Soul King(DxD)

Mage 30

 Blood splattered onto the ground, wetting the beautiful green of the grass as a result of the wound.

Y/N fell to his knees, using nothing more than a katana to support himself and not topple the rest. The body was sweaty, drops and drops of sweat ran down the skin, some falling from the chin, directly to the earth.

How long had he been moving? The panting breath delivered a pretty intense physical workout, even for someone like him. The sweat just mixed with the blood that was flowing, a cut from the shoulder to the opposite side of the waist, the wound was already closing, the orb on the shinigami doing its job of protecting the wielder, even so, by the number of tears in the clothing, it is notable that this was far from the first wound he received.

Merlin walked further forward, he looked at the shinigami without expressing a certain emotion, at least for Y/N he couldn't understand what he was thinking. He gripped the hilt of the sword he was holding and swung it, the blood on it mostly came out, leaving only a few stains.

A sigh, this time a smile, the sword was gone again, showing a pause on his part. Merlin raised one of his hands and made a peace sign.

Merlin: Let's stop for now. We've been doing this for 3 days already, you deserve a stop.

Rest is part of evolution, after all, just continually breaking one's limits without rest is harmful to oneself, the body needs to get used to the new capabilities, otherwise, it just deteriorates because of overdoing it.

The katana in Y/N's hand was gone and he now used both hands to support himself, keeping his body from falling to the ground. Exhausted is a word that fits his condition right now, he's been moving non-stop for 3 days straight without a break, not even a minute to rest or even breathe.

He was cut several times, and the state of his clothes showed it. Torn and bloodstained, he would need to change it urgently.

Even so... he still couldn't regain his contact with his power, the swords he had been creating to defend himself until now were all created by his magic, luckily Kokabiel's reserves were quite high.

He couldn't help but laugh at his situation.

Y/N: Well shit...

Merlin reacted to the comment, he raised his eyebrows in doubt, the first time Y/N was bothering to express something in these 3 days. During the attack he simply accepted everything that was coming at him, he was hurt and injured several times, and he tried to fight back several times, it's good to see that at least he wasn't a coward.

Merlin: What's the matter, Y/N?

Y/N: It's the first time I'm dealing with this, no powers, nerfed like a shounen protagonist after becoming a father. I've been called weak recently by two different guys...

Merlin: From the way you're talking, I don't think you put your head down that easily.

Y/N: Haha! I left the first one walking with a cane for a week and then I nuked the second one. I may even have been injured, but the victory was always mine... this time I was called weak... and I was weak. And I wasn't even hurt, he left me awake, unharmed, so I got to taste the bitter taste of losing in my mouth. I lost the fight, I lost who I was supposed to protect, I lost my powers... I just lost.

And he laughed again, someone like Merlin could tell that this laugh is one of despair, the kind when you just don't know how to react to your misfortune.

The weight of wanting to protect something is extremely disgraceful when you cannot fulfill that protection.

Wearing Kisuke's mask was able to piece together Y/N's mind of everything that happened, when that mask fell off he had to deal with all the sensations at once. He died, he killed, he hurt, he was hurt, he failed, and he witnessed death...