"Welp, that was a tad bit rough, but I think we'll be alright for now. " Kieran tried to comfort Neaila as he approached her, finally wiping his bloody hands on the back of his jeans.
She still knelt beside her brother with a supporting arm around his back, and Kieran only just noticed that even hunched down slightly, her head came up to around his chest level.
Despite being accustomed to the overbearing giant that is Nathan, Kieran's time with the tall and elegant siblings kept reinforcing the feeling of being a grimy little dwarf who’d been mining the depths. Neaila was barely taller than him, in all fairness, but that didn't stop the intrusive thoughts for a moment.
Sporting a cheerful grin–that he felt would be considerably more charismatic and effective on Nathan's face instead of his own dirty, blood-speckled one–Kieran crouched down beside Neaila. She softly stroked Illya’s hair, trying to get some response from the ghostly pale figure her brave brother had faded to.
Whatever that backlash did to him caused the natural magical glow of life that filled these Elnari to flee his body by the second.
"Is there nothing we can do to get him up and feeling better?" He proposed, "Like, I’m happy to carry him until he recovers, don't get me wrong, but I don't particularly fancy any of our chances if more of those pricks come and we don’t have his help." Kieran hoped she might have more insight.
"No…I'm afraid not." She shook her head dejectedly at his question.
"I doubt you’d understand the severity of the skill backlash, being from a manaless world such as yours. But Mana potions or significant rest are the only practical remedies." She confirmed with a truly pitiful expression.
"In general, mana-based items such as potions, grow increasingly rare throughout our Kingdom as it is."
Her head drooped slightly in shame. "And…and I stupidly used our last one whilst running from the soldiers" Tears welled in her eyes as she fixed her gaze on Illya’s pallid complexion. She didn't even notice Keiran's strange expression at her mention of mana potions.
Seriously, magic bloody potions now? This shit is getting a little too litrpg for my tastes…and I still haven't even seen any fucking status screens.
“If it were not for our shameful uncle and my damn hubris...” She bit back the rest with an angry groan of frustration.
As tears finally ran down her smooth cheeks, glistening in the firelight, Kieran felt a pang of guilt for previously doubting their intentions towards him as well as their trustworthiness.
Clearly, the nobles of their world weren’t the elitist arrogant assholes he’d been imagining, except maybe their uncle.
“I'm so sorry that crap happened to you guys, I know how hard it can be for a family member to betray you," he carefully placed a hand on her back without thinking, if only to let her know he was there for her.
“And I've had enough experience to learn that it hurts all the more for it, too." He looked at her with a sad smile of remembrance, before letting the harsh old memory pass from his thoughts.
His words elicited a strangely sad smile from Neaila before she replied.
"perhaps…we can talk about such things in greater depth in time. I would love to hear more of your world and about humans when we have the time to spare.”
She looked at her brother again. “And when Illya’s feeling better, I'm certain he would be just as interested as I, though I know he is still deeply troubled by what our uncle did to us, and what we must do once we return home…”
“Is there really no way to help him recover other than some potions? Can't I just give him some of my mana? I’ve got plenty to spare.'' Kieran suggested.
"That's incredibly generous of you to offer." She placed her hand on his arm in a grateful gesture, surprising Kieran again with her comforting touch. He eyed her soft hand briefly before turning away.
Focus dude, don't be that asshole…
"But…unfortunately not. Skill backlash is so dangerous because overcharging the skill completely drains the manabody. and such a large transfer would merely shift the deficit to you." her soft declaration was full of barely restrained emotion. "Even with your absurd mana density, you may be even more debilitated than my brother by the time he regains any of his strength. At that point, you would be the one in desperate need of a mana potion."
"Ah, I see" Kieran nodded whilst itching his stubbly chin thoughtfully, an idea slowly took form in his mind.
"So…" he began carefully.
"There's no actual issue with me giving him some of my mana? it's just that doing so would drain me of my energy, leaving one of us very weak, regardless?"
"Indeed, all we can do is wait.'' The disappointment on Neaila’s face as she nodded in confirmation only made him feel more ambitious.
