It was over.

Or so I thought.

With the enemy mage dead, I leaned against the metal bars, sucking in a breath and trying to slow the beat of my heart. Still reeling, I saw as Tez, who seemed no worse for wear, began to convulse, a spasm shaking her body as she collapsed.

“Tez?” I shouted, alarm filling me as the spasms grew more intense. “Tez!”

I forced my body to move, ignoring the feeling of a sharp pain beginning to blossom throughout my body, too focused on Tez. I sprinted around the metal bars blocking my path, running to her and shaking her shoulders.

“Tez!?”

A moan of pain escaped between her clenched teeth, as did blood from where she bit her tongue mid-spasm.

“Tez? We won? C’mon, c’mon! We won! You have to be alright! Think what Veronika will say if you aren’t!”

I was clueless about what was happening and why she was trembling in obvious pain.

Think Rook, think!

It was hard to focus as my companion, who had just survived a life-or-death battle, now looked like she would die regardless. It didn’t help that I was beginning to feel pain within my own body like hundreds of sharp jagged stones tumbling inside me.

Wait! That’s it!

Dragon Mana. The answer was dragon mana. When it coursed through me, I could sense a sort of…. sharpness to it that normal mana lacked. My body, rejecting mana as it did, had promptly kicked most of the draconic mana out of me when the altar was shattered. Tez, though, was a completely ordinary human. Not only would her body accept mana the way mine wouldn’t, but she wasn’t even a mage, with no mana core or the acquired tolerance to mana that came with it.

Which meant what remained of the draconic mana within her was destroying her from the inside out, the power coming with a hefty price.

The mage had likely taken precautions against it, ensuring he wouldn’t suffer the backlash Tez was enduring. We hadn’t the luxury to gradually acclimate to the power; a desperate girl had thrust it upon us.

Not that we had any other options available in the first place.

Great, so what good does any of that do you?

Tez was still shaking in pain on the ground, her body convulsing harder by the second.

C’mon! Rook, think!

Bad reaction to an aggressive form of mana. No mana core. No tolerance.

Wait, the scale!

The man had talked about the scales and how they could dampen the effects of magic. If I could just-

Oh.

The scale resting against her chest like a gaudy necklace had fractured, crumbling apart as I touched it.

Can I make it back to the rest of the scales in time?

No, it had taken half an hour just to make it here, and if I tried to go any faster, I would risk falling from perilous heights.

What could I do then? It wasn’t as if I could just draw the mana out of her; if it were that easy, I’m sure I would have… have…

Would have what? What else can I do other than try!

Closing my eyes, I placed the palm of my right hand on her abdomen, right above where a mana core would generally be located. Even if she didn’t have a mana core, it would be where most of the draconic mana gathered, like water flowing down to the lowest point possible.

Focus.

I pushed my senses past the physical boundaries until I sensed the mana around me. Unlike prior times, rather than focusing my senses outside and beyond myself, I focused them on a precise location, like I was trying to look within Tez.

Work, please, work!

Gradually, bit by bit, her inner world unfolded before me, pushing past a resistance akin to trying to walk through harsh winds.

Peering inside her, it was like a warzone exploded out before me. Mana, crimson and razor-sharp, was ravaging her from the inside out. Her body weakly tried to defend itself, but with mana no more significant than the average person, it was like a person trying to defeat an entire army. The mana would kill her within minutes if left to its own devices.

Ordinarily, drawing mana from another person would be impossible, like trying to suck the air out of another person’s lungs just by breathing in.

Except this wasn’t ordinarily. The draconic mana was an invader, untethered to her essence.

C’mon, why don’t you pick on someone your own size?

I desperately drew the draconic mana toward me, the same as I would any mana. I momentarily felt an external push, like her body was trying to aid me in the little ways it could.

More. More!

It wasn’t enough to draw the mana out bit by bit; I needed to draw it all out in one fell swoop.

It just so happened that I had an incomplete Sage ring desperate for more mana.

For once, show me that a Sage ring is for more than just show.

Awareness shifting to the tiny band wrapped around my wrist, I pushed the little embers of my own mana toward it, the band responding like a slumbering animal roused from its sleep.

And it was hungry.

