"My bad." Faluel raised her hands in apology. "If forgot that exes are exes for a reason. Still, you have to do sothing with your legacy."
"I know." Ajatar stared at the horizon, waiting for dawn. "Damn, I have a lifespan of three thousand years, and I'm just over three hundred. I always assud I had more ti. Ti for kids, an heir, and a long, exciting life of research ahead of .
"Instead, I'm forced to stare death in the face with no heir or anyone who truly cares about ." Faluel swallowed hard when she realized that she was in the sa situation.
"Feela is dead. Lots of our friends are dead." Ajatar continued, unaware or uncaring of his friend's worries. "And if we don't stop the Dead King, many more will die until even our younglings and those who haven't reached the violet will have to fight.
"I don't want to do this. I still have many things I want to do. Yet I'd rather die than keep living and seeing a madman burn my world into ashes. I'll fight until the end in the way I know best.
"Doing research in my lab, even at the cost of using myself as a test subject." His voice and gaze steeled with every word he spoke. "I'm leaving my riches to Morok and all my research to the Drake clan.
"You are a good friend, Faluel, but Spirit Fusion is a bloodline secret, and I'll keep it just like you kept yours."
"I wasn't expecting anything anyway." She shrugged. "We don't have that kind of relationship."
"Well, you're wrong. I'm leaving you sothing." Ajatar replied without averting his gaze from the sky.
A vibrant hue of orange painted the tree line in the distance, marking the start of the new day.
"Everything I've learned about Dragonhood is yours. It should help you further your research after I'm gone." A red disk peeked out, painting the night sky bloody. "I won't betray my bloodline, but I won't give out the secrets of yours either.
"Share it with the other Hydras, keep it to yourself, I don't care. The only thing I ask of you is to choose another trustworthy Drake and let them in your project, just like you did for . My failure is not my clan's, and you Hydras need allies."
"I will." Faluel turned to look at the rising sun and said no more, leaving her friend alone with his thoughts.
***
"Are you sure the procedure is safe?" Morok asked.
"Yes! For the umpteenth ti, yes!" Lith grunted. "The Infirmary confirms Ajatar's findings. His thod should work."
"What do you an, should?" Morok frowned.
"That no one can predict what happens when you put pure theory into practice." Lith replied. "The good news is that we have comprehensive data about everything but the last step. The bad news is that sothing can go wrong even one centiter away from the finishing line."
Morok was about to question Lith when he realized how dumb he would sound. The Tyrant paced around nervously until Ajatar arrived, but then stopped and acted like everything was fine.
"Master Ajatar, do you feel fine, or do you need a sweater? At your age and with your Dragon blood, you could get a cold going around naked in winter." He said.
"Cheeky brat!" Ajatar grunted. "I'm in my three hundreds. For Awakened Emperor Beast's standards, I'm a youth, not an old lizard. Also, all Emperor Beasts go around naked. We don't have pointless dangly parts."
"You are too grumpy even to sound young, but if you say so…" Morok shrugged.
"Are you ready?" Lith asked. "The procedure will last days. You can continue with your bantering once it's done."
"Almost." Ajatar turned to look at Morok. "Before we start, there's one last thing I need to say. To your wife."
"My wife?" That wasn't what the Tyrant was expecting. "Fine, but no badmouthing and no dying wishes. There are plenty of single won in this house if you want to have fun one last ti."
"Morok!" Faluel snarled.
"Don't worry." Ajatar laughed so hard that his eyes teared up. "I was planning to do neither. You can stay if you want. This won't remain a secret anyway."
Quylla hated to be disturbed between her fifteenth late-night snack and breakfast, but she tried her best not to snarl at the Drake for waking her up so soon after dawn.
"I apologize in advance if I act cranky or if I leave suddenly while you talk." She sighed. "I believe these two scoundrels have co up with so ga, and they use my bladder as a ball."
"I'll be quick, then." Ajatar nodded. "This is for you. Feel free to put them in the Library."
He handed her a thick stack of papers that Quylla stored in the tower's archives. It contained Ajatar's discoveries about how to treat the imperfections in one's life force and prevent the Fall of a healthy species.
"This is amazing." Thanks to the Library, she could recall each page as if she knew it by heart. "It will save months of research."
"Glad to hear it." Ajatar replied. "I discovered that there is no cure for imperfect mana organs. Their developnt is bound to backfire due to their intrinsic defective state.
"My hypothesis is that they have yet to develop fully and mustn't be activated. If they'll beco perfect mana organs or degrade to pure imperfections, only ti can tell. Steer away from them and focus on what you can fix.
"Like the mana organs adjacent to imperfections. The trick there is to study the imperfection under the effects of Life Maelstrom, when your life force is close to a perfect state. Then, once Life Maelstrom runs out, correct the imperfection according to what you learned.
"If done right, it allows you to activate a fully developed mana organ safely. It requires a lot of work and plenty of testing, but if I've done it, I'm certain you'll be able to do it as well."
"Wait, are you telling …" Quylla's voice trailed off.
"Yes, I smoothened a few of my imperfections." Ajatar replied. "I had to. The imperfect mana organs were redundant and could be ignored, but all perfect mana organs are essential to evolve.
"Leave one behind, and the final result is too unstable. I believe the ancient Fallen Races' mistake was to activate too many or too few mana organs without considering the overall stability of their bodies and how the changes would affect the imperfections in their life forces."
"The more I read your data, the more it seems that way." Quylla nodded. "It sure explains why the Harmonizer constantly has to suppress part of a Fallen life force. The final result is similar to your treatnt, but it leaves to each body to fix itself.
"Thank you, Ajatar. This will an a lot for a lot of people. I think I know enough to help the trolls and the goblins now."
"You're welco." The Drake nodded. "Now I'm ready."
Ajatar stepped inside the crystal tank of the Infirmary and comnced the final step of his research. He didn't like relying on the tower, but with only one shot at success, he wanted to leave no stone unturned.
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