Arden’s skin felt like it was debating whether or not to stick around or go off in search of a better host, and Arden sincerely hoped that it would. The potion from Chorzo healed his worst injuries, but now he could feel just how bad the effects of his fight truly were. The pain would not end. He could only hope that the infirmary would mitigate the effects.

  The pain was centralized in his heart. And it kept growing stronger. It was like his heart was on fire.

  ‘What’s…happening?’

  The fake confidence in his gait had disappeared a few minutes after leaving the hall with the victims. Now, he was limping unsteadily. His heartbeat pounded in his head, dulling his senses, which was something he’d rather avoid.

  It was thanks to this that he didn’t hear Vera approach him or call his name. His first alert that she was here was the feeling of her hand on his waist. Her left hand pulled him into her, supporting him, allowing him to walk somewhat steadily.

  Through his blurry vision, he could see her mouth moving, but he couldn’t understand what she was saying. There was worry in her eyes, but he could also see how happy she was for him. How proud of him she was.

  He gave her a weak smile, and he went limp in her hands, exhaustion and pain overtaking him.

  *****

  It didn’t take long for Vera to catch up to Arden. He slowed down a lot over the past few minutes, and she was moving at a breakneck pace to get to him. When she saw him, she stopped for a moment.

  He looked awful.

  Somewhere between the main hall and where they were now, Arden’s facade had crumbled. He slowly limped along, leaving patches of burnt skin as he went. She was thankful that no one but her had seen him in his poor form.

  She ran even faster, calling his name, but he didn’t stop. He didn’t even register her presence.

  When she got to his side, she pulled him into her. He needed the support, and she was more than willing to help.

  He finally noticed her and looked at her, and she was able to see his face. Behind the blistered mess, he was pale. Even paler than his time living in the slums. He looked like he had one foot in the grave.

  “You did good back there, Arden,” she said.

  She increased their pace slightly, hoping to make it to the infirmary before his condition deteriorated further.

  “You are a true Starborn now. You’ve killed monsters, and defended people. You’ve come so far already. I’m so proud of you.”

  She felt the weight of him suddenly increase, cutting her off from her one way conversation. She felt his body go limp, and she froze up.

  When his armor disappeared into a cloud of red sparks, she started to fear the worst.

  ‘No…Not again.’

  Arden’s body, now dressed in a black cocktail dress, fell forward. With the armor covering most of his body gone, she was able to see a lot more of his skin with him in the dress. And she also saw a lot more of his wounds, and they were worse than she thought.

  She thought that the blistering on his face was the worst of his wounds after the healing potion, but she was wrong. Blisters raced down his arms and legs, and there were some traces of black scorch marks and white skin discoloration extending below where the dress covered.

  With Arden heavily wounded and exposed, she did something she hadn’t done in a long time.

  Vera panicked.

  She scooped Arden up into a bridal carry, careful not to cause any more damage to him than Yaan already inflicted. She didn’t know what she would do if she ended up causing more pain to him than Yaan.

  She sprinted through the halls of Miasma headquarters, ignoring the shouts of those she came across. It only took a minute to arrive at the infirmary.

  Vera backed into the door to open it, and when she entered the room, she noticed several people there already. Savish was there, talking to Laurent and an older man in a lab coat. All eyes fell on Vera when she burst into the room.

  “Help him!” she cried.

  When Laurent saw the condition of Arden, he knew it was not a light matter. He pointed at Arden, and barked an order to the man in the lab coat.

  “Do it! They’re under the protection of the leader!”

  The man in the lab coat didn’t need any further convincing. He knew exactly where Laurent’s place in the hierarchy was. An order from him was an order from Chorzo.

  He rolled out a stretcher, and Vera laid Arden’s body on top of it. Sweat rolled down his face as it contorted in pain. Neither the doctor nor Laurent made a comment on Arden’s clothing. Their words were spoken only after Arden’s dress was removed, and they saw what lay beneath.

  “Jesus…” Laurent muttered.

  “How is he still alive?” the doctor said.

  Vera and Savish also saw the degree to which Arden’s body was damaged. Savish didn’t say anything from surprise, while tears ran down Vera’s face. It was so much worse than she thought.

  The blisters and burns that covered most of his extremities were the lighter wounds. His chest and stomach had the color scheme of yin and yang, though there was no sign of cohesion that normally came with the symbol. Most of his skin was gone, burnt away, and what little was left had melted and solidified like a horrific piece of modern art. Ashes and charred bones were on full display. From one angle, they could see a portion of his still faintly beating heart.

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  A red-tier Starborn's body was still mostly human. It wasn't until they reached orange-tier that a Starborn became a superhuman capable of surviving injuries that would normally kill a man.

  Yet this was an injury that could kill orange-tier Starborn, but a fledgling red-tier was still alive.

  And what's more, it looked to be getting worse.

  Arden’s body was still burning, this time from the inside. There was no visible flame, but it was evident from the smoke rising off of him and the spreading char.

  The doctor didn't waste any more time. He pushed the stretcher through a nearby door. Right behind him was Laurent, who shut the door behind him. If this was what he thought it was, the good doctor would need his help.

  Laurent looked down at the protostar currently being cooked alive. He refused to let the surprise get the better of him after years of working with Miasma.

  He took out a phone from his pocket and called his boss.

  “Sir, there's a problem with the burnt patient.”

