CHAPTER 82- Unforeseen Foe- The Yusk Massacre (6)

"Are you...still sane?"

Edwin's voice cracked as he spoke, his words barely rising above the suffocating miasma of dark energy swirling around Xavier.

The malignant force clung to the young man like a second skin, pulsing in time with the dragon heart clenched in his fist.

Xavier's eyes narrowed, gleaming with an eerie light as they locked onto Edwin. "You pride yourself as this era's greatest mage," he said, voice dripping with disdain, "yet here you stand, trembling like a cornered animal."

Edwin scoffed, cradling his nearly shattered left hand. "Is that all you have to say, you ungrateful bastard?"

Xavier ignored him, his attention falling to the dragon heart in his grasp.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Golden light pulsed rhythmically from the organ, its warmth seeping into his palm. He couldn't tell if the heat was real or just his desperate imagination.

Edwin studied his own injured hand, then the heart. Every trace of the dark energy was gone—consumed, absorbed. Xavier had taken it all.

And that's the real problem.

"When you devoured that corruption," Edwin said carefully, "did the memories of the damned try to drown you?"

Xavier didn't answer. The screams of countless souls had echoed in his skull when he first breached the barrier. But unlike Edwin's warnings, that couldn't shake him up.

Nothing broke him anymore.

Except thoughts of her.

A faint, lovesick smile tugged at his lips. Edwin's stomach twisted.

Of course he's thinking about her.

The Tower Master suppressed a groan. -Just what kind of cursed luck does Foxy have? First that North Kingdom fanatic, now this demonic brat—and let's not forget his half-brother, the insect prince. Why can't she attract someone normal for once?-

He exhaled sharply. Now wasn't the time for ranting—not with his left hand hanging useless and Xavier radiating enough power to level a kingdom.

"Tower Master." Xavier's voice snapped Edwin back to the present. "Is it true that a dragon's soul can linger in its heart? That if the soul remains, the dragon can be reborn?"

Edwin stiffened. He glanced at the heart, then at Xavier—really looked at him.

The young man's usual icy composure had fractured. His breathing was uneven, shoulders slumped under an invisible weight. He looked like a man clinging to his last hope.

Edwin's throat tightened. He couldn't lie. Not about this.

"Yes," he admitted.

Xavier's grip on the heart tightened.

"But?"

Edwin hesitated. The silence between them grew oppressive.

"The soul inside that heart is fading," he said at last. "After being steeped in corruption for so long, the chances of it remaining uncorrupted are... slim."

Xavier didn't move. Didn't breathe.

"Even if you succeed," Edwin continued, "what emerges may not be your mother. It could be something far worse. And a corrupted golden dragon?" He shook his head. "No one walks away from that fight unscathed."

Xavier closed his eyes. For a long moment, he simply stood there, the heart beating against his palm.

Then his fingers curled around it, decisive.

"I'll take the risk."

Edwin's jaw clenched. "And if she returns as a monster?"

"Then I'll put her down myself." Xavier's voice didn't waver. "Before she can harm a single soul."

The raw finality in those words sent a chill down Edwin's spine. This wasn't bravado—Xavier had already accepted the possibility. Had already condemned himself to the act.

"Why?" Edwin demanded. "If the worst happens, let me face her. You shouldn't have to—"

"No." Xavier's smile was brittle. "This is my choice. My responsibility. Either fate gives my mother back to me... or it makes me her executioner. Either way, I won't run."

Edwin wanted to argue. To drag this stubborn fool back from the brink, he didn't believe he had what it took. But the resolve in Xavier's eyes silenced him.

For the first time in his life, the great Tower Master was feeling powerless every passing moment. The silent regret in his eyes made Xavier pity him a little but that was useless.

Against a powerful foe like a dragon, Edwin was armless.

-I've spent my life boasting about being the strongest mage of this age, he thought bitterly, and here I am, watching a child march toward his own damnation.-

Somewhere in his chest, his heart ached.

-Not everyone is like me. Not everyone can kill their family without hesitation.-

There fell a heavy quiet between them when Edwin released a weary breath, his gaze drifting up to regard Xavier.

The young half-dragon remained frozen, his entire focus centered upon the beating dragon heart resting within his palms. The organ spilled an unnatural golden glow, its thuds syncopating unaccountably in rhythm with Xavier's own beat.

Surrounding them, the alien landscape of this distant planet stretched out to infinity - black spires that pierced into a violet sky, air heavy with the scent of ozone and something far older.

