Ray spoke. "We can talk later. Yuno. Get us out of here. NOW!"
Yuno nodded.
Wind Creation Magic: Heavenly Wind Ark!
"Everyone Get on! We're getting out!!" Yuno yelled from top of the ship.
Klaus, Luck and Asta quickly got on.
Noelle helped Mimosa climb on next. Although she had healed herself, she was still feeling relatively weak.
Since Ray had fought Mars (and Lotus) outside the treasury, Asta, Noelle and the others weren't as battered and bruised as they were in the original, where they had been sneak attacked by him.
It's important to note here that Asta had successfully gotten the Demon-Dweller sword that was sealed in the hidden chamber, back in the treasury, thanks to Nero's help.
The only downside was that he hadn't figured out that the Demon Dweller sword can copy other's magical attributes and send out a Getsuga-Tensho-ahh attack when he swings it. Truly an Ichigo-ahh energy in this one I must say. For example, in the Manga (and anime ofc. duh.) He had accidently copied Noelle's water attribute and sent out a water-based slash that destroyed Mars's mineral titan. In return he got impaled by a random shard. That's the only upside of this. He wasn't injured.
Same was true for Noelle. When Mars had rammed in to the chamber with his titan mode on and the flame recovery robe active, Noelle had threatened to douse it out with her water. Poor girl got bonked.
And Yuno? He also got access to Sylph's scroll. But thanks to Ray ("Your Welcome Dear author..."), he hadn't managed to awaken it.
"Move! Get going! Now! I'll follow! Get a way out of here." Ray yelled from below, already activating his Hirenkyaku.
Yuno visibly hesitated. Even though he had enough trust in Ray that he wouldn't die, He was still worried.
"YUNO! MOVE IT!!!" Ray Roared, equipping his Ginrei Kojaku and Firing rapidly at falling debris.
That got him moving. With a quick "Don't die on me." and a curt nod, he willed the Ark forward, launching it into motion.
Beside him, a lightning aura flared to life, surrounding Luck.
"Go right!" Luck said, his face an unusual mask of seriousness as he used his high magic sensitivity to find a way out. "I'll guide you!"
"Alright!" Yuno said, quickly steering to the left.
Suddenly, a massive chunk of the wall beside them collapsed, almost falling on them.
Steel Creation Magic: Spiral Steel Lance!
Heilig Pfeil: Explosion shot!
"I'll clear the way! Keep going!" Ray's voice came from behind them.
"Ray!" Asta yelled, peering over the railing of the ark to see Ray leaping from one falling debris to another, keeping up with them at an incredibly high speed.
Ray kept firing Heilig Pfeil non-stop. The collapsing debris was getting larger and larger as they moved to the exit. Ray's hands bled from the excess shooting. He had never pushed himself this much. Not with Heilig Pfeils. Usually, during training, he would let loose and spam normal arrows. But Pfeils? They're a different breed. They require adept Reishi control, and high Reishi values to form.
Not only that, but the Heilig Pfeil's Ray was shooting were all Explosion shots, which required even more Reishi. If he didn't use them, the debris will just split up, going from extremely large chunks to just large chunks. Hence, with explosion shot he would destroy them entirely.
Suddenly, they all saw a glint of light in the distance.
"There's the exit!" Noelle yelled.
But, as soon as that ray of hope had appeared, it was diminished.
A massive chunk of the ceiling fell from the top, heading straight for them. It was too large to be destroyed by a normal explosion shot. May be, if Ray launched a combination of Focused Shot and explosion shot then maybe... But doing so would require time. And time was something he didn't have at the moment.
"Damn it... Fuck it all." Ray muttered under his breath before roaring,
"Noelle!!! Use your defence spell!!!"
She said something, but he didn't hear.
Time slowed down, and faint grid like lines erupted in his vision.
Battle Instinct Activated!
He instinctively gauged the distance between the ship, the chunk, and him. His thoughts swirled, calculating his own speed, his Pfeil's speed, the ship's speed, and the velocity of the chunk.
A certain point glowed in his sight.
"There..." Ray muttered under his breath, his eyes, unnaturally focused, as if he was in a state of transcendence.
Without even sending the command, his hands moved, inputting all of his remaining Reishi into the Heilig Pfeil he was going to create.
