Part 1

A concoction of colors shined through my half-closed eyelids. Lights and shadows shimmered around like Arabian dancers. A stage designed by God himself watched under psychedelic drugs. The sounds were nothing to scoff at too. Voices and loud crashes mixed together with such fury that the reverb of said sounds would make my eyes flutter with confusion. As if I could see the very sounds...That is, only when I was conscious.

My consciousness kept buzzing in and out. When it was in, the world came crashing on me altogether. The pain of my wounds, the toll of my blood loss, the colors, the sounds, the shouts, the chaotic and swirling faces. An override of information that was, of course, bound to shut my brain off. It was then that I could hear a couple of voices more clearly, or so I thought. With my consciousness wholly gone, it was more like a lingering feeling I got whenever my brain decided to work properly. A memory not mine. Something I instinctively believed true yet felt the need to elaborate, before getting overwhelmed by everything else.

At some point, I noticed how the noise had finally ceased. By that time, I could feel my body being still, unmoving, placed upon a cold surface with hands running all over it. Reluctantly, I forced myself to open my eyes, feeling the full weight of the wounds of the double-casting. Slowly, faces started to acquire shape, sounds became clearer and clearer until I could distinguish them into proper words and finally, the colors stopped dancing, giving my brain the rest it needed.

"W-what do we do?-" stuttered Dino as he looked down at his hands drenched in fresh blood "- Neither of us knows magic, you don't know healing magic and we don't have medicine to close the wound. What do we do?!"

"It's not that I don't know it-" Lucas replied, biting his lip as he cut off a strip of cloth from his shirt to stuff it inside my belly wound instead of a heavy-drenched ball of cloth "- I only know basic tier, just enough to close a skin wound, a muscle at best, but an organ... if I do something wrong...I-I-I couldn't live with myself"

[Oh right...the stomach...I have to...close it] I through. The words forming slowly inside my head.

I focused inside, shutting off all the sounds, searching for any trace of remaining mana. My circuits were almost empty. Only a tiny silver of mana still circled through my body. Not enough to fully heal and neither to cast any such spell, for that matter. Not that I was in any condition to do so anyway. Still, it was something I could work with.

"Then, is there something we can-" Tried asking Dominik before stopping midway as his eyes went wide in shock at the sight of my still trembling hand slowly raising to attract attention.

"Raphael!-" beamed Lucas "- You're still with us!"

"I can...-" I said with coarse and feeble voice, low enough that my three companions had to bow their heads closer to listen "-heal...the stomach...the rest...can't"

"What?! Wait, are you sure?-" asked Lucas with a mixture of relief and worry in his voice "- After...that fight, can you still do it?-"

A slow nod was the only answer I could muster the strength to reply with.

"- Alright, then I'll deal with the rest... sorry but it'll leave a scar-" he apologetically replied. Then, with a newfound authoritarian tone, he began barking orders to the duo "- Listen, I'll need clean water and bandages. I don't care who does it, I just need 'em fast. Also, find me something wooden, about the size of a finger. Sharpen it and let its head burn...Come on! What are you waiting for?!"

The two of them wordlessly began doing their tasks. Dino, with sweat drenching his forehead and bloodied shirt, began rummaging through our belongings for a waterskin while Dominik carefully selected one of the less-dirted shirts in his possession to tear to shreds. In a few minutes, Lucas had all he needed to start the healing, yet he waited, knowing that it would be pointless if I had not done my part.

"Are you ready?" He asked.

"Raise me...I need to...see" I replied.

Two sets of hands raised my head and bent my back just enough so I could gaze upon the gaping wound a few centimeters away from my belly button. The blood was still flowing. Freshly red and stealing me of my lively warmth. I nodded and Lucas began cleaning the wound, letting me see, for a few brief seconds, my very innards. I fixed that image in my mind as solidly as I could, then the hurdle started. I began to let natural mana flow through me in tiny, controlled waves, using my own as a sort of stop-road, a dam. It was dangerous. The tiniest error could lead me to the petrification Kyvern spoke about. But beggars can't be choosers.

Using my own, I directed the natural mana towards the biggest wound, the one tearing my stomach, first then towards the smaller on my intestine. With enough mana to fuel the spell now gathered very closely to the interested parts, I fired the healing magic, requiring me to chant it fully even though it was a mere third-tier spell. My lack of strength and fuzziness of thought required me so.

