Chapter 139: A different world

"Kilen! How dare! How dare you go there! And for this worthless son of ours!" A massive devil shouted at his wife as she finally arrived home.

This was Azamud, one of the devil kings. The leaders of the entire devil race who controlled many different Kako races. Only strong beasts and monsters were equal to them and as such able to refuse their commands. But these were few, normally only Ancient Beasts or stronger.

Then there were also demons, who obeys no one. They would rather die than follow another. The only rule they went by was whether you were worth listening to. That was the extent to which they would cooperate.

Azamud was close to three meters tall in his normal form. His entire build like a herculean, with massive toned muscles and ripped abs. Like Kilen, if not for his blood-red skin, he might have been considered very handsome. Some might still be attracted to his muscular look, able to ignore the bloodlike resemblance his skin always brought to thought.

Other than his large frame Azamud had two spiral horns growing from his forehead, reaching close to twenty centimeters. Unlike Kilen and Andreas, he did not have a tail.

Azamud had married Kilen, who was from a different royal family, in the hope of gaining a child prodigy. One who would have both their bloodline abilities. One who would tower over all others.

Instead, he got Andreas... A weakling who was still stuck at Tier 6 even after a couple of hundred years. Azamud blamed Kilen's softness on this, believing that devils could not grow in comfort. If they knew they would not die, then they would never truly grow.

This was common knowledge to all and how Azamud and his generation had been raised. He had gotten to his position of power through countless bloodshed.

The reason for his fury was simple and even dumb. His wife had lied to him, having told him that she would simply be inspecting the frontlines. Instead, she had come back severely injured with a son Azamud would rather have died.

He was not angry about the lie, it was common between devils. What he was angry about was that she was injured and would be worthless in the coming fights for months. Maybe even years.

"Dear, he is not worthless..." Kilen replied, she wanted to do this with fury. But instead, she only said this submissively. "He is the only one who had gained both our bloodlines. The only one!"

"That does not mean a thing before true power. What could he do after angering the Alicorns of Avgi? Nothing, he would be dead now if not for your meddling!"

"Do you wish him dead!" Kilen shouted back, her anger almost bursting. She hated how emotionless her husband was. How he only cared for those who reached Tier 8 or higher. Something which was even rare among devils.

"I wish him to be stronger!" Azamud bellowed in rage, a vicious aura rising around his body. Causing everyone nearby to shudder in fear, only Kilen could hold her ground and stare her husband in the eyes. Not giving ground even in her current state.

Andreas could not stop shivering as he heard his father's rage. He wished his father would be glad that both he and his mother was back safely, but this was clearly only a wish.

Azamud shifted his gaze from Kilen to Andreas, the latter shuddering even more as he felt the pure disdain directed at him. "What do you have to say for yourself?" After a few seconds without getting a reply Azamud shouted in fury, "Speak Milgoroth! Speak! Now!"

At the end of this shout, Azamud was standing before Andreas, or rather Milgoroth. His aura causing the latter to falter and fall onto his back. Only barely managing not to wet himself.

"Pathetic." Azamud spit in destain, "You never even made it to your objective. You are simply a complete failure." Azamud said this with disappointment clear in his voice. Something which sank into Milgoroth's heart more than any anger could.

Azamud left after saying this, everyone in the room relieved once he passed through the massive double doors of the room. Kilen rushed to Milgoroth, taking his hand and looking at him affectionately. "Do not mind him, dear. There is still time..."

Milgoroth did not share her optimism. His father had never been one to forgive and he had completely failed his mission. Not only that, his mother had been gravely injured while trying to save him. She was currently unable to shapeshift, nor could she use her bloodline power. Drastically lower her strength.

It would take her months to recover due to the energy invading her body. Something which could not be removed forcefully, doing so would only aggravate the injuries.

...

"Faust, we have a new patient!" A female voice shouted amidst groans of pain. The smell of blood clear in the air.

"Conditions?" Erik asked as he rushed over, grabbing a clean cloth from a nearby table as he did. Arriving at the patient Erik recognized him as one of the soldiers he had saved twice before.

Joren, a simple foot soldier in these times of war. Someone of little import and the reason why he was sent to Erik and not Tier 2 and 3 healers. His injuries certainly needed that level in normal circumstances.

