Athra sat down first by the bed of Ledros, he had to be stabilized before anything else was to be done. He made a small prick on his hand using a knife he got from the infirmary desk prior, small enough for only a drop of blood to be let out. He guided the small drop into Ledros’ mouth, within moments the blood was circulating around Ledros’ body. Expertly guiding the droplet, Athra first investigated the amount of damage that was done to the mana reserves and circuits within his body. The damage while bad was not grim enough to be irreversible at this point, which was a relieving find for the young prince.

Athra’s mastery of blood magic was enough to change the amount of mana within his own blood, even if it had left his body. Slowly he first made sure to transfer mana directly to the reserves in order to prevent them from shutting down permanently due to lack of mana within them, a real possibility as if the body deemed the reserve unused then to lessen the load on itself the reserves would be shut down. The procedure was such that it demanded precision as to not accidentally overload one’s reserve, and time-consuming as it required the small trickling of his mana into the other man’s reserves.

After two hours of unbroken concentration and   the man’s mana reserves were now stable, leaving only the damaged circuits to be looked after. However now the priority had switched to the silver haired woman laying on the second bed, even though she was doing better than Ledros, Athra could tell her mana reserves were far from making a smooth recovery. Employing the exact same method, Athra did his best to refill here mana reserves as well, a process which took longer due to her larger reserves. Athra chuckled to himself as he once again was reminded of the unfairness of how much birthright mattered when it came to deciding the baseline of one’s mana, hence why his grandmother had forbid anyone of D’lora bloodline marrying someone that did not possess a certain amount of mana. Even though Ledros was considerably older than her and his mana reserves had increased through training, the amount of mana within her control was still higher.

Now that the reserves were fine, it was time to move on the trickier part of mending their circuits. He knew he simply could not afford to make a mistake, so any distractions had to be kept out. Knowing that, he cast a spell on the door, preventing anyone from entering without his permission unless they could overpower the amount of mana infuse into the lock, which was in his opinion not an easy task.

Athra took a deep breath in preparation of the tedious task ahead, this time he started with Thalia as the order didn’t really matter much, and his attention was already on her to begin with. One by one, through meticulous control of his mana and the blood which beheld it, he repaired every damaged thread within her mana circuit. Anything that was too damaged was remade to be even better than before, a modification that he planned on making on ever single part of the duo’s circuits with time, but for now his goal was of helping his teammates get through the painful experience of having incomplete pathways.

Halfway through the work on Thalia, Athra could feel his own mana starting to waver. He could tell the need for a break was approaching, something he knew to be inevitable without access to the stolen strength of the goddess. Still, he had lasted longer than he thought he would, honestly he was expecting to be only quarter way done with Thalia before tiring. This just showed how much his own reserves had grown due to one of the effects of the spell he used to defeat the dragon, an effect that consumed some of the mana hidden within the soul of anything erased from existence within the spell’s area. Taking a deep sigh, he decided to take a short break while regained his strength. He could not afford to use up everything and risk awakening the dormant power of Lumina and change in appearance within the academy grounds in a place where unwanted eyes would bear witness to what he had done, eyes such as those of her mother’s.

While Athra took a much-needed break, a commotion brewed outside. Students gathered, casting curious glances at their headmaster, who fixed his gaze on the sealed door with a mixture of annoyance and contemplation. ”Should I break through the spell? But if I do and harm the young prince in the process, the royal family might seek retribution, especially now that he has attained the status of a dragon slayer. Can I really let him do as he wishes, though, even allowing him to trample upon the authority of a head teacher within the academy?” Such thoughts were spinning inside the headmaster’s mind, and in the end he decided that he could not let a student even if he was of royal blood dictate what happened within his academy to this extent. Therefore, he started to focus his mana on the door in a careful and slow manner. He was looking to harmlessly breakthrough instead of just bursting in and risking injury to those who were behind it.

