The scorching grit scraped Rasa's cheeks painfully, and his tightly shut eyes trembled slightly.
In his unconsciousness, he seemed to have sunk into a bottomless abyss of darkness. Every sound outside had vanished, leaving only his own heavy breathing.
He tried to struggle, but his body seemed bound by invisible restraints, unable to move.
Rasa's eyes snapped open, as though he had awakened from a long dream.
Pain!
There was not a single part of his body that did not send out signals of pain!
Weakness!
Countless cells in his body protested, demanding fresh water and nutrients!
He consciously directed his hands, trying to brace them against the soft sand and drag his battered body out of this place where the heat warped even the air.
Several vultures circled endlessly overhead, while a few more stood on the surrounding dunes, with their untidy black feathers, disgusting bare necks, tiny heads, and hard beaks.
Every feature marked them as scavengers.
Rasa struggled to prop up his upper body. He needed to check carefully whether those disgusting beasts had pecked him.
The germs carried by scavengers were deadly in an environment like the desert.
Dragging his battered body, Rasa crawled beneath Rōran's city wall to shelter from the scorching sun.
Although he found it strange that no great explosion had occurred, the city of Rōran was utterly silent, without a trace of life.
This made Rasa think that the Dragon Vein's rampage might have affected only human bodies. Otherwise, where had all Rōran's civilians gone?
Even if Takahashi Yū's group had not vanished, Rasa would accept it. He had no strength left to resist now anyway.
Enduring the pain inside his body, Rasa carefully mobilized his pitifully small reserves of chakra and made his way into Rōran.
He found fresh water and