Chương 84: Healing

Proliferation was terrifying. Not due to its lethality alone. Levi could name several magical diseases off the top of his head that were substantially deadlier. For example, millennia ago a dark sorcerer had engineered a magical organism that caused a plague called 'Blight Rot'. When contracted, Blight Rot rapidly spread throughout the victim's body and induced total organ shutdown in mere seconds. In contrast, victims of Proliferation typically had an expected lifespan of outright years.

There were even cases of patients who'd lived more than a decade before finally succumbing. No, what made Proliferation so terrifying was the very fact that despite the disease taking so long to kill someone, it was still impossible to cure. A death sentence. There was a marked difference between a disease considered 'incurable' because the infected died too quickly for a cure to be researched or administered, and a disease considered 'incurable' because it just simply couldn't be cured by magic.

It wasn't a matter of difference in healing ability, either. In fact, the healers of this world appeared to be even better than his old one. Much like summoning magic, healing magic was also a field of magic that was far easier and safer with the presence of the System. It was surprising, just how much damage one could deal by botching up the 'healing arts.' The System removed the risk entirely, while standardizing procedures and amplifying efficacy.

Even with all of that, though, Proliferation was still beyond any healer's ability to cure. The disease was too comprehensive, too vast, too mystifying. Nobody knew the cause, nor did anyone know the solution. After all, how could one possibly suppress life's tenacious desire to reproduce and thrive? A terrifying 'Disease of Life' was perhaps the most apt description there could be. Though, perhaps 'terrifying' wasn't exactly the right word.

Yes, Proliferation was a terminal disease that caused death to slowly catch up to you – but then again, Death was always slowly catching up to everyone. Proliferation just made you aware of it. But Levi digressed. The point was, he didn't blame the healers for not having any cure. They'd evidently done the very best they could. It just wasn't good enough. That was fine, though. After all, Levi was here now. And, quite frankly, he refused to ever let something known as the 'Disease of Life' get the better of him.

Professional reasons, of course. He'd never live it down otherwise. So he channeled his magic, gathering and releasing an incredible amount. Despite the inherently delicate nature of healing magic, it required an immense amount of mana. Magic was chaos; it always chose the path of least order. Healing was restoring one to a whole, and as such it required coaxing magic to act against its nature.

Consequently, the amount of mana used to generate a fireball was less than the amount of mana required to heal a small cut. Granted, there were healing methods to make magic act in accordance with its nature… but those weren't really applicable here. The room blazed with mana as Levi let it freely flow. It inundated the air, growing denser and denser as a capricious wind swirled around him. Contrary to what one might believe, there was actually a reason for this theatrical display – an extremely good one.

All humans possessed an innate magical resistance to some degree. This magical resistance fluctuated across an individual's body; the heart's magical resistance differed from the lung's, which differed from the leg bones. Therefore, manipulating magic within one's body could result in minute variations. For most spells, this wouldn't matter. But for something like healing magic? Even an infinitesimally minor mistake could be fatal. Levi wasn't taking any chances.

That was why he was flooding the room with his magic as well. Ideally, he would've been performing the operation in a clean room magically sealed so as to not allow any ambient mana to be present. However, he didn't have time to find or create a clean room, so he settled for the next best thing: making his mana be the only mana present in the room so the atmosphere would be as stable and consistent as possible. The healers and the nurse looked halfway between furious and outraged.

They looked like they wanted to interfere, but Liliya was standing between them and him, forcing them back with her sword. Even so, at least two of the healers looked like they were willing to risk stopping him anyway. Levi's respect for them went up several notches. Even when their patient was actively moments away from dying, the healers were still willing to fight an individual with far superior magic to preserve her dignity. Ordinarily, Levi might have apologized for how abrupt he was being. Right now, though?

He was trying to preserve Andevar's mother's life. With that, his magic surged forward and wrapped around her like a cocoon. Information automatically streamed into his mind, thousands of observations being sorted and processed. Then, once he had a clear enough picture, Levi began to act. Restoring lung functions. Absorbing residual crycrystals. Duplicating and generating blood. Increasing body temperature. Improving blood circulation. Adjusting hormonal metabolism. Stimulating muscle regrowth.

Inducing bone recalcification. Repairing occipital nerve. Repairing liver function. Repairing kidney function. Restoring gallbladder. Sealing up stomach leakages… The healers' expressions slowly transformed to ones of awe and disbelief as before their very eyes, Andevar's mother's wounds began healing, multicolored sparks zipping in and out of her body like a swallow through a lake. The screen on the wall actively showed each organ system and tissue cluster being meticulously healed.

"How are you…" Healer Vernon breathed, eyeing the display. Then, he shook his head.

"Healing the damage that has been done to her body is a kind gesture, but a futile one. As long as the tumors remain, she will still be in the state as before. At most, you've bought her some time." A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Ah, and that's where you're wrong," Levi said, finishing up. He took half a second to glance over and smiled.

"I'm not doing this to buy time." Healer Vernon's brows furrowed.

"I'm doing this to make sure she'll be in good enough condition that what I do next won't instantly send her into shock and kill her from the backlash alone." Trepidation filled the healers' faces.

"What in the Goddess's name are you going to do?" Healer Williams demanded. Levi grinned. The world around him turned grey as he raised a single hand in front of him.