The logic works, maybe. I have to at least try.
"Well, here goes nothing then" Kieran murmured with determination and confidence.
Letting go of Neaila, he grasped one of Illya's hands in his own, doing his best to ignore the uncomfortably cold clamminess of his large, thin hand. With his other hand on Illya's back, he focused on controlling his breath.
"Kieran, what are you doing?" Neaila demanded with an almost entitled tone of disbelief.
"Did you not comprehend anything I just said to you? Must I be more clear?" She all but barked at him.
If this was yesterday, Kieran would have immediately stopped, played it safe, or maybe even argued his point meekly before backing down at her words. Events tonight have been odd, however, causing Kieran's belief in himself and what is possible to shift significantly.
Kieran was unsure if his strange new skill or the nature of mana itself was responsible, but with every use or manipulation of the strange new energy, he grew progressively more assured of his ability to control it.
"Please” He breathed, trying to maintain his focus.
“Trust me for a moment…I'm pretty sure this will work." Kieran tried to assuage her irritation quickly. Then he closed his eyes, mostly to focus on his sense of mana, but also to avoid the stubborn expression that bore down on him from the no longer sweet lady.
Kieran put her apparent distrust or concern for him–he wasn't sure which it was–to the back of his mind, narrowing his focus further.
In…out…
Warm air drifted all around him in a gentle breeze that brushed against his skin. The vast quantity of mana still floating aimlessly about the room from all the deaths made itself known to him like a force of nature. Knowing he couldn't absorb much more, he cautiously allowed the mana to flow into him, focusing more on the sensations of his body than shovelling down more of it. Through the first repetitive cycles of breathing, he saturated every remaining area of his internal vessel with gently vibrating power.
Upon reaching the ephemeral limit on his mana stores, an uncomfortable state of fullness permeated his entire body. Vibrating every cell in his body until the sensation burst into a small, simmering fire of pain inside his chest and he knew to stop absorbing anymore, or else.
Kieran bathed in the sensation. That inner heat gradually pulsed out in waves to warm the rest of his body. It reminded him of the feeling of chugging a hot drink on a bitter day.
Despite his heightened awareness of this phenomenon, he still wasn't sure how to exert enough control to make a physical transfer happen. Knowing that he had to somehow send some of this mana into Illya and then actually doing it were two very different things. But he figured he should first try the most basic and direct method of simply pushing it from his own hands like he'd seen in so many movies and manga–if it worked for those protagonists maybe it would work for him too.
With each breath, he intently willed the cascading waves of warmth to drift down his arms. And on each powerful exhale he pushed the energy deeper into his hands. In his mind’s eye, he pictured something akin to jets of blue fire shooting out his palms like Iron Man's thrusters as he commanded the mana into action.
The skin all over his arms tingled with chilly, vibrant energy–comparable to pins and needles. Except, where there would normally be numbness, he felt only an increased awareness and strength inside his limbs.
Mana followed his one-minded intent and, with his coaxing, drifted free of his hands.
Calm surprise perked up in him as he noticed that the free energy still maintained a tenuous and vague connection to his internal mana. The distinct yet remote awareness of its presence danced at the very edges of his mind and his sense of touch, as though it had not quite escaped his control despite leaving his body.
Mentally making a note to explore this discovery later, he continued with even more vigor.
The burning in his chest slowly subsided at the same time every ounce of mana within his influence started to flow through him like a gentle river, and he the earthy medium through which it would endlessly course.
Neaila watched on in awe, her eyes wide in disbelief. She couldn't stop examining the shimmering blue mist that slowly diffused out into the space surrounding Kieran's hands. Her mana sight followed the uncontrolled power that leaked away into the cavern's airflow, casually drifting around in whisps of translucent light before the human reclaimed it with another breath in an endless cycle.
So one-mindedly focused was Kieran on manipulating the mana that he became completely oblivious to his surroundings, including the almost comical look of shock and disbelief plastered upon Neaila's face. Not wanting to risk ruining whatever this human was doing, she refused to make a single sound whilst he endlessly funnelled mana directly into her brother without pause, nor rest. The relaxed and peaceful expression on his dirty face implied an effortless control that once again caused her to be simultaneously startled and impressed.
