Having confirmed the situation, Cardinal softly raised the staff in her right hand. Her small frame instantly floated up and she glided through the air to where Alice and I had fallen.

Descending onto the floor, she first gave Alice’s back a soft touch with the head of the staff. Gleaming particles of light fluttered and whirled about when she did, sinking into the knight’s body.

Next, she knocked the slender staff against my shoulder. That warm light came forth once more and enveloped my body that had lost all sensation.

The cold sense of emptiness I felt, like I had ceased to exist, first vanished before a searing pain returned to my abdomen that had received a direct hit from the golem. I forced down the urge to scream and the pain was soon thawed by a wave of warmth. My bodily sensations returned just as the pain settled down and I tried flexing my stiff right hand countless times before feeling for the injury on my stomach with apprehension.

My touch revealed that though a stinging scar remained, the deep wound that nearly severed my body had been completely sealed up; I couldn’t help but to be surprised. If I wanted to accomplish the same effect with healing arts, I would have to chant continuously for hours in a forest filled with sunlight.

I’m saved—such simpleminded happiness seemed even inappropriate for an art so miraculous, but naturally, compensation of equal value must have been needed. Not to mention the one to pay the price would not be me, but the sage, Cardinal. After all, the highest minister, Administrator, would never let—

(Alicization Uniting, 166)