[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/h5xf31C.png[/img][/center][hr][i][b]//Day 1 | Location:[/b] Nameless Forest - Lakeside[/i]
[sub][@AThousandCurses][@baraquiel][@Nakushita][@Yankee][@Vertigo][/sub]
If nothing else, it was a good thing that Shun and Asahi were both superhumanly strong. Even as Sasuke struggled, struggled against whatever reaction he had to the golden blood, his wrists and ankles were held firmly down, enough so that all he could do was [i]tear his own muscles[/i] in a subconscious attempt to be free. Ayana was lost in thought, the others were similarly paralyzed by how off-the-rails everything had become in that moment. Duncan backed away, realizing his mistake but having no ability to undo it, convinced that if he tried to help again, something else would go horribly wrong.

And Asahi, threads connected?

He could see it.

There was no forge, only flame. What had been fuel for Awakened had become conflagration for the mundane, demanding more from the body than what it could handle. All processes had exceeded human limitations in that moment, the flesh unable to contend with the overflow, the brain unable to comprehend all that it had suddenly obtained.

But Asahi did. That flame was what Sasuke had been missing on the first go. That flame was what needed to be directed in this second go. An ability was transferred, routes established to guide the foreign energy, and immediately, a difference could be seen. Shun could feel the struggling cease. Masato could see the fever break. Ayana could hear flesh mend, bones knit.

The combination had born fruit and, rotten blood purged from his body by the previous expulsion and convulsions, Sasuke [i]healed[/i] right before their eyes, at the same pace that Duncan had almost miraculously recovered from his own injury.

[b]“So that’s it.”[/b]

Hiroshi broke the silence. He had not turned away from this either, the glint of a scholar’s obsession in his eyes. As it all stabilized, as Sasuke’s ragged breathing gradually turned into the soft sighs of an exhausted sleep, he turned his gaze towards Ayana.

[b]“You can drop the rock now.”[/b]