Kai didn’t dare close his eyes for fear of falling asleep under the night sky. He found it ironic that his desire to overcome a stutter by choosing Neural Regeneration and then evolving it to Ironblood Will, was one of the main reasons he was still alive and not passed out in a pool of his own blood.

Littered around him were his wooden beads soaking in his blood, he ignored them and a bombardment of notifications. He needed to heal and get the Preserved Amber to Matthias, before it was too late. It probably already was. He had to try.

With as little movement as possible he withdrew his second last healing crystal into his hand — having given the rest to the Elder. He winced as it brushed against the skin of his hand that had been eviscerated by clutching the crystal shards so tightly, his hands looked like they had crushed glass and then been rubbed raw from sandpaper.

Kai sucked in his teeth as he tentatively pulled in a small amount of healing aura, only to grunt in pain as a wave of darkness almost knocked him unconscious. The hair on his neck stood up. He was on the verge of death and couldn’t heal; something was wrong.

Even Kura tried to comfort him. Her Kitsune form nuzzled up to him like a fox, two tails wrapping around his legs. Her calming mental presence subdued his panic. Look within!

Kai mentally nodded and with grim determination kept part of his attention on the aura corks preventing his blood from erupting while he turned his senses inwards.

He was alarmed to find crystalized dust coursing through his bloodstream, continuously tearing his arteries and veins that ran parallel to some kind of aura pathways. It was the proximity of his aura to his bloodstream that allowed him to even detect the issue. No amount of healing would help; he had to do something about the razor-sharp dust. Kai stifled a painful gulp. If he had not improved his body twice already, he was sure he would have died. He briefly considered allocating his stat points but there was a strong chance the changes that would occur from that might break his feeble concentration in his exhausted state.

Kai traced his arteries and veins with his senses, while his lethargic mind explored solutions. My body is so unbelievably damaged.

He experimented with his Gravity Wave aura trait, and attempted to attract and repel the crystal dust, so that he could push it out, but he didn’t have the level of control he needed over his aura or blood. Trying to push the crystal dust out would result in him bleeding to death at the same time. He was in the process of trying to press the dust against the walls of his arteries permanently, to make some kind of crystal-imbued artery when a voice broke him from his reverie.

“Hey, are… are you okay?” said Milah.

Kai didn’t move his head, but looked up from the ground. His dull eyes fell upon a familiar woman with long scarlet hair. Gripping her hand tightly was a young girl he’d seen in the cages. Some distance behind them was the rest of the people from the cages. He wasn’t sure why they hadn’t approached or fled. On the other hand he was surrounded by a sea of corpses — perhaps it was fear.

If Milah was here to extinguish him, it would be as easy as blowing out a candle.

Kai’s eyes darted between the two; it wasn’t a question of if he could trust her, he simply had no alternative.

Kai coughed blood as he spoke with a strained voice, “Take this Preserved Amber and use it on the Rakin in the tent.”

When Milah made no motion to grab it, her little sister yanked her hand from his sister’s grasp and grabbed the amber.

“He saved us!” she said, running towards the command tent.

“Emma!” Milah screeched, before she gave chase.

Kai’s stomach sank when they walked back a few minutes later; the expression on their faces told him everything, but he did not want to believe it.

Milah spoke softly, “I…I couldn’t use it, the target must be alive…”

Kai’s heart broke. His aura pulsed outward, causing the girls to both stumble back. Tendrils of blood streamed out his ruptured pores before he pulled, and the blood sloshed back through the pores on his skin as he trembled.

“Sorry,” he croaked.

Why does it hurt so much? He had not known Matt for long. So many others had died by his hand this day, yet he felt little for them. I failed to save him.

Pushing all his other feelings aside he closed his eyes and escaped to training as a means of solace — or in this case, trying to repair his body.

After a while he gave up on the crystal artery idea. It wasn’t working. The push and pull came from his centre of mass, my broken heart.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Using a combination of his Gravity Wave aura trait and the gravitational spin of his soul’s planet, he discovered he could attract the crystal dust to his heart with high accuracy and consistently keep a low pull active. Ideally until the muscle of his heart’s wall healed over the crystal dust, with all the crystal dust trapped in his heart, it could no longer circulate and shred his insides. It was similar to what he was already doing for the aura corks in his skin. With enough time, he hoped the micro pores would heal closed, although he suspected they never would, otherwise everyone would just absorb multiple crystals.

While collecting sharp crystal dust by his heart seemed idiotic and dangerous, it was the last option he could think of in his woozy fatigued state.

