"Thanks, Shalltear," I said with a small grin, brushing the blood and dust from my gloves. "Now… let's see my rewards."
The air was still humming with the aftershock of the battle when I raised my hand slightly, calling forth the shimmering holographic interface that only I could see. It flickered into existence with a faint blue hum, transparent panels floating before me like ghostly glass. The familiar logo of my Multiverse System pulsed once, then expanded, showing three new notifications.
I exhaled slowly and tapped the first one.
[Quest Reward: +250 Quest Coins — Target Eliminated: Ikaris]
"Hmm," I murmured with satisfaction. "That's a decent payout." My eyes shifted to the next.
[Quest Reward: +250 Quest Coins — Target Eliminated: Captain Marvel (Zombified)]
A faint smile crept across my face. "Good. That's five hundred total. Not bad at all."
Shalltear was watching me curiously from behind, tilting her head slightly. She couldn't see the interface, of course. To her, it probably looked like I was staring at empty air. "My lord?" she asked softly. "Did something good happen?"
"You could say that," I said absently, scrolling down to the third notification. "Just checking the aftermath."
And then I froze.
[System Penalty Applied: -125 Quest Coins — Violation Detected: Use of Restricted Magic (8th Tier Spell: Lockdown)]
My smile disappeared instantly. "What the…?"
The notification blinked once more before vanishing into the system log, leaving only the stinging reminder of lost coins. My jaw tightened. I rubbed my temple, feeling a faint pulse of irritation flicker beneath the surface.
"Damn it." I exhaled sharply. "So it does count that way."
Shalltear blinked, frowning slightly. "My lord?"
"Nothing serious," I said, waving a hand. "Just the system being annoyingly strict."
I sighed again, more out of frustration than fatigue. "It's ironic. I used [Lockdown] just to avoid killing her with magic. But apparently, even restricting a zombie counts as cheating."
My eyes scanned the floating numbers, recalculating automatically.
"Five hundred total… minus one twenty-five penalty. Three seventy-five left."
I let out another low groan. "Fantastic. I risked getting punched through a building for that much."
I closed the interface with a flick of my hand, the panels dissolving into motes of light. The silence of the ruined city pressed in again, broken only by the faint drizzle and the crackle of distant lightning.
That was when I saw it.
From the corner of my eye, something moved.
It was small — barely noticeable at first. A faint twitch among the sea of corpses littering the battlefield. I turned, narrowing my eyes. Amid the charred rubble and fragments of what used to be a street, a blackened form lay sprawled against a shattered concrete slab.
It twitched again.
I took a few steps closer, Shalltear following silently behind. The smell of burnt flesh and ozone grew stronger the nearer we got. The figure — a human, maybe — was horribly scorched, skin seared to an almost unrecognizable state. Steam still rose from their body, the faint sizzling sound merging with the rain that hissed against their burned skin.
Their breathing was ragged, shallow, yet somehow still present.
I crouched beside them, my eyes narrowing as I studied the scene. "How…?" I muttered. "This one shouldn't even be alive."
The person — woman, judging by the faint outline beneath the ruin of their clothes — had clearly been caught in the middle of Captain Marvel's final blast. The raw energy from that attack had vaporized steel and shattered stone. Nothing short of a monster should have survived that.
And yet… she was moving.
Her left hand twitched weakly, fingers scraping against the dirt as though she were trying to crawl away from death itself.
"She's alive," Shalltear said, surprised. Her crimson eyes gleamed faintly in the half-light. "Impossible. That blast was… destructive enough to erase even a vampire."
I nodded slowly. "Exactly what I was thinking."
For a long moment, I just watched her struggle — torn between curiosity and instinct. Whoever this was, they shouldn't exist anymore. Every logical part of me screamed that this was unnatural. Dangerous, even. In a world overrun by cosmic zombies, anything that could survive Captain Marvel's wrath might not even be human anymore.
But then… something about the way she was fighting to stay alive — trembling, gasping, clawing the ground just to breathe — caught me off guard.
Even in this rotting, decaying world, she was clinging to life with everything she had left.
I sighed softly, shaking my head. "You really don't know when to give up, do you?"
"My lord?" Shalltear's tone carried a hint of unease. "Should I finish her off? She may turn at any moment."
"No," I said quickly, raising a hand. "Not yet."
Shalltear frowned but obeyed. I placed my palm over the dying woman's chest, feeling the faint flicker of a heartbeat beneath the charred skin. Her pulse was erratic, weak — but undeniably there.
The smart move would have been to walk away. This wasn't my concern. She wasn't part of the quest. Healing her wouldn't give me any coins, any reward, or even recognition.
But something in me refused to leave her there.
Maybe it was pity. Maybe curiosity. Maybe just the faint echo of a conscience I hadn't lost yet.
Either way, I made my decision.
"Let's see if you're worth saving," I muttered, pressing my hand down firmly. My mana flared to life — soft, controlled, and carefully tuned to avoid detection. No offensive spells, no flashy light — just pure restorative energy.
"[Greater Restoration]."
The golden light poured from my hand, washing over the burned body like liquid fire. Flesh began to knit together, slowly at first, then faster. The charred skin peeled away as new, pale flesh regenerated beneath it. The woman's breathing steadied, the faint, pained gasps turning into slow, rhythmic inhales.
Shalltear watched silently, her expression unreadable. She didn't question me this time.
Minutes passed before I finally withdrew my hand. The rain had stopped; the air smelled of ozone and renewal. The woman's chest rose and fell evenly now, her face — though still streaked with ash and blood — looked almost peaceful.
I stood up, dusting my gloves. "That should keep her alive for now."
Shalltear tilted her head. "Why save her, my lord? You have no need to—"
"I know," I interrupted softly. "But something tells me she's not just another survivor."
My eyes drifted toward the horizon, where the storm clouds still churned with faint, unnatural lightning.
"This world is full of corpses," I said quietly. "And yet… she's still fighting. I want to see why."
~~~
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