Perfect.

Focusing my attention back on Tez, I began drawing on the draconic mana once more. Whereas before, it was like trying to empty a pond handful by cupped handful, now it flooded into me as quickly as if I had dug a direct channel.

Good. Good! Keep it coming!

From within Tez, the mana had appeared like an endless crimson sea. Still, once drawn into me, I could better contextualize it; the invading army was, in reality, nothing more than a single, albeit dangerous, scouting force.

Focus. Not out of the woods yet.

There had still been draconic mana within me, even before I had begun drawing more from Tez. With as much draconic mana inside me as there was, I would fair little better than Tez if I left it alone, the mana wreaking havoc if it weren’t neutralized.

So I did what I always did when trying to draw on mana. I pulled it toward my ring, the mana swirling around like a tornado of red glass. My Sage ring of crystalized mana, refined within the slip dimension, withstood the abrasive force as it pressed against it. I mentally pictured pulling the glass tornado apart piece by piece, grinding the shards down before using them to further reinforce my incomplete Sage ring.

It was difficult, mentally straining work, but I’d grown practiced at such things, and aided with the foundation I’d laid before, the raging storm, or what I pictured as a raging storm, of dragon mana slowly relented, pulled apart and integrated within myself until there was nothing left.

You’re at my mercy here!

Fighting the internal battle for what felt like ages, when I finally opened my eyes, I was shocked to see not the night sky but the sun on the verge of rising.

I knew that took a while, but I didn’t expect it to have been that long.

Turning my eyes away from the rising sun upon the horizon, they nearly bulged out of my head when I cast a look downward.

Tez!

Tez was still lying on the ground, but thankfully, her chest rose and fell with rhythmic consistency. She was asleep, my palm pressed against her abdomen, which I withdrew a moment later.

Looking away from her, I looked toward where the young girl, Rosalina, had been. She was still chained to the altar; unfortunately, I had been too preoccupied with handling the remaining dragon mana to have freed her. As with Tez, the girl was unconscious. The effort of directing the dragon mana into us had apparently taken almost as much of a toll on her as on us.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

That, or simply being malnourished and beaten beyond what anyone should have had to withstand, had strained her after the recent excitement.

What matters is everyone is alive.

I looked at the man, still skewered upon Tez’s blade staff.

Well, everyone that counts, at least.

I slowly stood up, my body protesting and aching after being locked in the same position overnight. I carefully stretched out before I examined my arm, sending a flicker of mana into the divine cloth wrap and revealing the ring circling my wrist beneath it.

Well….

It looked essentially the same. If I squinted hard, it was perhaps a little thicker than before.

I guess any progress is still some progress.

It was incomplete, like the first piece out of a thousand-piece puzzle. Now, it was perhaps a little more complete.

Which is to say, two puzzle pieces out of a thousand instead of one.

Still got a ways to go before I can call it a real Sage ring.

There was one last that needed to be addressed at the peak of the mountain ridge. Carefully walking over to the exploded stone altar, I looked it over, sighing.

Around the broken stone altar, the metal shards from my sword were scattered. It was unrepairable; that much was obvious, shattered into a million tiny pieces.

My sword, my trusty sword I’d been swinging for years now, that had seen me through so much, exploring Theronhold, journeying to the pond of Elvermarzon, and battling a crazed mage hellbent on taking the power of a long-dead True Dragon for himself, had, at last, perished in the line of duty.

I closed my eyes, and had I been wearing a hat, I would have removed it and placed it over my heart, taking a moment of silence for my sword.

That sword meant a lot to me.

And no, I didn’t wipe tears away. There was just some sand in my eyes.

Wiping at my eyes because they were itchy and not because I’d cried bitter tears, I finally grabbed the chain binding the girl to the altar. I didn’t have a way to free her from the chain itself; with the altar little more than a rather generous pile of debris, it was simply a matter of pulling the other end out from the rubble. Picking the girl up, I gently draped her over my shoulder. Then, returning to Tez, I repeated the process, albeit with a bit more difficulty.

Both girls draped over my shoulders; I slowly shuffled toward the winding path back down the mountain peak. Standing there silently, I stared at the ground far below before finally sighing.

Well, this ought to be fun.

