I focused and extended a tendril of spatial mana into the spirit dragon, then reached within me to where I could still feel the last empty space that needed to be filled. I channeled it through the bond, and the tiny spirit dragon looked at me, fear in its eyes.

I could feel its heartbeat against my mana senses, weak and faint. It wasn’t a heartbeat in the sense I was used to, energy pulsing through the heart, but it was there, a thin buzzing against my mana senses, and it was fading fast.

I tried to extend the bond again, but rather than accept the help it was being offered, the dragon threw itself into its strange destiny-debt.

I didn’t know how, but I understood what it was doing. Maybe it was carried to me on the winds of fortune, maybe it was my first touch of the wind of destiny. Maybe it was Benevolence telling me, or maybe it was something else entirely.

But I understood the dragon’s motivations.

It was trying to save me. It didn’t want to bring someone it didn’t know down with it, leaving me to the fate it had brought into this world, a gaping wound in the nature of what should be. It wanted to live, but not if it meant bringing awful things into the world.

I flicked my fingers and ripped the drops of destiny from the shelf in the alchemy room, then tipped it into the dragon’s mouth. A drop of the golden power slipped into it, and I could feel destiny recede, the debt dropping down.

I fed a second drop, and the debt was almost gone, but there was a tiny amount still left, so I tipped a third drop in.

Finally, there was a flipping sensation, and the debt vanished. Tiny sprinkles of power drifted through the spirit dragon, but it was too weak, and its heartbeat stopped. I let the last drop of destiny fall back into the alchemy room, then shoved the offer of a spellbond at the spirit dragon, practically letting the mana explode out of me.

There was a chance that I might attract something nasty by releasing so much power at once into the air around me, but I didn’t care. I’d fight anything, if it gave something a chance to live.

The spirit used its last breath to reach out and grip onto my mana. A moment later, a tiny spark slipped into the chasm within my mana-garden. The empty socket over my space gate filled with a golden gemstone.

The spatial mana that I’d been wildly radiating in order to try and form the bond cut off, instead flowing into the little dragon. My third gate drained dry, and then my second, then my first. I started converting mana over, draining my other gates rapidly. First my time gate, then my death gate, then my life gate, then finally, my beastgate.

It wasn’t enough.

I flexed my spirit and flowed power through my Testudinal Reserve, drawing out more time mana from my bones. I felt the strength I’d stored in them diminish, but that was fine, it would come back. It was always easier to refill than to push to expand the storage.

The Testudinal Reserve spell had been able to passively draw power from my spirit for over two months, and while most of that power had been used to refine my bones in order to store more power in them, that was still longer than I’d ever gone without drawing from a reserve.

I poured every drop of that power into my spatial gate, and from there, into the dragon.

Just as I was reaching into Dusk’s realm and my Temporal Basin to take more power from them, there was a thump as the dragon’s heart began to beat again, a gentle wave against my mana senses.

Then a beam of light, crackling with the streaks of lightning and cloud and shadow that indicated sky dragon’s breath, ripped past my side. I looked up and whipped around, trying to figure out what was happening.

I understood a moment later. Aracelli and Octavian were rushing across the marshes towards me, and there was a bundle of life and death energy shaped vaguely like a really tall human behind me, and that had been what they fired dragon’s breath at.

I scooped the dragon up and threw it on my shoulder, where it sort of phased into it, but largely stayed there, and then whipped around. I had an instant to process what was happening as a hand came at my face, and I tried to Foxstep to the side, but I was out of mana. My energy was rapidly trying to come down into my garden and restore it, but for the moment, I was low on power.

The hand, which had sharp tips, almost like claws, struck my side, slowed by my aura pin for a moment, and then slamming into my suit and tearing a long gouge into it. I was thrown back, hot blood stinging the air as another stream of breath fired from Araceli’s mouth.

Under the light of the attack, I could make out the shape more clearly. It was a massive ape, with claw-like hands and a hateful looking face. It had huge red splotches over its skin, and its mana was churning through it, dedicated fully to enhancing its body, and the mana was dense. Peak third gate, certainly, with raw physical strength that seemed to surpass even my expectations. A full-gate spell dedicated to brute force, maybe?

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The dragon’s breath slammed into it, and I saw power flaring around its body to shed the strike, so I used the opportunity to step into Dusk’s realm and deposit the spirit dragon onto the bed. I gave it a stern look.

“Stay there and get better, okay?”

Then I drew power from the plants across the garden, letting it rush into me and restore my mana, converting power into my beastgate to refuel it as well. I had a moment to wonder if I could find a plant that produced hudau mana before I stepped back into the battle.