During the night Kai gradually collected crystal dust, mixing it with his aura, he haphazardly lined the walls of his heart in fine crystal powder. He found that even the slightest movement would increase his heart rate and make the process slower. Which meant he couldn’t move from this spot, for how long he didn’t know.

He glared at the Trial notification.

Sovereign’s Odyssey

Trial 1: The Strength to Survive

Objectives: Place within the top 3000.

Your position: ?/284,003 with ? trial tokens.

Bonus tokens: E-Soul, Level 40, Slay 50 humanoids, Conquer incursion.

Time left: 9 of 30 days.

Failure: No protection at the reaping.

Reward: Title, Disciple Candidate, plus variable bonus rewards.

Kai was pleased he’d reached all the bonus objectives, despite the price he’d paid for it. However there were only 9 days left and he was concerned about falling behind if he couldn’t move from this spot for days or weeks. He redoubled his focus and efforts on his crystal heart project.

The night was not easy, but it did pass. Recovery was slow as he annoyingly discovered he couldn’t use his aura faster than it was naturally regenerating, or he’d lose control of his aura corks and bleed out.

Kai opened his sunken eyes the next morning when he heard soft footsteps pitter-patter through the drizzling rain.

Emma skittishly placed a shell with water and a single pink apple on the ground before him, the scent reminding him of cherries.

Kai offered her a small smile, the simple movement causing him discomfort but no longer searing pain, much to his relief.

Kai noticed Milah nearby, her watchful gaze firmly on Emma, some other people also watching from a safe distance.

Are they… afraid of me or waiting for me?

“It’s the last one I have,” Emma murmured, her stomach rumbling.

The sincere gesture almost broke him after a month of constant fighting. However the thought of eating right now involved too much movement, his body just had to sustain him a bit longer; he could not allow his heart to beat faster or for blood to go to his stomach. He tried to withdraw some of his massive honey supplies.

Precious precious!

Kura, please, let’s share some?

After Kura had finished her tantrum, and at the cost of a large amount of pride, 113 jars of honey materialised in a jumbled clinking heap.

Milah dashed to Emma’s side before her little sister’s eyes had even finished growing wide. Milah’s eyes held both fear and the threat of violence. Kai saw both disappear when she realised he hadn’t attacked her sister.

Kai cleared his dry throat, keeping his words short.

“Take them. People okay?” he asked as he looked at the group of just under one hundred people watching the three of them from afar.

“People are messed up,” Milah muttered, before she looked directly at him. “We need to become stronger, or we’ll become cattle again.”

Kai agreed, but wasn’t sure why she was telling him that. When he said nothing, she continued, frustration creeping into her voice.

“They will need a strong leader you know.”

Why is she telling me this?

Kai gently shook his head. “People will always try establish leaders and governments. I want n-no part in it… Why are you still here?”

Milah’s frown deepened as she wiped a tangle of scarlet hair behind her ear, and leaned closer.

She smells like summer rain.

“You don’t have to rule alone you know?”

“I don’t want to rule at all!” Kai blurted.

Milah looked him up and down, the confusion plain on her face, before she pursed her lips together.

“Well that’s too bad. You annihilated hundreds of the order of the Infinite Void in seconds and you saved over a hundred lives!”

She jostled a jar of honey in his face.

“Then you materialised food out of thin air to feed them, while kneeling here like a statue for days in a pool of your own blood. You are strong.”

Strong yes. Idiot yes, Kura chimed.

Kai scoffed.

Milah continued, her eyebrow now raised, “People follow out of fear or hope. Not everyone wants to participate in this new world, most people just want to settle down.” She cast her eyes down. “The first few days were a bloodbath.”

She grabbed Emma’s hand and stormed off. “And check your damn notifications!”

Kai reluctantly did so, while people swarmed the honey like vultures, murmuring thank yous.

Achievement: Vital Hunter III

Details: Gain vital aura from 100 sources within 5 seconds.

Reward: +6% efficiency of vital aura attributes

Rarity: Legendary (3/10)

Congratulations! You have slain the Lord of Bloomscales Reach, and are its new owner.

Details: The aura river nexus is under your control.

Reward: Upgradable Noble Title; Lord.

Congratulations on your first title!

Touch your aura river nexus to learn more.

Enter a new name for your island?

Yes / No

His heart rate began to speed up. Nope. Nopety nope, Kai thought. Now’s not the time. He needed to remain calm and focussed and decided not to check what the title did.

He let out a raspy sigh; he didn’t want to deal with anything else today, his heart literally couldn’t take it. Exhausted, he returned to repairing his body in deep meditation throughout the night and into the next day.