Neaila’s chest filled with further joy and relief as she noticed the blue glow of dense mana surrounding the strange human’s hands. With each cyclic breath, it spread outwards to flow over her brother and seemed to breathe life into him with each pulse. Narrowing her mana sense onto her brother only, she witnessed a veritable river of unattuned mana pumping into him. A feat only the most gift of her Father’s mages could accomplish, especially for as long as this man so casually managed.
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With every second that passed, dense waves of mana coursed out through Kieran's chest and limbs, and through the gentle control, streamed consistently into Illya, filling him up like a perfect human recharging station.
The immersive nature of this internal cycling filled his entire conscious mind. His world became little more than a trance-like repetition of inhaling to pull mana from the air, and then exhaling to send it out through his hands. The cavern full of blood and corpses all around him faded into oblivion. He even forgot that he was kneeling before the concerned gaze of a beautiful young alien woman. Though her concerned look had long since turned to one of pure wonder and hope.
What the–
Something warm and damp unexpectedly clutched Kieran's hand tightly, disturbing his deep focus and jolting him back to weary consciousness.
Opening his eyes in a light squint, he took a few seconds to adjust to the bright glow of orange light. Making out two silhouettes partially obscuring his view, he first saw a pair of green and then blue orbs shimmering brightly at him. As he focused on the statuesque faces bearing the most beautiful of smiles, his brain caught up to him.
"Illya, you're okay? Thank god, man!" Kieran gasped happily and returned the cheerful beautiful smiles both of them were beaming at him, then looking down he realised Illya was still holding his hand comfortably. It had been his strong squeeze that awoke Kieran from his reverie.
"Oh, sorry." he awkwardly pulled free from the snug wet grip of the now conscious and alert man before him. Kieran felt so glad to see his friend's complexion return to its natural level of paleness that he didn't even notice his tight clasp at first.
"You need not apologise for a single thing, my dear friend. Quite the opposite, in fact." Illya's confident smile exuded a strength with his presence alone that Kieran had yet to see from the man, and compared to his extreme state not long ago, this was even more impressive.
"But first, are you well, Kieran?" He clasped Kieran's retreating hand with his own. "I've genuinely never felt such superb mana within me before." His eyes examined Kieran all over, searching for some sign of weakness or injury.
"I can only assume you must have given away the entirety of your personal mana stores if the veritable ocean within me is any indicator of your efforts.” Illya gripped Kieran’s forearm tightly. “Such a thing is truly reckless. Any normal mage would have long since withered to a husk. By The Mother, I can't comprehend how you did this at all” he exclaimed.
"Erm…yeah, about that…I actually feel pretty good.”
He embarrassedly admitted with a toothy grin.
“When you went down like a badass, the last orc got a pretty clean slap in on me before I killed him, but I'd say I'm doing far better than he is now” Kieran nodded over to the deceased lump of an orc laying facedown on the dirt a few meters away.
He genuinely meant it when he said he was feeling pretty good. In just the short couple of minutes that he knelt there inhaling mana, his swollen cheek from the orc's heavy punch had completely disappeared. The only reason he imagined for this was that the mana was helping to heal him considerably faster, like his previous minor wounds, and with that thought, he realised it must be doing the same thing for all his other soreness and niggling pains.
Nope, questions later Kieran…again…for god sake.
Refocusing on Illya, he gave him an assessing look and was baffled that just pushing some mana into him for a couple of minutes would result in such a drastic change in physical states.
"Was that mana really enough, though?" He wondered aloud at the siblings. "I've never done anything like that before, but like…seriously, I don't understand how some mana I just yanked from the air can make such a difference so quickly. I mean, no offence dude, you just went from being borderline comatose to good as new in a couple of minutes. It doesn't make any sense"
Making frantic hand gestures as he'd spoken had caused Neaila to fail to hold back a small chuckle, until Illya sent her a look of disapproval that Kieran was sure masked a smile too.
