Chương 89: 1-88 Brokenhearted

"Easy there," Josef soothed Sprout, who was snarling aggressively at Onyx. Deserved as it may be for punting her off the platform, it didn't exactly help the situation. Especially if it could risk catching the attention of the convulsing reptile. Whatever the earlier revelation had triggered within their opponent, it ravaged him violently. And not just physically, as he had originally assumed. Now that he had some room to breathe, he could observe the mana flowing through the lizard.

The mere fact that he could do so at such a distance was a testament to the intensity with which it flowed. One was a muddy stream, thin enough that it would be easy to miss under most circumstances. At that moment, however, it was entangled with a river of pure white, their points of contact sending violent ripples through them both. Like two serpents, they fought each other aggressively, none yielding to the other.

A fight that happened all throughout Onyx's body, no doubt causing considerable damage to the reptile. A feeling of pity rose in his chest, imagining the agony this must be causing. Did he even need to fight him? If he waited for a bit, then his opponent might just collapse dead after a while. At this point, he might just have to figure out how to save the reptile from his own mana, if he ever wanted some proper answers from him.

However, if he held back and Onyx overcame his condition, only to turn on him afterwards, then he would have no one but himself to blame. Optimally, he wanted him down and out of the fight, but alive for questioning. A tall order when his target was considerably stronger than himself. Ultimately, he decided to try, while aiming to err towards causing too much damage rather than too little.

Which was easier said than done, as the lizard's defense had proven to be impenetrable even to a spell specifically meant for the job. His own earth affinity was a joke compared to that. Having felt its indomitable strength during his attack, as well as the color he saw now, left little doubt that they both shared that one. Did the entangled white mana bolster it even further? That stillness could probably be used defensively, Josef thought. Now, he planned to turn it into a weak point.

That was where his plan turned dangerous, because the only way he could do so was from up close, approaching a guy who could punch a hole through his chest.

"Keep your vines around me," he told Sprout, who picked up on his demand quickly enough. He simply pulled along some vines when he took some shaky steps away from his familiar. She initially wanted to follow, but remained in position after he signaled her to do so. Whether she understood his plan to have her pull him back when something went wrong, he wasn't entirely sure. Maybe she just wanted to keep supporting his swaying steps. But if shit hit the fan, he was willing to bet on her getting it right.

Slowly making his way forward, he considered his options. If he wanted to dump a bunch of chaos mana into this reptile, then he would have to touch him. Should he try another teleport, striking from behind, quick and overwhelming? After the last failure, he didn't feel like doing that again. Onyx was clearly unstable, but catching a seasoned finger by surprise like that sounded like a quick way to get his head punched off. Maybe he could just walk up to him and go for it?

No surprise, simply counting on the reptile being too occupied to fend him off. Josef silently shook his head at those ideas. His opponent wasn't even able to properly move at the moment, and he struggled to think about how to even approach him. Was he really that terrified? Massaging his aching throat, he had to admit that there was some truth to that. But fear wasn't going to help him here. So he decided to try and see his next actions from a different perspective. That of a healer treating a difficult patient.

"I'm going to heal you, Onyx. So please try not to resist." In the end, he settled on just going about it the most direct way. Being a Drake somehow mattered to this guy, and he hoped that would help keep him safe. The reptile's attention snapped to him. He was clutching his face, claw marks leaving a steady trail of blood.

"No, stay away…" a howl of agony tore out of his throat.

"I will… I won't… can't…" With every word, the reptile's state seemed to deteriorate, violent clashes of mana shaking his body. He clearly wasn't getting anywhere in terms of holding a conversation, but at least there was also no sign of him breaking out of this state. Taking a steadying breath, Josef limped closer, still relying more on those vines than he was willing to admit to himself.

The heartburn had spread, and his entire body felt like it was on fire, as his regenerative spell did only so much to alleviate whatever issues had piled up on the inside. If this didn't work out the way he hoped, then there was little chance for him to put up much of a fight. Tracing the mana inside Onyx's body, he picked out the thickest streams of mana. They were entangled into a knot within the torso, though a good deal higher than where he would have expected it.

Why was the largest amount not right at the mana core's location, but above? He didn't have a proper understanding of mana related anatomy, so he put that observation aside to focus on the task ahead. Gathering chaos mana turned out to be a lot more difficult than before. The streams he had created to drain the white mana from the air had mostly moved subconsciously so far, constantly recycling the energy had created once to start them. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Maybe his current mindset had something to do with it, feeling a lot more nervous than before. Or it was related to the growing burn inside his chest, where the mana he was digesting caused him no small amount of pain. Despite that, he managed to gather a sizeable amount of the dark energy, albeit more slowly than he would have liked. Fortunately, Onyx didn't seem to mind, though the pain might have already made him forget about his presence.

Then, with a decisive thrust, he shoved it right into the reptile's chest. As his hand moved, he could see the lizard twitching in response. His body tensed and muscles pulled taut, signalling his readiness to intercept the strike. A claw lifted, trying to grab the human's wrist. Then, as if under an invisible force, he shuddered, and his grip never closed. The effect was both immediate and catastrophic once his chaos touched the bright mana.

