Chapter 96: The Day Humanity Bled 3

Chapter 96: Chapter 96: The Day Humanity Bled 3

The main emergency ward was a massive open hall, and it was pure bedlam.

?Over seventy stretchers filled the floor, with new wounded being wheeled in through the side doors every two minutes. Shattered ribs, missing limbs, punctured chests, and severe mana poisoning: injuries caused by monsters that should never have been inside low-level gates.

The screams of pain and the blare of medical monitors echoed off the high ceilings.

?Felix walked down the center aisle, his eyes scanning the chaos.

?A young B-rank hunter lay on the nearest cot. His chest armor was caved in, his ribs shattered, and each breath sounded like wet sandpaper scraping together. Blood bubbled at the corner of his lips.

?The moment the young man’s eyes landed on Felix, he weakly reached out, grabbing Felix’s wrist with trembling fingers.

?"Doctor... Valerius..."

?"Don’t talk," Felix said, leaning down. "Your left lung is torn. I can fix it, but you need to stay still."

?The young man didn’t let go. Tears streamed down his soot-covered cheeks. "Please," he croaked, his voice cracking. "Forget about me. Save our captain."

?He pointed a shaking finger toward a bed six feet away.

?A clean white sheet had already been pulled over the body. The monitor beside it was dark.

?Felix’s chest tightened. The captain was already gone.

?"He pushed us out of the boss’s strike zone," the young hunter sobbed, gripping Felix’s arm so hard his knuckles turned white.

"A mutated beast came from behind. He threw three of us clear and took the hit himself... Please! You’re the Mad Healer! Everyone says you can heal anything! Please bring him back!"

?Felix looked at the covered sheet. For a moment, the words wouldn’t come.

?He could regrow arms. He could repair a crushed heart. He could purge dead tissue and reweave shattered bone.

But he couldn’t pull a soul back across the line of death. Once a person’s life was truly extinguished, no amount of mana could restart the flame.

?"I’m sorry," Felix whispered softly.

?The young hunter’s face contorted in raw horror. "No... no, you’re lying!"

?"I can save you," Felix said, his voice heavy. "I can fix your lungs, but your captain—"

?"NO!" The boy tried to lurch upright, coughing up blood. "He was breathing when they pulled us out of the gate! He was alive five minutes ago!"

?A nurse rushed over, trying to push him down. "Sir, please, your chest—"

?"Save him!" the boy wailed, his voice cracking into agonizing sobs. "I don’t care about my life! He has a little girl at home! He promised he’d take her to the park tonight! Please don’t let him die!"

?Felix felt a sharp, bitter burn behind his eyes.

?He didn’t look away. He placed a gentle, steady hand on the young man’s shoulder, easing him back onto the pillow.

?"I hear you," Felix whispered, his voice trembling slightly. "I’m so sorry."

?Green mana flared from Felix’s palm, sinking deep into the young man’s crushed chest. The broken ribs clicked back into place, the torn lung stitched itself whole, and the ragged, bloody breathing smoothed out into a steady rhythm.

?Even as the pain vanished, the boy stared up at the ceiling, tears rolling silently into his hair, whispering brokenly: "Please... please save him..."

?Felix stood up, his jaw set like iron.

?He couldn’t save the captain. But he could save the boy the captain had died protecting.

?Felix moved to the next bed.

?A hunter missing an arm. A woman coughing up black rift ash. An A-rank scout whose stomach had been torn open by spiked claws.

?Felix worked like a machine. He kept his wide-area healing field humming across the entire hall, keeping dozens of fading pulses alive while he personally threw his strongest spells into whoever was seconds away from dying.

?"Bleeding is stopped. Lie still."

?"The bone will reknit in three minutes. Don’t move the leg."

?"Stop feeding him potions, his stomach can’t handle the concentration."

?He moved without stopping. Every second was precious. And everywhere he went, the same desperate pleas followed him.

?"Please check on my partner..."

?"Is Sarah going to make it?"

?"He took the hit for me, Doctor..."

?"Please don’t let him die..."

?Some begged through tears. Some were too weak to speak and just watched him with hollow, pleading eyes.

?Twice, Felix rushed to a bed only to find the sheets already pulled over the face. Each time, a heavy weight crushed down on his chest.

?He couldn’t be everywhere at once, and he couldn’t undo death.

?Every limit he had was paid for in real human lives. In names, in faces, and in families waiting for someone who was never going to come back.

?Felix bowed his head over another bleeding hunter, his vision blurring for a fraction of a second. He blinked hard, swallowing the lump in his throat.

?Not right now, he told himself, pouring emerald fire into the open wound. You can grieve later.

Right now, there are still people breathing.

?And so, he kept moving.

---

Nearly an hour passed in a blur of sweat, blood, and green light.

Felix went from bed to bed, treating the worst cases first. Some wounds closed in seconds. Others took minutes of hard work to fix torn organs and broken bones.

A few people were already dead before he reached them, and nurses pulled white sheets over their faces to roll them away.

Every time a covered bed went past, Felix clenched his teeth. But he never stopped.

By the time Elena led him to the last hall, Felix looked like a ghost. His pajamas were stained with blood and sweat, his slippers slid on the slick floor, and his mana was running dry. Still, he kept walking.

"How many left?" he asked, his voice rough.

Elena looked at her tablet. "Thirty-one in this wing. Mostly lower ranks. Some are okay, but a few have bad internal bleeding."

"Let’s finish it."

Elena caught his arm. "Felix, look at you."

"I’m fine."

"You’ve been healing nonstop for an hour! Even you have a limit."

"Elena." Felix looked at her, his eyes dead tired.

"There are thirty-one people in there. If I stop now, some of them die."

Elena went quiet. She let go of his arm. "...Don’t pass out."

"I’ll try."

Felix walked into the room. Over thirty injured hunters were lying on cots. Some were young rookies; others were older fighters staring at the ceiling in pain.

Felix stood in the middle of the room. He took a deep breath and opened his arms.

SHIIIING.

A big wave of green light washed over the whole room.

Instead of going one by one, he healed everyone at the same time. Broken ribs snapped back into place. Crushed legs straightened out. Burned skin cooled down.

Felix shut his eyes, focusing on every single heartbeat at once. It hurt. It felt like carrying a mountain on his back, but he held on.

Ten long minutes passed.

Finally, Felix dropped his arms.

The room went quiet. The beeping alarms had stopped. Nobody was screaming anymore.

Felix took one step and his knees gave out.

"Felix!" Elena grabbed him before he hit the hard floor.

"I’m good," Felix mumbled. "Just... slipped."

"You’re lying," Elena said, putting his arm over her shoulder to hold him up.

Felix gave a weak laugh. "...Okay. A little tired."

"You used up all your mana, didn’t you?"

"Almost all of it."

She helped him out of the room and sat him down on a sofa in the hall. The second he sat, all his energy vanished. His back slumped against the cushions, his eyes drifted shut, and his hands shook in his lap.

He looked down at the blood on his fingers.

The monsters had been fought inside the dungeons. But out here in this quiet hall, Felix had fought his own war and brought hundreds of people back from the dead.

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