BXBX NOVEL Chapter 251 - Large-Scale Sacred Art.
[It's the inside of a mouth!?]
*Slam!*
As the mouth above John's figure closed, he could feel the ground getting soft and softer causing him to feel more and more anxious. If whatever was up there was the mouth, then that would mean that whatever was beneath him would be the stomach.
John's legs seeped into the ground as the walls began to bend as whatever he was inside of tilted its body to head back down into the ground.
Despite, all of this happening, John simply stood still with his eyes closed, as if he were waiting for something.
Without moving he stood there silently as the mud around his legs began to quickly rise, covering half of his torso in seconds.
The mud began to burn as if it were some sort of acid as it went up his body.
"AH... Come on..." John muttered
Suddenly, the sound of gears moving could be heard as it resounded through the area. The mud had reached John's neck but now slowed down.
*Clank* *Creak*
Following that, came the sound of a clock as a blue light was formed under the mud in front of John.
"Tick* *Tock* *Tick* *Tock*
As John saw this a grin was formed on John's face as he muttered
"Large-Scale Sacred Art: Revertatur" Translation: Revert
*Tick*
A blue clock was formed around John's face everything around him stopped moving, or more specifically, began to slowly move backwards.
The walls which were rising were now going back inside of the ground, and at a fast speed. John could tell as the mud beneath him was heading back down and slowly becoming more and more solid.
As this happened John quickly activated 'Sana' on himself, as what he was doing wasn't reverting time itself but only the regressing the time of the area around him. Meaning any objects which weren't part of the earth weren't affected. That included him and the corpses.
As steam was slowly released from John's body, he could feel the pain around it slowly weaken.
"Go back 5 minutes." Said John as he clenched the handle of his dagger which remained on his waist
The time on the blue clock which was formed in front of him showed the time at around half past 3. The minute hand slowly turned back changing the time to around 3.26.
Right as that happened, the mouth of whatever it was that had swallowed John, opened up, letting the light from outside seep through.
***
Everything was exactly back to how it was when John was in the air, the corpses were back to their place above the ground and the ground was back to normal.
The only difference was that John was no longer up in the air but now in the ground.
John let out a sigh before crouching down on to the ground. There was no need to go as far as to revert the entire area 5 minutes, but if he hadn't the corpses of all of these people may have been lost.
John wasn't the type to care about death of people as he believed in the afterlife, hell he experienced it first hand, so it would be strange if he didn't.
But this was different, for the bodies to be lost like this without a proper burial, it gave off a bad taste in his mouth. Especially when all he needed to do was give away a bit of magic power to prevent it.
"Now... How am I going to deal with you?" John asked as he raised his arm
He then clenched his hand into a fist before slamming it straight down on the ground, submerging it into in the process.
As this happened John's eyes widened as he moved his head around.
"The shape changed?" He asked
Confused, John maintained his arm submerged into the ground before turning to the right, there was an area with lots of trees to spare, whereas to his left there was the city.
"I'm not a fan of deforestation but... Right it is." John muttered
[Nolite indurare terra] Translation: Harden Earth
The solid ground beneath John quickly harden itself to a higher point than before, and right after this, John pulled his arm out of it.
Without even wasting a second, he began running towards the area with the trees as he gathered wind behind him
"Levite, Velox Duplici!"
John propelled himself straight at the trees, as fast as he could, he didn't have any time to waste.
[Work... Come on...]
As he flew through the air like a cannon, he made sure to keep track of the monster's location with 'Deprehendre' And just as he had expected, it was following him.
It was big, so it was amazing how he hadn't noticed it before, if Master Sylvia had found out, she would have forced him to do more training.
[More training, huh... I used to hate it but now... It's not so ba-]
*Bang!*
The instant that John was distracted, he was suddenly stopped by a strong force before a sharp pain resounded through his chest to the rest of his body.
Whatever it was that hit him, ended up hitting him straight in his chest, cause his body to rotate anti-clockwise which resulted in his head being slammed onto the ground.
As that happened, with the same momentum from his flight, John's body dragged itself through the floor, rotating itself straight towards the nearest tree.
John tried to stop the momentum, but the pain made it harder for find his balance or even think.
[Shadow step-]
*Crash* *Thud*
John's back slammed straight on to the tree before breaking right through it due to the momentum.
*Crash*
The tree fell over to the ground and John found himself upside down with his back stuck onto the base of the tree behind the one he had just broken.
"GAH- *Cough*"
Blood was spilt out of John's mouth as his head body slowly slid down the tree. As he dropped to the ground, he clenched the dirt beneath him as his arms his body trembled in pain.
"AH...! Argh... S-Sana..."
John grit his teeth as he slammed his hand onto the ground, The impact on to the tree ended up dislocating his left shoulder, ruptured a blood vessel on his leg and nearly broke his spine from the impact.
He was lucky it was just a tree, otherwise it could have been a lot worse. He hadn't activated any wind spells to block it as he had forgotten he was no longer in the 'possessed' state, meaning 'shadow step' would no longer work.
"God... Damn It... THAT HURT!!" John shouted out as he looked up to see just what it was that hit him
Now that he was no longer in the possessed state, he could freely let his anger out.
As he looked up, he was surprised to see that there was nothing there. When he saw that, he looked down to check just what was it that hit his chest, and ended up finding a small white orb slightly submerged into his right pec.
John moved his hand towards the orb to try and pull it out, but right as he did, he was shocked by a white zap which caused him to reflectively move his hand away.
Confused, John moved his hand once more to grab onto it, he was zapped again, but ignored it, he moved his arm closer and closer and as he did so, the amount of electricity increased. However, John conducted it through and out of his arm, so that it wouldn't be vital.
As his hands touched the orb, his eyes widened before he quickly leaned his body forwards and downwards simultaneously.
In that instant, he felt a sharp sting on the back of his neck, but right as whatever it did, did that to him, John conducted the electricity from the orb straight at whatever it was that was behind him, zapping it in the process.
*BZZZT!*
There was contact, John turned his head backwards to see just what was it that he hit, but right as he did, he felt it.
The feeling he hadn't felt in a while, a feeling which left a chill in every ounce of his body, the feeling of death.
In that instant, time itself had slowed down and His body reflexively tried to step back, but it still wouldn't be fast enough.
[Fulguration!]
A white light electric flash passed through the area where John was standing as he vanished leaving behind a yellow flash.
John could be seen a few meters away from the area where he had nearly lost his life, panting heavily with a nervous look in his face.
"Hm... You were able to avoid that? Well, I guess that's the least that should be expected from someone that beat the boss."
John's eyes widened as his blood slowly dripped down from his forehead, he couldn't believe that he was out sped, even with the help of his sacred treasure.
"You're-"