flap!

his wings grew out, as he shot into the air. his face twisted in pain, but he could only endure it. thump! flying over star city, he fell from the sky and rolled a few times. " ughhh...." his side was healing extremely slowly, and both it and his arm were hurting. although his wings and fingernails were like parts of his body, like hands or feet, if he is too tired he won't be able to use them. Levi tried to turn on the coats invisibility, but that didn't work for two reasons. first, he didn't have any qi to activate the inscription. and second, when owen punched through his side, the inscription on the coat was partly destroyed. Levi was in a pitiful state as he limped through star city, following the trail of shriveled corpses.

after a while, he reached the city gates, and decided to go into the forest where he first met Ava and Noah. thump! walking through the forest, he fell to the ground in pain and exhaustion. without a word, Levi descended into unconsciousness. gri! gri! Levi woke up to the sound of crickets and birds chirping. the sun was on the horizon, staining the clouds a dark orange. he pulled his face up from the dirt, before going to rest his back against the trunk of a broad tree. "..." his blood energy was slowly returning, but he found a problem. he was sure that a few hours had pa.s.sed, but his qi had not returned. "nnn..." he crossed his legs, his face twisting in pain. his side had also not healed yet. he attempted to practice the water commandment, but no qi rose from his body. he tried to absorb qi, but found that even if it went inside his body, it would leave the same way.

" Avesta, what is happening?" Levi called out aloud. [.....t...ap..ars..tha...the core...as...een...da...maged....] Avest's voice cut in and out. since she was part of the core itself, and it was damaged, it would also affect her. "...is there a way to fix it?" Levi asked. [un...tunately....yo...g...lor...yo..do...ot...ave...th...stre..ngth....r...mat...ials...o...do...o] this reply was even worse than the first one. "what will happen if the core does not work as it should?" Levi asked once again, he could barely understand what Avesta was saying, but he could not help but ask.

[...unpr...dictable...thi..gs...] Avesta said simply. "unpredictable things...." he looked down at his side, and saw that it still wasn't healed. puff! a small black flame appeared, as Levi checked to see if he could still use mental energy. "Avesta." he called out. [...] but Avesta did not reply. "....demon saint.." he called out after a while. 'yes?' the demon saint responded. " are those weird letters still around you?" he asked. ' some of them dissapeared, but there are still a few.' the demon saint responded. he had seen the letters flicker before turning dark and dissapearing, but he thought it was just levi doing something.

"..." Levi stayed silent. he had a lot of things on his mind, but he decided to look through the information about inscriptions in his head. bdump! as he began looking over the information, the small seed of knowledge in his head pulsated. since he couldn't move for the time being, he closed his eyes and immersed himself in what he remembered.

after a few hours, he opened his eyes. checking his blood energy, he found that it was stuck at the 3rd stage. he broke through to the 4th blood stage, but the amount of blood energy that returned during this period of time only reflected that of the 3rd stage. " does this have something to do with my core being damaged?" Levi mumbled. he clenched his teeth and got up, two wings growing from his back as he shot into the sky. a lone figure flew through the night sky, sometimes dipping, as if about to fall. tap! Levi landed in stone village after a long time, sweat pouring from his face. "was flying always this hard? even if my side is like this, flying shouldn't be this hard...." levi mumbled.

"is that you, young master?" a female voice rang out behind levi. looking around, a woman with long reddish brown hair covering half of her face stood, along with a skinny boy. their face's were sweaty, as if they had just finished working. "where are the other two?" levi asked. " they are still in the mine. are you alright, young master?" aria reached out. " continue what you were doing." before she could touch him, Levi turned around. puff! Levi sent out a wave of mental energy as far as he could, he was checking to see if the mental energy he put in the four was still there. he found that both Aria and Aron still had the mental energy in their heads, but he didn't know about Don and Larck, since they were still in the mines and his mental energy couldn't reach that far.

" ah, you are back, young master! the required amount of ore will be ready by tomorrow evening, so we will be leaving in a few days." the merchant said as soon as he saw Levi. "i'm going to rest." Levi nodded, before walking into the stone building.

...

next day. evening.

Levi slept the entire day, only waking as the sun started to go down. "ugh..." looking down at his side, he saw that it was becoming a blackish green color, while his arm was still only a stump. the skin around the stump had already healed, leaving Levi confused. he tried to regrow his arm, but failed, but the skin grew back anyway. he tried to heal the hole in his side, the skin grew, but the inside was just blood, and now it was changing color. overall, only the skin grew back. "young master?! what happened to your arm?!" Aria shouted as Levi got onto the wagon. since it was dark last night she didn't see that his arm was missing. "..." Levi got onto the wagon and sat silently, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead as he held his side.