Looking at the figure who was sitting quietly amid the rubble, Elric felt a wave of helplessness wash over him. The guilt in the air was thick enough to choke on. "I told you, I don't care about it," he said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
"No, it is all my fault," Nojiko spoke up, her voice still shaking from the shock and the lingering fear. She sat there with her arms wrapped around her knees, eyes distant as she replayed the morning's events.
"Okay, if anyone's sorry, it's me. I destroyed almost all of your house," Elric tried again, gesturing at the wreckage around them. The once-cozy little home was now little more than scattered wood, broken tiles, and dust settling in the breeze.
"No, it is my fault. I should not have brought the fishman to the house," Nojiko insisted, her tone stubborn despite the tremble.
Elric didn't speak anymore. If they kept this up, it might go on all day like some endless loop of apologies. The room—if you could still call the half-collapsed space that—fell into an uncomfortable silence.
The distant sounds of villagers murmuring and the soft crash of waves in the background only made the quiet heavier. Elric shifted his weight from one foot to the other, wishing for a distraction.
Fortunately, it didn't last that long. A hesitant knock on what remained of the doorframe broke the tension, and Elric breathed a sigh of relief. He slowly stood up and stepped outside, with Nami and Nojiko following close behind, their footsteps cautious on the uneven ground.
Just after coming out, a thick scent of blood hit his nose, metallic and heavy in the morning air. His eyes landed on the lifeless bodies lying scattered on the ground—fishmen and a few unfortunate villagers caught in the blast.
The sight truly made him feel guilty this time. The destruction had been far bigger than he'd intended, a knee-jerk reaction to that ugly fishman's face.
Without thinking too much, he directly used an 8th-tier spell. "Resurrection," he murmured under his breath. With that single word, several silver circles of light spread out from him like ripples in a pond, traveling outward across the devastated area. The lifeless bodies started to glow with a soft, ethereal light.
In the blink of an eye, their wounds began to heal on their own. Gashes closed, bones knit back together, and color returned to pale skin. Everyone who was watching widened their eyes to the size of copper bells, frozen in pure disbelief.
When Elric had first declared that he wanted to resurrect everyone and told them to gather all the bodies, the villagers had simply thought it was ridiculous.
How could a man have the power to bring someone back to life? Even if he was really, really strong, they figured he was just making fun of them in their darkest hour.
Anger had simmered beneath the surface, but fear and desperation made them obey anyway. They had dragged the corpses carefully, laying them out in neat rows despite the tears and shock.
One of the men opened his eyes first. He spoke groggily, still half-asleep, "Did you pee on me again? I told you, don't do it when I'm sleeping."
The serious situation suddenly broke with that lazy, confused voice. Every eye instantly snapped toward the source. The man who had spoken unconsciously seemed to guess something was wrong as he looked up at the open sky where his ceiling used to be. "Fuck, where am I?" He quickly sat up, remembering he had been sleeping peacefully with his wife in their house after a pleasant night.
Although the man's outburst distracted everyone a little, their focus quickly returned to the impossible reality in front of them. This man had resurrected people.
"God..." one of the villagers whispered subconsciously.
"Yeah... God."
Only a god could do something like this. Their eyes changed rapidly—first confusion, then more confusion, shifting to wild excitement, and finally settling into pure disbelief.
Resurrecting people? If this wasn't a god, then who could it be? After thinking it over, there was nothing else to say. Most of them dropped to their knees right there on the dirt, heads bowed in awe and reverence. Whispers of gratitude and prayers started spreading like wildfire.
Even Nami, who had been standing nervously behind Elric, stared at the newly resurrected people with wide-eyed disbelief. Unlike these villagers who had lived their whole lives in this quiet corner of the East Blue, Nami—who regularly ventured out to sea—knew exactly what this kind of power meant. Devil Fruit? Impossible.
If Devil Fruits were this strong, the world would have already been destroyed a hundred times over. Was this good? Or bad? Had some higher power shown up because she prayed every night?
She subconsciously reached her hand toward Elric, her fingertips lightly touching his back.
Swish. Suddenly, a fiery energy surged into her body through that brief contact.
"What?" Feeling the Phoenix Force reacting to something, he turned back subconsciously.