Chapter 105
“Unexpected Re-encounters” Part 6
Immediately, Kalysto descended to where the monster’s head was and without bothering to remove the crystal from its face, she placed the entire palm of her hand on the demon’s forehead, encompassing much more than the crystal.
Absorb! She thought, wanting to save herself the process of the initial annoying question.
Fortunately, it worked.
[There are two skills for the user to absorb which one do you wish to absorb?]
[Ice spears. Level 1
Tundra. Level 1]
All of them! She thought and at that very instant, the demon’s body stretched out its hand and conjured an ice stake aimed at Kalysto’s back.
The former waitress barely had time to dodge the attack without losing the connection to the demon’s head.
[Congratulations! The user has acquired a new skill: Ice Spear. Level 1!]
[Congratulations! The user has acquired a new skill: Tundra. Level 1!]
And just as the ice stake reached out to create a cut on the skin of her arm, the demon’s head turned to ashes.
Immediately, the headless body’s arm descended and stopped moving.
Kalysto watched it silently for a few seconds, making sure it didn’t move, and then smiled at the new skills it had gained. She immediately took out a small bottle of holy water she had created from her inventory, as she watched the group of fire mages still fighting the red demon.
Haven’t they realized that the demon’s fire resistance is superior to its attacks? She thought, although considering that Milo was among those who were attacking, surely they had already done so, but they were keeping him busy and preventing him from advancing, while they found a way to exterminate him.
A couple of meters behind that group, there was another mage conjuring a spell, whose magical symbol was a pale shade of brown. Which very slowly grew darker and darker.
Ignoring whatever it was they were up to, but suspecting that he was an earth mage, Kalysto put the vial to her lips as she felt her blood pouring from the open wound on her arm and looked down, where she noticed that part of the large group of corpses that the mages had burned at first were splitting up, most of them heading towards where the saintess and Edward’s carriage was, the rest going up the street to where the court mages were fighting.
And as she realized this, suddenly a strong pressure in her chest robbed her of air. Forcing her to go and protect Edward.
Not this again! She complained. Agg! What kind of voodoo magic is this?
Then her father’s words came to her mind.
‘We always pay our debts.’
And though whatever it was that clutched her heart like a noose to a stuffed turkey kept insisting that she go to help him, Kalysto tried to ignore it. Even as the memory of her father’s words weighed on her conscience.
But her hesitation didn’t last long.
“Damn!” she muttered. I should never have promised Amanda that I would take care of him, just because I felt indebted to her!... This is too much!
“Kalysto don’t drink the potion yet. There’s still half a minute left! “ Rita shouted at her as she cut off the head of one of the monsters that she herself had burned earlier, but which had come back to life.
Kalysto frowned, just before the precious liquid went down her throat, so she had to leave it in her mouth.
Are you serious? She thought with annoyance. At the same time, she ran to where Rita was and froze the bodies of the undead that were about to attack her. However, she noticed that the ones she had frozen earlier were still imprisoned inside her ice.
[You have gained 15 experience points! x15
“Thanks for that," Rita commented as she checked her watch. “You can take the potion now! Sorry, I missed the time and didn’t realize it.”
“Hey, that was mine! -complained Koden.
“Well, it isn’t anymore,” answered Kalysto after drinking the potion and putting it in her inventory. And maybe I shouldn’t leave it to Rita to tell me when I can take a potion or not. “Come on, there’s an army of undead down the street that’s about to wipe out the others!” She informed them and they immediately turned to see the place she had indicated.
“Edward!” Koden shouted, his face losing all color as he saw the wave of revived monsters surrounding the few knights of the temple who had come with them and who were divided into two groups, one surrounding the elegant white carriage with golden borders where the saintess was, and the other, a little further away fighting against the rest of the monsters that were still alive.
Koden ran as fast as his legs would allow, dodging the large collection of frozen bodies and taking care not to be bitten by the revived heads that decorated the cold dirt floor in the long narrow street, with his shield and sword clenched in his clenched fists. Willing to sacrifice whatever it took to save his clueless friend.
Rita followed him, worried because she could no longer see Oscar anywhere, even though he was the only one of the heroes with dark skin and the tallest of them all.
Kalysto, on the other hand, was upset with the promise she had made to her friend more than a year ago.
How long am I supposed to babysit him? She questioned herself and ran down the street to help, then stopped for a second.
“Multiple targets! Perfect shot! Ice stakes! Telekinesis!” she conjured, sending one stake towards the shoulder of the fire demon against which the court mages were still fighting, another towards his palm and the third against his eye.
Kalysto immediately kept running, and the demon roared as soon as the ice stakes buried themselves in his skin, but she, Rita and Koden were too far away to be affected by his demonic attack.
“Move aside!” Kalysto ordered as soon as she approached the wave of undead and one who was away from the rest of the group was already fighting Koden. “Ice creation!” But by the time the rest of them started moving in her direction, it was too late, and more than twenty undead were frozen to their shoulders. ”Koden, Rita, you know what to do!” Kalysto ordered and began to run away from them. Slashing several bodies to make her way through.
