On the roof, Vanessa leaned against a wall, her expression calm despite what was happening around her. Ruya continued to shoot the enemies while she seemed to wander in her thoughts. Then, Cracknut crawled towards her, his tiny squirrel limbs climbing onto Vanessa's thighs. Vanessa's expression was one of confusion, but then Cracknut hugged her hand tightly with his tiny body. She seemed surprised by the squirrel's actions, and for a moment, smiled faintly.
Then Ruya stopped shooting completely, making the two of them turn their heads to see why.
"It's Klara!"
he declared, his face washed with relief, but also fear. Beside Klara, James floated in the air unconscious, his body covered in fatal wounds.
"No... James?!"
muttered Ruya in disbelief. Then Klara jumped high into the air, landing on the roof they were standing on, together with James.
"Is he okay?!"
asked Ruya as he rushed over to them. Klara gently laid James down with her magic and immediately began to perform healing magic on him. Two golden magical circles, full of ancient symbols, appeared from her palms and began to pour healing mana into his body.
"He suffered many external and internal injuries. Together with a lot of blood loss, his bones are completely broken..."
Answered Klara, trying hard to calm herself as she focused on healing James's wounds.
Ruya's eyes shot wide with shock and even more disbelief.
"How does someone survive this much? It's... impossible..."
he wondered as he looked at James. Vanessa also came over behind Ruya to see, carrying Cracknut in her arms.
"He pushed himself too hard... This made his mana core explode with magic energy that overflowed his mana veins, making them like ticking time bombs ready to explode and damage him internally, which they did..."
continued Klara.
"Luckily... his mana core didn't fully shatter and explode, so I was able to save him just in time... If I had been a second too late..."
She paused. A single tear rolled down her cheek. Ruya stood silent, no words could come out of his mouth.
"He is going to survive this... right?"
he questioned. Klara didn't reply. She just stayed silent, healing James as much as she could.
Before anyone could say anything else, someone else landed on the rooftop. Ruya, Vanessa, and Cracknut turned to look at who it was. Ruya's eyes widened.
"H-Hano?"
Hano looked at them, her face full of fatigue and exhaustion. Before she could utter any words, she collapsed to the ground. Alarmed, Ruya immediately rushed toward her and kneeled down. Holding her in his arms, he noticed the badly burned and melted leg.
"Shit..."
he muttered.
"Her leg, from the knee down, has completely burned and badly melted..."
As he examined it more carefully, he noticed that the bones had also been affected, making the situation more critical. Ruya began to wonder,
"The infection seems to have spread to a critical level... Blood loss... The bones have also begun to melt, and if we don't do anything—"
Suddenly Klara spoke.
"Sever her entire leg,"
declared she while still working on James.
This caught all of them by surprise, especially Ruya.
"W-what?!"
He couldn't believe it.
"S-surely there has to be another way we can treat this!"
Ruya protested, his eyes shifting between Klara and Hano's leg.
"There is no other way..."
Klara insisted.
"To save her leg, my healing magic is required to safely remove the infection and help reconstruct new cells. But I can't."
Ruya looked on with a mix of sadness and urgency as Klara continued,
"I need to focus my entire magic power on saving James... If I'm not entirely focused on him, he can die."
Ruya bit his lower lip, desperately trying to come up with an idea, a solution... anything.
"You cannot just give up on her like this!"
Ruya fired back. Vanessa and Cracknut listened, their faces helpless and sad.
"Instead of trying to find a solution, you insist on doing what solves the problem faster."
Ruya clenched his fists.
"Hano is your comrade! Your friend! Your companion! Can you imagine the life she would have?"
Ruya pushed, his eyes burning as he tried to reason with Klara.
"Ruya..."
Klara replied slowly.
"I know how you feel..."
she admitted. That caught Ruya off guard.
"I once always tried to save everyone, even when the situations were against that."