"His left lung has been pierced, his right leg is gone. He also has multiple severe bleedings and this arrow stuck through his side." The female answered quickly, she had been assigned as Erik's helper. This was strange, assistants were normally Tier 1 healers who needed a mentor. Erik was the first to ever gain an assistant at Tier 1.

The reason for this was due to Erik's track record. He had been deemed a miracle worker, someone who could almost reach the effect of top Tier 2 healers while at Tier 1. His track record looked better than those of Tier 2, resembling more a healer of Tier 3.

This was in a large part because many of the healers had wanted to flee and were forced to serve their country. As such they simply wanted to do the bare minimum. A mindset which Erik could not understand.

"Drink this," Erik said as he placed a potion against Joren's mouth. At the same time he told Liosa, his female assistant, to cauterize Joren's leg. Erik held him down while this was being done, trying to ensure that the other wounds did not worsen during his struggle.

It was of utmost importance to do this first since Joren was bleeding badly. Erik knew that this was far more often the cause of death in similar cases. Most of the people he treated were far sturdier than normal people, Joren for example was a Tier 2 soldier from a commoner family.

Being a Tier 2 meant he could last longer than most as long as he was not critically wounded and had enough blood in him. If these two were met then he would recover on his own as long as he was provided with enough energy.

At first many had criticized Erik for cauterizing wounds, but he had ignored everyone who talked down to him. Their reason for not doing so was stupid, they avoided it since it would make regrowing or reattaching the person's leg harder. Erik felt it was dumb to think of that when the person was still near death.

Using magic to heal the wound would be far too draining, requiring multiple Tier 1 spells. Hence why Joren's case fell under the minimum of a Tier 2 healer. But not everyone got such good treatment.

"Now, Liosa, put pressure here. I am going to cover the other wounds. Use gentle heal on him while you apply pressure." Erik instructed, indicating to the arrow stuck in Joren's side.

Gentle heal was a spell between Thera and Anthizo. Only slightly healing the patient while also sending energy to the patient. What made it differ from Anthizo was that it could heal slightly more and all the energy was used for healing. Anthizo split its energy between revigorating and healing the person. Reinvigoration was what allowed the person to gain a boost in stamina and mana regeneration.

Liosa followed Erik's instructions. He had become one of the legends in the army, having been noticed by even nobles. He did not care for this, even when they offered him a gold each month to come under their service. Erik had ignored their offer and stayed in medbay 12. Right behind the walls and the next line of defense should the wall be breached.

"Joren, stay awake. You know the drill, right?" Erik said as he started casting Thera over Joren's lungs. Grateful that the spell could do most of the work for him. He had simply needed to make sure the wound was clean before starting the healing. Even if it was not the spell would still work, it would only take more energy and thus need more casts.

It took a few casts, during which Joren tried to crack a joke. Blood spilling from his teeth and badly stuttering, "Of... Course... Who else... Would take, me..." This simple sentence took a great deal of effort and while painful it reminded him of the other two times. Causing him to become far calmer and focus on staying awake as Erik had told him to do.

Erik moved on to the next, smaller wounds. Applying a paste he had made over them. Once he was done with this most of Joren's bleeding had been stopped and Erik felt ready to move on to the arrow.

He quickly called up the system, going onto the internet and finding a diagram of the human body. After making sure that there were no vitals nor sensitive organs he had to beware of near the arrow, Erik started.

"Okay, use Anthizo on him now," Erik said as he broke the arrow to make removal easier. He then swiftly pulled it out and used Thera again to heal the hole.

Erik did not know how to control his spells like Eldrian. But through conversing with each other, Erik had learned that spells normally started at his hands. Hence if he placed them over the wound, that area would be healed most.

He did not quite understand how this worked, contact not even needed to cast the spell. He did not care too much either. He was simply happy that it worked.

"Is he?" Liosa asked with fear as she felt Joren's breathing become slower and slower.

"He is fine, just resting. Keep casting Anthizo on him every half an hour for two hours and he should pull through." Erik said as he wiped sweat and blood from his forehead.

He was glad that his university course was simple, requiring little work. It had allowed him to do a great deal of self-study and he had even been thinking of switching to med school.

He could not even remember how many he had saved, but each time was just as great as the time before.

"Faust!" Erik turned around as he heard this shout, finding a teenage boy rushing towards him and embracing him.

"Thank you so much! You saved him... Again!"

Erik rubbed the teenager's back, comforting him. "He is doing the same for us on the frontlines."