Fear.
That was what Kai felt when he watched Cecilia's body drop to the ground, blood pouring out of every place possible and creating a grotesque image.
He was more scared now than when he was getting strangled by the Polar Demon, and it wasn't for any logical reason.
It was simply because it was Cecilia rather than him who was in pain.
Pushing his battered and bruised body, he desparately grasped at the spasming woman, hoping that his small effort would make the shaking stop.
But it didn't, Cecilia continued to thrash in his arms, the whites of her eyes slowly being turned red by the constant stream of blood coming out of them.
Kai felt himself begin to panic, Nonchalance trying its absolute hardest to calm him down and make him think rationally, but it was just barely failing.
He could accept when he was in pain because that meant either something good was going to happen or he was getting karma for his mistakes, but he couldn't bear to see Cecilia like this because he had gotten cocky.
But there had to be some way to stop her from becoming a Disharmonied, Kai racked his mind, thinking of anything that could possibly work, but he could only draw blanks.
The process seemed absolute. Even Ezekial, a man much stronger than Cecilia, had fallen victim to the transformation, his soul warped and twisted to fit the monstrosity that was a Disharmonied.
Kai felt his eyes begin to tear up as his grip tightened on Cecilia, holding her as close as possible.
Even though he wouldn't outright admit it, Cecilia over time had become his best friend. He had spent the longest amount of with her, and she had been the only one he could actually communicate with while he was chained in the dungeon of the castle.
And that wasn't even mentioning the other things that had happened along the way.
... And it wasn't like he wouldn't say she was more than a friend to him.
But at this moment in time, Kai could only watch his friend become a husk of her former self.
So he was going to force himself to ingrain this moment in his mind, force himself to never forget this. Even if he were to end up dying tomorrow, he would take Cecilia's face into the grave with him. No matter how desparately he tried to wipe the blood from her cheeks, it always came back moments later.
And it wasn't just her face he would force himself to remember, he would also force himself to remember her soul, the soul that she had to sacrifice just to save his life.
So, with a heavy heart, Kai lowered his gaze, activated Soul Sense and-
"... What?"
He wanted to believe what he was seeing, he wanted to believe his eyes were not deceiving him, that maybe he was under a mind hex again or something, but that wasn't the case, Cecilia was dying in his arms.
If so, then why...
Why was her soul perfectly fine?
When Ezekial became a Disharmonied, his soul had morphed and gotten corrupted, so why was Cecilia's completely normal?
And upon closer inspection, Kai-
Let out a soft gasp.
Inside Cecilia's soul were seven miniscule sparks, courtesy of her only having just reached level ten, but there was something else about them, something just so incredible that Kai felt his heart rate begin to pick up.
All of Cecilia's Stat Sparks, each and every one of them, the red, blue, green, violet, yellow, silver and gold, all of them were the exact same size.
Which meant that...
Kai's eyes widened as realisation hit.
Back when he had first been leveling up, he had gotten 3 unassigned stat points every level, adding up to a total of 27 by the time he reached level 9.
And now that he thought about it, Cecilia had never mentioned spending them.
So that meant that she had read the description of Ezekial's stored soul and made sure her stats were equal before using it.
Which meant that she wouldn't become a Disharmonied.
Kai would have let out a sigh of relief if not for the fact that Cecilia was still spasming in his arms, blood pouring profusely out of her.
Inwardly, Kai racked his brain once more.
If it wasn't the fact that she was becoming a Disharmonied, what the hell could have done this to her body?
Sure the skill was incredibly strong, and sure it took a lot of Mana, but-
Eyes widening, Kai softly placed Cecilia down on the blood covered snow and summoned his satchel, quickly summoning something from inside it.
Back when he was a lower leveled beginner, he would always end up going overboard and depriving himself of Mana, resulting in him passing out for a period of time depending on how overboard he went. Overall, it didn't end up that badly, bar the time he had to fight Ezekial.
So that what was happening to Cecilia.
She was suffering from a case of severe Mana deprivation, so severe that her body was destroying itself in an effort to sustain itself, a sick and twisted sense of survival.
With clumsy hands, Kai took one of the Mana potions that had been boosted in potency by the satchel and made sure it wasn't the stronger ones he was drinking, otherwise Cecilia would be in an even worse state.
Then, he tenderly lifted it up to her lips and began pouring the liquid in between them. Now that he was still close to her, he noticed how cold she actually was, and how blue her lips were.
He knew that Cecilia had the worst defences to the severe cold around them, bar Remy, considering that she only had her earring that offered her any real resistance to it while Petunia had her tunic and an earring, while Kai had an earring and just overall much more resistance to the bitter cold.
And yet, Cecilia had done a superb job of disguising how cold she was. No wonder she always laid so close to him inside the tent, it was because it was the only time she could actually feel warmth...
Ignoring the pangs in his heart, Kai held the potion up until the glass was completely drained of the blue liquid.
The spasming did not stop, and the blood kept coming.
So Kai took out another potion and lifted it to her lips, watching as the liquid spilled into her mouth, some of it dribbling down her neck because of how shaky his hands were.
And after that potion was a failure, Kai took out another one and watched as the glass the blue liquid was stored inside was drained.
Now, Kai was beginning to panic. He was three potions deep, and the spasming wasn't getting any better.
Although, he wasn't sure if he was imagining it or not, but the bleeding seemed to be slowing down.
Taking out the fourth potion, Kai hesitated for a moment before putting it down and taking out a multi potion instead. Even though he had no idea how she was doing, she would most definitely need a HP potion of some sort, so he couldn't afford to just force pure Mana potions down her throat.
The potion went down her throat all the same, but Kai noticed a little bit of colour return to her skin, and the spasming was slowing down ever so slightly.
Then, he picked up the final Mana potion, said a little prayer and held it up to her lips. Second by second, the glass drained until it was empty.
Kai, patiently waiting to see what the outcome would be, watched intently as the intensity of the spasming slowly lessened and lessened.
Until, finally, the spasms completely stopped, leaving Cecilia lying in his arms, perfectly still.
Blinking a few times, Kai lowered his head and let out a sigh of relief.
But his work wasn't over yet.
He still hadn't undone his fusion, nor had he deactivated his boosting skills for fear of the backlash. He knew that it would be another rough backlash, so he was holding off for now.
Worst part was, Cecilia was the one who had the tent stored, so they wouldn't be able to summon it for the time being.
That didn't matter for now though. What did matter was that after downing a Mana potion for good measure, Kai began using Minor Restoration on Cecilia, mainly on her eyes due to how messed up they were.
The process was slow though. As the description said, the skill wasn't exactly efficient. Still, it was doing its job.
At least, it had been doing its job, until something began to feel off.
A soft sound was heard in the back of his mind, like a faint buzzing. He had heard it first a few moments ago, but over time it was slowly growing louder and louder.
By now, it had become a rumbling, and it was coming from behind him.
Kai remembered seeing a beam of light shoot out through the chest of the Demon after Cecilia had slain it, but to be honest, he had thought that he was imagining it.
But now that he was thinking about it, what if that powerful beam had ended up hitting the side of the mountain, what if...
Turning around to look up at the body of the mountain, Kai-
Cursed to himself.
"Shit..."
As for when he looked behind him, all he could see was a gargantuan wave of snow descending down the mountain, heading right for them.