“Sir, we’ve located the anomaly. A Confluence between Dimensions T-56-A and… R-01-A-X?”

“How can that be possible?”

“Not only that… it actually originated from R-01-A-X.”

“Are you saying a Confluence was opened from a Purged Dimension?”

“That’s what the readings say, sir.”

“Show me.”

“We’ve located three Tags matching the Dimensional Flux. One Cloud Source, one pseudo-Cloud Flesh, and… the other is giving odd readings. Perhaps a Chaos Source?”

“Shall we send a Purge Squad, sir?”

“Not yet… Something is wrong. This anomaly had energy at the peak of the Tide rank. Two Cloud ranks can’t have caused it. Something else was behind this.”

“If only we could probe the Purged Dimension…”

“It’s too dangerous. For now, we continue monitoring. Record the Tags of those involved in this incident, and send an agent down in person to monitor each one.”

“Done.”

“Good. Should they be involved in another anomaly, or if our agents discover anything, then we can call for a Purge.”

***

“Okay, walk me through this plan again. You sound crazy. And I’m supposed to be the crazy one,” Mei said, looking down at Levin with crossed arms.

Of course, Mei was always looking down at Levin. But this time, she really had to keep her eyes glued to the floor. He rolled around in a wheelchair, a rickety wooden thing with three wheels and a wide, flat base connecting them, with a rune engraved on the underside to power it. It was certainly one of their most unique finds at Inuvik Academy.

“I need to remove my Chaos Source if I want to survive. But look at me,” Levin raised his right arm a few inches into the air, watching as his entire arm shook violently before collapsing back onto the arm rest.

“Yeah, you’re a little bitch. I’ve known that all along. Now explain properly.”

“You know mages live longer the stronger they are? That’s what I’m going to use to save myself. I intend to switch out the Chaos Source that’s killing me with the dragon Source we found, which should give me back the years I lost from my lifespan to Chaos Sickness.”

“It will only cost your sanity.” Mei frowned in displeasure – she had seen for herself what Chimeras were like.

Levin sighed, but didn't disagree. “If my plan works, that will only be temporary. That's what I need you for, Mei."

"To make sure my new pet dragon will take its medicine,” Mei said.

She glanced behind her, out into the hallway of the artificial cavern. Levin had just finished taking her on a tour of several rooms that had been filled with bright orange and red runes. They were energy runes, powerful ones that would rapidly advance any acolyte’s progress towards Wisp rank.

And he wanted Mei to force him into them while he was a Chimera.

“Right. Without a Chaos Source, my own Source should be able to develop like yours did. I’ll use the energy runes to power it up, and that will also give me more years to live. I’ll need that, because when I remove the dragon Source I’ll probably lose the lifespan that comes with it.”

“So you have a way to revert Chimeras? That could save a lot of the people the Lillwu have experimented on,” Mei said.

“Unfortunately, those people had their original Source destroyed when they were turned into Chimeras. My entire plan hinges on my original Source growing inside of me while I’m a Chimera.”

“How likely is that?”

Levin grimaced. He had been trying not to think about that.

“I see,” Mei said. “And if it doesn’t work, and you get stuck as a Chimera? Do you want me to kill you?”

Levin paused for a long moment. “Yes.”

Mei nodded.

“Thank you for this, Mei. You’re one of the only ones strong enough to restrain a Chimera, and you’re the only one I trust to take care of me while I’m… under.”

“‘Course. I want you to be there when we kick Silla’s ass together,” Mei said. “He may have left, but now that we’ve conquered Trurok I’m coming for his head next.”

Levin smiled, envisioning himself fighting side-by-side with Mei. He had already picked what element he would train in, too – magma. He could see himself hurling molten lava at Silla while Mei bull-rushes him, and was determined to live long enough to see it happen.

And if he wanted to live, he would need to finish before his body gave out. Levin focused on the engraving pen in his hand, its ink nearly depleted. He had a wooden lap desk sitting on the armrests of his wheelchair, and the lidless jar of Death Dragon Source sat on it. He put the final touches on a rune engraved into the glass itself, an addendum to the rune already present.

Levin picked the large jar up in both hands, reaching over the side of his wheelchair and setting it onto the ground. The black rune engraved in the floor flashed as the jar touched it, and then Levin’s preparations were complete.

