He was the only Awakened in the Organization and the only person who knew the life forces of the hybrids in general and Zoreth’s in particular like the back of his hand.
Vastor had met the Shadow Dragon back when she still called herself Xenagrosh the Final Smile. She was the co-founder of the Organization and the first Eldritch to have successfully merged with her clone.
The Master had helped her during that fight and at every step of the way that had brough Xenagrosh closer to resurrecting, giving her back her identity as Zoreth. Even though she was much older and powerful than him, it had been Vastor taking care of Zoreth like a child since she had regained her human body.
Their relationship ran deeper than those he had with the other members of the Organization. Even more after the Master had used Zoreth’s tissues to craft his Abomination core and then implanted his tissues inside her body to help her life forces to fuse.
Zoreth was a troll-Eldritch hybrid while Vastor had unlocked Decay and Chaos wings and eyes, making the Master and the Shadow Dragon almost a perfect match.
Once the final drop of the precious liquid was drained, the white crystal lid of the Madness opened up. The members of the Organization called it nutrients fluid, but it was the condensed essence of the life forces of hundreds of people.
The liquid fed the body while the mana crystals fueled Zoreth’s fallen cores, ensuring that hunger wouldn’t compromise any step of the procedure.
The human form of the Shadow Dragon walked out of the Madness, her appearance no different from when she had entered it yet she felt like a different person.
“Are you alright, Zor? Any pain or discomfort?” Bytra asked as she summoned Vastor via the communication amulet.
“Pain, no. Discomfort, yes, Byt.” Xenagrosh performed a light stretching to get a feel of her invigorated muscles and test the flexibility of her renewed body. “But don’t worry, it’s not a bad feeling.”
With each movement she performed, she let her mana flood every fiber of her being and sensed the subtle changes in her physiology.
“How can it not be a bad sign?” The Raiju asked.
“I don’t feel like there’s something wrong with me, Byt. More like that something is… off.” The Shadow Dragon pondered how to express it with words for a bit. “Like I’m standing on the threshold of something.
“That I need just one more step to get in but I can’t lift my feet for the life of me. Heck, I can’t even let myself fall forward, if you know what I mean.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t.” Bytra shook her head and crossed her fingers for good luck. “There you are, Master. Please, check on Zor. She says she feels off.”
“First, don’t call me Master. It’s just the three of us here.” Zogar Vastor was a short man in his mid-sixties barely over 1.55 meters (5’1″) tall.
His once bald head was now covered in thick and well-groomed hair arranged in the latest fashion for men of his social stature. The Master’s waxed handlebar mustaches had turned black as well, giving him a younger look.
After becoming interim Headmaster and then turning himself into a human-Abomination hybrid, he had slimmed down quite a bit. Vastor still looked more like a loving grandpa than a warrior, but his renewed vitality and hair gave him a fierce look despite his well-fed appearance.
Under his bitter countenance, lay the only Highmaster of Vastor’s generation and the unsung god of the battlefield of the Griffon Kingdom.
“Second, put on some clothes, dammit! I’m a healer, not a doctor. I do not need to see you naked.” The Master turned around and threw Zoreth her Bookwyrm armor.
“Gods, isn’t he cute?” She chuckled while the enchanted metal turned into a silvery liquid and flowed into place. “After all this time, father still thinks I give a damn about modesty. I’m over a millennium old and he probably knows my body better than you, Byt.”
“Zoreth Imerith Leegaainborn, don’t you dare say that ever again!” Bytra said, her body overflowing with silvery bolts of outrage. “That sounds dirty!”
“Wait what?” Vastor raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “Who’s Imerith Leegaainborn? Don’t tell me…”
“Byt!” The Shadow Dragon turned red from head to toe.
“Yes, Imerith is her middle name.” The Raiju ignored the warning with a defiant look on her face. “On top of that, since Leegaain has no last name, his firstborns use his name to make it clear that not any Dragon sired them, but The Dragon.”
“Why did you never tell me about this?” The Master asked.
“Because you’ve never asked and because it’s damn embarrassing.” The Shadow Dragon replied. “Byt, you had promised me to never tell anyone!”
“And I warned you about testing my patience in public!” The Raiju snarled. “You know that when I’m calling you by your full name, I’m dead serious.”
“I’m sorry.” Zoreth slouched her shoulders. “My joke wasn’t funny and made Father feel awkward.”
“It’s a start but not enough.” The Fourth Ruler of the Flames nodded. “We’ll continue this conversation later. Your health comes first.”
“Oh, good. I can’t wait.” The Shadow Dragon rolled her eyes.
“Don’t roll your eyes on me, you Shadow Jerk!”
“Girls, please, let me do my job.” Vastor put himself between them and took Zoreth’s hands, activating his breathing technique, Beyonder’s Eye.
A huge smile appeared on his face as he discovered that the Eldritch and troll life forces had completely fused. There were no boundaries between them anymore. The Chaos energy was perfectly contained by the troll flesh which had become immune to it.
Decay neutralized Chaos and vice versa, restoring the elemental balance and making the Cursed Elements undetectable from the outside even with Life Vision. Once the Master had examined every nook and cranny of her organs, skin, and bones, and found no anomalies he moved to her mana cores.
Or rather, her mana core.
The troll and black cores were still visible, but half of them was now fused with the other. On the left side there was the white hemisphere remaining of the troll core while on the right there was a black one from the black core.
What lay in the middle was nothing like Vastor had ever seen and needed closer examination.
Unlike a non-Awakened core, the mana wasn’t still, but unlike an Awakened core, there was no mana flow to the rest of Zoreth’s body. Where the two cores touched, there was a perfect sphere inside which the two Cursed elements swirled together in a vortex.
The white part shone with endless light that strived to expand while the black part collapsed on itself, sucking everything in a bottomless void. One wrapped the other creating an almost perfect symmetry, turning Chaos into darkness and Decay into light.
Almost.
Yet it was in the imperfection that Vastor found the shocking proof of his success. In the empty sacks that formed from time to time in the vortex, the other four elements mixed with light and darkness, forming grey sparks.
Once those sparks reached the eye of the cyclone, they became one with Zoreth’s life force and turned into small, emerald bursts of Spirit Magic.
