Reincarnated Hero System

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Mallory jolted awake, deep breaths spilling from her lips as her hand moved on instinct to clutch her chest where her heart was.

The moment she did, a loud beeping sound rang out, followed almost immediately by voices echoing from all around her.

"Her Excellency is awake! Quickly, power up the monitors!"

"Adjust the recuperation capsule’s systems!"

"Confirm that all physical vitals are stable!"

"Check the progress of soul reconstruction!"

The overlapping voices of the medical personnel echoed in her ears as they hurried about, the sounds dizzying her half-conscious mind.

Mallory silently pressed two fingers to her temple, her vision blurring for a moment as her eyes struggled to refocus and adjust to the light flooding them. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Just then, the door to the stark white room slid open, and Aphine rushed inside.

"Lady Artemisia?!"

At the sound of the familiar voice, Mallory turned her gaze toward the entrance, her left hand reaching out before stopping short as it hit an unseen barrier.

She blinked, then looked around herself, finally realising that she was enclosed within a capsule, her body half-submerged in liquefied energy, with numerous tubes and needles connected to her skin.

A faint frown crossed her face, and at that moment, one of the medical personnel turned toward Aphine and spoke urgently.

"Lady Aphine, we can’t get any reliable readings on her vitals! Her resistance is interfering with the equipment and—!"

Before he could finish, the screen monitoring Mallory’s heartbeat began to glitch, sparks flickering along the side of the monitor. Seeing this, Aphine immediately turned back toward Mallory and spoke with urgency.

"Lady Artemisia, please lower your resistance so we can properly assess your recovery!"

When Mallory had lost consciousness from the immense physical and spiritual damage caused by the anti-evolution virus and the forceful expulsion of her evolution-acquired abilities, her body had completely shut down.

In that state, the medical equipment encountered little resistance as the personnel administered various healing salves and restorative liquids to hasten her recovery.

Now that she was awake and her bodily functions were gradually coming back online, her innate resistances were returning as well, interfering with the equipment to the point that it could barely assess her condition, let alone aid her recovery.

Mallory fell silent at Aphine’s request, slowly bringing her hand back to her chest and taking a deep breath. As she did, the sparks on the equipment ceased, and the monitors began to display proper readings of her vitals.

Aphine turned away toward the screens, but the moment she did, every display abruptly went dark, flatlining as loud alarms blared throughout the room.

Everyone snapped their heads back just in time to see Mallory seize one of the tubes attached to her arm and rip it free. The upper section of the capsule snapped open as she tried to lift herself out, only for Aphine to grab her immediately and force her back down.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Aphine shouted as she forced Mallory back down.

At that, the golden-eyed goddess frowned and muttered, "Aphine..."

A moment later, her brows furrowed as she asked, "Did you—?"

"Yes, I did!" Aphine cut her off, already knowing what she was about to ask about.

"I sent someone to inform Lady Beatrix of your condition. However, the outer galactic region she went to is extremely far, so it’ll take time for the messenger to reach her, let alone return with a response. On top of that, the entire dimension’s been on lockdown, and no one’s entered or left in the past week aside from the messenger I sent."

Mallory’s eyes widened at Aphine’s response.

"A week? It’s been a week?"

She tried to sit up again, but Aphine immediately pushed her back down once more.

Frowning, Mallory spoke, "Get your hands o—"

"No, I will not," Aphine said, cutting her off before she could finish.

Silence filled the room, so much so that one could hear a pin drop.

The medical personnel stared at the two goddesses with widened eyes, shocked by Aphine’s blatant refusal to follow Mallory’s order.

But thinking it through, it was hardly surprising Aphine reacted this way.

"Do you even have any idea how bad your condition was??

Your body was infected by an unidentifiable virus that was devouring your law energy. Your soul was full of holes, chunks torn out all over the place! It was a damn miracle you were even alive in that state!

You’ve just woken up, and we don’t even know how much you’ve recovered, and you want to leave where exactly??"

A faint layer of green light enveloped Aphine’s hands as she continued speaking.

