Pain

When Alice woke up, it was because of the pain.

Her eyes shot open as a throb traversed from her right elbow, soon enveloping her entire body in a blanket of burning fire.

Tears streamed down her face as she tried to lift herself up, the simple movement of her wounded limb causing her to puke from the pain, a mix of bile and saliva splashing in the glowing water of the pool she had fainted in.

Still, she kept moving. Biting the inside of her cheek, she used her left arm to prop herself up.

Alice looked at her almost naked form, the green light showing a pale body covered in scrapes and cuts.

Her knees were flayed, a mass of bleeding flesh covered in light particles. One of her feet had a deep gash where a particularly sharp piece of limestone had broken through the skin, and her naked chest was covered in a mass of dark bruises and abrasions from when she had slid down the tunnel and impacted against the walls of the antechamber.

Finally, she took a deep breath, and looked at her right arm.

Where once was a healthy arm, now remained only an inflamed stump that ended midway through her forearm, covered by a thick film of the glowing substance of the pool.

Somehow, the organisms inside of it had managed to form some sort of membrane on the cut, stopping the blood flow that would have otherwise killed her.

Beside her, lay the carcass of the large salamander, the pincer still lodged deep in its mouth and brain where she had left it. All around the amphibian glowed the huge halo of the dazzling microorganisms, already at work consuming its flesh and organs.

She staggered out of the water and onto dry land, soon crashing down on one of the seats made of broken stalagmites.

She was incredibly weak, barely able to stand for more than a few seconds and unable to pretty much do anything but stare at the devastation her base was in.

In the green hue, a trail of black blood travelled from the opening in the walls to the pool, filling the cave with its metallic scent.

The palisade had been scattered all over the ground, abandoned in its midst was the remainder of the leash that had secured the fat screechling she had just started using as a sentinel.

Alice grimaced at the thought of her late captive, while it had served its purpose, it was still a living being and she felt bad about its end.

It took her many long shuddering breaths to stand up once more and stumble to the entrance where she dropped down, the impact of her butt on the stone sending a new wave of agony from her wounds.

Over many, long hours she painfully dragged all the stones of her palisade to their spot, slowly rebuilding the makeshift wall over the opening.

When she finally finished her most important task, her body was covered in cold sweat, the stump sending wave after wave of pain to her worn-out brain.

She tiredly crawled to the water bowl and greedily drank from it until it was empty, before falling in an exhaustion-fueled sleep.

Once again, she found herself floating in a dark, void-like space; this time, however, it was a room, one, she felt, that had been tailored perfectly for her.

In the room were words, the same ones she had heard before escaping the empty expanse of the monolith.

You have obtained the Biomancer Class.

You have learned the skill Lesser Biomancy.

She kept on dreaming.

This time, when she woke up, it was because of a deep pain stabbing into her stomach as if it was eating itself.

Alice felt her diaphragm contract in her torso, causing her abdominal muscles to convulse erratically until, an instant later, she felt the now familiar feeling of vomit rushing up, through her esophagus and into her mouth before splattering down onto the floor.

With her blurry, tears-filled eyes it took her a bit of time to realize the problem in front of her.

On the ground was a large mess of blood and saliva. Glowing.

In a panic, the girl looked at her slime-covered stump, only now noticing the light weakly shining through the skin and flesh. Her veins were glimmering.

Oh no. it’s not safe. I’m infected and the body is reacting.

In an effort to kill the invading organisms, her body was killing itself. She was already feeling hot and nauseous, and she was sure that was only the start.

I’ve got to do something. There must be something I can do. After everything I survived I won’t go down like this.

She sat up, hoping to ease the pain and nausea but obtaining the opposite as another mouthful of blood came up from her throat.

As soon as her mouth was empty once more, the dying girl took a deep breath and coughed out the first words she could think of.

“Lesser Biomancy”. She waited, hoping for something. Nothing happened.

“Never that easy” she wheezed, a small bubble of blood coming out of her mouth.

Ignoring her heaving chest, Alice tried to concentrate on the feeling she had experienced the night before in front of the Monolith.

She remembered the pressure that had blossomed in her forehead, a deep well of warm water, enclosed in a thin barrier that kept it at bay but ready to be unleashed like a rushing wave at her bidding.

She searched for it, focusing inwardly as she tried to detect it anew.

She pushed away her conscious thoughts, her rational skepticism, and the pain she was in; only delving deeper and deeper into herself, falling in a trance.

