"Don't... touch it. The... blade was poisoned. If you touch the wound, the poison will get you too..." She tries to warn you away from inspecting her wound. "He... missed my vital organs... on purpose, I think. But the poison has... spread too much. I'm pretty much done for." You shake your head as she tries to warn you off of inspecting the damage done, and you lift up her shirt enough to see the large piercing wound left from her having been run through with a blade to her abdomen, she's too weak to stop you from doing so. It's a wonder that she's even still capable of moving or talking as she is with a wound that severe. Around the edges of the wound, you can see the veins underneath her skin that have turned black and corroded away from the magical poison or curse that this mysterious enemy has inflicted Monica with. "S-stop." She once again tries to ward you away from touching the obviously magical wound, the failed attempt causing her to tumble to the ground again and for you to lay the woman on the floor. You're going to need to magically operate on her immediately, that much is clear.

"No. I'm not going to let you die, Monica." You tell her sternly. You aren't just going to let her have some sort of heroic sacrifice when it's completely unnecessary to do so. If she's unaware of just how skilled you've become as a magus, that's fine. But she's not only disregarding that, but she's also disregarding the fact that you've got Caster right here! Even if you weren't capable of healing her wound, which you are already in the process of beginning to do so, there's simply no way that Caster wouldn't have also been able to do so.

The woman locks eyes with you again, and reaches up with a hand to caress your face before talking, the relaxed place she's found herself in finally allowing her to become delirious from the incredible pain coursing through her body, she probably thinks that she's hallucinating right now. "You always did care so much about other people..." Damn it woman! Stop triggering your own death flags, you need to be healed! As you begin to reverse the damage to her abdomen, you take a glance over to the gash on her face. Thankfully, that wound doesn't appear to have been with the same poisoned blade, otherwise she would've likely already succumbed to the poison.

The blackened veins begin to return to their former color as you quite literally reverse the damage having ever been done in the first place with your incredible ability. Of course though, that doesn't mean that Monica is going to regain the energy she's already lost from the injuries in the first place. After all, you're only changing the damaged areas and the poison flowing through her veins, if you were to attempt to reverse her entire body rather than just the areas she needs healed, you would end up expending an enormous quantity of magical energy so quickly that you would almost certainly go over your limit and die.

She slips into unconsciousness just as you finish healing the wound on her abdomen, and you have been so focused on trying to heal your friend that you didn't even notice when Caster began to use her own magecraft in order to heal up the damage on Monica's face. It would've been mostly superficial anyway, but it would've left her with a horrible scar had it been allowed to heal naturally. You'll need to thank Caster later for being so instrumental in saving Monica's life. Even if you did the heavy lifting when it came to actually healing Monica's wound, Caster was the only reason you were able to save her in the first place. It's a horrible thought that had you not taken the decision to gather everyone before your meeting, Monica would've ended up succumbing to the poison even had she successfully managed to flee from her opponent.

Part 11