“HEY DEMONS, HOPE YOU’RE READY TO BE EXTERMINATED!” She heard being yelled into the cave from a voice she knew well.

Ben?

<It seems your friend has begun, now we simply need to wait for the results,> Her god said, worry filling her voice.

The talking demon, who Anailia had explained was an invader, had returned by this point and was sitting amongst the other demons, and upon hearing the yell sent the majority out to hunt Ben down, leaving only five in the cave with it.

Thera couldn’t help but be terrified for her friend. There was only him and Will, how would he manage against all of that?

<Try to relax Thera, if things go as well as he hopes then you’ll need to escape if you can.>

How am I supposed to do that though? She was pretending to be asleep, her eyes open only a crack to watch the room, but the invader seemed to be able to sense that she still had abundant mana and was keeping a close eye on her to be safe. She wouldn’t be able to fight it, let alone the other five demons in the cave.

<Hopefully the rest will run off to attack the other two as well so you and the others can get out, but for now just hold tight. At worst you’ll just have to hope they can get here to help after they’re done.>

She waited patiently, hoping that an opening would come where they could escape, but the advantage she got was far smaller than she’d hoped. As the time passed, the invader began seeming more and more agitated until it left the cave, but the demons remained.

Still, it was the best she could hope for, the only question was what to do about it? She supposedly had a staff waiting for her outside, but she wouldn’t be able to get it. That meant that if she wanted to do anything it would have to be with whatever power she could muster herself, but would she be able to control it without bringing the entire cave down?

She could always wait and hope that Ben would succeed, but she couldn’t be so optimistic. If he failed then she would never have a better chance than this to do anything, she couldn’t let it go to waste.

She looked to the ceiling of the cave above where four of the demons laid, thick stalactites hanging from it. She and the other two were far enough away that they would likely be fine, but the biggest issue was the last demon laying by her feet. Whatever amount of charm it was under had made it want to cling to her, only moving when it went to replace the mana vipers, which meant that was when it was time to strike.

Luckily she didn’t have to wait long. The demon walked up to her and took hold of the mana vipers biting into her arm. Their teeth were thin and small, but the experience of having so many bite into her repeatedly like that was still unpleasant and having them removed was a relief.

As the demon walked over to drop off the ones that had been feeding off her where the other demons lay, she took her chance to strike. Raising her hand, she reached out with her mana towards the stalactites, trying to bring them down. She needed to be delicate. More careful than she’d ever been before. If she messed up the risk of all of them dying was too great. All she wanted to do was bring down the stone spikes onto the demons below, and with an effort of will she exerted her mana.

Unfortunately, her control was still lacking, and she pulled the entire ceiling above the demons down instead, thoroughly crushing them all.

Um, oops. A small part of her was horrified at killing them, but she was able to recognise it as a result of the sorrow. Knowing she was feeling the final effects of a creature's skill made it easier to deal with, but the worry about what came next had an even greater effect.

<...I suggest you grab the others and get out of here as fast as you can,> Anailia advised. <There's no guarantee major structural damage hasn’t happened within the cave.>

Will do. She thought to her god awkwardly, rushing over to Steph and Wedrow to rip the mana vipers from their flesh before struggling to carry them out. While her previous dancer job gave some bonuses to strength, it was still her lowest attribute by far, and she had to treat Wedrows long wormlike body as she would a scarf just to be able to quickly pull Steph out in her arms.

Leaving the cave was exhilarating. Being trapped there amongst the greatest threat to her planet had been a terrifying experience, made worse during the walk out as rocks occasionally came loose from the ceiling, but breathing the fresh air was something she wouldn’t be taking for granted again.

She put the other two down as she went to look for her staff, Anailia directing her to where it was hidden while Steph and Wedrow they slowly woke up after being freed from the vipers.

