One of the Velthrian knights stepped forward, drawing his sword. The knight turned out to be Volnir who cackled, “Well kid, you aren’t getting away this time! No one to come save you now! It’s a shame I wasn’t able to be the one to kill your new mother myself though, I would have adored watching your face twist into anguish!”

Zycor narrowed his eyes and grit his teeth, seething with intense anger and hatred. He shouted with great fury, “Killing someone will never feel as good as it will to kill you! I’m going full throttle!”

He cried out, “Novos! I invoke our contract, come forth and grant me your power!”

Novos’ body glowed as he jumped from Zycor’s neck and began to turn into pure mana, piercing through his chest. The dragon was absorbed into Zycor’s body as a surge of magic swirled around him. The suppression ring shattered, Zycor’s wings growing more pronounced and sprouting a tail. Across his body, even more blue scales sprouted and covered him, sprouting a pair of draconic horns, his pupils turning to slits. Zycor let out a deafening roar, his head coming down to focus on Volnir. He blitzed the knight in a reckless, almost animalistic fashion.

Volnir, caught off guard by the straightforward approach, brought his sword up to counter. His eyes widen the moment he feels Zycor make contact with his blade, opting to dodge. Zycor continued forward, impacting the ground and tossing up dirt and dust. Out of the dust screen came a gauntlet that grasped Volnir’s sword, another one coming from below and impacting the knight’s stomach. Volnir staggered back, glaring at Zycor.

Zweicor yelled with urgency, “Get a hold of yourself! Don’t allow yourself to be consumed!”

Zycor’s movements halted, his eyes growing wide for a moment then returning to normal. He let out a sigh, “Thanks, I nearly lost it there.”

Volnir, pissed beyond belief, stood up and coated his sword in mana and sneered, “You brat… you think you have time to talk to yourself? Are you looking down on me!?”

He lunged at Zycor with his sword, bringing it down as hard and fast as he could. And yet, something he never thought he would see happened. Instead of cutting through Zycor like paper, Zycor had caught the sword, his own gauntlet crackling and engulfed by electricity that seemed to have a physical form stronger than his own sword. Zycor stared him down and coldly remarked, “Did you think fighting me when I was at full power was going to end the same as when you fought me on empty?”

The half dragon put his free hand on Volnir’s stomach and spun his own body, prying the sword out of his grasp and slamming his heavy tail into the knight. Volnir cried out in pain as he was thrown into one of the massive artificial cave walls. Zycor glanced back at Volnir and crushed the sword in his hand. The other Velathrian knights surrounded Zycor. He looked at the three of them and narrowed his eyes. Zycor recognized them as the knights he let go at the behest of Lizali, now here to kill him. He scowled, “I should have killed you all back then. It’s fine, I can fix that right now.”

The three knight’s stared at him blankly, almost as if they weren’t all there. Zycor moved to strike down the knights, but as he did, Mr. X created a smoke screen. He cackled, “It seems you have… grown dear Zycor. But our… encounter would prove… meaningless if it ended so… clean.”

His vision obscured, Zycor let out another roar, dispelling the smoke. When he began to track the knights, he found them scattered. They had mixed in with Aisha, Mylon, Baz and Nalea and began to fight with them. Zycor sneered at Mr. X, “You coward, leave them alone!”

Mr. X didn’t respond, opting to remain airborne, watching with a wicked smile. Zycor grit his teeth, torn between fighting Mr. X, or helping his friends. Almost making the decision for him, Volnir booked it towards the group to assist the knights in their fight. Instantly, Zycor turned and flapped his wings that crackled with lightning and bolted towards the fight.

Zycor began fighting one of the knights. As he fought and overwhelmed them, one of the other knights and Aisha shouted, “Zycor, stop, what are you doing?!”

Taken aback that Aisha would say such a thing, Zycor didn’t notice Baz swinging his axe at him and hitting him. Zycor brushed the strike off, it having little effect on him. He looked on in shock and confusion. As his rage boiled over, he shouted at Mr. X “What did you do to them during that smokescreen!? Give them back!”

Mr. X chortled, “Oh my dear… Zycor, I have done nothing to… them.”

Fed up with his lies, Zycor kicked Volnir, who was charging him, as hard as possible then turned and plunged his fist clean through one of the other knights. As soon as he did, one of the knights stared in disbelief while Aisha and Mylon cried out, “Zycor, stop!”

