Starflash

Nova's crumpled body waved about in the wind.

「...No good, huh?」[Nova]

He struggled to breathe normally.

「Come on…! Nobody will-」[Nova]

「Hey. I'm still here, you know?」[Asmodasiah]

He just realized that Asmodasiah was still dwelling with him.

「Aren't you going to ask for my help?」[Asmodasiah]

「Can you save me right now?! Please?!」[Nova]

She materialized right next to him, floating down with him.

Asmodasiah simply lifted two of her fingers, a gray wind lifting Nova upright and slowly being let down to the ground.

With that, the adrenaline and heart pounding fear came to a slow.

「Thanks…-」[Nova]

The moment his foot touched the ground, a huge wave of pain rushed through his body.

『AAAAHGH!』[Nova]

He fell to the floor, his leg bent in horrible ways.

「It's a lot better than being dead, but... DAMN!」[Nova]

「...I cannot help with anything regarding the regeneration of your body.」[Asmodasiah]

「It's… fine! I'm not going to die from bleeding out… I can use this chance to figure out how to use my spells when I'm bleeding…!」[Nova]

He tried to sit himself up, but he almost went unconscious from the pain.

「God… Don't fly while distracted, huh…?!」[Nova]

『Blessed Flame Rebirth.』[Nova]

A flame appeared on his hand, but it looked like it was going to go out at any time.

「It seems that you're strong when you don't have a single scratch on you, aren't you?」[Asmodasiah]

「My body leaks mana when I bleed. I'm sure there is a way to circumvent that, but I wouldn't know how. It's not like I have...」[Nova]

He suddenly thought of a certain blind girl.

「...Wait. Mariya has Mana Heart…. I need to… go pay her a visit after this.」[Nova]

Asmodasiah scoffed as Nova tried to place the weak flame next to his leg.

The flame looked like it was going to blow out in the wind any second.

Nova poured more mana into it, but the more he put in, the more it required to keep up.

「Okay… Just put more mana, and more spills out! Great!」[Nova]

He quickly dispelled the spell, not wanting to waste his mana.

『Blessed Flame Rebirth: Starflash!』[Nova]

The spell worked, but the light was extremely dim in comparison to the normal spell.

It closed his wound a bit, making his mana stabilize a bit.

「I think I can try it again.」[Nova]

Asmodasiah floated nearby, watching him.

『Blessed Flame Rebirth!』[Nova]

This time, his flame was a normal size, floating stably.

『...Are you well? I know best of human fragility, after all.』[Asmodasiah]

By now, the flame was mending the rest of his broken skin.

『...I'll… be fine. Thanks, Asmodasiah...』[Nova]

『It's fine. It's a part of the contract, after all.』[Asmodasiah]

Nova nodded, focusing on the healing of his skin first.

After a few moments, he was no longer bleeding.

『...As long as I start of with a huge amount of my mana first, my flame can heal the places where I'm bleeding before, then I can stabilize my mana... 』[Nova]

He focused on his now cleaned leg.

Even without the blood and open wound, it looked horrific.

『...Why don't you just let everyone else do the work? Not like you can do much right now.』[Asmodasiah]

Nova looked at his horribly bent leg.

『...Uhh… I still want to be able to walk normally...』[Nova]

He focused his flame on his leg, but it only caused more pain in his leg.

『...I don't think I have enough energy to fix it right now…!』[Nova]

He suddenly realized that he had some mana potions in the ring that Edwin gave him.

『Oh! Wait!』[Nova]

He pulled out the contents of the ring, excluding the things that he put in.

In his hands were 3 vials of blue potions, one crystal with specks of light inside of it, the coupon "book", and the emblem.

『...Oh… I had my teleport crystal this entire time...』[Nova]

He returned everything but a mana potion into the ring.

Asmodasiah bent down next to

『I can't help but notice, are you talking to yourself?』[Asmodasiah]

Nova stared at her with a weird look.

『...I'm talking to you, though?』[Nova]

She stared back at him with wide eyes.

『I don't...』[Asmodasiah]

『...Well, if you weren't paying attention, I guess I was talking alo-』[Nova]

His leg suddenly made a jerking motion, causing it to return to a slightly more normal position…

However…

『AAAAAAAAHCK?!』[Nova]

He had no idea that it was gonna happen, so of course he was screaming at the surprise pain.

His concentration instantly broke, the flame dissipating into the wind.

『...Are you alright?』[Asmodasiah]

He clutched at his leg, tears streaming down his face, due to the pain.

『I'm… fine! Just… hurts!』[Nova]

He took a breath before drinking the mana potion.

『Hmm… Isn't that a bit too much potency for you right now?』[Asmodasiah]

Nova nodded and felt the mana building up in his body.

He quietly gathered the mana in his chest, similar to how Reagan had taught him to layer his mana shields.

『It's something new… but…!』[Nova]

After he reached the breaking point of stacking the mana together in one place, he began stockpiling mana in his stomach.

He continued to do this throughout his body, making sure that he didn't blow up.

After a certain point, he could feel the upper limit being hit.

『Nova... You don't have much more until you blow up!』[Asmodasiah]

His mind had gotten pretty hazy suddenly- causing him to lose concentration on real life.

Her worried words went in one ear and left the other.

All he could concentrate on was an incessant mumbling in his mind.

Many visuals flew past in his vision, without a doubt- illusions.

「Wh..What is going on..?」[Nova]

He felt the pressure in his body building up still, but he had no idea what to do-

「...I can't even concentrate on my leg… 」[Nova]

He tried to focus on the visual illusions and saw letters and words flying about.

「...What the hell is this?」[Nova]

He looked about and quickly tried to swat at them, before his hand made contact with an "S" and he ended up grabbing it.

He stared wide eyed at the letter, before realizing that his mind got a bit clearer.

「...Maybe…?」[Nova]

He grabbed at several more words, and the more he grabbed, the clearer his mind became- letters and words disappeared the more he grabbed until there was a single letter floating about.

He had a full set of letters in front of him before he grabbed the final letter.

The word seared itself into Nova's eyes.

『...Starflash.』[Nova]