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Apocalypse Healer - Chapter 26
🕑 Added 2024-10-29 12:08:20 +0000 UTC“You don’t like mortals humiliating you guys, do you?” David chuckled, “To make fun of y’all. I am sorry, but this is too funny.”
He snorted and cocked his head to check the ceiling for another divine punishment.
No more divine lightning for me?
“I’m sorry for tarnishing the Pantheon’s magnificent image…Actually, not really. I lied. I am not sorry about humiliating you guys. Like, at all!”
David was about to continue throwing shade at the Pantheon and their gods when the space underneath the ceiling crackled. The space distorted, and a massive lightning bolt burst down.
After getting hit by the first lightning, David knew he’d enraged one of the gods or maybe one of their underlings. It didn’t matter whom he had enraged. Important was only that the second white bolt was far more predictable. The second attack came faster than the first, but David was already on the move.
His hands, coated in [Holy Touch], shot high, ready to capture the divine lightning. But catching something like that didn’t come easy. It wasn’t feasible for a mere Iron Rank, not even with a Skill like [Holy Touch].
[Excessive holy power has been detected. Initiate Skill Rune overclock.]
[Proficiency of Holy Touch increased.]
The divine lightning struck down and passed mercilessly through his hands. However, the divine lightning split up once it came in contact with his body. First, it split into two streams and traveled down his hands before spreading in all directions. One second, David looked up to find an empty ceiling, and the next, a lightning bolt came crashing down, shrouding him in majestic, white-glowing currents.
Unfortunately, they were as painful as they were majestic. Maybe worse than that.
David screamed in pain but kept [Holy Touch] active to devour traces of the divine lightning as it passed through his hands. The energy within the lightning fueled [Holy Touch], which spread further. It spread down his wrists, engulfed his arms, and reached down to wreath his entire upper body.
[Holy Touch] spread fast. It consumed traces of the divine lightning’s power even faster. However, the divine lightning was a speed train compared to the horse-pulled carriage of [Holy Touch]. No matter how fast the horses pulled the carriage, they paled compared to the divine lightning speed train.
But David had already made ample preparations before the second divine lightning had hit him. He’d readied his mind and body for the impact while preparing to use [Bless] and [Cure Wounds] as often as necessary.
That was precisely what David was doing. His body was shrouded in all instances of [Bless], while [Cure Wounds] was applied as often as needed to heal his boiling body.
His blood was boiling, his flesh bubbling, and his skin was charred. Not even David’s energy pathways were spared. The divine lightning tore them apart as the divine currents spread through his body, destroying muscles and energy pathways. That had not been within David’s calculations, but who needed energy pathways if they had divine electricity currents running through every inch of their body?
David closed his eyes and tried to endure the pain of getting killed over and over again. He was not yet dead, but David could sense how close to death he was. David would already be dead if not for constantly using [Cure Wounds] while also relying on [Holy Touch]’s healing properties. If not for [Bless] protecting his body, weakening the divine lightning’s destructive power. Even if [Bless] could only lower the impacting force by a little, it was enough to pull him away from certain death.
His Holy Sea was churning and hissing as the divine currents passed, but David ignored it. He activated [Cure Wounds] and [Bless] again, and again…and again.
The Holy Sea was sucked dry in no time, with David using three Skill Runes repetitively, each manually overclocked with enough holy power to surpass their safe limitations. David couldn’t rely on safety at this moment. He was forced to go above and beyond to survive.
Fortunately, [Holy Touch] ensured his dried-up Holy Sea would be refilled as quickly as he’d used it. [Holy Touch] spread through his body and consumed the divine lightning’s remnants even as it ravaged his body. It kept breaking down everything David mended, but he cared little about that once he was sure to survive.
David overcame several life-threatening moments in the last five seconds – or had it been less than that? –, but his Holy Sea was still packed to the brim, his Skill Runes were overclocked, and he was actively working on his health. Several pleasant notifications increasing his chances of survival popped up.
No more than ten seconds could have passed when the second divine lightning treatment ended. David was lying on his back, his skin burned until nothing was left. Even his flesh was boiled. David looked more like a fried Infected than alive at this point.
