With the void groaned with suffering as its internal mechanisms were clocked into overdrive in attempted resurgence. Hundreds of tendrils both great and small encircled the two encroaching further upon them than ever before. Instinctively reacting, the empowered youth waved his hand, and a thousand wisped away into nothingness, before you returning to the dragon, and stretching forth his hand, he began to mend the creature’s wounds. Water and light worked in tandem, seeping into the flesh, muscle, and bone of the dragon, cleaning and dressing the missing pieces that caused the most pain, purifying as much of the dragon as they could. In places where the flesh could not grow back, crystals took their place, with golden ichor flowing inside, etching tiny rivers of blood vessels and veins into the rock to help facilitate proper blood flow carrying the oxygen where it was needed.

You will fail! You will die!

Amrielle/Arethenaeus scowled, the dragon’s flesh was mending but not fast enough. Aiming his focus into the creatures gaping chest, he moved his hand, and sucking in a ton of breath, plunged his fist into the dragon’s ribcage. Reaching long and hard, the boy fished around looking desperately for something of value.

Look inside it, said his mother, the soul of the dragon is there. This is how you’ll free it.

C’mon, he thought, c’mon, I know it’s here.

Another tsunami crested to overtake them both, but just like the others, Amrielle/Arethenaeus waved his other hand and the deluge faded into dust. The waves were getting faster and more agitated. Whoever, or whatever this thing was, it wasn’t going to either one of them go. He had to move quickly, glanced over to his right. The tear in the void was still open, or rather, it was still unmended. But that was only temporary. The process had already begun and if they failed to escape, they never would.

He continued fishing, but cursed when his distraction caused a needle of the void to strike him in the chest. It was small, no bigger than a crayon, but the pain it caused was agonizing. And then.

“That’s it!”, he exclaimed.

The thing he’d been looking for, the dragon’s core. Using his other hand to prop open the cavity he’d created, Amrielle/Arethenaeus was amazed to behold not a heart, but an entire miniature universe held within, at the center of which lay a white sapphire molded into the shape of large tear drop. A small blue orb of what looked like fire burned in the center of the gem, and its warmth was soothing and inviting to the touch. Looking at it brought peace to his tense nerves and the air around it felt vaguely familiar to Amrielle/Arethenaeus, but right now he couldn’t dwell on that; not while they were trapped in the void with their chance of escape dwindling further and further away. Quickly acting, he reached as far as he could to take the core, but the dragon’s body was still very much as massive as it was cavernous, and his size as human was simply not enough.

Rrrrrraaawwwwwwwrrrrrrr!!!!

The deluge resurfaced again, only to be wiped clean by energy bursts created by the obelisks that circled around Amrielle/Arethenaeus while he still frantically tried to grasp the dragon’s core. The creature, unconscious and whimpering from the pain, mewled as it felt its flesh started to whither away piece by piece, causing Amrielle/Arethenaeus push back out to stare at it eye to eye. The boy looked into its sapphire eyes and his throat clenched, feeling in his soul the sadness and grief the animal was experiencing.

“I know”, he said aloud, “I don’t want you to die.”

I—

Aah!