"Nature...you who give and...take life...guide my hand...and grant me strength...and lead my mana...so that the...wounds on those... who pain befell...be healed...Guide me so that...precious blood may stop being spilled...Guide me...so that flesh may close and...pain cease...Guide me...so that the temple we so cherish...may walk and shine again...Deep healing" I chanted with cadence.

My body grew weaker and weaker as I vividly felt the tissues of my organs being regenerated through the use of the gathered natural mana. The fact that I was forced to use natural mana, and natural mana only, to cast the spell added even more to the strain on my body. But I had to endure it if I wanted Lucas to heal me. A healing spell does not send the caster's mana to the wounded's. Instead, it uses that caster's to induce the wounded's mana to spend itself to accelerate the healing process.

As soon as I no longer saw the gaping wound on my stomach, I let go of my hold of the spell and rapidly dissipated what little remained of natural mana still lingering. The pain, fatigue, and stress finally overwhelmed me and, before I could have a say in it, I began to slowly doze off to sleep. Lucas and the others shouted at me to stay awake. They tried to shook me awake...Too late, it was a one-way ticket.

* * *

Minutes? Hours? Tens of hours? Perhaps a day? I had no idea how long I was asleep. But when I woke up, all was silent, dark, and overwhelmingly lonely. I could hardly move my body and the mess of bandages covering most of it prevented me from doing even the slightest of actions. The pain still lingered deeply where the blade plunged and, like a tide, it rode my lack of any sort of energy to spread across my body. Yet I could not feel the wound. I sighed in relief. Lucas must've succeeded in healing it.

With nothing to do other than think, I waited. I felt blind in that darkness but I had little choice, with no mana in my body I could do nothing. Feeling the grip of thirst choking my sore throat and hearing the loud grumbles of my empty stomach, I resolved myself to sleep off the wait.

A handful of hours passed as I felt powerful and callous hands shaking me awake. Softly, almost, careful as if afraid to break a precious thing. I mentally shooed away the cloud of drowsiness lingering over my head. In front of me was the crouching figure of Dominik. His beard had grown even further, giving him the resemblance of a bear. The relief plastered on his face upon seeing me awake was so painfully obvious that I could almost read the time he spent checking on me in his eyes. Behind him were Lucas, with his sword unsheathed and ready to spring in action toward something out of my field of view, and Dino, holding a torch burning with blue fire. I slowly rose my arm and pointed with my index at my throat while sticking my dried tongue out. Dominik must've understood my intention since he rapidly jumped into his belonging and almost shoved down my throat a waterskin.

"*Phua*-" I loudly voiced as I smacked my lips in pleasure "- That hit the spot...thank you"

"Glad to have you back!-" Snickered Lucas as he sheathed his sword and kneeled down opposite Dominik "- Asshole! You scared the soul out of me when you stabbed yourself! Thought I'd lost you..."

"Aww, was the big, strong Lucas afraid to be left alone by his younger brother?" I replied with a smug running proudly across my face.

"*Tch* Jerk!-" He answered, cocking a smile of his own "- How are you feeling?"

"Terrible. You did an awful job with that healing. I'm completely out of energy and I feel pain all over my body... you really suck as a mage uh"

"Oh my-" He continued, overly feigning shock as he covered his mouth like a noble lady "- I feel so ashamed of it. My awful lack of talent in one of the most difficult and arcane arts known to man fills me with embarrassment. Oh, if only I had half of the talent my prodigious brother has...then again, said brother could have not FUCKING STABBED HIMSELF WITH A DAGGER IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT!"

He was now clearly venting out. And it was funny. So funny that I almost had trouble suppressing a laugh. Dominik, too, seemed to have trouble but he hid his curving lips behind a cough while Dino was close to choking as he tried his hardest, and failed, to suppress it.

"Sheesh, I'm sorry dear wife but if I hadn't done that we would probably now be all nice and dead... relax. I'm still here, no? I just need some rest and I'll be as good as new and ready to explore!" I gingerly replied.

"About that..." Intervened Dominik.

"About what?" I questioned.

"We found something" He replied almost coldly.

"...Something?" I asked cautiously, watching powerlessly as my brain fired up an inhumane number of gruesome possibilities, ranging from a nest of monsters to the remains of my family.