Illya let go of him and held up his hands in a placating gesture as he responded calmly. "My friend, your ignorance is rather humorous, but also not at all your fault." He began, then placed a hand on Kieran's shoulder for support as he continued.
"This…‘Divine System’, as it calls itself, using whatever celestial powers it possesses, has brought mana into your life today, but we were born into a world already full of such power."
Neaila nodded along with her brother's words. She had already much improved from the regretful and sad girl he'd been talking to not long ago.
"Our home, Elnar, is a world where both the very smallest and largest of lifeforms have been altered irrevocably by the natural energy that filled all things for countless aeons. Anyway, It would take longer than we have to educate you on our history I'm afraid, just know that mana depletion from skill backlash usually takes hours, if not days to recover from. Even with a strong mana potion and rest, it is entirely unheard of to recover from such an internal injury within minutes. And I'd argue you've brought far beyond mere recovery."
Illya held his hand up in the air and clenched it tightly. Face screwed up in an intense expression, he watched his upheld hand with serious focus, Kieran's eyes following as well. Then a familiar translucent mist exuded from the man's pale skin briefly before blinking out of existence again.
"Brother! How did you manifest aura? Neaila exclaimed loudly. "That's not possible! You aren't even a mage!" She stood up, unable to contain her shock.
"Yes yes, I know sister" he grinned at her outrage.
"You can thank our incredible new friend here for this gift. It would appear whatever mana flows through him, and now within me, greatly increased my mana capacity." He still watched his hand thoughtfully but looked back to Kieran as he continued.
"Not only that…my mate." he awkwardly matched Kieran’s use of the word unaware of the dual meaning.
"When I awoke fully, I could feel something I would never have predicted in all my years. Your…curious mana, appears to have not only opened but also purified my heart meridian.” The bizarre joy he expressed only increased Kieran's confusion.
Neaila, however, covered her open mouth as if holding back an entire ocean's worth of comments and questions, her eyes flicked rapidly between her brother and Kieran in astonishment.
"Erm, you're welcome?" Kieran hesitated. “I assume those are all good things, yeah?”
Neaila couldn't hold back anymore. "How did you do it? You have to tell me Kieran, and…can you do the same for me too, please? I'd be forever in your debt?" The desire in her eyes only confused him even more.
Shit, what did I even do? I thought I was just topping up his mana like a battery…
“Apologies" Illya bowed his head low. "In my excitement, I once more forget you lack the essential knowledge of these topics, just know that such a thing is a gift not even the gods would give even if they were capable."
For god’s sake, what did I do? Wait, god? or gods? He definitely said Gods, plural…are they religious people? I’ll ask later, like everything else…
“Honestly, I don't know what I did, so I think we just call it even dude”
The siblings actually chuckled lightly at his confusion, though he realised it wasn't in mockery.
"I already knew I would owe you a great deal moving forward from today, but now I owe you my future, too." Illya placed his hands on the floor and began to prostrate himself before Kieran. Placing his forehead on the hard ground, he did not see the look of absolute shock and disgust that covered Kieran's face in response.
"Come on now, hey! What the hell are you doing? Get up man!" he hastily began pulling the man to his feet.
"If anything, it was all self-serving since I need you to get out of here in one piece haha, so please never do that again." the awkward lie didn't feel very convincing as he said the words. And Illya apparently didn't listen to any of it as he bowed his head again.
"Once we are free from here Kieran, I swear on my life I will do everything in my power to help you, in whatever you wish for."
Frozen by the display and promise of fealty, Kieran didn't know how to respond appropriately at all. Never in his life had someone of seemingly high status shown such deference and respect to him, not even his closest friends would proclaim their allegiance to him with such sincerity.
He opted to just politely dismiss any debt since he hadn't been meaning to do anything other than increase their collective chances of survival and nothing more. It was pure happenstance that he’d become so overly carried away with the wonderful new sensations of using mana, and that it didn’t exact any negative effects on the man.
“I don't even remotely know what I did, so please Illya, just consider this a happy accident of sorts if you can.” He patted his friend on the arm to try and dispel the weird reverent gazes being sent his way.
