Chapter 108 – Interlude: The Sanctified Luminary, Avelyn

Avelyn didn't remember deciding to run.

One moment she had been standing beside Marek, the next she was sprinting across the battlefield with her staff clutched so tightly her hands hurt.

Behind her, a rifle cracked through the geode. Heat washed across her back. Metal rang against crystal.

She didn't look.

She couldn't.

All she could see was the small Foxkin lying crumpled against the far wall beneath the spray of blood left by the impact.

Even from this far away she could tell...

There was far too much of it.

Fear twisted painfully in Avelyn's chest, her vision blurring as tears welled in her eyes.

Please…

Please be okay.

As she ran, the rich dark soil beneath her boots slowly began to fade, crystal creeping back across the battlefield inch by inch.

Lyn's vines lay where they had fallen, still and silent.

The sight made Avelyn's heart sink even further.

She reached Lyn a heartbeat later, dropping to her knees so quickly they struck the fading soil hard enough to sting.

One look was enough.

Avelyn threw a hand over her mouth.

"...No..."

The wound beneath Lyn's ribs had punched clean through her body. Blood continued to seep steadily from the injury, while thinner crimson trails ran from the corner of her mouth and one eye.

Her left arm…

Her left leg…

Neither of them should have bent like that.

A fresh sob escaped before Avelyn could stop it.

Then she saw Lyn's face. The same calm expression. The same gentle, detached smile.

As though they were sitting together eating berries instead of…

Instead of this.

Lyn was trying to move.

Avelyn could see it.

Tiny muscles strained. Her expression shifted by the smallest amount.

Nothing happened.

"...Lyn..."

Golden mana surged into Avelyn's trembling hands as the tattoos along her body flared brilliantly to life. Holy magic flowed into Lyn, her healing spell instinctively beginning its diagnosis.

Avelyn immediately wished it hadn't.

Another broken sound escaped her throat.

Lyn's skull was fractured. Badly.

Blood had pooled beneath the fracture, tiny vessels burst from the impact.

One lung had been pierced clean through. The other had been badly damaged. Nearly every rib on one side of her chest had shattered, the organs beneath them suffering just as terribly.

She was bleeding everywhere, inside and out.

Then Avelyn reached Lyn's spine.

Her breath caught.

…

Broken, right where her neck met her shoulders.

For a single horrible moment, Avelyn forgot how to breathe.

Tears streamed freely down Avelyn's face as she poured every last drop of mana she could spare into her healing spell. Every mana channel she possessed fed into her hands, golden light shining brighter and brighter as the tattoos along her arms blazed with holy radiance.

Behind her, the battle drew steadily closer.

Someone shouted. Another rifle cracked through the geode. Crystal shattered.

She couldn't look.

She never once worried about the Crystal Reaper reaching her. Because she knew that somewhere behind her…

Marek simply refused to allow that to happen.

The bleeding slowed as more holy magic flooded Lyn's broken body.

It wasn't enough.

With one shaking hand, Avelyn tore one of the uncommon healing potions from her belt, pulled the stopper free with her teeth, and carefully poured it between Lyn's lips.

The potion's magic flickered weakly through her broken body.

A few of the smaller wounds began to close.

Nothing that mattered did.

No matter how much healing Avelyn poured into her, blood continued to well from the wound beneath her ribs. Far too much of it.

If she focused on replacing the blood Lyn was losing, the damage inside her body would never heal. If she focused on repairing the damage…

There wouldn't be enough blood left to save.

Her hands began to tremble.

"...No..."

The word escaped as little more than a whisper.

No.

No, no, no…

Please…

The realization settled over her with crushing certainty.

She couldn't save her.

A broken sob escaped her throat as she bowed her head.

"I'm sorry..." Another sob. "I'm so sorry..."

The last of the dark soil beneath her knees quietly dissolved, crystal reclaiming the battlefield.

A jagged spike erupted upward, racing toward her.

