Chef in the Apocalypse

"Bingo."

Jayce saw the burning black substance and frowned. He was still sending a steady flow of Life mana into Leah’s body, sparing no expense in order to remove the brand in one fell swoop.

The issue was that he had not yet created the spell to Dispel or Cleanse, therefore he would have to try and manipulate the life mana, all while continuing to feel torturous pain through the Empath skill.

While he could very well turn off his Empath skill now that he knew where the brand was located, he wanted to make sure that he was not endangering Leah’s life when trying to create the spell. If he felt a huge increase of pain he would know that he did something wrong.

Therefore, he kept it active, trying to keep a hold of his consciousness. After waiting a few moments, Jayce decided there was enough Life mana to be able to make his first attempt at removing the brand.

He willed the mana forward towards the flaming heart. As he got closer, some of his life mana began to burst into flames from the heat it emanated. Seeing this, Jayce willed it to move faster, afraid that all of it would fizzle out before it arrived.

Jayce’s mana swarmed towards the heart, seeming as if it was going to smother the flames. However the moment it made contact, they burst into flames one by one, causing him to curse inwardly.

’My mana can’t even get close, how am I going to dispel it?’ Jayce thought, having trouble thinking of a solution while his body was screaming at him in pain.

’I need to get the flames off the heart before I can access the brand.’

With this thought in mind, he willed his mana to form a vortex within Leah’s chest, aiming to suck the flames towards it. Once he succeeded, he would be able to send another batch of Life mana to the parts that were no longer covered in flames.

While this sounded good in theory, the task was monumental. It wasn’t until Jayce had used up another third of his mana that he finally managed to create an opening on the flaming heart.

’GO!’ he shouted inwardly, sending the mana en masse towards the safe side of the heart. Once it made contact with the brand he felt a sharp pain in his own heart, forcing him to cough a mouthful of blood out.

Yet he ignored the pain, willing the mana to eat away at the brand much like a white blood cell would attack an infection. He actually felt the pain begin to subside as the brand lost its hold on the heart.

However in the next moment, the flame that was covering the brand grew in size, escaping the pull of the vortex Jayce had created. In an instant it devoured the Life mana which had been eating at the brand in one swift motion.

Despite this, Jayce’s face turned up into a grin. That was because he had just seen a notification pop-up in front of him.

[Congratulations, you have created the skill: Dispel]

Now the next part should be easy enough, although possibly time consuming. Jayce quickly checked on Leah’s state of mind before activating his new skill.

"Dispel."

Unlike before, he did not have to painstakingly direct his mana through Leah’s body. The Life mana rushed in like a stampede, on its way to trample the brand that he had set his sights on.

There was a much higher density of mana than when he had first created the skill, backing up the theory that skills were much better than freely using mana and converting it yourself.

The only thing that skills lacked was versatility. Which was why having the skill Spell Creation was such a boon to Jayce’s arsenal. The sheer utility of the skill was countless times greater than the VIP15 skill which he had lost.

Although he would lose the benefits of being able to gain permanent stats, he had always placed more value in skills than he had raw stats. Plus, he would still be able to boost his parties stats by eating a lot of food and powering up regardless.

The Life mana that the Dispel skill wielded attacked the flaming heart, overwhelming it with sheer numbers. Within a few moments the flame had been snuffed out, leaving the brand to be slowly eaten away by the multitude of small particles.

Jayce returned his vision outwards, watching Leah’s frame begin to relax a little more and more. To be sure, he activated his Empath skill once again, tensing up his body in response to the sharp pain that he was assaulted with.

He could instantly tell that the pain was subsiding, causing him to let out a sigh of relief. Lianna who had been holding down her sister and watching Jayce intently saw his frame begin to relax and felt a surge of joy enter her body.

However she was still rather anxious, "I-Is she going to be okay?" she asked in a small voice.

Jayce who was feeling quite exhausted after such intense mental pressure turned his head and smiled, giving a thumbs up in response.

Seeing this, she let out a sigh of relief. Now that the crisis had ended, Lianna felt her emotions that she had suppressed come to the surface. All the pain and worry, the fear and hope all culminated, causing her to burst into tears.

Leah slowly began to stir, her eyes moving beneath her eyelids as if she were having a bad dream. Then as if waking up for the first time in god knows how long, she opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was the tear stained and snotty face of her sister.

"You have such an ugly crying face" She mumbled, a tired smile forming on her face.

Jayce stifled his laughter, not wanting to interrupt this sisterly reunion.

Lianna did not respond with words, throwing herself at the woman she had not seen for almost a decade.