All of this happened within seconds, but to Harry, every second felt like an endless torment.
His hand instinctively seized Hermione beside him, his nails nearly digging into her skin as he sought some measure of stability and comfort.
Hermione immediately sensed that something was wrong, her voice full of tension and worry. "Harry! What's wrong?"
Ron also sprang to his feet, the smile long gone from his face, replaced by panic as he rushed toward Harry.
But an invisible force pushed them both away.
A figure suddenly appeared above Harry's curled-up body—
"Tierra!" Hermione called out his name almost immediately.
Tierra spread his arms, like a curtain descending from the heavens. It began gently, ended magnificently, and slowly, almost leisurely, gathered above Harry's head before gradually falling over him.
Suddenly, the curtain formed by Tierra contracted sharply. As though sucked by an invisible force, it swiftly converged into a single point. During the process, it softly settled over Harry. The instant it touched him, countless tiny lights seemed to be drawn from his body.
As if it had absorbed everything within Harry that caused him pain, the curtain began to detach from his body after a brief pause.
It gathered once more in midair, becoming Tierra again.
"T-Tierra..." Freed from the pain, Harry rolled over and lay on the deck, looking at Tierra floating in the air as he weakly called out.
"Ah, Harry..." Tierra descended from the air and stood beside Harry, slowly bending down. His touch was gentle yet heavy, like a warm breeze brushing across Harry's cheek.
"T-Tierra, wh-what happened?" Harry asked between gasps.
"You've suffered, Harry." Tierra's eyes were deep and compassionate, carrying the fondness and pity of a long-lived species, as though he had witnessed the rise and fall of countless lives and the