"We found a portal" Replied Dino with an almost overwhelming simplicity.

* * *

It took around an hour of trekking to reach the so-called portal. Without me having to be carried on someone's shoulders it would've taken less but the prospect of finding an actual portal excited Dino, and in part Dominik, enough to pressure me and Lucas to rush there.

We stopped at the entrance of a dimly lit tunnel wide enough for two people to walk side by side. A series of blue fire torches lit the black stone walls, casting ominous shadows on every corner. The further down the tunnel we went, the more naked stone became chiseled and polished until, towards its end, the tunnel seemed to have been carved by a dwarven legendary stonemason. Engraved on the walls and ceiling were symbols, more similar to ancient runes than anything else. The kind you see described by historians. Then, the tunnel opened into a wide dome-like room.

Four braziers lit the room with bright blue fire, magical in nature. The walls were filled with carvings and engravings but unlike the tunnel, all of them were either destroyed by time or done so purposefully. The latter seemed more credible seeing as the tunnel was in almost-perfect condition. On the other side of the tunnel was another opening, most likely to a similar tunnel. Yet, what most attracted my attention, was an arch made of white stones standing two meters tall in the very middle of the room.

Each and every stone was different than the others as if someone had picked them randomly and shoved them up to form a gate-like structure. The stones were hovering in the air, just a handful of millimeters away from each other, and perfectly still. Each of them had a symbol, a rune, or a letter unknown to me engraved upon it. I knew just by laying my eyes on it once. Whatever magic was that structure supposed to hold or spark, it was heaps beyond me.

Dino began explaining how, during one of their explorations in search of food while I was asleep, they came upon this room and what came beyond it. He explained how similar was this so-called "gate" to the one they saw on top of the temple, but no matter what they did, even with Lucas' help, they could not understand it. Whether it was truly a portal connected to the outside, a beacon of some sort, or simply a magic construct. They could not figure it out, least of all activate it. Thus my role.

Lucas and Dominik grabbed me by my waist and shoulder and led me in front of the gate. As a mage at heart, my curiosity sparked, feeling the subtle presence of mana coursing through the stones. Curiously, I extended an arm inside the empty space. I sighed, almost dissatisfied as nothing happened. I, then, looked at the empty space, this time focusing on the presence of mana. I had regained very little of my own thanks to the hours I spent sleeping after first waking up. Just enough to improve my sight. It took me the full length of ten minutes before my lips curled in a slight smile.

"So it's the runes..." I pronounced much like a verdict.

All three looked at me with curiosity as I freed myself of their help and sat, with no little pain, crossed legs in front of the structure. I closed my eyes and traced the shape of each rock solely by the movements of mana within them. I laughed mentally as I realized that I was most likely the only human capable of doing so, knowing that tracing the movements of natural mana was something Kyvern taught me. A treasure of knowledge I was making full use of. Following with a phantomatic finger the paths mana used to travel through the rocks. That's when I saw it.

Each rune called mana then sent it to the next, which also called mana and sent it to the next, and so on. That's why each rune seemed different. They all had the same purpose but different requirements. All leading to the one single stone whose rune did not gather and send mana but instead stored it.

I jumped to my feet, failing to do so and falling back to my knees with a choir of grunts of pain. Lucas and Dominik rushed to my side like nurses and helped me back to my feet.

"Don't push yourself-" Said Lucas worriedly "- your body's still a mess!"

"It's the top stone!-" I replied, ignoring his plead before forcing the two of them to walk closer to said stone "- The rune it's storing it, like a battery! It just needs to be turned on...It's a switch! A rune switch!"

Not understanding me, the two of them simply looked at me with worried expressions before I could fling an arm away from their grasp and place it on top of the rune of the topmost stone. I tapped into my still ongoing connection to natural mana and dived into the rune's. The rush was intoxicating. My body was filling up with energy at an ungodly speed and, before I could take notice, an explosion of blue light flashed before my eyes.

Blinded and disoriented, it took me a good minute before realizing what I had done. I gazed upon the swirling surface of pure blue energy waving like wind encased between the hovering white stones.

"Here you have it, gentlemen-" I proudly said, cocking a wide smug smile at my gawking friends "- A portal, just like you asked!"