Physically, the healing spell found very little wrong with him. All his muscles, organs, and bones were reasonably intact, beyond the last few minutes’ exertions.

But the way spiritual energy moved through his body was…weird. Wrong. Instead of flowing through natural channels, it leaked slowly like dripping water through a pile of debris from a shattered house.

That only lasted a second before Ziel shook her hands off of him. “Don’t bother. It’s not the kind of injury that can be that easily healed. I’ll live.”

After a further moment of thought, he added on, “or I won’t. Either way, it’s out of our hands.”