Book 14: Chapter 57
Can you imagine how the feeling of all your skin splitting feels? Actually, let me reword that. Can you imagine the feeling of your moist skin gradually dying by gradually losing moist due to the high temperature then chapping before, finally, gradually peeling off? I don’t think there’s a single person who could imagine that, as you’ll no longer be paying attention to your skin when your skin is gradually splitting. When that happens, you’ll always pay attention to other parts of your body or scream. However, I had no means of screaming in the moment, for I was immersed in water.
I was completely submerged in water. It was impossible for me to make any vocal sounds, because if I did, I’d suffocate. All I could do was observe my skin peel off bit by bit. The pain nearly took my conscious from me, but the flowing water nearby and risk of drowning allowed me to barely maintain life. Further, my heart was still beating vigorously despite a long time having passed. I didn’t seem to suffocate. As soon as I opened my mouth, the enormous dragon’s blood would gush into my mouth. It would enter my mouth, run down my oesophagus and enter my gut, which made me feel as though my internal organs were set alight.
In spite of that, my heart didn’t lose strength. To the contrary, my heart beats gradually intensified. The fish around were attracted to my shed skin. There were even fish bold enough to swim over right next to me to eat the skin I shed. They surrounded me, but I was incapable of extending out my arms to drive them off. As such, I was relegated to just watching all of my skin peel off bit by bit, consequently revealing my pink flesh underneath.
The dragon’s blood burnt my clothes. It was as if I jumped into boiling oil and not a lake. My last piece of skin was finally shed. I was akin to a human mannequin standing by the wall in a biology experiment room, incapable of doing anything or feeling anything. I didn’t breathe, but I didn’t feel suffocated.
Legend had it that Achilles was impervious to blades after being soaked in a lake, with his ankle being his only vulnerable spot. Siegfried, on the other hand, used a leaf to cover the weak point on his shoulder. However, my entire body was submerged in the dragon’s blood. No body part was missed. If I was impervious to blades after, that meant my entire body was impervious to blades; nobody would be able to hurt me.
I swallowed mouthfuls of dragon blood. The initial painful feeling of being torn eventually developed into an oddly ecstatic sensation. Being submerged in the lake was initially incredibly painful, but I didn’t feel anything after shedding my skin. In fact, I could no longer feel the high temperature. To the contrary, it felt so cool and refreshing that I liked it. I gradually relaxed as the pain of being incinerated vanished. A feeling of exhaustion from around me came onto me.
I started to wonder how I was going to get out. Every part of my body ached. The pain came from within. The pain almost made me belt out, but I had an urge to let out a terrifying roar before I could let out a painful cry. I checked out my arm. My arm had shed its skin, but scales were growing from between my flesh and veins. Scales of the same colour as my skin gradually appeared. I was soon covered in closely situated together scales akin to that of snake scales. The shock and disgust rendered me lightheaded. Nevertheless, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even touch myself, let alone move my arm.
I felt as though my interior was in an inferno. The burning sensation ripped everything within, including my organs. My organs, veins and skin were alight; or rather, every inch of my veins was alight. I didn’t know if my organs were actually on fire or not as per the skin-shedding process. I had no idea what the function of a dragon’s blood was, but I was sure the scales made me invulnerable to magic and impervious to all blades.
“Am I now a dragon that is impervious to blades?” I pondered.