"Everything is ready to begin, young man," Atarra said.

"Sir, you can still change your mind; we can alleviate part of the problems with your spirit so you can recover more calmly," Atasha said.

"It won't be necessary," Alex replied.

At that moment, Alex manifested his soul in the external world, leaving him exposed in front of everyone present. From Alex's back and chest, a humanoid white figure constantly emerged and fed an illusory image, an island where a tree and a statue could be seen.

Before letting go of his consciousness, Alex took his tooth necklace in one hand and the metal pin in the other, gripping them tightly in his hands and then letting go of his consciousness.

Upon seeing Alex finally unconscious, both matriarchs began to move. With firm and decisive movements, they circled around the human like puppeteers, moving their energy to different areas and stitching where necessary.

The apprentices of both matriarchs watched as their leader moved around the ritual, tracing erratic lines, but they could see the slight pattern and how each stitch, which seemed random, slowly created a network and sutured Alex's wound.

Quickly, both matriarchs began to run out of their energy reserves. However, Atarra held on longer, showing her superior skill. To maintain the pace, the young matriarch's initiates knew how to read the conditions of the ritual well and began to activate the energy reserves of the artifacts and resources they had brought to replenish their leader's reserves. Shortly after, Atarra also began to receive an energy recharge.

Amid the monotony of both matriarchs moving slowly around Alex, an unexpected change emerged. Small footsteps could be heard heading towards Alex, causing all the other spectators to become alert.

"What do you plan to do?" asked the Alpha of the Stalkers.

The small feline continued walking slowly and unperturbed.

"Be careful of the consequences," Athena suddenly spoke.

Karan's shadow slave looked at Athena's irritated face and could feel the confluence of emotions from the protector of thunder. He didn't quite understand why she was so involved with the human, but he agreed that making a move at this time was very dangerous, so he added, "Girl, it's better if you stay back."

The intervention of both protectors made the little feline's fur stand on end. Her heart was racing, almost as if it wanted to leap out of her chest. Nevertheless, she didn't let it intimidate her and simply turned her head and continued walking until she reached the edge of the ritual circle.

At the edge of the circle, the little one began to hum a melody. Although at first, it seemed like a cacophony, soon the true intention of the melody became clear: it was a lullaby.

Little Lunaria had noticed a problem that no one else had seen. Alex's mind was too chaotic and tense. While it may not have seemed like it, undergoing an open-soul surgery put his body under tremendous tension, but undoubtedly, his mind, his perception of himself, and his own identity suffered the most.

As time passed, everyone could begin to relax a bit, as it finally seemed that Alex's soul wouldn't spontaneously disappear, which had been the biggest fear until now. Although he was far from healed, and the surgery needed to continue.

"What do you say, young man? Can he do it?" Karan suddenly asked.

"I trust he can make it through," replied the Alpha of the Stalkers.

"Where does all that confidence come from?" Karan wondered aloud.

"The young man has accomplished the impossible many times; I don't see why he wouldn't do it now," Torel replied.

"That's a dangerous way to see life, elf. If you place too much faith in him, you'll end up crushing him under such high expectations. He'll die trying to climb mountains he was never meant to cross in the first place," Karan responded.

Torel realized Karan was right. Alex had made one crazy move after another and come through almost unscathed. But this false appearance of being intact was now revealing its face. Torel had enough power and skill to slightly understand what was happening internally in his mind; the disturbances were clear, and his spirit cried out in anguish.

Alex was subjected to pain that could only compare to someone tied to an operating table for open-heart surgery without anesthesia, where the operation had to cut and then repair some nerves.

Unfortunately, no one else could help in this situation. It was already a miracle that Lunaria's discordant voice helped ease Alex's mental peace; no one else had anything to offer, or at least not without paying a price they weren't willing to pay for him.

The matriarchs began to worry when they realized they had been operating on his soul for a couple of hours and had only treated about 10% of his wound. Of course, this would have been a miracle in any magical institution outside, but even the matriarchs' great expertise in forbidden topics like the soul wasn't enough to carry out such a task. Both knew that the operation couldn't be prolonged much longer, or Alex could go completely mad from the pain.

The resources they had brought were almost half gone, so the matriarchs decided to make some final stitches to slightly stabilize the situation. This would create a future problem because without reaching 50%, it wasn't possible to avoid the deterioration of Alex's soul. However, it also gave them mental relief since they were no longer at risk of the human's soul disappearing spontaneously.

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The matriarchs were about to start their plan to shore up Alex's soul so that its deterioration would be as slow as possible when an unexpected event occurred.

Somehow, despite all the stress Alex was under, he managed to maintain a semblance of clarity and slightly alter the ritual that was being performed to start a process of unification between his two natures.

Both matriarchs could only show a momentarily surprised expression before they had to begin following Alex's footsteps.

The young human clearly hadn't learned his lesson after all this time since he had once again decided to risk his life for a small and remote possibility. No one had ever achieved what Alex was attempting; even the most reckless of wizards conducting experiments on others had despaired and abandoned any attempt to perform a similar operation.

Luckily for Alex, he had two true matriarchs skilled in soul arts, but even that proved insufficient.

