Chapter XL - Excel (part 1)

The second bell rang... and I didn't even realize how time had flown.

In the middle of the summer, when the sun is on top of your head is usually the hottest ever. It's just somehow... a lot hotter for me.

Now that I have no more unlimited magic energy to cover myself from the heat, my whole body is extremely warm. It's like I am only inches away from the sun.

The inside of the church doesn't really get touched by the sunlight, but that doesn't mean it wasn't that hot. I pity those that are still waiting outside, because the line is still existing.

According to the nun at the door, there are still like a hundred more people. We are going slower than normal since I am basically crippled. Just a week ago, this act didn't even take three hours. Though, there are less people then.

We are already about four hours in. And I have lost count how much I switched with the priest.

The other nuns that are healing seemed to be tired also. But if we stop, it might anger the people outside. Then again, it is better than to keep on continuing.

"Mister, can we like... take a break?"

I asked the priest sitting next to me, who just finished healing a person's sickness. He, too, looks extremely out of it, but we had to keep going for the sake of the people.

"No... We can't. If we take a break, the people outside will be angry. Because if they also take a break, the line will be randomized again. Some people also won't leave their line to take a break."

"Huh..."

"Though, I do worry for the people outside. The second bell just rang, and it must be very hot outside."

"Right..."

The next person that came was an old middle aged man. He was sweating from top to bottom. Khel had to put distance between him and her out of disgust. I also silently switched my breathing from nose to mouth.

After questioning here and there, the man explains that he got injured a long time ago on the knee with some kind of venomous weapon.

He showed his bad knee by pulling his pants upwards. We can see the hideous leg hair on his leg, but that was nothing.

It's similar to the guy that got bitten by a venomous fox that came earlier. Only it's multiple times worse and more disgusting. The fact that the wound had already stayed there for years made it worse. Because it just looked like a piece of corpse at this point.

The wound is pitch black, with a little bit of decayed skin and meat here and there. In the middle is quite a big hole with dark green edges and inside the hole... is something.

Khel and the priest were extremely shocked by the sight of someone's knee looking like a piece of dead expired meat, but I have seen something worse.

"What's... that in the middle?"

I asked while pointing at the item inside the hole on his knee.

"I don't know for sure, but I believe it's an arrowhead."

He answered... and oh boy what an answer.

"I see. That's a big problem."

I said after realizing, and the priest turned his concerned gaze to me.

Right now, it's the priest's turn, but I would like to try this one. Besides, it's not like the priest can do anything, and I'm sure he will end up asking me for help anyway if I don't offer.

For starters, I summoned two healing lights and started hovering it on his leg before inserting it. By hovering it, I can see the kind of situation we're having more clearly.

The skin and meat around his foot is already dead. There is no way of healing it. But, maybe it can be healed if we pull out all the dead cells. Of course, I need to know what that thing is in the middle.

I tried pulling it out using my healing lights, but it just won't budge. I continued to check closer, and I became as shocked as Khel and the priest.

The thing inside his leg had already grown roots. The roots are connected to his bloodstream, corrupting everything around it. There is some dark green stuff, which looks like a poison or virus has already gone through his heart and is piling up there.

The good news is that the virus or poison was focused on one spot so that I won't have to search his entire body for them. The bad news is, the spot it sediments is in the heart.

Which means... this could be the source of the problem.

First, I'll try fixing his leg. I cut off all the roots that are connecting the thing and his bloodstream. Then, I tried pulling it one last time.

The disgusting part is that the thing actually sticks to his leg, so it lets out a little sound when being pulled. Khel was holding her puke, while the priest puked twice already.

Get a grip, you two!

The thing finally got pulled out. And it was actually an arrowhead. Looks like the arrow head was poisoned with a special venom when this guy got shot in the knee. Not to mention the poison or virus that had sedimented on his heart. This guy has been suffering for a long time.

The arrowhead floats in the air thanks to my healing magic and falls to the ground. It created a small smoke when it fell down, which somewhat looked like the poison.

The old man was sweating heavily from the pain. I am no doctor, but I can tell that this wound has already gone a little bit beyond help. But, I will try anyway.

I did the same thing as I did with the guy who got bitten. I took out a knife, carved out the piece of his skin that was corrupted by the poison, and healed it. The old man was holding the pain quite well. He didn't scream, but he did let out a little sound from the pain.

I tried taking out all the bad flesh from his leg, leaving only the ones that can still be healed. Which means I am targeting the middle wound. In the end, I carved out until his bone was seen. The priest and Khel can only watch in silence as I slowly healed the giant hole I dug on his leg.

The healing didn't go so well. It closed up a little bit of the flesh, but only for like one centimetres thick. Now what was once looked like dead flesh, is now a swollen but healthy leg.

"Wha..."

The old man looked at his swollen leg. It looked very weird for a knee, though it wasn't exactly at the knee. More like a little bit below it.

