CHAPTER 137: THE HEALING ATTEMPT

Lily POV

The moment I touched the corrupted Void Walker’s skin, pain shot through my entire body like I’d grabbed a live wire. Every nerve screamed as darkness flooded into me, trying to drag me down into an endless pit of misery.

"Fight it, Lily!" Caleb’s voice sounded like it was coming from miles away, even though he was right beside me.

I gritted my teeth and pushed deeper into the creature’s mind. This had been a person once - I could feel the tiny spark of humanity hidden under layers of twisted magic. But reaching it was like swimming through acid.

The Void Walker thrashed beneath my hands, its form changing between solid flesh and writhing shadow. Viktor’s laughter rang out somewhere behind me, but I couldn’t focus on anything except the fight happening inside my head.

"You cannot save what is already lost," the thing spoke, but its voice was wrong - too many voices layered together, like a horrible choir.

"You’re not lost," I whispered, even though speaking felt like eating broken glass. "I can see you in there. Sarah Morrison, age sixteen. You loved to paint sunsets."

The beating stopped. For just a second, the creature’s face became human - a young girl with scared eyes.

"How do you know that?" Sarah’s real voice broke through the darkness.

"Because I’m like you," I said, feeling tears run down my face. "I’m between places too. Part person, part something else. And I know what it’s like to feel lost."

The healing magic Elder Iris had taught me wasn’t working the way it should. Instead of running gently like a warm river, it was more like trying to hold back a tsunami with my bare hands. The rot in Sarah was fighting me, trying to spread into my own body.

"Lily, you’re glowing!" Caleb shouted.

I looked down at my hands. Silver light was pouring from my skin, but it was mixed with something darker - veins of darkness that pulsed like a heartbeat. The sight should have scared me, but instead it made sense. To heal evil, maybe I had to understand it.

"No!" Viktor’s speech had lost its mocking tone. "She’s not supposed to be able to do that!"

"Do what?" Elena sounded worried too.

I didn’t answer because I was too busy trying not to scream. The corruption was showing me things - horrible memories of people being twisted into monsters, of entire worlds being eaten by the void. But mixed in with the dreams were flashes of something else: the Moon Goddess’s true plan.

"She’s going to tear apart the barriers between all dimensions," I gasped, the knowledge burning in my mind. "Not just our world - every world. She wants to remake everything according to her idea."

"Lies," Viktor growled, but he sounded less certain now.

Sarah’s form was becoming more solid, more human. The silver light from my hands was winning against the darkness, but the effort was killing me. I could feel my life force draining away like water through a broken dam.

"I can’t hold this much longer," I told Caleb.

"Then don’t," he said strongly. "Let me help."

Before I could stop him, he grabbed my shoulders. The moment his skin touched mine, something incredible happened. Even though we couldn’t feel our mate bond anymore, some deeper link sparked between us. His strength flowed into me, steadying the wild magic.

"Together," he said simply.

With Caleb’s help, I pushed the last of the rot out of Sarah. She crumpled, fully human again, gasping like she’d been drowning. But our win lasted only seconds.

"Enough!" The Moon Goddess’s voice boomed through the realm, shaking the ground beneath our feet. "You dare to undo my work?"

She appeared in a flash of silver fire - beautiful and terrible, with eyes like stars going supernova. Power radiated from her in waves that made my bones ache.

"You have no idea what you’ve just done," she said, her voice deadly cool. "That girl was mine. Her corruption fed the walls that keep the void contained."

My blood went cold. "What do you mean?"

"Every corrupted soul strengthens the prison walls," the Moon Goddess stated with a cruel smile. "By healing one, you’ve weakened them all. The void creatures are already breaking free in seventeen different planes."

Through the silver light surrounding us, I could see tears appearing in the air - windows into other worlds. In one, I saw a peaceful city suddenly invaded by shadow monsters. In another, a family was running from creatures that looked like living horrors.

"You’re lying," I said, but doubt crept into my voice.

"Am I?" She pointed to the growing tears. "Look for yourself. Your kindness has doomed millions."

Sarah struggled to sit up, her human eyes wide with fear. "She’s not lying," she whispered. "I can feel it - the network of tainted souls. When you freed me, you broke a link in the chain."

The weight of what I’d done crashed down on me. I’d been so focused on saving one person that I hadn’t thought about the bigger picture. How many people were dying right now because of my choice?

"There is still time to fix this," the Moon Goddess said, her voice becoming almost soft. "Give me the girl back. Let me restore her corruption, and I can repair the harm."

"No," Caleb said strongly. "We’ll find another way."

"There is no other way," Viktor laughed. "My dear brother, you’ve helped ruin every world in existence. How does it feel to be the hero?"

Sarah grabbed my hand with shaking fingers. "Don’t give up on me," she begged. "Please. I’d rather die normal than live as a monster."

The tears in reality were getting bigger. Through them, I could see the damage spreading - entire cities falling to the void creatures that were pouring through the weakened barriers. The sounds of screaming reached us from various dimensions.

"Choose quickly," the Moon Goddess said. "Every second you wait, more innocents die. One girl’s freedom against the lives of countless others. What will it be, little healer?"

My heart was breaking. There had to be another answer, some third choice I wasn’t seeing. But as more screams echoed from the dying worlds, I discovered the terrible truth.

Sometimes there are no good choices. Sometimes you can only choose which disaster you can live with.

"I..." I started to speak, then stopped. Through one of the spatial tears, I saw something that made my blood freeze.

My own world. My pack. Void creatures were pouring through a massive rift right in the middle of Silver Peak territory.

And my friends were fighting for their lives.

"Too late," the Moon Goddess smiled. "The cascade has started. Soon, all realities will be mine to change."

As I watched my pack family fight impossible odds, a horrible realization hit me. The Moon Goddess hadn’t been trying to stop me from healing Sarah.

She’d been counting on it.

This had all been a trick.