"What are you two doing here," Oboros hissed with venom in his voice, much different than his usually calm demeanor. Trish shrunk in on herself slightly at having been caught, feeling a mixture of embarrassment and shame. Eli however looked past Oboros into the room beyond.
He could feel a vibration coming from behind his eyepatch. The eye was reacting, as if it had felt the unholy energy contained within the space.
Without thinking, Eli pushed past Oboros and into the room, taking in every inch of of the scenery.
Another gurgle came from the figure in the cage, forcing Eli's head to whip around.
"Please please please let me save just one," he said frantically. Cain's prayer had stopped as he watched Eli intently.
Oboros stood in place, unsure of what to do currently. On one hand, he was furious the two had followed them, but at the same time he didn't tell them they couldn't. Plus it seemed that Eli wanted to help the poor soul still alive.
Oboros knew Eli wasn't just a healer, but he was a great one at that. His proficiency in healing was not having to waste mana using it in general areas.
Oboros believed that to be because of his unfortunately earned knowledge in anatomy.
Eli could focus his mana into certain areas that he could sense needed to be healed.
But the state of the person in the cage was something that almost no single healer could bring back.
Still, Oboros could see Cain was letting Eli do what he felt needed to be done, so he too would keep an eye over Eli and Trish.
The feline girl was currently sitting at the bottom of a wooden staircase, wide eyed still at the sliver of carnage she was able to observe through the parts of the doorway Oboros wasn't covering.
Panicked breaths, the scuffling of shoes, the sound of metal being ripped apart, more gurgled moans of pain, and Eli's soft whispers filled the quiet room.
"It's okay your okay your okay," Eli quickly yet gently lifted the person from the confines of the filthy cage, cradling them into his arms as he searched the room desperately for somewhere semi clean.
When he found none, he ran to Oboros, pleading with him to hold the weightless person within his arms.
Without hesitation, the older demon carefully took the person into his arms while Eli took his coat and shirt off, placing one in front of the other on the ground.
Grabbing the person back into his embrace, he gently set them down onto the ground.
He didn't have time to focus piece by piece on the person. He needed as much mana as he could muster, and pour it out as intensely and swiftly as he could.
Another gurgle escaped their throat at they began to shiver and shake, convulsing under the green light emitting from Eli's hand.
"More," Eli gritted his teeth as he tried to use even more of his mana.
He was feeling desperate to save this person. So many lives lost, now and then, but he had a shot right now to reverse things just slightly and save one person.
"Please don't go!" Eli shouted as the convulsions grew, the green hue of his mana growing an even deeper shade of green.
The heat coming from his eyepatch was burning hot, making the leather obstructing it nearly burning his flesh. It was starting to distract him as he kept trying to keep all his focus on the person below him.
"My eyepatch! Take it off!" Eli commanded, hoping someone would listen to him.
Without a word, Cain ran forward, yanking the smoking patch of leather off of Eli.
His left eye glowed a deep green, while the parts of red within his other eye burned crimson, shifting the air in front of it like an actual fire.
'I need more!' Eli thought gritting his teeth. The amount of mana he was pushing into healing this person was starting to wane. He could feel it draining quickly.
"You're going to have to use it," the other him was back, mere inches away from Eli's face.
"That power that you know is there, yet you choose to deny its existence. Its right there, yours for the taking. Yet you're too chicken shit to grasp ahold of it. You're fucking pathetic."
Eli tried to ignore himself. His healing was growing fainter as his mana shrunk. The person below was starting to show some signs of healing, but it wasn't nearly enough.
"Think about it like this," The other Eli pointed, "Your a teeny tiny puddle with your meager power. That thing in your right socket can provide you with an oceans worth of power. There may be some side effects but so the fuck what? Who cares? It's worth it right? Think about how many lives you could save just like this one. Or you can keep ignoring it and let them all die. Either way, I don't really give a shit. I'm along for the ride either way."
The other him shrugged, showing his indifference to the matter. Sweat lined Eli's brow as he desperately tried to decide. He was scared. Scared of what might happen if he pulls on that string attached to somewhere within the void.
The figure below coughed out blood, their less charred body shaking as the mana within Eli grew thin. Right then he made his choice. Even if it changed him and his beliefs. If he could save more people from the terror of those things, he would.
Taking ahold of that string leading into the ominous void, Eli pulled with all his might, trying to gather that strange ominous power. "Atta boy," his own voice said directly in his ear as the world around him went deafeningly silent. Time slowed as Eli looked around.
