What haunts me to this day was his agonising screams. Zen was completely engulfed in blue flames thanks to that bastard Horrus, who decided to do a suicide run at him. "Burn in hellfire with me," was his dying words to Zen.
Everything was moving slowly, as though only a few milliseconds had passed. There was no way I was sitting back and watch him burn. Instinctively, I moved my gauntlets to summon some sort of frozen lightning crystal in hopes of preventing Zen from burning to cinders. Perhaps it was my extreme desire to save him, or maybe Prifrolid had awoken from his slumber that my gauntlets finally responded to me.
SHHIING!
I… I actually did it. I managed to freeze Zen, who now appears to be suspended in time. But the blue flames were still burning despite being encased in ice. But at the very least, Zen is no longer screaming in pain, and it would seem that the flame no longer causes him any harm. But for how long, though? The flames are melting my frost, and I can only do so much to continuously summon more until the blue flame dissipates.
But what then? With the severe injuries that Zen has, he will succumb to his injuries the moment my ice thaws. We don't have anything with us that can save him from the injuries he sustained. I no longer have the Water of Life to resurrect him again. What else do we have that can help him?! Hang on, I remember Rose talking about a healing spell. She needs to heal him. This is our only hope of saving him.
"Rose! You need to heal him with that healing spell you were talking about. That is the only way we can save him!" I shouted at her as I maintained the frost.
"I… can't. I don't know how to make it work. I don't have faith to use that spell. I was chanting blanks when I tried before. Y—you have that miracle healing thing that you used to resurrect him before. You have to use it again, Lily!" she started panicking.
"Rose, I no longer have it. Every female elf is only entitled to one and I've already used it on him. We don't have any other option except that spell. Believe me, I would had gladly used it again if I have it with me but I don't, I really don't. You must figure out a way to heal him. You must, Rose. You're the only one who can save him. I can only do so much in maintaining the frost on him," I explained to her.
"W—what? No, no, no… this isn't some simple spell. It has requirements. There is only so much I can do. H—how? I can't just gain faith out of nowhere. It says here that in order to use a healing spell, you need a seal, faith, and to chant the following words. But I've already chanted the words, and nothing happens. I've deciphered the words; I'm certain it is correct. The only thing missing is faith. Without that, nothing happens… nothing happens!" she mumbled and shouted to herself while holding the book.
"Rose… I can only hold the ice for a few more minutes. The blue flames have dissipated, but Zen might only have seconds before he succumbs to his injuries after the frost thaws. Unless there is a resurrection spell in there, I suggest you make full use of these precious few minutes to figure things out," I warned her.
"No, no— why… how? What is faith? Where does one obtain faith? Believing in God? Believing in someone? How does one gain 'faith'? The Goddess Of Divinity? The church? I'm so confused right now!" she shouted as she held her head.
I wished I could help her, but there's nothing I can do. Rose has to figure things out on her own while my hands are tied in maintaining what little frost is left on Zen. I'm gritting my teeth to extend even a millisecond longer to keep Zen alive. But I don't have much strength left. Can I hold for about a minute longer? I'm already losing the grip of my powers.
"R— Rose… I don't think I can hold much longer. The frost is going to thaw soon," I warned her one last time.
"No! No, no, no… faith, faith, faith! Faith in who? Moi? Can you help him?" Rose was losing it. I can see that she was panicking beyond help at trying to solve the faith issue. I guess we'll have to say our goodbyes to Zen for real this time.
"Wait a minute!" she shouted out of the blue and started praying as she kneeled down. What is she trying to do? To whom is she praying to that can help us in this situation? Did she figure out the key to obtaining faith?
Her eyes opened with conviction, as though whoever she was praying to had responded to her prayers. She placed both hands on Zen, who only had a few thin layers of frost left on his body; any second now, he would be thawed for good and awake to his agony. Rose chanted the healing spell with accuracy; not once did she stumble on the foreign words that she had memorised. She repeated the spell a few times, not losing hope in casting the spell.
