Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 25: Uthvaazgol’s Intentions

CH25 Uthvaazgol’s Intentions

***

”What?” Alex was stunned.

”How long do you have?” he asked.

”I don’t know. It could be today. It could be tomorrow.” Zora replied plainly.

Alex’s body trembled.

Realisation hit him like a hammer.

It wasn’t that Zora was cold or aloof. She had simply made peace with her impending death. That was why she didn’t let anyone get too close—

Except the dragon, who already knew the full truth.

Alex turned his gaze towards Uthvaazgol.

’That’s probably why he made that proposal...

’He wanted to give her something to live for—and to ensure I did everything I could to help her.’

In Uthvaazgol’s mind, if Alex and Zora became engaged—or better yet, married—Zora wouldn’t be able to push Alex away. She would have to open up to him, whether as a patient or as a partner. At the very least, she would get to experience something she had denied until now: love.

On Alex’s side, Uthvaazgol intended to leverage the Furor Bloodline’s heightened emotional capacity.

Alex had admitted to the Ancient Dragon that he liked Zora. Marriage would likely push that into love. And if Alex truly fell for her, then under the influence of his Furor Bloodline, he would do everything in his power to save her.

Uthvaazgol’s intentions were clear and well-calculated.

But even he had failed to account for the irrational emotional chaos that defined humanity.

Still, one thing was certain—in his own way, the dragon meant well.

Alex kept those deductions to himself. Instead, he asked:

”How did the two of you meet?”

”I was friends with the Phoenix whose descendant became the progenitor of the Frost family,” Uthvaazgol said.

”I was in the middle of delivering judgement to the corrupted Elder Dragon when I sensed the blood imprint of my long-lost friend.”

He paused briefly before continuing.

”When I arrived, the Frost family was no more, and Zora was undergoing atavism. I couldn’t let the last living heir of a dear friend wither away before my eyes. So—”

”He took me in and became the father I never had,” Zora finished with a smile.

”I see...” Alex muttered.

”The biggest threat comes from her Nirvana Markings, right? If you believe my Rune-Tech can help, then you must be assuming the markings work similarly to Runes. If I can master Runes, then I might be able to do something about them.” He frowned in thought. ”Is that your line of reasoning?”

”You are correct,” Uthvaazgol confirmed.

”The Nirvana Markings are akin to the Ancestral Markings found on Wildkins—but they’re of far higher complexity and variance.”

”For years, I’ve studied the Ancestral Markings, but I’ve never been able to apply what I learned to the Nirvana ones.”

”You, however, drew inspiration from the Wildkin Markings to develop Rune Tattoos—and your thought process is... unconventional. That gives me hope. You might succeed where I failed.”

That meant Alex would gain access to Uthvaazgol’s research on Ancestral Markings—an invaluable boost for improving his Rune-Tech Tattoos.

”I’ll do my best,” Alex promised solemnly.

”Hmm!”

The thirty-metre-tall, hundred-metre-long dragon gave a grave nod.

”Time waits for no one. Let us begin treatment for your bloodline condition.”

Suddenly, a still-beating heart—twice Alex’s height—materialised before him, floating mid-air.

”What is this?” he asked, eyes widening.

”The Dragon Heart of an Elder Dragon,” Uthvaazgol replied calmly.

”We’re going to implant it into your body.”

”...What?”

Alex stared, dumbfounded.

He looked between the massive, pulsing heart and the two beings before him. His expression said everything:

’Where is that even supposed to go? There’s no way it’s fitting in me. More like—I’m fitting inside it.’

Zora chuckled at his horrified thoughts.

”A Dragon Heart isn’t like a normal heart,” she explained.

”It can change its size to match its host. Why else do you think so many powerhouses hunt them down?”

Alex could only nod and accept the explanation.

”Ordinary Dragons -the so-called Elemental Dragons- are beings blessed by elemental mana. Elder Dragons even more so—elevated into creatures of balanced mana,” Uthvaazgol explained.

”With the aid of an Elder Dragon’s Blood Essence and Dragon Heart, it becomes possible to stabilise and fuse even the most volatile of energies.”

The colossal dragon’s gaze fixed on Alex.

”If even a Dragon Heart cannot balance and unify your conflicting bloodlines... then nothing can.”

He pointed a clawed digit into the air. Space rippled.

Moments later, a wide pit opened in the ground nearby.

It was filled with a viscous, red-gold liquid that shimmered with volatile power.

Elder Dragon Blood Essence.

Alex’s Spirit Sight flared instinctively—his senses overwhelmed by the sheer density of mana and life force condensed into the thick fluid.

The blood churned like a storm, reacting to the presence of something ancient and wild.

