Chapter 3892: More Than a Dragon (Part 1) The Eldritch’s Chaos and the troll’s Decay battled for supremacy like it had never happened before, not even the day when Xenagrosh had absorbed her clone. The two sides couldn’t hurt each other, their most savage attacks were nourishment for the opponent. Yet both sides could still feel pain. The troll devoured the Eldritch and vice versa in a vicious, never-ending cycle. On the outside, Zoreth’s body seemed perfectly fine, but on the inside, she kept dying over and over again. The Shadow Dragon tilted her head back and opened her mouth, releasing an ululating scream of agony. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞 She tried using darkness fusion to numb the pain, but the Decay of the troll side devoured it before the darkness element reached its destination. Light fusion was useless as well, consumed by the Chaos the moment it approached the open wounds in the life forces. "Why didn’t you warn us?" Lith tried everything he could to stop the rampage inside Zoreth’s body and failed. "Because I suspected this could happen, but I had no certainty." Leegaain replied. "Also, would you have left Zoreth as she was if I had told you that treating her might have side effects?" "No." Solus admitted, while doing her best to sedate the Shadow Dragon. "She has been imprisoned in mind and body, tortured, and left a shadow of herself. If there were just a small chance to heal Zoreth, we would have taken it." Zoreth’s roars of pain were so loud that focusing was impossible, and the shockwaves her wails produced slapped Lith’s and Solus’ faces like a storm. "Big Sis, if you can hear me, please, try to stay still." Lith yelled at the top of his lungs. "We are trying to help you. We didn’t mean to hurt you." Zoreth clenched her jaw and nodded, tensing every fiber of her being in an attempt to stop her spasms. "Thanks, Big Sis." Lith used the moniker in the hope of giving her strength. "Call Kalla, Quylla, Tista, and Faluel. We need every competent Healer and piece of Menadion Set we can get. Grandma?" "Yes, Featherling?" Salaark asked while the tower opened a channel with the amulets of Lith’s friends. "I don’t know Quylla’s Injection spell, but I saw you use something similar on Dad when you regenerated his limbs. Please, use it on Zor." He said while handing her an amber bottle. "I don’t think a potion will... Red Dragon?" The Overlord read the label out loud in surprise. "If magic doesn’t work, alcohol is our only option left." Lith replied. "Zoreth still has a physical body, so she can still get drunk." "It’s worth a try." A wave of Salaark’s hand removed the cork and had the liquor float out of the bottle and seep under the Shadow Dragon’s skin. A few long moments later, the pain subsided and her body relaxed enough to allow her to speak. "Thanks, Little Brother." She said amid pants, her face taut and her voice small. "It still hurts like a bitch, but it’s manageable now. Please, add Bytra to the call. Let her know that I’m okay." "Hi, Lith." "What’s wrong, Lil Bro?" "Is that Xenagrosh?" "I’ll take honey with that." A choir of voices said as the conference call started. "No time for questions." Lith replied, glaring at Kalla, who kept placing her order. "Those in the Desert reach me at the tower. Faluel, please wait for me in front of the geyser in the Trawn Woods. I’ll pick you up as soon as I can." "I knew it was a bad day for a hike." Kalla asked. "I’ll be there in half an hour if I run at top speed." "Gods, Mom, just open a Warp Steps!" Nok tackled the Wight to stop her in her tracks. "What’s a- Warp Steps! Great thinking, son." Kalla opened a dimensional corridor to Salaark’s kitchen to fetch her snack and then another to the tower. "Okay, what did I miss?" "Later." Lith waited until everyone reached the Heart before Tower Warping to Lutia. Once Faluel joined them, he used a mind link to explain the situation to everyone. "How can you do this, Grandfather?" The Hydra asked in outrage after witnessing Zoreth’s wretched state with her own eyes. "You promised Lith to save her. How can you go back on your words?" "I did rescue Zoreth from Raum’s clutches just as I promised." Leegaain replied. "I never said anything about healing the wounds or undoing the psychological damage he was bound to inflict on her." "This is quibbling." Solus shared control of all the pieces of the Master Set of Menadion, allowing everyone to perform as many tests as they wanted and assess Zoreth’s condition on their own. "It is not." Leegaain shook his head. "I had no idea what Raum would do to her, and if I did, I would have specified that I wouldn’t heal Zoreth." Maybe it was the baby girl in her womb, but hearing a father refusing to help her agonizing daughter made Quylla’s blood boil. She was about to give the Guardian a rude piece of her mind, and all those present would have waited their turn to do the same, but Zoreth’s raised hand stopped them. "Why, Dad?" She asked, gesturing to Salaark for another dose of Red Dragon. "I know you don’t have the time or patience to listen to my ramblings, but there’s something you must know in order to understand my answer." Leegaain said, and Zoreth nodded for him to continue. "Raum didn’t just wound you. If it were that simple, you wouldn’t need my help. Both your Eldritch and troll sides have such uncanny recovery abilities that you are functionally immortal. "Unlike me, a sliver of your body can grow into a perfect new Zoreth in a matter of seconds, as long as it has enough energy and nourishment." "Then what’s the problem?" Lith asked. "I was getting to that." Leegaain sighed. "You’ve seen my memories. Raum believed the flesh to be a trap that limited an Eldritch’s potential. He kept Zoreth’s troll side only because it ensured her survival, no matter what he did to her. "Yet he planned to strip her troll side away when he was done with his experiments. He wanted to turn Zoreth back into an Eldritch and offer her to join him. If she refused, he would have an easier time killing her. "If she accepted, he would have implanted the mana organs in her body like he had done for himself. In other words, Raum has unraveled whatever the Master did to fuse Zoreth the Eldritch with Zoreth the troll. "He surgically disrupted the balance between the two life forces and split them into two separate entities that don’t recognize each other anymore." "How does this explain why you won’t help me, Dad?" Zoreth asked, her eyes clouded by pain and confusion. "Because if I do, I will complete the Master’s work for him." Leegaain replied. "My plan has always been to restore you to life, Hatchling. To get back Zoreth the human or Zoreth the Shadow Dragon, based on what you preferred. "The Master, instead, worked to make you something more than a Dragon. More than a human. More dangerous than your wayward brother Raum ever was."