Chapter 26: Taking Life

The human brain can survive anywhere from 3 to 6 minutes after the cessation of blood circulation and breathing.

Any amount longer than this will cause permanent injury or death.

Dorian had learned this tidbit in a health class he had taken, back on earth when he was in college. He didn’t know if the same logic applied here, in the strange universe.

This thought rocked in his mind as he stared at William’s body, shaken to his very core.

A man, almost a stranger, had just given his life to protect him. True, he’d saved this man’s life earlier, but he hadn’t expected anything from back from William.

To have someone sacrifice their life to protect you… it was a feeling he had never experienced before.

Time seemed to slow down as he slowly looked up, looking towards the red-skinned man that had just attacked.

And then back to William’s unmoving body.

Dorian’s heart seemed to freeze.

He felt his mind enter a cool, calm state. He began to analyze everything around him, his thoughts racing at a supernatural speed.

‘Power… Power.’

‘I need power.’

‘If I had power, none of this would have happened.’

‘NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED.’ His thoughts began to become confused, his mind trembling, his cool mental state melting.

‘I need power. I. Need. Power.’ His soul itself began to tremble,

He could not protect himself. He could not protect others.

Someone had already died, to protect him.

‘I just wanted to live.’

‘I didn’t want to hurt anyone.’

‘I didn’t want anyone to die for me.’

‘I didn’t want any of this.’

‘I DID NOT WANT ANY OF THIS.’ His voice screamed inside his head, reverberating throughout his soul.

His eyes began to emit a small, white light that gave off a very minute, pure aura.

Something inside Dorian snapped.

‘My soul twists Fate,’ He thought, staring back up at the red-skinned man, ‘Fate is affected by my will. MY WILL.’

Faint reverberations began to emanate from his soul, so faint as to be indiscernible, even to Dorian himself.

‘COME FORWARD.’

..

“Shit.” Eren muttered, his normally red face flushed a dark shade, fear and anger mixed between him.

‘It’s actually a King Class beast.” The Aura the dragon gave off in front of him was impossible to mistake. The red haze that was starting to descend, the primal fear he felt in his bones. It’s true, draconic form had been revealed, shedding the Red Salamander disguise.

Every single cell in his body was screaming at him to flee, to get away.

His chest heaved as he stared at the emerald-scaled dragon, his desire for vengeance fighting powerfully in him.

“It’s still there… Maybe it’s weakened?” Even under the extreme terror inflicted by such a powerful King Class Aura, Eren was still a Lord Class Titan. As he looked at the creature before him, he couldn’t sense a powerful physical threat.

However, it had blocked his last attack so easily, forcing some type of floating protection puppet or something in front of itself.

As his body trembled, a thought struck him.

If he wanted to kill this creature, he would need to get up close and personal. He’d use the most powerful spell he knew.

He needed to step forward, and physically engage the dragon, taking it out once and for all.

It would block any long range attacks he sent at it. He needed to make use of his powerful physique, and cripple it in one blow.

“Sundering Magic: Osiren’s Lance.” A Lord Class spell, one that took almost all the energy he had left. Osiren’s Lance was a spell entirely focused on piercing. Unlike other spells, this one didn’t devastate the surroundings, its area of effect was quite small.

It was simply good at one thing.

Piercing through anything and everything.

In his hand, a short, red lance appeared. One that gave off just the faintest hint of Aura.

One of his greatest spells.

Eren snarled as he looked towards the foul beast, his eyes red with rage.

He would give this everything he had.

..

Dorian watched dispassionately as the red-skinned man leapt forward, his body blurring. The man’s movements were incredibly fast, arriving in front of his draconic body in an instant. Small craters formed in the ground as the red-skinned man landed, crashing down a meter from him.

Even if he had wanted to dodge, he would have been physically unable to.

‘This appears to be a Lord Class Titan, in its Condensed form.’ Ausra’s voice echoed in his mind, informing him of what he was facing in the split second before he was attacked.

“DIE BEAST!” The Titan’s voice was incredibly loud as he thrust forward with a gleaming, red lance.

A lance that plunged directly into Dorian’s chest.

The feeling of being stabbed felt, to Dorian, as if he had just been punched. He could feel the muscles in his chest twist in pain, black blood bursting out of his mouth as one of his lungs was pierced, just barely missing his heart. His body was smashed backwards several meters by the force of the impact, but the spear remained within him, as did the being in front of him.

The red spear pierced cleanly through him without even the faintest hint of resistance, still clutched in the Titan’s hand. It was almost like his scales, bones, and muscles didn’t exist at all, and the spear was simply stabbing into the air.

Behind Dorian, a small, 4-inch-wide tunnel formed in the World Bridge as an incredibly powerful force shot forward from the spear, annihilating rock, stone, and anything that got in its way for nearly 3 miles.

