When Yusefka regained control of her body and her consciousness cleared, she found herself lying on an iron hospital bed.
Blood-stained bandages were messily scattered across the bed, dirtying her clothes, but it didn’t seem like a big deal to her anymore tonight.
Yusefka lay confused on the bed, as if still groggy after waking, murmuring while looking at the ceiling.
The voice was very similar to hers, reminding her of her twin sister.
They had both been selected by the Healing Church to be Blood Saintesses, but her blood quality didn’t improve significantly during conditioning, and she was eventually disqualified.
Though her sister was in a similar situation, she showcased a good learning ability during the blood conditioning and stayed in Church Town, not as a Blood Saintess, but as a scholar’s apprentice.
Since then, they kept in touch through letters.
However, as she started this clinic to make a living and her sister’s studies grew intense, the correspondence gradually diminished.
Yusefka didn’t feel anything wrong about this.
People have to grow up.
Sisters might be close in childhood, but when each has their own career and starts to get busy, naturally, some time has to be set aside for emotional exchange.
Yusefka could only try to infuse more affection into each letter she sent.
Even though her sister’s replies became fewer, she still believed there was an adequately strong bond between them.
After all, her sister was already a scholar of the Healing Church, while she was just a foolish sister running a clinic outside Church Town. A scholar’s schedule, of course, was more hectic than a clinic doctor’s.
She had known since childhood that she wasn’t as smart as her sister, but as long as they cared for each other, life would go on.
But what was going on today?
If she remembered correctly, her sister... attacked her clinic?
"Sister, you’re awake?"
A familiar voice rang out from a few steps away.
The familiarity in that voice was like a distant time when her sister woke her up one morning.
But in that warm memory... there wasn’t such a strong scent of blood. The rıghtful source is Nove1Fire.net
Yusefka turned her head stiffly on the bed.
The bed beside hers was no longer occupied by the regular patient she had comforted for so long tonight.
No more yellowish undershirts, frayed brimmed hats, not even... any human features.
He had transformed into an odd creature with blue skin like an aquatic being, his head swollen and waterlogged into a large water balloon.
It wasn’t human, neither was it a terrifying beastlike patient.
His aggression was clearly much weaker than that of a beastlike patient.
Yusefka could recognize him as one of her patients only because that creature still wore, albeit barely, a familiar pair of patched and torn suspenders.
Most patients coming to the clinic weren’t affluent, and the patches all over them identified their status.
"You... what did you... do?"
Yusefka’s voice was hoarse as she asked.
Beyond the blue-headed creature, a figure deeply familiar to Yusefka stood by another bed.
That face was like seeing herself in a mirror... it was her twin sister.
Now, compared to Yusefka’s gentleness, her sister, full of intelligence and rationality, was clad in a white church outfit.
The fine white fabric, the silk white gloves on her hands, made the outfit perfectly embody the dressing codes of a religious figure—holiness.
But in this ’holy’ person’s hand, a scalpel without mercy was prying open a patient’s skull.
Then, limblike appendages slipped out from the clean white sleeves, delving into the patient’s brain.
The patient, unknowingly anesthetized by some method, only jerked a few times reflexively on the bed and then fell silent.
All the patients were lined up on the beds, those instruments Yusefka used to heal others now turned into the laboratory, the slaughterhouse.
Viola and the two little girls were in the back, exchanging terrified glances but unable to speak a word.
Speaking seemed a privilege Yusefka’s sister granted her.
Her sister looked at the awakened Yusefka with delight, putting down the patient in her hands and walking over.
Yusefka could only watch helplessly as the patient, with the limb-like appendage inside his brain, started to have blue skin, his head enlarging with water-like swelling...
Bloodstained white silk gloves tenderly stroke Yusefka’s face.
"We haven’t seen each other for so long."
"You... what have you done..."
Tears welled up in Yusefka’s eyes, her voice quivering with sobs as she questioned. She was indeed afraid, but more so heartbroken.
Her sister wasn’t supposed to be ... Her sister wouldn’t do this to her...
But that bloodstained finger rested against the doctor’s lips.
"No need to be afraid anymore, sister. I’ve come to save you."
Her sister gently promised.
"I’ve brought knowledge from afar, knowledge enough to transform you beyond human kin, to connect with the wisdom of gods! Then neither beastlike illness nor anything else could harm you or anyone anymore!"
"We are different, sister. Our blood is older and nobler than anyone in Yan’an, we can even bear divine conception! If only we birth a divine child... if only we birth a divine child..."
Her sister’s tenderness, something Yusefka had seen many times growing up. But she had never felt so nauseated and repulsed as she did today.
As if beneath her sister’s face, there was no longer the structure of human bones... but something twisted and fanatical!
"I’d hold a ritual for you in the end, sister. Until then, I will keep the surgical touch sharp with these fortunate ones."
"They’re quite lucky, only by staying in the clinic this night, they could ascend from humans to kin."
While musing, she resumed standing beside the convoy of hospital beds, as if continuing her progress.
Viola lay powerless on the bed, watching as the churchly figure beside her began operating on the patient next to her.
With her ’surgical’ efficiency, maybe in ten minutes, it would be her turn...
She wasn’t afraid of dying; she was merely worried...
Turning her head, Ovilia and Victoria’s red and white hairbands lay on their beds.
It seemed the two little girls sensed their mother’s worry, though equally afraid, they forced themselves to appear brave.
And that only made Viola’s heart ache even more.
Was there really no way?
An abrupt knock sounded on the door.
Just as if replaying the moment before the main door opening.
An elderly man’s voice carried from outside the door.
Though weary, the voice held a decisiveness as if from the most seasoned Old Hunter.