Alacryan Arthur

Chapter 16

Arthur Leywin POV

I carefully released the pain suppression spell. My sense of touch returned and with it so did the pain. But I was grateful. The sense of the manageable pain was much better than the void feeling I had earlier.

Weirdly enough the pain wasn't from my body. My core hurt a bit, from overusing the will, but it wasn't the main thing that hurt. No, I could feel how my nerves themself were damaged. I wanted to take a closer look, but I was disrupted by an immense pain on my forehead. It felt like someone bore two holes into my skull. I could feel how my skin tore, and how blood flowed down my face.

I looked at Cadell, scared about what was happening, but he stood there with a face of beaming joy and - was that pride?

I was even more confused now. I sat up, and raised a hand to where the pain was radiating from. But instead of touching my skin, it touched something smooth and cold and a bit wet. I lowered my hand, to see what the fluid was, only to realize that it was my blood.

My hand wandered back up, to feel whatever I had touched. I pushed against it, only to feel the pressure push my head back.

Cadell woke up from his frozen state. He extended a hand, to help me up.

"Welcome to the family. Quite impressive ones, if I dare say so myself."

I grabbed Cadell's extended hand. He pulled me to my feet.

"What do you mean? What is that on my head?" I asked him, overwhelmed by the situation and still numb from the pain.

He gave me a chuckle. "These are your horns."

I was still left speechless. I cast an ice wall, to see my reflection.

Just in between my auburn hair two smooth black horns had broken through my skin. The two horns were short, at least compared to Cadells, only about 10 cm long. They went up a bit and then bowed backwards. There was maybe 2cm between my skull and the horns, just enough space so they laid on top of my hair.

"What happened?" I heard a shout from the entrance of the room. Agrona came rushing to us. Then he saw me. "How did that happen?" He changed his question.

"We were training and Arthur was quite exhausted so I proposed a last round with his will, so I could see what he was capable of with it" Cadell started, while I was still looking in my reflection, staring at the horns.

Agrona was at my side now, giving me a look, like asking if he was allowed to inspect the horns. I nodded.

"He noticed the decay mana art in my core, so I decided to show him. I explained how it works, and after confirming that I could extinguish it, he held his hand in it. I wanted to stop the fire, but it didn't hurt him. It did something, but he wanted that to happen, so I let it burn.

He then asked me to use it on his whole body, which I did. He seemed to have a lot of pain at first, but it seemed to stop at some time. After a minute or so, whatever happened was complete and I stopped the flames. Then the horns came out." Cadell continued to explain, while Agrona looked at the horns and carefully touched them. After a few seconds he imbued some mana into them, to which the horns responded by absorbing the mana.

"Well, it looks like that activated your blood somehow." Agrona said. "Because of your high concentration the horns manifested instantly. But I heard the process of manifestation is very painful all the way through, especially at the end. With your concentration it should be unimaginable."

"Well, I used some mana to stop the pain. Anela had a rune to do that, so I knew it was possible, I just had to find out how. In my previous life every bit of research was a lot further than the research is here, so I know a lot about the human body. I was able to block the pain from reaching my consciousness." I explained. Agrona looked a bit dumbfounded. Then he let out a laugh.