----------------------------

Two hours.

That was how long it took me to make my way down from the top of Sun-splitter Peak with the two girls draped over my shoulder, my arms and body aching from the effort. The girl we have saved, Rosalina, weighed next to nothing. The problem came from Tez. While lithe in frame, she was laden with tight muscles, heavier than she appeared at first glance.

When I finally reached the bottom of the winding path, I carefully set the girls down, resting against the opening to the underground pass, listening to the sounds of men and women laboring away inside.

All that, for what?

It wasn’t that I was upset or regretted everything that had happened. It had been close, but we’d made it out alive.

It was just, now what? We couldn’t even report the full details of what had happened or risk endangering the girl if the information got out. Such a dangerous mission, and no one would be the wiser.

Veronika told the girl’s father he was better off with a party of Irons or a Steel rank for something like this. I say take it a step further. At a minimum, this should have been an entire team of silvers, and even then, I’m not so sure.

After having encountered the Sage Hunter and the Sage Above All and mentoring briefly under an elevated magical beast, I had a somewhat decent grasp of just what strength felt like, of the oppressive aura of power that choked out hopes of resisting.

The enemy mage had felt the same way. Only someone like my master, or perhaps the Sage Hunter who had attacked Junaper, could I imagine standing against such strength without drawing on some fantastical power source as I had.

“Hah.” I laughed. The sound was exhausted and raspy. “Luck. That was all it was.”

We had survived and won, but it hadn’t really been us. Had it not been for the girl, for Rosalina and her ability to infuse us with the draconic mana from deep within the heart of the mountain, we would have been swatted aside like little more than annoying gnats.

Not even.

Luck. At the end of the day, that’s what it had all amounted to. We had been lucky.

I rubbed my eyes, thinking how razor-thin the tight rope we had been walking was. Had even one thing been different, had Tez not brought the scale with her, had I lacked the constitution of a Sage, we would have failed. The now-dead mage, who I might add I still knew absolutely nothing about, would have been free to continue his pursuit of the power locked away within Sun-splitter peak.

Which reminds me.

A few strides away from me was the crate of earthen scales from before and an accompanying second crate of fresh scales. I made my way toward them, picking up one of the new scales and inspecting it.

Just how mighty was this True Dragon?

Weeks of careful channeling of the dragon mana had put the now-dead mage on the brink of reaching the heights of legendary figures. A quick burst of dragon mana from Rosalina had also brought Tez and me near that level.

Suppose that much power was just an afterthought, a quick dip of a cup into a more tremendous reservoir. How massive was the original source in the first place?

“Sometimes.” I looked toward the sun, the source of the original fable following the mountain ridge, “I feel like the world is just too large.”

So you would think.

I jumped, startled as a voice reverberated from within my mind.

“H-hello?”

Relax whelp.

“Whelp?”

To think thousands of years, and this is who ends up tasting my power.

“Who, where are you?” I spun around, looking for wherever the deep, echoing voice was coming from.

A vestige.

“A, a what?”

A vestige. You should have some experience with those already.

My mind flicked back to my experience within the Pond of Elvermarzon and the dead sage that had spoken to me from beyond the grave.

“Wait, does that mean that-”

Yes. Once, I was known as the Tyrant of the Heavens, The Hateful Sun, first amongst the dragons. Solarus, the world shaker!

“And you’re speaking to me how…?”

All who have tasted my power pure and true to its nature may hear the echoes of my voice upon the citadel of my end.

“Citadel of yo- what?”

I swore I heard the deep aethereal voice sigh, and within my mind, I was treated to the image of some vast being shaking their head in annoyance.

Never mind. The point is that you have tasted my power and thus can converse with my vestige.

“Was that mage able to as well?”

Hah! The fool believed himself superior to that of a True Dragon. Thus, rather than take my power in its raw, pure form, he broke it down into something that merely resembled my might. Even if he had been able to speak with me, I would never deign to converse with such an inferior being.

“Th-thanks?” I questioned, cautiously taking it as a compliment by extension.

You are not much better, whelp.

“Oh.”

At the very least, you were not so foolish as to degrade my power into something lesser. As well as from you, I can sense the mark of the Sages.

