The Mage of Primordial Chaos

(Qing Yue's Perspective)

Finally, I stepped before the last bed. The twentieth and final patient of mine — the same one Elena was struggling on, presumably.

I looked behind me, widening my eyes as I saw my opponent start to throw random spells at her poor patient. On the floor beside her lay multiple mana potions — well, the containers that used to hold them, anyway. They were now empty; Elena consumed them all.

"… She's not treating them as patients at all," I muttered, sighing. "She's no better than my opponent in the first round. Her tactics may be different since she learned from watching the fight between me and that boy, but her mindset did not change at all."

Turning back to face my twentieth patient, I smiled. The patient I would be treating was a young girl. The most concerning part? She had tears in her eyes.

"… What's wrong?" I asked, quickly pulling the young girl into a hug and ruffling her hair. Big Brother Xuan Kai did the same for me when I cried, so I figured this was a good way of comforting someone.

"…" she didn't respond, as if trying to hold her tears back in.

"It's okay… you can tell me. I'm here to help."

She glanced up into my eyes, rubbing her tears away. "R-Really?"

I smiled reassuringly back at her. "Really. Now then… what happened?"

The girl broke down in tears once more, hugging me tightly.

"My mother… she- she went away…!"

"Went away? How so?"

"She told me to hide… saying she would distract the bad guys…" the girl sobbed.  "But then, she never… she never came back…"

I opened my mouth to say something, but then closed it again and instead pulled the girl closer, gently stroking her hair as she cried uncontrollably.

"… She's just waiting for you, you see."

"W-Waiting?"

I nodded sadly. "Waiting for you to grow up. Once you do… you'll be able to find her again."

"Really…?"

"Yep. Don't worry… you'll be able to see her again one day. Until then, you have to remain strong for her, okay?"

"Remain strong… okay!" she smiled after a while, wiping away her tears.

Little children… they were just this easy to convince. You just had to take the right approach.

"The winner of the match is… Miss Qing Yue!"

Elena froze as all the patients and their beds vanished into thin air. I smiled at her.

"Being a support means you treat all your patients with all you heart… real or not."

Leaving those words behind for her to think about, I walked off the stage.

Sometimes, wounds were not physical. Sometimes, they could not be cured by medicine, Blessing Magic, or time.

Sometimes… the only cure someone needs is just a person to sit by them and tell them 'you're okay'.

*****

(Xuan Kai's Perspective)

"Welcome back," I said to Qing Yue as she entered the room.

"Mm! I'm officially a part of Fragment!" she exclaimed happily and dove into my arms.

"Yeah… good job," I smiled, patting her head. "What's up with that last patient, though? Your opponent took so long on it."

"That's because she still had the idea of this being a competition fixed into her head," Qing Yue explained. "Because of this, she thought it would be a pure test of Blessing Magic capabilities. She just couldn't think outside the box and comfort the patient emotionally — that's all she really needed."

"Huh… interesting," I murmured.

"The next match will begin in 5 minutes, Miss Feng Mian," the IMF staff who had brought Qing Yue back here then said.

"W-What? Don't we usually get a 15 minute break?" Feng Mian asked, a bit surprised.

"Well,  you should have already gathered info on them by now, from this morning's matches. We are on a time limit here, so please, follow me."

"Uh… okay," she said, standing up. "I don't think I'll get any cramps, but… hopefully not, anyway."

"Good luck," the girls and I cheered her on.

"Mhm. Thanks," she said with a flirtatious wink. "My opponent is that demon Alacria, right? I'll take her down."

Hm… from the match we saw Alacria fight in, she didn't seem all too strong apart from her superhuman demonic physical prowess, but…

For some reason, I could not shake the feeling that she was not what she seemed on the surface.

*****

(Feng Mian's Perspective)

"Oh, it's you. The girl who's never made a kill before, huh?" Alacria grinned smugly as she saw me.

I smiled calmly, completely unaffected by her taunt. "That's not true. I made my first kill this morning. And you… will be the second."

She laughed. "Big words. You have confidence, girl. I like that. But… confidence without true strength back it up is just pure arrogance."

"Yeah, I'm sure you would know," I chuckled as she gritted her teeth.

"Alllllrighty! Both contestants seem to be ready — in that case, let the battle begin!" the announcer declared hurriedly, as if on a time limit.

A loud buzzer rang out in the arena, signaling the match's start.

Immediately, Alacria dashed towards me, dual daggers in hand. It seemed she was insistent on taking this fight close-ranged. Fine by me.

I whipped out my shadow kunai and met her attack. She had two weapons and I had one, but that wouldn't be the case for long. I quickly leaped back as she tried slicing my throat open with her other dagger, then pulled out one of my pistols — Gemini. I kept the other one stowed to use after this one ran out of ammo.

Quickly firing off two shots at her, I used the recoil to help propel me backwards, safely avoiding her attacks. She crossed her blades in an X-shape, deflecting my bullets.

Taking advantage of this momentary vulnerability, I immediately closed in on her and went for her stomach with my shadow kunai, but she managed to dodge backwards in time.

"Not bad, not bad… my judgment of you was wrong, I guess," she smirked. "No hesitation at all when stabbing that dagger towards me… I like it. But I wonder… can you handle this?"

She spun her knives around in her hand and looked downwards.

"Level Three Demon Magic — Full Body Transformation!"

Wha- Demon Magic?! I thought it was rare for Demons to have Demon Magic, since they already had demonic powers by nature… I never saw her use this in the fight earlier, and it didn't show up on her profile either!

Immediately, I raised Gemini and unleashed my whole magazine into her, preventing her from finishing the transformation process. However, to my surprise, her two blades jumped out of her hands of their own accord and blocked my bullets.

"What the…"

By the time I recovered my shock, she had finished her transformation. The horns on her head grew longer, her sharp teeth now more visible, and her eyes now had black irises paired with red pupils. Swiftly, she used her clawed hands to snatch her daggers out of mid-air and instantly dashed towards me, her feet barely even touching the floor.

"Tch-!" I quickly pulled my Cloak of Invisibility over me and jumped away. If it wasn't for the long distance between us, her tremendous speed in this form would've definitely gotten me.

As my heart raced from the adrenaline, I attempted to remain as stealthy as possible, not making a single sound. If I could just wait out her transformation, then I could win. But in this form of hers, she surpassed me in all aspects.

Hm, wait… I wonder… would Curse Magic work here?

As I got behind her, I discretely raised my arm and let out a series of spells.

"Maledictum - Segnis, Infirmis, Enervis!"

Alacria immediately spun around and blocked with her arms on instinct, but unfortunately, the Maledictum spells worked on contact. She should've tried to dodge instead, not block.

The dark purple essences flowed into her body as she lunged towards me in anger, but she was a lot slower now and easier to react to.

I aimed Gemini at her head and shot. She may have been able to avoid this earlier, but under this slowed and weakened state, my bullet hit true.

Unfortunately, it only went deep enough to draw a little bit blood, before clattering onto the floor.

Oh, c'mon, that's unfair! Physical strength, speed, and even your skin is so hard?!

Alacria laughed and leaped in my direction once more. I quickly dodged out of the way, sliding to my left. However, she suddenly twisted her head as if she could actually see me through my Cloak of Invisibility, and rapidly changed her course to head for me once more, suffering no loss of momentum whatsoever.

"W-Wha-" I gasped in shock.

However, it was too late. 

Alacria whipped out her two daggers mid-leap and smiled like a true devil as she prepared to cut my body into pieces.

"Heheheh… too bad… looks like I won't be your second kill after all."