Ch.287287. Six Clock Hands (7)

Luring the demonic beasts could no longer continue now that Michelle had fallen.

No, even if it wasn’t just because of Michelle, everyone was already exhausted, so Tembris had to flee.

Fortunately, Sirah was too complex for demonic beasts to navigate, making it difficult for both the frenzied beasts and Ashpern. Thanks to this, they managed to successfully hide.

However, the problem remained unsolved.

Michelle was injured. It wasn’t simply that she was wounded and couldn’t participate in battle—she had taken a direct hit that could potentially be life-threatening.

After examining her condition, Erika bit her lip tightly and tried infusing holy power several times, but it was useless.

“The holy power… isn’t working. For some reason, it keeps getting repelled as soon as I try to infuse it.”

“Repelled? You mean the holy power isn’t being accepted by Michelle? That’s never happened before.”

“I don’t know either. What could possibly be wrong…”

For humans, holy power is sacred energy itself—a portion of divine power. There had never been cases where humans couldn’t receive it; no one had ever heard of or seen such a thing.

The large wound on Michelle’s back was clearly visible, and despite healing magic being applied directly to it, the bleeding wouldn’t stop—blood continued to seep out steadily.

Junon couldn’t just stand by and watch anymore.

“Move aside. I need to stop the bleeding now.”

“Junon, you…!”

“I said I need to stop the bleeding right now! Her blood is pouring out like this, and you want to keep wasting holy power that isn’t even working?!”

Rip, rip.

Junon tore strips from his clothes, disinfected them in boiled water, and wrapped them around Michelle’s wound as a makeshift bandage.

Even so, Michelle’s wound was so severe that it soaked Junon’s clothes completely with blood.

‘The bleeding won’t stop…!’

The problem was that even recovery magic wasn’t working. This suggested there was an issue with Michelle’s mana. To solve this mystery, Junon placed his hand on Michelle’s back to assess her condition.

Mana is a consumable resource—tiny particles formed when dissolved in blood and air.

If he could check the state of her circuits by following the blood vessels where blood was flowing abundantly, it wouldn’t be impossible to identify the cause.

Anti-Cast. It’s a technique that disrupts the flow of magical power, but if used differently, it can also create proper circulation.

Junon maintained intense concentration as he slowly began to infuse his own mana.

Starting with the blood vessels. Following those on her back, he located Michelle’s arteries, and through them, reached the heart—the largest magical circuit.

He found the problem.

“We shouldn’t be infusing power into the wound—we need to empty it completely.”

“What?”

“The holy power. Instead of infusing it, we need to empty it from her body. Michelle’s circuits are instinctively pushing away the holy power to survive.”

“How do you know that?”

“I used Anti-Cast to flow mana through and check. Michelle’s circuits are completely overheated right now. Infusing more mana would only make things more dangerous.”

From Michelle’s heart, he could feel heat as intense as her flames.

Every strand of tissue composing her circuits was severely overheated, as if proving she had been using magic excessively.

In this state, any mana infused from outside would simply leak out like water from a bottomless pot—unless it was injected directly into the circuits.

And there was something else he suspected.

“Michelle always drank water after using a lot of magic, right?”

“All fire mages do that. Why do you ask?”

“…Then she must be dehydrated too.”

Dehydration confirmed. The treatment method itself was simple.

He had prepared the tools beforehand. Even before luring Ashpern.

But.

‘Why… is it gone?’

He was certain he had put it in his pocket.

Just to be sure, he emptied everything from his pockets.

Wondering if he might have put it somewhere else, he searched thoroughly, but found nothing but dust.

‘Damn it…!’

Some of his items had disappeared. Excluding what he had used, there was only one time they could have been lost.

Just once. When he slipped and fell during the battle with the demonic beasts.

Luckily, what had fallen out then was a smoke bomb that released thick clouds, allowing him to counter the beast’s attack. But apparently, that wasn’t all that had fallen.

The small medical kit.

The item he had brought thinking he might need minimal self-treatment while luring Ashpern was gone. Of all things, it had fallen out too.

“This is bad. She’s losing too much blood…! We need to give her water, at least!”

“I have a canteen! I’ll go get some—”

“Don’t drink that!!”

Junon shouted and snatched away Aris’s canteen as she was about to draw water from the nearby river to give to Michelle.

“What are you saying?! You said she’s dehydrated!! Shouldn’t we give her any water we can find?!”

“All rivers in Sirah flow from sources saturated with mana. If we give her that water, Michelle will be in even greater danger.”

“So? Are you saying that’s a more meaningful measure than removing the small amount of magic already in her and replenishing her fluids? Say something that makes sense!!”

“There’s a way. Just wait until then, please.”

“Wait? Michelle is in this condition and you’re telling us to just wait?!”

“I’ll… I’ll bring something that can relieve Michelle’s thirst. Just wait until then.”

If he mentioned that he had brought a medical kit, they wouldn’t believe him. It would be the same if he told them he dropped it while fighting the demonic beasts, and they wouldn’t listen if he said he could solve the problem with it.