His hypothesis was that Mei’s and Levin’s Sources developed slowly over time as they lived in this dimension, and did not appear all at once. Levin thought it explained why Mei had experienced pain when first using her weapon art – in that moment, she had forcefully completed the process of acquiring a Source.

And while Levin was suffering the symptoms of Chaos eating away at his own Source, tests showed that he still had no Source of his own, just like the first day he had met Magus Pilip. So Levin hoped that his own Source was simply not done developing yet – that was likely the only reason he was still alive.

But it was all just guesswork and assumptions at the end of the day. Inuvik Academy had no literature on the effects of dimension-hopping, of course – Levin checked before journeying back to the Chimera cave, though it had been futile. They did have many records about previous Chaos users, but those stories all ended with death. Sometimes explosively. So Levin knew it would take something drastic and experimental to save his life.

“Are you sure you've got everything set up correctly? If something goes wrong, no one will be able to fix this." Mei glanced to her side, at the human-sized hollow pods and their domed glass tops.

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The two of them were alone in the bottom of the Chimera cave, where they had originally discovered the three dragon Chimera corpses alongside the tools that had created them. Levin had already repaired two of them, and the runes he had engraved on their curved outer walls cast a dim light in the sterical white glow of the laboratory. Underfoot, another rune connected the pod to the fresh Source.

“That’s the one part of all this I’m not worried about,” Levin said. “My runesmithing work is perfect.”

Mei scoffed. “At least you can guarantee turning into a bloodthirsty monster.”

“I’m not sure I can guarantee anything right now, to be honest. But this one” – Levin gestured to the pod in the center – “should transform me into a dragon Chimera. And the one on the right is keyed to destroy the dragon Source, once my own Source is strengthened enough.”

“And you predict that will take a month or two?” Mei said, quoting an earlier conversation.

“Yes. But I’d like you to leave me as a Chimera for three months. Better safe than sorry, and I don’t think there will be any long-term damage from staying as a Chimera a little longer. I hope.”

“Caring about the long-term risks of experimental, body-altering procedures is for squares,” Mei said with a chuckle and a glance at herself.

“Didn’t you design your enhancements yourself? My Y-Link has some research papers on organic chemistry with your name on them.”

“That’s only the later ones, and I didn’t do it alone. My first was a complete jump into the unknown.”

Levin nodded, idly wondering what Mei looked like before she took the mother of all steroid treatments. "If I’m lucky, I’ll end up with a stronger body than I started with. Maybe I’ll even be as strong as Andrew was.”

“And if you’re unlucky, you’ll be stuck as a mindless beast for the rest of your life.”

Levin nodded. He had already accepted the risk.

“Will your Y-Link still work after all this?” Mei asked.

Levin threw his hands up – he had no clue what this process would do to his brain structure. “I’m just hoping for the best.”

A purple control rune lit up on Levin’s hand, and his wheelchair slid into motion, bringing him towards the pod in the center. Levin took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. And the aches.

“Well, my preparations are all complete. Do you have any more questions?” Levin asked.

“No.”

“Here I go then.”

Levin rose from the wheelchair, arms straining as he pushed his hands down onto the armrests, legs trembling as they struggled to support his weight. The wheelchair slid backwards as Levin put a hand out, steadying himself on the metallic wall of the machine he was about to climb into.

And then he blushed furiously.

“What?” Mei asked, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s… Well… You see, I can’t bring my clothes into the pod.” Levin’s cheeks reddened further.

Mei chuckled. “With your body like that, I doubt there’s anything to see down there anyways.”

“Could you turn around?” Levin said sheepishly.

“What a baby,” Mei said, but she did as he asked.

Levin slid out of his pants and robe, shivering as the air caressed his aged, wrinkled skin. He folded them and placed them down in a pile on the ground.

Finally, Levin undid the chain of the silver medallion hanging around his neck. It hadn’t taken long to find, thanks to the helpers Uki had left him for looting the Academy. Levin had commanded them to prioritize looking for this medallion before anything else, and they had dutifully delivered.

He clutched the medallion for a moment longer, and then set it to the side as well. With a deep breath, Levin turned to face the magic that would determine the fate of his life.

He started to climb in, struggling to get his leg up into the lip of the pod, but eventually managed to collapse into the hollow interior. It had been filled with a warm, opaque liquid with a silvery hue, and Levin sighed in satisfaction as he slipped into it.

