"Who's Saint William?" I asked, putting my nail inside the lock structure as it softened to near melting point, making me grit my teeth.
Vanitas's lips moved; he wanted to say something, but froze. "He's the leader of nine cardinals of the church, the strongest force of the church." He sure was knowledgeable for a guy locked for seven decades.
I see, church, fucking church, again. From all I knew, Saint William was my enemy.
The lock's inside had weird patterns, like runes on its surface, but the lock was still a simple one-click.
My pupils dilated as I hitched forward, like a marionette whose strings had been cut. Vanitas grabbed me from my shoulders with a worried look.
My nail was softening and melting more and more, but… it was also losing strength. I felt really weak.
Using all my brain cells, I came up with an ingenious idea, giving up on trying to rawdog my way into the hole. I completely stopped moving, and for a second, just imagined my cuff's lock, then this cuff's shape, size, and how it felt.
Next second, I could picture every part, every inch of it clearly, even as I was only stable because of Vanitas' support.
Click.
I sighed, my body lost all its strength as I fell completely in Vanitas's strong grip on my shoulders.
Tham!
The cuffs fell on the ground.
Crackle! Thud!! Thud!
Every inch of the ground and all the walls, had deep cracks.
How heavy even was this thing?!
My eyes widened with horror as the solid stone ground shattered like glass below.
"It weighs over four hundred kilograms." Vanitas shrugged, releasing me as he noticed I was recovering my strength.
I brushed off the dust from the crash, my temples stuck to their edges in pure shock, and a 'HUH' face.
He was standing with them so casually…
Soon, the shock shifted to terror as realization kicked in. With how much they weighed, how hot they were, and how quickly I lost every bit of my strength…
Even though he adapted…
What will he be like without them…?!
My eyes involuntarily twitched, staring at the place the cuffs revealed in bewilderment—long white wrist bones which were extremely thin, 'cause they were now half of their size from wearing those cuffs.
The thin bones were still covered in some sticky skin and blood, which looked like cosmic horror compared with his fleshy hands and normal forearm—just the place between them had completely melted.
It was barely holding his hand together….Like a long candle melted from the center.
"You could just leave it through pipelines if you really desire to. I am sure you could out-crawl them, but the problem is at the end. That place could have tens of captains, or people stronger than me, prepared. They really hate vampires, you know."
". . ."
To my utter bewilderment, the guy doesn't give a fuck about his arms.
"I-I know, that's why I thought of escaping from the ground, and then get out from an obvious route, maybe in a disguise. I don't want to fight them." I replied, trying to sound as normal as possible.
"That… I think I can aid you a little in that." He said with a thoughtful look, still not noticing the thick blood falling on his feet with echocing Tap sounds.
He finally noticed my strange gaze on his wrists and chuckled lightly.
Next second, I felt a suffocating feeling, like I was being drowned in something denser and thicker than normal water as bright purple light danced around his skinny, lean body.
His hair rose, long, flying, and standing straight on its own. Slowly, the wound on his hand started stitching itself together. No… Not itself—new flesh and bone matter was being born as the glow's light grew almost blinding.
After just a few seconds, you couldn't say that that was the hand's condition. They looked perfectly fine.
Even I couldn't heal that perfectly, and that fast.
His muscles also started to get fuller, still lean, but like his vitality was increasing, like they were being pumped with water or something.
"...What even is this?" I had to ask.
"It's my way of using Arcana to heal and buff stats. I am pretty good at it." He said with a sly smile.
I understood those terms clearly. I always played as a healer, the hardcore kind who was always the MVP, somehow, in every game I played. But the way his muscles pumped… Could that really be called just buff, or was it heal? Then shouldn't his body be tired from being in that thing enough to not be able to use that level of heals?
I had so many questions. He just answered one.
"My arcana arts are paradoxical, hehe, I could heal from being unable to heal in sorta way."
My mouth twitched, WHAT?
"Like, now I had zero Arcana in my nerves, and that pushed Arcana to heal my Arcana so that I could fill my nerves then use that to heal myself." He said with a shrug.
"..."
Am I retarded?
"Haha, I am not good at explaining. But, think of it like water cycle. Damage to me is like health's other side. So being damaged means, there are 'clouds'. If I have the desire, and ability to heal, that damage will convert into 'rain', filling my 'pond' akin to health. Sunlight is my will."
"I-I think I get the gist of it…" This dude… he's basically immortal, and unkillable, and he becomes more unkillable the more you try to kill him….
What the actual fuck? I thought I was special for my Vampire super powers. And, he was beaten? Like this? Had to flee? What kind of freaking monsters are even outside…?
The best part was, each of them was trying to hunt me, an Arcane-born, a vampire, the last vampire. And now, a prison escapee, and the one who will release all prisoners in this place…
Just as I was having an existential crisis, a creaking sound pierced our ears. Someone was at the door!
I couldn't sense it at all. Even Vanitas couldn't!
As I turned, my face changed. No way!