With a shooting-star-like speed, the dragon reached us.

But as it traversed the thick layer of fog around us, which suddenly turned black, acting as some sort of Hanti-magic barrier, her breath was nullified.

We were left completely unharmed by the unending stream of fire.

Stancing myself.

My missing arms were replaced by ones made of the same foggy substance.

In these new hands, a long, pure jet-black lance appeared.

For the second time in years, I used that magic, and the taxing price of using it could already be felt, but I simply ignored it.

"Heon, it's been a pleasure to meet you in this life, and may we meet again in the next, but before we part ways, let us enjoy our last ride together."

Which one of us uttered those words, I couldn’t tell anymore, but the moment these words came out, something happened.

Below me, a giant dazzling white wolf-like figure appeared, immediately causing me to rise upon its back.

The wolf-like figure resembled Heon’s figure, but I knew very well that it wasn’t her.

This was merely what we grew to call a vessel.

What are vessels?

Today, I finally have an answer. Vessels are what I truly am within, beyond this physical flesh, an external extension of my own soul made corporeal.

This was only made possible because of my third magic: the capability to control and expend my soul.

In short, by no means, was this Heon.

But still, the fact that Heon still lives somewhere eased my heart.

Keeping a firm grip on the lance,

Howling a loud howl, the wolf-like vessel I was riding upon, got itself on its mark, before, like bright shooting stars, charging through the dragon’s still streaming breath.

With the tip of my lance thrust forward, I jousted forward toward the dragon. In less than a breath, we breached entirely through the dragon's powerful breath attack.

Instead of going straight for the head, I slithered my way toward an area on the chest.

Infusing my mana and unleashing my first magic, a halo of black embedded in my body, thrusting my lance forward. It penetrated the dragon’skin, without decelerating. The wolf-like vessel I was riding upon kept moving forward. My lance, instead of penetrating any further within the primordial beast’s skin, simply knocked it away.

Still impaled with my lance, and with the ride still going at full speed, the dragon’s body was dragged on for kilometers at the speed of a comet.

As its body was obliterating everything on the path, the dragon let out what one would associate with a pained screech.

Incapable of doing anything, this went on for hundreds of kilometers, volcanoes, mountains, hills, everything was obliterated where we went by.

Having felt that I had inflicted enough injuries upon it, I shifted position from its chest to somewhere below its torax.

This time, instead of being dragged backward, the dragon’s body was now lifted upward, soaring high even beyond the clouds.

I kept moving upward, till the sky stopped being blue and gravity was no more.

I, being the freak that I was, was born with three magics, two of which did not require mana to be performed, but instead taxed something else that any living being would consider more precious and hardly as replaceable as mana: my soul.

Using those two magics would eventually ruin me, I knew that, but at this point, I didn’t care anymore.

My lance shifted from jet-black to a dark sanguine red, feeling that we were finally high enough in the sky to dedicate my soul, my vessels, and all its meandering extensions, regardless of the consequences. I finally let loose my second magic, completely disregarding myself. I finally unleashed my second magic.

Then, in the next instant, it happened.

Due to the heavy toll both of my magics demanded of me, my soul, as well as the wolf-like vessel I rode on, as well as what was now serving as arms, cracked to smithereens before vanishing to nothing, but before it happened completely, freed by me, an insanely powerful red explosion occurred, in which I was the epicenter.

I did not know how immense the explosion was, but the moment it was unleashed, the dragon's body completely vanished, with no shard to even consider being reborn upon.

***

Part of my body was visibly fadding away as I fell from the sky, like a meteor crashing into the Earth.

At a scorching speed, my body was falling toward the earth. I literally had no strength left. Right now, I was as strengthless and lifeless as a rock boulder. But that no longer matters to me.

"Han, you’re still there?"

In the state I was in, there was no way I could've said those words, so as always, it was once again in my head.

"Where do you want me to go?"

"Humph, fair enough."

There was silence, leaving only the sound of the wind flapping and the whistling sound of my fall to my ears.

"Say, Hon."

"Hum?"

"In the end, wasn't I a good friend and a good companion?

"Yes, you were. I would be lying to myself if I were to say you weren't. "

"I knew it."

"So what’s now?"

"What now?... To be honest, I don’t know. But does it really matter anymore to us? "

"I guess it no longer is."

Out of the blue, a stream of images flashed within my mind.

It took me some time to process it, but slowly a smile appeared on my face.

So that's what it was.

"We’ve come a long way, and I mean a very long way. We’ve been through a lot, and we've equally accomplished more than we could’ve initially envisioned. Everything ultimately led us here, but today-"

"Our long, painful but also joyous journey ends here." Before allowing what happened next to happen, I finally announced to myself.

By the time I reached the ground, my vision to dark, and my body was no more.