Seraphine led Reidar and Jake through the Spriggan base, with the unconscious Lena carried between them. The medical bay was a repurposed section of the skyscraper, well organized, as much as a place like that could be.

Rows of cots held injured survivors still undergoing treatment or waiting to be healed, but one area was cordoned off.

A man with Reidar's same intense eyes looked up from a patient. His hands glowed as he was casting a healing skill.

–[Matthias Miller—Level 103]–

Matthias's gaze locked onto Reidar. The healing light flickered and died. For a moment, the professional composure shattered into pure disbelief.

"Reidar?"

"Dad." Reidar's voice quivered. He and Jake gently laid Lena on an empty cot. "She needs help."

Matthias stared at his son. He very much believed Reidar was there, but here he stood before him. The shock froze him for a second before his long hospital experience kicked in, and he turned to Seraphine.

"She was healed by Zachary. The toxin is not in her body anymore, but based on what Zachary said, she should have woken up already."

The woman's words jolted Matthias out of his stupor. He shook his head, forcing himself into motion, his doctor's instincts overriding his shock at seeing the son he thought he lost.

He rested a hand on her throat. The spell dismantled her symptoms, revealing the true extent of her injuries.

"I've seen something similar in the past. It's a mana-based venom."

Matthias's hands kept hovering over Lena's chest, as his diagnostic spell revealed the damage. "Zachary did excellent work. The toxin's active presence is gone. But this wasn't a simple poison. It was a corrosive kind, one that in a sense targeted mana itself."

Reidar's stomach tightened. "Corrosive?"

"Yes. It didn't just attack her body; it damaged the mana pathways in her body." Matthias gave a grave look to his son.

"Zachary purged the invading substance, but the… the damage had already been done. Her body's natural mana flow is disrupted, like a water pipe that has been damaged."

He paused. "Since Mana arrived, the world's changed, and so have we. The human body doesn't just use mana anymore. It depends on it. Like oxygen. At least, this was the conclusion I reached after deep study. Cells, nerves… even the brain depends on it. They've all been rewritten by mana, whatever it is. It flows through us now; it's basically part of our biology."

He glanced at Lena. "That's why this venom was so dangerous. It hijacked her body's connection to mana. Her lungs, her brainstem, even her heart… They're all trying to function without the one thing they need to survive. Like trying to run a machine with no power."

Reidar swallowed hard. "So, healing her isn't just about getting rid of the poison but also healing the damage."

"Exactly," Matthias said. "The body can't basically sustain her autonomous function properly. She's not poisoned anymore, Reidar, but she is mana-starved from the inside, and her system is too damaged to properly work or correct itself on its own."

Reidar searched his father's eyes for a spark of hope or the dull ash of defeat but found only an impenetrable wall.

"And that's the worst part. I can mend tissue and seal wounds, but rebuild the pathways that let her body use mana? That's like reweaving a net, strand by strand. One wrong move, and the whole thing frays."

He looked at his son. "I will be honest," Matthias said. "I think I can fix this, but I need to rebuild those pathways, not just heal the tissue. The problem is that I'm not confident in my ability to do this right now. I need more levels, a higher F.L.A.I.R., some better skills, and more mana. It's not something I can do today."

He looked at Reidar. Questions were burning in his eyes. Definitely, questions about who this woman was were swirling in his mind, but he pushed them aside since at this point, his son having a mistress was not important. Survival mattered more than morality.

"But will you heal her?" Jake couldn't stop from asking.

Matthias's head snapped toward the sound. His diagnostic focus had been so narrow—Reidar's sudden presence, Lena's condition—that he'd completely overlooked the thin, dirt-smudged boy standing beside the bed. His eyes widened as he truly saw Jake for the first time, and the name and level tag flared in his sight.

–[Jake Roberts—Level 218]–

"By the stars," Matthias's professional composure cracked again. He whipped his head back to Reidar, his expression a mixture of shock and disbelief. "Reidar, who is this boy? How in the world is he level—"

His eyes darted back to Reidar, and the numbers almost made his jaw fall, not because they were unbelievably high, but because it meant Reidar went through horrors he couldn't even imagine.

–[Reidar Miller—Level 260]–

The calm kid he remembered was now as strong as the monsters that roamed outside, and most likely, he killed the same number of creatures as them. This wasn't just his son anymore. This was someone who'd walked through hell and come out a demon.

Matthias stared. The medical bay, the injured, and everything else faded for a moment. "And you… level 260?"

"Dad… Please… We will talk about this at another time. Can you do something for her now?"

He nodded.

"I can stabilize and fix whatever pathway I can, but I can do the most important or smaller ones. I can at best work on the largest, so that the space for error diminishes."

He paused.

"In the meantime, if you like, your mother is in the other room." He pointed at the door frame on the other side of the room. "Go say hi to her. As soon as I'm done, I will come there."

Reidar nodded too. There were many things he wanted to tell his father, many things he wanted to ask, but Lena wasn't waking up, and Reidar had the inkling that the more time she remained in that state, the greater would be the chances the damage would become irreversible.

Reidar and Lena had known each other for months… their first meetings had been rough, and she had actually tried to kill him at some point, but she made up for it by protecting and guiding him. Even the company, the small chat, and the emotional support. It was something that helped him—who was cursed with nightmares—survive another day.

At that point, Reidar turned on his heel. "Jake," he said to the boy. "Stay here with Lena; I have stuff to do."

The boy nodded, and Reidar left.

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