It wasn't their world, and one wrong step here might leave them dead for good as other than Edwin not even Xavier knew where they were.

A derisive, dry voice echoed in Xavier's head. "You ought to just eat the heart and be done with this fool ritual."

Xavier's hands danced around the throbbing organ, his teeth gritted. He would not respond, but the voice continued its pitiless goading.

"Why endanger your life for a mother you've never laid eyes on? This sentimentalism will kill you."

A muscle knotted in Xavier's cheek as he suppressed a poisonous retort, but the words slipped out in a barely audible growl. "Rot in the abyss, old demon fart."

Edwin's brow furrowed. "Did you say something?"

Xavier's expression smoothed back into practiced equanimity. "You're hearing things, Tower Master."

Edwin observed him for a moment, then stepped away, flexing his newly mended arm. The holy energy thrumming just beneath the surface had soldered the breaks back together again, but a throbbing ache remained as a reminder of their exposed condition.

They stood in the center of an ancient ritual circle Edwin had taken some time thoughtfully inscribing into the red land, the runes glowing faintly with the residual magic of their leap through dimensions.

"Tell me what to do," Xavier ordered, his voice tinged with barely-suppressed annoyance.

Edwin took a deep breath, his breath misting in the cold atmosphere of the planet. "I've only read about this ritual being mentioned in theory texts. But I'll tell you, as best I can."

Belhier's voice in Xavier's mind taunted. "You intend to leave this hack to such fine detail work?"

Xavier pinched his eyes together, his rage boiling. "If you make a deal with me - relinquish control for seventy-two hours - I could perform the ritual flawlessly," the voice continued.

"Shut the hell up, you old demon fart!" Xavier snarled aloud, causing Edwin to step back.

"What did you call me?" Edwin pointed at himself, his face furrowed in astonishment.

Xavier blinked, getting control of his face. "You're hearing things again, Tower Master."

Edwin's lips compressed into a thin line, but he did not reply.

The presence in Xavier's head - Belhier - gave a disgusted growl. "In my day, I commanded armies of demons and twisted reality to my amusement. Now I'm burdened with a shared consciousness and a misbehaved kid."

As they took up their positions within the ring, Edwin steadied a trembling hand on Xavier's shoulder.

The half-dragon's heart rate slowed to unnatural rhythm, his thoughts weighed down by both fear and an uncomfortable, electric sense of expectation.

Edwin fought to steady his own breathing. Punishment for failure here went well beyond death - they could unravel the very fabric of their souls.

He'd never actually gone through this ceremony, only read about its premises in rotting books. Yet the greatest magician of his age could not let himself indulge in doubt now.

"I will open up two of your mana pathways," Edwin started, trying to push confidence into his voice. "You have to imagine your mana and your demonic energy as two different things. Picture your demonic energy as a huge, corrupted ocean, and your natural mana as an uncorrupted island in the middle of it."

Xavier closed his eyes as the ceremony started.

Edwin's fingers began to glow with cerulean energy as he traced symbols over Xavier's back. The half-dragon tensed as a chill spread through his frame - not the blazing corruption of hellish energy, but a sterile, searching chill that penetrated deep into his soul.

In his mind's eye, Xavier saw the vision form - a limitless black sea extending to all edges, its black waves moving with evil purpose.

At its center, a small island sent out brilliant white light, its beaches beginning to spread against the turbulent darkness.

Edwin jerked away violently, his eyes swelling wide with terror. The moment he ceased marking the mana circle, a malevolent pull convulsed at his very existence.

He staggered backward, his chest compressing as though seized by spectral fists. Icy sensations different from anything he had ever felt raged within his veins. 

"This isn't happening," Edwin panted, his horror-filled eyes unblinking as the ritual imploded.

Xavier's frame froze up in agony, his teeth hard as an icily cold surge rolled over him from within. "ughhhh"

The island of light within his head expanded quickly, its glare crashing into hot anger against the black ocean. He was not able to draw breath, wasn't able to move - his every nerve cried out as both opposing forces grappled around within him.

Belhier's voice cut through the pain, sternly imperative. "Boy! Break the trance now! If this continues, the dragon's raw mana will incinerate your demonic essence!"

But Xavier was trapped in the internal storm, his body beginning to disintegrate.

Tenuous strands of golden energy oozed through cracks forming in his flesh, and black vapor hissed from his pores. Blood trickled from his nose and eyes, freezing at once in the planet's cold air.

Edwin's head spun with mathematics.

