บท 60: Magical Staff
A/N: Pat-reon: HelloDarkness07
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Standing on four limbs at 7 feet tall, and 15 feet long from my nose, to my tail end, I stare at the 45 feet tall Dragon now flying towards me. My condensed ball of flames had thrown him over the edge of the cliff, but he had flown right up.
With a rage filled bellow, the dragon once more shoots its flames at me once it is around 20 meters away from me, and keeps approaching. Opening my mouth, I once more condense these flames, and as the Fireball forms in front of my mouth, I start running, my speed just equal to that of the dragon, despite the smaller size.
As we reach a close enough distance, Drugir, the rampaging dragon stops throwing flames, and turns around, his tails speeding towards me. I let the fireball fly, and at the same time, the tail hits me on my side, sending me flying, and the fireball hits him on the back of his neck, sending him crashing into the dirt.
As the cut that had formed on my side thanks to his bladed tail tip sizzles and closes up, I dig my nails into the ground to stop myself, and smirk. The scales on his neck were burnt and so was the part on his tails that had hit me, the boney tip blackened. But, before I can enjoy too much.. I see the scales heal right before my very eyes.
'What the fuck?' I think to myself, unable to help it.
Dragons have many gifts, but a faster Healing is not one of them. Some might say, maybe this Dragon race does, but nope. Even the female dragon had gotten some burns during the short flame bout a minute ago, and she did not heal as fast as he did.
Something's definitely wrong.
The dragon then turns its long neck towards me, growling, "GRRRRRR!"
It was still filled with rage, and its eyes still had no sign of intelligence. But then, suddenly, the dragon shakes his head, and starts stomping the ground, distracted by.. something. As he shakes his head rapidly, some of his spittle shoot out of his half open mouth, landing on the trees, bushes, and even the ground.
Hsssss..
The Saliva burns through the bushes and the trees, its nature being too corrosive for them to handle. So much so, that within a few seconds, the entire Tree that got affected got dissolved, leaving just a burn mark on the ground behind. It was as if the trees and bushes were cotton candy, and the drops of saliva were Water.
The rocks and the Earth, meanwhile, remain almost completely immune to the Dragon spit, with just a few burn marks to indicate its presence.
Yup, don't touch Drugir's saliva, and don't let it touch you.
The dragon once more focuses on me, somehow even more enraged than before, lets out another "SCREEEEEEE!" before running towards me.
I run towards him too, not willing to give him an advantage in momentum. As we keep running, now just a couple meters of distance between us, Drugir's tail stabs towards me, aiming for my head, while his jaw opens up, his Acidic saliva covered teeth aiming for my shoulder.
I can feel, somehow, that while the bite(or the Saliva), aren't potent enough to kill Kasha me, it would definitely be enough to put me out of commission. My human form.. I have no idea. Whether the Venomous Saliva destroys everything organic, or just plants, is something I wouldn't know without some experimentation.
So, as the tail and jaw approach my body, I jump up, turning into a human, and land pn the dragon's extended neck. Skidding to a stop, I immediately summon Galadmagol to my hands, and stab it downwards.
CLINK!
The sword hits the scales on the dragon's neck, and slides right off to the side, making me off balanced. Before I can recover, the dragon shakes his entire body, sort of like a dog, and throws me off and into the air.
I fly over the trees, but land on my feet, skidding to a stop. As the dragon starts running once again, I stare at my sword. My greatest weapon, well, second greatest after Durmagol, failed to stab someone. An Uru weapon actually failed to stab someone.
Either the Dragon scales are extremely durable for the entire breed. Or.. something else is at work here. Just like the way his wounds healed so fast.
As the ground shakes under my feet, thanks to the Dragon aggressively running towards me, I stand in my spot, and prepare to create a portal. I have no clue what the Dragon's problem is, why he's trying to kill Eggs, or the mother.
I have no clue as to why my attacks on his body healed so quickly, and why my Sword, which can supposedly pierce the thick hide of a Hebridean Black Dragon, failed to do so on this particular Dragon.
