Rey ran to Cecil, who was lying on the ground, unmoving.

I looked at Peter, and after a second of hesitation, quickly poured a healing potion over the stump to stop the bleeding. Once it looked like he wouldn't die just lying there, I went after Rey to start on the long process of cleanup after this shit show.

Cecil's weak, raspy breath met my ears as I approached him, keeping my distance. We'd fought a battle together, so I did owe Rey some time before I had to spring the new reality on the survivors.

"Hey, Cecil, can you hear me?" Rey asked as he kneeled over the body.

Cecil's eyes weren't focused as he stared ahead, but to my surprise, a weak, "Yes," came out of his mouth.

"Okay, hang in there, okay? I'll get you some help," Rey said, moving Cecil's shirt to the side to see the damage.

And it didn't look good. I saw the man wince as he noticed the extensive burns.

I imagine the only reason Cecil was still alive was that the spell was meant to debilitate rather than kill. An ascended mage could live through it, even if barely, but a normal human…

"I… I'll get help, just hang on."

"I don't have the photo," Cecil said weakly, but Rey paid him no attention as he started to look around helplessly, his eyes finally meeting mine.

"You! You're a—mage? Or something, right? Help him," he said, desperation ringing clear in his voice.

"I can't," I said, shaking my head. "I'm not a healer, and… he's beyond any healing, I'm afraid."

"Wh—what?"

Rey looked like he tried to articulate something, but didn't know how.

"There's nothing that can be done," I told him calmly. "I suggest you listen to your friend's last words."

I saw Rey's muscles flex. For a second, he looked like he was about to get up and hit me, but he then turned to Cecil, his shoulders relaxing lightly.

"I…" There was a bit of a pause as Rey took in a breath. "I'm here."

"I don't have that photo," Cecil repeated.

"What photo?" Rey furrowed his eyebrows. "Oh, it's not the time for that," he finally said as realization dawned on him.

"I burned it back then. I was bullshitting you to get you to join us. Sorry." Cecil's speech was getting quieter and quieter. "It was like the old times. Like. The. Old. Times," he said as his head finally fell to the side.

So that's what kept him alive—the need to set things straight. I had mixed feelings about the man. He seemed like a good person who went astray, but he would still be alive if he hadn't used someone's murder as a springboard for his own career.

I saw Rey cradle him and try to shake him, but in vain. So in the end, I left him there to gather himself and went to check up on Victor and Liz. As I approached, I thought I would see her crying over another dead body, but the scene I saw was different. Victor was still alive. He was bleeding, but much less severely, as the wound was trying to close itself, with a slight growth appearing around it.

Mercy was also approaching them.

I came closer and sensed the same fragmented presence I'd sensed from Sandra. There were seven souls attached to the hook. Four on Peter, one on the boar, and one on Sandra. That still left one more. The soul of the necromancer.

That was unexpected, but what was more interesting was that it was using some sort of healing spell.

Looking closer, I could see that Victor's body was becoming thinner. It was a minor difference, but it was there if you knew what to look for.

That confirmed it. There was only one healing concept in death magic, and that was devouring, most famously seen in vampirism. While the undead were the best at it, it was possible for normal people to cast.

Victor's body was currently consuming itself. And judging by the growth, it would try to heal along the shape of the new soul.

Liz was sitting there confused, while Victor was breathing heavily as his body weakened.

"It was cool, huh?" he asked when I approached.

"What?"

"The gun. Was it cool?" he asked once again.

Looking to the side where Rey had thrown the shotgun, I finally noticed crosses drawn on it, along with something that was supposed to be a shark's, or maybe a dragon's, jaws around the barrel. I raised my eyebrows at that.

"It was for boars, but I drew them in case of demons. Didn't think it would take down a mutant," he said as he started coughing, an idiotic, proud smile on his lips.

"Stop speaking," Liz hissed at him, trying to do something about the wound.

"A man should look cool before death," Victor almost scolded her.

"Stop—"

Liz started to speak, but I interrupted her.

"You might survive."

They all looked at me with surprise.

"How? This almost tore him in half," Mercy said weakly, and then looked at me. "Wait, you can do magic, right? Can you heal him?" she asked.

I shook my head and looked to Rey, who was saying something to Cecil's body. I wanted to explain it to them all at once, so I didn't have to repeat myself. Finally, noticing my gaze, Mercy and Liz followed it.

"Is he…?" Mercy asked, unable to finish the sentence.

"Yes," I confirmed, and saw the three wince, tears showing in Mercy's eyes.

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Rey stood up and approached us, his gaze focused on me, probably wanting some explanations. However, when he noticed Victor, he ran to him instead.

"You have decisions to make," I said loudly.

"Can't this wait? We need to get him to a hospital," Rey barked, looking over Victor as he tried to ask about how cool shooting the anti-demon gun was.

"It's about him and Peter surviving, so it can't wait." All eyes turned to me. "What is currently happening to you, Victor, is that you are mutating in a similar way to Peter, but less severely."

That earned me gasps of surprise.

"The good news is that the partial soul attached to you will close the wound. There is also bad news, though. You have a decision to make, so listen carefully."

After confirming I had his attention, I continued.

"The soul will heal you, but it will also heal itself, recreating its flesh. It might be just a face. It might be an entire arm. Now, I can kill the mind that is doing it after it heals, but there is a catch." I paused before switching the topic. "Do you know what phantom pain is?"

"Yes," Victor nodded. "Like after amputations, right?"

"Yes. When you lose a piece of flesh, the soul persists in that spot for some time. And without the flesh's cover, it is like an exposed nerve, causing pain. Normally, it will wither sooner or later, adjusting its shape to the body. But what's attached to you is the soul of a powerful mage. It will not wither easily, if at all. If you choose to live, I need you to understand that you will live in pain, and not the type of pain that can be blocked with medication."