It was perhaps on the third time she chanted that golden lights began forming around her hands. Not once did she let up, and she continued chanting the spell on Zen's wounds until the heavily burnt skin on Zen started disappearing. His skin was self-regenerating, forming bonds together to heal whatever wounds he had before. But the healing spell only affected a small area; Rose had to move her hands to heal every part of his body. The longest to heal was his stomach wound, where Horrus had stabbed him with a sneak attack. I hope her spell heals internal wounds as well, otherwise Zen would be out of blood by now. It's incredible how he was still fighting despite sustaining the wound he already had.
It took some time, but Rose had performed a miracle; she had completely changed what was thought to be impossible in this world. She had successfully cast a healing spell, and she saved her husband with it.
Zen suddenly sat up and started coughing blood before he realised both of us were sitting next to him. We were crying tears of joy when we realised that we had actually saved him from certain death. Uncontrollable feelings washed over me. We actually did it.
"Rose, Lily. Don't cry. I love both of you and Daisy. I will watch over both of you from above," he said as he lay back on the ground, pretending that he was dying.
"Y— you're *hick not dying," stuttered Rose.
"Y— you're f—*hick ine, damn it" I stuttered myself.
"I don't understand what the both of you are trying to say. But what I'm confused about is, why do I feel great? Wait, why am I not burnt to cinders? What's going on? I can see with my left eye again," he questioned himself as he stood up and checked his body.
"Y— you… you're— UWAH!" Rose leapt onto Zen's arms as she continued sobbing. I did the same too. I'm certain our feelings were completely distraught from what had just happened. It was the most significant couple of minutes of our lives and we actually did it. We pulled it off and saved him. Zen lived due to a miracle.
***
*Zen's Perspective*
"Allow me to heal you," said Rose as she raised both of her hands and started to heal Lily's wounds. She slotted the seal into her middle finger, and it was dangling side to side as golden lights started shining from her palms. The sun had risen now, and upon checking my pocket watch, it was about eight in the morning.
My wife had successfully figured out how to use healing magic in this world. She's going to be even more famous than she already is, isn't she? Will she be using it for good, though? Or will she keep it a secret from the rest of the world?
I inspected my body once again, as it felt unreal. Everything was indeed healed now. Even the wound on my stomach was healed, with no evidence that it had ever been pierced, aside from the holes in my cloak and armour. How did she manage to figure it out, though? I'm certainly curious about it.
"Rose, how did you discover faith? What did you do?" I asked her with a serious expression as she healed Lily.
"I—prayed to the Imperatrix, and she responded to me," she smiled.
"T—The Imperatrix? The one that the church worships? But why? Why her?" I questioned her worriedly.
"Zen… she's the God for mortals. She's the one that oversees humanity as a whole. She was kind enough to respond to me even though there are millions of other humans out there. She's not who the church made her out to be," she explained, as though she had a conversation with the Imperatrix herself.
Rose finished healing Lily's burnt wounds and injuries. She looked exhausted, but she still had her own injuries to tend to. I can only stay by her side as she musters her remaining strength to heal her wounds.
"Which is why—I'm going to do something about it. Zen, I'm not asking for approval, but I'm going to start a small gathering outside the confines of the Light Guild. Ones that worship and pray to her for guidance and grace. I need to return the favour that she had granted me. The life of my husband in exchange for spreading her name is a small price to pay. Forgive me, Zen. I know you don't fancy religion in general, but without the Imperatrix granting me her faith, I wouldn't be talking to you right now," she continued.
"Are you planning to help people with your healing spells?" I asked.
"I will. But probably only selected ones though. I don't think I can heal diseases or old age with this spell. Only fresh wounds or injuries. I should make full use of my reputation to help people under my name. Not under the influence of churches or politics. I'm going to do it my way," she assured me.
"Then I'll support your every decision. Who am I to deny my wife when she wishes to do something good? Just—don't neglect Daisy, alright? She's still our daughter first and foremost," I reminded her.