However, the corners of his lips were still curled up. His lips were burned just like the rest of his body. Bits of his lips and cheeks had been burned to cinder even, but David smiled nonetheless. He was healing. He could feel it. The unpleasant tingling sensation had already spread across his body, occupying every part of it. David was regenerating. Rapidly.
[Proficiency of Bless reached 100%.]
[Tier-0 I] → [Tier-0 III]
[Proficiency of Cure Wounds reached 100%.]
[Tier-0 V] → [Tier-0 VI]
[Proficiency of Holy Touch reached 100%.]
[Tier-0 IV] → [Tier-0 V]
[Holy Touch reached the first minor threshold.
Control increased drastically. Power output increased. Skill potency increased.]
[Your Rank increased by one.]
[Iron VI] → [Iron VII]
[One Attribute Point has been added.]
[The User managed to use three overclocked Skill Runes simultaneously, overcoming his limits to face death head-on.]
[Your Mind has grown.]
Middle(-)(Basic) → Middle(Basic)
[You faced the Divine Tribulation and survived. Your body was torn, but your Thread of Life overcame the thread.]
[Your Body has grown.]
Middle(-)(Basic) → Middle(Basic)
David’s Holy Sea was still filled to the brim. A bad headache threatened to knock him out, but the notification of his Mind’s growth, alongside the actual increment, arrived just in time. David didn’t notice the mental exhaustion at first. He had been too busy surviving getting hit by a god’s lightning. But now that it was over, David knew what it felt like to anger a god.
It was an…interesting experience.
“Thank you very much,” David grinned, but the teasing nature permeating his voice since he’d entered the temple was no more. Instead, something akin to respect flickered in his eyes.
No matter how much David disliked the gods, they were powerful. David was sure the Pantheon’s gods could have killed him easily, but they didn’t. Instead, they warned him.
Whoever he’d angered decided it wasn’t worth killing David. Or… Maybe something restrained them and their power.
The divine lightning didn’t feel like a light warning. If I hadn’t surpassed my limits, I would have died. Then again, if that god, goddess, or whatever had wanted to see me dead, they would have sent a stronger divine lightning in the first place.
David shrugged inwardly. It didn’t matter. He was alive, and he had gotten the answers he’d wanted.
The gods, while being stronger than anything David had seen until now, weren’t unlike humans. They had emotions, got angry, and were more than willing to hurt others for pushing their buttons.
And, most importantly, they existed. To be precise, something existed. The life-like statues were already impressive, but the divine lightning was more. It was different from the life-like statues. It was a proper display of power from an entity capable of throwing a divine lightning at him from far – very far – away.
So, gods actually do exist. Or something akin to gods. Powerful creatures that surpass the limits of the possible. Or what mankind considered possible before the integration.
David tilted his head, ignoring the pang of pain.
No. Even I am stronger than anything mankind would have considered humanly possible. My physical strength and endurance are already at the top of the humanly possible, and I’ve literally survived a lightning bolt thrown at me by god. Nobody would be insane enough to annoy a god, but that’s a different story. I survived what should have killed me. Multiple times. Over and over again.
He kept using [Cure Wounds], which wasn’t too tricky. Activating the Skill Rune came easily to him at this point. The more often he’d used [Cure Wounds], the easier it was to utilize the Skill properly. It barely required any mental power to do so.
At this point, David could regulate [Cure Wounds] reasonably well, too. He could adjust how fast [Cure Wounds] was supposed to work and which parts of his body it should mend first. David couldn’t say for sure how well the regulations would work on other bodies, but using the Skill Runes on himself worked very well.
David got up from the temple grounds and looked at the floating island at the front one last time.
The gods didn’t speak to him. They didn’t say a single word.
However, their actions revealed a lot. They showed everything David had to know for the time being.
His vibrant smile returned as he turned to the exit, his chest bare and covered in quickly regrowing skin, his body sore and in pain.
David walked out, revealing his middle finger in its full glory.
“See you later, fuckers!”