So, a portal sounds like a surefire way to kill it, doesn't it? If it works that is, otherwise it'll be a way to send the Dragon somewhere else at least.
But, before I can even wave my hand to create a Portal to the Arctic circle, in the same spot where I had modified my Nowhere to be Timeless, something else tackles Drugir. The female dragon had.. saved me?
The tackle sends both the dragons tumbling off the cliff, as they start falling. Jumping up, I shoot into the air, and follow after them, to make sure that the female dragon wins.
The male dragon was angry, at having his prey taken away from him, at getting disturbed, could be a lot of things. This caused him to begin snapping his head at the female dragon's neck, while his claw shaped limbs tried to grab at his adversary.
But.. the female dragon was ferocious, desperate to protect her children, and so, even she was trying to bite the male dragon, while her tail was trying to stab him too.
Soon, both the dragons crash on the mountain's side, and start tumbling down the slope, still trying to gain dominance.
When they stop, still on the side of the mountain, the male dragon is now on higher ground, with a few scrathes and cuts on his body, and a burn mark on the face. Unfortunately, just like last time, all the wounds heal within a few seconds at most.
But, at least this showed me that the female dragon's claws and tail does harm the male one's scales, despite my sword being of no use in that department. This.. displeases me. I thought my sword was the strongest Mortal weapon here.
It has fucking Uru in it! It might be Dark, but its still URU!
Oh, sure, my forging method is based on that of the Goblins, which.. is nowhere near the standard of the Nidavellir Dwarves, I think. But still, they're Goblins! Their swords are supposed to be the sharpest, and the Dark Uru should have just.. enhanced it!
Shaking my head, I turn my attention over to the female dragon, who also had a few scratches. Unlike the male one, however, these one's weren't healing, proving my hypothesis of something else being at work to be true.
~Snap out of it Drugir, or else you will force me to kill you!~ the female dragon screeches again, looking quite menacing.
In response, Drugir just screeches something unintelligible, and spreads his wings wide in aggression.
He literally has no mind to change right now. He's as mindless as they come, and I hope the female dragon realises it sooner rather than later.
Drugir digs his hind legs into the ground, preparing to attack the female dragon, and I make a decision. As the dragon starts running towards the female dragon, I lift my hand up a bit, and raise the ground underneath his next step just a little, causing the male dragon to lose his step.
The female dragon takes advantage of the opportunity, and snaps her neck forward, biting into Drugir's neck. As dark red blood starts leaking from the no doubt deep wounds, I start flying forward, to kill it once and for all.
Before I can do that, however, the male dragon's eyes glow an even darker shade of black, and the female dragon is magically pushed away from him. He then speeds after her, and immediately stabs his tail into her heart, causing her to screech in pain.
"SCREEE!" "SCREEEEEEE!"
Hers, wasn't the only yell of pain, however. The female dragon had somehow managed to stab the Male dragon into the chest with her front claw. However, the stab was nowhere near deap enough to reach the heart. The heart was literally two feet deep into the dragon's torso, I could hear it pumping, while the female dragon's claw had only gone for two feet and then some.
As the male dragon pulls the tail out of his victim, and kicks her dying body away, I see something that makes my eyes glint. The wounds on his neck were slowly closing, slower because of the female dragon's Venom. But the chest wound, however, was closing even slower.
I could see the motion of the heart beating once every two seconds deep inside the stab wound, and I could see the Win now.
This time, I don't bother with running, and simply apparate. Appearing right in front of the slowly closing wound, I enlarge my nails, and stab it straight through, inside the wound.
My hand goes shoulder deep inside the sound, my small size not allowing the Dragon to see me until it's too late. My nails, meanwhile, pierce the remaining flesh between the heart and the open wound easily enough, and go into the heart of the male Dragon.
This makes me chuckle, as I remember something else. Seeing the dragon's tail come towards me, to throw me off, I whisper, "Fulgur Flumen!"
