another's flesh to heal them.
Ttideuk—Riette-nim's split skin slightly closed.
I had finally succeeded in healing arts for the first time.
"Ravina-nim. I finally understand..."
— ???
— (Cheer up! priest con.)
"Awawawang!!! Hoeng!! Hoooeng!!"
"Please cry quietly. I'm becoming a healing arts expert right now."
— So you're saying you're not an expert yet...?
The moment I successfully cast healing arts once, enlightenment flooded in like unblocked vessels.
For mutated flesh to return to a pure state, I had to accurately grasp that pure state.
The form of the soul determined from birth.
Reading that soul's memory, I examined the flesh in its pure state.
"Ravina-nim. How did you live such a life."
I realized it. The core of healing.
***
Dorman, who had been called the paragon of mages for his cold reason and intellect, was currently feeling extreme fear.
Even as the zombification progressed, he had thought to somehow maintain his reason and die as a mage.
"Letters... letters aren't readable... Why is my speech like this..."
Now, as if he had truly reached his limit, the letters in books were unreadable.
Moreover, his speech dragged at the ends uncontrollably.
"This can't be... I don't talk like this..."
I'm scared. Death is frightening too, but losing myself is frightening.
The sensation of reason decomposing and intellect fragmenting and tearing apart was so terrifying it felt like madness.
"This makes me the same as Riette and Seria..."
Smack—!
He had strongly slapped his own jaw to correct his speech, but it was meaningless.
The sight of a mage resorting to self-harm with his fists to resolve the situation was absurd.
"...I must die as a mage before becoming a zombie. I've been prepared for a long time."
I'm finished now. Let me die as a mage before breaking further.
Or no. Like Riette, who endured even on the verge of completely breaking, perhaps enduring was the mage-like thing to do.
In the moment of anguish, Eldrion-nim and Seria came.
"Dorman! Are you alright!"
"Pull yourself together! Yuyeon-nim is curing Riette!"
"......?!"
Yuyeon-nim. An incredible figure assumed to be a 10th-circle archmage.
Could a 10th-circle archmage even solve this zombification phenomenon?
It made no sense for me, merely a 7th-circle mage, to doubt a 10th-circle archmage.
Grabbing his crumbling reason, he stood up trembling, and from afar, Riette's screams could be heard.
"Hoooeeeeng!!! Hoooeng!!! Hoeng!!!"
Even if one's entire body were torn apart or burned, such screams wouldn't come out.
What on earth was being done to produce such screams?
The sorrowful screams echoing throughout the Magic Tower instilled yet another fear.
Still, if he could return to before the mutation, he could endure any amount of pain.
"H-help me walk... I request..."
"??? Your speech is shot!"
"Not as much as yours..."
"I'll support you. Come, let's go!"
Walking to the Magic Tower entrance while listening to Riette's screams, a shocking sight greeted them.
Riette, with snow-white skin and vibrant golden hair, was lying with her head resting on Yuyeon-nim's lap, unconscious.
"Riette is really cured!!!"
"We thought zombification treatment was impossible!"
So zombification treatment really was possible.
Hope did come even to this frozen world.
The sight of Yuyeon-nim gently stroking Riette's head so she could rest comfortably looked so holy—
"Treatment is done, so I'll retrieve the armor."
"?"
Suddenly, the strange armor Riette was wearing disappeared, and he could feel her heart being destroyed.
"Kehuk."
"???"
Yuyeon-nim infused holy energy once more into Riette, who was vomiting blood, and regenerated her heart.
Then, wiping the blood staining her lips with delicate fingers, she looked at him.
"Ah. Dorman-nim. You're next. Please lie down comfortably here."
With somehow terrifying eyes.
"Dorman-nim, Seria-nim, and Eldrion-nim too. I'll definitely cure you all?"
She said she would cure every single one of them without exception.
He had resolved that if he could return to being human, he could endure any pain.
"Please save me!!! At this rate I'll die before returning to human!!!"
"It's fine, you won't die. If it's hard, would you like to bite my arm?"
"I'm not a fool who can't endure bite impulses like Riette!!!"
"Then please cry quietly."
"Kraaaack!!!"
"Oh dear. Dorman-nim. Let me teach you something called 'Rabina Mentality.'"
"What is that!!!"
"How about enjoying it if you can't avoid it."
"That's absurd!!!"
The mind-numbing pain could neither be endured nor enjoyed.
Repeatedly losing and regaining consciousness from the extreme pain, when he finally opened his eyes.
"Are you alright now?"
"I just opened my eyes now. I'm last place."
"So refreshing!!"
Eldrion-nim, Seria, and Riette too...
All of Aestrea's mages had returned to being human.
"Where did Yuyeon-nim go...?"
"She left. She said she'll come back, so wait."
"She said she'll teach us something called Flame Peace next time."
"Flame Peace...?"
Yuyeon-nim, who had bestowed grace so great he couldn't fathom how to repay it, had gifted them hope for the future once more.
"I don't know what it is... but I already like it."
"Come eat first. Now that you're human, you need to eat."
"The lunch boxes Yuyeon-nim gave are all delicious."
"Those lunch boxes are my share, so please don't touch them."
"Stupid Riette should just hoeng."
"I, I never made such sounds!!"
"Seria... you who still use polite speech are the most foolish..."
"That's right! Seria is indeed the most foolish!"
"Polite speech is a good thing."
"Hehe. It's good to see everyone talking more."
The feeling of looking forward to tomorrow was one he hadn't felt in a very long time.