For the briefest moment…

Avelyn didn't care.

She just kept healing.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lyn's jaw tighten.

The crystal vanished beneath fresh dark soil again. Two kaleidoscopic vines burst from the earth, intercepting the spike before it could reach her.

Avelyn stared.

Lyn…

She was still protecting her.

Despite everything. Despite barely being able to breathe. Despite…

Despite Avelyn failing her.

The thought hit harder than anything else had.

What am I doing?

Lyn hadn't given up, so how could she?

She was a healer.

People trusted her to keep fighting when they couldn't. To believe they could still be saved, even when they couldn't believe it themselves.

Avelyn wiped at her tears with the back of one trembling hand before leaning closer, placing both palms gently against Lyn's battered body.

She knew it wouldn't make her healing any stronger.

It wouldn't increase her mana. It wouldn't change the spell.

But…

For reasons she couldn't explain…

It felt important.

Like she needed Lyn to know she wasn't alone.

Avelyn couldn't accept this.

She wouldn't.

Lyn had told her to take pride in her achievements. She had told her that if Avelyn truly wanted to reach the mountaintops…

She could.

Right now, there was only one thing Avelyn wanted.

To heal. To protect.

Determination shone in her molten-gold eyes.

For the briefest moment…

They burned just a little brighter.

She was a Hallowed Foxkin. She had earned an Epic class. Someone the System itself regarded as extraordinary had looked her in the eye and believed in her.

She was Avelyn. The Sanctified Luminary.

And she would not forsake her patient.

Not here.

Not now.

Not ever again.

Nothing she had tried was enough.

So she would simply have to become someone who could do more.

She forced herself to remember every lesson she had ever been taught.

Every healer ultimately did the same thing. Guide mana. Mend the body. Protect their patients' lives.

Higher rarity skills didn't change that, they simply made it easier.

Healing had always come down to one thing.

Mana.

Enough mana could heal almost anything. And that…

That was the problem.

No matter how desperately she poured her own mana into Lyn, it wasn't enough. Her mana channels couldn't carry that much power.

Not yet.

Another desperate glance swept across the battlefield.

Mana.

It was everywhere.

The geode itself blazed with it. The impossible Crystal Reaper was drawing it inward in torrents. It surrounded her. Countless rivers of power, flowing just beyond her reach.

A thought surfaced. A simple, almost obvious one.

Then…

I'll borrow it.

Her hands slowly lifted from Lyn's battered body.

For the first time since reaching her…

The healing light faded.

Only for a heartbeat.

Avelyn didn't know why she moved.

She only knew that stopping felt wrong.

This…

This was right.

She drew both hands back to her chest, fingers curling tightly over her heart.

Golden mana drifted from her body, spilling into the surrounding air as her connection to Lyn loosened for the briefest of moments.

That brief instant hurt Avelyn more than she could have imagined.

Pulling her hands away felt necessary. It also felt wrong.

The healing stopped for only a heartbeat.

It was enough.

The dark soil vanished almost immediately, crystal reclaiming the ground as Lyn's vines collapsed into drifting motes of starlight.

Lyn's breathing grew noticeably weaker. Shallower.

Her eyelids began to droop as her eyes struggled to remain open.

Avelyn met them.

Black.

No…

Darker than that. Perfect circles of impossible darkness gazed back at her.

For reasons she couldn't begin to explain…

Those eyes looked unbearably lonely.

A crystalline spike erupted from the floor beside her, racing toward her without mercy.

Avelyn didn't even look at it.

Instead, she gently cupped Lyn's bloodstained cheek.

"I will never forsake you." Her voice trembled. "You are safe with me."

A warm smile somehow found its way onto her face despite the tears still falling freely.

"I won't let someone die in front of me." Her thumb brushed softly across Lyn's cheek. “Not now. Not ever."

The spike closed the final distance.

…

Then the world became quiet.

Peaceful.