Zycor looked over at them with confusion, then he heard a snap coming from Mr. X. The knight staring at him became a haze and morphed into Baz, while the Baz who attacked him turned into a knight. Then Nalea became a haze, turning into the third knight, and the knight he had plunged his fist through turned into Nalea. Zycor had been played by an illusion. Blood dripped from the would as Nalea coughed up blood. Zycor quickly removed his fist and held Nalea in his arms, bringing her to the ground.

The knights went to attack, but Mr. X stopped them, ordering them to wait. The intense inner turmoil forced Novos out of his body, ending the fusion, his features retreating only slightly. Zycor began crying as he held Nalea, “No no no! Y-you can’t die! I… I need you to live! You are a part of our family here!”

Nalea, breathing slowly, her life fading quickly, raised her hand to Zycor’s face and gave a genuine smile, “Thank you… for including me in your… family. I haven’t felt… truly happy in all my years… until Miss Mori brought you home. Than…k you…”

Her hand fell limp, falling onto her chest, her eyes closing as she shed a solitary tear, her life slipped away. Zycor held her close as he cried out in pain. Aisha and Mylon stood baffled, uncertain of what to do. Baz, on the other hand, gripped his axe as hard as he could with great fury and hurled it as hard as he could at Mr. X. It spinned furiously through the air towards the demon of a man. But, he simply raised his one good hand and shattered the axe. Baz finally brought out the zweihander and sneered, “All of you bastards will die, here and now.”

Mylon looked at Baz, the latter of whom charged Volnir bringing the massive sword down on him. Volnir grabbed one of the knights and used him as a human shield, reinforcing his body with mana. Baz’s sword cleaved about half-way through the man before getting lodged. Volnir grinned sinisterly at Baz, “Why are you attacking me? Zycor is the one who killed your friend~.”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Baz pressed forward, pushing Volnir back as he angrily retorted, “That is only because you bastards did something to him!”

Mr. X let loose a torrent of hysterical laughter laced with malice, “Come now dear Zycor, look at what you have done! You killed the last person who connected you to your dear mother! I wonder, did you do that on purpose?!”

His tone changed to one of condescension and superiority, “Did you really… think you could stop me? Your entire… life was dedicated to my… death. And yet, you are no… closer than you were at the… start. Are you beginning to see the… reality of your endeavor? You have lost… before even starting. You lost your first family, and now your… new family is dying one… by one. And there is no one… to blame but yourself. You don’t have… any talent, nor do you excel at… anything but mindless fighting.”

He begins to point at each of the remaining party members and drops his act, “First, the orc will die after his arms are ripped from his body. Then the paladin will be stripped of his armor, his tongue ripped out and gutted left to bleed out. And finally, the girl will be beaten, pierced, thrown and slammed into the ground and walls until she finally dies through blunt force trauma. And the best part? You will try to stop me, and you will fail, just like you failed to protect that elf girl you just killed.”

Zycor’s mind is a torrent of emotions, on the verge of breaking entirely, his anger and resolve holding him together barely. He grits his teeth and opens his mouth to speak. As he did, Zweicor shouted at him, “Don’t! If you fuse again so soon, we don’t know what that will do to the progression of the fusion’s corruption!”

Zycor glared at Mr. X and remarked, “I don’t care, I have to do something!”

He raised his hand and invoked the contract again. Novos himself wanted to deny the contract request, his hesitation the proof. But he ultimately decided to listen and fused again. Zycor’s size grew bigger, the wings and tail growing as well. The horns became larger and more draconic and more of his body was covered in scales. He began to look more like a dragon than a human at this point. His breathing was heavy, each one releasing sparks of electricity. Zycor took a deep breath and let out a viscous roar that cracked the ground and the walls of the cave. His eyes were consumed by an animalistic instinct to tear and devour.

In an instant, two of the knights were thrown at incredible speeds into a wall. Upon impact, blood drained from their armor as they lifelessly remained lodged in the wall. Volnir remained as the last knight standing, his fear evident. He chuckled nervously, “Yeah, I’m not dying to a brat!”

He pulled out a spherical device and threw it at Zycor who swatted it, breaking it and letting out a gas that causes coughing. He used that chance to run away, Mr. X allowing it, seeing him as having ceased being useful for the moment. Zycor took a deep breath, inhaling an immense amount of mana it became visible. He held his breath for a moment before bellowing forth in a roar a powerful blast of lightning that ripped through Mr. X and gouged a huge hole through the artificial wall.

