Jayden looked at Moby with wide-open eyes and one eyebrow raised. She had heard many obscure things today, but what she just heard had by far been the most obscure of all.

Yet, despite Jayden's look at him, Moby's smiling face stayed unchanging, making Jayden slightly chuckle thinking that Moby was playing some sort of prank on her to raise her mood.

For all her years of living, the thought that humans were only able to use 1 ability at a time, and once they chose one they were stuck with it for life was beat into her brain constantly, and here was Moby saying he meant to use a second crystal on himself, which went completely against her way of thinking.

But the more she thought, and the more she looked at Moby's smiling, unchanging face, the more her chuckle faded away into an expression of shock. Moby had already completely shattered many things she had previously thought impossible and flipped them on top of their head, so was now one of those times?

"You're being serious right? This isn't a joke... right?"

Moby could not help but smile wider seeing Jayden's immediate change of expression as he responded.

"Well, for now it's only a theory, I have nothing solid, but I want to experiment and test things out… If things go well then I might be even able to figure out the origins of abilities themselves… I know this experiment was very costly. But, I think even if it fails, it's well worth the investment,"

Jayden's eyes grew even wider, now coming to the complete realization that Moby was indeed not joking at all. She was lost for words, all she wanted to do was see if this experiment of his was going to work, because if it doesn't… Then things could go very badly…

"Moby, you understand that most people that try to absorb a second ability die a very horrible death? It will really hurt, and if you try to force it in, you will die… I've seen many videos of people attempting it and it's not a pretty sight,"

Noticing the clear concern on Jayden's face, Moby ruffled her hair playfully trying to comfort her.

"I am well aware of everything, just trust me on this one, I know what I'm doing. No way I'm going to die doing this, I'm confident and adamant in trying my theory. So, can you toss me the ability crystal?"

Moby spoke with his hand out. And, reluctantly, Jayden nodded and handed over the purply void-like crystal on her right.

Moby looked down at his hands, the ice ability crystal he had previously used felt extremely cold to the touch, however, the crystal firmly between his fingers made him feel an odd tingly feeling on his skin that he was not able to describe.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath… It was finally the moment of truth, he had been patiently waiting for this moment… The moment when many of his questions could possibly be answered, sweat running down his face and his heart pumping abnormally quick.

He opened his eyes to take another quick glance at Jayden's still worried, sweating face, her right hand on her mouth, tightly gripped into a fist as the anxiety was beginning to get to her once more. With a confident smile and a nod, Moby somewhat put her heart more at ease yet she could not shake off the feeling of sudden suspense.

The thought that it was possibly the last time they meet eye to eye slowly became ingrained more in her mind ever since the reality of the situation arose.

'Avilia? Are you ready? The rest is up to you…' Moby's voice reached Avilia, whom he could feel like could not contain her emotions, a feeling of subtle stress and excitement on her non-existent visage.

Avilia was finally going to learn more about the world, the nature of these odd abilities and get one step closer to finding the truth about her people. So, such emotions could not be helped, her body inside the subspace in Moby's mind quivering from her thoughts alone.

'Don't worry! I've never been more ready in my life!'

'If I can get past the first step, please don't let it kill itself again…'

'O-of course I won't do that again! It was just an accident the last time! I have the best binding skills in all the 3 realms! If I sense anything odd from them then they're toast!'

Avilia still could not shake off the feeling of her embarrassing failure the last time they had attempted such a thing and she planned to redeem herself by doing it right this time, not just as an apology to Moby but for herself and her own pride as the demon lord as well.

Moby inwardly nodded back at Avilia before focusing on the ability crystal once more. He closed his eyes and began forcing the essence away from the crystal and transferring it into his body, guiding it all the way into his core, the once purple crystal now beginning to lose its colour as it was slowly turning into a dull gray, various cracks of different sizes forming on its surface.

Moby tightly clenched his teeth, grinding them against each other as he grunted the pain away, his entire body sweating buckets as he tried to endure the pain as pure anguish began to ravage his entire body, the agony very clear on his face, making Jayden gulp her saliva as she prepared for the worst and hoped for the best, her hands clenched so tightly that her palms began to bleed all over the bedsheets.

Anywhere the mana went and flowed around his body was where the pain mostly was, giving him a slight, odd burning sensation that he did not experience the last time. Yet, for some reason, deep down he knew that the same burning sensation was meant to be more painful and was now being oddly quelled by something else hidden within him.

However, his thoughts did not stay as such for long as his brain was not able to function properly with all this pain he was experiencing, not giving up as he used every fibre of his being to endure everything, for the sake of Avilia and for the sake of his family and his own self-improvement,

Moby's face grew even tenser as his determination and suffering grew, cracks coming from his direction, both from his clenched teeth and the crystal in his hands that was almost completely gray, the cracks now extremely visible making it look like it would fall apart in any second.

Jayden put her bloody hands on her thumping chest as it was finally the moment of truth, the moment when the people attempting the impossible would normally lose all colour in their skin and become like a shrivelled leaf, turning to dust, her shaky eyes planted firmly on Moby and the crystal in his hands, not wanting to look away as she wanted to bare witness to the outcome no matter what.

As the last drops of purple were extracted from the crystal, the cracks had grown so much that it completely fell apart into gray shards, those gray shards quickly turning to dust as they were taken away by the wind from the open window.

Suddenly Moby went silent and unmoving, the sound of his grunting and grinding teeth no now nowhere to be heard, his hands still in the air like the crystal was still in his hands, almost like a statue.

Oddly, despite Moby's state, Jayden felt a massive sense of relief envelope her entire body as she could not help but smile, tears of joy running down her face.

She was not yet ready to remove all doubts and worries from her heart, he had not turned to dust like every other person she saw but there was still a great chance that something could go wrong and he would die.

With a mellow smile and a lingering pain in her heart, she watched Moby's statue-like body flop on the bed beneath, his head falling in an unnatural position.

She picked him up tenderly, checking his pulse to make sure he was still alive, and slowly set him down on his bed's place, covering him up in his blanket before giving him a kiss on his forehead for good luck as she stared at his unmoving, peaceful-looking, unconscious body wishing him the best of luck from the deepest parts of her soul, trying her best to stay positive, her boyfriend just might as well have created a miracle that mankind had never seen...

'Please be safe…'

******

Check comments for cover progress!