"A-are you alright?" She asked me, clearly out of breath.
I looked down at my hands and felt completely normal. "Y-yeah. I'm fine."
"That's… good…" She muttered as she slouched backwards and started falling towards the floor.
"SAINTESS! SAINTESS CHRISTINA!!" A man behind her shouted as he caught her body before she could fall.
He was a man wearing a knights uniform with the same colour theme as the clothes the woman in front of me was donning. He had short messy golden hair and a large beard which matched its colour. He looked to be in his late 20's or early 30's and his neck-beard looked well trimmed and intentional. I looked like a lion's mane, especially with its colour.
"I'm… alright Leon. Just, make sure he… is okay. He was in such… severe pain I had to use up all the power the… goddess bestowed upon me to even slightly help him." She was still struggling to speak in her exhaustion.
Was I really that hurt that the Saintess, infamous for her holy magic's abilities was struggling to heal me? Just what happened?
I was forcefully taken from my thoughts by the lingering pain in my head.
It would seem I still have a headache.
"Hey, are you okay?" The knight, Leon asked me.
I nodded. "I'm perfectly fine, you should worry about the saintess for now."
He gave me a swift nod and focused his attention on the Saintess, Christina.
Their discussion sounded muddled and messy as I was struggling to regain my composure. I only picked up a few things, 'help him, I'm alright', 'you're so kind saintess, you can take a break as well' and other stuff like that. Basically, she seemed to be excessively kind and helpful to others, and he seemed to be a good natured guy, who was concerned with her well being.
Well, the discussion didn't last long as soon after they started talking the saintess broke into a cold sweat and fainted.
"... so … so much… pain." She mumbled in her sleep, and I couldn't help but feel she was talking about what just happened to me.
The knight had a concerned look on his face as he called out. "Saintess, saintess!"
Then he looked up to me and asked. "I-I'm sorry this doesn't usually happen, unless she is treating someone who is very powerful and strong or they are in immense pain, and even then, I've never seen her exert herself this much! Please, help us!"
I was just getting more and more annoyed with his pleading as my headache seemed to worsen. I quickly waved him off.
"Go find a palace doctor and tell them prince Artemis allowed you to rest. Quickly, I don't want to see the precious Saintess getting hurt."
He nodded and lightly bowed as he ran off with the saintess in his arms.
Fuck, what was that?
"I've never felt pain like that before." I mumbled, lost in my thoughts.
What happened? I was just thinking about… what was I thinking about? I just remembered something… did I?
What just happened? What did I remember? What was I thinking about? What's going on? What happened? What did I just remember? What was I thinking about? What's going on? What happened? What did I remember? What was I just thinking about? What's going on? What happened? What did I remember? What was I thinking about? Just what's going on?
"AHHH FUCK!!"
I slammed my hand down on the marble-tile floor beneath me in frustration, cracks formed all around the site of impact and the walls around me shook vigorously, the windows across from me shattered and at least 5-6 paintings around me tumbled to the ground.
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
Why can't I remember anything? I slammed both hands down to the floor again. Blood splattered all over the room and a puddle started forming beneath me on the broken tiles. I swung my fists down even harder, the fleeting feeling of pain was a momentary nuisance that I chose to forget about.
"Why?!" I slammed down again
"WHY?!" I slammed down even harder!
"FUCKING WHY?!?!?" I tried to slam down again, only to be stopped by something that rose out of the ground.
My seething rage was momentarily quelled by my bewilderment at the two dark wisps that looked like hands holding my wrists up. I then saw my hands, balled up into fists and covered in my own blood, there was no mana, aura or any other power in my strikes other than my own pure physical strength. Nothing was there to protect me from myself as I had repeatedly destroyed the bones in my own hands.
I didn't even need to look around to know of the blood splattered on the ceiling walls and floor that must have all originated from me in my moment of rage. By ignoring the violent pain that was attacking me, I allowed myself to get lost in my own feelings of anger and grief.
I clenched my teeth and allowed my tense arms to relax. I took a deep breath through my nose. My fists unballed and I could finally see the damage, I felt like I should be feeling something, but this current pain was a mere inkling of what I had felt before, the fractured bones in my hand felt like childsplay in hindsight. The blood from my knuckles continued to drip down to the floor.
Drip, drop, drip, drop.
As I tracked the soothing sound from the puddle on the floor back to my hands I saw the bones of my knuckles, without skin to shield them from the light wind, they should have stung, but I couldn't feel a thing.
I felt a soft comforting presence weighing on my back and saw two arms wrap around my chest and stomach before I felt something weighing down my left shoulder and whispering into my ear.
"It's okay, you're okay." The soft voice soothed my very being.