Awoken.(4)

"I'm awake."

Nero extended his arms outwards with a small smile on his face as he looked at Raki and Aiyanna. He had a pretty good impression of the two women, especially since he saw their devotion to waking him up over the years.

In particular, Raki's attention to detail when taking care of his body impressed him greatly. She missed no part of him. When she bathed him, she spoke about things happening in the village. Things like the escalating war between Shandia and the Skypeians, the destruction of Birka, and the rise of an unfathomably powerful man named Enel, who was preparing to overthrow the current 'God' of Skypeia with his followers.

So it was safe to say that the situation in the islands was tenuous at best. Warriors were dying in droves every day and the war had no signs of calming down. If someone didn't do something within the next decade, both islands might end up being destroyed.

Tears flowed down from Raki's eyes as she hurriedly ran towards Nero and hugged him. Someone seeing this scene would immediately think that there was something romantic between Raki and Nero but in reality, there was nothing like that.

Nero still had the mind of an adult so even if he was in the body of a child, his mind didn't deviate from the former. As for Raki, who knew what she was feeling? But to Nero, it seemed like she regarded him as a younger brother which was how he would prefer it to be.

Aiyanna soon joined in and also hugged Nero, planting his face between her breasts as she cried loudly. The past decade had been truly hard on them. Nero hugged them lightly and allowed them to let out their frustrations with nothing but a small smile on his face. There was no need for anything more.

Several minutes later, the trio could be seen sitting in Nero's little hut, chatting leisurely. Well, it was more like they just talked about many topics while Nero listened. After all, due to his short life, there wasn't much to say.

After a while, Aiyanna left Raki and Nero alone to go inform the elders about Nero's awakening. The excitement on her face was palpable.

As soon as Aiyanna left, Raki also got up and went to bed. Well, more specifically, Nero's bed. She crawled past him and laid on the bed, looking at him with a smile. Nero smiled back in kind and said quietly, "Thank you."

Raki giggled and looked at Nero until she slowly started falling asleep. Nero covered her with a blanket and quietly left the small hut, stepping outside.

He needed to do something urgent without any distractions. Nero walked into the large hut, which was currently unoccupied, and gritted his teeth while grabbing onto his right wing. Since he had woken up, he noticed something off about the wings on his back. They usually grew every year but about 3 years ago, they suddenly stopped growing completely.

Nero thought that he had just reached the max limit his wings could grow to but from how he felt, he realized that it wasn't the case. He currently felt something pushing, trying to force its way out of his back. Where exactly was the pain coming from? Yes, as one would think, the pain was coming from the holes his wings extended from.

Since he wasn't going to risk damaging his new wings because his old ones were refusing to budge, he would have to forcefully remove them.

SHHHKKKKK!!

A sound similar to the tearing of dry leaves rang through the hut as Nero forcefully ripped off his wing. The pain was completely and utterly excruciating. His mind felt like it was on the verge of breaking and the balance with his body he had gained earlier was now completely broken as he fell onto one knee.

"I'm...not done yet."

Nero grabbed onto his other wing and ripped it off in the same barbaric fashion, causing blood to spurt out of it. Blood flowed all over Nero's body as he kept down and grit his teeth. He was determined to not make a sound and prove to himself that he could handle at least this.

Now that the spots where his wings used to be were empty, he immediately stopped holding back the ones growing from within him and forced it out of his back.

WHOOSHH!

Black wings drenched in blood burst out of his back, each one about 5 meters in length. As soon as they locked themselves into their new sockets, Nero regained his balance, and the pain he was feeling quickly subsided. It was as if what he did earlier was a dream.

If it was not for his blood staining the carpet, Nero would've probably given the possibility some thought.

"Damn! That was painful. Now to get rid of my older wings and clean up this...wait...what is this?"

Nero's old wings suddenly started emitting smoke and a few moments later, they burst into silver flames, engulfing Nero's body. Nero jumped back in shock, an emotion that he hadn't felt in a while. He was immediately t

about to try and douse the flames but that's when he realized something.

"The flames...they aren't hurting me...but, they're healing me?"

Nero watched in awe as the blood on his body was quickly burned away and even the blood on the carpet followed suit. It was a magical sight, seeing such a phenomenon occur.

In no time, Nero's wounds were completely healed and the flames eventually conglomerated, forming one large silver flame that floated just in between his wings, behind his neck.

"This must be a racial ability of the Lunarians! Interesting, but this is too eye-catching. Is there a way to hide-"

Almost as if his wings had heard him, they immediately retracted themselves and vanished into his back, along with the flames. It was as if nothing was there in the first place!

"Absolutely perfect."

Nero fixed his slightly torn robes and walked out of the hut, looking into the 'sky' with a smile on his face.

"Now, time to test them out."