Khan violently landed on the arena, and its shattered floor trembled once more, lifting the tallic dust lingering on its surface. The lightning bolt had disappeared from his hand, and the sa went from Lord Mighty, but they soon revealed their presence.
A deafening booming noise resounded to Khan's right. Lord Mighty had reappeared at the arena's edge, completing his attack by punching the air. The tal floor bent and rose, giving birth to a small spiky wave that stretched into the barren ground.
The brown ground past Lord Mighty simply opened, turning into sand that split into a massive conical groove. His punch crushed the earth without targeting it, and Khan couldn't see the extent of the damage from his position.
However, Khan could see that Lord Mighty wasn't alone. A bald figure stood behind him, his left hand still on his shoulder. Khan managed to recognize Lord Envoy before an angry thunder spread through the sky, bringing his glowing gaze toward its source.
A purple-red blast had expanded high in the sky, far higher than Khan had ever flown during the battle. Its radiance devoured anything in its path, creating a blinding, gargantuan mark that shone into the area. Its destructive power eroded Zedekiel's light pollution, and its scattering opened a window into the planet's atmosphere's true face.
A dark hole had opened in the red sky. Faint lights littered it, marking the distant stars. Apparently, it was night on Zedekiel, and Khan gazed at that window into the universe until the planet's light pollution began to close it.
The situation was already partially clear in Khan's mind, and looking at the two Royal Guards again confird it. Smoke rose from Lord Envoy's right hand, and so seriousness deepened the many wrinkles on his face. Teleporting the lightning bolt and Lord Mighty away couldn't have been easy, but he had succeeded without suffering any backlash.
Khan didn't know how to feel about that developnt. Honestly, he wasn't sure about how he felt in general, either. The recent interaction with the world's mana and the cloud had been no small thing, and Khan wasn't sure thinking about it would do anything.
Khan only knew he felt empty. All the violent, wild urges the cloud had given him had disappeared with the spell. Only his desperation had remained, adding a deep, ominous vibe to his eyes' glow. He looked ready to do sothing terrible, but soone approached him nonetheless.
Lord Enforcer had left the gazebo as soon as Khan landed. By the ti Khan bothered to look in his direction, the Royal Guard had already reached him, his machine-like eyes inspecting him from head to toe.
Wild urges imdiately flooded Khan, and mana started to flow toward his left palm, but Lord Enforcer probably said the only words that could prevent the worst from happening." [The Emperor ordered to heal you]."
The accumulated mana dispersed before showing its presence. Khan's gaze softened as it fell toward his body. His condition hadn't been good in the first place, and his latest feat had only worsened it.
Khan's ears had stopped ringing, but only muffled sounds reached them. He felt as if padding was obstructing them, preventing their normal functioning.
Khan's right arm was still mostly unresponsive and bent sideways. His efforts to lift or move it at all just led to tremors, which included his shoulder.
Khan still couldn't breathe properly. His strange condition and insane physical resilience made him dismiss the problem, but it was clear his lungs weren't fine. The sa probably went for other organs, even if without the sa level of gravity.
Summoning the lightning bolt had also partially mangled Khan's left arm. The damage wasn't as deep as Lord Envoy's palm since Khan's body had evolved through his elent, but the spell had still been too much for now. Khan had even wielded it for far longer, and his incomplete attunent with mana had led to injuries.
The flesh on Khan's hand and forearm seed to have turned into scales. Shallow cuts littered it, creating spiderwebs that split his skin into many small shapes. So tiny chunks had also fallen off, but the bleeding had mostly stopped.
"[Blue Shaman]," Lord Enforcer called when he stopped before Khan, towering above him by more than half a ter. "[I'll start with your torso]."
Lord Enforcer stretched his huge palms toward Khan, hovering them above his chest before releasing a strange energy. Khan had briefly experienced the Royal Guard's intrusive influence in the Royal Palace, but his mana felt far softer now. It seamlessly seeped into Khan's body, mimicking its functions before fusing with certain damaged areas.
A sharp pain imdiately spread through Khan's chest. The sensation was so unnatural he struggled to describe it. He felt as if his organs, muscles, and bones were splitting apart, but in a good way. If it weren't for Lord Enforcer's good intentions, Khan's mana would have already burst forward to oppose him.
A grunt eventually escaped Khan's throat. He wasn't voicing his pain. Sothing was rising through his neck, clogging it and forcing him to fish it out. He had to cough twice for that mass to reach his mouth, and spitting it to the floor revealed its gory shape. Khan wasn't sure about what exactly that bloody lump was but knew it ca from inside him.
"[Bodies have specific patterns ingrained in their every tissue]," Lord Enforcer said. "[Each of their cells has rules, rules to absorb nutrients, rules to carry nutrients, rules of energy and death. They also have self-replicating rules, commonly known as healing]."
Khan didn't even realize that his pain was fading and his breathing was improving. He was too absorbed by Lord Enforcer's explanation and its connection to his power to care.
On top of that, Khan was surprised that Lord Enforcer was bothering to explain himself to him. The Royal Guard didn't strike him as the most emotional Thilku. After all, he was simply following the Emperor's orders, but appearances were deceiving.
If Khan's mind had any room for happy thoughts, he would almost believe the machine-like Thilku had acknowledged him as one of their own.
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