I'm sorry... I couldn't fix it completely--

"Haha!"

His laugh surprised me, and I turned my gaze up to him. 

The man looks so happy. He stood up immediately and tried walking. It's still a little bit limp, but he can still walk just fine.

"I don't care if it looks ugly. At least the pain is no longer there! And I still have my leg."

He looked at me with his happy expression, but I returned with a grim one.

"We are not done yet."

"What?"

The other three people looked very confused. I signalled the old man to sit down again and conjured three lights.

As much as the previous wound is hard to heal, this part is the worst.

If the poison somehow sediments on his heart, it will be very difficult to take it out without having it broken down piece by piece and scattered in his entire body. Just thinking about it makes me shiver.

Because if the poison actually scatters into his entire bloodstream, it will be more difficult to handle and may not be healable.

I scattered the healing objects on three spots. On the end of the blood vessel where the sediment is located, one a little bit further away from the sediment, and one breaking the sediment. The first light was to make sure no sediment pieces got away, the second one was to pick up the sediments, and the third one was to break the sediment down.

This is going to be difficult, but I have to do it. Using the third light, I started breaking the sediment.

The old man can feel the heavy pain in his chest. He tried to scream, but wasn't able to.

"Don't move!"

I said as I controlled the lights inside of him while sweating heavily.

The sediments are now slowly breaking. Some of them had completely detached from the vessel's walls, swimming straight to the second light. Right now, there's no pieces that have escaped through to the first light. I can keep on destroying.

After a few seconds, another crack happened in one of the largest sediments. The crack also pulled away a piece of the vessel's thick walls, which I healed immediately. Or else, it will cause a heavy internal bleeding, which could also kill him right there on the spot.

Fuck... any mistake I make will kill him.

I have to do this cleanly... His life is on the line.

Little by little, piece by piece, the sediments are stacking up on the second light. I realized that this could block the entire bloodstream, so I created a small hole for the blood to go through. Doing this caused a few pieces to go through the second light. But they were grabbed by the first light immediately.

Little by little... and time flows without realizing.

Ten minutes have passed, and all sediments are now removed and detached from the heart's blood vessels. 

I moved the lights carrying the sediments to his arm, where I stabbed it with a pin to make a hole to the blood vessel. The healing lights carrying the poison sediments flew out of the blood on his hand. 

I dropped the dirt on the ground and healed his hand, and everyone's eyes grew so wide after seeing the poison sediments.

There are... Quite a lot.

It's like a spoon full of sand. Specifically, black sand.

Things like these are hardening on his heart... Bloody hell.

Had he not come to see me... Had this problem stayed for another week or two...

Had he visited a different doctor, who knows not a single clue about what is happening in his heart.

This man... was at the border between life and death this entire time. 

The old man was trying to control his breath. Right now, there shouldn't be any wounds or pain in him, but he was still sweating.

I also had my back on the chair. With my head full of sweat, I tried cooling myself by controlling my breath and using magic energy. I turned my gaze to see what the guy looked like now that the poison was taken away, and it felt like my eyes were seeing things.

A robed silhouette of the grim reaper... is right on top of him. His long black scythe is on his shoulder, and his empty eyes stared at me with questions.

Knowing full well that I just helped someone avoid death, I only chuckled at the imaginary grim reaper.

Yeah... dying sucks. Been there, done that. I wouldn't let anyone in front of me die that easily.

The old man then was allowed to leave and switch with another person from outside. And just like that, the healing process continues.

The priest is back to healing while I regain my magic energy. Simply drinking hundreds of large bottles of energy potions can't fix my issue, so I had to take my time and breathe while my whole body was sweating profusely.

After a while, hundreds of people have been healed by me, including the ones that the other nuns weren't able to heal, such as the case with the old man that came before. The other nuns and guest healers couldn't heal him, so they sent him to me, just like many others with a very unique condition. 

It happened quite a few times, but I managed to heal them all. Otherwise, I don't know what I'm going to do if I fail.

So many people... were very close to dying, and they didn't even realize it.

Healing magic is something that everyone has access to. Anyone, and I'm talking about everyone, can learn healing magic.

And yet... nobody was able to do the things I do.

Is it because I'm from another world? Because I have knowledge about the human body? Knowledge that these people don't have?

Or... is it because of something else.

At the very end of the healing act, my condition was so horrible that my eyes are starting to get really blurry. I turned my eyes to the ceilings of the church, and there I spotted them.

Sixteen grim reapers, all with the same appearances, with black robes and black scythes on their hands. All of them... stare at me with the same emotions.

Confusion... anger. I have stolen what they wanted, and they can no longer have it.

Sixteen people could've died, and I saved them all. And many-many others who had terrifying conditions on their bodies.

What I'm doing... is worth it. And I will have to do more of it, no matter what.

Besides... cheating death is actually quite fun.