[Leonidas' point of view]

 As I began to wake up, the first thing I saw was the ceiling of my room. My vision was a bit blurry, my ears were ringing, and I had trouble focusing as well. I tried to move, but every nerve in my body screamed out as if pinched by clothespins.

When I shifted my eyes to the right, I saw the blurry shadow of a person standing next to me.

Who? I asked myself, but I couldn't tell.

Two other blurry shadows appeared by my bedside shortly after. I closed my eyes for a moment and focused on activating Shakra's Blessing.

As soon as it started, I felt the numbness of my body fading away and the ringing in my ears vanishing. The healing energy that spilled out from my core flooded every part of my body and restored it back to health. The whole process didn't take more than a minute or so, and when it was over, I only felt a bit weakened and tired. There was no more pain when I tried to move.

Opening my eyes, I looked around the room again. Mother was sitting next to me, holding my right hand at her chest and crying rivers. No really, the blankets were soaked and if she had worn makeup, she would have looked like a banshee!

At my left was my father, who was showing me a happy smile and trying hard not to cry. 'Try' was the right word for him because I could see the tears washing down on his cheeks, but as a man, he couldn't admit it.

The last person in the room was my little sister Cassandra. She was trying to act tough, but the tears were giving her away just like they did father.

Seeing them like this, concerned over my safety and happy that I was alive, made me understand once more just how precious they were to me. Back on Earth, I had already spent so many days through hospitals that my family didn't even bother to give me a call to ask if I was still alive or not. It was terrible to wake up alone in that cold room.

“Leonidas...” mother called to me in a weak tone of voice.

“Good morning. Did I miss anything?” I asked but my voice was hoarse from having a dried throat.

“Leonidas, my child! My beautiful sweet child!” mother hugged me all of a sudden and soaked me with her tears.

“I'm glad you woke up, my son. You had me worried there for a second.” father said with a soft smile on his lips as he wiped off a tear.

“Brother finally woke up. Stupid brother, you had us worried!” Cassandra tried to scold me by using a tough tone, but the tears flowing down her cheeks showed me just what her true feelings were.

After mother calmed down and gave me something to drink, they kept asking me how I felt and if there was anything wrong with my body as far as I could tell. Those were the usual questions anyone would find normal to ask after waking up from a long bloody battle. For me, however, they were a bit of a novelty, and I had trouble answering.

When I remembered that mother could use healing magic, as if guessing what I was about to ask, or maybe just quickly reading my mind, Cassandra explained.

“Mother tried to use healing on you when she noticed your health deteriorating, but nothing she did worked on you. For the past two days, we worried that you might never wake up.”

She was still having a bit of trouble with her tears.

“It was like my magic vanished the moment it touched you.” mother said.

“I wonder if it was because of my Blessing?” I said as I tilted my head to the left.

Given how nonsensical it was, it wouldn't have been a surprise if they prevented me from getting healed by others. After all, I had hyper regeneration as a mutation AND the [Blessing of the Healer of the Gods] from Shakra the Goddess of Nature. Right now, I was probably in league with those immortal types who needed nukes to finish them off. Well, so far, that was my only guess. I honestly didn't want to try standing next to one when it blew up. Who would be crazy enough to try something like that?

Probably Sapherya... Yup! I can definitely see her trying that. Going “Poke! Poke! What does this button do?” and then BOOM! I thought.

“Earlier, before you woke up, you used a spell, didn't you?” mother asked a bit worried.

I shook my head “No, just my Blessing.” I replied.

My words gave them a bit of a shock, but I wasn't going to leave my explanation just at that.

“I knew brother was strong!” Cassandra puffed her chest as if it was her own achievement.

I guess it's a good thing to have a cute little sister that's proud of you. I thought with a smile on my lips.

Seeing Cassandra like that made me happy.

With my old family, I never got to experience this sort of emotions, or rather they were of such a low intensity that they were quickly overshadowed by their disappointment in me for having the worst luck out there.

My father back then often advised me that if I felt down because others looked down on me, then I should do my best to show them that I can succeed. Maybe for others this was actually a good advice, but not for me. Father said those words with a different hidden meaning. What he wanted to say was that me getting hospitalized so often was my own fault, it brought shame to the family and proved how much of a failure I was.

Unlike that father of mine, mother was more direct, she simply shouted: “Stop failing at life!”

Those words of theirs hurt more than the stitches ever did.

This time, however, father was just happy to see me alive again. His smile and honest tears were proof of that. Mother was a mess because she thought she was going to lose me, and my little sister was proud that I got through. Compared to my family on Earth, this one was a million times better!