The blinding golden light finally faded out, leaving the small infirmary looking like a normal clinic again, and right along with it lifted the suffocating pressure.
The elderly priest let out a long sigh while his shoulders slumped slightly. He stood by the bed for a moment, watching the red-haired man's chest rise and fall in a steady rhythm, before turning around to face me.
"He will be fine now…" the priest said, offering a genuine smile. "He just needs a bit of rest. You can unbind him now."
With a short nod and a mental command, the hardened black roots encasing the man instantly disintegrated into black dust so fine it looked like vanishing mist into the air.
"It is powerful magic you command, child," the priest noted.
"Yours ain't no party trick either," I replied, stretching my stiff neck until it popped. "I have a pretty decent sense for mana. And whatever you just used wasn't exactly that."
