Black veins forced themselves to the surface, pushing against Seth's skin as they crept up his neck and spread across his face. More of them spread across his arm like a plague, infecting his forearm and snaking across the back of his hand.

Seth's fingers curled and twitched as his muscles spasmed, flooding themselves with power that desperately wanted to be released.

The veins in his neck bulged as another guttural, feral growl escaped Seth's lips along with curling wisps of a noxious green gas. It poured from his mouth and spread across the floor before dispersing.

"KILL... KILL... KILL... I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!"

Seth's black heart thundered in his chest, coursing more and more power through his body. Yet unlike before, his rage didn't cloud his mind. The rational part of his mind was still there, questioning its continued existence.

Why wasn't it being overwhelmed and suppressed by his feral rage? This had been the very thing he had been worried about and suppressed for so long. He could feel it, the feral urge to rip the Lightbringer limb from limb with his bare hands.

But it didn't feel foreign. That's exactly what Seth intended to do, berserker rage or not. All the rage he was feeling, that was filling his limbs with so much power that they trembled and shook, was entirely his own. So why wasn't he falling to the berserker curse like before?

"Because that's not what it is. Your blood is not a curse."

Seth whirled around, ready to lash out at the voice that spoke from behind, only to find the Draconic woman resting against the table, a bored expression on her face. Just like always, she was dressed in her scale male armour as she traced circles on the battle map with one of her clawed fingers.

"What? How would you know?!"

Seth spat back his response. He didn't mean to, she wasn't really deserving of his anger. But it was hard to control, even if it wasn't magically enhanced and every second he spent talking here, was another second Astra was in danger.

Just the thought of her dying when he was talking made his blood boil more, sending more uncontrollable and wild power coursing through his veins and wreaking havoc in his spasming muscles.

The dragon didn't reply, simply raising a contemptuous eyebrow at him, as if the answer to the question was obvious. Of course it was, she gave it to him. Why wouldn't she know about it.

Letting out a soft sigh, the dragon plucked one of the figures from the table and examined it out of boredom.

"It is not a curse, it is a blessing. That blood is a conduit for divine energy. It didn't make you lose your mind simply because you grew angry. It made you powerful and feral because you lost your mind to anger yourself.

It gave you what you wanted. Power to rip them apart, even allowing your ability to transcend its usual boundaries for a short time. You might not remember it, but your threads could touch things when you were losing your mind, because in that moment you willed them to.

That blood comes from a being much more powerful than you, one who is versed in weaving Divine Energy to his will. You are tapping into that ability, even if you wield it with no knowledge or finesse, like a child flailing around with a hammer.

You'll eventually hit something."

As she spoke, he thought back to all the strange things his blood had done and... he had to admit it finally made sense. It could become armour but could also force an evolution from Omelette while saving his life at the same time.

It made him mad one time, and never again, feeding him increased strength to rip them apart, just like he wanted.

It saved Seth's own life from the lingering will within the Dwarves soul when he was creating Carnifex. All these strange and contradictory things, were always what he needed or most wanted in the moment.

Whether he realised it or not, it had always been obeying his desires. He just had no control over it.

She let out another sigh, tossing the figure back onto the battle map with little care. Standing from the table, she strolled around it towards Seth, dragging her hand across the cloak of Corvus which lay on the table, lifeless from when Seth had lost his connection to it, before she stopped in front of him.

Ignoring his rage and urgency, she placed a hand on his chest and felt the pulsating rhythm of his heart beat, and the flow of the blessed blood in his veins. Surprisingly, a soft smile spread across her lips.

"I have been pleasantly surprised by you, little worm. You have turned out to be far more amusing than I anticipated. I admit, I expected to have to drag you to fulfil your purpose, but now I see I am not the only one with an eye on you and that your purpose extends further than I could have expected.

I see now why my Master chose you to free him. I think you deserve one final gift. Speak it, and it shall be."

