A day quickly passed by, and they managed to swiftly move Morena’s hoard into the maze and store it until Cain woke up.
“It’s been two days, I wonder if Cain will wake up today,” Sofia said with a smile as she walked down the street of Ourals with Alice and Selena.
“He will, that’s why we are buying all of those,” Alice replied. A bag of ingredients in her hands.
“I hope we make it right, I never tried to cook anything sweet before,” Sofia said with a worried face.
“Don’t worry, we have the maids helping us.” It wasn’t like they needed to cook themselves.
“How do you know he will wake up today-nya?” Selena asked as she looked at them from behind the big box she was carrying. They had her carry anything heavy since she was far stronger than them.
“I can feel his will slowly rising since I’m still under the slave pact. He will wake up sometime this night.” Alice said with a smile.
“On that subject, we’re been followed right?” Sofia whispered to Alice.
“How is that on the subject? But you’re right I can count five around us.” Alice replied, “Let’s slowly move to an empty alleyway so I can knock them all out.”
“Can’t we just kill them-nya?” Selena whispered back.
“That will just cause trouble for Marina, without Cain we can’t just silently erase the bodies. Also, I don’t think that killing will solve all the problems, that’s just wrong.” Alice replied. Sofia agreed with her, they should avoid killing as much as possible. Selena had another opinion.
“I prefer to just kill them-nya, it’s easier and safer.” You can’t hit a jaguar and expect to survive, Selena was still a wild beast at heart. Treating her temper like that of humans was a plain mistake.
Suddenly the expression on Alice’s face changed, she could no more feel the people tracking them.
“Something is happening with Master Cain, lady Zaleria is wanting you back.” Gracie walked in from the shadows.
“But I can’t feel anything strange from him.” Alice rushed toward Gracie with a worried face. Sofia and Selena asked as well.
“He suddenly started floating and emitting strange pulses of magic. Lady Zaleria and Master Chad are worried and want to know if you knew something.” Gracie said with a passive face. She wasn’t worried about Cain a bit, she believed that he will stay fine no matter what.
“Let’s get back quickly!” Sofia grabbed Gracie’s hand tightly so they all teleported back.
A few minutes before in Cain’s mansion. Chad was walking downstairs with a cup of tea in hand. He has just finished taking a shower after his morning training and was itching for a relaxing breakfast.
THUD! A weird and twisted pulse of magic passed through him. It wasn’t harmful and neither helpful, just a useless wave that was strangely shaped.
What caught Chad’s attention was that it contained a lot of magic and was coming directly from Cain’s room. Such a thing can never be good.
Chad quickly put the cup down and rushed toward Cain’s room. He found Zaleria already there, she had felt it and reacted faster.
Cain’s body was floating and his eyes were wide open. The magic was coming directly from him.
“What is happening?” Chad asked.
“Like I know? I’m just like you, the best I can say is that his magic has a hit of draconic smell in it.” Zaleria replied as she walked toward the door to call Gracie.
…
“Yo! It’s been a while.” Cain opened his eyes sitting in a white room. Facing his was the mirror image of himself, yet it looked old and frail.
“You look a lot like I use to be in my past life, this is an illusion right?” Cain asked while looking at his old self.
“How cold can you be? Calling my supreme existence and illusion. Well, you’re not mistaken though I’m indeed an illusion.” The old man replied with a smile.
“Then…?” Cain stared at him, “What is your purpose? Illusions are complicated so you have a purpose right?” Cain asked.
“Well, that will be true if I was created by magic. I’m but a mere illusion that your mind conjured, my purpose is simple, to wake you to reality.” The old man said with a serious face.
“Ah! I remember, I did get the dragon heart so right now I’m about to wake up, something like this did happen when I evolved right? Or was it just the shard then?” Cain asked with a relaxed face.
“That’s what I wanted to tell you about, those things, they didn’t happen.” The old man said with a sad face.
Cain turned serious, “What do you mean?” He thought that the heart implantation could have failed.
“I will try and put it as simple as I can. You didn’t reincarnate and didn’t start a new life, all of those events are but a mere illusion!”
…Something didn’t make sense in Cain’s head.
“You’re still me, on your death bed to be exact. You slowly went snail as old age crept on you. Right now one of the maids drooped the bed’s frame on your head as she was changing the curtains. That gave your mind a chance to regain your sanity.” The old man looked sad and about to cry.
“Go joke on yourself, do you really think I will believe such a clearly made-up story?” Cain laughed it off, he knew what reality was.
“I know it will be hard to convince you, but this is our only chance to gain our sanity so allow me to try.” The old man gave Cain a pained smile.
“The dragons made the mad soul you have to resist the gods, it was a brilliant idea. Since those gods had psychic control over mortals, being mad was the only way to escape that. But any madness won’t do the trick since the dragon can’t be mad all the time.”
“It needs to be controllable. So the dragon will stay sane until the time he faces the god, then he could activate it to become insane. That will prevent the god from controlling him while giving the dragon a boost similar to the berserker state.”
The old man smiled, “Exactly, in your last fight, you used it as a last resort and lost your mind. You won that fight but you became crazy, only Sylph was able to care for you until you fell bedridden. I’m here trying to get you sane to at least tell Sylph goodbye before you die.” The old man approached Cain.
“That can’t be true so stop trying,” Cain replied.
“Listen, the war ended and the dragons won. They will soon ascend to heaven and challenge the gods. Now that you went insane, the dragons are certain to win and the gods are just awaiting their doom. The age of Chaos ruled by the dragons will start after that. Your loved ones need your last words of encouragement to survive such a harsh world.” The old man stood firm, his eyes glimmering with will and fortitude.
Cain only stared at him in silence.
“I’m the last fragment of your mind, the mind of the great Enchanter Cain Lisworth. I will now fail to get you back, to get me back.” said the old man.
…
Cain’s body started emitting more magic and Zaleria got alarmed when she sensed a strange formation getting constructed.
Zaleria quickly pulled a scroll from her pocket [Planeshift] Zaleria, Cain, and Chad got immediately teleported to an empty desert.
“What did you do?” Chad yelled.
“A precaution, it will depend on what will he do from now on!” Zaleria glared at Cain who was flying upright.
“This one, that one, hundreds of circles, chained like a constellation. Those fakers need to fall from the sky.” Cain mumbled as multiple magic circles surrounded his body.
…
Inside the empty room, the old man was sitting alone with a crazy smile on his face. “They are about to fall.”
The moment the draconic heart and Draconis fundamentum fully integrated with his body. Cain’s mad soul linked with them as the dragon king intended for it to work.
“We might need to knock some sense into him, this seems like something that bastard would do,” Zaleria growled before her body started heating up. “Did sister inject him with something from the dragon king?” Zaleria recognised that Cain’s magic felt similar to those humans that were thrown from the dragon king’s lab.
“Fall!” Cain swung his hand down.