Procedure Start

Instantly, I was on my feet. I could not care for the fatigue I felt after mass-casting various elemental spells at the moment. I had always wished I could help the ever-giving Dark Elementals in some fashion and now my chance had arrived. I was positively itching to start the process when Lord Nightshade poured a bucket of cold water over my head.

"Well… I think I need to remind you that the procedure is very dangerous, not just for me, but also for yourself. You need to turn the invasive light into ghostlight, which would be able to resonate with my darkness without harming it,"

"However, my form and core would try to defend itself against foreign action no matter how much I attempt to restrain them. Typically, such actions would barely be enough to threaten even Greater Elementals, which is why they did not matter in a battle or when Nightblade was healing me,"

"However, even a little leak of the darkness used for battle would be more than enough to kill you, especially considering that even non-destructive darkness is enough to weigh on and slowly kill mortals such as yourself. Such an unintended attack would be stronger than a full-powered attack from a Greater Elemental, though the simplicity of the attack normally means it does not have any impact as it can be dodged trivially,"

"Nevertheless, during this procedure, Nightblade will do her best to keep you from harm, but it will be very risky as you must be in close contact with my mana core and subsequently my flow of mana for you to operate on me in any way. This means that not only will Nightblade have little time to react to the flaring of my mana, if it happens to go through the link you will be using to convert the light into ghostlight, she will be helpless to save you from immediate death. I will of course be doing my utmost to control my mana, but the risk is undeniable. Do you still wish to proceed?" he asked cautiously.

"Sure," I replied simply, "just tell me how I'm meant to do this."

 ____________________________________________

It didn't take them long to explain to me how the procedure would go. Firstly, I would cast as many darkness spells as possible, which Lord Nightshade would strip away, leaving only the ghostlight behind, which would be combined together to form a sphere of the stuff. In theory, I wouldn't need much to perform the procedure, but it would be safer if I had more of the stuff. 

Afterward, I would need to use a spell of light known as the Holy Bind. Initially, it was meant to restrain Elementals by casting ethereal chains around their mana cores would could kill them with a thought, but with modification it would enable me to form a mana link that I could use to access his core - as long as he bonded himself to the link, of course. 

It was unfortunate that a light spell needed to be used, since it would meet more resistance, but as Lord Nightshade had already theorized upon seeing the ghostlight in its pure form, it would travel far more easily with a light spell than a spell of darkness, where it might fuse into it with unpredictable effects. Needless to say, if it fused into the spell, it would be extremely hard to even get it out, much less use it to perform the procedure.

Once that was done, I would need to gently send the ghostlight into his mana core. Theoretically, it should be accepted due to its nature, where it had a positive and uniquely acceptive relationship with darkness. This ghostlight, upon reaching a certain point, would hopefully be able to convert the remaining light into ghostlight, upon which the problem would be solved. 

This whole time, I would need to do was to make sure there was a steady flow of ghostlight. Meanwhile, Lord Nightshade would be trying to stop himself from accidentally killing me, while Lord Nightblade would be trying to save me if any attack was made. All in all, I should be quite safe… unless of course, if the darkness traveled through the Holy Bind into my body and instantly killed me, nothing could be done about that….

Of course, there was a chance of failure if his mana core rejected the ghostlight, in which case it would violently react by sending a massive wave of darkness through me, the consequences of which I need not state. Moreover, he would likely die soon after due to the added stress from two hostile elements in his body. 

However, there was nothing to be done about any of that, so after a few dry runs with the modified Holy Bind and enough ghostlight was gathered for the procedure's purposes, Lord Nightblade sent a pulse of rejuvenating darkness so I would be in peak condition for the operation… and the deadly procedure began.