“You know of the Sages?”

I was happy no one, at least no one currently conscious, was nearby to hear me conversing aloud with what may as well have been a voice in my head.

Know them? I did more than know them. At times I was known to cooperate with Sages. And at other times, we fought battles that shook the heavens themselves. In fact, my greatest foe, the one responsible for my demise, was a Sage. Even by the likes of a True Dragon, the vanity of the Sage Above All would have been exceptional.

Wait.

What?

“Did you just say the Sage Above All?” I gasped, hoping that I was somehow mistaken.

Yes. She was a worthy foe. In our many battles, neither could gain the upper hand upon the other until our final battle, in which she finally tapped into her question and struck me down. It was here where I fell, and my essence has been anchored ever since.

No. I found myself shaking my head. You’re joking.

The kidnapping of Rosalina, the ransacking of Kar’anza, and the battle against a mage wielding the mana of a True Dragon.

It was all her fault.

“Why am I not surprised.” I laughed. At first, nothing more than a soft patter of giggles, rapidly transforming into an unfettered, nearly maniacal chorus of laughter that wracked my entire body. It wasn’t so funny that I could do nothing but laugh; weeks of tension, uncertainty, and even terror were finally escaping from where I’d locked the feelings away.

You seem aware of the Sage Above All. Tell me, young Sage, did you meet her within the world of waking dreams?

“You mean the place they leave their memories once they die?” I shook my head. “No. While I did meet her, it was in flesh and blood.”

She lives? After eons still?

“She reincarnated. Used the body of someone from my village. As for me, I’m the failed reincarnation of her former apprentice.”

From within my mind, the vestige of the True Dragon began to laugh, a deep bellow that, had it been a physical sound, would have ruptured eardrums and made ears bleed. Seconds passed before it slowly settled down, the dragon now filled with mirth.

So it be. Destiny has fated it. You, bound to the Sage Above All as you are. I will gift you the knowledge to take my power for your own. Bring the girl back to the peak at the first sunrise following the celestial equinox, when the mana of the universe reaches perfect equilibrium. Take that power and strike down the Sage Above All.

I thought about it; I hate to admit it. The alluring promise of power unlike any I’d ever known, strength enough to face even the Sage Above All.

Tempting, but at last, I shook my head.

“No.”

Excuse me?

“No, I said.” I flicked the nail of my index finger against the petrified scale of the True Dragon. “Let me guess, I take your power, and in doing so, does she die?”

It is of little importance. Her bloodline was sired for the purpose of-

“Yeah, I’m not done speaking yet.” I cut the voice off in my head. “So what, I take your power, then what? You expect me to find and kill the Sage Above All?”

You will be given the Heart of a Dragon, the same heart which beats within the girl, capable of harnessing mana beyond mortal understanding-

“No.” I shook my head once more. “I’m not killing the girl, not taking her heart, not doing any of that. In fact, I’d put money on that the moment I would do as such, gain this ‘Dragon Heart’ that you’d resurrect through me, wipe me away, and replace my identity, my ego, with your own.”

You dare speak to a-

“You’re a vestige; you can’t threaten me.” I snorted, laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of how events had connected. “This all started with a Sage trying to use my body to be reborn in the first place. And you know what? I’m really, really, damn tired of supernatural beings of supernatural power trying to use others as pawns to resurrect or be reborn or whatever. You can take your offer and screw off.”

It is destiny, whelp. You have used my mana and laid it within the foundation of your path as a Sage. You will never escape it.

“Yeah, destiny, fate. Do you know what you can do with that? Stick it up your ass. Oh wait, you don’t even have a body anymore to do that!”

Before the vestige of the True Dragon could respond, I dropped the scale. Like a noisy cricket that had been squashed, the murmur of noise within my head vanished instantly, the scale responsible for the mental connection.

That’s what I figured.

Fate.

Destiny.

Reincarnation.

Magic that transcended all logic and reason.

It was all such heavy, difficult things beyond my ability to comprehend. I’d gone through so much in just over two months, an adventure I figured was worthy of storybooks.

Picking the girls back up, I entered the cavern, with people to see and news to share.

I’d had an adventure of a lifetime.

And to think, I was just getting started.