Neither of these forces could stand the presence of the other, and they immediately reacted violently. Josef could watch with his eyes how the white energy suddenly uncoiled from its original fight, and gathered its full force to meet his intrusion. In front of him, Onyx crumpled like a puppet that had lost its strings. With the internal conflict interrupted, he apparently had regained control of his body. But with all the blood seeping out between his scales, he had clearly sustained a lot of damage.

And more of it was piling up by the second, as two conflicting affinities wrestled for dominion. The amount of chaos mana within Onyx's body grew by the second, fed by Josef's constantly refilling mana pool. Eventually, it grew into an equal, only for the scales to tip in its favor with every second after that. He cut off the infusion soon after that. The process was more violent than he would have liked, but his control of chaos mana once it was inside the reptile's body turned out to be rather abysmal.

This type of energy truly seemed like it had a mind of its own, moving about by goals that only it knew. Fortunately for both involved parties, it really wanted to gobble up the white mana. Had it gone for anything else, the reptile's life would likely have been forfeit. Even Josef himself was taken aback by the autonomous nature of his newly accessible affinity. He'd have to think twice about using it on other people unless he figured out a way to keep it under control.

Slowly but surely, the energy within Onyx was overwhelmed and eaten up, leaving only the earth affinity inside him alone. Whereas the energy concentrated in the reptile's chest had glowed almost like a miniature sun before, it had now turned into a dim star on the verge of getting snuffed out. He almost congratulated himself on an operation gone right, when his unmoving patient suddenly keeled over, clutching his chest as he writhed in the sand.

The final white remnants had just dissipated, so why was he acting up now? Directing healing magic to the area he had cleared, Josef's brows furrowed in concentration. His magic was definitely trying to do something in that area, but its progress was once again impeded by something. He really had no time for such complications, because the reptile before him looked worse by the second. Onyx was dying. A possibility he had accepted before, but now that he was at his mercy? He couldn't just watch it happen.

Immediately calling Sprout over, he asked her to assist him once again. Even if he couldn't tell the exact reason for the problem, it wasn't too strange a guess to blame it on something being stuck where the healing needed to occur. The plant-like familiar bounded over within moments, before regarding their patient with a whine.

"I know, girl. But would you please do it for me?" Her face showed that she was not the slightest bit happy with his choice, but was going along with it anyway. Using the knife he had once received from a beastkin he had treated, he struggled to create a small cut between scales. After that, his familiar didn't have to root around for long. What he saw gave him enough pause to almost cause him to drop his magic. It was two pieces of stone, both showing distinct marks of having been broken apart at some point.

Furthermore, if he looked at the shards as a whole, they looked uncomfortably close to a barely intact memory in the back of his head. Josef knew only one type of magic stone that was shaped like an egg and was located in the chest. It was something he had grown quite familiar with over the past week. Yet, all he knew told him that this wasn't supposed to be possible. Dragons had been gone long enough for them to be treated as myths. So how could this reptile have possibly acquired a heartstone of his own?

"How can you have a…" His question was interrupted by a heaving cough, as the lizard spat blood onto the floor. Right, if he had truly just extracted the heart of the guy, then maybe he should close the void it had left behind. Hopefully, he could regrow the organic heart now that the magical replacement was no longer there. The heart might have been the most complicated muscle within the human body, but compared to some of the organ damage he had fixed before?

Surprisingly easy to fix, even considering the time constraints involved. As for the rest of the damage wracking the reptile's body, caused by the conflicting mana streams? Knowingly leaving someone too hurt to act felt iffy, but it was an insurance. Even with both of their bodies in ruin, he wasn't confident about winning should the lizard choose violence. They had started on equally healthy footing before, and he knew how that had turned out.

"Why?" Onyx rasped, glaring up at him. Even now his one eye remained sharp and unclouded by the pain he must be enduring. Because he wanted answers about Sanctum. Because he needed to know about the heartstone.

"Because I couldn't just turn away after recognizing your struggle." Sometimes, reasons were complicated, and he had no idea how to sort out the cocktail of emotion he was feeling right now.

"No…" the reptile accusingly held his gaze.

"Why did you have to heal me?" Then, the last of his strength finally seemed to ebb away, giving way to something more desperate.

"I have been waiting so long. Waiting to die." Josef didn't know what to feel, what to think when he heard that. How was he supposed to react? Never once in his life had he imagined someone could ask him for death. What did Onyx go through before this?

"I'm sorry," he apologized.

"But please keep living." Nothing could ever make him forget the resignation he saw on the reptile's face when he said that. As if he had just taken away the one thing he still cared about. He didn't know what to do with the bile rising in his throat. Finally, he turned his head and looked over to where the suited elf, Boreas, was standing. Josef didn't even know what Sanctum had done this time. He didn't want to fathom what they did.

But when he saw the elf stare back at him, surprise written all over his face, all he felt was a white hot anger.