  “What is it?” Chorzo asked.

  “He appears to be suffering from a hellfire stigmata.”

  There was a lingering silence from the other end of the phone. After a few seconds, Laurent spoke, questioning if he dropped signal.

  “Sir?”

  Then the call ended. Laurent looked down at the phone in his hand, then swore as he pocketed it.

  Hellfire stigmatas were tricky. They were a rare ability used by very few Starborn with a flame affinity. Once they were imprinted on an individual, they would perpetually burn the victim’s soul until one of two things happened: the user of the ability cancels it, or the victim dies from the immense pain of having their soul set ablaze.

  Just because the soul was inviolable didn't mean they couldn't be harmed, and a hellfire stigma was a prime example of a soul attack. The biggest danger of soul attacks was that there were very very few ways to avoid soul damage. The best one could hope for was a soul damage resistance aspect on a Satellite.

  Laurent guessed that Chorzo was going to the perpetrator to get them to end the ability. If that was going to happen, then Chorzo needed to move fast, lest Arden expire. Frankly, it was a miracle that he hadn’t died already.

  “What can you do for him, Santos?” he asked the doctor.

  Santos thought about it.

  “He can’t be healed until the stigmata runs its course. Until that happens, the most we can do is keep him alive, even if it's just barely.”

  Santos ran his hands above Arden’s worst wounds. He could sense the heat coming from his heart and core as his soul was set alight. Gray ashes imbued with green energy clogged any of Arden’s wounds that were touched. Arden’s breathing stabilized as Santos kept feeding stellar essence into the healing ashes.

  Santos gasped as he felt a large portion of his stellar essence drain immediately. The amount needed just to keep the kid alive was ungodly. Santos had never used this much essence before when using his Ashen Blood abilities. That was the difference between healing a physical injury and healing a soul injury.

  “I’m going to need more essence!” Santos said, soot staining his white lab coat. “He’s sucking me dry!”

  “How much longer can you last?”

  “Five minutes, maybe ten!” Santos coughed up some gray blood. Just a side effect of his power. He’d wipe it away once he got a break “Go get the other doctors. The kid is going to need them.”

  Laurent burst out of the room and returned to the waiting room where Savish and Vera were waiting, and he continued straight past them down a hallway with numerous windowed doors on each side. He looked into each one, grabbing the other healers who weren’t actively treating people, which was most of them. Laurent ordered them to report to intensive care to help Santos with his treatment.

  Laurent only knew the broad strokes of the events of tonight. He only knew that a pair of rogue Starborn had attacked a restaurant and that the man in intensive care and the two women in the waiting room were the ones to stop it. If he wanted to help the Starborn like he was told to do, he needed more answers.

  After the other Starborn healers made their way to Santos, Laurent approached Vera and Savish. The others would be able to feed Santos enough essence for Laurent to feel out the two women.

  “What happened to him?” Vera asked with a trembling voice.

  “That’s what I want to know as well,” Laurent said, unbuttoning his suit jacket and sitting down across from them. “I was told to make sure he gets treatment, but without knowing what’s happened to him and who caused it, there isn’t much we can do. The boss is trying to keep the details under wraps, and I’ll probably get punished for trying to figure this out, but if it keeps this guy alive, so be it. He deserves that much from putting himself between a rogue Starborn and mundanes.”

  “He’s still being attacked.” Vera realized. “By an active ability. That’s why you need the attacker’s identity.”

  “Precisely. And now the user needs to cancel the ability, or your friend will die.”

  Vera’s mind turned red. She already lost her battle of mentality earlier when she began freaking out. Now she gave into her anger. Her hair went mostly white, and in stark contrast to the jagged frozen icicles that appeared in her hands with an icy mist, her blood was boiling.

  “I’m going to kill him.”

  Laurent stood up as well.

  “No. The boss is already on it. You just need to tell me who attacked you tonight. The boss and the healers will take care of the rest.”

  More frozen mist floated around Vera’s hands.

  “Your boss won’t be able to kill his own nephew.”

  Laurent sighed and sat down with a scowl. He pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation.

  “Yaan’s responsible? That makes things…challenging.”

  “That won’t stop me,” Vera said.

  Before she could take a step, Savish clamped her hand around Vera’s wrist with much more power than Hel had before. Such was the disparity between a red-tier and an orange-tier.

  “Stand down, Vera.”

  “Don’t stop me, Savish. Let me do this. Don’t forget that Yaan attacked your restaurant, your employees, and you. And that Arden saved your life.”

  Savish’s grip tightened like a vice.

  “I haven’t forgotten, and I won’t ever forget what you two did for me. Listen to me. If you try to kill Miasma’s prince, the rest of the organization will hunt you down. Chorzo will kill you before you even draw blood.”

  “Then what am I supposed to do!? Just sit here and wait until something happens!?”

  “He’s going to need your help soon,” Laurent said calmly. “The doctors I just brought over are there to supply Santos, the lead healer, with enough stellar essence to keep him alive. But they won’t last long. Feed Arden your essence too. We will take care of the rest. Even if Yaan doesn’t deactivate his power, he has a finite amount of essence. Run out the clock.”

  Vera looked like she swallowed a bug. She didn’t want to prolong Arden’s suffering, but she knew that it was the best option they had. She at least had that much presence of mind.

  “I’ll give him all of my essence and more if that’s what it takes.”