At once, the tail stops speeding towards me as it starts twitching in its place, and the same thing happens to the dragon. My Lightning spell was coarsing through his entire body, the insides not being durable enough to save him from me.
As the white glow that had surrounded my body dies down, the dragon's heart slows down, until finally.. it shuts down. The rampaging dragon was dead.
I let the dragon fall on the ground, and turn towards the female dragon, who was also dying unless I do something. But.. I can't even heal her without her permission, and I doubt she's coherent enough to grant me that permission.
But.. even if I did have her permission, I couldn't have saved her in time. The Heart of a Person is very intricate, and getting stabbed into the heart is very much deadly for almost anyone human. For a Dragon, its doubly so. Her enhanced durability, the increases in bone density and flesh density get in the way of healing.
And then there's the Venom. Drugir, the male dragon, had stabbed her not just with his boney tail, he had first covered it in his Venom.
Jumping towards her, I land with a small thud, and put my hand on her heart. I cannot heal her, but nothing prevents me from easing her death. Slowly, I let my Magic flow from my hand, towards her heart.
But.. the flesh gets in the way.
~~I am sorry, noble one.~~ I whisper, making the dying dragon turn her head to look at me.
And then, just as I had done for the male dragon, I stab my hand into her chest, making sure not to actually harm her heart. I stay back just shy of the Heart, but this time in range for my Non-spell.
Once again, I let my magic flow out of my hand, in waves of blueish green light, and enter the dragon's heart.
'Durra' the name jumps at me, probably thanks to the proximity between my Magic and her own, almost startling me. But, I keep my focus on the task.
I will my blueish green magic to start its work, by taking the pain away from the brave female dragon. And the effects are instantaneous, as Durra's eyes get a bit clearer. I stare into her eyes, as she does the same to me, while I ease her pain.
Understanding that she's a bit coherent now, I ask, ~~I am a Healer who has broken his oath, do you agree to allow me to treat your injuries?~~
Durra blinks, and then just keeps staring, not saying anything. Getting a bit tired, I ask once again, ~~I am a Healer who has brok-~~
And then, I stop, seeing Durra's golden eyes glow with a deep blue shine. Something breaks through my barriers with all the force of Rowena's mental probe, and none of the subtlety, and I hear a loud voice say, "PROTECT MY CHILDREN!"
And then, its gone, just as fast as it came. In the real world, Durra's heart gives out, leading to her death.
Damn, this is sad. I wanted to try and protect her, so that she could raise her babies properly. But.. it seems she had other ideas.
Sighing, I cover her entire body with my magic, and send her to nowhere. I will bury her on Sanctuary, a proper burial. She is not someone I will harvest like I'm planning to do with the other dragons. This reminds me to harvest the other dragon corpses too. They've spent a lot of time in Nowhere.
Then, I apparate near Drugir's corpse, already feeling something. Just to be sure, I place my palm on top of Drugir's corpse, and smile, feeling it once again. Whether it was the fact that I was the one to slay this dragon, or the fact that my hand was literally inside the chest, I don't know.
What I do know, is that this Dragon's heart.. is a Match. This is my Staff's core, this dragon's Heartstrings.
Smiling, I pull on my Magic once again, feeling a bit drained now, and cover the entire dragon with a very thin layer of it. And then, within a single blink, the Dragon corpse disappears from the ground, and appears inside Nowhere.
Cracking my neck, as I feel my Magic start recovering, I fly towards the cave. It takes a while for me to reach there, but when I do, when I see the eggs, I realise exactly what Durra the female Dragon did.
Or at least, now I have an idea.
She did not just ask me to protect her children, she already convinced me. Probably using her own Magics. I love these eggs completely, although definitely not like a parent. I will see them grow into big strong adults, and then I will leave them to themselves.
There were 7 eggs in total, kept in a hexagonal shape. Around them, were multiple rocks, many of them having merged together thanks to the repeated fire that the female dragon probably blew at them. Simply amazing, repeated flames caused the stones to repeatedly melt and reshape.
