Squinting his eyes even more, he tried to see the lines in her face. Still, the nurse abruptly put her hand on his eyes and stated admonishingly, "Seeker Axel, please stop trying to use your eyes forcefully; they are already in a terrible condition from overuse of your... runic eyes. Too much mana has been used on them."
Axel instantly recognised her voice. It was the same nurse who had opened the lid of his pod after he exited from the trial world.
With a sigh, he closed his eyes as instructed, but just as his mind started to clear, he could feel the bad state of his body even more; he was much weaker than his usual strength. His stats were likely now on a much lower spectrum. All the aftereffects of using those five rune weapons to their fullest hit him like an Iron hammer.
He felt all the muscles inside his body twitching nonstop. There were multiple spots inside his body where extreme amounts of pain lingered. He surmised that those were also part of the aftereffects of using the overwhelming power. He felt....disgusted and absolutely shit by the current beyond uncomfortable state of himself.
He asked the nurse, "Well, it’s nice to meet you again, Miss Nurse."
There was a moment of silence after that, as the pretty nurse seemed a bit disappointed that Axel didn’t remember her name, but she shook her head and recollected herself. She started with a smile, even though Axel’s eyes were closed; she did not want to mistreat him. "Yes, nice to meet you again, Mr. Nomrad."
Axel nodded and asked, "So, for how long have I been unconscious?"
She revealed with a sigh of her own, "Not much, just one day."
She then paused as if hesitating on something, but the nurse stated in the end,
"But I have to say that your condition was very, very bad; the principal himself said so. He used a very rare and powerful potion to stabilise your condition; otherwise, it was possible that your injured state could have resulted in misalignments in your Soul Sanctum itself."
"And the best the principal could do for you is to heal you enough to stabilise your condition in a way that no permanent injuries linger on you. As for the backlash you are still suffering, there’s no way to negate those, as it is something that the world will itself impose on you for using too much power beyond your own level," she added in a serious note.
At first, Axel was surprised that only one day had passed, but his expression became grim when he heard about possible misalignments in his very soul sanctum. He heaved a sigh of relief that the principal helped him out with a rare healing potion; he was very much grateful for that help, of course. As for the remaining aftereffects, yeah, they could not be negated in any way, obviously. It was the cost of strength after all.
The nurse gave him a few more instructions, which were obviously to rest continuously and not push himself because of his badly weakened state. Apart from that, there were no apparent issues. Soon, when the nurse left. He tried opening his eyes again, but this time, much more gently, the blinding lights struck his eyes again, and everything felt too luminous.
Despite the immense discomfort, he continued to keep his eyes open, eventually after 5 to 6 minutes or so. His eyes gradually adjusted to the overly bright world around him.
He could see some things that were close enough to him, but apart from that, everything looked too bright and white. And no, if some readers think that he could wear sunglasses and the problem would be solved, but that’s not the case. That’s not how it works. The extra light isn’t coming from the surroundings; instead, his eye itself is making him see that.
Suddenly, a familiar voice called out to him, "Oye, bastard."
Axel grimaced and instantly squinted his eyes like an old man who had lost his glasses and looked around everywhere, but he couldn’t see anything to discern where that voice had come from properly. Then a hand smacked at the back of his head. Axel cursed,
It was obviously Heinz, the guy was very much up and well. In fact, despite how it looked, he was the one least injured from what Gareth did back then; after all, he was trying to defend Axel from false accusations. Heinz revealed the entire minor incident from start to finish, how the first prince and Ken Dusker wanted to frame him as an elven or demon bloodline holder.
Then how that eventually led to a standoff between Heinz and Prince Lucien, and what Gareth did afterwards, the full version of it, which Heinz himself heard later on, as he was the first one to pass out when Gareth smashed his and the Luceins’ heads together.
By the end of it, Axel nodded in slight surprise, but it was also expected, considering the grim veil of safety humanity was hiding behind; even a small misconceived spark or discussion could make the other races decide to do something against humanity. So, what Gareth did was quite reasonable. He snickered to himself. Ken Dusker was truly foolish beyond belief to have even attempted something like that. To try to defame him in such a downright stupid manner.
But then he frowned and asked Heinz, "Wait, what about the valkyrie? Why didn’t she intervene?"
Heinz comically placed a hand on his face, looking at his friend as if he were the biggest dumbass in the world. He thought to himself, ’I suppose all main characters tend to be pretty dumb, at least in some cases.’
He revealed then with a sarcastic tone, gesturing with his hands animatedly,
"Just when you performed that devastating attack, the large black water tsunami charged red lightning. And you were barely hanging on, standing with a bloody body from the backlash of your own attack."
Heinz then paused significantly, not saying a word more. Axel’s mouth twitched as he said in overflowing annoyance, "THEN???"
"Hehe, Then like a knight in shining armor, oh no sorry, I mean a heroine in dark dress jumped down through the chasm, she ran through the water itself and reached you in a minute, and right on that very cue the princess cough, I mean the blue prince of the academy lost his consciousness and the summoned heroine grabbed his shoulders gently and did not let him fall down to the ground."
"Then, when you were taken away by Professor Regina to be treated immediately for your severe condition, she came back to this side of the land in the same manner and simply left this place. She didn’t even bother to say anything to Lumina at that moment."