When he first learned to form these, it was just like developing his soul sight. He had inputted varied amounts of Reishi into normal arrows until they took the form of Heilig Pfeils. after that, if added more Reishi into the arrows, they'd explode the moment they left his bow.
So how? you ask, did he manage to create attacks like explosion shot, minenfeld, focused shot, etc? Well, like Vaisravana explained, Reishi is the most minute particle that makes up everything in the Soul world. Just as how all matter is made from atoms. In other words, if these Reishi are structured in different ways, they can create different effects.
So Ray played around with that, and he found out that by inputting more Reishi, in a structured manner, into the Heilig Pfeil, would allow him to make it stronger, without letting it explode. Much like how chemistry functions.
Now. Back to the present.
Ray dumped all his Reishi into the Pfeil, overloading it. However, He structured some of the Reishi such that, it'll hold all of this together, until the Arrow reaches the chunk and detonates.
Then? He released it.
Thanks to battle instinct, he all saw it happen in slow motion. The Pfeil, overloaded with Reishi launched towards the point he had envisioned as the collision point between the ship and the chunk.
On the Ship, Noelle had already activated her Water Dragon's Lair, Protecting the ship. Suddenly, they all felt something dangerous approaching at high speeds. Above them, Ray's Pfeil whizzed straight through the air, going towards the falling chunk.
Under their gazes, the arrow collided with the chunk and detonated, creating a massive influx of Reishi into the surrounding environment. All physical debris that was collapsing around them, suddenly disintegrated.
This was the effect of soul energy, or Reishi, on matter from the physical world. It destroyed matter entirely, if it was exploded in such a rigorous and uncontrolled way.
Their way was suddenly clear. The glint of light returned, and Yuno headed towards it, at full speed.
Asta looked behind them, yelling to praise Ray, when he saw it.
Ray, falling back into the darkness, His right-hand bleeding profusely, and the Ginrei Kojaku in his left, already being dispelled from the lack of Reishi.
That's right. I wasn't lying when I said he used up all of his Reishi for that shot.
Asta's words died in his throat as he saw Ray being engulfed by the darkness beneath, slowly falling to his death.
"RAYY!!!" Asta roared in desperation, hand outstretched.
However, it was too late. Ray vanished from Asta's sight as the ship burst out into sunlight, the dungeon collapsing inwards the moment they exited.
"NOOOO!!!!! Yuno!!!! Turn around!!!" Asta yelled, rushing towards Yuno who gently lowered the ark to the ground, and then dispelled it.
"What's wrong Asta?" Yuno asked, surprised by Asta's outburst.
"RAY! He fell back into the dungeon! He used up all his energy to destroy that debris!!! We need to go back! We need to go back and save Ray!" Asta yelled, clutching Yuno's collar.
*CHIIRRRPPP!!!!!!*
Everyone was dumbfounded. That's when they realised, Ray had indeed, not followed them out. Nero, on the other hand was already flying towards the collapsed dungeon.
Before the others could act, the ground crew from Clover Kingdom rushed over, fussing over them, asking them whether they were hurt or not.
Asta, ignored them all, and rushed to the collapsed dungeon, removing piece after piece, trying to re-open it.
Meanwhile, Yuno stood still as a stone, frozen by what he had heard.
'Ray... fell...? That also... to... save us...?' Yuno was lost.
Since childhood, if Yuno had been the cry-baby and Asta the hot headed one, then Ray was the calm, collected and always mature boy who kept them from doing the stupidest of things.
Yuno couldn't count how many times Ray had looked out for them, dotted on them, and cared for them, as if he was older than them, and not of the same age.
Unknowingly, tears appeared in the corner of his eyes. But as soon as they appeared, they were gone, replaced by an unending void, smack in the middle of his chest.
'No... I promised myself... I wouldn't cry ever again. Ray had to save us... because I was weak... Because I wasn't stronger... If I had been stronger then maybe...' Unknown to Yuno, at this same instant, Asta was also having the same thought.
Suddenly, a massive amount of mana burst out from Yuno. Not normal mana. No. Ancient, and powerful mana.
Everyone in the vicinity froze.
"Move." Yuno Growled. The caretakers, who were checking Yuno for injuries, scrambled aside.
Yuno walked over to the collapsed entrance. Asta was still crouched there, slashing away at the rubble like mad, using his new sword.
"Asta... Get back for a moment." Yuno spoke, his voice full of magic.