Shaking my head, I lift the entire Stone nest up with Telekinesis, and create a portal to my Castle on Sanctuary. Walking towards a bedroom that is right in front of my own, I wave my hand to send all the furniture sliding away from the fireplace. I place the entire Nest, 7 eggs and multiple merged rocks and all, into the fireplace, and start a small fire.
Along with that, I carve the Warming Enchantments on the Rocks, while throwing some more coal inside the fireplace. For now, this has to be enough. I have no idea when the babies will hatch, bit I'd rather they be late than never, thanks to me burning more them with the hotter flames I have access to.
"Kultur?" I call out, immediately hearing the *pop* from beside me. Pointing towards the white and blue eggs in front of us, I say, "These are my babies, they're dragons. Make sure no harm comes to them, please."
"Of course, Master Athreos." Kultur says, bowing low, and disapparates back to wherever he was before.
Damn, this is going to be way harder than training Blinky was, she at least stopped until I dismissed her in the beginning.
With the wave of my hand, I cast a Warning Enchantment on the fireplace, that will warn me if the Eggs hatch, or even move.
A single flex of my Magic apparates me to the Alchemy Lab, where I summarily deposit the dead Drugir's corpse on top of table that forms underneath it. Cracking my neck, I summon the Magical Silver Surgery tools, as well as a Cursed dagger meant to rust anything, even flesh.
Using my Telekinesis, I first lay the dragon on his back, and with a single motion of the Magical Silver dagger, stab the corpse into its neck, right underneath the head. Time to carry out an autopsy, to find out why the dragon was so.. rampaging.
---
Rocks, the intact yet broken skeleton of a human, a few belongings of said human, and a book. This was all that was inside the digestive tract of Drugir, the Berserk Dragon. Nice name, right?
And yes, book. His stomach had the rocks and the skeleton, while the book was stuck at the point where the Oesophagus met the stomach.
I'll come to the book later.
I found a lot of things about Dragons that I had read about, but didn't know for sure. And I found out some facts that I didn't even know. I really should have harvested the other corpses I'd found a long time before, maybe I would have known these things then itself.
Dragon blood is very hot, for the first few days after it is brought outside the body. So hot, in fact, that it melted a steel spoon completely, without any smoke, or without leaving any residue behind. After those days are over, however, the blood becomes just warm. Inside the body, the blood stays fresh for however long the body is intact.
Dragon scales are tough, but now that it was dead, the scales were nowhere near strong enough to protect it from Galadmagol or Durmagol. This did make me happy a bit, thankful that my swords won't be useless in front of dragons. The scales did however resist any normal weapons, that weren't made out of inherently Magical materials. Although the Vibranium-Nundu Bone metal spears managed to pierce them.
Then, there's the bile acid. The entire stomach of the dragon is lined with highly corrosive, hot acid, the make up of which is entirely unknown to me. It allowed the dragon to completely digest anything they eat within five hours at most, and this includes the rocks they ingest by accident some time.
The human remains that I had found had been inside the dragon for barely a couple hours, before I got them out, and cleaned them. There was no flesh, all of it having melted off thanks to the corrosive digestive juices, but I did find a lot of other stuff that stayed a bit intact.
A few rings, a couple of small orichalum daggers, a compass that doesn't point North, and most surprisingly, a leather pouch, which had still remained completely intact. The clothes of the person were gone, the hair was gone, and the flesh and blood were gone too, leaving only the bones, and these items remaining. The leather Pouch was locked up tight, using what felt like a Blood Spell, which did tell me that the Human that got swallowed whole by Drugir was a Magical person. However, I have no idea what kind, yet.
A Mage like me, Sorcerer, Druid, Demon Witch, Coven Witch, VooDoo Sorcerer, and there's a lot more Magicals out here. I have yet to study the human skeleton, so I have no idea if its even a male or a female.
