---Delta, Northern Heart Hospital, Special Patients Ward---
Lynri watched the surgery in horror and fascination. Although she was a high-ranking healer, she was doing it with magic. Her understanding of medicine was medieval at best. She would have never expected people being able to cut up, gut, and stitch up people with such ease, and the patient even surviving this operation.
The reason for her sudden interest in this branch of healing lay on the operation table. It was a young girl, barely 12 years old. She and a good number of other children were the problem cases retrieved from the Voracious Cloud Continent.
Older victims had it easier, as those who had survived had only worked as servants in the sects that had bought them, or they had been sold as slaves to others. Of course, they were suffering varying degrees of trauma that would haunt them the rest of their life; however, they still were better off than the children.
As disciples meant to cultivate and become part of the actual sect, many children had undergone various procedures to secure their loyalty. This ranged from torture and brainwashing, over mystical techniques to control the mind, to enchanted items and bugs implanted directly in their heart or brain.
Wounds could be healed, even the mind could be soothed with her skills, to some extend. But she was powerless to lift the power of slave collars, and malicious parasites taking root within the bodies of the children. She had tried everything, but healing magic could not touch these foreign techniques of subordination.
At that point, she was introduced to Urth's modern medicine, or what Delta was able to retain after the fall. The districts possessed highly developed technology and procedures that resembled magic, for those who could actually pay for the treatment.
Of course, these limitations of the past didn't mean that much now. Modern technology was meshing with system skill and used without restraint, at least in this case. The cost of treatment was carried by Minas Mar.
While Lynri could barely identify the root of the problem, modern imaging technology was able to easily locate the pest that took root in the children's bodies, to the point of giving high-definition, three-dimensional models of the creatures without making a single cut.
These were creatures and artifacts meant to inflict pain and suffering and even death into their fragile bodies and souls whenever they even thought of betraying the sect. The children that had been suffering despite their rescue finally found salvation.
The surviving players that used to be surgeons and doctors were the most valuable players in these situations. With surgical precision, aided by highly developed robots and computer technology, they were able to remove these creatures and items without causing any further harm to the children.
However, not all children rescued from the hands of cultivators were pitiful victims. The minority could be split into two more categories: the problem children, and the problematic children. Problem children were those who had completely adopted the ways of the more evil sects they had been part of.
They were arrogant, overbearing and malicious, showing traits of socio- and psychopathy, but it was hard to tell whether that was them just being children or actual demons. On the other hand, the problematic children...
Children whose wills were not broken, despite living in these foreign sects and being indoctrinated while learning cultivation, were hellbent on revenge. All they could think about was growing their power and taking revenge for the crimes they had to suffer.
Despite knowing that the sects in question were already crushed by Minas Mar, they were driven by an obsession for growing stronger, mainly by means of cultivation techniques they were taught on the continent.
Lynri found this even more tragic than the little demon shits. These children had completely lost their childhood and innocence. Maybe they were the ones changed the most, infected by a pure thirst for power...
It reminded her of the clergy in the Theocracy of Chain; memories she had suppressed and tried to forget since she started life in the system worlds resurfaced. She felt especially concerned for them, knowing where that path could lead.
"Lady Lynri, the children are waiting," a nurse approached her. Lynri looked up, surprised how quickly time went by. With a nod, she followed the nurse to a room filled with five children. They were completely restrained by special restraints made by Wedan, tying them to their beds.
The children were struggling like beasts and spewing curses in the foreign language of the Cloud Continent. They were the worst cases that had been brought back from a hellish place called the Crimson Blood Cult.
Afflicted not just by a creature that would enforce their loyalty at the cost of their life, but also sinister magic, almost like a curse, that twisted their mind worse than any suggestion or brainwashing.
It took powerful healers like Lynri, or specialized medics, to periodically administer high-tier cures to diminish the effect of the magic and chip away at the mind control these children were under. Only when it was completely removed could they undergo the surgery to extract the creatures strangling their hearts.
Seeing the suffering and curse, even if she didn't understand their words, made the Priestess of the Fount want to crush that Crimson Blood Cult a second time. However, Jonah had already weeded them out thoroughly, robbing her of the satisfaction of doing it herself.
She started making wide hand gestures, drawing golden sigils in the air. It was the Ritual of Purification, a class-specific high-tier ritual that could purge most curses and status ailments almost instantly but could only be performed once every 12 hours.
Once she was surrounded by glowing characters, a wave of magical energy burst out from her, filling the room. The children stopped cursing, stopped fighting their restraints, and slowly calmed down.
Finally looking like normal children, they fell asleep, tired from cursing and resistance. The wound caused by trying to escape healed, too, as they entered a deep slumber. However, even this high-tier ritual could only chip away at the sticky spell put onto these children.
It would still take many times of going through this ritual to cleanse these children of their affliction. While the other children already started being reintroduced to Urth, some even being lucky enough to return to their parents, these children would still be stuck here for weeks.
"Thank you for your hard work, Lady Lynri," the nurse thanked her. She accepted it with a wry smile.
"I wish I could do more..."