When everything started to go wrong, and the matriarchs struggled to keep up with the necessary pace due to lack of energy, the people present began to panic.

Everyone saw how quickly the energy reserves the matriarchs had brought were being consumed, and their apprentices couldn't work fast enough to provide more energy to their matriarchs.

"Karan, we must do something," Athena exclaimed.

"There's nothing we can do; we're not compatible with the matriarchs to transfer them our energy," the dragon replied.

"There must be a way, yes, the apprentices. We can use them to filter our energy before giving it to the matriarchs," Athena exclaimed.

"You'll kill them all. The energy overload they'll receive is something their preparing bodies can barely handle," Kara responded.

"It's a fair price," Athena declared.

Both protectors entered a heated debate, and although Karan was motivated to help Alex due to his assistance in the Eldritch emergency, he wasn't sure if the route Athena proposed was worth it. It could prove to be more counterproductive and end up being the cause of the young human's death.

"Help me, give me your powers," Lunaria suddenly said.

"What are you talking about?" the great Stalker asked.

"You said Alex would be treated as part of our pack. Give me your powers; he needs us," the little feline said seriously.

Without waiting for her uncle's help, little Lunaria transformed into her stalking form and launched herself at Alex's chest.

Everyone was petrified in their place; interrupting a ritual like that was guaranteed to leave Alex crippled at best.

The following moments became tense, without really knowing what was happening or what the little Stalker was doing. However, they could see she was consuming her energy at an insane rate, so much so that in a brief two minutes, she had consumed almost all her reserves, forcing her uncle to grant her an auxiliary energy supply from himself to continue doing whatever she was doing.

Finally, when the matriarchs were about to collapse due to the pressure, a shocking change occurred. Although everything seemed to indicate that Alex's soul would remain unstable, in the end, somehow, the little feline managed to bind both parts of his soul, giving it a new definitive stability.

No one could understand how the little Lunaria had achieved it, although it would later become clear that it wasn't an idea of her own but rather Alex's, who managed to communicate his ideas and get her help to achieve this milestone.

Finally, the ritual had concluded. No one understood how it had gone well, but it had. However, there was one thing that intrigued those present.

"Are you aware that uniting your dualities will cause serious problems of emotional stability in the future?" Athena asked Alex, who was still somewhat confused as he slowly emerged from the numbness of his soul surgery.

"Don't worry; I didn't force any union," Alex replied, pressing his head tightly to try to alleviate the great pain he felt.

"Human, you... what did you do?" Karan asked, confused. They had clearly seen him unite his duality, thinking he had done so to stabilize his human side with forest energy, which made sense, although it would provoke the previously mentioned personality changes and emotional instability as both parts would eventually begin to reject each other.

"I didn't interlace both parts; I fused them," Alex said.

Both protectors turned pale.

Both matriarchs immediately opened their eyes and were shocked to see the entity in front of them.

"You, human... what are you planning to do?!" Karan shouted.

They had clearly seen him merge his dualities, thinking he had done so in an attempt to stabilize his human side with the energy of the forest, which made sense. However, it would provoke the previously mentioned personality changes and emotional instability as both parts would eventually begin to reject each other.

"I didn't just intertwine both parts, I fused them," Alex said.

Both protectors turned pale.

Both matriarchs also turned pale, and even Lunaria and her uncle felt their legs grow weak.

"Why would you do that?" Karan asked.

"A hunch," Alex said as he slowly got up.

The young human's legs trembled as he walked slowly and painfully toward the two matriarchs in the stunned room.

Still feeling the faint connection between their souls from the residual energies of the surgery conducted by both matriarchs, Alex placed a hand on each matriarch's face and sent a pulse toward their souls.

Alex could discern very few things within the souls of both matriarchs; after all, the young human was no expert in the field, but he wasn't seeking generalities or taking a casual look. What mattered to him was at the center of both matriarchs' souls.

"I have a feeling it's possible to do it, but I can't be sure of anything," Alex said.

No one could respond to Alex's cryptic message, and before anyone could say anything, Alex had already passed out.

Atasha stepped forward to check Alex's vital signs, and after a few short minutes, she finally confirmed, "He's stable and out of danger, just fainted from exhaustion."

The avatars of both protectors nodded at the matriarch and left the room immediately, leaving behind an exhausted Athena.

Lunaria was hesitant to leave Alex alone; however, her uncle convinced her it was better to give him space to rest.

Torel carried Alex to his resting place while both matriarchs stayed behind to replenish their energy.

"What do you think he meant at the end?" Atasha asked.

"He was looking into our souls, though I'm not sure what specifically he was searching for."

"Could he be trying to deal with the curse?"

"At first, I thought so, but the location he was looking at is unusual; even I don't know what's there, as it's covered by the curse. However, if he wanted to deal with the curse, he would need to look at a more central area," Atarra replied.

"I thought something similar. It seems related to the curse, but is it even possible to deal with it?" Atasha asked rhetorically.

"The ancient matriarchs paid a great price to discover a way to make it more manageable; I don't think the boy can figure out a way on his own," Atarra said.

Atasha looked at the old matriarch and said, "You seem oddly optimistic for an elder."

"I suppose being around so many foolish children has infected me with some of your unfounded optimism," Atarra replied.