After Kyran gave True Void most of the shape-shifting plates, the floating island he sat on had shrunk considerably. Still, it was spacious even with Kyran sitting cross-legged in the middle.
While Kyran was searching for the first obelisk, he took this time to heal the rest of his body.
Only his arms felt a little numb at the moment—particularly the left arm where the Sovereign of Ruin's parting gift hit.
Thinking of how the lightning easily ignored the magic enhancements on his clothes and pierced through his flesh, Kyran made a mental note to improve his magic defences. He had no problem with his physical defence, but if there were a magic attack strong enough to ignore what little magic defence he had, his physical defence would become useless. He initially thought having the Void barrier was enough to cover his lack of magic and physical defences, but now he knew how naive his thinking had been.
He might have encountered a Magus level mage, Celine and Malek, but he had not fought them to the death.
'…'
Alright, he intended to kill Malek when they fought, but if that fight continued, Kyran would definitely lose because Malek had not used any of his trump cards. He did use his weapon, but after meeting True Void, Kyran realized that Malek did not even awaken the spirit on his weapon. As a matter of fact, when Kyran was about to take his heart, Malek did not hesitate to use his weapon to block him.
It felt like Malek did not care about his weapon breaking. This convinced Kyran that Malek's weapon at that time was likely just a spare. Because as a Magus, the chances that Malek's weapon did not awaken a spirit was low.
There was also Celine. She never used a magic weapon on both occasions—not even when Kyran threatened her and Dante at the warehouse. There were several possible reasons for this. But Kyran was sure of the reasons he came up with was because she did not have one. Celine definitely had a magic weapon, but both occasions did not allow her to use it.
Kyran's conclusion from all these, he was too naive in thinking his Void Barrier and Void Armor was enough. He would be in big trouble if he could not cast them in time, or it was too weak to block a high-level magic attack.
When the Sovereign of Ruin's parting gift hit Kyran, and he ended up unable to move and circulate magic energy, if the Sovereign of Ruin used that chance to kill him, he would be dead now.
Kyran sighed in apprehension. Being spared because the Sovereign of Ruin had taken an interest in him was both fortunate and unfortunate. For now, he would take it as he owed the man but eventually would pay tenfold for everything.
'Tenfold… Does that mean I have to spare his life ten times?' Kyran thought with slight mirth in his eyes. The thought was quite absurd, to be honest. It was not like they would meet that often. At least Kyran did not plan to meet and fight that man ten times.
Pushing all these thoughts at the back of his mind, Kyran closed his eyes and felt the healing progress of his body.
There was still a numbing sense in both his arms, but with the shape-shifting plates, he had no problem moving them. He simply had to control the plates using his magic sense, and it already seemed he was moving his arms normally. The real problem lies in that he could not fully immerse his senses to better look at his body.
The Sovereign of Ruin said his parting gift would help strengthen his weak aura. Kyran had a bad feeling about it. He just hoped there were no hidden effects on his body.
'Gustaff said after each training, there is a reward. I hope there's a reward that could remove that man's gift or something,' Kyran hoped. He was slightly worried that the parting gift strengthening his aura would affect how beasts kept their distance. Or if his magic signature would now be active all the time. Staying clear of the army's magic detectors would become troublesome.
'I'll have to know what he did to my body after returning to the tower. If I failed to understand the changes it did to me, I might have to forfeit the rest of the training,' Kyran decided. Though it was a pity to stop when he had only started, if his next training would be similar to this plane, and the Sovereign of Ruin's parting gift would affect how he moved, then he would be risking his life. He would rather forfeit than try again after making sure his body would be fine.
After coming to a decision, Kyran continued healing his remaining wounds.
Three hours later, he finally found the first obelisk. Just like the second one, the color of this obelisk was gray. This got him thinking that an inactive obelisk probably had this color.
Kyran surveyed the area around the obelisk and confirmed it was intact. The barrier protecting it was most likely not affected by the obelisk's inactivity. It was also quite powerful to have kept the obelisk and the surrounding area safe despite the plane's destruction.
Without wasting any more time, Kyran jumped down from his floating island.
