In a lavishly decorated room, a young man with dark brown hair sat cross-legged. Each day, he would remain in that exact posture for hours on end, only taking breaks to eat or to sleep. To an outsider, it would have looked like he was in deep meditation. However, that was not the case.

For the last week, Zeke had spent his time in his Mind’s Library, working on his new spell. Now that he had a deadline to keep, he couldn’t afford to waste time.

At first, he had thought it to be a shame to spend all his time in this manner. He had left Tradespire to get new experiences and grow his Soul, after all. However, ever since Akasha had informed him that he had experienced substantial growth while studying Rituals, nothing was holding him back.

Finally, on this seventh day of seclusion, he managed a breakthrough. Zeke had finally found the part of the Ritual that was responsible for giving the summons their shape. He was immensely gratified when he realized that his initial hypothesis had been right. It was indeed the case that the ritual contained a Spellform which would automatically create a body based on the contracted spirit.

The bad news was that the Spellform behind this effect was by far the most complicated Zeke had ever seen. The geometric pattern was so intricate that he couldn’t even imagine casting such a spell. As if that was not enough, this single function would only be one part of his new creation.

He also had to add an element that would establish a temporary contract between himself and the Dragon, as well as a section that would funnel the Spirit into the newly created body. On top of all that, he wanted the spell to use Blood instead of unattuned Mana to further boost its power. All in all, the finished Spellform was so monstrously complex that Zeke grew dizzy just looking at it.

Luckily, he had a solution to that problem.

In the infinite white void of his Mind’s library, Zeke turned toward the figure of the beautiful girl beside him as he pointed at the Spellform projected in the air. “Can you cast this?”

Akasha’s eyes darted across the pattern. The insane precision and speed of her pupils were eerie. So much so, that even people who didn’t know about her true nature would be instantly able to guess that she wasn’t human.

“Affirmative. I am able to create the Spellform,” Akasha said, “but I am unable to form the Intent for this spell.”

Zeke hummed. This was what he had expected. Even though Akasha was extremely good at meticulous work, anything that required even the slightest bit of creativity was beyond her. If he wanted to successfully cast this spell, they would have to work together.

However, it wasn’t the cooperation between himself and Akasha that Zeke was worried about, but the third member of their crew. The Dragon played a significant role as well. After all, the spell would only provide the body, and handling it would fall to it. After casting the spell, Zeke would no longer have any control.

“What about you, Dragon? Think you still have what it takes?” Zeke teased, trying to provoke the old reptile into proving his might.

The Dragon clearly didn’t take the bait as his voice was completely apathetic. “If I lose in a fight, it’s because you provided me with a subpar body.”

“Aren’t you just shifting responsibility?” He questioned.

In the next moment, he felt as if the Dragon was looking at him with disdain. “No, fleshling, that is merely a fact. I have lived for thousands of years, and I never struggled against an opponent who wasn’t of the ancient races.”

“Are you telling me there isn’t a single human who could be your opponent?”

The Dragon was suspiciously silent for a long time. Zeke almost thought he wouldn’t reply, but eventually, its voice could be heard again. “That is not what I said.”

Zeke was intrigued. So, there was a human the Dragon feared? Interesting. “Say, when you were at your peak, who was stronger between you and the emperor of Arkanheim?”

“How would I know?” the Dragon said. “I have never met this so-called emperor. But, since he is a Mind Mage, I would most likely win easily. Mind Magic is useless against my kind.”

Zeke was impressed. It seemed this Dragon used to be somebody quite strong. “How about the Time Mage we met in Tradespire?”

“Me,” the Dragon said without hesitation. “That brat was far too young. He most likely would have lost against the bird woman as well.”

Bird woman? Was he talking about Aurelia Thorsten? Zeke prayed in his heart she would never learn about this insulting nickname. However, the Dragon’s words surprised him. “How can you tell?”

The Dragon scoffed. “With a Soul that small and weak? That person was most likely not even two centuries old.”

