Elemental Cats

Toz took a nap once he realized there was nothing he could do to help his clone recover faster. And since he needed his clone to be as healthy as possible for his idea to show the most chance of success, he decided to let it recover in peace. Not to mention how resting would also help restore his broken mind quicker and alleviate the fatigue he built up during his suicidal and senseless training.

Constantly wearing down his mind and condensing his consciousness without a single moment's rest beyond the occasional blackouts had left Toz's body and brain in exhausted shambles. Sleeping would helpfully prevent Toz from collapsing.

Toz slept like a baby, a baby sleeping on a cold hard floor, tied down with chains, and with a splitting headache. Since he had been too tired to tell how bad he felt before, Toz felt worse after waking up, so he went right back to sleep. The exhaustion of his still-recovering mind helped him greatly in making him sleep again.

Eventually, Toz had slept so much he couldn't even blink. He checked on his mind and the clone the first thing he did. His mind had almost fully repaired itself. The other times Toz had overexerted himself and injured his mind, it had been mostly fine after a blackout, but it still wasn't fully recovered yet. It showed how bad his injury had been after he created his clone.

Although his mind hadn't completely restored itself yet, his clone seemed to have regained some strength as it looked a little more solid than before, and the features on its face were more easily discernable.

Since the clone looked to be healthy, Toz decided to try and prompt it into making him able to see the mana in the air again.

He wasn't quite sure what to actually do, but it seemed like the clone followed Toz's thoughts. After Toz thought deeply about activating his mana vision again, he could see the mana the next time he opened his eyes.

With a refreshed mind and body, Toz sensed that keeping the mana vision active strained his eyes and mind, so he didn't waste any time. He began by practically glaring at a string of fire mana floating through the air amidst the veritable ocean of elements filing his view.

The fire mana became clearer, and everything else slowly faded into the background. When the string of fire was the only thing in Toz's vision, the clone inside his mind opened its eyes and reached out a hand.

The clone beckoned with its hand in the direction of the mana. Toz felt his head begin throbbing. His mind hadn't completely recovered yet, and whatever it was that he was doing required immense concentration, which forced him to put pressure on his mind again.

Toz would have considered stopping and letting his mind heal completely before trying again if it wasn't for the feeling of being on the verge of success.

Toz did his best to ignore the budding headache and focus solely on the string of fire taking up his vision.

With the clone's continued beckoning, Toz's headache grew, but so did the string of fire mana appear to do, but only because it was inching closer to Toz.

Eventually, the string of fire was within Toz's reach, but he didn't try to grab it. Instead, he controlled his clone.

The clone reached out with both hands and wrapped them firmly around an invisible rope as if it was about to play tug of war. The clone didn't hesitate and pulled backward, jerking on the invisible rope.

The string of fire mana jerked along with the clone's movements. At the second tug, the string was already in front of Toz's chest. The string struggled to free itself, and Toz saw the fingers on his clone weaken and grow translucent. But he didn't show any hesitation, and the clone pulled a third time.

The string of fire mana couldn't resist and flew into Toz's chest. Since it was pure mana and not magic, Toz's body easily accepted its entry, even without his own mana guiding it.

However, after the mana entered Toz's body, the mana didn't know where to go.

The clone's hands and arms were about to dissipate, and it couldn't guide the fire mana anywhere.

The fire mana was about to wreak havoc on Toz's defenseless body. Although it was simple mana that usually didn't affect its surroundings since there was so little of it, being trapped inside Toz's body triggered the mana.

Toz's body, which didn't have any mana due to the restriction, couldn't stop the fire mana's impending rampage, and Toz also couldn't manipulate it himself. Even after entering his body, it still wasn't under his control. It would have to go through his mana pool and transform into fifth level mana under Toz's control before he could do anything with it directly.

Toz managed to calm down the fire mana somewhat using all of his remaining concentration, but he was at his wits' end.

However, a tiny bit away from where Toz was concentrating, his mana pool was surging. The invisible layer bulged and stretched as if something was trying to break free.

Since Toz was busy trying to control the string of fire mana, he didn't notice. But the mana in his mana pool was acting on its own, trying to leave the mana pool and subdue the string of fire mana.

The struggle from within Toz's mana pool raged on, but the invisible layer held on. All the while, the string of fire mana snaked around Toz's body, heating his body to feverish temperatures.

It was impossible to tell if the mana inside Toz's mana pool could tell the state of Toz's body. But it seemed like the closer Toz got to losing control over the fire mana and losing his consciousness again, the harder the mana struggled to break free from the restriction.

Toz was on the edge of blacking out again due to the pain from his headache and from his body that felt like it was on fire. He only had time to think about how surprising it was that such a small amount of mana could wreak so much havoc on his body before darkness overcame him. But before he collapsed, he heard a resounding pop ring out from what seemed to be his insides.

First his mind and now his body. A vague thought of it being his body exploding from the heat appeared was on the verge of taking shape inside Toz's head. But before it could fully form, he lost consciousness.