“I’m ready,” Levin said.

Mei faced Levin again, then stomped over to the center of the room, standing over the pod.

“It activates when you close the lid,” Levin said, pointing to the glass dome, currently raised on a hinge over the pod. “The other one works the same way.”

“See you on the other side, Levin.”

Mei gave him a solemn look as she reached down and slid the glass top into place. Immediately, the runes on the pod’s walls and the floor came to life, and the remaining space in Levin’s pod was filled completely with liquid, submerging him entirely.

His consciousness began to fade away long before his breath did, as he fell into a rune-induced stupor. The liquid inside was designed for this, of course, and he continued to receive oxygen to his blood even as the substance filled his stomach and lungs. Levin’s mind retreated, falling away into a world of crimson.

Then the first step of the process began, purging Levin of his existing Source. It had taken a few additional modifications to ensure the Chaos energy drained away without damaging the runes, but Levin was an expert in Chaos now. The runes engraved into his body crumbled away, and the destructive energy that filled his sea of consciousness began to seep out.

The red drained from Levin’s mind, and his body registered a sensation of relief as the rate of continuous damage he had been taking began to slow and then stop. And then Levin’s mind was empty, a blank slate.

Then the second phase began, and Levin’s mind became flushed with new images and memories as the Dragon Source began to flow from the jar outside into the pod with Levin.

He saw a lush, rolling plain. A ring of mountains rose up in the distance in all directions, and even further beyond another set of taller mountains dominated the horizon. His eyes were still adjusting, but he could make out countless scaled creatures riding rivers of air above the distant peaks.

Levin yearned to join them, to take to the sky, to search for worthy opponents he could sharpen his fangs on. But try as he might, his short, stubby legs remained anchored stubbornly to the ground. He peered over his back, to see the knobby tips of wings that had yet to grow in.

Levin roared in anger, but the noise that came out was more like the mewling of a kitten. How he wished he could bend the air to his whim, but reality was cruel. He could do nothing but wait on the cursed ground, faced with nothing but inferior opponents.

A countless number of young dragon-spawn filled the lush valley with him, but they could not match him. The images and memories flashed by in a rainbow of colors, creatures with a myriad of elements all falling to the infant. Even at the youngest of ages Levin understood he was of the element Death, born of a power far superior to those that filled the fields with him.

One day, he would rule these skies. Or he would die trying.

But then, everything vanished. Rather, everyone vanished.

All the dragons, young and old, simply vanished. Levin could not understand what had happened, or why he had been left behind. His heart was filled with sadness, and his remaining days were spent in constant mourning.

And he wandered. He searched, roamed the entire valley, but could find no one. If only he could challenge the mountains and conquer the sky he could search beyond his birth home, but reality was still cruel. Rather, it seemed to have grown even crueler.

And then, the memories began to blur out. There was no dramatic end, no predator finding the isolated dragon and delivering it a warrior’s death, no lack of food causing him to starve.

Instead, his existence itself simply faded away. There was nothing but sadness and longing, yearning for a home that had been lost and would never come back. Faced with a meaningless existence, the infant Levin chose to curl up and leave nothing behind.

Nothing but a spark.

And then it was over. The memories, so vivid it was like Levin had lived them himself, vanished. The pod opened, and the top layer of the liquid spilled out into the laboratory like an overflowing bathtub.

A black, scaled hand followed a moment later, latching onto the lip of the pod. And then Levin pulled himself out, falling forward over the rim. He collapsed in a wet, coughing heap as the liquid drained from his lungs, drawn out by the final pulse of the rune.

Mei stepped forward, fists raised, waiting for the creature before her to rise.

Levin’s body was covered in jet-black scales like obsidian, and the fingers on his hands ended in sharp, clawed points. His tailbone and shoulder blades each had a knobby protrusion, the tail and wings of an infant dragon.

Levin stood up, his muscles taut with renewed energy, and staring at Mei with yellow eyes and vertical pupils. He had gained a few inches of height, but not nearly enough to meet Mei’s challenging gaze without bending his neck back.

Mei made no move, waiting to react to Levin’s attack.

But it never came.

“Well, this is surprising,” Levin said, holding up a hand and examining it.

“I’m still sane.”