Xavier could no longer feel anything from the other version of himself, but he knew that version of himself would currently be panicking.

  He knew that, because he was panicking.

  Xavier had never heard of a spell that ejected one’s spirit from their body! How in the world was he supposed to deal with something like that?

  Apparently, the other version of himself already knew. While Xavier, as the observer, was panicking, this other version had acted.

  He’d cast Soul Born, infusing his spirit with Soul Energy. Xavier hadn’t even realised that he would still be able to use any spell while he was ejected from his body, but apparently this other version of him didn’t need to know to try.

  He flew through the air on wings more translucent than that of Volkarin’s when the dragon spirit was in the Mortal Realm.

  Xavier feared he wouldn’t be swift enough.

  The Skeletal Dragon had whirled around in the air tremendously fast. It opened its giant more and chomped its massive yellowing teeth at Xavier’s body—which, without someone driving it, was tumbling down through the air.

  The Skeletal Dragon caught Xavier’s body, its teeth sinking into his flesh, easily cutting through his robes. Blood poured from the wound and something cracked. Actually, several somethings cracked.

  Xavier winced at the sight of what was happening to him, but that other version of him soared ever faster, his spirit suffused with ever more soul energy.

  The instant he reached his own body, his spirit snapped back into it.

  Xavier watched in mute fascination as notifications rapidly appeared in his vision.

  Your health is at 50%!

  Your health is at 30%!

  Your health is at 5%!

  The other version of him was trapped inside the giant maw of the skeletal dragon. The dragon’s attack had rendered him completely useless, even though it had only worked for the short period of time it had taken him to return to his body.

  That was when Xavier felt the next spell being used—Chronomantic Mindforge.

  Xavier knew this was a last-ditch effort. He had thoroughly field-tested Chronomantic Mindforge, and while he was able to get a hold of some C Grade enemies, he’d only managed it on those below a certain threshold of power.

  He couldn’t imagine being able to do it against something this powerful.

  But what other choice did he have?

  Something else happened as the spell was being cast—it was infused with power. With Soul Energy.

  Xavier had quickly discovered that Soul Energy was something that could be infused into every spell that he possessed. It was an incredibly powerful amplifier, one that made him far stronger than without it. But there was a cost to using Soul Energy, one that hadn’t been quite clear in the description of the spell.

  The spell had mentioned that Soul Energy was a finite resource.

  What it hadn’t mentioned was the more one used it, the more they weakened their own soul. And if the soul was weakened enough…

  Death would come for him.

  Once he had discovered this, Xavier had kept a tight hold on exactly how much Soul Energy he used in his spells. He always ensured that he used the energy wisely.

  And he was slowly learning how to renew that energy.

  This other version of Xavier had thrown as much his Soul Energy as he could into this one spell.

  The Skeletal dragon and the young dragonkin froze, along with everything around them. The only thing that still turned was the other version of Xavier’s mind—and Xavier’s mind along with it.

  In that moment, the other Xavier inflicted his will upon the dragon, taking over his mind. Xavier the observer would have been holding his breath if he were currently in a state where that was something he could actually do.

  It took barely an instant for the spell to work, and yet that moment seemed to stretch on for an age.

  The C Grade’s mind was breached.

  Chronomantic Mindforge had one main function—to draw energy in from an enemy while it was being mind-controlled.

  But there was more to the spell than simply that.

  Xavier had found that it had the ability to weaken an enemy’s mind. The mind control was so strong that it left cracks in the enemy’s mental walls. Cracks that could be taken advantage of the moment the spell ended and time began to move forward again.

  Currently, the other version of Xavier was still being chomped down on by the dragon. He was stuck, with teeth sinking deeply into his flesh, the pain so immense and acute that it threatened to overwhelm all of his senses.

  Except in this frozen moment, where only his mind turned.

  Xavier watched.

  Energy flowed forth from the dragon and was sucked directly into Xavier’s body. More and more energy kept coming from the beast, to the point where Xavier knew that if the other version of himself didn’t flush some of that energy it would overwhelm him and all of his cores.

  The power this beast wields…

  The spell ended in a flash when the Skeletal Dragon was able to exert control over its own mind once more. In the few days that he’d had this spell and practised it in the great forest of this floor, he’d never seen something like that happen.

