An eye for an eye, an arm for an arm

"No one is allowed to get hurt." I wish she hadn't said those words.

Right after she said that, with a smile on her face, her expression changed to one of intense pain. She began screaming uncontrollably, and we didn't know what was happening. Blood tears streamed from her eyes. She was grabbing her right arm with her left hand while screaming and crying.

Agustin quickly noticed something.

Agustin: "Guys, look! Her arm is darkening!"

Alejandro: "That's true! What the hell is happening!?"

I knew what was happening. Of course, I knew. The exact same thing had happened to me just a few minutes ago. Her arm was burning, but without flames. Her skin was bubbling just like mine was not long ago.

Leonel: "Guys, I think her arm is burning, but without a fire. This must be her magic skill. It probably healed me by transferring all the damage from my body to her body."

Alejandro: "What the hell is this shit!? That's not a healing skill! That's horrible!"

Maria: "We need to do something! Quick!"

Xiomara: "Hold on. Look carefully. Her arm is indeed burnt, but not as bad as Leo's arm when the fireball exploded at close range. I don't think it transfers damage from one body to another. I think it fully heals a person's body, but in exchange, the healer receives damage equal to exactly half of the damage healed."

Agustin: "'Half-saint...' Now the name makes a little more sense."

Maria: "This doesn't change the fact that we still need a doctor. And you, Gabriela, are banned from using this skill again."

Xiomara: "I bet those cowardly guards who had been standing over there the whole time will be able to take us to a doctor."

Alejandro: "I will get rid of this thing first."

Alejandro approached the crystal sphere and kicked it so hard it shattered right away. It was a hollow crystal sphere, and when it broke, some kind of white smoke came out of it and quickly dissipated into the air.

Alejandro: "Done. Let's go."

Mateo: "Wait a second... aren't we all forgetting something?"

Everyone looked at Mateo, a bit confused. What could he possibly mean? The situation had been resolved. It was time to leave. But I knew what he meant.

Mateo: "Marcus is missing."

A sense of urgency invaded our group.

Alejandro: "What else is gonna go wrong now? We can't keep wasting more time. You guys get Gabriela to the nearby town. I'll search for Marcus. Mateo and Xiomara, you will help me. And if you guys find him in town, let us know."

Agustin: "Sounds like a good plan. Just make sure to avoid danger. It seems our healer is not going to be as good as we expected."

Our class representative and her sister went to talk to the useless, cowardly guards. Agustin was next to them and I was right behind, always looking around in case something happened.

One of the guards, a bald guy, was the first one to greet us.

Bald guard: "Hello, visitors, thank you for getting rid of the nara. We didn't even know how to fight against it."

A "nara"? What is that? A local word? Wait a second, how is it we're speaking the same language? Even the old man spoke our language. This world makes no sense.

Maria: "Sir, please help us. We need a doctor. My sister's arm has been injured!"

Bald guard: "Uh, yeah, we have a doctor at the village. We also have a low-ranked healer. I'll take you there."

Maria: "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

Maria was so grateful that it almost sounded as if someone had agreed to save her own life, even though it was her sister who was going to get healed.

Gabriela: "Thank you, good sir. But I must let you know that we don't have any money with us. We just arrived in this world."

Bald guard: "This world? Anyway, don't worry about money. You may have just saved our village. You can get healed for free. That's the least we can do. And I'm sorry about your friend, the one that offered her life to kill the nara. If we knew how to fight against them, maybe we would have been able to do something. Government-appointed guards, with proper equipment and training, are rarely sent to small towns like ours. So we usually defend ourselves, but we never expected a nara to appear around here."

The other guard started shouting at the townspeople while raising his hand.

Guard: "THE NARA IS GONE! THESE PEOPLE HAVE KILLED IT!"

People started to come out from behind the town buildings. Unlike the buildings in our world, which are cube-shaped, all of the buildings here were like spheres made of boulders joined with some kind of plaster. The tallest buildings were basically two large spheres piled up.

Bald guard: "BRING MISS IRIA! WE HAVE A WOUNDED PERSON HERE!"

We started to hear people mumbling. They stared at us, as if they wanted to keep a certain distance.

An old lady in a white one-piece dress came to us. She introduced herself as "Iria."

Iria: "Welcome to our town. I'm Iria, former nun and local healer. Let me see the wounded person."

Maria: "Here, my sister's arm..."

Maria, still crying, pointed at her sister's arm. She was afraid of touching it for fear of causing more damage.

Iria: "Hmm, this isn't the worst thing I've seen. I can handle it."

The old lady placed the palms of her hands against each other, as if she was praying, then slowly separated them, revealing a tiny yellow light.

Soon, Gabriela's arm was covered in a bright yellow light. It was almost blinding. The light then gradually became weaker, until it vanished, revealing a perfectly healed arm.

Gabriela: "It's healed! It doesn't hurt anymore!"

Gabriela sounded really happy, and her sister Maria immediately hugged her.

Gabriela: "Maria, if you hug me that hard, I can't breathe."

Apparently, Maria wasn't good at holding back her strength when hugs were involved. Not sure if that was dumb or cute.

Maria: "Ahhh, sorry!"

Leonel: "Excuse me, but we need some help with something else. Are there any government officials, or perhaps religious authorities, in this town?"

One of the villagers, an old man wearing a straw hat and holding a hoe, probably a farmer, got a little closer and asked with a trembling voice.

Farmer: "Why would you want to speak to any of them? Their presence here would only bring trouble to our little village."

Iria: "You must have a powerful reason behind such an odd request. Follow me to my house."

Miss Iria opened her mouth and spoke loudly to the villagers, almost as if she was the authority in this village.

Iria: "These people defeated a nara and saved our village. We must show our gratitude."

Miss Iria started leading us to her house, while the villagers had their eyes fixed on us.

Iria: "I'm sorry. The villagers get a little nervous when anything related to the government or the church is mentioned."

There must be some kind of complicated relationship between the central government and small towns, just like in our country.

Once we arrived, we were surprised to see a huge, fancy house. Fancy by this village's standards. A giant spherical house with a bright white exterior, and not a single crack on the walls, unlike the other houses around here. Marble sculptures of giant doves could be seen to the sides of the main entrance. Miss Iria opened a silvery metallic double-door, adorned with copper bas-reliefs of birds near the door frames. Inside was a whole different world. Her house wasn't a house. It was clearly the village hospital.

She led us to a room filled with tall piles of papers, some of which reached the ceiling. It was hard to move around.

Iria: "Take a seat. I will hear what you have to say. You said you wanted help with something else."

If there were any chairs around, we did not see them. We ended up sitting on some of the piles of papers.

Leonel: "Uhm, I don't know where to start. A lot happened to us today. In fact, we shouldn't even be here in this world."

Agustin: "Leo, let's make this short. Otherwise, she might not understand."

I tried to explain everything to Miss Iria, skipping minor details and focusing on the important stuff. But once I was done explaining everything, we heard something that shocked our souls. This old lady was honest, but also brutal. We were never going to return to our world.

"I see... so, you are technically already dead." Was the first thing she said.