Opening his eyes little by little, Asti was still groggy, but he could perfectly hear what was being said.
"What do we need to do with these two?" a woman asked.
"Sonia ordered us to heal all their wounds, both external and internal," a man replied.
"But they're enemies, aren't they?" the woman questioned.
"Yes, but Sonia plans to use them as entertainment tomorrow. She said that if they're in perfect condition, you'll get to attend the show," the man added.
A mischievous smile spread across the woman's lips.
"No problem. By tomorrow, they'll be as good as new, not a single injury to report," she said.
"Good. See you tomorrow, then," the man said as he left.
The woman approached Asti, undressed him, and examined his entire body. When she touched his stomach and legs, Asti grimaced in pain.
"Looks like physical pain, nothing serious. Just a small healing potion, and you'll be good as new. Now, let's move on to the other one," she said.
Asti turned his head. He was starting to come around, though he still struggled to move. He easily recognized the person lying next to him: it was Lucien.
The woman undressed Lucien, who was unconscious.
"Damn, just by looking at you, I can tell you're in bad shape. I'll need to check inside your body," she said.
Hearing her words, Asti tried to move, but he couldn't. At that moment, he cursed his weakness.
The woman took a sort of cup, poured her own blood into it, and said:
"You who are the infinite, allow me to see inside the human body."
The blood inside the cup burst into flames. Her pupils changed color, turning into an absolute black, speckled with scattered, twinkling stars.
"I'll only hold this vision for twenty seconds, so let's see what you've got," she muttered.
She examined Lucien's body and noticed he was missing a lung.
"You must be rank six or higher, because otherwise, you'd already be dead," she remarked.
She placed her hand on Lucien's chest and declared:
"In all your benevolence, you who are the infinite, heal all the wounds of this frail being, both inside and out."
The cup blazed even brighter. The blood she had poured rose into the air, settled on her arm, and then slid down to Lucien's chest. There, it ignited again and seeped into Lucien's mouth.
The woman, her pupils still abnormal, could see what was happening inside Lucien's body. The flaming blood lingered where his missing lung had been and began to form a new one.
Lucien, still unconscious, didn't move or cry out, as if the fiery blood reconstructing a lung inside his body wasn't even there.
"I'll never get tired of seeing things like this," the woman said.
The blood finally transformed into a complete lung, and the flames died out. The woman's eyes returned to normal, but she looked exhausted.
"There you go, you're both as good as new. Now I need to rest. Using two mantras in a row isn't easy," she said as she left the room.
Asti closed his eyes, then snapped them open five minutes later. He felt in top shape, with no pain at all, just as the woman had promised.
He looked at Lucien and saw his complexion brighten. Since losing his lung, despite his jokes, Lucien had seemed darker with each passing day. But now, he looked revitalized.
"No time to celebrate. We need to get out of here before tomorrow. I don't want to know why they need us to be 'perfect' or what their show is about. I'm betting their so-called entertainment is us," Asti muttered.
Looking around more closely, Asti noticed he was in some kind of house with cracked wooden walls.
"It looks like it's made of wood," he said to himself.
He tried to open the door, but it was locked.
"Well, I tried," he sighed.
He moved to the window he'd spotted and looked outside. He saw several other wooden houses, neatly lined up: five in a horizontal row, then another five thirty meters away, following the same pattern.
"I'd better wait until nightfall. If I go now, with that house right across, they'll see me for sure. There might be another five houses behind this one. I need to figure out how to get out of here," Asti thought.
He sat down and began to cultivate his energy.
"Tony, I should've followed your example," he murmured.