Healing System

Michael stared at the transformation in silence. Could he stop it? Probably. Would he? No.

It might seem selfish of him to do such a thing. After all, without them going all out, the surrounding buildings had already fallen—only some were standing, albeit barely.

But did it even matter anymore? The entire city was in ruins anyway, and there were no living civilians anywhere near him. It was a total wasteland even before he had arrived.

Well, Amanda will chew you out for damaging her city, you sure you want to go down that path?

Michael shivered upon hearing the system's words, but upon taking a look around him, he already knew he was going to receive an earful.

He turned his gaze back to the demon, who had still not finished its transformation. Its strength did not seem like it was growing at all; it honestly seemed like all it was doing was buying time.

"Are you done?" Michael asked and sent a single sword of light right at the demon. Surprisingly, it dissipated upon impact.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

It reminded him of the evangelist priest he had fought up on the mountain, as well as the couple of others. They all had similar spell-nullifying abilities.

However, he was no expert. Maybe there was more than one ability that looked nearly the exact same—who knows?

After a few more moments of waiting, the demon finally finished its transformation. Quite frankly, its appearance did not change much since the very start of the transformation.

Its strength, however, did spike up by quite a lot. If Michael had to guess, the demon likely broke through and was currently around the middle levels of Tier 2. It seemed a bit unreal.

But from what he could tell, its strength was finite. Every single move it made drained a bit of it, meaning it would be a battle of attrition.

That's right, you could either run around and wait for the demon to gas itself out, or... You could go ahead and kill it while it's strengthened. Which will you choose, I wonder?

'You say that, but it can probably pierce through every single shield I have. It would be a tough fight, especially if it used that mana-nullifying ability again. I would not be able to kill it if it did,' Michael complained but nonetheless took a defensive stance.

After all, running away while also making sure Kevin and Elizabeth were safe would not be the easiest task to accomplish.

Not everyone can be saved; sacrifices must be made. In this case, however, you stand a fair chance of winning against the demon. You just have to kill it before it kills you. Pretty simple, I'd say.

'Yup, very sim—' Michael's sarcastic words were cut off by a dark ball heading straight for him at an extremely fast speed.

He did not waste any time and summoned up his multi-shield. He could feel at a single glance that whatever that dark ball was, a simple shield would not be able to stop it.

And his assumption was correct, as the moment the ball connected with his shields, most of them shattered.

The attack counted as a block, thankfully, meaning he still had most of his mana left.

There were three choices he could opt for currently. The first: Heavenly Judgement, and focus on protecting Kevin and Elizabeth.

The second: try his hand at beating the demon by himself with no extra power-ups. Definitely not an impossible task, just a bit dangerous.

And lastly, Sanctuary, his newest skill, which could completely turn the tide of the battle at the cost of merely 50% of his total mana. He was not sure whether the skill really cost that much, or if his mana capacity just wasn't increasing.

He certainly remembers feeling it expand back in the training room, but maybe he was mistaken.

The capacity is being changed out for spell enhancement, also known as mana purity. It perfectly suits your current battle style. After all, you don't really have a wide variety of spells at the current moment. I hope after this battle, you play around with your own abilities a bit more, as the possibilities are nearly endless.

'I see, and yeah, sure, I still have roughly a week to burn until that academy thingy or whatever,' Michael agreed with the system. He had been relying on swords of light to be his main attack spell.

While it was not necessarily bad, it would be more beneficial for him to combine Piercing Light or something similar with it, but alas, the rarities differ, so it was impossible for him to currently combine the two of them.

Mirage of Light was also something he just instinctively used, but most of his opponents up to date had figured it out. It was just an ability he used on the side; maybe it would show its strength the stronger his abilities grew.

Michael could imagine casting Heavenly Judgement with the Mirage of Light skill. It would certainly be a unique experience.

But as he thought that, he froze. 'Wait a moment... system, is that possible?'

Theoretically, yes, but due to the high amount of mana Heavenly Judgement emits, you would need to find a way to suppress it to not make it too obvious. The simplest way would be for you to learn how mana absorption works. Right, put that on your agenda as well.

'Sure...' Michael sighed and glanced at the demon. Its dark golden eyes were emitting a faint but ominous glow.

However, as he began trying to move, he realized something was blocking him, and upon looking down, he noticed a pair of purple tentacles holding onto both of his legs, rendering his movements fruitless.

Michael quickly cast a sword of light to destroy those tentacles. However, it was too late, as in the next moment, three dark balls were quickly heading in his direction.

He could not dodge, and he doubted he could block all three of them, but nonetheless, he had to try.

Tens of multi-layered shields appeared in front of him, acting as one massive shield against the incoming attacks.

The dark balls seemed to hit the shield, however, they dissipated just before they managed to connect with the shield. It seemed a bit too abnormal.

In the next moment, his suspicions were confirmed as the system's voice resounded inside his mind.

Above you.

Upon hearing those words, he immediately turned his head upwards, and what greeted his sight was a massive purple blob that was slowly but steadily floating down towards him.

The mana it emitted seemed a bit too much, to the point where he wondered how he had not managed to see or feel it previously.

It was similar in energy to his Divine Judgement, though of course a bit weaker.

But nonetheless, it was impossible for him to escape his predicament. The only remaining choice he had left was the choice he should have made from the start.

He dragged out the fight too much, playing around with the demon while it was trying to kill him the entire time. It was not like he would never face a demon again.

A blunder, one that happened because he wanted to fight a demon fair and square.

Even in stories back in his old world, he read that demons could never be trusted. It was foolish of him to expect a fair fight in the first place.

Good that you know, now use that skill already.

Michael nodded and looked upwards, his halo slightly shining and covering the entire area around him in his own mana, as if feeling his intent.

He took a deep breath and muttered.

"Sanctuary."