"Sorry to say, but I consider your well-being to be far more important than whatever the hell it is you were doing, or you are trying to do right now, and until you’re physically and spiritually stable, you aren’t leaving this place.

And I very much doubt you are, because, if you were, you’d have pushed my hand away by now, and you’d have already noticed I was trying to sedate you."

The moment Aphine finished speaking, she raised her right hand and snapped her fingers. Instantly, the law energy she’d infused into Mallory’s body during her speech activated.

Mallory’s vision blurred, strength draining from her limbs as her head fell back against the headrest, her mouth slowly opening as she tried to say something, only for her consciousness to fade before a single word could leave her mouth.

Right after, Aphine turned to the medical personnel who were still staring at her in shock and said, "What are you waiting for? Plug her back in and get to work!"

Her voice snapped them out of their stupor, and they rushed forward to reconnect the tubes Mallory had torn free, restarting their systems so they could reassess her condition and continue her recovery.

This time, Aphine didn’t leave. Not because she didn’t want to, but because she couldn’t, as she had to continuously expend energy to keep Mallory’s consciousness suppressed.

The amount required grew with every passing hour, and after 24 hours it reached a point where continuing would demand an absurd level of energy that simply wasn’t worth it, especially since the bursts leaking from Mallory’s body could damage the surrounding equipment.

In the end, Aphine finally ceased her efforts, and barely five minutes later, Mallory regained consciousness.

When Mallory finally woke and sat upright, Aphine turned to the medical personnel and, without needing to say a single word, they understood her intent and quickly unlocked the capsule.

They then began draining the restorative liquid that had been half-submerging Mallory’s body.

As Mallory sat there, the tubes connected to her loosened on their own and slipped free, and she slowly lifted her hand, clenching and unclenching her fingers as if testing her strength.

Aphine then began speaking. "Your physical recovery is complete. We’ve eliminated all traces of the virus from your body. However, parts of it reached your soul, and we’re unable to do anything about that. Because of this, we recommend that you still—"

"You completely eliminated the virus ?" Mallory interrupted, a barely noticeable frown forming on her face. "Why would you do that?"

Aphine went silent, her brows twitching slightly at the question.

"What the hell do you mean, ’why would we do that?’ Why would I deliberately leave a virus that was trying to kill you inside your body?"

"So I could analyse it and create an antivirus, obviously," Mallory replied without hesitation.

At this response, Aphine heaved a sigh and said, "We extracted samples for that."

Before she could continue, Mallory interrupted again.

"Those samples are useless. That virus was designed specifically to target me. The moment it left my body, any samples you took would’ve died."

Aphine fell silent for a moment, ultimately choosing not to argue with Mallory.

"That’s unfortunate," she said flatly. "Still, if time were turned back, I’d make the same decision. I wouldn’t allow a virus capable of devouring your law energy to remain in your body for even a fraction of a second longer than it already did. If I could remove the remnants still lodged in your soul without causing further damage, I would.

Unfortunately, I can’t. That’s the only reason it still exists there."

Aphine’s priority was Mallory’s well-being, and because of that, she couldn’t permit the virus to remain within her body, even if Mallory herself might have wanted otherwise.

Mallory cast a side glance at her, prompting Aphine to speak immediately. "Don’t look at me like that.

You can tell yourself that your physical body has been restored to the best condition possible, given your current state.

That said, you still have significant soul damage. We managed to patch the holes, but the portions cut away at the edges are still missing.

Your Authorities are weakened, your Evolution Origin Core appears to have suffered serious damage, and your overall power has dropped considerably.

Your condition would have been much worse without the extra care you received over the last 24 hours."

In other words, Aphine was telling Mallory outright that sedating her and forcing her to remain under treatment had been the right call.

And she knew Mallory could sense it. Mallory had been conscious the day before, after all. She understood her own condition better than anyone and knew how much those additional 24 hours had contributed to her recovery.

For a moment, the room was filled with tense silence.

The medical personnel, along with Mallory’s subordinates waiting outside, watched the scene with bated breath.

None of them would normally dare push back against someone as strict as Mallory, making Aphine’s actions over the past day all the more shocking.