“What? How can he be an Exarch at that age?”

“There was more to him than meets the eye,” the Dragon said. “But enough of your inane questions. Get on with the spell.”

Zeke nodded reluctantly. He would have very much liked to hear more about the subject, but the Dragon was always stingy with his knowledge and words. It could already be counted as a great success to have learned as much as he did. However, the Dragon was also right; it was time to get back to work.

Zeke took a deep breath and opened his eyes in the real world. “Alright. Let’s do this. Do you guys know what to do?”

“Affirmative.”

“Just get on with it.”

Zeke didn’t waste any more time and gave Akasha the signal to start. At the same time, he used the dagger at his waist to cut both of his palms. For a change, he didn’t have the focus to spare to keep his blood from flowing out. His attention was fully focused on the Spellform that was slowly taking shape inside his Core.

True to her word, Akasha was recreating the Spellform they had designed perfectly. It was a marvelous sight. Zeke doubted there was a single living Mage that could mirror this accomplishment. This was not something a human could do.

Truth be told, their new creation straddled the line between a spell and a Ritual in terms of complexity. Given enough time, he might be able to refine the pattern and get rid of a lot of redundancies, but this was the best he could do for now.

While Akasha was working on the Spellform, Zeke had to provide the required Mana. Fortunately, his perfect affinity made this task rather easy. With a conversion rate of over 90%, he could turn ambient Mana into Blood Mana effortlessly.

Soon, the Spellform had taken shape, signaling the end of Akasha’s part. Zeke immediately took control of the Mana and started to imbue his Intent. He had thought long and hard about what kind of mental image he was supposed to Imbue into the Spell to make it work. What he had finally landed on was the picture of a funnel connected to a formless blob.

This was the solution he arrived at after considering all possibilities. In his opinion, the spell would certainly fail if he tried to Imbue something like the image of a Dragon being summoned. After all, the purpose of this spell wasn’t to create a Dragon but to connect a Soul with Mana that was primed to take its shape.

After Zeke Imbued this carefully constructed image into the Spellform, he took one last breath before casting it. At this point, his Core was hurting quite a lot. He had already held the Mana in his Core for far too long. Nonetheless, he paid the stinging sensation no mind as he watched his Core with rapt attention.

After a moment of wobbling, the Spellform solidified, causing Zeke to break out in a smile. This meant that their creation didn’t contain any major flaws and could be considered a working spell. Even so, this didn’t mean that he had succeeded in casting the spell, merely that the spell was serviceable. What really mattered was the part that came next.

Zeke raised his palms and pointed them forward. His blood gushed out in streams and weightlessly gathered in a floating puddle in front of him. The amount of lost blood made his arms go paler by a shade. Still, this much wasn’t enough to be actually burdensome to Zeke. The amount he carried in his body was over twice what any normal person could carry at this point.

He didn’t even pay any attention to the blood that was still dripping from his hands. His gaze was solely focused on the amorphous blob of blood in front of him. He had felt the Dragon’s Soul passing through his spell and hoped that everything would work out.

After a long moment of stillness, the blood twitched. It twitched once, then a second time, and before Zeke knew it, violent changes were happening to the puddle of blood. It was rapidly shifting, trying to take a certain shape but failing at the last stage. It was a strange sight. It almost looked like a sanguine figure that was melting into blood only to recreate itself again.

However, after a while, the once energetic liquid grew lethargic. It was then that Zeke knew the spell would fail. True to his expectations, the blood splattered on the floor soon after and he felt the Dragon’s Soul return.

Contrary to his expectation, the Dragon was neither dejected nor angry. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Its voice was ecstatic as it spoke right away. “I was so close, fleshling! Just a bit more and I would have done it, but the Mana ran out.”

Zeke couldn’t help but smile. This was the first time he had seen the Dragon get excited about anything. “Let’s make a few adjustments and try again. I’m certain we’ll figure this out in no time.”

