CHAPTER 72: CHAPTER 72: THE HEART OF MADNESS

The center of the Savage Isle was a crater-like depression surrounded by twisted rock formations that looked like frozen screams. The vegetation here had given up any pretense of being plant-like and had transformed into writhing masses of organic matter that pulsed with their own heartbeats. The air itself seemed thick and oppressive, charged with chaotic energy that made it difficult to breathe.

At the very center of this nightmare landscape, hovering above a pool of what looked like liquid light, was Yena’s fifth fragment.

But this piece bore no resemblance to her original holy radiance. It had become something monstrous—a swirling mass of corrupted healing energy that reached out with tendrils of light to touch everything around it, transforming whatever it contacted into increasingly twisted forms.

"Oh, Yena," Naia whispered sadly in Evon’s mind. "What have you become?"

"She’s trying so hard to heal," Lyria added, her voice filled with anguish. "But she doesn’t understand what healing means anymore."

The fragment pulsed, and as it did, the ground around the crater began to shake. Something was moving beneath the surface, responding to the corrupted light’s call.

"Here they come," Quendor said grimly, his dragon senses picking up the approach of massive forms underground.

The first wyrm burst from the earth like a living earthquake. It was enormous—easily fifty meters long—with a serpentine body covered in scales that shifted between different colors as if it couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. But it was the creature’s heads that made it truly terrifying.

Three heads, each one different from the others. The left head bore the features of a lion, with a mane of living fire and eyes like molten gold. The middle head looked reptilian, with scales like black diamonds and breath that steamed with venom. The right head was the most disturbing—it looked almost human, but wrong, with too many teeth and eyes that held a mockery of intelligence.

"A three-headed wyrm," Yulia breathed, her elven knowledge of ancient creatures serving her well. "But I’ve never seen one this large or this... corrupted."

The second wyrm emerged from the opposite side of the crater, then a third. Each one was slightly different, as if the fragment had been experimenting with different combinations of features. But all three shared the same basic structure—massive serpentine bodies, three heads each, and an aura of wrongness that made the very air around them seem to recoil.

"This is bad," Borin said, hefting his war hammer. "Very bad."

"No," Evon said quietly, studying the situation with his Eyes of Fate. "This is impossible. For all of us together."

He could see the probability streams flowing around them, and in every scenario where they fought the three wyrms conventionally, at least one of his companions died. Usually more than one.

"But maybe not for just me," he continued, making a decision that felt both necessary and terrible.

"Evon, what are you thinking?" Titania asked nervously.

"I’m thinking that sometimes protecting people means fighting alone." He raised the Blade of Fate, and power began to flow along its edge—not just from one goddess, but from all four simultaneously. "Everyone get close to me. Now."

They huddled together—Quendor folding his massive form as small as possible, Yulia and Borin pressing close to Evon’s sides, Titania perched on his shoulder. As the three wyrms began to circle the crater, their multiple heads weaving hypnotic patterns in the air, Evon activated one of his most powerful abilities.

"Destiny Prison," he said, and reality bent around his companions.

The effect was immediate and disorienting. One moment, Yulia could feel the chaotic energy of the fragment washing over her. The next, she felt... nothing. Not cold, not warm, not anything. She existed in a space that was somehow separate from the world around her, as if she had been temporarily removed from the flow of cause and effect.

Through the transparent walls of their temporal prison, they could see Evon standing alone in the crater, facing three massive wyrms that had turned their attention entirely to him. But they couldn’t hear anything, couldn’t affect anything, couldn’t even really feel anything except the knowledge that they were safe.

"Fascinating," Quendor rumbled, though his voice sounded distant even to himself. "We’re outside of destiny itself. Outside of reality’s causal flow."

"Is Evon going to be okay?" Titania asked, watching as the largest wyrm reared back to strike.

"He better be," Borin said grimly. "Because if he dies while we’re in here, I don’t think we ever get out."

### Full Resonance Unleashed

Alone in the crater, facing three creatures that each outweighed him by several orders of magnitude, Evon felt strangely calm. Through his connection to the four goddesses, he could feel their concern for his safety, but also their absolute faith in his abilities.

"Ready?" he asked them silently.

"Always," they replied in unison.