[You have gained 1 experience point!] x5
Seeing that despite her efforts she didn’t seem to be making any progress, she jumped over the edge of the group after slashing at another pair of undead that seemed oblivious to the fact that they had just lost their limbs as their grotesque mutilated bodies continued to move.
[You have gained 15 experience points!] x2
[You’ve gained 0 experience points!] x5
Kalysto began to leap over their heads, darting through the crowd.
And after making sure she was only surrounded by undead, she jumped in the middle of a small space between two undead, cut a three of them in half to make room for herself and whispered:
[You’ve gained 15 experience points!] x3
“Tundra!” Completely freezing all the monsters that were within a five meter radius.
Kalysto smiled in delight at her new ability as a dizziness overtook her. Making her lose her balance.
[Warning: the user has less than 10 MP left. Please wait a few minutes before attempting to use any ability again or your health will be severely affected.]
She staggered, and would have fallen to the ground had she not been surrounded by frozen monsters that served as support.
[You have gained 15 experience points!] x60
[You have gained 1 experience point!] x5
The coldness of the corpses comforted her as her breathing normalized slightly until she was finally able to raise her hand, and after opening her skill window, she pressed on the new skill, wishing to get information about it.
[Tundra. Level 1. Allows the user to freeze the ground and any object or living thing in contact with it within a radius of 5 meters around the summoner. Reuse time 2 minutes. Spends 500 MP per-use. By leveling up this skill, the affected radius can be increased and every ten levels the reuse time and MP expenditure is reduced.]
“That explains why I almost ran out of mana," she whispered, feeling the dizziness slowly dissipating and allowing her to move more freely with each second that passed.
Or at least it was, until Edward’s scream rose above the noise of the battle and immediately the pressure in her chest increased, forcing her to come to his aid despite her condition.
Her body reacted on its own, throwing herself into danger without thinking, running towards him with desperation in her quest to prevent Edward, who lay frozen in terror in the middle of the fray just a couple of steps away from the new saintess, from perishing at the hands of the corpulent undead orc who was about to split him in half with a sharp axe.
Her first instinct was to conjure some spell, but immediately a violet window opened to her left.
[Warning: the user has less than 10 MP left. Please wait a few minutes before attempting to use any skills again or your health will be severely affected.]
“Shit!” She grunted as she struggled to get there as fast as her legs would let her despite the fact that every second that passed she felt the air getting scarcer in her lungs and it was getting harder and harder to concentrate.
She barely managed to push Edward with her left hand against his shoulder as soon as she reached him, pushing him out of the way of the sharp weapon by barely a couple of centimeters.
The axe slid down violently, mercilessly, and with one clean cut severed Edward’s hand and half of Kalysto’s arm in a single slash.
The pain spread throughout the fairy champion’s body, making her scream.
[The passive ability Pain Resistance has been activated.]
Her confused mind could barely make out the words that were written in white text on the pair of notices, one blue and one violet, that appeared to her left as her body fell limply against the cold stone floor and her blood stained the earth.
The new saintess screamed.
Her face contorted in terror at the bloody scene she was witnessing less than two meters from where she stood surrounded by two other temple knights struggling to keep her safe from the horde of monsters and undead intent on devouring her.
Soon Edward’s screams accompanied her as Kalysto remained silent and watched full of consternation along with a deathly pallor, the new empty space that now lay beneath her elbow.
The undead orc raised the axe again, this time focusing on Kalysto.
“Saintess, do something!” One of the guards scolded her, but the young woman’s screams continued to be heard for what seemed like an eternity to Kalysto.
Her mind felt enveloped in cotton clouds and her body felt heavier and heavier as time seemed to drag on unusually long.
Inventory! She thought somewhat dazedly, and with difficulty managed to extract a small mana crystal with her trembling right hand.Absorb!
It was after she gave the command that she noticed that the crystal was bigger than she had first thought.
But it was too late to change it. Her heavy body stopped responding to her commands, and she barely had enough strength to shake a single finger as weakness and dizziness assaulted her with force.
[Does the user wish to absorb this mana crystal?]
[YES/NO]
Yes! she thought as a pitiful moan escaped her throat and the screams of the new saintess finally ceased.
[Congrats! The user has acquired 6000 MP!]
“Pu... purification!” shouted the frightened young woman as her weak light barely lasted less than a second, disintegrating half of the body of the orc whose axe was descending towards Kalysto.
The undead staggered to the right, carrying his weapon with him.
“Purification! Purification! Purification! Purification!” The young woman roared in desperation, but her dim light barely illuminated a couple of meters around her and lasted only a few seconds. “PURIFICATION!” she shouted with all her might.
Purification Ezhil! Kalysto thought, coordinating her efforts with those of the inexperienced saintess, and a powerful golden light enveloped them all.
[You have gained 15 experience points!] x300
And as Edward screamed in pain from his missing hand, the red demon roared loudly and the earth shook beneath Kalysto as her entire vision was tinged with golden light.
Then she lost consciousness.
Two days later, the soft sound of crying flooded her ears long before Kalysto could open her eyes.
“Will you stop crying for once? She’s not dead," Rita growled.