As he landed inside the obelisk's barrier, he began circulating his magic energy. He approached the obelisk and knelt with one knee, and touched the ground with his left hand to feel the magic array when he was close enough.
'The magic array is indeed active, but it is barely holding on,' Kyran thought. 'Originally, the obelisk is the one supplying it with magic energy. Since it has long stopped, the magic array could only make do with its reserves. Once it is drained, then it would only be a matter of time before it can no longer deploy the barrier and the surrounding area would be destroyed and soon the obelisk.'
Kyran looked at the platform around the obelisk. The second obelisk still had a few offerings on its platform, but it was practically empty here.
'Time to work,' Kyran thought and started channelling his magic energy into the magic array.
Crackle!
"Argh!" Kyran groaned as a searing hot pain shot through his left arm.
The pain seeped inside his left arm's bones, coursing through the rest of his body. It was too excruciating that his bones felt as if they were melting. He might have passed out if he had not experienced similar pain before.
Gritting his teeth and enduring the pain, Kyran focused on diffusing the pain. He soon realized that the course it was moving was the same route as to where his magic energy flowed.
Immediately, Kyran stopped circulating his magic energy. The pain alleviated a little, but the feeling of his bones melting was still there.
He closed his eyes and concentrated. It was evident from the paleness in his complexion and beads of sweat that trickled down his face how much effort he put in diffusing the pain.
After a few seconds, his breathing also turned into short gasps.
Thump! Thump!
'T-This…' Kyran's mind reeled as he felt a pulsating sense snaked all over his left arm. He was not stupid to not realize that the cause of this was the Sovereign of Ruin's parting gift.
Kyran took a shaky breath and opened his eyes. He looked at his left arm, which he noticed was pulsating with a red glow. As he controlled his uneven breathing, he willed the shape-shifting plates on his left arm to move before rolling his sleeves. On his left arm, he saw red-blood runes circling. Notably, there was one bigger rune that settled on his forearm. It looked very sinister on the Kyran's forearm with its flesh still exposed.
'Ruin… Mark of Ruin,' Kyran thought with eyes widening. Normally, he would not be able to read runes by other magic, but he could read the runes on his arm.
Once again, one of his sealed magic cores started to stir, doubling the pain Kyran was feeling.
"Damn it," Kyran cursed under his breath.
The moment he felt the seal on his magic core was lifted, Kyran immediately circulated the magic energy stored inside.
As soon as he did, his eyes turned silver as his Draconic magic burst out.
That was right. The magic core that had stirred earlier had been his Draconic core. The cause was likely due to the Sovereign of Ruin's parting gift.
"AAARGH!" Kyran roared and circulated his draconic magic as fast as he could.
His intention was simple. He wanted to use his Draconic magic's rapid healing before the tower sealed his Draconic core again. Another reason was he believed his Draconic magic had a way to suppress whatever the Sovereign of Ruin had given him.
The instant the Draconic magic burst, Kyran's whole body trembled and the dragon blood in his veins stirred. His pupils turned into slits, and even strands of gold emerged from his silver eyes, blending in with it.
All the wounds that had not fully healed at an amazing speed. If one looked closer, the new skin that rapidly filled Kyran's flesh glinted and even looked suspiciously like small skin-colored dragon scales.
The red-blood runes circling his arm finally stopped and began to retreat to the big rune that read as Ruin. In over ten seconds, the pulsating red-blood runes faded. However, the Ruin rune remained.
True enough, Kyran's Draconic magic could indeed suppress the mark.
Just when Kyran felt relieved, the tower's seal finally moved and started to reseal his Draconic core.
"Guh!" Kyran coughed out a mouthful of blood from the pain.
After almost half an hour, the pain finally subsided. Like what happened when the lightning struck his arm, he felt numb again. However, this time it was only in his left arm.
"How troublesome. Why my prominent hand of all places?" Kyran sighed while looking at the Ruin mark on his left arm.
He was taught to use both hands, but his prominent arm was still his left. When it comes to explosive strength, his left was at least three times stronger than his right.
'I have to find a way to remove this seal as soon as possible.. If I can't use my left arm because it will trigger the mark, it will become a pain.'