Keilan had long since understood that certain essences grew more powerful in response to particular events happening in the environment. Back on Ra, The Red continent, as they'd called it, had always not been like that. From what he understood, its current warped nature had stemmed as a consequence of the most dreadful battle ever fought on the planet—on that continent, to be precise—millennia ago.

  The essence of Death and Destruction had already been one of the dominant essences in the continent then, as it was everywhere, but the overwhelming bloodshed, the nigh endless massacre, had caused its influence to soar to reality-warping heights, a result of which had seen the eventual end to all pure life on the continent.

  The same thing occurred in every battlefield; the moment blood was spilled and things were destroyed, the essences of death and destruction were invoked, and their influence was let loose upon the area. This affected the fragile balance kept between all essences as the now dominant essence sought to force out all other essences from the area by sheer presence, the effect of which was usually disastrous to the beings in the area. The more widespread the activity, the greater the essence that pushed in, until all was permanently twisted and warped into a nightmarish version of their former selves.

  Keilan had known all this for a while but hadn't taken the time to truly study it. His mind had been preoccupied with other things. Now as he watched, he saw the essence of Death flood into the room, practically strangling everything.

  He understood the repercussions of this and now realized one of the reasons the Spirit Queen had taken the time to heal the grievously injured despite being pressed for time and attention: if death was allowed to reign, even those with no fatal injury would swiftly succumb to it, which was likely to lead to a cascade of effects that would probably affect those fighting outside.

  The essence of Life, to his senses, was dim and slowly dying off. It pushed back to stave off the influence of death, but Keilan knew it was a losing battle. Unlike Life, Death had an anchor on this planet, a greater one than Life. Because of the constant death and destruction that occured, its presence was dominant, prevailing despite the healers effort.

  One thing was certain to happen if this continued as it was: A Death creature was either going to be born or one would take notice of the planet and come for it.

  Keilan couldn't fathom the repercussions should one of those things enter the Lese Systems.

  He sought a way to equalize the standoff between both Great Essences, and quickly came up with a solution.

  With his will, he pressed down on the ambience. The essence of Death might have been overwhelming, but it was untapped, uncontrolled. Nobody wielded it. Keilan knew that it was more easier to command an unwielded essence than it was a wielded one. So he tried to influence it, even though it wasn't under his purview.

  He hit a roadblock instantly the moment he made the attempt. Death might have been unwielded, but its metaphysical mass was already so great it countered the other downside.

  He doubted even a Spirit King could influence it as it was now.

  Next, he tried another solution. He turned his will onto the essence of life. Unlike death, multiple people were tapping into this one, drawing in tiny streams of influence that Keilan quickly understood were channeled into healing techniques. If he could join his will with theirs maybe they could carve out a tiny path for life to flow in.

  Again, he met another roadblock. His diluted affinity to life through the Wind made it easier for him to touch a huge chunk of the element, but Keilan instantly knew it was futile. It was like dropping a boulder in the middle of a large river, expecting it to block the water’s path. It wasn't possible. The water was just going to flow around it. The mass of death energy was too much for a chunk of life to stave off.

  What to do? What to do?? Keilan sighed.

  … And paused.

  Air.

  His eyes snapped open. Air, that was it!

  People always forgot that Air was a conduit for life. The element didn't carry life itself, but it channeled the power of the concept down to all living things, just as the earth created channels for lava.

  The wind was a fragile element, easily riled up to scaling destructive wrath, but it was also an element of life, of sustenance, just like water. Without the assistance of air, he reckoned only a few beings would be able to survive.

  A tunnel, that was what he needed.

  Keilan closed his eyes, and this time, instead of touching the life essence itself, he commanded the wind, which was stifled but still abundant.

  Eager to please, the element moved to do his bidding and Keilan felt a small caress of it on his skin. He directed the wind to form tunnels through the barricade of death, puncturing into them—an easier task than bludgeoning—and emerging through the other side.

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  Holding the wind tunnels in his mind, Keilan opened his eyes. The hall was just as he'd left it; loud and choked with death. He was about to change that.

  He scanned the hall, locating most of the people on the point of death. In the few minutes he'd been in bed, a new batch of injured had been brought in, and a distressing number of them looked fatal. Breathing in, he filtered out the ones whose bodies were already receptive to the healing given to them.

  He pictured how the Spirit Queen had done it, lines of wind tunnels streaking out from the mass of life sequestered in small patches around the room. Marking those he'd deemed quickest to die, Keilan prayed he wasn't making a mistake, and then opened the tunnels.

  “Hmm, that's weird,” he frowned.

  The tunnels of air were supposed to funnel life energy into those he'd picked, greatly affecting the workings of the healers. Sure, it did, but to Keilan's bewilderment, the essence of life stayed the same.

  Yet, as he opened his eyes, Keilan could see that the healings were working. A small commotion swept through the room as healers perked up, suddenly finding patients they were having difficulties with now receptive.

  Keilan almost lost concentration, but he quickly got hold of himself, maintaining hold of the wind tunnels.