“But ...it’s my fault she’s like this," the sound of snot blowing his nose flooded the small room in the branch of the Temple of Light in the city of Cifhaen where they were staying.
A delicate moan escaped Kalysto’s throat as she moved her trembling fingers and raised her hand, wanting to scratch the itch on her face.
“You shouldn’t move!” Rita interrupted her immediately, holding her bandaged arm very carefully so as not to hurt her.
Kalysto opened her eyes only to observe that half of her left arm was not there and her face darkened at the memory. She covered her face with her right hand to prevent others from seeing her tear-filled eyes at the unpleasant sight.
If only I could heal myself, this would never have happened! She reproached herself.
“I’ll go get the saintess and ask them to bring you some water and something light to eat!” Rita announced before leaving the room as Edward’s sobs seemed to get louder and louder.
True, all is not lost! But remembering how the new saintess wasn’t even able to cast an Ezhil purification spell, what little hope had been born in her, died immediately.
“Thank you...thank you for saving me!” Edward sobbed, tears streaming down his cheeks as his swollen, tired eyes fixed on her.
And though the young man’s figure inspired pity, she didn’t want to look at him at that moment, much less waste her time comforting him.
“This will be the last time I do such a thing," she informed him in a firm voice, despite the extreme pallor of her face. “Never expect anything like that from me again. From now on, I will consider my promise to your aunt as paid.”
What? -Edward muttered, confusion stamped on his youthful face.
“Say it!” Kalysto insisted. Needing to get rid of that little thread that still remained inside her, that pushed her to comfort him and take care of him when it was she who was in a much worse condition.
“What do you want me to say?” He questioned, wiping his face and blowing his snot with a handkerchief.
“Say that my debt to you and your family is paid," she insisted. Edward looked at her as if she had betrayed him.
“What?” He frowned. “Are you telling me you helped me just for that?”
“Say it, now!” Kalysto insisted, needing confirmation that whatever debt there was between them would cease to exist from that moment on.
Whatever I owed Amanda is paid off with what I had to sacrifice to save Edward’s life! From this instant, I consider null and void any vow I have made to Amanda, Edward, or any member of their families! I have already done more than enough to help them! She said to herself.instant, She needed to be sure that she would no longer be bound to anything but the deals she had made since coming into this world.
Edward’s face became serious. He sat up straight in the old wooden chair, squared his back and stuck out his chest.
“I, Edward Grant, release you Kalysto Luna from any debt you owe or think you owe me or any member of my family or clan! Whatever you owe or owed us in the past, from this moment on, I consider it paid!”
“...Thank you,” she whispered, feeling a weight lift from her shoulders, and the lasso that had oppressed her heart vanish completely.
.”..Why...?” he asked as he saw her give him a small smile.
“You sure felt like an old samurai a moment ago, didn’t you?" Kalysto joked, wanting to undo the strange tension in the air. And a shy half-smile came to Edward’s face, much to his regret.
“...I don’t know what you’re talking about," he replied with red-tinged cheeks. “And it wasn’t a samurai... it was a ninja. I saw something similar in an old movie a while back.”
“Oh, my God! At least tell me you were sober when you saw it.”
Hey!" He reproached her, “I haven’t had any more alcohol and...! -Edward’s voice dropped a couple of notches before he finished the sentence.... You know...the other thing since...well...you know,” he finished sheepishly.
“I know. I just wanted to make sure. You know," she joked again. Wanting him to forget about the whole awkward thing. Fortunately, Edward had always been somewhat absent-minded and forgetful.
“... Thank you, by the way.”
“For sacrificing my arm to protect you from that demonic axe?”
“Yeah well, that too..." then he ducked his head and his voice became a soft whisper. “I was referring to everything that happened when you know... my mother and my supposed ex...”
“Ah!... The one who shall not be named?” She scoffed, needing to focus on something other than how angry she was at him, the new saintess and herself.
I better end this conversation quickly. And he won’t leave until he sits down and sees me a little better. She thought, trying hard not to let her emotions show on her face. If only I had a way to communicate with the boss and convince her to let me use Jhil on myself even for a few minutes...then I could get my arm back. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a blood-tinged clump, and from the lump within it, deduced that it was the missing limb.
Her eyes again misted over with unshed tears. I need him to leave quickly.
“She’s not so...well..." Edward grimaced, unable to continue the sentence. I think you’re kind of right, and if she can get that nickname.”
“Well, you can take advantage of our time in this world to be able to say her name without fear of running into any corners. And Edward?”
“Yes?” He answered, lifting his gaze. Full of renewed hope.
“I need to be alone, and for you to give me space for a while.”
The young man’s face was filled with pain and just when he opened his mouth to plead and refuse her request, at that moment the new saintess of the temple arrived to heal her.
But despite the young woman’s efforts, she could not make Kalysto’s arm grow, much to the dismay of all present.
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Isn't the system, blue or violet, a crutch? She should be able to learn how to cast all her skills without it's help if she really wants to.
@Xyll-246 She needs proper training to learn how to use magic.
But there are skills that she obtained through the system, they belong to the system. Mental defense is an exception as it is a natural skill that she possessed before obtaining any of the systems.