The Blood Spell had not damaged even a little, just like the Pouch itself, which means its contents are currently out of my reach.
And then comes.. The Book.
And this here's the best, and the worst part.. the book was not even a little bit damaged! No burns from the acid, no bite marks, which even the skeleton had, no nothing. The book was completely intact.
In fact, when I found the book in the far end of the oesophagus, it was stuck in a bubble of Magic. The Magic was Dark grey, and I doubt it is anything created by a human. It was.. Evil. It IS evil, and even now I refuse to touch the book by my hands.
My guess, over what went on, is that the Dragon somehow encountered the Magical person, who had the book in their hands at the time, and ate them. The human probably fought to escape, and the dragon bit them, to kill them faster, and then, the human died. The book, created by Dark Magic, got stuck on the Oesophagus thanks to its Protection spells flaring up.
It probably felt danger from the stomach acid, which is a bit dumb, because the acid wouldn't have destroyed it anyway. It couldn't fight a single Blood Lock spell or the Blood Protection Spells that surrounded the Pouch, how would it defeat the Dark Magic of this Book?
The Dark Magic of the Book tried taking over the mind of the Dragon, just like I think it will try with anyone that tries to use the book for knowledge, but.. it failed. It didn't manage to take over the dragon's mind, but it did manage to destroy any sanity the dragon had.
And it also enhanced the Dragon with its magic, granting it a better durability, a higher healing speed, and probably a lot more gifts that I thankfully didn't encounter. I feel sorry for the dragon, now that I know exactly what caused it to go on a rampage.
The Darkhold. The Book of Sins. The Book of the Damned. The one book that always finds a way to get to its victims. There is no way to hide the book away, there is no way to lock it up, there is no way to destroy it. It always comes back because.. there isn't just one book.
Sighing, I float my hand up, looking at the image of a Witch floating in the air, with her hair flying all around that was carved on the leather hardcover of the Darkhold. Salazar had encountered the Darkhold once, and so did the Sorceress Supreme Saraswati, multiple times.
And each one of the encounters had them give different discriptions for the Darkhold. One time with Darkhold written in Latin, once in Greek or Norse, or even in Ancient Egyptian. Then there were the images of Chthon, every time with a different angle shown on the front cover, and there were even images of other beings, like this one.
I have no idea who this Witch floating in the air is, and I have no need to find out. Opening the book while knowing what it is is dangerous, more so because Chthon has his attention on you, and He WILL corrupt your soul. Heck, I'm not even going to put it in Nowhere, Chthon doesn't care for Timeless Dimensions, he might gain entry there through the book, and then to me.
For now, this book will remain hidden deep underground, in a Runic Circle to minimise its influence on the surrounding world. Until I can hand it off to the Sorcerer Supreme of this era, or learn how to deal with it without being corrupted, this book shall remain closed.
Washing my hands off the blood I had accumulated, while carving the flesh of the dragon off the bones, I look at the large wooden barrels now sitting in the Alchemy Lab with me. Blood, venom, meat, eyes, tongue, hide, external bones, fangs and lastly.. the skeleton. Except for the hide and the skeleton, everything was kept in separate barrels, all of them enchanted to keep their belongings contained.
There's a reason it took me an entire month to harvest the dragon of its parts
The Heart of the Dragon, meanwhile, was sitting in a small glass jar, in some of the blood of the dragon. There were four holes, where four of my nails had stabbed it in, but other than that the heart was completely fine.
I cannot create the staff yet, because.. it counts as a Ritual. 6 more months to go for that. So until then, the heart was going to stay in Nowhere, frozen in time, with the rest of its body.
Sighing, I store all the harvested parts in Nowhere, and create a portal to the eggs. They still hadn't hatched, and I have no idea how long it takes for these dragons. Most of the dragons of my era take anywhere between 5 months to 3 years to hatch. I hope they don't hatch too quickly, or when I'm not here.
I love them, a lot. They're Dragons! Why wouldn't I love them?