“Blaargh!” Even more blood exploded out of his mouth as the man twisted the lance, glaring down at him.

Dorian looked at the Titan, his draconic mouth stretched up in a twisted, mirthless grin,

“You should have gone for the head.”

‘AUSRA, ABSORB HIM.’ He mentally roared.

‘The safeguards left by Hi-‘ Ausra began to respond.

‘ABSORB. HIM.’ Dorian cut Ausra off, taking command and willing with every fiber of his being.

A blinding flash of white light shot out from the very depths of his Soul, obeying his commands.

One of his two remaining Absorptions activated.

This light completely encompassed the red-skinned man in front of him.

The moment it did, a look of sheer terror and horror appeared on the red-skinned man’s face.

“What?! Magic?! Divin-?!” Before he could finish speaking, his body seemed to shiver.

A moment later, the red-skinned man fell apart, his body turned to ash.

Dying without a chance to resist.

The lance in Dorian’s chest vanished instantly, only the gaping wound remaining.

As the red-skinned man died, Dorian felt something come crashing down upon his soul.

An enormous, heavy weight, crushing down onto him. As if a thousand mountains were perched upon his shoulders, holding up the weight of the world. The very essence of his body and soul seemed to creak, about to snap.

He ignored this feeling as he dragged his body forward to lie on the ground, next to William’s body.

He rested his right claw on Williams chest, looking at the gruesome hole in his chest.

The Wizard’s body was ruined, perhaps irreparably. His entire heart had been destroyed, as had much of his chest and lungs.

It didn’t matter that he wasn’t breathing, or blood wasn’t circulating. There was no chance this body of his would be able to survive.

‘Ausra. How can I save him?’ He calmly asked, ignoring the searing pain that was starting to wrack him.

‘Your soul is currently undergoing a form of Discordancy! Death is imm-‘ Ausra responded, warning him,

‘Ausra. How do I save him?’ He asked a second time, this time using his full force of will.

Ausra’s voice in his head seemed to freeze, and then began answering,

‘His body is damaged beyond repair. His entire neural system has been heavily injured, most of his organs have failed, and his heart and lungs are destroyed. He is beyond saving.’ Ausra’s reply was cold.

Dorian felt another wave of pain wash over him, almost knocking him unconscious.

Instinctively, he knew what was happening.

He had Absorbed the the energy and the bloodline of a Lord Class Titan. A being that was far, far too powerful for him to safely absorb right now. The sheer energy was overwhelming his soul as it tried to integrate, and slowly killing him.

As this wave of pain hit him, a series of thoughts or concepts ran through his mind.

The pure, unadulterated energy barreling outside his soul that was under his control.

That William’s body was ruined, and he was dying, but like any other being, his soul, and his Soul Spell Matrix should still be present, intangible but within him.

The fact that that ancient Wizard he’d met had lived for hundreds of years, according to him, with just his Soul and Soul Spell Matrix.

An idea began to take root.

He began to focus his will, commanding the awe-inspiring power that was trying to merge with his soul to flush, out from his being, the collection of energy and blood forming into a ball of dark red light in front of him.

As he did so, he felt the incredible pain that had suffused his body lessen, the agony and trembling he had set to almost vanishing completely.

‘Danger! The risks of removing an Absorbed part are unknown, it is unknown what will happen with your intangible connection, the safegua-” Ausra’s voice began to ring out in his mind.

He ignored the genie’s warning as he looked forward, intently at William’s body.

‘Work.’ He willed, his mind focused. Once more, minute, faint reverberations shook out from his soul, indiscernible even to him.

‘Combine. Absorb togetherBINE!’ His mental voice grew louder and louder as the small ball of dark red light began to vibrate.

For a single second it seemed frozen still, and an instant later it shot forward, crashing into William’s chest.

A tense moment passed. Dorian felt blood begin to spurt out of the large hole in his chest, his body trying to regenerate from the fatal wound. He began to become lightheaded, his head starting to feel dizzy.

Gradually, a new orb of light began to emerge from William’s chest. One that was faintly transparent.

A large, foot long transparent red orb. One that seemed to be covering, like a cocoon, a much smaller, opaque, white orb.

As soon as this orb finished emerging, it snapped backwards as if on a string towards Dorian, colliding with his own chest, and seamlessly slipping inside.

Instantly his mind felt a connection form. This orb of light mentally appeared next to his own intangible soul, side by side.

No longer did it try to overwhelm his soul.

As soon as it settled in successfully, Dorian felt a warm, calming stream of energy seep into his Soul, much less than the amount from before, but still a huge amount.

Ausra’s voice rang out in his mind,

‘Evolving to Myyr Dragon’s 3rd G-‘ Ausra cut herself off, abruptly, and then continued,

‘Evolving to Myyr Dragon’s 4th Growth Stage.’