Uthvaazgol waved a claw.

The Dragon Heart floated into the pit, submerging slowly into the pool of blood. As it sank, the pool surged violently, glowing brighter as the essence was stirred to life.

The ancient dragon observed the reaction carefully.

Only once the surging calmed and stabilised did he give a faint nod.

Then, he turned to Alex and raised one thick, menacing claw.

A beam of shimmering, transparent energy shot from the claw tip into Alex’s forehead.

Telepathy.

A rush of foreign information downloaded itself into Alex’s mind.

”In one of the myriad planes,” Uthvaazgol began, his voice echoing within Alex’s thoughts,

”I came across a group of humans who pursued transcendence by refining their bodies using the blood essence of powerful beasts.”

”I found their method interesting and preserved it. It will help you better make use of the Dragon Heart and Blood Essence.”

Alex sorted through the new information rapidly, his mental faculties racing. After a while, he shook his head.

”Disappointed?” Uthvaazgol rumbled with laughter.

”Yes,” Alex admitted.

”It’s a flawed path to transcendence. The distance one can walk down it depends entirely on the potential of the beast’s bloodline. And how many people can obtain a high-potential bloodline beast before stepping onto the path?”

He frowned.

”Even worse, once you start down the path, it becomes fixed. There’s no room to adapt or switch trajectories.”

”You are right,” Uthvaazgol agreed.

”It is flawed. However, its strength lies in its accessibility. It allows even those without talent to set foot on the path. Whether they can walk far or not is another matter.”

Alex’s eyes narrowed as he fully grasped the implications.

”It would cause an uproar if released into the world.”

A method of transcendence that even the untalented could use? Countless powers would kill for it.

”It’s useless,” Uthvaazgol said, shaking his massive head.

”The method only works for humans from the world it originated in. For outsiders like you, it functions merely as a high-tier tempering technique.”

He paused, then added,

”And that is precisely what you need right now.”

Without warning, the dragon raised his claw again.

Alex’s body was seized by invisible force. He floated helplessly into the air.

Then—

He was hurled into the blood pool.

The liquid embraced him like molten sludge. He struggled to move, but it was like trying to swim through lava-laced syrup. Every inch of motion was agony.

But the worst was yet to come.

Within seconds, his skin began to burn. His muscles twitched.

And then he felt it—his blood was boiling. Literally.

”What are you doing?! Do you want to die?!” Uthvaazgol’s scolding voice echoed sharply in Alex’s mind.

”Hurry up and use the method in the tempering manual!”

Realising the urgency, Alex stopped struggling against the dense blood.

He allowed himself to sink.

The weight of the viscous Dragon Blood Essence pressed heavily upon him, yet he forced himself to ignore it. Following the tempering technique’s guidance, he slipped into a meditative state.

His breathing ceased—no air passed through his nose or mouth.

Instead, his skin began to breathe.

His pores widened and relaxed rhythmically, expanding and contracting as they absorbed the blood essence around him. With each breath of his skin, the thick, red-gold liquid was drawn in while dark, oily impurities were expelled.

The cycle continued uninterrupted, the process running on some ancient, primal instinct.

As the Dragon Blood Essence seeped into him, Alex felt his blood gradually thicken—becoming richer, more potent.

Eventually, the foreign energy infiltrated his bone marrow.

There, it fused with the essence of his two bloodlines, producing something entirely new.

A deeper shade of crimson-red with delicate tinges of gold—New Blood.

The new blood coursed through his body, replacing the old. As it flowed, it flushed out lingering impurities and the remnants of the former him.

Once the old blood was purged, the new blood extended its reach.

First to his flesh, then to his muscles, internal organs, and finally, his brain.

His body was being reforged.

The new blood not only replaced the old—it tempered him, reinforcing and strengthening his physical frame from within.

This continued until he reached a limit. A threshold.

His entire body had become saturated by the new blood. The tempering process reached a bottleneck.

Then, his body responded instinctively.

The second phase began.

A soft, almost mystical hum resonated from within him. It reverberated through the pool.

The Elder Dragon Heart, still floating in the centre of the now-shrunken pool, pulsed in response and began to drift toward him.

When it touched his chest, his body rippled violently.

And then—it began to sink.

The massive heart, twice the size of Alex’s torso, slowly embedded itself into him.

The moment it fully merged, his body convulsed.

He arched backward with a silent scream, light bursting from his skin in alternating pulses of white-gold and crimson-gold.

Zora stepped forward, panic flashing in her eyes.

But Uthvaazgol blocked her with a sharp glare.

She froze, biting her lip.

There was nothing she could do.

All she could do was watch—and wait—as Alex endured the agony of his rebirth.

***