Aethernea : Soulbound [Book 1]

Episode 105 - Alive

Previously:

The day of the practical exams is finally here and Kiel is inside a large arena created by the Replica Dungeon. Kiel and Nelaira manage to defeat their opponents. Rhur uses Razorblood petals to slice the neck of his opponent open. Kiel and Rhur decide to each take one opponent, however, they can't agree on which opponent to pick. They end up bickering, neither one wanting to fight Deora. Nelaira tricks Deora into attacking the Rroda brothers, and Deora ends up pursuing Kiel with a barrage of fireballs. Kiel runs away, dodging the fireballs, however, Deora manages to hit him with an explosive airball. Kiel loses his consciousness and remembers the past – how he got trapped inside the burning house as a child.

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When Kiel's vision lit up again he was lying on his side, his entire body aching in utter agony. The flames had turned his stylish black clothes into scraps. His chest and arms were completely bare, and even his pants were in tatters.

His head pulsed with a migraine.

A high-pitched tone buzzed in his ears.

He couldn't hear the crackling of the fire, he couldn't even hear his own heart beat.

The sounds seemed far away, distant, quiet. It was as if someone covered his head with a pillow, muffling all sound.

His long eyelashes fluttered, trying to clear his blurry vision.

The entire world was spinning, making him sick to his stomach.

Time seemed to trickle down slowly, like sand in an hourglass.

Trickle, trickle; his blood dripped down sluggishly, rolling down his chin onto the floor.

It slid down so slowly that it looked as if it was floating instead of falling.

The dust was floating too; it covered up the sunlight, turning his entire world dark.

All his senses were compromised, unclear, failing.

How am I... still alive?—was the first coherent thought to enter his mind.

Brief flashes of what happened made his migraine intensify. His earth shield reinforced by a protection spell had helped block the majority of the impact created by the explosion. Otherwise, he would have died on the spot.

It had sent him flying like a kite with its string cut, yet because his body was arched forwards in a running pose, his body ended up curling up and rolling. Like a skipping stone, he bounced off the ground multiple times, each hit slowly dissipating the force.

Ironically, his loss of consciousness made his muscles relax which helped absorb the impact.

Therefore, even though his organs and muscles were bruised, causing him considerable pain, he suffered no serious internal injury.

Yet, what baffled Kiel wasn't that he survived the physical impact – it was because he survived the heat released by the blast. His temperature isolation had dissipated shortly after he lost consciousness, leaving him exposed to the temperatures high enough to melt steel. So how was he still alive?!

Kiel's heart thumped painfully inside his chest, the adrenaline numbing his sense of pain. He stretched his mind out to cover the entire arena. Out of all his senses, only his mana sense was working properly.

The sweep of his mind helped his heart calm down for he wasn't in immediate danger. There were no fireballs or firewalls chasing him. In fact, Deora was still recovering from the explosion himself and wasn't even on his feet.