The distant battle faded into the background, as though the cavern itself had decided those sounds no longer belonged here.

The crystalline spear dissolved into drifting motes of mana before it could reach them.

Golden light blossomed across Avelyn's tattoos, brighter than ever before.

The mana surrounding her answered.

Not reluctantly or forcefully. Almost…

Gladly.

It flowed toward her from every direction, gathering around the two Foxkin like a warm embrace.

For one suspended moment…

Avelyn felt as though the entire world was listening.

She closed her eyes.

"...Protect."

The word was barely louder than a whisper.

It was enough.

A warm breeze drifted through the geode.

Around them, tiny blades of golden grass quietly pushed through the crystal, swaying gently in the breeze that had no true source.

The warmth settled over Lyn like a blanket.

The bleeding stopped. Not because the wounds had healed. Simply because…

They could not grow any worse here.

Relief struck Avelyn so suddenly that another sob escaped before she could stop it.

Golden healing magic poured into Lyn once more.

This time…

It stayed.

The torn flesh slowly began to knit together. Broken bones started finding one another again. Her breathing steadied. It was painfully slow, but it was working.

Nothing reached them.

No crystalline spikes. No stray magic. No violence.

For this single, fragile moment…

The world simply allowed them to exist.

Safe.

Avelyn rested her forehead lightly against Lyn's, her thumb continuing its gentle stroke across the Foxkin's cheek.

Sometime during the healing…

Lyn had finally lost consciousness.

Even then…

The mask of quiet composure never quite left her face.

Avelyn knew she should pull away. She really did.

Lyn was unconscious. She couldn't exactly ask whether this was okay.

Yet every time Avelyn tried to move…

She couldn't bring herself to.

So she just stayed.

Seconds slipped quietly into minutes.

The warm breeze continued to drift around them, carrying with it the same indescribable feeling of comfort. Of home.

Little by little, Lyn's breathing steadied. The terrible wound beneath her ribs finally closed. Broken bones eased back into place one by one.

At last…

Even the damage to her spine quietly disappeared.

Nearly five minutes after it had begun, the last traces of holy light faded from Lyn's body.

The golden grass dissolved into countless shimmering motes, and the warm breeze gradually came to rest.

Avelyn finally let out the breath she'd been holding.

"...Thank goodness."

Only then did she realize their foreheads were still touching.

A faint warmth spread across her cheeks.

Slowly—perhaps a little more reluctantly than she cared to admit—she leaned back.

For reasons she couldn't quite explain…

Pulling away felt strangely disappointing.

"..."

That was probably a little strange.

She gently brushed her thumb across Lyn's cheek one last time, purifying away the remaining blood and dirt. Moments later, there was almost no evidence of the horrific injuries left at all.

Almost.

The ruined dress remained.

Avelyn wiped at the tears still lingering on her face before finally forcing herself to look away.

The battlefield…

Wasn't much better.

Her heart sank.

Marek's armor had been torn open in several places, blood soaking through one shoulder where a deep wound refused to stop bleeding. His shield was chipped, crystal fragments still embedded along its edge.

Zeke looked exhausted. Fresh cuts crossed both arms, while another had carved across his face, crimson running freely down one cheek.

Rin had avoided the worst of it—as usual—but even he wasn't untouched. One leg dragged just enough for Avelyn to notice, his movements no longer carrying their usual effortless confidence.

Even Sylrae had been hurt. Blood stained the white feathers of one wing, painfully bright against the pristine plumage, while several smaller cuts marked her arms and legs.

The Crystal Reaper…

Looked almost untouched by comparison.

One arm was gone. That was all.

It still darted around the battlefield at unbelievable speeds, so quickly that Avelyn struggled to follow it with her eyes.

Not quite as impossibly fast as when it had struck Lyn…

But still far too fast.

Avelyn's fingers tightened around her staff.

She needed to help them.

She had to.

…

But Lyn was still unconscious.

If the Crystal Reaper turned toward them…

Who would protect her?

