Chapter 32: Energy Refill

Insig's body wasn't shaking, but his eyes were .... calm and empty, as if he was used to this.

All of the happy thoughts inside his head faded and turned into seriousness as he finally knew the graveness of the situation.

What was in his surroundings was the mauled bodies of his coworkers. They were riddled with holes and were almost unrecognizable. If it weren't for the bits of healer suit around it, Seiki wouldn't have recognized them.

The surroundings were dyed scarlet because of the blood, and the mixture of mud, debris, organs, and blood made a gory painting of a bloody river.

Insig was not shocked by this scene. He has seen enough bodies when he was working as a surgeon.

But even though they were just coworkers, Insig still felt sad seeing them dead.

'Am I the only one who survived? Looks like i must have been really lucky to activate the artifact...'

For a minute, Insig just stood there. He closed his eyes and gave the departed a moment of peace.

After a while, Insig opened his eyes, but they were calm and the light in them dimmed down. His gaze looked cold and piercing, but they looked empty at the same time.

Insig's heart was beating at the same pace, it didn't rise or fall at the slightest. He felt that the cold was biting him to the bones, but he didn't shake a single bit. His breathing was steady and emotions left his mind.

After his mind settled down, Insig observed the mauled bodies of his coworkers. Some have white fog with faces and life energy leaking out of them, while some have their life energy concentrated in the mana heart.

What caught his attention was the fog releasing from the bodies. It rained just earlier, so the possibility of fire was quite low.

'This fog looks familiar... it's most likely the... soul.'

Insig estimated that it was the soul because of the color, figure, and it felt like so with its spooky face and weird vibes.

Insig observed the souls and found out that every time the wind, light, or earth touch them, they would decrease in size. They also seem to be moving towards each other and those who touched each other are already... fighting.

They were covering each other and tried to absorb each other's energy, giving them more time to live.

However, the supply of the soul energy was insufficient, thereby making them run out of energy and dissipate.

Insig looked closely at the death of the souls. He felt like there was something.... underneath it... like an underlying... knowledge, however, he just can't seem to grasp it.

'Whatever, all I need right now is to refill my mana heart and heal my legs.'

Insig used his arms as legs and he... walked(?) towards the corpses.

O

/[ ]\ →(AN: He looked like this)

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"Aargh!"

His bruised arm ached in pain because of the broken bones and the rough yet muddy terrain made him stumble a couple times.

Insig approached one of the soul-less, empty corpses, although 'corpse' is an overstatement as the 'body' is more like... mud.

Crushed organs, skins, hair, and scarlet water were all over the place. If it weren't for the pieces of fabric, Insig wouldn't have known where the heck this corpse came from.

*Thud* *Huff*

Insig dropped his body and panted.

After stabilizing his breathing, Insig stretched his hands towards the scattered organs.

'Whoever you are, I'm sorry that you won't die without a proper burial, nor a body. Thank you.'

Insig imagined it. The owner of this corpse, who lost his family and loved ones, joined the army to take revenge, yet he died just like that, without even someone remembering him, nor knowing how he died.

He was insignificant, until the end. Like a pebble on a road, like dust in the universe. He died without someone knowing him.

Insig proceeds to absorb his organs. He conjured a wift of death energy and let it spread on the bloods and organs.

The death energy quickly spread and the repulsive scent of organs grew stronger. Black spots spread on the bloods until they withered and turned into a black miasa— the death energy.

'Mhm~.'

Insig felt ecstatic as the death energy in the corpse quickly spread and increased. This was the natural will of death, they wanted to kill all living beings and conquer the world.

After calming down, Insig absorbed the death energy back and circulated it, balancing his mana heart.

Insig 'looked' inside his body and he sensed his mana heart. It was now as big as a bowl.

However, Insig was still dissatisfied with this.

'If my energy is lacking while healing my legs, this might cause complications and worsen my health.'

Insig then proceeded to absorb all the other corpses, while also torturing himself with imagining how insignificant their lives was.

After 15 minutes, Insig has absorbed 20 corpses. He scanned the surroundings and found a rather flat place.

Insig once again 'looked' inside his body, this time, he sensed that his mana heart was as big as a basketball.

'Hmm. This is enough.'

Insig swept the dust off the ground and laid down. He closed his eyes and focused on his mana heart.

He manipulated the death energy like manipulating clay with imaginary hands. He moved the death energy towards his waist to reopen the wound.

Like freckles, small black spots surfaced at his amputated leg. The black spots quickly grew until it reopened the wound on his legs. He immediately retrieved the death energy back to not worsen the wound.

Insig quickly switched to using life energy. He poured a bunch of energy into his waist. This was to boost the natural regeneration ability of the body.

If Insig was the one who guided the regeneration of the limb, then there is a chance that a nerve, muscle, blood vessel, or such to be misplaced.

However, the cells of the body hold the DNA itself, which is almost 99% correct, thereby decreasing the chances of making any errors.

As Insig poured the magic into his waist, he fell into a state of... euphoria. He felt like his lower body was up in the sky, although he can't feel his legs because he doesn't have them yet.

A green brilliance radiated from his legs and the cells in his lower body began to reproduce quickly. They divided quickly but they were systematic, as not a single one cell went out of control.

Slowly, bones, nerves, muscles, tissue, organs, blood vessels, and skin began to regenerate.

Insig closed his eyes and observed that his energy was instantly depleting, however, Insig felt a 'new' sensation in his lower body part.

The disappearance of his legs made his lower body numb. And he even sometimes develops the 'phantom body' symptom, where he senses something with his phantom legs, but they were actually just habits that the brain made.

That's why the sensation of having legs was quite 'new' to him.

After a while, the procedure quickly ended. An impatient Insig excitedly opened his eyes. They were still calm, but light came back, with exceptions inside them.