The ape creature had raced across the ground towards Aracelli and Octavian, but Octavian was conducting his arms through the air, conjuring sky lenses for Araceli to focus her breath through, summoning balls of wispflame that clung to the creature and drained its mana, and casting a few other spells I couldn’t identify, but that were sending power into Araceli and Roh. The dragon and spirit were releasing bursts of power at the ape, but with every strike, its physical strength seemed to grow, its muscles bulging larger and larger as it took injuries and lost mana. At the same moment, a churning blackish aura swirled around it, restoring its mana as it took injuries, reminding me of the spell that Mallory had used in our fight so long ago.

I revised my opinion. Either it was the weirdest growth spell I’d ever heard of, or there was a legacy in play. Strength from Blood, or something of that sort.

I flicked my hands, and Briarthreads exploded from my spirit. Pinpoint Boneshards flew out and spun around me in a defensive pattern, then I raised my hands, called power from the Ninelight Morels, twisted power through Enhance Forging, and then unleashed a Fungal Lock spell onto the beast.

I’d gotten a bit used to Fungal Lock being one of the weaker spells in my repertoire, but with so much power running through and supporting them, the mycelial roots and mushrooms that popped up over its body looked less ethereal than I’d ever seen, almost real with the way they dug into its skin and began to suck away energy. The effect combined with Roh’s spell’s that drained away its mana, and though it managed to free a hand, I was used to throwing out multiple Fungal Locks at once. Doing it while also maintaining a flow of power from the morels and my meta spell was a lot harder, but a second lock over the arm it freed was well within my ability.

The ape let out a roar that shook the earth around us, then it toppled over, sinking a few inches into the bog. I held Fungal Lock over it, draining its enhanced muscles dry until its eyes fluttered and it passed out.

I released the power then and began to spin magic through the Starfish Regeneration spell. The cool, minty power began to wash through me, and I felt it land on the cuts where the ape’s claws had landed on me, a faint burning sensation as the spell broke down the injured tissue and started rebuilding it.

I dismissed Pinpoint Boneshard and Briarthreads, then wandered over to Octavian, who had dismounted Araceli. While she shrank back down, he stepped over and examined it.

“Strongbody Apes are a bit of a menace,” he said with a sigh. “They don’t usually come this far north, but what can you do?”

“This isn’t north,” I said, thinking of Puinen. Octavian just chuckled then glanced at my ripped up shirt.

“I, ah… Sorry about your suit and shirt.”

I waved my hand dismissively, as if brushing the subject aside.

“It’s fine, the suit mends itself.”

I was actually still a little embarrassed about being rendered half-shirtless in front of… anyone… but I wanted to get over that. I could be shirtless now! And that was great! It was just also something I was still working on not feeling ashamed about subconsciously.

“That’s good,” Octavian said. “We should find the others.”

I nodded and Foxstepped over to him, then flicked my fingers and expelled the spirit dragon from Dusk’s domain. The tiny creature hovered in the air winglessly, tilting its head as it took in Octavian, Araceli, and Roh, then it landed on my shoulder and wrapped around my neck like a semi-tangible scarf.

Octavian’s mouth fell open.

“Is that a star spirit draconid?” he asked, wheezing like he’d just been punched in the gut.

“I think so,” I said. “I found it dying, and considered getting you, but instead I fed it my leftover drops from the idyll-flume, then bond it to stop it from dying.”

“You… Think so?” Octavian said.

Araceli stuck her nose out and sniffed the tiny dragon wrapping itself around my neck, who uncurled and sniffed back.

“I think so,” I said. “Honestly, I didn’t really think too much about it. It was dying and needed a bond and destiny mana, so I helped.”

Octavian pulled on his braid as if he was trying to pull it out.

“I– you– I– I thought spirit dragons were a myth?!”

“I think I remember a librarian saying something about that,” I said agreeably. I did think it was pretty incredible, but Octavian’s reactions about my nonchalance were far too amusing to be worth breaking the mask for him.

Octavian closed his eyes and muttered something under his breath about fools and luck.

“That’s a bit rude, don’t you think?” I asked, “Besides, I thought we were going to go looking for our friends?”

I let my runelight lens emerge from my spirit and spin around my head, channeled power through Sky Dragon’s Senses, Vampiric Senses, Sense Directionality, and my suite of Analyze spells, then unbraided my mana senses and sent them sweeping out around us.

Octavian was staring at me again.

“What?” I asked, genuinely confused this time.

“How are you able to spread your mana senses so far?” he asked. “Is there a trick to it?”

“A bit of one. Meadow showed me a method to kind of separate out each of my sensory spell’s enhancements and send them in different directions while also stretching it thin. Broadens the search area, but gives less feedback overall.”

“How many sensory spells do you have?” he asked, sounding mildly amused and concerned.

“Uh,” I said, mentally counting. “Six?”

Octavian gave me a tired look, then laughed.

“Primes, no wonder you’re so good at working with terrain manipulation. Did you get anything else crazy from the starfall?”

“Just this staff thing that seemed to integrate the Nascent Truth I’d touched on.”

Octavian threw a handful of wispflame at my head.