Healing System

[Kevin's POV]

"Please put that down..." he practically begged as he looked at Elizabeth, who had been holding an expensive-looking vase.

It had not taken them long to arrive at where he had been planning to go; however, there was one small issue.

The residents, who were supposed to be waiting for him to arrive with open arms, were nowhere to be seen.

Instead, it was completely abandoned, with everything practically left behind for just the two of them to indulge in.

This was a place he had spent most of his childhood at and most of his time training before heading out into a different world.

A tribal village, hidden in the mountains at the edge of the continent.

It was a mysterious place where people rarely entered or left, so it was especially strange to find no one present.

The only signs of life they had found were boiling pots and toys scattered around, which likely meant that, before the two of them arrived, the residents had, for some reason, vanished.

'No time to worry about that now, though...' Kevin glanced at her once again. She had been playing around way too much these past few days.

Suddenly, she dropped the vase onto the ground, shattering it, causing his eyes to widen.

However, before he could question if her brain was in the right place, the sword on her waist suddenly began shining with a silvery light.

Before long, it enveloped her whole.

His confusion was clear as he tried using shadows to pry open the silver cocoon, but before he could, it repelled him backward.

The force was enough to send him hurtling across the building's walls, breaking even more furniture than he would have liked.

But that was not his main concern. Instead, it was Elizabeth and whatever was happening to her.

He did not want to lose her again for no apparent reason other than some stupid flash of light. Yet before it, he was completely powerless.

Not giving up, Kevin proceeded to envelop the entire silver cocoon with his shadow mana, attempting to make it switch places with one of his shadows.

Yet once again, whenever he tried infusing some degree of mana into it, he was rejected and repelled—each time much more forceful than the last.

At the same time, it did not seem like the silvery cocoon was growing any less stable. In fact, it was beginning to destroy the surroundings.

He could only groan at the sight. While all of these memories were precious to him, what mattered most at the moment was Elizabeth.

But just as her mana, as well as the silvery mana, began stirring, he suddenly felt some sort of connection, and in that short moment, he reached out.

To his surprise—or more like shock—it felt as though a hole had appeared inside his chest. But before he could ponder on it further, he fell to the ground, just before the silvery cocoon.

It was a familiar sensation, yet in the current moment, it was incredibly foreign.

The forming of a mana core, one that was against his control.

Suddenly, the silver strands reached out from the cocoon and enveloped him as well. Yet as he thought things could not get any worse, they did.

A sharp pain went through his head, as though it was being split apart, followed by the feeling of his heart seemingly being crushed by a boulder.

That was not all, as his abdomen began feeling weak too, like his inner organs were churning.

And to top it all off, his spine—the pain was building up until finally, he had lost all sense of pain.

'Did my nerve endings just get cut off?' Kevin thought with a frightened expression as he could definitely feel something going on in his body, yet there was no pain anymore.

And the only person who could provide some sort of comfort to him—Elizabeth—was likely in the same situation as him, maybe even worse.

Therefore, he fought with all his will, trying to hold onto his consciousness for as long as he could.

Yet no matter how much time had passed, there weren't any visible changes.

Or that was the impression he was getting, since, for some reason, in the corner of his eye was some black hologram that he couldn't quite grasp.

It was just floating around, but since he was in a bit of a sorry state, his eyes could not pick up on what it was.

For all he knew, he could simply be hallucinating; it certainly would not be the first time.

But as the seconds turned into minutes and the minutes turned into hours, his unease only grew further.

'Fuck... this really is making me feel like I should not have wasted my time in that academy,' Kevin thought while relaxing himself.

There was no way to make his body function, only to let the silver strands do their thing. But even then, it was already dark outside. Soon, monsters would arrive.

This kind of location was convenient yet dangerous. It had a high concentration of mana, meaning that raising his general mana purity and other stuff would be much quicker.

However, the downside was monsters that reached the levels of Tier 1 were present here, mostly coming out at night.

That was why most of the people present had at least a Tier 1 mana core to defend their home.

But now, all he could do was hope the monsters did not approach them anytime soon.

Turning his eyes back to the silvery cocoon, he could see a few irregularities.

A vein-like surface was emerging, as though it was pulsating.

For a moment, it made him think something went wrong, but quickly checking the connection he had secretly formed with Elizabeth, he noted that she was fine—for the most part, at least.

Her pulse was slow, similar to his, and from what he could feel, the mana was equally as unstable in her case, if not more.

But as his connection began growing stronger with Elizabeth, something unexpected happened.

The black hologram from earlier floated over to him, stopping just in front of his eyes, revealing its contents.

[Child of Shadows, would you like to embark on a journey?]

[Yes/No]