  The energy from the dragon stopped flowing into Xavier and time began to move forward once more.

  The pain returned. Somehow, it was even worse than before.

  He’s going to die.

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  The Skeletal Dragon chomped.

  Xavier’s health dipped lower and lower. He cast several spells, one after another.

  Soul Sacrifice!

  Spirit Break!

  Willpower Infusion!

  Those few spells turned the fight around.

  The dragon was powerful, that much was true—but it was yet to feel the full might of Xavier’s strength.

  The beast may have been able to exert control over its mind once more after the Chronomantic Mindforge attack, but there were cracks in the armour that was its mental walls. Cracks that the other version of himself worsened with the use of Spirit Break.

  Casting Spirit Break alone was enough for the beast to rear back. Spirit Break was a multi-pronged attack—it hit the body, mind, and spirit simultaneously.

  But this beast was more spirit than anything else, and it was clear that was where the damage lay.

  Each of these spells had Soul Energy infused into them, to the point where Xavier was beginning to worry about this other version of himself.

  He’s using too much.

  The other version of him, suddenly free of the Skeletal Dragon’s giant maw, was able to regain control of his flight, his wings catching him in the air. His body was a mangled mess of pain, wounds, and broken bones.

  Xavier inwardly winced as this version of himself reinforced every inch of his body with Soul Energy, cycling it with his Body Cultivation spell. Xavier felt for the reserve deep within him—the reserve that was his soul.

  He wished he could communicate with the other version of himself. Something primal had clearly taken over when he’d been close to death.

  He’s going to burn himself out!

  A bridge to the Otherworld had formed. The other version of him had sacrificed over two thousand souls when using Soul Sacrifice. This attracted the most powerful of the spirits he could—though once again, Volkarin was not among them.

  As Chronomantic Mindforge and Spirit Break had served to weaken the Skeletal Dragon’s mind, Willpower Infusion was able to break through the mental walls completely.

  For a brief moment, Xavier was in full control of his enemy.

  Core Burn!

  Xavier wasn’t sure how much energy the beast had left to burn—but the less the better.

  That was another trick he’d learnt when practising with Chronomantic Mindforge. Not only did it weaken an enemy’s mind, it also took enough of their energy from them that it softened them for Core Burn.

  Making it easier for them to kill themselves from the inside out.

  But this wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill C Grade beast that Xavier was facing. This was a Skeletal Dragon of a higher level than The Nightmare.

  It fought back, once more breaking Xavier’s mental control of it. The Core Burn attack fizzled, burning through what must have been only a fraction of the dragon’s remaining energy. The spirits that flowed from the Otherworld and attacked the Skeletal Dragon were like gnats on a wolf.

  Annoying, but ultimately nothing more than a nuisance.

  And this dragon wasn’t even the main event. Wasn’t even the main enemy that Xavier had come here to face.

  It was simply the opening act.

  The raid group that came to face this beast… they hadn’t been able to defeat it. If they did, it wouldn’t still be here.

  Xavier watched on in despair as the other version of himself fought with everything he had. He slipped through a portal and appeared a mile away, then cast Time Alteration. Within that bubble, wounds were tended to, healing potions were devoured, and time slowly passed.

  Enough of it for that other version of him to regain his bearings.

  He’d brought the time dilation field into existence high up in the air, where he’d come through the portal, but had carved it back down to the ground. He sat on a cushion of snow on a large plateau atop the mountain’s peak. While there, he fell into a deep meditative state.

  The man’s Soul Energy was almost depleted. It was so close to being gone that he wouldn’t be able to use Soul Born again.

  And there was something else. A notification that he hadn’t attended to. One Xavier hadn’t noticed during the battle, but one that he most definitely noticed now.

  You are suffering from Soul Sickness. Soul Sickness occurs when one’s Soul Energy reserve is almost depleted. This status effect is temporary and requires a great deal of rest to recover from.

  Soul Sickness will cause all of your cores to be influx and hinder your ability to cultivate energy.

  Xavier felt his eyes widen as he read that, but it only brought to attention something that had already become clear.

  His cores were leaking energy.

  This was something that had never happened before. He’d known there would be consequences to using too much of his Soul Energy, but he’d had no idea this was what those consequences would be.