The world around him was grey, Oboros, Cain, Trish, and even the stranger below, all now frozen in time. "Now it's our time to shine," The other him smiled, each side of its mouth stretching further and further nearly reaching its ears.
Time zoomed forward, pulling Eli back into the current world, however he felt different. The green light from his healing darkened to a dark murky green, yet instead of shrinking, it grew, consuming the room in near darkness as his mana was amplified to a great degree.
The person below didn't just slowly start to heal. The healing process was now happening at such an exorbitant rate, it was as if the husk of the person below was instantly reverted back to their old state.
The tiredness that came from draining most of a person's mana was no longer present in Eli.
A young woman lay before Eli and everyone else completely bare. Cain rushed over, throwing his jacket off himself and onto the young lady who seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Eli wasn't looking at her however.
Eli stood up, stumbling back slightly as the right side of his face ached.
"Hand me that saw would ya, I think I'll go for her other ankle this time," A familiar voice called out.
Eli stumbled backwards, his face completely pale at the recognition of it.
He was still in the same room as before, but it looked different. There was not a mountain of limbs and corpses. In fact, the room was nearly spotless, save for the corner where the cages had sat.
"I said hand me that fucking saw before its your ankle I take," Andras spat, his tattered clothing covered in blood and sinew.
Next to him lay a young woman, tied by rope to stakes hammered into the stone below. She wailed as blood seeped from her wounds. "You fucking useless thing," Andras walked away from the woman and towards Eli.
Eli prepared to move, yet stopped with Andras did, watching as the man bent over, picking up a rusted saw off of the floor.
Andras turned back to the wailing woman, a sick glee in his eyes. "No! Get back here!" Eli shouted as he ran forward, reaching out a hand to stop Andras.
"Man oh man are you losing your marbles?" The other him laughed as Eli was suddenly back in the present, his arm still outstretched.
"God will you fucking shut up!" Eli roared.
Instead of his left side, his voice came from the right, "You saved her life. Isn't that what you wanted? I thought you didn't care about the side effects. You made that decision, so you get to deal with the consequence."
"That doesn't mean you get to run your fucking mouth. I'm fucking tired of your bullshit," Eli snarled as his head swiveled towards his voice.
"E-Eli are you okay?" A concerned feminine voice asked form behind him. A petite, blonde haired girl with feline ears and a matching tail looked at him with a worried expression, fear was also present in her eyes as she turned her gaze downward.
"Do I know you?" Eli asked genuinely. She looked so familiar, yet he just couldn't place her in his mind.
Her eyes shot up towards his own, tears welling within. "Ooooh that's got to hurt," the other him grimaced as he took a sharp inhale. "How many times do I have to tell you to shut the fuck up," Eli turned his head from the feline girl and back towards himself, who was currently leaning against one of the walls nonchalantly.
"Man you are going to feel like such an asshole later on," other Eli laughed.
"Eli," another voice called out, this time from a rather intimidatingly large man. Eli's brow rose as he too looked familiar, yet he just couldn't remember where he had seen the guy from before.
A firm hand landed on Eli's shoulder, making him jump to the side.
"Oboros," Eli sighed a small breath of relief, "What the fuck is going on. I can't think straight here."
***
Oboros, Cain, and Trish watched as Eli's magic began to fade and hopelessness spread across his face. Then in an instant, his expression became resolute as his magic power increased, yet the color was darkened, and the air around him felt wrong.
They watched as the veins near his right eye began to turn black, quickly covering the entirety of his upper half.
Then the person below just appeared. The husk of what she was gone, now replaced by a beautiful human girl who lay peacefully on Eli's clothes.
They were all dumbfounded by the feat, yet there amazement soon turned to fear and worry as Eli stood, suddenly screaming and cursing at something none of them could see.
He wasn't acting like himself at all. Trish shook as she mustered up the courage trying to talk to Eli without his eyepatch and the way he was acting.
Even when he had forgotten her and she looked into his eyes, those terrible images didn't flash through her mind like before. Instead she just saw Eli as himself, but different. Wrong. And her heart ached at his words.
He didn't remember Cain either. It wasn't until Oboros had done something that Eli seemed to ease a little.
"I'll bring him upstairs and try to calm his nerves," Oboros said quietly to Cain. The man nodded, "You can take him back to my home. He may need time to recover mentally."
The older demon nodded, giving a pitying look at Trish, who held her knees to her chest as she sat next to the still sleeping girl.
"I'll leave her in your care," Oboros said, convincing Eli to follow him up the stairs and out of sight.
Soft sobs could be heard as the pair made their way up the old wooden steps.