Rina and Ayumi's bodies continued to decay, and began slowly shutting down. Their breathing and heartbeat slowed until it was barely even noticeable.
Hana refused to let go of them for even just a moment despite that. She didn't want to accept that they were about to die, and she felt that if she let them go, she would lose them forever.
"You aren't healing them. Why, gentle flower? Is… is it because your soul is broken?"
One of the Enlightened spoke up, realizing her situation. His voice was filled with contempt. The Enlightened had no reason to show any respect to Hana any longer. The twins were unable to reprimand them, and Hana couldn't either.
He stepped forward and slapped her face harshly, leaving a handprint.
"You stupid bitch! Why would you try to achieve a breakthrough right before this battle?! Were you trying to get everyone, including yourself, killed?! You piece of shit! It's all your fault!"
His voice kept on rising the more he spoke, the anger boiling inside of him.
None of the other Enlightened stepped in to help her. They all felt the same as he did. The sole reason they weren't screaming at her as well, was that it seemed wrong to them. They, lowly and unrecognized Enlightened, insulting and harming a powerful healer such as her was unheard of.
Hana, lost in thought as she was, didn't react one bit to the harsh slap or the insults. None of it mattered to her.
It was almost a hopeless ambition, yet she desperately searched for someone or something that could save the twins. She looked around, and thought about every possibility.
As her eyes landed on the corpse of the poison dart frog, dark and almost demonic thoughts began to wreak havoc in her mind.
She had an idea.
The results could range from her saving the twins and being celebrated, as well as becoming the new third strongest Enlightened in the first stronghold, to her getting executed publicly.
She didn't care about the potential repercussions of her actions. She needed to save Rina and Ayumi.
She gently, but quickly placed their bodies on the ground and ran towards the corpse like a madwoman.
"Move!!"
She screamed at the Enlightened man who had previously slapped her as she pushed him out of her way.
"You…!"
The man growled in anger, and felt nothing but the desire to end Hana's life right then and there. He knew that an execution would be inevitable if he did so, which is why he let her live.
Hana dropped to her knees in front of the corpse, shaking, crying, and with a clenched jaw. Her hands ripped the clothes off the man, and after glancing at the dying bodies of her disciples one last time, she bit into the poison dart frog's stomach, biting a piece out and devouring it instantly.
Cannibalism, while frowned upon, and an offense often punished by execution, was an excellent way to increase one's rank. If an Enlightened is still alive, another Enlightened could extract their essence by absorbing their soul. This becomes impossible once the Enlightened has died. Once that happens, their entire body becomes the source of essence instead of their soul. Enlightened can't absorb human or monster tissue the same way as other essence-filled objects, meaning that consuming this tissue like food was the only way to harvest the essence.
This excess essence can't be stored away in the soul, leaving the Enlightened's body no choice but to use it for cultivation purposes.
It is by far the most demonic method of cultivation, yet Hana would gladly be labeled a demonic cultivator for the sake of her disciples.
She sank her teeth into his flesh over and over and over again until barely anything of his body was left uneaten.
When eating an Enlightened, their flesh instantly desolves once consumed, meaning that Hana could eat him entirely without any issue.
The sounds she made, combined with the sounds the corpse made as she ate, were sickening and made the on-looking Enlightened to shake in disgust.
"H-hey! S-stop it! You must have gone crazy! Do you know what you're doing?!"
The man who had slapped her had now lost all of his previous confidence and contempt. It was completely replaced by fear and disgust.
He walked up to her, and grabbed her by the shoulders, attempting to drag her away from the corpse and stop her.
As his hand touched her shoulder, a chill ran down his spine, and he thought that he was looking at death itself.
Hana turned to face him, guts and blood smeared all over her face, throat and chest with wide, suffering and determined eyes.
"Touch me again, and I'll rip you apart."
He jumped back, white as a ghost and trembling all over. It became evident, nobody would dare interrupt her.
As she consumed the last bit of flesh remaining on the poison dart frog's skeleton, it happened.
All the individual pieces of her soul were united again, and her soul was repaired. She became a rank 4 Enlightened.
She dashed back to the twins, who had died by now, faster than any of the other Enlightened could realize, and began the healing process.
She wouldn't let them rest eternally yet. Not even if they had already died. She won't let them leave her.
"Neither of you have my permission to die!"
She growled fiercely as she placed a hand on either of their chests, and flooded their bodies with her essence. They had died recently enough for her healing to still have an effect. If she had still been a mere rank 3, the twins would be beyond saving by now, but with rank 4 essence, saving them was possible.
Their hearts began to beat once more, and they began to breathe again. The decay vanished from their bodies, and they were fully repaired.
They opened their eyes almost simultaneously and gazed at Hana in shock. It took them a second or two until they realized what she had done for them. The tears couldn't be held back any longer.
Hana's slow and small river of tears that was running down her cheeks turned into a waterfall as she saw them move again.
She threw herself at them, shaking in their tight embrace.
"H-Hana… you idiot, you should have just let us die… w-why would you ruin your own reputation and life for us like this?"
Their voices shook, and the relief they felt was mixed with a feeling of worry for her.
"I don't care! I couldn't live knowing that you two died because of me anyway."
Hana, the blood and guts mixed with her own tears still covering her, spoke with deeply felt relief and joy.
Their embrace lasted for minutes. Quiet minutes that were spent thinking and feeling gratitude.
Immediately after the hug had ended, Rina and Ayumi threatened the onlooking Enlightened, worrying that they could tell Yuna about Hana's actions.
"Can you remember what happened to the few of you who insulted Hana a while ago? That's right, we slaughtered them like animals. We guarantee a worse death to anyone who ever speaks of her cannibalistic activities again."
Hana, seeing the opportunity, jumped in on the threatening.
"I will continuously heal you bunch whenever you come close to dying. Over and over. We will torture you to death again, and again, and again. Yet death won't ever release you, no. So you better keep quiet about this."
The Enlightened, frightened to death, knelt as if they were slaves whose lives were in the hands of their masters.
"W-we swear to never speak of this!"
"Great."
The three spoke in unison with a smile.
"Now that all of this has been taken care of, let's destroy this place some more."
The twins smiled innocently at Hana, who gave them a perplexed and confused look.
"Eh? Are you sure that you two are ready for it already? This was the first time I resurrected a person, let alone two at the same time. I'm not sure that your bodies are ready for it."
"Don't worry about us. We are fine."
"Okay. I trust your judgment then. Let me just clean this disgusting blood and the guts off of myself."
Their smiles turned reassuring, before Rina and Ayumi turned away from her and began wreaking havoc. The pathetic Enlightened, cowering on the ground like dogs, joined them soon enough. Hana remained on standby, ready to aid them if danger arose once she had cleaned herself up, using a small pond.