Anima Requiem: I Bought a Katana Online and Triggered the Apocalypse-Chapter 63: Healing?

For a few seconds, Axel just sat unnaturally still, staring forward, his eyes unblinking.

The white snake around his neck, slittered upward, and stopped at the level of his left eye.

It stared intently at his unusual eye, the white slit in the middle suddenly glowing white, struggling against the darkness, trying to dispel it.

Slowly but steadily, the white grew, becoming more steady, overpowering the black.

Eventually Axel’s eye turned back to normal.

The snake finally relaxed, and returned to its position around his neck.

At first, nothing happened, Axel stayed in the same unnatural position.

Then his finger twitched, and he winced, his hand jerking upward to cover his left eye.

Axel screamed out in pain and started rolling on the ground, clutching his eye as pain radiated from it, it felt like a red hot metal was lodged into his orbit.

But the pain started rapidly disappearing, within seconds it was gone, almost as if the pain was just an illusion.

Axel slowly sat back up, resting against a wall.

What was that?

He rubbed the left side of his face as the pain completely disappeared.

That felt like I was about to die. Is my eye even okay?

He blinked and looked around, testing if he could see clearly, his eyes revealed a dim hallway, made of weathered rocks, with vines and moss covering the walls.

"Where am I?"

He looked up, a gaping hole spanning two floors revealing the purplish hue of the Netherveil above.

Then it hit him, the dragon, he was fighting it, last thing I remember was getting struck by lightning.

If so, Axel looked down on his body with a confused expression.

Why am I not injured, as a matter of fact he felt rejuvenated.

"I should be on the verge of death, or worse" He stood up and patted his body, checking for any injuries.

That’s when he noticed it, his hands were covered in something dark.

Axel quickly flapped his hand, trying to get rid of whatever that was, but it was not coming off.

Actually, it didn’t feel like there was anything on his body, it was like his normal hand, just his sight was telling him differently.

Axel stopped, gulped hard and brought the hand closer to his face.

"Tattoos?"

Axel scanned his hands with an incredulous expression, his entire hand was covered with dark scale-like tattoos.

The tattoos continued on to his left chest area, same repeating patterns, like scales, a snake’s scale.

Axel gulped hard, what is this, he repeated internally, still looking intently at the tattoo.

How did a lightning strike end up giving me snake tattoos.

His eyes widened, snake.

He looked down at his neck, white scales, the white snake still resting on his neck.

Axel felt his brow twitch, throughout that ordeal, the little guy was curled around his neck, he had even forgotten he was there.

He touched the snake.

"Are you responsible for this?" He whispered.

He wasn’t expecting an answer, but oddly the snake responded, it slittered around his neck to his cheek, and rubbed its body.

Does that mean it healed me, he rubbed the snakes head.

"Thanks little guy." He muttered, you didn’t need to add tattoos though.

The snake dug itself further into his cheeks, as if enjoying the praise.

A small smile appeared on Axel’s lips, but deep down he was scared.

That level of damage and this little creature just healed, just what was it capable of.

If it could heal, isn’t there a possibility, it could kill him as easily as well.

Not to mention the tattoos, they looked harmless, but he couldn’t help but feel like something was off about them, although he couldn’t tell why.

"All I can do is be grateful and not overthink things." Axel stood up.

At least for now.

He finally got a good look around, the rubbles from the fall formed a perfect circle around him.

It was like a sort of energy or something blew them back, creating a clean zone around him, revealing just weathered rock floor beneath.

The healing process, Axel concluded.

Then a glint from the rubble caught his eye. A silver blade was buried beneath the dirt.

The Gishiki, Axel smiled and headed towards it.

Clearing the rubble, he found the Gishiki, still as pristine as ever, but it was not alone.

A silver crystal, shaped like a tear drop, but as big as his head, and its surface was jagged.

The tail of the dragon, the only thing he was able to get from his suicidal mission.

Axel reached towards it, but as his hand was about to make contact, the snake suddenly rushed down his hands, its fangs poised.

Then it sank it into the crystal, breaking through effortlessly.

The next second, Axel watched, eyes wide, as the crystal rapidly shrunk down.

Within ten seconds, it had reached the size of a finger, that’s when the snake decided it was enough, dislodging its fangs and slittering back to Axel neck.

Axel stayed frozen, hands stretched out, while the snake rested on his neck, adjusting itself, trying to get more comfortable.

Axel felt his brow twitching, eyes moistening as he remembered all he went through.

His hands trembled with anger and sadness as he picked up the finger size crystal.

All that work, and this little bastard just sucked up everything.

Axel suddenly felt like dragging the snake off his neck and killing it.

But as he pressed the crystal in his hand, he gave up the idea.

Its surface was as hard as diamond, yet the little bastard sank its fangs effortlessly.

He’d probably kill me first.

Axel sighed helplessly.

"It’s fine, I’ll consider that payment for the healing."

He looked at the crystal within his palm, tempted to cut himself and see if he could absorb it, but he stopped himself.

Not yet, he looked up, two broken floors above him, before the Netherveil.

I could climb out, floor by floor, but...

What if the dragon was still there, waiting...

I can’t take that chance.

You’ll have to wait, he looked at the crystal again, and slipped it towards his pocket.

But he stopped, right, he was practically naked.

His hoodie and shirt were barely strings clinging to his body at this point. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

At least he still had a trouser, although the left leg up to his thigh was missing, the parts remaining had multiple burned holes.

He sighed, "beggars can’t be choosers," he murmured.

But while I wait, He looked around the hallway.

Although the rocks were weathered and covered in vines and moss, Axel could tell this was man-made.

He moved towards one of the walls, a small pillar in front of it, a cone sat on top, producing faint blue light.

A lamp of some sort, and part of a collection, as he looked down the hallway, he saw multiple similar lights.

It’ll probably be nice to explore, maybe I might get lucky, find something useful, who knows a clue on how to leave.

Or find another monstrosity.

But before he could make up his mind, the ground started trembling, the smell of blood hitting him from down the hallway.

The wind suddenly shifted, followed by faint flapping sound, then multiple clattering sounds.

Axel gulped hard and squinted, looking down the hallway.

Then he saw it, multiple of those small bat-like creatures rushing towards him.

Let’s see how much stronger I’ve gotten.

He smirked and drew the Gishiki, but his eyes widened as he saw a dark wave crawling along the wall, instantly his smile disappeared.

The bats weren’t coming for him, they were escaping something, the burrows.

Before he could react, a section of the floor above collapsed, more of the insects pouring down.

Axel’s finger twitched, but nothing happened, no teleportation.

"Shit."