Ordinary mages only possessed a single mana pathway, with superior prodigies like himself possessing three.

Dragons also evolved up to five paths after centuries of development.

Being a half-dragon member of the legendary Gold Dragon clan, Xavier shouldn't have had more than three pathways in the first place.

But the flood of power coursing through him spoke of something far more sinister - five fully actualized lines from the day he was born, an anomaly unheard of even in the ancient books.

The practiced ritual had turned into a catastrophic imbalance, the dragon's sacred mana and Xavier's demonic power mixing like matter and antimatter.

Edwin gazed in despairing horror as Xavier's flesh turned to crystal, golden ice spreading over his limbs.

The mind of the Tower Master flashed to those he loved - his son's laughter, his pupil's unyielding stare, the woman whose memory still warmed his heart all these years later.

The thought of never seeing them again filled him with near-paralyzing fear.

And then Edwin Ronald, the greatest mage of his generation, made his choice.

- I am scared, I really don't want to take this risk but if I don't. He will die and I can't possibly stand before Foxy with his dead body.-

With movements honed over decades of practice, his hands began to weave an arcane seal of brain-staggering intricacy.

Ordinarily he did not require such props, but this spell demanded flawless precision. The air itself was in a breathless pause as he spoke the incantation:

"By fracture, I siphon; by void, I consume— Let your discordant mana be my ruin's womb."

A blinding explosion of energy burst from Xavier's body, incinerating Edwin with the intensity of a collapsing star.

Edwin howled in agony as external mana surged through his body. His veins distended in grotesque fashion, oscillating between gold light and black darkness.

So massive was the amount of energy that it would tear him apart molecule by molecule.

But as Edwin endured the unthinkable agony, Xavier couldn't be stabilized. The warring energies within him achieved a fragile tranquility, the demon's energies dominant but allowing for the dragon's mana to travel through regulated channels.

Color hue overrode the half-dragon's countenance, his breathing laboring.

Edwin sank to his knees, numb from pain and barely managing to breathe. Blood streamed from his mouth, his vision going misty at the edges.

Out of the haze of pain, he beheld Xavier's calm face and could manage a faint smile before the darkness claimed him.

Xavier's eyes opened to quiet. The crushing pain was absent, having left behind an unnerving calm. He felt lighter, his mind clearer than before. His eyes, clearing, scanned Edwin's body on the floor before him, bathed in a ring of silver energy.

Belhier's voice, which was unusually serious, broke the silence. "Had that fool not shifted, you'd have died of mana reflux."

Xavier's heart fell. "No. that can't be. He wouldn't." But there it was, before him - Edwin's blood spattered against the alien stone, his face ashen as death.

Xavier's hands trembled as he crawled towards it, his voice breaking. "Tower Master! Answer me!"

When there was no response, Xavier scooped Edwin's lifeless body up in his arms.

"You arrogant bastard! You boasted you were the greatest mage of our time! How do you lie here like this?" His tears flowed freely now, every sentence tortured with desperation.

"I said I'd take the blame! This wasn't your fault to take!" 

Belhier sighed. "Stop crying. Place your finger on his throat."

Xavier remained frozen. "Can you save him?"

"He is not dead. His divine connection shields him from complete mana rejection. Your excess energy is suffocating him - divert a trickle of your mana to flush it out."

Xavier nodded, shook hands, and did as instructed. A pulse of energy, however slight, passed between them, and slowly, Edwin's chest began rising and falling again.

Xavier measured every agonizing second, his entire world contracting into the small pulsing of Edwin's heart.

Then - a gasp. Edwin's eyes sprang open, his body twitching as life roared back in fierce intensity.

He stared at his hands in shock, " I am not dead? Wow! This is a miracle!" 

His amusement was bring into halt as a soft bitter sob rang in his ear beside him.

Turning his head he met Xavier's tear-stained face. Before he could say a word, the younger man yanked him into a bruising hug.

"You idiot of a Tower Master," Xavier rasped, his voice raw with emotion.

Edwin, trying to grasp his own survival, merely patted Xavier's back. The act was eloquent - of gratitude, of comprehension, of bond formed in the fires of mutual agony.

Somewhere he knew, it was Xavier who saved him. At the end of the day, Xavier Alexus Aelric, regardless of his status, was still a 20 years old whose first ever close human contact was Edwin.

" Yes Yes, I am a stupid Tower Master."

Those words left from Edwin's lips with a faint smile on his lips as Xavier continued sobbing while hugging him like a kid scared awaken from a nightmare.