Kaelen knelt in the rubble with his broadsword resting uselessly on the ground. The big commander's mouth hung wide open, his seasoned eyes entirely failing to comprehend the Healer holding the glowing blade.
Thorne stood a few feet away, and the old Mage gripped his staff with white knuckles while staring at the elf in absolute disbelief.
Even Chris, the sharp-eyed Thief who always kept his cool in deadly situations, looked like he had just seen a ghost walk out of a grave. The high-level Adventurers in the capital were completely stunned. Their jaws were dropped, and they were entirely speechless because the fundamental rules of their world had just shattered right in front of them.
Nia and Korinn continued to stare at the glowing yellow-green sword, completely confused and lost in the nightmare. The air felt thick and suffocating, wrapping around them like a heavy blanket while the impossible truth refused to fade away.
Then the atmosphere violently shifted.
A sudden, terrifying presence crashed down over the ruined street. It did not make a sound, and it did not touch the younger fighters at all. The horrifying weight fell exclusively on Kaelen and Thorne.
It hit the two veterans so hard their necks snapped to the left at the exact same time. They did not even have a single second to process the unbelievable sight of the elf Healer wielding a sword, because this new sensation completely hijacked their deep survival instincts. They abandoned the impossible mystery standing in front of them entirely. Something else in the distance demanded their absolute, immediate attention.
Even the Miasma-Titan stopped moving. The Calamity-class monster ignored the Healer with a sword and the bleeding Adventurers at its feet and slowly turned its ugly, malformed head toward the exact same direction Kaelen and Thorne were looking. The beast halted its endless barrage of thorny vines, completely distracted by the sudden, heavy shift in the air pressure.
About a hundred meters away.
A lone figure stood quietly in the shadows. The person wore a robe and a conical hat. It was a Mage. Mages usually do not wear robes in battle, which is why it's strange.
In that split second, a raw, primal terror gripped Kaelen and Thorne. They were seasoned veterans who had spent decades bleeding in dungeons and fighting monsters across the continent. They knew what Aura felt like. Aura was heavy, pressurized energy used to crush rocks or slice armor. But this was not Aura.
A battle-honed Adventurer develops a very specific instinct over the years. They can tell when something is a lethal threat in just a single glance. It is a sense forged from surviving countless deadly ambushes and avoiding fatal wounds in the dark, so their bodies react to danger long before their minds can form a conscious thought.
What Kaelen and Thorne felt at that exact moment was... fear.
Their hearts beat so fast, and every single nerve in their bodies screamed at them to run away as fast as they could. It felt so much worse than the crushing dread they experienced when the Miasma-Titan first woke up in the swamp. The towering Calamity was just a giant beast driven by mindless instinct, but the quiet figure standing in the dark felt like death itself waiting patiently for them.
The sensation was so intense that Kaelen and Thorne completely froze in place. Cold sweat poured down their dirty faces and stung their eyes, but they did not dare to blink or look away from the shadows. They were entirely trapped by the suffocating weight of the Mage's presence.
But in less than one second, the terrifying feeling vanished.
The crushing pressure disappeared into thin air. The night sky returned to normal, and the cold wind blew across the broken street to clear the remaining dust away from the rubble. The invisible weight lifted entirely and left no trace behind, but Kaelen and Thorne remained completely speechless. Their chests heaved as they gasped for air, entirely consumed by the shock of what they had just felt.
While Kaelen and Thorne were still frozen in fear, Nia remained trapped in a deep, agonizing confusion. The image of the blonde elf holding a glowing sword completely consumed her thoughts. She even forgot the looming threat of the Calamity entirely. Thick thorny vines whipped toward her, so she almost died right there because her mind was too busy trying to solve the impossible mystery.
Then Chris suddenly coughed blood.
This sudden wet sound forced Nia to come back to reality out of urgent need. She had to cast healing spells on them immediately. Nia drew a deep, shaky breath to calm her racing heart.
