Mister X began his march forward, but stopped before making it too far. “I must say you have… Impressed me. Getting up after that could not… have been easy.” Mister X commended before he continued, “But you must have realized… our difference in strength. Do you truly wish to die… that bad?”

Adria stood completely silent, her arms hung at her sides. She forced herself upright and shouted as she gathered all four basic magics in her four hands. She howled at the top of her lungs in an attempt to numb the pain as she slammed all four of her palms together. All of the different magic began to fuse into a mass of white magic with a faint tint of blue.

Mister X’s eyes widened as he questioned, “Now what is that?”

Adria’s entire body trembled and creaked under the immense force being exerted upon it. With a shout Adria fired the attack towards Mister X, falling back right after. Due to the speed of the magic, Mister X was unable to dodge the entire attack. He cried out in pain due to the attack taking his right arm.

Mister X stood completely dumbfounded, grasping his right shoulder. His eyes filled with rage and pain. Dropping all pretenses, he demanded, “What the HELL did you do!? How did YOU hurt ME!?! You are nothing but filth, dirt beneath my boots! How! HOW ARE YOU ABLE TO USE ARCANE MAGIC!?”

Adria had managed to stand up, her head facing the sky as she panted. She was covered in dirt, cuts, bruises, and blood. Her body trembled under its own weight; and yet, despite her situation, she was smiling. It was not full of sadism nor sarcasm, not full of enjoyment or adrenaline. It was full of fulfillment and acceptance.

She brought her head down to face Mister X who was beyond furious, a warm smile across her face as blood seeped from her left eye. Adria, without a hint of anger or hatred, ignored Mister X’s question and began, “You know, even now, despite the humongous gap in power between us, I cannot seem to despair. You crying out just now told me everything I needed to know, you can be hurt. If you can be hurt, then you can be killed, am I wrong?”

Mister X gritted his teeth as he saw a chance to mock Adria, replying, “So what I can?! You are probably the only person who has figured out what can actually hurt me, and it was at the very end! Do you think I am going to let you live?! To teach or tell other people like that brat you call your son!? You're delusional! Once I am finished here, I am going to have Zycor fall into complete despair until he succumbs to his own dark thoughts and becomes corrupted, just like me!”

Adria simply continued to smile as she closed her eyes, “I see, so I was right, You can be killed.” Adria opened her eyes and continued, “Rest assured, you will die. It may not be by my hands, but I have faith that my dear child can. Because I believe in him with every fiber of my being. He was dealt such a crap hand, and yet he has managed to overcome challenges far above himself. It is only a matter of time before he also overcomes you.”

Mister X, whose anger and frustration was palpable, questioned ferociously, “Why on the goddess's green Earth do you believe in some child you found in a backwater village?!”

“Why? Because he is my child whom I love, something I thought I would never feel. I suppose this is what is meant by ‘a parents unconditional love.’”

Mister X, visibly recoiling from the statement, replied with disgust, “What the fuck? Are you REALLY trying to spout some nonsense about how ‘love will triumph over all’?”

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Adria chuckled, “Perhaps, in all honesty I too would have thrown up if I had heard someone say the same thing to me before I took Zycor in.”

Mister X composed himself and sighed, “You know what? Whatever, I do not care anymore, just die.”

He started to walk towards Adria who was far too damaged to move. She closed her eyes and began to communicate telepathically, “Hey, are you awake you lazy sack of scales?”

Somewhere deep in a cave, nestled within an unimaginable amount of gold a true dragon stirred. It opened its eyes halfway and a grumbly and coarse voice responded, “Adria, it has been quite a while. To what do I owe the pleasure of conversing with the protector of my peaceful life?”

Adria opened her eyes and answered, “I need to invoke our contract and then immediately un-invoke it. I need you to deny the latter request.”

Frowning slightly, the dragon asked, “You are aware of what would happen if I did that, no?”

“I am, and I am counting on it. I am fighting someone who requires the resulting blast to defeat.” Adria explained.

The dragon remained silent for a moment before it solemnly said, “I see, that is truly a shame. I will miss the one compatriot who has had my back like I had theirs. But I shall abide by your wishes.”

As Mister X approached ever closer, Adria wrapped up their conversation, “I would love to chat with you more, but I seem to be out of time. But before I go, I will say this, if you ever want another compatriot you could trust then I do know someone. If you run across my son, Zycor, then try talking to him about it.”

The dragon chuckled, “You have a kid? Now that is a story I would love to hear, but perhaps I will have to ask him directly. Thank you Adria, for helping me out so much.”

With one final response, Adria replied, “You are welcome old friend, and thank you for the funds to live my life comfortably. Goodbye.”

“Tell me you walking blob, do you fear death?” Adria asked.

Mister X stopped in his tracks, feeling like something was off. “What are you talking about?” He replied completely lost and confused.

Adria’s smile turned to a smirk. She then shouted “Argonon of the Dragon race, I invoke our contract! Lend me your full power!”

Argonon responded to the call, “Adria of the Mothraki race, I accept your evocation.”

Adria began to swell with power, forcing Mister X back. Before he could move too far, she locked his feet in place with ice and earth coated with intense mana. She then cried out, “Argonon, I un-invoke our contract.”

Argonon closed his eyes and with a heavy heart responded, “Adria… I do not accept your request.”

The magic around and within Adria began to go haywire, bolts of arcane magic shooting out everywhere as the contract backflowed mana into her and out again. This process repeated over and over again until it became too much for Adria’s body. Mister X looked at her in disbelief as he said, “You are crazy… certifiably insane… what the hell are you doing!?”

Through gritted teeth, she exclaimed, “Sending a message set to be delivered from beyond the grave! See you in hell!”

With those as her final words her body gave way to the immense mana being forced into her until something finally gave. Her body burst apart in a spectacular ball of pure arcane magic that rapidly grew in size, engulfing an area even larger than her initial attack. Nearly a six mile radius was consumed along with her and Mister X.