Avelyn took a slow, shaking breath.

She couldn't leave Lyn alone. If something happened while she was gone…

The others would scold her. She would never forgive herself.

Which meant the answer was obvious.

She just had to use that strange power again.

The one that had saved Lyn.

The Crystal Reaper had to die.

Avelyn clasped her hands tightly against her chest. Golden light blossomed across the tattoos winding along her arms, her molten-gold eyes shining brightly.

…

Nothing.

No gentle breeze. No golden grass. No comforting warmth.

Only the distant sounds of battle.

She squeezed her hands together harder, desperately reaching for that indescribable feeling she'd touched only moments before.

Nothing answered.

A sharp cry tore her attention back to the fight.

Another attack slipped past Marek's guard, carving a deep gash across the gap in his armor. He staggered only half a step before driving his shield forward again.

The Crystal Reaper twisted effortlessly aside, avoiding both the follow up and Sylrae's shot before batting Zeke's spell away with one of its remaining arms. Rin darted in immediately after, only to be forced back by a blur of crystal.

It looked…

Untouchable.

Avelyn shut her eyes and tried again.

Please…

Please…

Please…

The warmth she'd felt before remained just beyond her reach, like trying to remember the last words of a dream after waking.

The Crystal Reaper laughed. A harsh, scraping sound echoed through the geode, crystal grinding against crystal.

Avelyn flinched.

"...Why?" Her voice broke. "Why won't you work?"

Fresh tears spilled freely down her cheeks.

Was she really going to have to choose?

Stay beside Lyn…

Or help everyone else?

Another sob escaped before she could stop it.

"...Please..." She lowered her head. "Please… I can't lose anyone..."

Silence answered.

Only the sounds of battle. Only the crack of crystal. Only the desperate struggle of people refusing to give up.

Avelyn slowly tightened her grip around her staff.

"...I'm sorry."

If that strange power refused to answer…

Then she would have to trust that the boss wouldn’t notice Lyn. She couldn't just watch her friends die.

She began to stand.

Something soft brushed against her leg.

Avelyn froze.

Her eyes widened as she looked down, hope immediately blooming in her chest.

Golden grass…

She wanted to see golden grass.

Instead…

A single black flower gently rested against her thigh. Its petals were so impossibly dark that they seemed to drink in the surrounding light.

A sharp screech tore Avelyn's attention back to the battlefield.

The Crystal Reaper abruptly disengaged, launching itself backward with enough force to gouge furrows through the crystal where it landed.

Not retreating.

Fleeing.

Everyone immediately used the opening to regroup, instinctively falling back toward one another. Marek's eyes flicked toward Avelyn for the briefest moment, checking that she was still alive before raising his shield once more.

She barely noticed.

Her entire focus remained fixed on the Crystal Reaper.

It wasn't looking at the party. Or even at her. It was looking…

Past her.

Its crimson eyes had widened, its entire body trembling ever so slightly.

Fear.

Avelyn's breath caught.

More flowers brushed against her calves and thighs.

One.

Then another.

Then dozens.

Before she could even turn around, impossibly gentle fingers brushed across the exposed skin just beneath her collarbone where she had been injured earlier.

Avelyn froze.

Warmth followed the touch.

Kaleidoscopic light bloomed beneath those fingertips, weaving together into shimmering fabric that quietly repaired the torn section of her clothing.

Avelyn's face immediately turned scarlet.

"...Exposing that much skin is rather improper." The familiar, composed voice carried the faintest trace of amusement. "Especially for a noble such as yourself, no?"

Relief struck Avelyn so suddenly it almost hurt.

She turned.

Tears instantly welled in her eyes.

Lyn knelt beside her, completely restored and awake. Not a single trace of the horrific injuries remained.

The little Foxkin smiled at her. Not the carefully practiced smile she usually wore. Something softer. Warmer.

Something unmistakably real.

Lyn reached up and gently patted one of Avelyn's ears.