“Ah, what happened?” Steph asked, recovering from the effects of constant mana exhaustion quicker than Thera expected considering how Ben usually handled it, but then again, Steph and Wedrow were proper mages. They likely had more experience dealing with it and training to react quicker after it, passing out in a fight was deadly after all, if you did end up mana exhausted then the correct move would be to get up and away as soon as possible.

Wedrow was looking for answers too so Thera explained as well as she could what had happened to all of them, and what Ben and Will were in the middle of doing as a result.

“Then we have to help them!” Steph yelled after learning everything that had gone down. “We can’t just leave them to die!”

Wedrow however, was less willing to rush to their side. “If we don’t let our mana regenerate more we’ll be nothing but potential hostages, it would be safer for all of us to wait.”

Thera was torn. She wanted to rush to Ben’s side to help him, but she was the only one with any mana, if she ran off they would be defenseless.

<You’re friends managed to kill all of the demons,> Anailia spoke in her mind, breaking her train of thought. <All that remains is the invader.>

Then that makes the choice significantly easier, doesn’t it?

“All but one of the demons is dead. Unfortunately, it’s the most dangerous one by far, but we’ll be better off regrouping with the others than just staying here and hoping it doesn’t catch us while we’re defenseless.”

“And how could you possibly know that?” The worm asked curiously.

“My god told me,” A statement that could end any argument on the matter.

They rushed through the woods, but the emotional payoff was immense when they saw Ben and Will off in the distance waving to them. Thera let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding and felt her entire body relax. They were all together again, and as soon as Wedrow and Steph had enough mana they could get home.

Seeing her friend made her renew her energy as she and the others picked up their pace to meet them as her worst nightmares came true before her eyes. The ground beneath Ben erupted and Will was thrown to the side as the invader tore through the earth and impaled Ben on its arm.

She thought she heard Steph scream, maybe she had herself, it was impossible to tell. Her breath caught in her throat and time felt like it slowed down. She could see the monster saying something to him but couldn’t tell what and she knew the shock was impacting her actions. It wasn’t until it stretched out a clawed hand towards them that she acted, raising her staff and pouring all of her rage into a single earth spear.

In the back of her mind, she knew she wasn’t quick enough to attack something like that, but the invader hadn’t made its move. Ben was surely buying time and she couldn’t let it go to waste.

More mana went into that one spell than she’d ever forced into such a controlled attack before and let it loose with all of the emotion she couldn’t contain watching her friend slowly die. Her staff turned to dust in her hand as the speed of the spell firing created a powerful gust of wind around them.

<EARTH MAGIC LEVEL INCREASED>

Her aim was true and the demon didn’t have time to react to it, nothing could. Its head was destroyed in an instant as her spear continued to tear through the forest but she ignored everything else as she ran towards it as it crumpled to the ground, taking Ben with it.

She screamed his name but got no answer. All she knew was that it was bad. She wasn’t sure about how human anatomy compared to that of other races, but it was likely multiple major organs were damaged or destroyed. All but a death sentence.

When she got to him she took his hand and tried not to panic.

He’ll be okay. He’s always bouncing back from things like this, he’ll be fine. She told herself as she noticed the others catching up and gathering around her.

“Steph, heal him,” She told the girl crying behind her, but not getting any answer. “What are you waiting for, you’re the only healer, you have to do something!”

“Thera, even if I had the mana for it, I can’t regenerate entire organs,” Steph said, voice shaking. Something of this scale would be just below resurrection in difficulty. Perhaps she could do it if she was more practiced with her skill, or had all of her mana and days to work with, but not at a speed that could save her friend's life.

They were all silent as Thera squeezed his hand tighter, tears falling down her face. She knew Steph was right, but she wouldn’t accept it, she couldn’t. Ben was constantly getting seriously injured and making it through. All they needed was a single option, even a sliver of hope.

A sliver Will provided.

“What if you didn’t need to regenerate the organs?” Will quietly asked, reaching down to grab the spacial bag Ben had on him and pulled out the knife within.

