Aftermath

Ren woke up with a gasp, his chest heaving as if he had been drowning and had finally breached the surface. 

His vision was blurry, his mind sluggish, but his body—

He sat up abruptly, hands flying over himself, expecting broken ribs, torn flesh, and shattered bones. Instead, he felt... whole. 

His body was fully healed. No aches, no pain, no stiffness. Only the fatigue of his body desperately craving nourishment remained.

It was still night, and the cold air of the city surrounded him, brushing against his skin like a lover's caress, reminding him that he had, in fact, survived.

Then he remembered it. The voice. The deep, eerie voice he had heard just before unconsciousness took him. A voice he'd only heard in a single cutscene from the game. 

The silent healer.

Only those on the brink of death could hear it.

Ren clenched his fists. That means I used one of the remaining nine healings. Now, there's eight left.