The magic circle was killing her and she wasn't even done with the spell yet.
Valsera felt a crack run through her core while her hands were still locked in the casting position, mana pouring out of her so fast it was making her dizzy. Ten runes on the floor, and every time she activated another one, something inside her broke a little more.
'Ugh, I feel like I'm going to pass out.' She looked at her trembling hands and steeled herself. 'I can't though. This is our last shot, I'm not stopping even if it kills me.'
Blood was running from her nose but she ignored it. The three mages who were supposed to share the load were already unconscious on the floor behind her, so losing focus now wasn't an option.
When the last rune lit up, the feedback dropped her to her knees and blood blurred her vision, but it didn't matter because it was working. She could feel the soul on the other side, being dragged across dimensions toward her.
'Kugh, I knew pulling him through would be hard but not like this.' She could feel her mana pathways tearing.
The divine framework she copied was never meant for demon hands, it was a spell built for those chosen by the goddess, so the damage she was taking trying to fake her way through it made sense even if it didn't make it hurt any less.
Her left horn cracked. A piece of translucent amethyst chipped off and hit the floor while blood ran down the side of her face from the split.
'My horn just cracked?' she thought, watching the chip skitter across the floor. 'That's how bad this is right now, but doesn't matter, I am almost there.'
A human shape started forming inside the circle, she could tell that much even through her half-open, blood-covered eyes.
'It's working, he's actually coming through, just a little more-'
The spell suddenly broke. 'Huh? N-No way... what just happened.'
The divine energy in the spell and the demonic energy she was using to fuel it collided right in the center of the magic circle.
'I feel a sudden rush of-' The backlash sent her flying into the far wall hard enough to crack it.
"Gugh!" She coughed up a ton of blood as she slip down, unable to move her body.
'I was so close,' she thought, staring up at the magic circle, watching as the two opposing energies tore each other apart and anything in between.
'The hero... I failed.' Tears started streaming down her face, this was their only chance and she failed.
Inside the magic circle, the two energies were still tearing each other apart.
Hans was somewhere in the middle of it, though calling what he had a body was generous. He wasn't awake, wasn't really anything yet - his soul was only halfway through the crossing when the spell broke and everything that was supposed to form properly didn't.
Bones that weren't even finished setting were already fracturing, organs were straining under forces they weren't built to handle, and the mana channels that were supposed to thread through him like a second nervous system were being ripped apart before they could even finish forming.
By the time the light faded and his body hit the floor, he was already broken.
He wasn't conscious, but something inside him was.
[System activated]
[Assessing host status]
[...]
[Host body: severe damage detected]
[Mana channels: 97% destroyed]
[Core formation: failed, pathways non-functional]
[Divine framework: corrupted]
[Demonic interference: detected]
[System integrity: 12%]
[System integrity: 8%]
[System integrity: 4%]
The system was supposed to be a gift, something the goddess gave every hero she summoned to help them survive in this world. Hans wasn't summoned by the goddess though, he was dragged here by demons using a stolen copy of her spell, and the system he got reflected that.
It was falling apart just as fast as he was.
[System integrity: 2%]
[...]
[...]
The divine architecture it ran on couldn't handle the demonic mana flooding through the host, and every second it stayed active was another second closer to total collapse. If it shut down, Hans died and if it kept running on a framework that was eating itself, Hans also died.
[Adapting.]
Instead of continuing to collapse, the system did something it was never designed to do, it stopped rejecting the demonic energy and started absorbing it, turning the very thing that was tearing it apart into building material.
[Foreign element detected: demonic mana signature]
[Analyzing...]
[Divine framework cannot be restored]
[Option A: shut down — host dies]
[Option B: integrate foreign element — outcome unknown]
[Selecting option B.]
[Rebuilding system architecture]
[Absorbing demonic mana framework]
[Merging with divine remnants]
[New architecture: hybrid — unprecedented]
What came out the other side wasn't a divine system or a demonic one, it was something held together by pieces of both that have no business working together but did anyway.
[System integrity: 11%]
[System integrity: 23%]
[Unique skill generated from core trauma]
[Skill: [Adapt] — registered]
[System integrity: 34% — stabilizing]
[Host status: unconscious — critical condition]
[Bones: multiple fractures]
[Organs: strained beyond safe limits]
[Mana channels: destroyed]
[Host cannot form standard mana core — alternative path required]
[Host survival probability: 31%]
[Unacceptable.]
[Applying [Adapt] to host biology]
[Rerouting remaining mana to vital organs]
[Stabilizing fractures]
[Survival probability: 58%]
[Entering standby mode — monitoring host]
The system went quiet after that, and the chamber went still.
Even though there was smoke coming from the scorched runes, Valsera could still make out the human body lying in the center of the circle, completely still.
'Is he... did it actually work?' She tried to push herself up off the wall but her arms wouldn't listen, they just shook and gave out under her.
Her legs were the same, completely dead. She couldn't even turn her head properly, just barely enough to keep her eyes on the body.
'I need to check if he's alive, I can just-' She tried pulling mana to her eyes, just a basic scan, the simplest spell she knew, something she could normally do without even thinking about it.
Blood burst from her mouth before she could even finish forming the spell, splattering across her lap and the floor in front of her. Her core pulsed once and then went completely silent, like it was refusing to work at all.
'I can't even... even use magic right now.' She stared down at the blood on her hands, watching it drip through her trembling fingers.
'Just how much damage did I do to myself? My core feels empty and my pathways feel like they've been burned out... I don't even know if I can recover from this.'
Her attention went back to the magic circle, 'I killed him.' That one thought brough with it all the promises she made to everyone.
'I dragged his soul across dimensions and I killed him. This was supposed to save us, our own hero and I-' Her vision blurred as tears started running down her face again.
'How can I face everyone after such a failure, how can my people survive this war now?'
She sat there against the wall with blood and tears running down her face, staring at the body she couldn't reach, not knowing what to do.
The chamber doors slammed open and Krava came through at a full sprint, her greatsword bouncing on her back as she ran.
Her golden eyes scanned the room in a single sweep, seeing the unconscious mages on the floor first, then the scorched magic circle and finally, Valsera against the far wall covered in blood.
She changed direction instantly and was at her side in seconds, sliding to her knees.
"My Lady!" She grabbed Valsera's face with both hands, tilting it up to get a look at her.
Blood was everywhere, running from her nose, mouth and streaming from the crack in her left horn. Her eyes were barely open and unfocused.
'This is bad,' Krava thought, her hands moving to check Valsera's pulse while keeping her expression steady.
'She's barely conscious, her horn is cracked, and she has lost way too much blood. How much mana did she burn through? This is worse than anything I've seen her do before.'
"My Lady, can you hear me? How bad is it?" She asked, keeping her voice level even though everything she was seeing was telling her to panic.
Valsera's eyes drifted to Krava's face but it took her a moment to actually register who she was looking at, "K-Krava... the magic circle," she managed, her voice barely audible "there's a body... in the magic circle... I don't know if he's..."
She trailed off, too exhausted to finish.
Krava glanced over her shoulder at the body lying in the center of the scorched runes, then back at Valsera.
'She actually did it? She managed to pull someone through?' She looked at the state of the room and knew this came at a great cost, her being in such a state was proof enough.
"Don't talk," she said, pulling off one of her gauntlets so she could press her bare hand against Valsera's forehead, checking her temperature.
She was burning up. "I'll check on him later, but first, I need to take you to the healers before it's too late."
'Please be alive,' she thought, glancing back at the body in the circle. 'Because if he's dead after what she did to herself to bring him here, it'll break her.'