"Thank you, Avelyn." Her voice was quiet. "You saved me."

Astra Nocturne quietly appeared in her hand.

"Now..." She rose smoothly to her feet. "Leave the rest to me."

As Lyn walked past, her tail brushed lightly against Avelyn's.

The contact lasted barely an instant.

It was enough.

Avelyn's ears shot upright, and she stared after Lyn with burning cheeks, momentarily forgetting there was still a terrifying monster standing in front of them.

Lyn came to a stop between the party and the Crystal Reaper.

She extended one hand.

Darkness spread beneath her fingertips. A void threaded with impossibly distant stars.

Then…

With effortless certainty…

Lyn tore reality open.

“Arcana: Garden of Eternal Midnight.”

The geode ceased to be crystal.

Rich, dark soil swept across the chamber like a silent tide, swallowing the jagged floor beneath it. Tiny flowers bloomed wherever it passed, unfurling void-like petals with impossible beauty.

Vines erupted from the earth. From the walls. From every place the garden claimed.

They twisted gracefully around towering crystal formations before effortlessly reducing them to glittering fragments, never once disturbing the quiet beauty of the place.

Dozens became hundreds.

Above them, the cavern ceiling slowly darkened. Hairline fractures of celestial silver spread through the stone like delicate veins. Between them, the rock simply... gave way.

Gave way to a sky so impossibly vast that Avelyn forgot, for a moment, that they stood deep beneath the earth.

Countless stars shimmered overhead, brighter than any she had ever seen. Constellations drifted slowly through the darkness, each one reflected in the silver fractures until the entire ceiling seemed woven together from stone and starlight.

The garden spread through the entire geode.

Avelyn could only stare.

It was…

Beautiful. So beautiful that it almost made her forget they were still standing in the middle of a battlefield.

Yet beneath that beauty…

Something quietly tugged at her heart.

Everything belonged.

Every flower. Every vine. Every patch of soil.

Nothing looked accidental. Nothing looked wild.

It felt as though every bloom had been placed exactly where it was meant to grow. Not one could be moved without somehow making the whole garden less beautiful.

Avelyn didn't know why, but realizing that made her chest ache.

Then…

She noticed one tiny imperfection.

The flowers surrounding her grew just a little thicker than anywhere else. Only by a little.

Enough that someone else might never notice.

Avelyn did.

Warmth spread through her chest.

"..."

Without thinking, she gently brushed her fingers across one of the blossoms.

"...Thank you."

The words escaped as little more than a whisper.

She smiled to herself before pushing the feeling aside.

There were still people who needed healing. She couldn't spend the whole battle admiring flowers, even if she desperately wanted to.

She looked back toward Lyn.

The little Foxkin leaned forward ever so slightly, Astra Nocturne held low as she pointed its dark blade toward the Crystal Reaper.

Avelyn couldn't help smiling again.

The pose was…

Very dramatic.

Which somehow suited Lyn perfectly.

The stars overhead slowly shifted, their light settling around Lyn's silhouette as though the heavens themselves had quietly decided she deserved their full attention.

Deep indigo radiance gathered around her, threaded with midnight-blue distortions that gently bent the surrounding light. Tiny points of starlight drifted through the aura like distant galaxies caught in orbit, circling her in slow, graceful currents.

Something began to pull Avelyn towards Lyn.

Not unpleasant.

Comforting.

As though the entire garden wished to gently gather everyone a little closer.

Lyn's vines rose around her, coiling through the air with quiet anticipation, while others lazily wrapped themselves around nearby crystal formations as though claiming them.

Her white ears stood proudly upright.

Her tail gave one slow, confident swish.

The sheer amount of smug satisfaction contained within that single motion was somehow enough to make Avelyn bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself from laughing.

Lyn raised her gaze to meet the Crystal Reaper's.

Then, in a voice so calm it almost sounded kind, she spoke.

"Again."

And the air began to burn.