Ch#186
'This is serious.'
Tese tan tensed his jaw while holding Tie.
Libia gasped for breath.
"Wh-what do we do? I, I can't... breathe properly."
Her complexion had grown even paler than moments ago.
Tese tan quietly gritted his teeth.
If only they were outside.
Then he could've at least looked for a Holy Knight nearby who could manifest healing power.
At that moment.
"Libia!"
Aleric came rushing from behind, having regained consciousness.
Aleric's eyes began to shake upon seeing her.
"You...!"
"Aleric, you, huff, you're bleeding."
Libia smiled while looking at Aleric's torn shoulder.
Aleric, who had stopped breathing, twisted his face in anguish.
"Is my shoulder important right now? How the hell did this...?"
Libia's eyelids trembled faintly.
Her pupils, barely holding onto consciousness, looked precarious, as if they might lose focus any second.
"Leader, Vice Leader."
Aleric turned his body, unable to bear it any longer.
"Anything! Can't we do something? You're still the Vice Leader...!"
Aleric clamped his mouth shut.
Tese tan's gaze sank.
Because he knew what Aleric's unfinished words meant.
Tese tan replied in a subdued voice.
"I can't heal with my Holy Power."
"......"
"It's not trained for that. Sorry."
Tese tan wielded both Holy Power and mana.
But that ability applied only to swordsmanship.
To wield Holy Power as healing required very long years of training and refinement.
Even Alexander had taken nearly ten years to use that level of healing power.
"Then...?"
Aleric turned his gaze to Tie.
Tie stared back at Aleric with tears welling in her eyes.
"How, how is it impossible...? You're the Necromancer King."
"......"
"The first to wield dark attribute, so...?"
Aleric's voice trailed off slowly.
Because he knew it himself.
Mana was fundamentally not a healing power.
No matter how great a mage Astie was, it would be hard for her to suddenly heal someone.
Moreover, Libia's wound was far from minor.
"Stop it. Huff, Aleric."
At that moment, a faint voice came from behind.
Libia was staring at Aleric while barely breathing.
"I-I'm, huff, the one hurt, why make those two feel like criminals?"
Libia looked at Tese tan and Tie.
"Leader. Vice Leader. Just in case, I'm saying this."
The breaths escaping her lips grew rougher.
"If I die because of you two, huff. It won't be, right? Right?"
"Libia!"
Aleric shouted, but Libia didn't stop.
"I, I should've, huff, stayed back...?"
Libia's hand, clutching the wound, slipped down slowly.
"Libia! No!"
Aleric screamed and grabbed Libia.
He repeatedly stroked her bloodless cheek.
"Snap out of it. We can get out soon. Treatment outside, this is nothing, okay?"
"......"
But Libia didn't answer.
Her pupils lost focus, and her body, with most movements stopped, had only her chest rising and falling faintly.
Tie unwittingly clenched her fists tight.
Everything looked distorted through her flowing tears.
'Aunt Libia...'
Suddenly.
She recalled the day she first saw Libia in her dream.
'Miss. You must always stay healthy.'
Tie now knew.
Why Libia had called her 'miss' in that dream.
'Because Tie was Dad's daughter. Aunt Libia was Dad's subordinate.'
'Always, always gaplessly happy...'
"Ugh..."
A person was dying right before her eyes.
Someone more precious than anyone, who had wished for Tie's happiness.
'It's Tie's fault.'
It was all Tie's fault.
Tie hadn't caused the earthquake, but then or now, Libia had gotten hurt protecting Tie.
'If Tie hadn't been there, if Tie hadn't come here looking for Dad.'
Would Libia not have gotten hurt today?
In the other timeline before crossing over, Libia had lived healthily far into the future.
Tie's lips trembled faintly.
'Aunt Libia got hurt because Tie came. Earlier...'
She had come to protect, yet made someone hurt this badly.
The child's body shook harder.
Tese tan held Tie tighter and fixed his gaze on Libia.
Aleric's muttering like a madman reached his ears.
"No, no."
It wasn't the first time either of them had lost a comrade.
But Libia was...
Aleric repeatedly gathered mana at his trembling fingertips.
Because that was all he could do now.
But his already depleted mana just scattered continuously.
At that instant, Libia's lips finally released a long final breath.
The faint rising and falling of her chest completely stopped.
As Aleric froze and a horrific silence descended on the space.
"...No, Aunt!"
Tie pushed Tese tan away and rushed forward.
"Aunt, Aunt...!"
Aleric watched Astie with dry eyes.
Astie was shaking Libia's shoulder with all her might.
Aleric slowly stared at the ceiling.
No tears came from his wide eyes.
'Let's do well today without getting hurt, okay?'
Libia's words from before the battle began echoed and re-echoed in his mind.
"...Astie?"
But at that moment, Tese tan murmured.
At the same time, the surroundings brightened suddenly.
Aleric lowered his head.
And clamped his lips at the sight unfolding before him.
"Leader?"
Familiar golden energy wavered from Tie's fingertips.
And not just that.
Light streams extending from Astie's body illuminated the isolated space brightly.
"Aunt, you can't die."
Tears fell from Astie's eyes.
Without knowing what she was doing, Tie hugged Libia's neck.
The golden energy was sucked into Libia's body as if being absorbed.
A short exclamation escaped Aleric's lips.
Because the wound on Libia's cheek healed instantly before his eyes.
No time to grasp the situation.
No time to hesitate further.
Aleric confirmed Libia's wounds healing once more with his own eyes.
Then took a deep breath and pulled out the stone shard deeply embedded in her side.
"Aunt...?"
Amid Tie's sobbing.
Thick blood gushed from Libia's side.
But as golden energy gathered there, the bleeding stopped immediately.
Aleric panted as he dropped the stone shard.
The gaping hole-like wound was filling rapidly.
Severed blood vessels connected, muscles and ligaments regenerated.
"How, Holy Power...?"
Aleric murmured.
In doing so, he failed to notice his own shoulder wound healing from the light.
"...Cough!"
The next moment, Libia opened her eyes.
Tie lifted her head too.
"Aunt!"
Libia slowly blinked at brightly smiling Tie.
'...Thought I was dying?'
She couldn't understand what had happened in that short time.
She groped her side with trembling hands.
But only raised scar-like skin remained there.
"What just...?"
'My daughter.'
At that moment, a scene unfolded before her eyes.
'Her name is Astie.'
Tese tan.
But with rougher facial lines and a somewhat unfamiliar aura compared to now, speaking.
'I'll raise her well.'
Libia clutched her forehead.
'In a safe, warm place. Brighter and happier than anyone.'
'......'
'I'll definitely raise her that way.'
Libia turned her head toward Tese tan.
Then her eyes met Aleric's, who wore a similar expression.