As Zycor stood panting searching for Mr. X, Aisha asked, “Zycor, are you ok?”

Zycor quickly whipped his head around and went to lethally strike Aisha. Baz and Mylon blocked his attack, their legs nearly buckling under the power, the latter theorizing, “I think this fusion of his is not as harmless as we may have thought! He might be losing himself!”

A distorted voice echoed through the chamber, “Well, we can’t have that, I won’t be able to plunge him into complete despair and force him to use the power I gave him if his very ego is erased.”

A black sludge spike sprouted forth from the ground aiming to sever Baz’s right arm. He narrowly dodged, the spike still gashing his arm. Mr. X reformed and chuckled, “Now now, why did you dodge? It would have been easier if you simply accepted it.”

Zycor swiftly shifted his attention back towards Mr. X launching a flurry of attacks, each one dodged or connecting and regenerated. He bellowed forth two more breath attacks, the first one missing and the other taking out his right leg that regenerated quickly.

Mr. X, growing irritated, vanished and appeared in front of Zycor point blank and placed his left hand on his chest and scowled, “That dragon is being a nuisance, let’s get rid of that.”

He flooded Zycor’s body with death magic that resonated with the already-present seed and forced Novos out. Zycor shrunk back to normal and fell to his knees, panting heavily. Mr. X grabbed Novos and threw him to the opposite side of the cave and encased him in black sludge.

Dusting himself off, Mr. X complained, “If that creature was directly from that damn goddess I would kill it right now… but doing such a thing might give her a reason to personally interfere…”

He turned his attention to Zycor who was still trying to catch his breath. Mr. X stepped onto his back, forcing the boy fully prone as he coldly chastised, “You truly are pathetic. Your biological parents were heroes, your adoptive mother was strong enough to actually hurt me, and you were given access to all of her connections. Despite being blessed and spoon fed everything you could possibly need or want, this is all you amount to. It truly is a pity that the other girl isn’t around, I would have loved to kill her in front of you. But, killing these three should be enough.”

A spike burst forth from the ground aiming for Baz’s heart. Mylon reacted quick enough to push him out of the way of an instantly fatal strike, but the half orc was still pierced through his bicep. Mylon’s shield was promptly shattered by another spike, piercing through his forearm as well. Zycor shouted, “Stop it!”

He managed to grab Mr. X’s other leg with his gauntlet, coating it with his hard lighting. When Mr. X tried to simply turn his leg to ooze, he failed. His eyes went wide as Zycor pulled, causing Mr. X to fall onto his back. Not missing a beat, Zycor stood up and brought Mr. X into the air with a swift motion, letting go of his leg. He wound up the strongest punch he could manage and threw a punch at Mr. X’s abdomen. Before he made contact, Mr. X forcibly made a hole in his chest, causing Zycor’s punch to go right through him. He then closed round his arm and broke Zycor’s arm as he scowled, “Did you honestly think I would let you hit me again?”

Mr. X released him and Zycor fell to his knees. The former walked past him and towards the three remaining members. Zycor turned and watched with horror at what was about to happen. He couldn’t do anything. Novos was out of reach, his arm was broken, and he was completely outmatched. This was not mentioning the immense amount of mana expended when he went berserk and when he used his hard lightning. He was running on empty as well. A heavy, ominous throbbing began to emanate from deep within himself. It began to circulate through his body as Zweicor cried out in pain, “H-hey, Zy, you gotta calm down! S-something's not right!”

Zycor had completely tuned him and everything else out. His eyes and focus fixated on Mr. X raising his hand as black tendrils sprouted from his back ready to kill his friends. As he brought his hands down, nothing happened. This confused even Mr. X. When he turned around, his face expressed elation at what he saw. His black tendrils had been severed and taken by the black tendrils that now hold them sprouted from Zycor’s back. The boy’s left eye had turned black and a stream of black ooze began to stream down it like a tear. He began to stand up, the ooze covering his right arm and, with a few unsettling cracks and twists, healed Zycor’s arm.

Zycor now stood again facing Mr. X down with the same power that had caused him so much harm. Mr. X burst out, “Yes, that’s it! Fall into that pit of despair! Realize there is nothing you can do except use my power!”

Zycor stared Mr. X down with an intense glare. Filled with sadness, anger, hatred and a slew of other emotions, Zycor snarled with a distorted voice, “Even if I should be lost to this power, I will take your life.”