"Of course, Zen. Family still comes first. It won't be a daily thing, I promise," she hugged me.
A sudden, loud booming sound could be heard against the gate of the den. Oh no, please don't tell me there are other things we need to fight. I'm so not in the mood to be fighting anymore.
The gate broke apart after a couple more hits, and we braced ourselves for the inevitable. Is a purple baldy with a golden glove going to show us our place? As a matter of fact, a baldy did appear, but thankfully, he wasn't purple. It was Peter, and he brought along reinforcements. We can finally rest now that backup had arrived.
I stood up and a small clink could be heard at my feet as I seemingly stepped on something. Huh? What's that? A golden necklace? I don't remember having this with me. Why does this look so familiar though? I kept it safe in one of my pockets so that I can ask Rose about it later.
Peter came rushing towards us after he realised there were barely any enemies inside the den aside from sentient beasts who immediately raised their arms when soldiers charged in. How convenient of them to arrive after we had resolved everything.
"Let's tend to your wounds," he said after noticing our burnt and bloody clothes.
"It's alright. We're no longer injured," Rose explained to him.
"Nonsense, with your bloody and burnt clothes, there's bound to be injuries. There's nothing to be shy about. C'mon," he ushered medics to approach us.
"No, really. See, no wounds," she lifted the clothes from her side to show that she indeed had no wounds. My goodness, Rose, have a little bit of shame. So casually showing your skin to people that you're not even close with. Even Lily was taken aback by her boldness.
"Ahem, run me through on what happened. How is it possible for you three to sustain no injuries when your equipment says otherwise," he asked us.
"Before that, don't kill any of those sentient beasts. They were once humans—," I trailed off as I suddenly blanked out and fell to the ground. The last thing I recall before falling unconscious was both Rose and Lily calling my name and reaching out for me.
***
"Hey there, handsome. Glad to see you back in the land of the living," whispered someone in my ear.
I opened my eyes. Where—am I? In my vision, there was a familiar-looking beauty who was sitting sideways. Am I resting on her lap? What kind of horny dream am I having right now?
"M—Moi? Is that you?" I asked the beauty.
"Yup. What's wrong? Don't recognise me anymore?" she smiled warmly.
"Well, you looked completely different from the last time we spoke. More matured looking from what you previously looked like. Reminded me of what I saw when you walked by the mirror at your house," I explained.
"Are you ogling at me? Well, I am single, but I doubt we can make things work. I can assure you that I am still the same little girl in my physical form. It's just my spiritual form that has gotten stronger now," she chuckled.
"Uh—no thanks, two is more than enough for me. I don't wish for World War 3 to occur," I assured her.
"Hehe, I'm just glad that you're safe. I'll admit, I didn't have high hopes that you might make it out alive," she smiled once again.
"So even you can't exactly see the future? I thought you knew what was going to happen. Where are Kirin and Byakko anyway? How strange that I don't see them when this is their domain," I asked.
"Them? They are having a discussion on how they are going to work with you in the future. You can expect them to discuss with you after you have recovered properly. As for your question, the future is never certain, Zen. It is always cloudy and uncertain. I can only predict the future but never be certain of it," she chuckled giddily.
"Moi, can you answer me this? Are you a God? Did you make me your Champion without me knowing? What happened that caused you to have such a drastic change to your spiritual form?" I asked politely.
"Hmm— you will know in due time, Zen. But you are not my Champion. Let's just say that something unexpected happened which led to my growth in the right path," she stroked my hair and gave me a peck on my forehead.
What is this that I'm feeling? Why does it feel like a mother nursing me? I feel so warm and loved by her embrace. Why the hell am I feeling this way when Moi is just a little girl in reality? Better yet, I still don't know what her true identity really is.
"Thank you, Zen. Because of you, I can start my journey on the right path now. Don't worry, this is not goodbye. We will cross paths again in the future. I will be looking forward to that day. In the meantime, get some rest," she smiled as my vision began to fade, all the while stroking my hair until everything had faded white completely.