Hex glanced at Elsa’s flat stomach. Was she also one of the people willing to perform a Sin or a Taboo?
’What’s up with people and pregnant women?’ Hex couldn’t help but ’tsk’ in his mind. From his ’birth’ to the Divine Lord, every mind-boggling event involved pregnancy and children.
Elsa, however, didn’t notice the grimace on his face. She was lost in her world. She looked at the body below with watery eyes.
"Yes, my child. That bitch, Saint Elsa Oswaldo to you humans, attacked me, I was expecting. Unlike humans, it takes a dragon years before their child can be born. The rarer and purer their bloodline, the longer their development takes.
When she used the Talons of Frozen Death on me, I knew my end was near. I burnt more than half of my soul and all my blood to protect my child."
Hex visualized the information. He tried to. But it was hard to consider such a thing without witnessing it himself. He interrupted to clarify one doubt though.
"According to the murals in the central region, Saint Elsa killed the Frost Dragon centuries ago. So, why did you act only now? And...ahm...are you sure that drag...your child is alive? It’s been...ages."
Hex asked as if he didn’t sense the change in the energy above him. Whatever was happening on the outside was beyond his imagination. Peering through the gaps in the upper floors, he saw the rainbow light dancing in the sky. He still lacked information on the outside but his intuition told him to stick around. Why? He didn’t know. He tried not to question whether it was his gut or his mind giving up on the world.
Putting his backpack on the floor, he leaned in. He tried to be as close to her as he could but he wouldn’t descend. Even a weak dragon, even without her original body, wasn’t to be taken lightly.
"Murals? Ow, those domes to commemorate the cowards? Those who helped Heaven conquer the lands under the Taboos and Sins?"
Elsa chuckled. But the slits in her eyes narrowed at the thought of those humans. Hex didn’t comment. He only waited to hear her reply. The energy outside had calmed down. But that wasn’t a good sign. The energy had calmed so far down, he could barely sense it. The Fate fragments intensified though.
"It took me ages to convert the bloodline and affinity of Elsa’s descendants. Only this one, the body I am occupying now, fulfills the basic requirements."
She looked at Hex and smiled. Weakly. Hex sensed her life slipping away.
"My child is alive. I can sense my blood pumping through her. But now, with the crystal taken away, and my death, it will die. Slowly but surely. Her soul is weakening."
Hex fell silent. He mulled over all the information he gained so far. Suddenly, a thought struck him.
"Ahm. So your last wish is to see your child survive, right?" Hex asked, looking at her. He had to choose his words to avoid upsetting her. "What if...And I don’t know if it will work but what if I save her soul instead?"
Hex sensed a grand force flicker inside Elsa or the remnant of the Frost Dragon. She had no control over her body or the elements but it felt like the temperature still dropped a few degrees.
"How would you give birth and strengthen her body?" Hex didn’t reply. He asked another question first.
The Frost Dragon eyed him with caution but explained how the soul was preserved inside a blood crystal. The crystal was nothing more than her essence solidified to sustain the soul of her child.
The more Hex listened, the more he believed in getting it done. Without explaining his origin, he explained the technique to extract a soul and keep it in his inner space.
"You have some deep secrets," the Frost Dragon harrumped. "I won’t ask anything. Just promise not to fuse the soul of my child with that stupid bear-kobold thing inside you. Beware, a promise on a dragon’s crystal is etched in it. The day you betray it, it will burst inside you."
Hex promised. First of all, he wasn’t planning on fusing the souls. It wasn’t goodwill. The feedback from his Dragon Soul assured him that fusing the Dragon’s soul would weaken both. It rather desired the cold crystal that was taken away. And secondly, Hex doubted the claim of the dragon. He didn’t doubt it would kill a human but Hex wasn’t a regular human. He was Hex. A Hex. The Taboo kind.
’What she describes sounds like a curse. I don’t think her curse can overpower the Hex that created me. After all, that Hex was deemed Taboo by Heavens. It turned the Witch into a Sinner. She could even rival a Taboo. At least, according to the lores surrounding her.’
As soon as they agreed, he jumped down. He landed on the massive head of the Frost Dragon. Following the Dragon’s instruction, he found the part the crystal was hidden in. It turned out, she concealed the crystal inside the eyes.
It took quite an effort to pry the eye open. He pierced the eye and saw the crystal. The crystal was dull but as soon as Hex touched it, he sensed the enormous amount of life brimming inside it.
Hex focused and just like he pulled the soul of the Kobold inside, he pulled the essence inside his inner space. The crystal vaporized and entered Hex’s inner space too.
The Dragon Bear eyed the crystal but it left it alone. His heart also didn’t react too wildly to the small reptile inside the crystal. But it siphoned almost half of the blood essence. Hex tried to control his heart.
To his shock, his heart refined the essence. It didn’t turn into energy though. Hex couldn’t put it into words but as the essence was being refined, his understanding of ice and blood increased. Out of the corners of his eyes, he saw a faint blue circle appear on the back of his hand. It wasn’t complete. But it appeared. He was close to the Refinement stage.
"That should suffice as payment."
Hex looked up. The Frost Dragon leaned above the hole in the floor and eyed him.
"I can sense my child is safe."
She looked relieved. She looked weak. She looked...intrigued.
The world around them shook again. All the floors above them broke off. The broken stones and tiles flew up. Hex sensed a force pulling things apart. It was as if...
"They are bending Time and Space," the Frost Dragon said with a solemn expression on her face.
Hex didn’t understand the concepts but he knew it had to be serious. Someone bending space. He couldn’t even feel it. But he knew she was right. The space element circle on the back of his hand flickered dimly.
The old man stared wide-eyed at the sky. At his level his affinity with Laws and Elements surpassed others.
He saw the King. And far away, he saw another figure coming near.