 

***

 

In a once lavishly decorated room, a young man with dark brown hair sat cross-legged. He had been informed they would arrive in the capital the next morning, marking this as the last day of their journey. However, at the moment he didn’t care about any of that.

His face was pale and gaunt, and his eyes were bloodshot. His palms were riddled with cuts, fresh and old alike. On top of that, his surroundings were entirely covered in blood. The sight was a far cry from a week ago. The only thing that hadn’t changed was the look of determination in his eyes.

At the moment, Zeke was using the spell [Blood Generation] to regain enough Blood for another attempt. At this point, they had tried the summoning hundreds of times, spilling Zeke’s blood reserves many times over. However, he was certain they would succeed this time.

The moment his pale face regained a bit of color, he immediately stopped the spell. “It’s time.”

Neither the Dragon nor Akasha responded and they didn’t have to. The three had gotten used to working together and knew what they had to do even without having to be told. Akasha immediately started on their latest version of the spell, while Zeke provided the Mana.

Soon after, he took over and started to Imbue his intent. A few dozen iterations ago, he had started to use an incantation to further solidify his mental image. After all this time, the words came to his lips without him even having to think.

“Soul to Blood, give form to will,
Lend a shape, with strength to spill.

Blood Manifestation!”

The same scene from a week ago repeated. However, this time, the blood was already shifting violently before it had even gathered. From within the red stream, a transformation began to unfold. The blood, as if guided by an unseen force, started to congeal, taking on a fluid form.

As the liquid serpent writhed and swirled, it started to grow and elongate. Its form took on a distinctly reptilian shape, with scales glistening like rubies. It unfurled a pair of tiny, delicate wings, their leathery membranes reflecting the ambient light with a sanguine brilliance. The dragon's eyes, once formless, began to gleam like two tiny embers within its serpentine head, and it emitted a soft, melodic hum.

With each further shift, the miniature dragon took on a more intricate and detailed form, as if it were a sculpture coming to life. It stretched its wings, creating ripples in the blood around it, and let out a tiny, otherworldly roar. It was a mesmerizing sight, a living creature, birthed from a stream of blood.

Zeke’s eyes met the Dragon’s, and the world seemed to freeze. Then, slowly, a wide smile spread across Zeke’s face. His haggard countenance displayed a rarely seen delight as he looked at the small creature in front of him.

“Congratulations…” was all Zeke managed to say before toppling to the ground. His body’s condition had finally caught up with him. Staying awake for days on end while bleeding himself dry over and over again had taken its toll. And it was finally time to pay the price for his recklessness. However, even in his unconscious state, with his body shivering from excessive blood loss, that same smile was still on his lips.

The tiny Dragon took in the sight. He didn’t move a muscle as he wordlessly watched the boy lying on the floor. Its slitted pupils took in the boy’s gaunt face, his haggard body, and his scarred, bleeding palms. Nobody knew better than the Dragon how much Zeke had suffered over the past days to make this spell come true.

Then it turned its sinuous neck to inspect its own body. While small and temporary there was a lot of power hidden in its form. Zeke had used his own blood to create this form, giving it more power than any creature of its size had any right to possess. With a casual swipe of a claw, it tore an iron candle holder to pieces, but that was the extent of its experiments. This body could sustain itself for hours if it conserved its strength and the Dragon was determined to savor every second of that.

Its eyes sparkled with delight as it took a deep breath, savoring the taste of the air for the first time in millennia. It smelled of blood and sweat, but the Dragon didn’t mind. It had finally gotten a reprieve from its constant state of senselessness after all this time. It felt like being reborn.

Its gaze returned to the boy. After another moment of silence, it opened its maw. Its voice, usually a deep rumble, sounded more like the purring of a cat now. Even so, each word was dripping with solemnity and dignity unbefitting of its stature and tone.

“I will not forget this favor, Ezekiel von Hohenheim. On this, you have my word.”