  His lips turned down a notch when, after a few minutes, those injured remained at the death door. The healing was working, he knew, but it was excruciatingly slow. At this rate, it would take ages to fully bring a single person out of death’s door.

  He scrambled his head for more ideas but came up empty.

  Tried and trusted method, then; if finesse doesn't work, then brute force will.

  Keilan closed his eyes and expanded his senses, past the hall, past the lines and lines of halls. He stretched his mind for almost a mile, to his limit.

  Yup, that was it.

  The life essence he now sensed might have been little compared to how great it was before this whole war started, but it was still miles more than what a mere Spirit lord could handle.

  He stared at the raging river and then stuck his wind straws inside.

  The effects happened in an instant. Keilan's vision darkened. How long? He didn't know, but when he came to, the hall was aflame with exclamations of shock and surprise.

  Anticipation burned within him as he looked toward the nearest person who had been at death's door a moment ago, a cut having horizontally parted half his body. This person had been leaking red fluid like a sieve a moment ago, and now he looked stable.

  His body wasn't anywhere close to fully healed, but Keilan could instantly tell that the workings of the healers were now functioning double time.

  All around, he noticed the same. People who had been on death's door were now out of it, their healing working more effectively than it was.

  Sharp pain lanced through Keilan's head and he gritted his teeth, blinking away tears from his eyes.

  “You might want to lie back down, son. What you just did is too great an achievement to leave no side effects.”

  Keilan cracked open an eye and swiveled it to the side, to the man who sat on the next bed over.

  He looked middle-aged, with thinly visible lines of gray on his shiny slicked-back black hair. He had smile lines behind his eyes and spotted a very enviable short-cropped beard, and his black eyes were gentle as they stared at Keilan.

  He was clothed in a purple and black fur robe, which made it difficult for Keilan to determine the cause of whatever injury sent him here.

  His aura was toned down, almost gone, but Keilan could still detect the whiff of power: Spirit lord.

  He grimaced and nodded when he realized he'd been staring for half a minute. “Yeah, thanks for the advice.”

  “No problem. I never realized the wind could be used for such purposes. Please indulge this old man's curiosity, but how did you do it?”

  “No idea,” Keilan winced painfully. His brain felt like it couldn't decide whether or not it wanted to be pounded or sliced, so it just decided to do both. “I also didn't know the wind could do that.”

  “Mm, Inspiration then. A genius I see.”

  “Hah! I wish. I don't think a genius should have as many problems as I do.”

  The other man smiled, a warm fatherly thing. “On the contrary, it's the opposite. Geniuses earn their merit after overcoming overwhelming challenges. To be a genius is to walk the untrodden path, and one sure thing about untrodden paths is that problems will be met, many problems. Overcoming those challenges is what sets you above all your peers, as you've just shown.” He paused and stretched a hand, a piece of meat appearing in it. “Want some chicken? I promise they're good.”

  Keilan narrowed his eyes. “I didn't realize animals were still alive on the planet.”

  “Oh they're abundant… practically swarming the earth.”

  “You don't say…” he nodded and smiled. “Thank you Mr…?”

  “Galaris. Call me Galaris.”

  “Well Mr. Galaris—”

  “Galaris is fine. I'm no Mr, not anymore.”

  Keilan paused. “Oh, I apologize.”

  “It's okay. You made no offense. Now, you were saying?”

  “Oh, uhh,” Keilan quickly found another answer. “I was umm, about to apologize for not getting up to shake your hand. I can barely stay conscious as it is, what with the excavation going up in my head, I don't think moving my body would be a good idea, nor eating.”

  “Understandable, trust me. Not long ago, I was just like this, covered In sweat, dust, and a pounding headache that still hasn't gone away.”

  Keilan arched an eyebrow. “Damn what did you do? Bang your head on the largest iron in the world.”

  Galaris smiled. “Nothing so tame.”

  “Ooou, scary,” Keilan smiled. “If what you say is true, then why come to this planet? Looking at your getup, you do not owe service to any of the houses. Why aren't you running as far away as possible from all… this?” He waved his hands.

  Galaris smiled and looked on the verge of answering when someone else interrupted.

  “I see you've made a new friend, lord Keilan. How're you feeling?”

  Keilan blinked at the man. “I'm okay! Fully healed.”

  And truly he was. His headache was already disappearing.

  “As expected,” his doctor said. “Okay, you're cleared to leave. Hopefully, you don't return here again.”

  “Oooh, I second that prayer, Doc. I'll be very careful from now on. Thanks Doc! Thanks Galaris,” he turned to his bed mate. “Get better and flee this hell hole. Trust me, no one would blame you.”

  “You stay safe, son. Watch out for yourself and don't take unnecessary risk. A genius without wisdom is just a walking corpse. There's no use risking your life for a dead world.”

  Keilan nodded. “Will do. See ya!”

  And then he made his way quickly out of the hall, fleeing before the doctor could detect anything.