Chapter 516 (2/2)

Information flooded Hank’s mind, but it was too late for that, Paolo had arrived.

With impossible grace, he shimmied to the side, sliding his body through the spaces between the bullets. Hank’s eyes sparkled.

“Bulletstorm.”

The Mana within the bullets detonated simultaneously, shards of Mana charged shrapnel flying in every direction. Paolo cursed. At that moment, Hank simply lowered his shoulders and leaped forward, hitting Paolo in his bloody chest. A few steps back, and…

The Lawman’s Guillotine, the bullet he had shot up earlier, descended.

It crashed into Paolo’s shoulder, inflicting the first real damage that Hank had managed, likely destroying the joint and rendering his right arm useless. Even so, Paolo’s elbow whipped upwards, striking Hank across the bridge of the nose. He felt the crack and borrowed the force to open up a meter or so of space between them.

“Well shit,” Paolo said, shaking his head. His grin was still wide. “This has actually been a lot of fun- hey, man, are you alright?”

Hank didn’t feel alright. He swayed, took another step backward, and then collapsed. Paolo rushed to his side, as well as Kayle and Affina. Kayle swore under his breath.

“Smart guy picked up on Intents almost instantly. He probably created one during the battle. This is Aether Sickness. Bad, the worst I’ve ever seen.”

The figures blurred together in Hank’s mind. His head began to throb painfully. He felt the blood in his body turning to sludge, refusing to continue flowing forward. Snatches of conversation made their ponderous way to his consciousness, even as he felt himself sinking.

“...the others….”

“...said not to contact him….”

“...athan? He can….”

“...Hank? Can you hear….”

There was darkness and coolness. Some part of Hank refused to accept it, but it was like a child crying out against the injustice of the sun leaving every day. He was not an existence could change this outcome.

Time pooled and swirled like a mischievous stream, and Hank was carried slowly away. But then all at once, he felt a grip on him, pulling him out of the darkness.

His eyes flickered and then opened. Above him, a familiar face was sitting, frowning down at him. “Easy, this is the first time I’ve worked in such depth with a Soul Skill. Your Class needed a bit of a tune of too; your images were getting too strong for it, which was why there was such bad feedback.”

Hank blinked slowly. It was the child from the thorny house.

“You shouldn’t be here, it’s dangerous.” Hank managed to spit out. He wasn’t sure where they were, but they were near the borderlands for sure. Even with protection, getting here-

The kid, Nathan, laughed. “Oh, it’s quite safe. I have several protectors. But you need to rest; the surgery was a success, you’ll recover in a jiffy.”

As Nathan was standing to walk away, some of the words he had been saying finally got through to Hank. The only reaction he could think of was to frown, but Nathan noticed as he was turning away. Again, he only laughed.

“Relax, I might not have much experience, but I’m basically the second best at this in the world.” He said proudly, puffing out his chest. “Hopefully I can become the best someday… because I am a Soul Architect.”