Chapter 104: What Remains
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Chapter 104: What Remains

Nina pulled a table closer to us for me to rest my arm on for when she grew it back.

Of course, there was one issue I had to deal with first. My armour had melted and sealed off what remained of the stub, which was my left arm. So, I started tearing it at the shoulder plating.

“Get off already.” 

The parts snapped as I removed metal lumps that had hardened after being liquified. 

Nina commented. "Seems it used to be a decently high-quality armour.”

“Honestly yeah. I got it for a decent price, which helped.” I snapped more of the underlayer off. “Survived a good number of hits, but it hasn’t been in top condition for a while.”

“I’m ready whenever you are.” 

“Then, I’ll get started.” Nina raised her hand, and a soft white light emerged. It covered my stump, and I didn’t feel anything of note as my arm slowly grew.

Advanced healing magic is impressive.

(“ I prefer your healing method ”)

Is that because it is yours?

(“ Perhaps ”)

“Ergh…” Nina groaned but her face masked any pain.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I should be asking you that…” Nina sighed. “I’m supposed to feel a small portion of the pain you are feeling concerning what I am healing, and this is not what I would describe as a small portion of pain.”

“Is regenerating limbs usually painful?” I was expecting my other ailments to be what was causing the extra pain.

“Just a little sting on my end, normally. I also have skills to remove the patient's pain; that doesn’t remove the pain I feel but would be something I would use in a situation like this, but it is not working.”

“I’m not surprised, I can think of several reasons why that might be the case.” It could be because I was simply in too much pain thanks to the body and soul deeply mangled states, Espr, or something simple like me being at a higher level.

I should ask what level is Nina…

(“ Level 250 ”)

Spoiled the fun.

(“ Was there any fun to be spoiled? ”)

Yes.

I did feel bad that Nina was feeling some pain, but I was relieved; it seemed only to be the pain related to regrowing my arm and not my overall pain. Otherwise, I might never be healed.

The white glow softened, and my arm rapidly began reforming. My bones were visible for only a moment as the flesh silvered and turned. Then, as it reached its completion, an unrecognisable sight reached my eyes.

“You can stretch and move it around.” Said Nina, she likely saw my silence as a shock at regaining a limb, but my thoughts were paused for a different reason. 

“I…” I felt weird seeing my arm like this. “Haven’t seen my arm in this form in a long time.”

I raised it and turned it around to get a look from every angle. 

My arms, which had been covered with mutilating scars, now my left one had not a single injury upon it.

It was slightly tanned, and my muscles in it felt a little weak–which I assumed was the result of my other injuries. But it was a normal arm. 

I’m unsure about this.

I was certainly happy, but it had been so long that I was simply used to seeing my arms in that way. I didn’t see them as trophies for my survival or anything like that, but it was hard to explain the weird concoction of small emotions I was feeling.

Nina nodded in complete misunderstanding. “I understand; it can be a difficult process learning to live with a lost limb again.”

“No–” I paused for a quick moment. Argh fuck, just show her the other arm. “–Well, let me just give you an example of what I was expecting.”

I removed the armour off my other arm, which was a lot easier to do than my left’s, as it was severely less damaged.

Once removed, the full extent of what I meant was revealed.

From a distance, one might assume I was wearing some elaborate patterned arm stocking or lace, with all the overlapping lines and marks.

Nina’s eyes widened. “Oh fuck.” She immediately reached out with her hand glowing brightly as if instinctually she had to heal. 

“No, it is alright.” I pushed her back.

“What–”

“Look, I understand the sentiment, but I have so many other areas that need healing first that tidying up some mild scars is not what I want you to waste your mana on.”

“Mild scars?” She looked at me with disgust, as if I dared call these scars mild. I guess a doctor would have a different perspective when it comes to these things.

“Sigh… Well, do you want to take your armour off, or would you rather leave it on?”

“Yeah, let’s take it off.” I immediately stood up and prepared to remove everything. I kept it on for protection and secrecy, but now that was no longer necessary, and I wanted to open up to Nina, and her actually seeing my face would help with that.

Removing everything, leaving only a partially torn-up skin-tight layer that was underneath. I felt a lot better, especially after the armour was damaged–movement became such a pain.

Once that was done, I sat back down to Nina’s surprised face.

“I… don’t know what I was expecting.” She explained.

“Do… you want me to order some clothes to be delivered here?”

“Whatever you have kept in storage is fine.”

“Okay…” Nina paused and messaged someone else in the crew before turning back to me, examining me up and down. “I guess I’ll start with the positives; I do see the resemblance with your mother.”

My brown hair now flowing free was as wild as the fiercest of forests, my golden eyes shown with brilliance. My nose was definitely my mother's, but the sharpness, the rest of my face, and, of course, the eyes and hair were from the other side.

“I got most of my dad’s looks though, but compliments are appreciated. I’m sure my mum would be pleased to hear that.”

Nina smiled for some reason.

But that didn’t last for long, as she had something else to complain about. "Sadly, I can’t say you are the most mutilated person I have seen when it comes to bodily injuries, but you sure did your best.”

“At least it’s not head to toe.”

“I would say it is.”

