Healing System

"Pardoth."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"...Dragon Monarch." Pardoth comically bowed with a small smirk.

'Hmm...' Fafnir ignored his antics and turned to look at Amanda, and her friend as well.

They were safe—for the most part—but he raised a brow upon seeing that her friend was an Evangelist through and through.

Nonetheless, he could ask her about that later. He had to deal with the tentacle bastard before him, the one who had been bothering him since he could remember.

"Can't get to me, so you go for my daughter?" Fafnir asked patiently while secretly preparing an attack, one he had used to defeat a few other Eldritch beings.

The only downside to the attack was the fact that it took a long time to charge up, and, well, it took quite a toll on him, just like before.

Pardoth lightly chuckled and waved his arm, creating a throne made completely out of tentacles before sitting on it. "You should know why I had to resort to this, no?"

"How would I know?" Fafnir merely shrugged, trying to buy some extra time. His attack was not very noticeable unless someone knew of it beforehand.

In this case, Pardoth was a being who held great envy against him. It did not help that he was very powerful; he was almost the same strength as him.

They were rivals in the past, but at some point, the Eldritch realm became corrupted, and along with it, so did Pardoth's personality. From a kind monster came the polar opposite.

Ever since then, he had been infatuated with Fafnir and tried his hardest to kill him. However, that proved unsuccessful. Not even once had he managed to win a fight.

'Sixteen battles in seventeen billion years... seems like we are following the same pattern.' Fafnir smiled inwardly and breathed out a shallow breath. The attack was finally finished.

The only problem was, Fafnir was slightly weaker. Having not done anything in the last millennia had put a little cog in his power, causing it to stagnate.

'Middle Tier 15... and he's almost Tier 16. This is going to be a bit troublesome.' Fafnir snickered to himself and suddenly spread out his wings.

They radiated a luminance that was unfamiliar and completely different from his previous self. They released a certain pressure, one that could only harm the Eldritch beings. He was prepared—or so he would like to think.

However, Pardoth showed no reaction. He only stared at Fafnir and his wings, which were emitting a slightly repulsive green pressure.

With a raised brow, he stated, "Do you seriously think using the same old tricks would work on me?" Enjoy more content from empire

As those words descended, the pressure coming off Fafnir's wings vanished, and instead, it traveled toward one of the nearby tentacles, strengthening it for a moment before it became overloaded and combusted.

But Fafnir was not discouraged. That display was merely a decoy, as his actual attack was something else entirely.

Infusing the corrosive and bubbling mana inside his throat, he spoke, "Stand."

The moment he said that, Pardoth froze for a moment and, with an amused smile, stood up, shaking a little due to the resistance.

"Dragon tongue? And you're infusing it with Eldritch magic? You sure have stooped low." Pardoth whistled before covering himself in a murky green energy, dispelling the control Fafnir had over him, and sitting back down on his tentacle chair.

He looked right at Fafnir and added with a sinister smile, "You see... while you were busy moping around, I was steadily observing your past battles, especially those against other Eldritch beings. Did you really expect me to come unprepared?"

"Die." Fafnir once again tried using his Dragon Tongue, a racial ability of the dragons, one that every single member of his race possessed.

It made it so that his words held mana that produced the effect of whatever word he had said.

However, just like before, it had no effect. Instead, a nearby tentacle once again exploded.

'Yeah. This really is troublesome.' Fafnir grimaced inwardly. While these beings were naturally strong, the one before him was especially so.

He was not the strongest, but he was nearly there.

"Pardoth, why have you come?" Fafnir finally decided to ask. He had a slight suspicion of what it could be, but he would rather not hear it currently.

As those thoughts formed, he glanced at his daughter for a moment. 'Especially Amanda...'

However, the next words confirmed his grim suspicions: "Is it not obvious? You hid her using our powers, and instead of paying the price, you ran away."

Fafnir immediately shot back with a frown. "I did pay the price. If you were watching me all this time, then you know."

"Oh, are you talking about that little disease the pigeon healed? I don't care about that; you did not pay the ultimate price," Pardoth replied before standing up and beginning to head toward him, floating into the sky with the use of his tentacles, as if wings.

"I quote: I, Dragon Monarch Fafnir, pledge to give up my mana core in exchange for saving Athena. Does that ring a bell?"

'...' Fafnir's frown deepened upon hearing that. He could see Amanda's expression changing each time a word was spoken.

It was obvious that he remembered the pledge he had made not too long ago. However, as he sent her away to another realm, he fell ill to a disease that affected his dragon heart.

Whether it be bad luck or a simple play of fate, he was bound to die. That was until Michael saved him.

A stray angel, one that seemed to not realize his own potential. It was his first time interacting with an angel who held no arrogance. Sure makes them more likable when they don't threaten to impose an edict on you.

However, he realized that along with the weight of his dragon heart illness, the pledge disappeared as well. But along with that, it also severed his connection to the Eldritch realm.

It was both a blessing and a curse. He never knew when someone from out there would come and collect his debt.

But he no longer needed to wonder, as the debt collector was right in front of him—Pardoth, his old friend.

And now, his enemy.

"I ask you for the last time: will you pay your debts, or do you want to do this the hard way in such a fragile realm?" Pardoth asked with a blank look and swiped his finger in the air, creating a miniature fissure that closed almost immediately.

If they were to go all out, the fight would most likely collapse the realm, as well as influence the world outside—the world of Verdusk.

But Fafnir's mind was set, and so was his plan before even getting here.

Taking a glance at Amanda, who had been looking at him with furrowed brows ever since hearing about Athena, her own mother, Fafnir used a similar technique to how he got into this space in the first place.

Sensing the destination of mana, visualizing it, and projecting himself there. It was a difficult concept, one he was only barely able to figure out after spending a quarter of his lifespan learning.

But just like with every other ability that had some kind of downside, it consumed massive amounts of mana.

However, he was willing to use it, and so he did.

Fafnir sent out his mana and covered both Amanda and her friend with it. Suddenly, he cut off that piece of mana from himself before projecting it to another place entirely.

That place being the world connected to Vivum, the world where he first met Athena and also the same place where he watched Amanda grow up.

Pardoth watched the entire situation without interrupting, until finally, a sigh escaped his mouth. "I see, so we are doing this after all."

"We are." Fafnir turned back to face him and nodded resolutely.

"You won't win," Pardoth stated and began summoning all the tentacles in the area toward him, absorbing them.

Fafnir merely shrugged, and suddenly, a massive pure black greatsword appeared out of the air, one that contained enough power to twist the space around it.

He grasped it and shot his usual confident smirk toward Pardoth.

"I guess we will find out, won't we?"