Because she lost her wooden staff during the chaotic battle, she could not heal everyone at once in a single, wide-range spell. She had to walk over to each person and mend their wounds one by one using her bare hands.
She started with the bleeding Chris. While the warm green light stitched his torn flesh together, the impossible sight still nagged at her brain. She suddenly mumbled her thoughts aloud.
"A Healer... using Aura on a sword," Nia whispered, her voice full of disbelief. "How?"
Korinn lay nearby and heard her. He watched the glowing blade in the distance.
"Maybe there is a way for a Healer to do it," Korinn suggested weakly. "The world is a mysterious place."
Nia reacted loudly to that. "Healers cannot coat their bodies with Aura! That is a Law of the Mana Core. It is basic knowledge. You know that, and we all know that."
She shifted over to Korinn and pressed her glowing hands against his chest. She shook her head the entire time.
"That's impossible," Nia argued firmly. "I'm a Healer myself, that's why I am certain it's the truth. Only melee fighters can do that. If a non-melee fighter like a Mage or a Healer tries to coat their body and blade with Aura, their bones and flesh will completely crush under the sheer weight. In 10 milliseconds, their bodies will begin to crush under the heavy pressure, and in 100 milliseconds, they will die."
Nia moved on to cast a healing spell on Thorne next. But Korinn noticed something strange in her explanation. Because he saw no one else seemed to comprehend what was actually going on, he started to analyze the situation himself.
"Nia, what is the law of the Mana Core about Healers and Mages cannot coat Aura again?" Korinn asked.
Nia raised a tired eyebrow, but she answered him anyway. "Healers and Mages cannot coat their bodies and weapons with Aura. You get it? A Healer shouldn't be able to use Aura on a sword."
She pointed her index finger directly at Celia. "It doesn't make any sense at all."
"Not that part," Korinn said quickly. "The other one."
Nia let out an annoyed breath. "What's your deal?"
"Just say it again," Korinn pushed.
Nia sighed heavily. "Healers and Mages cannot coat their bodies and weapons with Aura. If they do, their bones and flesh will tear apart."
"Healers cannot use Aura. That's a fact, right?" Korinn pointed out. "What bothers me is the second sentence of that statement."
Nia shuffled over to Kaelen and started healing the commander. Her face scrunched up in confusion. "What are you talking about? The second sentence? If they do, their bones and fle—"
Before she could even finish the word, Nia and Chris froze entirely. They realized something crucial about the Law of the Mana Core.
"If... if... if." The word echoed loudly in Nia's mind.
It is common knowledge that Mages and Healers cannot use Aura to coat their bodies and blades. That is a widely accepted fact, but Nia realized what the law was actually saying after thinking it over and over again in her head. She finally saw the real truth.
It was not that a Healer could not physically generate Aura on a sword. It was more like a Healer could, but their fragile body prevented them from surviving the aftermath.
That realization hit Nia like a heavy rock. Everyone had interpreted the law in the wrong direction for millennia. She realized that anyone who interpreted the true meaning must be an absolute genius.
"It's kind of strange why the color of her Aura is yellow-green," Korinn muttered. "The healing magic is color green, and the normal Aura of melee is color yellow. Maybe she's healing herself while her body is being crushed."
Nia was about to think deeper about the yellow-green light, but her logic quickly rejected it.
"No. No. No," Nia said as she looked right at Korinn. "It's still impossible. Even if a Healer can actually use Aura on a sword, it will be a disaster. Did you forget? Within 10 milliseconds, her body will start to crush. Within 30 milliseconds, the body will transmit extreme unbearable pain to the brain. And within 100 milliseconds, a Healer will die."
She swallowed hard, laying out the brutal math. "A high-level Healer can self-heal in 800 milliseconds, and even the fastest Healer in history takes 400 milliseconds to heal herself. Even if a Healer heals herself continuously, she will die before she can finish healing herself."
Chris had been completely silent for a while. He stared at the blonde elf in the distance, his eyes wide. A chill crawled up his spine, leaving goosebumps in its wake. He suddenly blurted out.
"4 milliseconds."