"Sssh, it's okay. It's okay." Maven said absentmindedly as the elf girl continued to cry into her arms.
"Uuuu, thank you! Thank you so much!" The elf sobbed in relief, emotions bubbling over after being saved.
Maven felt a bit flustered as Ela just kept gripping her tighter and tighter. Ela's body just felt so incredibly soft and her light floral scent was so intoxicating that Maven's consciousness flew high into the clouds. Something about Ela's presence simply made the surroundings melt away, her warmth going a long way to making Maven feel better after her first actual battle.
Unfortunately, Maven did not get much an opportunity to enjoy the experience of hugging a beautiful woman, because the other finally arrived.
"Are you... okay? Miss?" Shayna's worried and disturbed voice came drifting in from the top of the hill. Everyone had been frozen in place by the bloody scene that lay before them, Shayna most of all.
"This is... quite the disaster." Fae's unaffected voice snaked its way through the clearing, the least upset of the group - a relic of her past as a secret operative.
As enchanted as Maven had been by Ela, Ela had similarly been charmed by Maven. That is, until Fae and Shayna's words forcefully shook both Maven and the elf free from the afterglow of hugging a beautiful woman. Ela then tore herself out of Maven's arms, throwing herself in front of the body of a particular elf woman desperately.
"Amaraaaaa!!!" Ela let out a heart wrenching cry as she held onto the broken body of an unidentifiable woman.
Maven could only stare vacantly at the tragic scene, pained at the agony she could hear in Ela's voice and the poor state of her friend's body. Shayna looked on at her with pity, while Fae had sympathy in her eyes.
"Why the waterworks?" Kannon asked vacantly, obviously not feeling the tragedy of the moment.
"Because... all her friends are dead, you stupid, insensitive little goddess!" Maven replied tersely, more than a little annoyed at the complete lack sympathy Kannon was exhibiting. Sometimes Maven just wanted to grip Kannon by her little cheeks and pull them apart with all her considerable might.
"But they haven't been dead long... their souls haven't even passed on yet, so why don't you just bring them back? You're the stupid head, if that didn't even occur to you!" Kannon asked with an inappropriately smug voice and a little tilt of the head that had no business being so cute.
"Huh?" Maven asked, completely dumbstruck by Kannon's ridiculous suggestion. Not once had the thought of resurrection crossed her mind, yet Kannon just threw it out like it was the obvious course of action.
"Come on, Maven... Don't be such a dumb dumb. Heal them up, then bring them back." Kannon said in self-satisfaction, quite pleased with this opportunity to get the upper hand on Maven.
Hearing Kannon's words, the Ela whipped her head in Maven's direction quick as lightning - eyes glimmering with hope.
"Can you save them?? Really??" The beautiful elf asked desperately.
"Ummm..." Maven said nervously. She desperately needed to meet her expectations and somehow fix this tragedy, but she also didn't want to give this girl any false hope.
"You... can't?" Ela asked hesitantly.
Seeing those bright eyes rapidly dim, Maven decided to forgo things like common sense and just give it her best shot.
"Here... we... go!" Maven said, mustering all her magic to attempt the first resurrection this world had ever seen.
A flood of the purest Life magic was used to mend the broken bodies of the elves, so bright and warm that the elf girl could only blink in confusion at the wondrous sight occurring in front of her.
"Who... are you?" The elf asked in pure disbelief.
The sheer depth of the magic currently at work far exceeded almost anything Ela had seen in her hundred years of life, equaling the World Tree that secured the foundation of the world.
Ignoring Ela for now, Maven then used her authority over the death attribute to grab the translucent souls of the elves floating in the air and force them back into their bodies. However, this didn't quite solve the issue - the souls just proceeded to drift back out into the air.
Seeing her lack of success, Maven turned to Henna and Kannon with teary eyes.
"What do I do??"
Henna, seeing a chance to shine, jumped in while saying, "Fufu, you need to calm down Maven. You healed their bodies and just shoved their souls back in without any other prep work… that's obviously not very stable. We don't want the souls to float right back out, do we? Why not try using that special power of yours to glue the two back together?"
Following Henna's advice, Maven gently pushed the souls back into respective bodies again. Then, per Henna's instructions, she used a small piece of divinity to help them take root. After a few breathless moments, Maven felt sure she succeeded, causing Maven to let out sigh of relief.