It was over.

Or so I thought.

With the enemy mage dead, I let my body lean against the metal bars that had been in my way, sucking in a breath and trying to slow the beat of my heart. Still reeling from it all, I saw as Tez suddenly quivered, a spasm shaking her body before she crashed to the ground, shaking.

“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 which had blocked my path before running up to her and giving her shoulders a shake.

“Tez!?”

A moan of pain escaped between her clenched teeth, as did blood from where she had bit her tongue during her spasming.

“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 going on and why she was trembling in obvious pain.

Think Rook, think!

It was hard to focus with my friend, who had just barely survived a life-or-death battle, now looking as if she were dying anyway, and the growing pain within my own body like hundreds of sharp jagged stones had been tumbled around inside me.

Wait! That’s it!

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

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 taken precautions against it, ensuring it wouldn’t have the same backlash that Tez was suffering from. Still, we had no such luxury, the power thrust upon us by a desperate girl, not that we had any other options available in the first place.

Great, now 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 magic. If I could just-

Oh.

The scale resting against her chest like a gaudy necklace had fractures all through it, 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 f I tried to go any faster, I was risking falling from the 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? No way to find out 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.

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

Work, please, work!

Gradually, bit by bit, her inner world unfolded before me, 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 trying to defend itself, but with mana no more significant than the average person, it was like ordinary people trying to hold back a trained army. Left to her own devices, the mana would kill her.

Ordinarily, it would be impossible to draw mana from another person, 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 identity.

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

Drawing mana toward me the same as I would any other, I began to pull on the dragon mana, Tez’s body more than happy to let me take it within myself.

More. More!

It wasn’t enough to draw the mana out bit by bit; I needed it to come all at once. It just so happened that I had an incomplete Sage ring in desperate need of ever 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.

Attention turned back to Tez; I began drawing on the draconic mana again. Whereas before, it was like trying to empty a pond handful by cupped handful, now it flowed into me as quickly as if I had dug a direct channel for it to course through.

Good. Good! Keep it coming!

While viewing the draconic mana from Tez’s inner world’s lens, the powered appeared as an endless sea of ravaging mana. Drawn into me, I was better able to contextualize it, the invading army now nothing more than a single, albeit dangerous, scouting force. Had it been the raw amount of mana from before, it would have overwhelmed me without the support of whatever the stone altar had been meant for.

Focus. Not out of the woods yet.

There had still been draconic mana within before I had begun drawing even more from Tez. With as much draconic mana inside me as there was, I would likely fair little better than Tez if I left it to its own devices. I needed to neutralize it before it could wreak havoc within myself.

So I did what I always did when I had foreign mana within me.

I drew it toward my ring, the mana swirling around like a tornado of glass. My Sage ring of crystalized mana, refined within the slip dimension, withstood the abrasive force as it pressed down against it. I mentally imagined as if I were pulling the glass tornado apart piece by piece, grinding the shards down before using them to further develop my incomplete Sage ring.

It was difficult, mentally straining work, but I’d grown practiced at it, 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.

Opening my eyes, I was shocked to see not the night sky but the sun on the verge of rising.

Just how long did that take? Wait, more importantly, what about Tez?

My gaze flicked down toward Tez, still lying on the ground, but thankfully, her chest rose and fell with rhythmic consistency. She was asleep, my palm still pressed against her abdomen, which I pulled away a second later.

Looking away from her, I looked towards 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 yet. As with Tez, the girl was unconscious. The effort of directing the dragon mana into us had taken almost as much of a toll on her as it had us, apparently.

That, or simply being malnourished and beaten beyond what anyone should have had to withstand, had had its toll on her.

What matters is everyone is alive.

I cast a look toward the man, still skewered upon Tez’s blade staff.

Well, everyone that counts.

I slowly stood up, my body protesting and aching after being locked in the same position for hours over the night, carefully stretching out before I examined my arm, sending a flicker of mana into the wrapping covering it 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.

Progress is progress.

It was incomplete as 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 there 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 altar of stone, metal shards from when my sword had exploded on impact with it were scattered. There was no repairing that, too many pieces, no salvaging possible.

My sword, my trusty sword I’d been swinging for years now, that had seen me through an encounter with a Sage Hunter, 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 shed any tears.

Wiping at my eyes, totally because they were itchy and not at all because I’d cried several tears, I finally grabbed at the chain binding the girl to the altar. I didn’t have a way to free her from the chain itself, but with the altar exploded into a rather pleasing array of debris, It was simply a matter of pulling it free from the rubble. Picking the girl up, I gently draped her over my shoulder before shambling back toward Tez, doing the same with her, albeit with more difficulty, over my other shoulder.

Slowly making my way toward the winding path down from the peak, I gave it a single look before 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.

At last, reaching the bottom of the winding path, I carefully set the girls down while taking a moment to rest 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 was just that there would be no treasures, nothing. The scale of the difficulty it had proved far outstripped what had been initially imagined.

Veronika had told her father he was better off with a party of Irons or a Steel rank. I say take it a step further. This should have been a team of golds at minimum.

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. While I believed that had it been my mentor, or even the Sage Hunter from back in Junaper, they would have come out victorious against the man, it didn’t change the fact that, at the very least, even a gold caliber mage like that of my mother would have fallen against him.

“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 at my eyes, the thought of just how razor-thin the tight rope we had been walking had been. Had even one thing been different, had Tez not brought the scale with her, had I not had a Sage’s constitution, we would have failed, and the man 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, now with a second set of new scales next to it. I made my way toward them, picking up one of the new scales and inspecting it.

Just how powerful 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, and a single quick burst of dragon mana from Rosalina had brought both myself and Tez near that level.

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

“Sometimes.” I looked up 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. The True Dragon of Solarus.

“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 while standing 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 grabbing at their face 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, and thus, rather than take my power in its raw, pure form, he broke it down into something resembling my true strength. Even if he had been able to speak with me as if I would take the time 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. Plus, from you, I can sense the signs of those as old as I, 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 my 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 worked with Sages, and at others, we fought fierce battles. My greatest foe stood above all others of her time, an arrogant brat, the name for which she took speaking of that arrogance. Even for a True Dragon, the vanity of the Sage Above All would have been exceptional.

Wait.

What?

“Did you just say the Sage Above All?”

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 at last had tapped into her question and struck me down, where I fell upon these lands.

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

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

It was all her fault.

“Why am I not surprised.” I laughed, a soft patter that quickly evolved into an unfettered, nearly maniacal chorus of laughs that wracked my entire body.

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 from the raw volume. 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 needed 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 is within perfect equilibrium. Take my power and thou shalt strike down the Sage Above All, and prove our place as the supreme existence!

I thought about it; I hate to admit it. The alluring promise of power unlike any I’d ever known, capable of matching 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 the girl 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 just expect me to go 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 understa-

“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-

“To a vestige like this? Yes, yes I do dare. I mean, what are you going to do, haunt me?” I laughed, laughed at the sheer ridiculousness of how events had connected. “In fact, this all started with a Sage trying to use my boy to be reborn through 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.”

Is it destiny whelp. You, who 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.”

Before the vestige of the True Dragon could speak to me more, I dropped the scale. The moment it left my hand, the voice cut off, suddenly quiet within my head.

Thought as much.

Fate.

Destiny.

Reincarnation.

Magic beyond human understanding.

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

Picking the girls back up, I made my way into 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.