Daz slowly opened his eyes. 'Where am I?'

  He looked around in a bit of a daze. 'This is my room... I... I'm not dead? How?'

  Daz tried to shift his body up to get a better look at his surroundings, but he found it to be exceedingly difficult to move. 'What the...?' It was then that he saw his left arm and leg, well, more accurately, he couldn't see them at all.

  "Ha... ha... ha... How am I alive? Wouldn't it have been better if I just died?" Tears welled up in Daz's eyes as he looked at his broken self.

  He could see that the entire left side of his body had a leathery texture to it which was clearly a result of the fused Tank Automaton's laser that he had blocked with his body. All of his hair was gone and he looked truly pitiful. He sat there and simply cried.

  "All I ever wanted was to have some meaning in life... I finally had a chance... but now? What can I do like this... I'm just a fucking cripple... I should have run away... but if I'm alive and in my room, doesn't that mean that someone managed to defeat that thing?" Daz mumbled amongst his sobbing.

  "That's right," a familiar voice replied.

  Daz turned his head and saw Ger. It would seem that he had entered the room without Daz's knowledge.

  "Please leave me alone," Daz looked away from his friend with shame. He didn't want to be seen, not like this.

  Ger had a sorry smile on his face and he left a bowl of soup on the dresser that was next to Daz before he said, "The ones that saved us were Ellie and someone that said she knew you. She didn't give us her name, but she spent a lot of points to save your life and she's waiting on the outer ramparts for you."

  Daz had a bitter look on his face. "You think I'm going anywhere like this? Get out! Leave me alone!"

  "Remember to check the system. You might be able to fix yourself with the points you earned," with this final remark, Ger left the room.

  Sarah, Ellie and Lyle were waiting outside and they all looked worried. "How was he?" Lyle asked with nervousness clear in his tone.

  Ger shook his head sadly. "He's not taking it well. He's only a kid, so we need to be considerate of him. He saved all of us by sacrificing his body, so we should do our best to keep everything that he built stable until he's back on his feet."

  'It's all my fault... if only I'd used my skill earlier... if only...' Guilt was all Ellie could feel currently, and it was tearing her apart.

  "Did you tell him about Crusher?" Sarah asked.

  Once again, Ger shook his head. "He doesn't need to know. It's not the right time and he has enough on his mind right now."

  "Lord... I'm going to the training field. I need to increase my strength as much as possible," Lyle claimed.

  "I'll join you," Ger said. As so, the ex-employer and the ex-employee left to train their skills. Sarah looked conflicted, but she followed after them while Ellie chose to remain.

  Daz sat silently in his bed for roughly fifteen minutes before he weakly sighed and mumbled, "System, please show me all system messages from the point that I lost consciousness."

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The information regarding the cycle ending was no surprise to Daz since he had received some warnings from both Altros in his letter and from Cecil during his dream. He was hopeful that the next cycle wouldn't be as unreasonably difficult as this one had been, and he was thankful for the four days of rest.

  "That's a lot of Gods and a lot of points..." Daz whispered in awe. He truly hadn't expected to catch the eyes of so many Gods. "Maybe I have enough points to fix my body? System, please show me if there's any way to recreate my arm and leg as cheaply as possible. No need for it to be a permanent solution."

  Daz hadn't looked into it that much even though Dorian had lost an arm, but the young Reaper couldn't deny that he was hoping for an inexpensive way to regain his mobility so he would have enough points left over to upgrade his base and personal power.

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