"I'm going to kill the Proliferation." Then, he sent forth a single Sever and Cleave. The spell was less than eight inches long and finer than a leaf. Admittedly, Levi held his breath as the Sever and Cleave shot through the air. He had no idea if this would actually work. It should, but he had come up with the theory not five minutes ago; this was very much a gamble. An educated gamble predicated on his faith in himself and his magic, but a gamble nonetheless. However, Andevar had trusted him.

So Levi would believe, believe with all his might, that this would work. And work it did. The Sever and Cleave slammed into the single line of death exposed on Andevar's mother's exposed brain. Specifically, it cut into the line of death for the Proliferation. Instantly, the growths were instantly overcome by death. Or rather, growth. Singular. The millions of tendrils of Proliferation tumors that extended to every part of the body were, as it turned out, all interconnected.

Part of some central root system, most likely. In fact, now that Levi looked more closely, the growth did oddly resemble a tree; the legs turned into fertilizer, the torso was the trunk, and the growths inside the brain were merely the leaves. At any rate, since the tumors were all interconnected, that meant that it registered as a single discrete unit in the eyes of the Sever and Cleave. It would be an entirely different story if each growth had been different, but thankfully, that wasn't the case here.

And so, if one tumor died, all tumors died. That was precisely what happened here. The entire overgrowth collapsed. Each and every single tendril and strand of malignant mass withered up and died. The screen on the wall, which had been flashing red, suddenly stopped. Everything turned clear. You could almost hear the synchronized wet blinks of the three healers all at once.

"What the everloving fuck…?" Healer Williams muttered. A smile of absolute triumph tore across Levi's face. As he'd thought, Proliferation was considered incurable because most magic didn't even identify it as a problem. The cells weren't necessarily being damaged, after all. They were being magically encouraged to endlessly replicate. As far as magic was considered, they were as full of health and vitality as cells could be. Consequently, if one couldn't heal it, then one could simply destroy it.

The magic of this world wasn't precise enough to do so, and perhaps the magic in Levi's old world couldn't have accomplished it either – at least, not without killing the host in the process. Fortunately, Levi was borrowing the technique from someone else. Then, the screen began flashing again. This time black.

"Total systemic breakdown!" Healer Vernon snapped. He still looked shocked and confused, but the alert immediately spurred him into action. He whirled to Levi.

"You're not done yet! The Proliferation overgrowth may have been eradicated, but the remnants of its corpse are still in her body! It's discharging waves upon waves of toxins into her system. You have to somehow filter it, now!" Levi nodded, accepting and incorporating the advice seamlessly. His magic poured into Andevar's mother's bloodstream, counteracting and neutralizing the toxins.

"Remove the growths," Healer Williams added, his eyes flickering around rapidly as he analyzed the screen.

"Prioritize the heart first; that's where the disease started and so that's where the growths are densest. Then move onto liver, then, stomach, then intestines, then kidneys. Save the head for last! Don't start with it, if something goes wrong, then it'll make the whole process significantly more difficult if she doesn't have her other organ functionalities restored first."

Levi's magic turned positively liquid as it disseminated throughout the body, disintegrating the growths and filling in the gaps left behind with temporary placeholder raw mana. The mana would slowly dissipate over time, healing the surrounding flesh.

"You can save her, boy!" Healer Anthony urged, a pleading, painfully hopeful quality to his tone as he watched the growths on the screen gradually get extinguished one by one.

"Go on, do it!" The healers seem to have forgotten they were supposed to be mad at Levi. Instead, they all were downright glued to the screen, watching the analytical scanning magic update the healing process in real time. Their eyes were wide, incredulous, but beneath all that, shining with the unmistakable gleam of hope. Next to them, Andevar's expression was identical. Thirty seconds passed. One minute.

The magic howled around the room in a whirlwind as Levi poured enough magic to sunder a mountain into the patient's form. Until finally, at long last, the final growth disappeared on the screen. Andevar's mother's unconscious body relaxed, a small sigh escaping her. All her vital signs were normal. Healthy, even.

"YES!" Healer Williams exclaimed at the top of his lungs. He laughed in pure rapturous joy, turning to Levi.

"HAHAHA! IT WORKED! YOU BEAUTIFUL MADMAN, IT WORKED!"

"The first ever successful treatment of Proliferation…" Healer Vernon's eyes were brighter than usual.

"Dear Goddess…" Healer Anthony was beyond words. He merely bowed his head, his entire body trembling. Liliya was smiling, looking inordinately pleased. She'd had faith in him from the very beginning when she'd explained the disease; she had been fully confident in his ability to cure it. And Andevar… Andevar had sunk down to his knees, looking like he was refusing to believe his eyes. His bottom lip quivered. He turned his head to look at Levi. He looked like he didn't know what to say.

'Thank you' probably didn't feel adequate here– He mouthed a single word at Levi. Levi froze. Then, he smiled. They left the room to give Andevar and his mother some privacy. Outside in the hallway, Levi had begun the arduous task of explaining to the healers exactly what he'd done. They didn't seem to be very interested in who he was, only the techniques he'd used and whether or not they were replicable. Levi had been very vague in that regard; he didn't want the details of his Sever and Cleave getting out.

He tried to ignore how the healers looked at him like he was some incarnation of the Goddess. However, Levi couldn't ignore the sudden cane that suddenly slammed into the wall beside his ear. The man who'd stabbed the cane like a sword pinned Levi with a piercing stare.

"So," Guildmaster Abode of the Healer's Guild said.

"I hear you performed quite the show just now. Wanna tell me what that was all about?"