Silence descended between us as Victor and the rest let the implications of what I said sink in.

"What if I let the mutation grow—what then?" asked Victor.

"You would have to live as a mutant for the rest of your life."

"But will the pain be gone?"

"Yes."

"Are there no other options?" he asked, his voice noticeably weaker.

"Well, if we don't do anything, then you will grow weaker and weaker until you drift away—not to wake up again."

"You're not suggesting—" Mercy asked, looking at me.

Liz also looked like she was about to argue, but I raised my hand to stop them.

"It's his choice."

They all looked at Victor.

"Well, will I get a new hand or mouth?" Victor asked a rather strange question.

"Judging by the shape and placement, a hand is likely," I answered, furrowing my brow at his way of thinking.

"Then I'll take the mutation," he said.

That was surprising to hear. I expected he would either choose pain or death.

"Okay, then there is one last thing. We need to feed you blood."

"What?"

"The spell is most likely vampiric in nature, so blood, flesh, or pure vitality are needed."

"The spell?" Mercy asked, looking at me.

"Is that really so hard to believe right now?"

"I'll do it," Liz said, breaking our conversation as she exposed her wrist.

"Well, actually, I have an unconscious candidate lying not far away," I informed them happily.

"You can't be suggesting Grease?" Rey asked, anger evident in his voice. "What is wrong with you?"

"Well, that's what I would do in your shoes—better to risk him than your friends, I'd imagine," I answered, slightly confused.

"He's an unconscious man, we can't just bleed him. You..." He paused, looking me up and down. "You really don't care either way, don't you?"

"Well, I was hoping Victor would choose life. I don't see the point in risking yours for his when you have a surrogate available."

"You're just another kind of monster, you know that?" he finally whispered, to which I rolled my eyes.

"Make that choice yourself, then. Either way is fine with me," I said.

After that, there was a small argument, with Mercy suggesting they use the drug dealer, and Rey arguing that it wasn't right. Finally, they agreed to try to bleed themselves first, but without risking too much blood loss. If that wasn't enough, then Grease.

I cut them one after another, and after mixing the blood with a healing potion, I fed it to Victor.

The potion must have enriched the blood rather well, as Rey and Liz turned out to be enough for the mutation to stop. Victor ended up with a small, deformed hand that started at the lower ribs and extended to the side. The new appendage was around half the length of his normal arm.

I told him I would deal with the mind tomorrow, as right now I was beat, so he shouldn't freak out if he hears any voices or his body moves on its own from time to time.

Now it was time to deal with Peter. I saw them finally collapse to the ground around Victor, the adrenaline and all emotions catching up.

"So what are you?" Mercy asked.

"Human," I answered out of habit, not correcting myself for their sake.

"No, like—you can do magic, right?" she continued.

"...Okay, are there a lot of people like you?"

"No."

I could see they tried to ask me about, well, everything, but neither knew where to start.

"I'll explain later, but there is one more thing to deal with—Peter."

"He's still alive?" Rey asked with disbelief. "After all that?"

"Yes. And he stands before the same choice as Victor. Although the option to keep the mutations isn't very valuable."

"We should kill him," Liz barked, looking at Cecil's body.

"He didn't do it of his own will," I clarified. "Look, he can't make that decision now, and even if he were awake, I doubt he would be in a state of mind to understand the situation and make a decision about his own life or death. According to the law, it's his clan that has the power to decide in this situation, and that means his mother."

"You can't be serious," Rey said. "She lost a husband, and now you think we should show her her son in this state and ask if she would like him dead? Can't you reverse those mutations first, at least?"

"No."

"Then do something about the soul?"

I stopped to think. Right now, I lacked power and, most of all, knowledge, but after time... there was a chance. I was hoping the kid would choose to fight on. A spirit like that was a unique opportunity for a study. I would get a test subject and give Peter a chance to reverse the soul mutation. It was a good deal.

But the rules were the rules.

His murder of his father wasn't of his own free will, and neither was his father completely innocent, so I couldn't just kidnap him to experiment on. And I did feel for him to the extent I could feel for people I'd just met. He kind of felt like Ester's case all over again.

So the head of the family got to decide what was best for the clan if the person had left no other instructions. And that would be the mother.

"You can't show her son like that. It will break her," Rey argued, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I turned to him before speaking. "She has the right to decide."

"She has the right to live without the vision of her son in this state haunting her. Do you honestly think any mother would decide to kill her son? All that will do is make her feel responsible for any suffering his life will bring him. And from what you said, that will be a lot."

"Those are the rules."

"What fucking rules are you talking about?!" Rey snapped.

I paused. Well, rules of the arcane world. Should he be considered part of it? Victor now would. But Peter?

"Fine," I relented. "I will get him to a state where he can make that decision without his mother."

With the decision made, we slowly began moving back. The ghost hunters took Cecil's body while I transported Peter with the help of Rey. For now, I would put him in the motel, then have the cats send someone to move him to a safe place.

There was a lot of collateral to deal with, but that was for tomorrow. Today I really needed some rest.

I used the walk to check my feelings. I was lacking quite a bit of sadness, judging from Rey's reaction. Not to say I didn't feel any. Cecil, while annoying, wasn't someone whose death I would celebrate, and Peter's tragedy did sadden me. However, that was kind of it, and it was overshadowed by the celebration of a good fight, a feeling every battle mage should be familiar with. But most of all, one sensation was slowly rising to the surface, like a small fire growing in my heart. I was getting excited about the upcoming tomb exploration.

What artifacts would I find?

What knowledge lay locked in the ancient tomb?

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