When the outwards sensations faded, she finally sensed it, the warm energy suffusing her mind. She tried to unleash it, to puncture the barrier and force it outside. And yet the barrier stood, heedless of her efforts until, after many futile attempts, she finally understood the problem.

It needs an outlet, an objective, I can’t unleash the power without it.

With the reservoir still in her thoughts, she now focused on her own body, feeling its inner workings and the wounds that plagued them.

She phased through flesh, organ, and bone until, suddenly, she found herself as a red blood cell, an erythrocyte.

Flowing through a maze of blood vessels while carrying precious oxygen and nutrients for her organs, she rushed from passage to passage, trying to reach her destination.

Until she didn’t, the connection dissipating from her conscience.

Surprised, she focused on that place, soon finding the source of the problem.

She now watched as a number of glowing particles flowed in through one of the main blood vessels. They swam through the plasma without interference and soon impacted with one of the walls of the vein where they got stuck; after a few moments, the round globules lost their round, fuzzy shape, somehow dissolving into a shower of minuscule specks that melded and became part of the cellular wall itself.

She got closer, thinking about the surprising merge and its significance. Then, the real problems started.

From a nearby connection emerged a large and round white cell, slowly ambling through the passage and easily pushing away the smaller blood cells. It was when it got close to the now glowing walls of the vein that all hell broke loose.

The cell instantly split, releasing a swarm of tiny objects that soon impacted with the cell of the wall and started breaking it down. First, a single, jagged gash appeared on its surface, then another; soon the entire vascular wall fell apart, leaving yet another place where blood flowed free.

She realized this was happening throughout her whole system. She wouldn’t survive if it kept going on.

As a consequence of her current spectating role, when her entire body convulsed once again, she experienced it in full. Her mind followed another mass of blood leaving through her mouth. She watched her punctured stomach slowly fill with even more of her ichor; she witnessed the first small tear in her lungs. She was witnessing herself dying, so she made a choice.

She concentrated on all the white cells, feeling their multitudes flowing through her body, destroying the invaders. She told them to stop.

The barrier was smashed as the warm water flowed from the well through her entire system, inhibiting the cells, letting the glowing organisms merge unchecked with blood vessels and organs. She just hoped this option wasn’t just delaying the inevitable.

As soon as she felt that no more wounds were appearing, Alice moved onto the next step.

The young woman watched on, as a marvel of natural engineering unfolded before her very eyes in every single one of her cuts and tears. Her own cells were stacking upon themselves in an effort to stop the loss of more of their siblings, slowly forming a structure that would prevent the vital fluid from flowing out of her.

She witnessed as the erythrocytes formed minuscule fiber after minuscule fiber of a white substance that, she realized, was gonna become new skin. She was being a spectator to her own recovery.

Let me help.

This time, the barrier to her well of power wasn’t torn, just slowly opened as the now calmer energy coursed through her veins and arteries, touching every cell and following a simple order, a single word that had somehow appeared in her mind, as if it had always been there.

Hemostasis.

She felt the vessels contract and the blood coagulate as rows upon rows of platelets formed a thin wall of shields on every oozing cut.

And thus, the deadly flood finally stopped.

She slowly let go of her internal view, her consciousness gradually returning to its normal state. As soon as she was herself again, a wave of fatigue washed over her and with it, Alice noticed the changes in her body, how it felt and reacted.

For one thing, the pain was now a dull throb coming from everywhere, as opposed to the sharp spikes of agony that were stabbing her before.

Her skin felt tight where the wounds had started closing off, the skin already pinching together but as she looked at all the knitting cuts, she realized what her first order had really meant.

Faint glowing lines travelled under her skin, following the route of the blood vessels. Her residual limb had been the worst affected, a crisscrossing pattern shining under her pale dermis, but the effect was all over her body, in some places only a few small patches, in others an evident majority.

And now I’m a freaking lightbulb. Great. Just Great. At least I’m not spitting blood right now.

Alice tried to move, only to realize she was completely unable to. She was even weaker than before and, on top of that, starving, as if the magical effect had used her energy resources to activate.

Which is probably the truth. I don’t think that superfast “healing” comes without a cost. I guess I need to eat and drink.

She gazed at the ruined cave, its bloodied floor, her eyes stopping to linger on the pool of lights and the dead monster half submerged in it.

“Goddamnit”.