From Moving Crates to Killing Gods-Chapter 56: A Weapon Bleeds

My momentum carried me forward a few more steps before my legs gave out entirely. I collapsed onto the training room floor, my chest heaving, my vision gone. Every heartbeat sent a spike of agony through my skull, the backlash of pushing my newfound ability far beyond what was wise.

I crossed the finish line and kept going, not by choice, but because at that speed, I was a projectile now, no longer a runner. Hurtling forward with nothing but momentum.

For a moment, my legs finally remembered they were supposed to obey someone, but that someone was gone. Both mind and body switched off simultaneously, like a puppet whose strings had been severed mid leap. At full sprint, with the accumulated velocity of the last twenty five laps and a spell designed to cheat physics, the sudden loss of control was catastrophic.

I crashed. My body slammed against the stone floor with enough force to crack something in my shoulder, the impact launching me into a violent tumble across the training room. I bounced once, twice, my hip striking, then my head connecting with a sickening thud that broadcasted white lightning inside my skull. I was brought to a halt against the far wall, leaving a smear of blood and torn fabric behind me.

For a long moment, there was nothing. No thought. No pain. Just absence.

Then the world snapped back into painful focus, and I wished for the emptiness to return.

"Allaran!" Phinyx’s voice seemed to come from very far away. "Are you okay?"

I tried to respond, but my mouth wouldn’t form words. My body felt like it belonged to someone else, distant and unresponsive. The cool surface of the floor pressed against my cheek was the only sensation that seemed real.

"What happened?" Kira’s voice now, closer, worried. "What did he do?" 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"I don’t know." Phinyx sounded equally concerned. "He was running normally, and then suddenly he was... everywhere. Moving faster than I’ve ever seen anyone move."

I wanted to tell them about Quickstep, about my intelligence reaching level 10, about the breakthrough I’d achieved after months of failure. But my lips refused to cooperate, my mind sliding toward the comforting darkness of unconsciousness.

"Is he breathing?" Kira asked, her voice tight with worry.

"Yeah." Phinyx’s hand pressed against my neck, checking my pulse. "His heart’s racing, though. And there’s blood..."

I felt something warm trickling from my nose, from my ears. The familiar sensation of ability backlash, though far more intense than anything I’d experienced before.

Kira knelt beside me, her face swimming in and out of focus above my own. I could see her eyes widening as she took in the damage, the gash on my scalp and my shoulder, the blood seeping from my nose and ears. Her hand hovered near my face, uncertain whether to touch.

"I’ve never seen backlash like this." she whispered. "Not even when he overused his ability. This is different. This is worse."

"We need to move him." Phinyx’s voice had lost its usual calm, edged with urgency I’d never heard from him before. "Now. Before—" He stopped, but I knew what he wasn’t saying. Before it got worse. Before something permanent broke.

"Help me get him to his room." Kira’s voice was steady now, taking command of the situation. "We need to let him rest."

I felt arms sliding under my shoulders, lifting my unresponsive body from the floor. The movement sent fresh waves of pain through my skull, but I couldn’t even groan in protest.

When Phinyx started carrying me I wanted to laugh, not long ago I was the one taking him towards the hospital, back when we had just remembered his existence

"He’s heavier than he looks." Phinyx grunted, adjusting his grip.

"That’s because he’s actually been training." Kira replied, a hint of dry humor breaking through her concern. "Unlike some people who just sit and meditate all day."

"Hey, vibing is hard work too." Phinyx protested weakly as they began dragging me toward the elevator. "I’m actually extremely tired too, I’ve been vibing since the morning."

Their voices faded in and out as they maneuvered me through the spire, my consciousness flickering like a candle in the wind. Snippets of their conversation reached me through the fog.

"...never seen anything like that..."

"...getting so much stronger..."

"...backlash from what, though? It wasn’t his Switch ability..."

"...new power maybe?..."

By the time they reached my quarters, I was marginally more aware, though still unable to speak or move voluntarily. They laid me on my bed with surprising gentleness, Kira carefully arranging my limbs while Phinyx fetched water from my washroom.

"Do you think he’s going to be okay?" Phinyx asked, setting the water on my bedside table.

Kira studied my face for a long moment. "I think so. It looks like ability backlash, just more severe than usual. He must have pushed himself too hard."

I wanted to tell them that after the amount of damage I’d taken today, constitution was on the verge of reaching level 10, and if it worked like my other breakthroughs, I’d be as good as new in no time.

"But what was he doing?" Phinyx wondered, perching on the edge of my desk. "That wasn’t running. That was... I don’t even know what to call it."

"Becoming what Damian wants." Kira said softly, her expression troubled. "A weapon."

I wanted to protest, to tell her it was more than that, that the Quickstep spell represented something beyond just combat potential. It was understanding, mastery, the result of perseverance in the face of repeated failure. But darkness was closing in around the edges of my vision, my exhausted mind unable to fight it any longer.

The last thing I heard was Phinyx’s thoughtful hum.

"A weapon, maybe." he said, his voice returning to its usual philosophical calm. "But one with a vibe of his own. One that might decide for itself what it wants to cut."

Then unconsciousness claimed me, and I knew nothing more.