Seth stared up at the dragon who was being surprisingly... gentle and caring. It was almost disturbing how she gave off a slightly maternal vibe as she spoke to him. His black heart seemed to beat faster inside his chest, not from excitement or arousal, but as if it was simply responding to her touch and obeying an unheard command.

The energy that was stirring inside him calmed as soon as she laid a hand on him. His muscles were no longer twitching nor were his veins ready to explode. It was as if she had taken a wild thunderstorm that stretched across the entire sky, tamed it like a wild beast and condensed it all into a singular battery of unbelievable power.

Power that Seth could feel within him still. He wanted to study how she had done that, or what it was she had even done, as even with the power under control he didn't feel weaker. No, instead he felt more powerful than he had ever been before in his life.

When she asked the question, he didn't even have to think. He just spoke.

"I... I want to save her."

"Then so it shall be."

With another kind smile, she closed her eyes and commanded that power stored up inside him as if it was her own. Seth frowned softly, trying to understand what it was she was doing, as the black blood gradually rose to the surface, pushing its way out through the pores of his skin.

It spread across him, just like it did when he wore it like armour. However this time, where it would usually only appear as veins on his face, it crept across it in its liquid form. It completely engulfed his face, covering his eyes last of all as his vision turned black.

With his vision cut off, his mind turned inwards as did the blood. It wasn't just surrounding him, but somehow his blood was creeping its way into his Soul Abyss. In his mind, he could see the black liquid oozing into the abstract area, as if the black void came to life and surrounded the shattered planet that represented his soul.

The black blood crept towards his soul, reaching out viscous tentacles and touching against it. Like cement, it poured itself into the shattered cracks of his soul, filling in the gaps and binding his soul together, so that it was one whole being once more.

Fragments of a shining silver orb were bound together by viscous black blood, creating a strange and almost twisted representation of ying and yang.

Seth watched closely, focusing on everything she was doing in an attempt to decypher the secrets behind the power she was masterfully weaving. Normally he would have been suspicious, thinking that she was doing something malicious and trying to corrupt him in some way.

But nothing about the process felt wrong or malicious. It just felt... right, as if he really was made whole again when that black ooze filled in the gaps of his soul.

When the dragon drew to the end of her process, and Seth was left with little more than a few measly scraps of knowledge about her masterful craft, he cast his mind outwards and connected with Carnifex, in the battle he had been ripped from.

'Carnifex. There is a child there, at the top of the ramparts. A fourteen year old boy. I believe he is the cause of the anti-magic field. I need you to check to see if he is still alive and...'

{I understand Father. If he still lives, I will take care of him. Your blade will spill blood so that you don't have to, such is my purpose.}

'NO!... No... I don't want him killed. If he is alive, I want him kept that way. The boy... the boy is my brother. Protect him, please. I will send Omelette over to assist with the mutants and to transport him back.'

{Y-yes Father. My apologies. It will be done.}

Seth cut off the connection to Carnifex and quickly contacted Omelette, giving him the same instructions. It was only after he cut the connection that he forgot to check whether the dragon had helped him transform back or if he was still in the appearance of a small child.

Hoping that everything would turn out okay, and casting his mind back to the task at hand, Seth stood before the dragon, wreathed in a cocoon of his own blood.

The blood surrounding his body rippled softly, before the solid mass of his body simply melted and collapsed as if he was entirely made of black blood.

The liquid fell to the floor, as if he was never solid to begin with and quickly absorbed itself into the stone, leaving no semblance of Seth's body remaining in the room.

The dragon held her hand where it was for a few seconds, muttering under her breathe in a language not of this world, before dropping both of her hands.

"Now... as amusing as this will be to watch, I have a pigeon problem to take care of."

Her flowing cloak morphed into a pair of large, leathery wings that she spread wide, before she dissolved into shadows and disappeared from the room. Curiously enough, the scattered clothing that had been puppeteered into the persona of Lord Corvus was completely absent.