kugisaki jjk

“Valia!” Noah exclaimed, kneeling beside her. Valia didn’t respond, instead letting out a soft cry of anguish with her eyes screwed shut.“What’s going on?” Shannon asked, rushing outside.“I don’t know. She tried to activate her magic, and something went wrong. Let’s get her in the house.” Noah scooped her up in his arms and carried her inside, with Shannon nervously following them.“I’m ok, I’m ok,” Valia said as he set her on the couch.

A thud and click came from the front door as her dad finally arrived home.“Hey daddy,” she called out barely lifting her head from the couch.“Hey Sare-Bear,” he called back with his cutesy nickname for her. “Just going to grab my dinner and I’ll be right with you.”

Noah had already made progress in slowing the flow of his mana and his bodily functions, and the headband was helping. His heart dropped to one beat a minute, and he all but stopped breathing. Typically, such a state would be fatal, but the more he slowed down his mana, the more he could forestall damage. Without mana flowing, his cells would stop processing nourishment and oxygen, but they wouldn’t wither and die, for the molecular processes of cell death were also halted. Caught in a near-perfect state of suspended animation, his physical senses operated at the lowest possible level, and he became more attuned to the flow of mana around him, sharpening his spirit senses.