  “This is bad,” the other version of Xavier said, clearly talking to him. “I can stay inside this time dilation field for as long as possible, but I don’t know how long it will take to recover from this… I became foolish, during that fight. Pushed myself too hard. Past limits we didn’t even know we had.”

  The other version of him bit his lip. “If this is the power of the Skeletal Dragon…” He looked to the cave entrance, where the other dragon lay. “Then how powerful will the Elemental Dragon be?”

  Xavier couldn’t answer him. He couldn’t say a word. Part of him wanted this other version of himself to abandon the fight—Xavier had already learnt much from this. There were things that he could do differently. Ways that he would have a better chance of defeating his enemy.

  But he knew better than to expect any version of himself to give up.

  From all that he’d experienced, it was clear that it simply wasn’t in his nature.

  Xavier wasn’t sure how much time passed within that time dilation field. He could feel the other version of himself pushing the field to its limits, extending its time for as long as possible.

  He could see the C Grade Skeletal Dragon on the other side of the field. With each hour that passed within the time bubble, the creature flew just a little bit closer. Eventually, it would make it all the way to him—them?

  Xavier inwardly sighed, wishing he could control what was happening here, and at the same time glad that he wasn’t. Glad that whatever fate would befall this other version of him wouldn’t be his fate.

  That thought made him feel tremendously guilty, but he couldn’t help feeling that way. This was the whole reason he’d summoned the Spirit of Time in the first place.

  The whole time that other version of himself sat meditating in the bubble, he was probing his Soul Energy reserve, trying to do everything he could do bring more energy into it. But Soul Energy wasn’t like the other types of energy—it wasn’t, as far as Xavier could tell, something that could be cultivated.

  Not in the way that other energies could. Not that he had discovered yet.

  Soul Energy came from the soul. It was as though the soul’s very existence generated the stuff. Creating more of it was something that needed time, not sheer force of will, and even though Xavier was inside of a time dilation field, it seemed as though the time passing inside of it wasn’t enough.

  He had been using Soul Energy far too liberally.

  He felt a trickle of Soul Energy enter his reserve, but he knew that it wasn’t enough. He did a rough calculation of how much longer the time dilation field would last, and the rate Soul Energy was being created…

  It would take months to bring the Soul Energy reserve back to what it once was…

  He didn’t know how much Soul Energy he would need to no longer be suffering from Soul Sickness, but it was clear that his entire body was weakened. His normal cultivation had been stunted, and it was difficult for him to hold onto the energy in his cores.

  This was something he didn’t know how to address.

  How can he fight like this?

  Finally, after what must have been weeks inside of that time dilation field had passed, the other version of himself stood up.

  The Soul Sickness wasn’t healed. His cores remained the same. The damage that he had done to himself… It was something profound.

  The Skeletal Dragon was closer now. In the weeks that had passed within the time dilation field, the dragon had managed to travel the mile distance that Xavier had been away from it. Xavier could have carved the time dilation field away, to move it somewhere further, but that wasn’t something he was able to do. He didn’t have enough energy left in the spell—the moment he tried to alter it, it would simply bring the entire spell down.

  That would just leave him in the same place he was in right now.

  “I’m sorry,” the other version of him said. “I don’t think I can do this.” He hung his head in evident shame. “I’m going to have to abandon this fight.”

  Xavier didn’t need to feel the man’s thought or know his emotions to know how giving up on a fight must feel. It wasn’t as though he couldn’t come back to this fight, but there was something pushing him away from this floor—the threat that the barkeep had spoken to him about.

  He didn’t know what this version of himself would choose to do, and with the Skeletal Dragon so close to the time bubble—so close that he would be on him in an instant when the bubble fell—Xavier knew the other version of him would need to move fast to get out of this mess.

  Xavier didn’t want to see what happened next. It didn’t matter anymore. He was able to cut off the unfolding and return to the pocket of frozen time that he shared with the Spirit of Time.

  The woman raised her chin and looked over at him. Another unfolding? The question came, but it was clear the spirit knew the answer to that.

  Xavier took a moment to think through everything that had just happened in that previous fight.

  Then he nodded.

  Another unfolding.

  Accidental Champion!

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