Healing System

'Purify.'

'...Purify.'

Michael kept retrying the same skill over and over again. However, no matter what he did, the demonic mana did not turn into normal mana.

It is futile. Demonic mana is not a corrupted form of mana; it is something else entirely.

'So this is it then?' he asked as he stopped his struggle, taking one good look around him.

Except for the people who were decently strong, the others had morphed into all sorts of forms or had even been mutated. There were even imps running around now. It was much different from the last time he faced this kind of spell.

He felt a bit of pain in his heart; it felt like he was the cause of this. Maybe if he had not killed Jax, the skill could have been stopped?

But now, all he could do was watch as it influenced the surroundings and killed most of the powerful people present.

It really made him wonder: was this world really so weak that there was not a single person who could step in and help? There was Amanda; however, she was elsewhere.

'How much time is left until this thing implodes?'

A couple of seconds. The demonic mana is growing stable. It is basically the equivalent of normal mana going unstable, meaning that it will soon self-destruct, and, in my opinion, I would recommend you don't stay for the impact.

'What a shitshow...' Michael rubbed his forehead as beads of sweat fell down. While he was not affected as much as the civilians, he was technically the one closest to the spell. It was natural to feel some sort of pain.

After all, his body was being twisted but then quickly repaired itself due to his extremely high passive regenerative abilities.

However, by now, he noticed that he was unable to stop the purple blob from exploding. It was inevitable.

The stands of the arena began to collapse on themselves, falling onto several people and crushing them, some even causing further mayhem by collapsing the arena itself. While it had been built to support a lot of people, it was definitely not able to support a few hundred-ton pillars falling on random spots.

Coupled with the fact that most of the people were frozen due to sheer panic and shock, it was total mayhem.

Michael tried to save a few of them. However, for some reason, stopping an extremely heavy pillar cost quite a lot of mana, to the point where if he did it more than 20 times, it would completely run out.

It certainly did not help that the arena was massive enough to support a couple hundred thousand people.

He finally resolved himself; there was really nothing else he could do—not that he knew of, anyway.

'Tell my group to get out... it's done.'

Sure... Done. So what do you plan on doing now? I am pretty sure your reputation is likely going to be ruined after this encounter. After all, not only did you supposedly kill an 'innocent,' on the outside, it even looked like you were the cause behind this whole spell.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

As Michael heard those words, his eyes widened. So far, after killing Jax, not a single demon or anyone else for that matter stepped up. He thought it to be strange at first, but now, it made sense.

'They were trying to stir up war...'

It would make the most sense. However, the world was pretty advanced, to the point where recognizing this entire massacre was a setup should not be difficult.

Yet, for some reason, Michael felt as if war could really happen, either between the two cities or even the entire continent.

The last war happened 28 years ago; the one before that, 47 years ago. They were all related due to aggression. I highly doubt they learned their lesson and figured out a more... peaceful approach to these kinds of things.

'This just keeps getting more shitty... fucking demons.' Michael let out an exhausted sigh and proceeded to float downwards.

Before his eyes, people were running around and screaming, seemingly lost in panic. And then there were the imps who had somehow appeared from the people themselves. It was one big massacre that he never expected to see in his life.

This is the reality of a world touched by mana. People tend to strive for higher power until finally, they completely lose themselves in it. That's what forms some of these cultist groups—people striving for power without goals.

Michael floated along the edges of the arena. There were still a lot of people down there. However, it was nearly impossible to save them. The most he could do was cover a few of them with a shield; going down would be suicide, even for him.

'Isn't destruction a goal?' he asked, noticing that Kevin and the rest were already far gone. At the very least, they listened to him.

Find more to read at empire

Is it their own personal goals though? Or the goals of those who ordered them to do so in exchange for greater power? The demons were always foolish—same with the Evangelist—but even then, they were both equally evil. Destruction will happen, and chaos will descend. There is nothing you can do about it.

Michael merely sighed at the system's words. He had noticed things going wrong ever since he made his first order. From then, it only spiraled out of control.

He was too reliant on Amanda and Rebecca, to the point where his plans were based around them in the off chance that they might come along and help.

But after everything was set in stone, he realized the foolishness of his actions. It was his naive way of thinking that he had the power to fend off something like that, especially without his Sanctuary skill.

'Can you stop it?' Michael asked. The system was his last resort. Even though it was already a bit late, not everyone had died yet.

Michael, do you expect me to save you every single time you fuck up? Listen, even if I wanted to, you did not infuse any mana into the halo. If I used your own mana, your mana core would shatter and effectively kill you. Your puny healing factor would not save you.

At the system's words, he grew speechless. 'So it's really come to this... huh?'

The purple blob in the sky began pulsating, sending out devastating amounts of mana, killing most who were in its radius. Even those who were already on the run from the arena suffered.

It seemed like its range was increasing rapidly, and all he could do about it was head away as far as he could.

Michael took one last glance at the purple orb and flew away. He just hoped his group was far enough away to not be affected by the blast. As for the other people? He could not save that many.

Along the way, he created miniature shelters out of light. It was highly doubtful they could protect the people from the explosion, but nonetheless, it was better than nothing.

Each shelter spanned roughly 25 meters in diameter and cost him around 4% of his mana to make. Michael made sure to create at least 15 of those shelters, covering quite a vast majority of people.

However, he was still not confident they would even hold, but alas, there was nothing else he could do.

After getting far enough away, he could feel the demonic mana increasing even from such a far distance. Then suddenly, it all stopped, instead shrinking inwards until eventually, it completely disappeared.

However, the foreboding feeling did not.

And he was correct, as in the next moment, a massive purple mushroom cloud burst into the air, completely wiping out the surroundings without mercy and heading outwards until finally, the sonic boom reached his ears and blew out his eardrums.

The blast kept on spreading, and the clouds were being tainted in a deep purple color. Suddenly, liquid purple drops began falling from the sky, as if they were raindrops.

All the while, Michael stood stunned, not expecting an explosion of such extreme magnitude.

But before he could realize what happened, the purple raindrops from earlier impacted the ground, and suddenly, a bunch of miniature explosions occurred, each as deadly as any regular bomb.

This is not your old world. Welcome to your new reality.

'...'