Having time to run would have been useful… but William wasn’t given that choice. Thus, the explosion of Lord Stirling’s soul happened a mere dozen yards away from him. It was all William could do to make it that far. At least he wasn’t in the epicenter… and his soul was weaker than the Demon King’s.

The shockwave from the explosion picked William up and sent him flying. When compared to being disintegrated into dust, it was actually much preferable. He only felt himself flying through the air. His eardrums had broken instantly and the explosion of light had likewise blinded him. He couldn’t even afford to use his ki senses to determine when he would hit the ground because he was using every remaining shred of energy to keep himself together, physically and in terms of his soul. That was why when he hit the ground his right arm took the brunt of the impact. William couldn’t hear the sound of bones crunching, but he could feel it all throughout his arm.

His soul… was relatively fine. He had been much worse off earlier in his life, and though perhaps a third of his soul was damaged it wasn’t to the level where it wouldn’t recover on its own.

After William hit the ground, he somehow felt himself falling again… then impacted against the much softer dirt below. Feeling around with his arm he determined that he’d hit the castle wall. He shakily pushed himself up to his feet and turned away from the wall… then performed the rudest gesture he could do one handed toward Lord Stirling’s army in general. Not that they would be able to see him.

“Open the gate!” William shouted. At least, he thought he did. He certainly tried to, but he couldn’t hear it. He wondered if anyone else could… but soon enough he found himself being led along by the hand through the gates. Probably. It was far too quick for anyone but his own soldiers to have reached him, and the closest enemies would be nothing but meat paste- at best. The most important part was Chris wedged himself into William’s good hand, comforting him with his presence.

William felt herbs and poultices being rubbed all over him. His sense of touch still worked, even if it was mostly overridden by the pain that came with every touch. A potion was poured down his throat. Then he was wrapped in bandages, which caused him to wince with every slight movement. Just when he was hoping it was over… they started to work on his arm.

It took all he could to keep himself from passing out as they shifted his bones around and splinted them. It wasn’t just one quick snap to put two bones right, either. William couldn’t exactly tell the extent of what was wrong, only that it seemed to involve his whole arm. On the other hand, he could feel pain all the way out to his fingertips which was encouraging in its own way.

Finally he was moved once again and found himself lying in a bed… and he finally let himself fall unconscious.

-----

When he woke up, his vision was spotty… which was an excellent improvement. Sure, there might have been black spots throughout and his eyes wouldn’t focus on anything, but he could see. His hearing… wasn’t back yet. That made sense, because his eyes had been physically fine. He hadn’t even been looking in the direction of the explosion, but his ears didn’t have the option to face away- and ruptured eardrums didn’t heal quickly.

His right arm… William had recovered enough ki to investigate that. It still hurt to use it because of the damage to his soul- but it wasn’t a big enough use to make things worse. A quick glance told him that there were many pieces still out of place. He only managed to shift a few very tiny pieces back into some semblance of the right place… probably. He couldn’t be exactly sure, because his arm looked more like a thousand piece puzzle than bones. The only difference was none of the pieces were the same size. Currently his arm was strapped to his chest with a sling and his entire arm was splinted to minimize possible movement, all the way up to his shoulder.

William fell back to sleep, only to wake up when someone entered the room. He still couldn’t hear… but he subconsciously was using ki to feel around him. At some point in his lives that might have seemed like a big deal, but now he hadn’t even thought about it.

He sat up and grimaced. At least his vision had a few less spots. William tapped his ear to let the servant know he couldn’t hear. They approached next to the bed and held something out. Food, by the smell. Soup. The servant tried to feed him, but William grabbed the spoon with his left hand and started eating it. It was hot, but not too hot. William wondered if anything could actually be too hot for him now and still considered food, because ‘too hot’ was the level where it actually burned his mouth- and his whole body was quite resistant to damage. It was still hot enough to be slightly unpleasant… but that didn’t slow William down. He was hungry. Soon enough he had finished his soup. “Thank you.”

The servant left, but William didn’t go back to sleep. He was still tired, but some parts of him still worked fine. William started chanting. He could see and feel the mana moving, so he knew he was making noise at least. He focused on just his shoulder as he guided mana toward it. He could use ki to observe what was happening, but mana drew on power outside of him. He could still call upon it without trouble. He only managed to rearrange some small bits and pieces and try to promote healing before mental fatigue hit him again, but it was better than nothing.