"Also, I'm feeling pretty stocked up on mana after that little rest, so it really wasn't much effort at all on my part". Kieran said whilst getting back to his feet.
Wiping at the dust on his knees he realised all the blood acted like glue and he was just smearing the mess even more.
I’m so glad there are no mirrors in here. I must look like some absolute murderhobo shitstain…but out of sight, out of mind.
The frowning siblings both looked confused at how casually he got to his feet, apparently, expecting him to need help or something. Likewise, the deftness and ease with which Illya also arose, all but answered Kieran's own question about the man's condition.
“Are you positive you don't need a moment longer to rest?” Neaila asked with that previous look of concern filling her face again.
“I think you’re underestimating just how much mana you donated to my brother in such a brief span of time. Nobody without a complete Tier 1 mana circle should be able to recover so quickly without potions”
“She’s correct Kieran, allow me to help you walk at the absolute least”
Illya offered with a firm arm that scooped around Kieran’s back and under his armpit for support.
Kieran flinched away from the overly familiar contact that he found completely unnecessary.
“There's really no need for that mate” he insisted as he pried the long arm free as respectfully as he could, meeting Illya’s eyes to try to convey his gratitude.
“I’m dead serious, it wasn't that hard. And I promise you, I'm genuinely fine now, even better actually, since I was kinda just resting and doing breathing exercises the whole time."
Kieran patted the man on the arm and swallowed the awkwardness he could feel in his throat.
“It was literally the least I could do after you bitchslapped that big fucker before he got anywhere close to us” He justified further, nodding at the cold, bisected hulk of an Orc.
"Besides, you said you'll find me someone to teach me magic and stuff, so I think I'll owe you plenty once we get back to your city, okay?"
Illya seemed almost unsure of Kieran's words after his offer of support had been rejected so quickly and Kieran guessed it must be another honour thing from their strange culture.
"If you…insist" Illya hesitated slightly with the acceptance. His voice grew quieter as he looked back at his sister, then at Kieran.
"I will withhold my gratitude for the time being. But that does not change the debt I owe you, and if not for mine, then assuredly for my sister's sake too"
Neaila nodded deeply with a smile as she agreed with what he said.
"I feel the same, Keiran. We both owe you greatly, so make sure we all get out of here together so we can pay you back fully"
Kieran could have sworn the smile on her face held more than just gratitude for a moment, but he chalked that up to his own wishful thoughts.
“Well, start a tally if you two want, but where I'm from real friends don't keep count of favours. We just do what we can to help each other when the time arises.” He offered Illya a hand to shake. “So let's be good friends from now on, yeah?” When they both just looked at his outstretched hand with uncertainty, Kieran couldn't fully stifle his laughter.
“That sounds splendid” Neaila cut in, then stepped forward to grab his fingers with her incredibly soft and gentle hand. Kieran felt a lump in his throat for a moment as he realised he'd never held hands with such a beautiful girl in his entire life, let alone an alien noblewoman.
Thankfully his thoughts were cut off by Illya laying his hand over the top of both of their hands in an awkward but comforting grip. “To good friends then” He proclaimed with a handsome grin.
Kieran enjoyed the moment as they all looked at one another in turn repeatedly, until he realised nobody was talking, just standing there holding a weird team handshake that got more awkward by the second.
With a quick glance around the room in an attempt to avoid all the meaningful eye contact with these beautiful beings, he saw the lifeless orcs strewn across the dimly lit cavernous room. The sight reminded him they had finished their noisy battle some time ago, a familiar creeping fear reminded him they were still in potential danger and that more orcs could turn up at any time.
They still have that fucking fire mage too…
Taking his hand back with a brave smile he decided to change the topic and start back on the escape plan.
"So, erm…if you wouldn't mind guys, now that you’re right as rain…" he began with a nod to Illya.
"I think it's about time we get outta dodge, right?"
It took all he had to hold back a snort when Neaila asked "Where is this Dodge?" ever so innocently whilst scanning the room.