Seeing the events unfold before her, Evelyn cowered behind the tree as the panic traveled up her spine. She kept her hands tightly over her mouth, not daring to make a sound.
'How could someone truly be so mean? How could they kill another person? A child!'
Though Evelyn had been neglected growing up, she knew the importance of protecting children.
Not wanting to believe what she was seeing, Evelyn didn't move a muscle. She stood completely still as the girl on the ground continued to bleed out.
Seeing the group move, she could now clearly make out their appearances.
'They're all adults,' she thought, as a feeling of melancholy washed over her. 'How could they prey on someone that young…'
Once again focusing on the dying girl, Evelyn noticed that her eyes, which had been devoid of hope, were now closed.
The group picked some items off the ground before leaving the young girl behind. They didn't look back even once.
Seeing this, Evelyn took a deep breath, steading herself, before she took a trying step forward.
'They won't come back, right?'
Slowly making her way towards the girl, while still keeping a close watch in case the group came back, Evelyn felt her blood run cold. 'She isn't moving.'
Forgetting all caution, Evelynn hurried down beside the girl, finding her wounds. Now up close, she could see a wound on the side of her face that had been lying against the ground.
"This can't be it," she commented to herself while scanning the girl's body.
"I need to locate the wound to heal it," she fretted, as she franticly searched for the wound. She gently lifted the girl's blood-soaked sweater and found a deep gash on her back. Nervously looking up to check that the girl's assailants weren't coming back, Evelynn immediately activated basic heal.
A dim green light glowed from Evelynn's now red hands, moving into and illuminating the wound.
"Please work…" She prayed, desperately hoping she would be able to heal the girl.
But the blood kept flowing out, not slowing down. Evelynn kept her hands even closer, but the wound still kept bleeding. The small stream kept stealing the girl's life.
Seeing the blood all around her on the ground and feeling the wet sensation as it moved through her pants and clung to her legs, Evelynn was reminded of what had happened to her, just a week ago.
Looking at the girl's wound, the similarities were too much for Evelynn to deal with.
"She was stabbed in the back… just like me."
"She is bleeding to death… just like me."
"Her hair and clothes are dyed a deep crimson red, just as mine must have been…"
Feeling her breaths come faster and her hands starting to quiver, Evelynn almost missed the notifications from the system.
*Ding*
*Ding*
Willing the notifications to open, Evelynn saw a message she hadn't seen since she first began healing for her parents many years ago.
*Skill level is insufficient to heal a wound of this magnitude*
When she first started healing patients for her parents, she had seen this message often. When her skill level got higher, the message had switched to her mana and willpower being insufficient, and then the question of whether she wanted to use life force instead.
Looking at the next notification, her shoulders relaxed as she read the text.
*The responsibilities of a Black Healer are immense. You have the potential to control who lives and dies. Will you sacrifice yourself to help the person before you? Will you once again use your own life force to save someone else, or will you let them die? The choice is yours, Black Healer. *
"I wanted nothing more than for someone to help me when Samuel stabbed me… When I felt betrayed and alone, consumed by the dark feeling of nothingness. At least I could get revenge, but she couldn't."
After activating 'give life', for the first time since she had been reincarnated, Evelynn felt truly calm. Her whole body felt at ease. As if nothing else in life actually mattered, she pulled the girl up on her lap, holding her left hand under the girl's body, tightly against the wound.
Using her other hand, she brushed the girl's hair back, revealing her face. The girl's eyes were still closed, and her face was covered with dirt and leaves, mixed with her own blood.
The blood had started to coagulate around the wound and was cold and sticky to the touch.
Evelynn carefully tried to remove the dirt around the wound on the girl's face, as she kept giving her own life force.
The wound had stopped bleeding now, but the girl's face was still ashen in color.
Using her right hand, Evelynn tried to find the girl's pulse as her vision grew increasingly blurry, and her hand began to slightly shake.
"Come on… This girl is too young to die. Please let there be a pulse," she prayed, as she put her fingers even tighter against the girl's throat.
And then she waited.
And waited.
*Ba bump*
Feeling the weak pulse, Evelynn let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in.
"Maybe this is the reason I came back…" she marveled, as black spots crept into her sideview, narrowing her range of vision.
Once more, making sure the assailants weren't coming back, she prayed. "If there are any Gods out there, please help her. She is too young to die. She has her whole life ahead of her…"
*ding*
A notification rang out, as Evelyn sensed a slight movement inside her shirt.
She wanted to open the notification, but her senses were failing her. Her vision was blurry, she belatedly noticed that her whole body was shaking and there was a white noise ringing through her head and the world around her seemed to sway.
Forcing her body to cooperate, she opened her stats window and saw that her health stat was declining before her eyes.
20
19
18
17
16
The life force was draining out of her faster than she had ever been able to transfer it to the egg.
Seeing the number going down, Evelynn steeled herself, adamant to not faint yet. Keeping her eyes open was a struggle, but being able to focus just enough to make out the numbers took all that she had.
10
9
8
When the number reached 8, Evelynn stopped her ability, and the world around her blackened.
*Ding*
*Ding*
The notifications rang out, but Evelynn was already passed out, slouched over the young girl in her lap-