Asta turned to face him. Asta's eyes were red, but he listened, and retreated beside Yuno, gripping his Demon-Dweller sword tightly.
Suddenly, everything around them froze. In this world, only Yuno and Asta were able to move. Nero, hovering nearby, was also frozen.
Beside Yuno, a little girl with greenish-silver wings, floating in air, appeared.
She yawned, rubbing her eyes cutely. Without further communication, she blew. It was nothing special. Just a normal blow.
Suddenly, the winds around them picked up, blowing powerfully and destroying the rubble and clearing out the entire section before them. However, it wasn't even momentarily enough.
"Please." Yuno pleaded to the girl, who was about to vanish. "Help me find my frie- No. Brother."
The girl turned to look at him, a bored look on her face. Then she turned to face the rubble and continued blowing. This time, she blew deeper into the ruins. By now, everything returned to normal.
Nero resumed her flying, only to freeze again when she saw Yuno sending such powerful gusts of wind that disintegrated the rubble.
Beside Yuno, Asta clenched his fists in anger.
'Yuno... Is doing his best to find Ray. Where as me...? I'm only able to stand and watch... DAMN IT!!!' Asta slammed his sword, tip first, into the ground in frustration.
'Don't worry Ray. I'll find you. Even if it takes me years to do so!!' Asta's eyes suddenly filled with conviction as he gripped the sword and rushed towards the dungeon collapse. Unknown to him, the sword was glowing pearl white.
Asta swung down hard, at the collapse. Immediately, a massive sword slash erupted from the blade, carrying the properties of the wind.
Asta froze, as he turned his gaze to Yuno's. Simultaneously, both of them thought of the same thing.
'We have a chance!'
Now empowered with renewed vigour and powers, Asta slashed, and Yuno blew, the rubble away. Nero flied around in circles, chirping to cheer them up.
Seeing the two, Noelle, Mimosa and Klaus joined in.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Mimosa's voice rang out.
"I see an arm!" She yelled excitedly.
All of them scrambled towards her position. By then, Mimosa, who was excited at first, slowly fell into deep worry. The hand was embedded between two massive chunks of rock.
With a growl, Asta lifted the rock off. They got their first glimpse.
Ray was lying there, barely breathing. His entire body bruised. His left arm's bones, crushed by the two rocks. His right arm looked relatively alright, but his right hand's skin was completely gone, the result of firing so many Heilig Pfeils in succession. His right leg was twisted in an unnatural degree. Worst of all, he was extremely pale. Signs of immense blood, and Mana loss.
{A/N: Obviously in Ray's case it'll be Reishi loss instead of mana.}
He opened his eyes weakly.
"Took... ya... long enough..." He muttered.
Nero flew down, sitting on a nearby rock, not approaching as if afraid to hurt him, despite her worries.
Plant Creation Magic: Dream Healing Flower Basket!
Mimosa quickly employed her healing magic. Under their eyes, the right leg snapped back into place. The left arm's bones healed at an visible rate. Skin regrew on his right hand.
Ray, meanwhile, gritted his teeth as pain enveloped him again.
"8 broken ribs... Heavy internal bleeding... multiple muscles tears...Heavy blood loss... Mana loss and deficieny... It's... It's a miracle your still alive enough to be treated!" Mimosa exclaimed, her voice wavering as she quickly examined Ray. Hearing this, Nero flew off, sitting on Asta's head instead.
"But... you should be alright now... I can heal most of the worst injuries. The we can transfer blood to you once we return, and your magic should recover too by then." Mimosa continued.
Ray simply nods. Not that he could move anything else.
"Whew!" Everyone let out a breath they didn't know were holding. Silence engulfed the clearing, interrupted only by the occasional crack of Ray's bones setting themselves right, and healing rapidly.
"So... When do you think he can fight me again?" Luck asked, his face suddenly alive with deranged smiles. Legit a minute ago, Luck's face was shrouded with a serious look and a frown.
"Gimme a break..." Ray muttered, closing his eyes and sighing.
"SHUT UP!" Noelle and Asta burst out together at Luck.
Luck, unexpectedly shut up.
Just like that, the awkward silence was shattered, now replaced by a much more relieved and calmer one.
_______Author's_Notes:_______
Merry Christmas to all!!! Hope You all get what you wished for!! Coz i, for once, am getting what i want (If my instincts aren't lying to me... -\['_']/- )!!