"Full Destiny Resonance," Evon said aloud, and the world changed.

Five colored auras erupted around his body—Naia’s deep blue, Lyria’s brilliant red, Veyra’s electric cyan, Sythara’s royal purple, and the growing gold of Yena’s distant presence. But this time, the energies didn’t just surround him. They transformed him.

His human form took on draconic resilience from Sythara, making his bones unbreakable and his reflexes supernatural. Naia’s water affinity allowed him to flow like liquid between attacks, while Lyria’s fire gave him the ability to cut through almost anything. Veyra’s technological integration enhanced his perception and reaction times to superhuman levels.

And underlying it all, Yena’s holy light—even fragmented and distant—provided a foundation of purity that made him immune to the corruption radiating from the twisted fragment above.

The first wyrm struck with all three heads simultaneously. The lion head breathed fire, the reptile head spat venom, and the human head screamed with a sound that could shatter stone.

Evon was no longer there.

He moved like living light, appearing behind the creature’s middle section and driving the radiant Blade of Fate deep into its main spine. The wyrm convulsed, but its serpentine body allowed it to twist around and strike back with its tail.

The tail blow would have pulverized a normal human. It sent Evon flying across the crater, but he landed in a roll and came up unharmed, his dragon-enhanced durability absorbing the impact.

The second wyrm tried to take advantage of his momentary vulnerability, lunging with jaws that could swallow a horse. But Evon’s enhanced perception, boosted by Veyra’s technological sight, allowed him to see the attack coming and counter it with a perfectly timed strike that severed the creature’s heads.

The third wyrm, learning from its companions’ failures, tried a different approach. Instead of attacking directly, it began to circle the crater while its heads worked in coordination—one breathing fire to drive Evon toward a specific position, another spitting venom to cut off his escape routes, while the third prepared for a strike when he was forced into the kill zone.

It was a good strategy. It might even have worked against a normal opponent.

But Evon wasn’t normal anymore. The full power of four goddesses flowing through him had elevated him beyond merely human capabilities. He could see the wyrms’ strategy as clearly as if they had drawn him a diagram, and he had the speed and power to counter it.

Instead of being driven by their attacks, he used them. The fire from the first wyrm’s breath became a launching platform, Lyria’s flames allowing him to ride the heat like a surfer on a wave. The venom pools became stepping stones, Naia’s water affinity letting him dance across their surface without being affected by the toxins.

And when the third wyrm finally struck, thinking it had him trapped, Evon was ready.

The Blade of Fate, charged with the combined power of four goddesses and enhanced by full Destiny Resonance, met the creature’s attack head-on. The radiant sword passed through scale and bone and muscle like they were made of paper, and the massive wyrm’s heads separated from its neck in a spray of corrupted blood.

With their guardians defeated, the corrupted fragment of Yena’s essence floated alone above its pool of liquid light. But as Evon approached it, something unexpected happened.

The fragment’s chaotic energy began to settle. The writhing tendrils of corrupted light pulled back, and for a moment, the original golden radiance shone through.

"I remember," Yena’s voice whispered in his mind, carrying a note of such profound sadness that it made his heart ache. "I remember what I was trying to do. I was trying to help, but I made everything worse."

"It’s okay," Evon said gently, reaching out to touch the fragment. "You were alone and confused. But you’re not alone anymore."

The fragment settled into his palm with a feeling of profound relief, and immediately the chaotic energy that had been affecting the entire island began to dissipate. In the distance, he could hear the twisted creatures starting to calm down as the source of their madness was removed.

As always, his Eyes of Fate activated as the fragment joined its siblings. And there, embedded in the rocky wall of the crater itself, he could see another piece of the mysterious relic.

"Five down," he said, releasing the Destiny Prison and allowing his companions to return to normal reality. "Eight to go."

"Are you okay?" Yulia asked immediately, studying him for signs of injury.

"I’m fine," Evon replied, though he felt drained from channeling such massive amounts of power. "But we need to keep moving. The longer we take, the more likely it is that the other fragments will cause similar problems wherever they’ve landed."

As they prepared to leave the Savage Isle, Evon couldn’t help but look back at the crater where three massive wyrms lay dead. Each victory was making him more powerful, but also more aware of how much responsibility rested on his shoulders.

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