Damned Healer

The whole Celestia Academy was in a frenzy—a sea of people rushed in from every direction. All the Summoners had received the alert, and those who could make it showed up right away.

The Elder in charge of the newcomers gathered everyone in the academy's outer courtyard, where emergency meetings were held. This kind of situation only happened when a major threat was approaching.

An hour later, millions were already waiting.

Once the flow of people finally stopped, a Mannaz with a body covered in reddish fur appeared in the sky. He was riding a bluish flying beast that looked like a majestic ice eagle.

Everyone below watched him land on a high platform. This was a well-known and respected Summoner named Ceug. He and his Spiritual Guardian were famous as "The Impenetrable Ice Shield."

His partner's blessing was support-type, specialized in creating ice barriers. The two of them could hold their ground alone in the middle of enemy territory for a long time—and even when they ran out of energy, they could still retreat in one piece.

But... the man was missing an arm, and his entire body was covered in deep wounds, exuding a faint purple aura. Most of the wounds had partially closed, but some were still wide open.

For regular folks, getting wounded by a Risen usually meant the end—either a quick death or turning into one of them. But for a Summoner, it was more like a curse that refused to heal.

If left untreated, the wound became like a spreading poison. Once it reached a certain point, there was no going back—only the transformation into a Risen. But in battle, finding time to retreat and heal was pure luck.

Since there were no healers capable of purifying it, the only way to recover was to pop high-grade pills one after another—and even then, healing took forever.

That's why almost all support-type Spiritual Guardians focused on blessings that created barriers or other defensive powers. On top of that, they'd buy tons of gear to escape in emergencies.