Chapter 4
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Episode 1 - Akáshic Library [4]
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I stretched out my hands, feeling the manna flowing throughout my body. First it reached my arms, then my legs.
My eyes slowly opened as I breathed calmly, my voice coming out effortlessly.
"This... I think I've mastered it completely."
Encrid was silent for a moment. When he finally spoke, his tone was clear.
"That is true. Very well, now let's test how you fare in combat against someone. In this case, it will be the guards, but only one."
"Why not all of them?"
"Do you really think you can fight a hundred of them? Are you stupid or just pretending to be?"
"....."
I stood up from the ground, observing my body closely. The mana still wasn't much, and currently only reached Semicircle. Despite that, the feeling that something else was in the process of growing overcame me. However, no matter how hard I tried, the First Circle was still a distant goal, it was quite far away in spite of everything.
I wondered why it seemed so complicated. As far as I knew, the more circles you reached, the more mana you needed. The First Circle was the beginning, there shouldn't be such a big difference between the Semicircle and the First Circle, right?
I looked in the direction of where I felt Encrid's presence, though I couldn't manage to physically see him yet.
"Come to think of it, you told me you died ten thousand years ago. So how are you here?"
'Hmm, to put it simply, I have a limited time to stay here. This is all the mana I currently have left. However, once you reach the First Circle, I will be by your side, and your mana will sustain me so that I can remain in this form.'
"You're just a soul with some mana and a time limit, aren't you?"
he didn't answer, but I didn't need to confirm it. I figured as much.
"Let's begin."
A loud sound echoed down the corridor, drawing my attention. Beyond, at the end of the corridor, a humanoid silhouette appeared, formed entirely of mana. It had no face or distinguishing features, but its faint yellow glow was unmistakable. It was walking directly towards me,
'This is a guardian, you will fight him so be prepared'
The guardian stopped in front of me. Although he had no eyes or face, I felt him look at me, almost disdainfully. But I smiled, satisfied.
"We don't want anyone to die, so the first one who can't move due to exhaustion or lack of mana will end the fight immediately. Understood?"
"No problem."
Kwasik!
The guardian was attacking melee, not using magic. This I knew, so I closed the distance quickly, landing the first blow. My fist, coated in mana, impacted his head, spinning it backwards grotesquely. If it had been human, it would have been fatal, but....
Kwasik!
The guardian countered with a kick to my right side, staggering me. He didn't stop. His fists struck my body with such speed that I could barely react. I raised both arms, using everything I had as a shield, but still felt the impact in every fiber of my body.
I crouched down, rested one hand on the ground and jumped upward, twisting slightly in the air. My right leg landed hard on his shoulder, making him tremble and kneel for a few seconds before rising again. Hitting a human's vital points doesn't work on this thing, I thought, assessing the situation.
'Never mind,' I said to myself. 'I just have to keep hitting it again and again until it goes down.
I spun on my heel, swinging my leg over and striking the guardian's head with enough force to send it flying into one of the nearby pillars. But, to my frustration, it got up as quickly as it had fallen. It doesn't feel pain, I reminded myself. That means I must be more persistent.
I ran to him, and the guardian did the same. Our hands intertwined, we bumped heads and I felt them both jerk backwards. I took advantage of the grip, drawing him to me as I lifted my leg, striking his chin hard. The impact tore the mana that formed his face, but it wasn't enough.
"Mana acts like meat on this kind of being," I said to myself. reinforcing my attacks with more mana. I pushed him with my leg, knocking him down, and ran at him. But he got up immediately, throwing a punch just as I did.
"Ugh..."
Pain shot through my arm. I felt my fist fracture slightly, but the guardian's was shattered to the wrist. I seized the moment, turning my body and slamming my leg into his ribs. I made him stagger and fall to the ground. This is the moment, I thought, as I advanced.
The guardian charged like a raging bull, using all his weight to ram me. I stopped him by grabbing his head with both hands and slammed him to the ground with all my strength. His head began to deform, but the fucker kept moving.
"You can't kill a guardian unless you disintegrate it with a magical ability," Encrid said from a distance. Seriously, you can't shut up?
I gritted my teeth and lifted the guardian again, slamming its head against the remains of a pillar. His form was beginning to crumble, but the fucker kept attacking, launching a headbutt that left me stunned for a few seconds. Blood gushed from my nose and mouth, blocking my airway for an instant.
"Ugh..."
I concentrated my last breath and moved forward. This ends here. I opened my hand, concentrating all my mana in my fingers. My attack tore through its chest, tearing it apart from the inside. The guardian stopped, motionless.
"You did it. Congratulations, you idiot," I heard Encrid say.
I fell backwards to the ground, my breathing was a mess, and my vision was blurring as the world slowly faded away.
A faint glow emanated from the guardian's hand.
In an instant, I could feel the internal wounds in my body heal before my eyes. I looked at my body and then at the guardian, amazed.
"How did you...?"
'Guardians can heal anyone. They are designed to protect, fight or heal anyone no matter how injured or dismembered they are, as long as they are not dead. Guardians can heal them.'
"Then why did you tell me to avoid wounds that could lead to death?"
'You didn't get it. Are you pretending to be an idiot or are you actually one? Like I said, as long as you don't die, they can heal you easily'.
"....."
I guess I shouldn't have asked that question in the first place.
Still, I stayed there, on the ground. Although my body was completely healed, as if nothing had happened, my mana had almost completely depleted, leaving me exhausted.
'Regain what little mana you can use. You will continue to fight the guardians for the next 24 hours'.
"....."
You're kidding, right?"
'No. If you're my heir, this should be nothing to you.'
It wasn't that I couldn't stand it, but there was something I couldn't say out loud: this body didn't belong to me until a few hours ago. It was a body I had never trained, and the mana I was using right now would inevitably lead to fatigue, no matter how many times I was healed by the guardians.
I was exhausted, not only from the training, but from the amount of times I had had to fight already. However, it was not impossible to stay on my feet for 24 hours straight. After all, there were always moments of rest, like this one.