“What are you thinking?” Thera asked desperately.

“A transplant. Ben needs organs, and that,” He said, pointing to the demon's corpse. “Has all of its own in good shape.”

“You can’t just shove random organs into someone and expect it to work,” Steph argued. “We don’t even know if demons have anything comparable to human organs, and even if they do it's basically certain they'll be rejected. All we'd be doing is giving him a more painful and drawn-out death."

"Or time for us to find another solution." He argued. "Thera's right, we have to do something. I just need to know if it could work."

"... It might."

It was all Will needed. He took the knife and cut open the creature's chest, revealing the organs within. Thera could tell immediately that its internal structure was nothing like a succubus, and judging from Steph's reaction the same was true for humans.

If they couldn't even tell what they would need to try with then all they could do was pray for a miracle. Luckily for her, Anailia was still listening.

<Thera you're all going to need to move fast if you're going to do this so listen to what I say and follow it to the letter. Instruct Will to cut out the small blue organ with seven centimeters of the connecting tubing on the left, as well as the large wrinkled purple organ attached to it, but only immediately after cutting out the arm stuck in Ben. After you'll have to open his chest cavity and I'll direct you where to have your healer work from there.>

Thera immediately did as she was told, passing on the instructions as they got to work. None of them had time to be squeamish when the amount of time Ben had might only be in the minutes.

Steph got to work using her high life magic to attach the organs as quickly as she could before closing the hole in his chest, pushing past her limits and mana to save his life and falling into mana exhaustion, but not before getting what she needed to done.

Will caught her as she passed out and Thera let herself breathe a small sigh of relief, thinking they were done until Anailia spoke up.

<Not good.>

"What?" She asked in panic. "What do you mean not good? Aren't we done? Steph got everything attached, what else is there?"

<Steph was right about his body rejecting them, and a forest is the wrong place to be attempting anything like an organ transplant. His body needs to be flooded with life magic and healing spells to keep him alive. Without that nothing's going to take, you might have bought a few more minutes but that's all.>

"DAMN IT!" She screamed, not caring about the others around. They knew she was talking to her god so they knew it couldn't be good.

How were they supposed to deal with that? Steph had used up all of the mana she'd regenerated since they'd escaped the cave, she didn't know what her mana capacity was, but there was no way she'd be able to keep that up until they made it somewhere with a proper clinic, especially when the girl was already running on fumes.

There was only one person amongst them who could.

"Tell me what spells I need to use."

<Thera…>

"I'll make it work! Just tell me what I need to do… please."

Anailia heard the desperation in her believer's voice and gave in, having faith in the half spirit as Thera placed her hands over Ben and focused.

She remembered how Steph had felt when using life mana before when they'd connected and tried to feel the same, to make it work through force of will alone if she had to.

Nothing happened but she didn't give up, she couldn't. She didn't care how hard it would be, she needed this to work.

Still nothing happened.

I can't just let him die, I can't.

She felt mana pouring out of her in a torrent. The earth shook and creatures miles around started moving in her direction but she didn't care, those weren't the magics she needed.

All she was trying to get was whatever tiny trickly of life mana existed within her so she could turn it into a stream.

Rocks started pulling themselves from the ground and hanging in the air as the closest beasts in range got to them, needing to be fought off by Will to keep them all safe, but none of that was important. She would spend a thousand people's worth of mana and permanently reshape the untamed lands if that's what it took, and she tried even harder, feeling more and more mana escape her.

Amongst all the chaos her uncontrolled mana was causing, other effects not so easily seen were taking place. The roots of grass and surrounding trees grew deeper and thicker, while at the same time mold spores began securing to the various leaves around the forest and fungi as a whole proliferated. Worms and bugs beneath the surface were strengthened by the mana they felt while nearby flowers bloomed and Ben's breathing grew just a little easier.

<ACQUIRED SKILL LIFE MAGIC LEVEL 0>