Losing Sanity

Leus expected a painful cold sensation, but what he felt was the exact opposite.

As soon as the Ice Mana entered his hand, he felt a very intense burning sensation.

He bit on his lips so hard that it started to bleed, but he didn't even feel it.

'I feel like the insides of my hand are literally on fire'

But that sensation only lasted for a few moments.

Within seconds, Leus felt his blood freeze inside his hand, then his palm slowly started to turn bluish-gray, almost white.

Soon after the color of his skin changed, he lost feeling of his palm

'... It's like it doesn't exist'

He tried to close his fist, or even move his fingers

'Nothing ...'

Leus' left palm was just white, and that's it ...

He started poking it with his other hand but he still didn't feel anything.

'It's like poking something external'

It didn't feel like a part of his body anymore

'I think it's dead...'

For some reason, Leus was surprisingly calm about the whole thing.

His mind was refusing to accept that his hand was not functional anymore, he only felt that things would eventually be fine, but he didn't know how or why, there really wasn't much coherence going on in his mind right now.

Leus began casting Light spells on his hand, all sorts of spells

Healing, Restore, Cleansing and Light-Shield

He cast each spell several times, but regardless of how much Light entered his hand, he didn't feel anything at all.

He began touching his left hand with his right hand.

'When I put Light into it, it becomes hotter'

Light puts heat inside his palm, so touching it no longer felt like touching a piece of frozen meat

'But it still doesn't feel like touching my hand, it's like I'm touching someone else's hand, or no hand at all, a piece of wood would feel the same.'

Leus kept staring at his palm, and for a bit of time, nothing happened, but suddenly, blisters started to form all over his hand

'Is that water?'

It reminded him of how skin looked after being burnt.

Nevertheless, he cast more Light spells.

The blisters disappeared, and slowly, the color of his hand began changing again, this time from white to

'Black?'

One by one, his fingers turned black, from the tip going down to the palm.

Then his entire palm turned black, it only stopped at his wrist.

Everything above Leus' left wrist was black

'Interesting ... did it just die?'

He cast more Light spells, but to no avail.

Leus became slightly nervous But didn't freak out

'Now what?'

'Arno, Arno, Arno'

He looked around him and

'Oh well -'

He couldn't see anything other than bluish-white ice whirling around him

'Is it even possible to train in this state?'

Leus sat down and tried to resume his training, manipulating the Ice Mana into gathering around his now-dead palm, then making it go in and out of it.

'I can't feel anything'

Leus didn't know if he was making progress or not, he was just absentmindedly manipulating the mana and staring at his black palm.

'It just looks so weird'

'So interesting ...'

For some reason, Leus' brain wasn't thinking clearly, actually, he wasn't able to think at all

'I feel as if I'm watching myself watching my hand'

It didn't really make sense, he felt as if he was watching himself from a third person's view or something, kinda like he was watching himself from above.

The only thing he was able to do was absentmindedly control the mana to flow in and out of his palm. At least that's what he thought he was doing.

'My mind is controlling the mana to do that, but I don't know if it's actually happening'

'Arno, Arno, Arno'

Hours passed like that, Leus was just watching his hand when he suddenly noticed something.

'The skin of my wrist is changing'

It looked so ethereal to Leus.

At first, the skin became paler and whiter.

Then it became reddish.

Then it became brown.

Then it became greenish-black.

'So interesting'

Seeing the white skin of his body change color was just so fascinating to Leus.

Leus felt pain in his chest, so he looked at it.

'What's wrong with this thing'

He didn't understand why his chest was paining, so he kept touching it.

'It's going up and down'

'Interesting'

'Arno, Arno, Arno'

After a while of inspecting his chest, Leus understood what was wrong

'My heart is beating faster'

He inwardly shrugged

'Nothing can be done about that'

He looked back at his hand

'Oooh, it's going down ... or? is that up?'

If he aimed his hand up, the color change seemed to go down.

But if he aimed it down, the color change seemed to go up.

'So weird, how does that work?'

It was such a weird phenomenon, but Leus quickly forgot about it and looked at the color of his hand again.

'So cool, about the quarter of my arm became greenish-black'

The skin color of Leus' arm almost half the way up (or down, depending on your perspective) to Leus' elbow changed.

It started greenish black from his wrist, then became brown the nearer it got to his elbow.

'Arno, Arno, Arno'

Leus got annoyed and looked to his right

'Won't you shut up already?'

It was like someone was continuously whispering in his ear the name Arno.

'So annoying'

Leus just wanted to watch his arm in peace while he was absentmindedly training, sadly, as time passed, the voice in his head became louder and louder.

'ARNO, ARNO, ARNO'

It became so loud that the only thing his mind was able to perceive was Arno's name being loudly shouted in his head and he could no longer train.

Eventually, Leus' head started paining with all that shouting inside it.

It was like explosions were happening inside his head.

'Fine!!!!!'

He sluggishly moved his right hand toward the Magic Circle on the floor and deactivated the Barrier.

Instantly, Ice Mana scattered throughout the Library.