Athra felt the immense pressure on the door as the arcane seal's limits were starting to get tested, instantly he pieced together that perhaps the old man was finally taking action. After all, in his prideful mind, that was the only one within the academy capable of matching the amount of mana he had infused the seal with. “So be it, if the old man wants to play, I’ll play. I can not let them come in and interfere before I am done.” Athra got off the wooden chair he was resting on as he made a cut within his palm.

“I summon thee not by a borrowed name that belongs to another, but by thine own intrinsic essence. I beseech thee, Uria, serve not solely as mine armament, but as mine own stalwart warrior.” Athra called out to his soul weapon, or rather, his servant by the pact signed behind the closed doors of his study within his century of seclusion.

Immense heated radiated as first, a blade appearing to be made of azure flames formed out of the blood coming out of the freshly made cut on Athra’s palm. Soon, the sword took on a flaming humanoid shape covered with the same azure and white flames towards the center surrounded by flames of crimson color with a genderless frame that was two meters tall. The fires that formed the humanoid shape did not burn the ground, which it stood upon, simply because the creature willed so, as his master did not wish him to do so.

“What is your command, my master?” The figure made out of pure fire asked within his master’s mind.

“Prevent that door’s seal from being broken.” Athra’s telepathic command resonated within Uria.

Uria turned his burning eyes towards. “Such little mana, I wonder why he did not use more of it if he did not wish other’ entry. Although I can see that the reserves of the being outside do not even come close to the amount he utilized except for the one currently trying to breach the seal. It is a shame such weak creatures now tread upon the land my kind once called home, perhaps it is so due to Lumina’s paranoia. I suppose she did not wish to create another race that’d betray her. How poetic that her own restraint in creating strength gave way to the birth of a betrayer. Creating something without even trying, truly an act befitting of our creator.” He thought to himself, amused by the irony of the situation Lumina had created for herself.

“As you wish” Uria’s voice once again rung inside Athra’s 

Uria gazed upon 

On the distant highest peak of the mountain range aptly named The Spine which she had travelled to after the last of her children were driven to out of sight, Alatrealis opened her eyes for the first time in multiple millennia, for the first time since the woman she named Dajna had visited her. She could feel the presence of a being she had banished from this realm eons ago, during a time that only she and her creator could recall, at least when one considered only the beings which resided within the boundaries of Lumina’s light. Waking up from her long slumber, her massive body felt sluggish, probably due to the thick layer of ice that had formed around it, making her look like a part of the mountain itself. With a flapping of her massive wings that could shadow a city the size of Strifekeep each, she freed herself from the icy prison. The mountain visibly got shorter as the massive dragon broke free and took flight, her jet-black scales contrasting the white snow and icy blue of the mountain’s peak. She let out a roar of sorrow and rage, sorrow due to what her mother had ordered her to do to her own kin and rage due to being tossed aside by that same mother as she lost her immortality while carrying out those same orders. The appearance of one of those ancients beings in her mind meant that she could possibly find a way to regain her immortality and once again return to her peak, which she had fallen from quite far. 

As the mighty being let out her roar all through the lands of Erandar every living being felt an immense pressure, the overbearing aura of the power beheld by the apex predator crafted by the goddess known as the light of creation, Lumina. As weak as she was compared to her old self, Alatrealis still held enough power to wipe out the entirety of a city within seconds if she were to exert herself. Something she only had enough life force within her to do once, truly a harsh fall from her once terrifying peak.

“So that monster is still around, albeit her roar shows that she is nowhere what she was back then. Good, that means the man ridden with madness I call master might actually realize his ambition.” Uria thought to himself, he knew better than almost anyone what kind of a terrifying beast Alatrealis truly was. After all, it was his own kind that was slaughtered by the millions by her and Falatreon, her partner. He still recalled how he and the other three heads of his kin had to turn tail and run away, and disappear to the corners of existence where even Lumina’s light did not reach out to.