Pointing my palm at the eggs, I shoot a single wave of flames at them, both to heat the eggs, and the heat the rocks up. "Sleep well, my children." I whisper, smiling, and then walk through the open portal, back to my bedroom.
Taking the book on Soul Magic that I had found in Tatiana's Library in my hands, I start to read.
---
6 Months later, I start preparing to craft my Staff. Everything was prepared, and kept near me. I'd spent a day digging into the Earth, having chosen the land in front of my Castle for this Ritual.
Throughout the Ritual, I cannot use any Magic, or anything Magical other than myself, and the stuff I was going to use in the Staff itself. I'd dug a hule 7 feet deep, completely by hand, using a spade that I'd bought in Alexandria. First, I'd dropped the Mopane tree root in, and then covered it with exactly three feet of the earth that I'd dug out before.
Then, I placed the branch in the now four feet deep hole, and placed the mud back in. Taking a deep breath, I begin with the next steps.
A sickle in my hand, I carve a circle around the thick branch, making sure to not mess it up. From those circle, came four lines at each Cardinal directions, each of them around one feet in length, and then, a square connecting those lines.
Then came the Alchemical circle, with symbols carved on the ground. 50 minutes later, the ground part is done, and I move on to the next step.
The Heartstring.
Chordae Tendineae, or the Heartstrings, are fibrous tissues connecting the papillary muscles to the Valves within the heart. I'd taken great care in getting all the Heartstrings out of the dragon's heart, and stored them all in Nowhere. Today, I was going to use just one, which was now in a simple jar on the ground, next to the other ingredients.
But I wasn't going to just use that, I was using something else too after a lot of probability calculations.
Picking the Dragon Heartstring out, I place it on my left palm. Then, I pick the next item, a single scale from the tail of Salazar Slytherin's Basilisk. Placing the Dragon Heartstring on the inch wide scale, I slowly walk towards the Mopane branch sticking out of the ground.
Once there, I place the scale on the ground for a bit, and take out a simple stone knife, one I'd created by myself, caveman style. With not a single use of Magic.
Using the knife, I dig a hole into the trunk, roughly cylindrical, two inches wide, and place the scale and Heartstring inside, exactly in the centre. Plucking a few leaves out of the branch, I fill the hole with it, packing it back up. Using the same knife, I pierce into my finger, and bleed a few drops of blood on the leaves.
And just as gently as before, I then walk out of the Alchemy Circle.
Now, it is the time of playing the waiting game. Every hour, on the hour, I have to put two drops of my blood on the branch. This is only done when it is your own staff that you're carving. If you do this for someone else's staff, they won't ever be able to use it, since its loyalty will be to the Crafter.
And then, I sit down, begining to chant in Ancient Egyptian, a language that's dying out even in Egypt.
7 hours later, the hole in the staff disappears, the leaves slowly having transformed into the wood of the branch itself.
13 hours later, the wood begins cracking, starting from the bottom, and ending at the top.
48 hours later, BOOOOM!
The wood branch explodes, sending everything around it flying, even the ground. When I open my eyes, having closed it during the explosion, I see something that makes me smile. There, in front of me, stood the staff that I had crafted.
Standing 7 feet tall, the staff was a completely straight piece of wood. It might have looked like the Bo staff from the Japanese fighting styles, if it wasn't for the addition on the top. After exactly 6.5 feet of straight wood, 2.5 inches thick, the staff slowly increased in thickness, until it formed into the staff head of 3.5 inches thickness.
And on top of it, was a claw made from pointed wood. The wood had extended straight from the staff head, and curled, leaving a space between for something as big as a softball to fit. It was empty, obviously, because I hadn't put anything in there.
All around the Staff's handle were Alchemical symbols that I'd carved into the ground. The Magic of this Ritual had copied the Symbols on the staff, so if the Symbols had been disturbed, the staff would have come out useless, not able to cast Magic properly, and not able to handle the stress I might put it through.