“I would say others, though; there was one incident where I got close to that.”

“I’m… not going to ask.”

“That would be for the best; it was not a pleasant experience.”

Nina continued the healing process, aiming to heal my insides. In the process, a fair amount of my scarring healed up, but even outside my right arm, which she purposely didn’t heal on my request, there were a few scars, like my large chin-to-neck scar, that didn’t disappear. That caused great frustration and concern in Nina.

After a long while and two mana recovery potions, she had finished healing my insides to a degree she was satisfied with. “How did your body accumulate so much damage? Actually, the better question is how it’s still functioning?”

“Well, I did enough to ensure it wasn’t falling apart.” Nina’s healing was truly doing wonders, as my inside felt less like shredded spaghetti and more like internal organs. “But I have to say I do feel wonderful.”

“That I am glad to hear.” Nina appeared very white and exhausted, but she smiled. “Now let’s continue.”

“No.” I flicked her on the head. “You need to rest, more than me at the moment.”

“I doubt that, in your condition, rest is required for your successful recovery.”

“True, but I’m not putting my hands on a doctor who is going to fall asleep on the operating table.”

Nina sighed. “You are right.” She stood up and walked towards the door. “You better not fall dead by the time I wake up, otherwise, I'll be cursed to death by your mother.”

“Good to know.”

Nina left the room without further conversation.

(“ She left quickly, looks like you scared her off ”)

Enough with the jokes, even you could see she was about to pass out in front of me. 

Nina took the opportunity to rest, so I took the opportunity to see what remained of my abilities.

Hopefully, I haven’t lost too much…

Name: Ceella Stella (Celestira Luxpoir) | Race: [Human?]
Level 263 | Awakened
Mana: 180% Starlight: 5%
Vocation: [Stargazer]
Skills:
- Blazing Solar (–)
- Starlight (V)
- Gazing Upon The Stars
- Disruptive Starlight (X)
- Star Mapping
- Sleepless Nights
- Fortified Stomach
- Quiet Step
Bonded
- Primal Guardian Lord [Lv 252]
- Unleashed Awakening

Yep, looks like shit.

I didn’t lose any of my main skills, even though two were in a questionable state. Compared to the average person, the amount of skills I had was below, but my magic skills quantity was massive.

Starting with [Starlight] which took far less damage than [Blazing Solar].

[Starlight (V)]

  • [Star Lance] [Star Arrow] [Star Wall] [Starlight Wave] [Star Falldown] [Star Chaser] [Shooting Star Fall] [Starlight Annihilation] 

Good, not much was lost.

The skill wasn’t completely unscathed. I had lost [Star Bow] [Starlight Burst] [Starry Navigation] and [Star Block]. These, however, weren’t a big loss, as I practically never used any of them. I preferred just launching the arrows than using [Star Bow], [Starlight Burst] was a relatively weak Starlight attack, [Starry Navigation] was a greatly inferior version of [Star Mapping] and [Star Block] let me stop other people from absorbing Starlight. If I could’ve deleted some of those sooner, I would have.

What remained was. [Star Lance] and [Star Arrow] are two physical starlight construct skills. [Star Wall] a wide area prison. [Starlight Wave] which shot Starlight in a sharp disc of light. [Star Falldown] which was targeted area destruction. [Shooting Star Fall] which could amplify [Star Lance] or [Star Arrow]. And finally [Starlight Annihilation], a skill that devoured everything I could feed it for a terrifying blast of energy.

(“ I wished you didn’t pour so much effort into this skill, but it looks like your persistence has paid off ”)

How so?

(“ It’s given you a loophole ”)

Vague again?

I ignored Espr and looked at my other elemental skill.

[Blazing Solar (–)]

It could be worse…

(“ Now you are just trying to trick yourself ”)

What remained was 

  • [Incinerate], [Extinguish], [Fire Arrow], [Scorched Extinction], [Scorched Earth], [Sun Falldown], [Solar Bomb], [Solar Orb], [Solar Reinforcement], [Solar Force], [Furious Flame], [Hungering Flame].

On the other hand, what was lost was.

[Ring of Fire], [Scorched Nova], [Burst], [Flame Jail], [Scorched Imprisonment], [Flash Fire], [Fire Blade], [Crimons Flare], [Flames of Dehydration], [Solar Needle], [Solar Blade], [Solar Overload], [Flame Eruption], [Flame Barrage], [Flame Lord Armour], [Fire Rain], [Scorched Fist], [Solar Slam]. 

I tried to keep it together, but I lost so many skills. Powerful ones, useless ones, defensive ones, even one of more core movement abilities, [Burst], was gone.

Fucking dammit.

(“ Now that you are done examining your skills, I have to inform you of another problem you are currently possessing ”)

What..?

I did not want to hear about another problem, but I wasn’t going to ignore it.

(“ You are unable to generate mana ”)

Can't say I expected to get immediately sick. Working with fumes on the moment. 

Besides that, as mentioned I'm trying to increase the word count of the chapters for this arc. I always aimed for around 1500~, but last arc definitely was closer to 1000 than 1500. So far, both chapters have been over 1500, so starting strong at least.

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