In his view was a pair of unblemished legs. They looked like a newborn's legs, white, with a hint of pink. They were rather thin because the muscles haven't developed yet. They were silky smooth and bouncy.

'Yes! I can finally walk again!'

Insig's breath in hastened and he hurriedly tried to walk but....

"Ehh!?"

Insig blurted out in surprise because he... can't move his legs!

'Wh— What happened!?'

Insig slightly panicked and checked his legs. He doesn't seem to see a single mistake, nor a wound.

Insig was panicking when he suddenly remembered his time as a surgeon.

One of his patients had her legs reconnected. She was not able to move her legs, so they tried to stimulate the nerves by using the sensation of the feet.

Insig immediately calmed down and tried the idea. Insig leaned forward and touched his feet.

Insig only focused on the sensation that his legs felt. After that, he pinches his legs.

"Aargh!"

Insig pinched really hard to stimulate his nerves. Feeling the pain, his legs twitched in pain, and Insig's eyes widened.

"It worked!"

Insig tried to control his legs, and whenever he lost sense of them, he would stimulate his nerves with pain.

Insig leaned on a nearby stone and slowly stood up. His legs were shaking like twigs in a storm, thin and weak.

'"Ugh! Damn it! The muscles aren't developed yet, so they are rather weak. Looks like I have to train them again."

Insig sighed and imbued life magic in his legs to temper his endurance. Because of this, Insig no longer has any problem with standing.

But Insig had a problem with walking because he hasn't developed muscle memory yet.

Insig felt weird as he felt thankful for having legs, even though he was the one who removed them first.

'Well, anyway... what should I do with this?'

Insig awkwardly questioned himself. Right now, he was... stark naked in the middle of public. His clean and large schlong was hanging like it was just chilling around in the cold wind.

Insig's cheeks and ears flushed slightly from embarrassment. He would have looked slightly cute if it weren't for the dried saliva, gravel, and his bloodshot tired eyes that made him look like he was high af.

'Do I look like a stripper now? Wait, what am I thinking? I should hurry up and look for new pants.'

.

.

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*Thud*³

The sound of footsteps echoed in the muddy land. Insig was exploring the destruction of the rain.

However, his legs looked weird, it was like a gorilla's. Curly black hairs were surrounding it, covering his skin.

'Well, I have to be innovative, right?'

All of the pants were... destroyed when the rain fell down upon the camp, so he had to make his own with life magic. This at least covered his schlong and his legs.

Insig's ears once again flushed in embarrassment when he thought of his image right now. It quickly disappeared when he looked at the pile of organs in front of him.

Right now, Insig was running around, harvesting the energy and mana heart of his coworkers. This was the unknown time he was doing this.

Insig was already used to doing this, so it only took him a few seconds to finish. The corpse was gone, like it didn't exist in the first place.

"Aaaaand, there. All clean and good."

Insig 'looked' inside his body and sensed his mana heart. They were lively and energetic like kids who had their favorite food.

His mana heart was still as big as a basketball, but they were more pure and his mana pathways were spreading more and more around his body.

The only problem is.... his mana pathways are different on the left and right. This would decrease the speed of his energy when he used the 2 elements on the 2 different pathways.

'Well, enough of that.'

Insig got serious and he looked upwards. There, he saw the iron airship, it was lofty and majestic as a mountain, unbreakable and unstoppable.

The sun was about to set on the horizon, creating a beautiful contrast of darkness and golden-orange in the middle of the sky.

'I should go now, my instincts are getting more and more irritated. But... where should I go? I'm sure that the enemy would surround the camp.'

Insig contemplated for a moment when he heard a feeble voice.

"H.....el..p..."

Hearing this, Insig got spooked out and he jumped like a cat who got its tail stepped on.

"Waah! Who the fuck is that!?"

Insig felt his heart throbbing in nervousness. A sound suddenly spoke to him out of nowhere. He was alone for 20 minutes, who wouldn't be shocked when you suddenly, out of nowhere, heard someone talk to you?

'Oh f*ck, is it a vengeful will? But I heard that they only appear in soul energy rich environments!'

"Pls...hlp....m.."

The voice once again feebly asked for help.

Hearing this, Insig finally knows where the sound is located, and what happened.

Insig looked at the ground he was stepping at. It was flat and looked like a large piece of wall that fell down.

The source of sound actually came here.

'It seems like someone was buried here.'

After knowing this, Insig felt pitiful and screamed.

"Don't worry! I'll try to save you there!"

Without minding the person's reply, Insig immediately went to the edge of the debris and imbued his hands with death energy. Dark miasma covered his fingers and immediately solidified.

Insig went into a stance that Rolly taught him when he was lifting heavy objects. He said that this stance uses the power of his legs, arms, center of mass, and others.

*Growl*

"Grrrr!"

Insig used all of his muscle power and tried to lift the wall, however, it didn't even budge a little bit.

'Damn it! If only I could crack it open!'

It was easier breaking the wall, however, the debris might hit the person under the wall, so it was out of his option.

Insig immediately tried a different approach. He tried to push the wall instead.

He made a dent under the ground and embedded his feet in it. He made a 'sumo-like' stance and pushed the wall.

"Graaaa!"

*Creak*

Insig pushed the wall with all his might, his bones creaked in pain because of the weight. However, all the work only resulted in an inch of movement.

'Damn it! This is the weakness of healers! This is why I wanted an earth element so bad.'

Insig stopped moving and rested a bit. He was panting hard and beads of sweat trickled his face, removing some of the debris.

He looked at the wall once again and a flash of determination streaked in his eyes.

"I'm gonna save you!"

Insig said to himself. He was about to go for one it one more time when he heard a voice behind him.

"Want me to help you out?"