A lie was all he had left.

“What? Junon!!”

“You need to keep the blood clotting, so keep applying cold compresses and pressure like I did. Remember, absolutely do not let her drink that water!”

He emphasized repeatedly that they should not give Michelle water even if her dehydration worsened, insisting this was the only way for her to recover properly, then left.

***

Time is not on Michelle’s side. Unable to heal her wound, she is inevitably exposed to excessive blood loss, and due to the nature of her fire magic circuits, she will certainly suffer from dehydration.

Paradoxically, however, time is needed to cool down her overheated magic circuits. Despite the approaching dehydration and blood loss, none of Erika’s healing magic will work until the magic circuits return to normal.

To make matters worse, the fact that mana is dissolved in the sources of Sirah’s rivers creates another obstacle to solving even just the dehydration.

So how can Michelle’s life be saved when she’s caught in this triple dilemma?

There is one way.

Surgery. To allow the magic circuits to calm down, purified clean mana must be injected into the main circuits so the overheated system can regain its proper temperature and resume mana circulation function.

In other words, it’s not a conventional surgery but a magic circuit operation.

‘Though I’ve never done anything like that before.’

He had plenty of experience operating on human bodies.

He had stepped up to remove sharp projectiles like thorns or bones from fallen soldiers when the medical team was shorthanded, at least assisting them.

He had often observed abdominal surgeries since there were many such cases. At first, watching someone’s abdomen being cut open was grotesquely difficult to bear, but seeing people survive afterward made him act instinctively.

Thanks to that, blood splatter was laughable, and he could even cut away rotting intestines or decayed tissue by himself. He had actually done it before.

All he needed was the medical kit.

He wouldn’t even need to cut open her abdomen—just expose a few arteries, inject magic using a syringe, and suture the wounds. After a few rounds of this process, her body would no longer reject externally introduced mana.

‘Found it…!’

After running for a long time, Junon finally succeeded in finding the medical kit he had dropped.

He had estimated that Aris and Erika would follow his instructions for at most a day. He was prepared to stay up all night with the sole determination to retrieve the medical kit within a day.

Finding it so quickly was incredibly fortunate.

“Good. Now I just need to go back…”

At that moment, something leaped from behind and flew past his shoulder.

Swoosh!

Junon barely lowered his posture to avoid the crisis. Even as his balance shifted to one side, he grabbed the medical kit, and when his feet stopped sliding, a curse escaped his lips.

“Shit. Just my fucking luck.”

The Oblivion Ashpern.

The center of this demon army and the kingdom’s worst demi-human was pointing his spear in Junon’s direction.

“Clever little rat.”

“Ha. It’s funnier that a demonic beast like you can talk. Trying to imitate humans?”

“…”

Despite the provocation, Ashpern remained unfazed. It was as if he lacked the sense of humiliation that humans would feel.

Well, maybe that’s because he’s a demonic beast? Besides, he didn’t even have his subordinates nearby, as if he didn’t need them to deal with a single human. His arrogance had clearly eroded his vigilance.

Of course, that didn’t mean he would let Junon go easily.

‘No choice.’

Junon gripped his Chain Shield tightly.

Recognizing that he had to fight, he gritted his teeth. To return to Michelle waiting in the hideout as quickly as possible, he faced Ashpern with all his might.

He had one day.

Within that time, he had to shake off this named demonic beast.

-Clang!!

***

Drip, drip.

Dark blood flowed from the slender leg. Though she had managed to escape, her wounds couldn’t be concealed like her body hidden by camouflage magic.

Thud.

It was already miraculous that she had walked to the cave on that leg. The girl collapsed on the spot.

Leaning against the cave wall, the girl gasped for hot breath, her entire body burning like fire.

“Ugh…!”

Blood flowed freely from the deep laceration on her leg.

She wanted to treat it somehow, but having never been injured before, all she could do was tear cloth into strips to stop the bleeding.

After roughly bandaging the wound on her leg, her fragile body collapsed to the floor.

She had moved solely with the determination to avenge her family against the demonic beast that killed them, even if it meant burning all her mana or squeezing every last bit from her magic circuits.

While her vast mana reserves meant her life wasn’t in danger, her body was far from normal.

“I’m sorry… Ron… I’m too sleepy right now… Just a little, just a little nap and then I’ll get up. Then I’ll go fight again…”

This hooded girl would probably fall asleep. Having fought day and night without proper rest, she would sink into a slumber sweeter than any before.

But for the girl, sleep was not sweet—it was something akin to fear.

She desperately wished she wouldn’t have that dream again…

Her eyelids closed.

Gradually the world darkened, and her senses dulled.

Just before falling asleep, in that fleeting moment, the girl’s body reacted.

‘This magic… whose is it?’

Sensing through her skin a magic that was pure and pristine, seemingly incapable of burning under any circumstances.

This briefly prevented her from entering the dream state, allowing her to escape for the first time.

From the nightmare where her parents always abandoned her.