And then came the Root of the Mopane tree. From the bottom of the staff the root had climbed up, slowly curling around the staff. The root was very thin, somehow having stretched far too much without breaking. As the root climbed up, the root went from having one turn around the staff for the bottom most foot, to completely curling around the top most part of the Staff, sans the claw.
Picking the object I want to put in the claw, I hold my hand out towards the staff. Immediately, without me even calling it towards me, the staff shoots towards me, and slaps into my palm. Chuckling, I ask, "Eager, aren't you?"
Then, I look at my left hand, which held the focusing item that I was going to place on the head of the staff, to help me aim properly. Staff's don't actually need the Focusing Stone, with a lot of people having plain wood and core staffs in their possession and still being good Mages.
But, the focusing Stone is useful for anyone not used to using Staffs, someone like me. It will just help me aim my spells properly, and not get shot by my own spell. Also, if the surface of the Focusing Stone is smooth and shiny, then it can be used as a Scrying tool for Mages, so there's that.
I'd thought long and hard, over what suits me best, what will not interfere with the Magic of the Staff, and yes, my thoughts did first go towards the usual gemstones like Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire, etc. But then, I sort of found gemstones to be too.. mundane.
And so, here it was, my focusing stone. The eye of the Basilisk. This one was also my own kill, so it won't completely clash. And there was another reason for choosing it. The Eye was already used to Magic being cast through it, 1000 years of it in fact. The Eye can kill anyone who looks at it, and now, it will help me cast spells through my staff.
I first dipped it into the blood of Drugir to make it familiar with the Dragon's magic, and then into a vat of Molten Magical Silver, because I can't exactly put the killing Eye on my staff. Innocents will die as soon as Magic is passed through it. When it had come out of the vat, the Eye still looked like an eye, only instead of yellow, it was now completely silver in colour. Of course, the actual Eye wasn't visible, it was now just Silver shaped like an eye for anyone that sees it.
Holding the Eye near the staff, I watch, smiling patiently. The staff claw, which had been closed, slowly opens up. The Magic of the staff visibly calls out to the Eye, and as soon as I let the eye go.. SNAP.
The Eye of the Basilisk, already familiar with the Magic of the Dragon Heartstring and its own Scale speeds towards the Staff head, and fixes itself on the Staff. The optical nerves, that were covered in molten Silver now, dig into the staff head, by themselves, and then the claw closes in around the Eye, with the Eye pointing upwards.
I can feel the staff thrumming, as if happy, content. But.. its not done yet.
There's just one more step to go.
Taking the staff in my hand, I walk towards a single barrel sitting innocently right next to my Castle. Opening it with one hand, I gently place the Staff inside, and close it. The barrel contained about 1/3rd of the total blood I'd gotten from Drugir the Dragon's body, which is still a lot, and, seven drops of my own blood.
It was enough for the staff to be completed submerged within the blood, so there's that.
Soon, within a week in fact, I will have my staff in my hands.
Mopane wood, 7 feet long, 2.5 inches thick, with a dual core of Dragon Heartstring and Basilisk scale, and the Silvered Eye of the same Basilisk.
Inherently aggressive, but suited for Protection too. My Staff, my beautiful staff. My first venture into Magical Focus Crafting.
---
A/N: The first version of this chapter I wrote, included Durra doing some sort of Sacrificial spell to send her essence to Mason's body, in return of Mason protecting her children until their dying breaths.
But when I read it yesterday, I realised that while this idea has merit, it won't be of any use thanks to the Ritual Cooldown. Plus, this sounded like an amazing Ritual to do on purpose, on Mason's side.
So, I rewrote it.
The Darkhold will make an appearance later, when Mason meets the Sorcerers, but until then, its hidden away underground. The Darkhold having multiple identical copies is something I cooked up to explain how it is in possession of Agatha Harkness, that one Agents of Shield side character, and also in Marvel's Runaways. It makes sense for such a book to have multiple copies so that even if one is destroyed, the others can still corrupt someone.
Thank you for your support! Tata!
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