Orin gasps for breath, in agony, fear, along with a maniacal sense of purpose. The sword in his torso has pierced out through his back as well. He lies on the ground as burning blood flows across the hallway floor. As soon as the blood is exposed to the air, it ignites into a soft, reddish-orange flame.
I have a little of the wrathful mana left… but, it’s disappearing. I can’t waste what I have now.
He feels his grip on his internal mana slipping. His body enhancement spell clings steadfastly to his body. This prevents his skin from roasting in the orange fires surrounding him. If he just lets his control go, the internal mana within him will turn his very body into a weak incendiary. He doesn’t have much of that internal mana left right now anyways so the effect will be minimal.
However, the transformation itself will be total and it will kill him. It would not be explosive like Karise’s death. It would hardly even result in a single casualty, let alone the collapse of this apartment building. On Earth, one might consider that kind of death, not a bang, but a whimper. It would be pathetic to Orin.
If… if I die here…
Orin Lodda does not wish to die. Not yet. Not in this state. Not while his enemy is still alive. He grits his teeth while the corners of his lip are stretched wide and up. He might have simply slept and woke up in paradise for his valorous actions so far. But, can he truly allow himself to die like this, having accomplished nothing at all?
Would Osva truly allow him to reach the true heaven after this pathetic display?
Orin lifts his right hand up to his face. He flexes it and confirms to himself that he can still move his body. He breathes heavily and tries to figure out what he can do right now.
In his current state, he's confused as to why his enemy hasn't done anything to finish him off yet. He didn't see Ajax tumbling to the floor in his current destroyed state. If Orin can just lift himself into a sitting posture, he can get a clear view of this hallway.
The only thing he can do in order to collect himself, rather, to make himself mobile again, is to use healing magic to turn off his sense of pain and stop the bleeding in his open wounds, particularly his severed arm, leg and his impaled torso.
The boy almost did it. I can't believe he failed. Doesn't that prove it? Doesn't that show that God is on my side? I… I can't stop now. It almost doesn't matter whether I destroy this building or not. I need to kill him. At the very least, he needs to meet his end here. Someone like him would get in the way of the Twin Moons. He's a traitor to humanity with such obscene power. Too much power. Is he an agent of Semjaza? Did one of the wyvern kings impart their power to him? No, impossible. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all. Nothing else matters. Just so long as he dies…
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It doesn't matter if Orin is about to die after this is over. It doesn't matter if he won't make it out of this building. He needs to live long enough to see his enemy die.
In this matter, his sense of self-preservation is greater than Ajax. As the pain cycles over and over again in Ajax's body, thoughts of suicide were surfacing to the forefront of his mind. Not only had he failed to kill Orin, but his body is in this state of torment that only those in the ninth circle of hell would experience.
I've failed… fuck… I need to die… I need to die… at least let me die before all the people in this building. At least let me not see them get killed… please… God… please…
If Orin dies of blood loss, then he will turn into a human flame bomb. Such an eventuality is immediate. Ajax doesn’t believe that he can heal fast enough to stop such an outcome. He knows he can’t even stand, let alone rush his enemy to his cold demise.
He cannot look at Orin but he knows that he's failed to kill him anyways. Ironically, in the best case, his enemy will die from blood loss and he won't be able to stop his corpse from transforming into a fire bomb. The building's foundations will melt and crumble and Ajax will die in the collapse without having to hear a single dying scream.
He cannot even picture what the worst case would be…
While chills permeate through Orin's body because of the blood loss, he finally regains control over the raging mana in his veins once again. He takes a few deep breaths but unfortunately for him, he’s punctured a lung. Every breath is agony, but he’s in too much pain in every corner of his body to truly notice.
He needs to deal with the torment first.
Orin wraps his body in healing mana. It takes a fair bit of mana out of him in order to do it but it keeps his mind from going completely insane as a result. At least now, he’s only partially insane.
His pain and sense receptors are forcibly turned off completely. If he was in a less tormented state of mind, he would only turn off his pain receptors but he worked as quickly as possible, cutting corners in his spell.
The spell worked, completely canceling his pain reception while dulling his sensation in most parts of his body. Without wasting a moment, he uses his right hand to touch what remains of his left arm and right leg, the two bloody stumps.
Anger and panic fills his mind at the thought of having lost his limbs. This is the first time he truly considered how badly he had been hurt by the unholy beast. He's certain to be crippled and his mobility is completely gone. Of course, that’s only if he survives this encounter.
He whispers a healing spell in order to carefully tie off the major arteries in his left arm and right leg stumps. The bleeding finally slows to a light trickle and Orin at last feels as if his vitality isn't draining away to nothing.
The healing magic for restoring whole limbs does exist, but that kind of treatment service is reserved solely for the nobility or otherwise, the wealthiest of human commoners. Even if Orin somehow were to return to a Twin Moons location, they would be more likely to offer him a mercy killing rather than pay for his limbs to be regenerated.
Why should I think of living through this? I’m not going to. Sigh… When did I become so used to life that I became afraid of death? I’m going to show you Osva. I’m not afraid.