Chapter 417: THE RELIC OVERLOAD AND THE ENDLESS POOL

Night fell over the northern plains as colossal Zaira tore through the cold mountain winds, leaving the southern desert far behind.

Her giant armored scales scraped against granite boulders, throwing sparks into the darkness as she raced toward Galka War Academy at maximum speed.

High on her neck, Sagiri gripped the reins with trembling fingers, his vision blurring as waves of unbearable heat washed through his chest.

The physical blowback that had been building inside his mortal vessel for days was finally erupting with devastating force.

His veins burned beneath his skin like molten copper, glowing with erratic pulses of dark crimson and crackling silver energy.

Sagiri leaned forward over Zaira’s scales and coughed violently, spitting a thick spray of black obsidian blood onto the cold wind.

The blood hissed as it hit the air, evaporating into thin plumes of dark smoke before disappearing into the night.

Inside his spiritual core, a catastrophic storm was raging between the immense primordial power of the absorbed relics and his damaged cellular pathways.

The violent extraction array in the underground facility had brought him to the brink of death, tearing his soul matrix open.

Immediately after that, he had endured the lethal duel against Kiana, taking her silver void needles into his shoulder and absorbing foreign void energy.

Without taking a single day to rest or meditate, he had crossed hundreds of miles, buried Rika, faced the council, and pushed his limits to the absolute edge.

Now, his mortal body could no longer contain the colliding forces, and his internal organs were beginning to tear apart under the pressure.

Zaira let out a low, distressed hiss as she felt her master’s body growing burning hot against her scales.

She lowered her massive head and increased her speed, crashing through pine forests and leaping across rocky ravines without slowing down.

By midnight, the towering stone walls and iron watchtowers of Galka War Academy loomed ahead beneath the cold northern stars.

The academy was alive with torchlight and activity as senior instructors and remaining cadets fortified the perimeter against the looming northern invasion.

A lookout on the outer wall blew an alarm horn as the colossal shadow of the mountain serpent crested the perimeter trench.

"Hold your fire!" an instructor shouted from the battlements, recognizing the massive titan serpent. "It is the Keeper!"

The heavy iron gates of the central courtyard swung open just in time for Zaira to slide heavily across the stone pavement, kicking up clouds of dust and gravel.

Senior instructors and medical officers in blue tunics rushed out of the main hall, carrying lanterns and healing supplies.

Sagiri released the reins and slid down from Zaira’s brow, but his legs gave out the moment his boots hit the stone floor.

He dropped onto one knee, his left hand slamming against the flagstones to keep from collapsing completely.

Dark energy flared wildly around his shoulders, while cracks of silver void lightning snapped across his collarbone and neck.

"Keeper!" an older instructor shouted, rushing forward with a jar of soothing herbal salve. "You are bleeding from your eyes and mouth! Let our healers treat you!"

"Stay back!" Sagiri gasped, his voice hoarse and raw as he raised his trembling right hand.

"Mortal medicine... cannot stop this," Sagiri gritted his teeth, feeling his spiritual pathways rupturing like overstretched iron chains.

"Clear the way to the central pentagon," Sagiri ordered, pushing himself to his feet through sheer willpower. "I must reach the Endless Pool... now."

The instructors looked at the black blood dripping from his chin and the terrifying aura radiating from his body, their faces pale with shock.

Without another word, two senior guards turned and threw open the heavy reinforced iron doors leading down into the academy’s foundation.

Sagiri staggered past them into the dark corridor, his hand pressed firmly against his burning ribs with every agonizing step.

The deeper he descended into the mountain rock beneath Galka, the colder the air became, yet the fire inside his chest only grew more violent.

Every heartbeat felt like a hammer striking his cracked ribs from the inside, threatening to tear his heart to pieces.

He navigated the winding, ancient stone staircases by memory, heading deeper into the subterranean abyss where no sunlight had ever reached.

After descending hundreds of stone steps, the narrow corridor opened into a colossal underground cavern carved from solid black granite.

In the center of the cavern lay the vast, bottomless expanse of the Endless Pool.

The ancient water was completely black, still as polished obsidian, consuming the faint light of the distant torches along the upper walls.

The air in the chamber was freezing cold, thick with the heavy scent of mineral stone and primordial subterranean power.

Sagiri stumbled to the edge of the stone platform, his knees buckling as another violent wave of agony ripped through his chest.

He fell to his hands and knees, coughing another pool of black blood onto the icy stone ledge.

The black blood sizzled and burned against the cold rock, proof that his life force was rapidly unraveling from the inside out.

He looked down into the pitch-black water, feeling the faint, familiar pulse of the abyssal currents calling to his soul.

Months ago, Marshal Salka had thrown him into these same waters to purge the poisonous corruption that threatened his life.

Now, he was returning to the abyss not as a helpless student, but as the Last Keeper carrying the weight of an entire realm.

If he could not quell the raging storm of relic energy and assimilate Kiana’s void traces, his body would disintegrate before he ever reached the northern front.

"Squad 25 is fighting for their lives at Kovura Pass," Sagiri whispered to himself, his breath coming in shallow, ragged gasps.

"The South is marching... and my friends are waiting," he muttered, forcing his dual-colored eyes to open wide. "I cannot fall here."

Sagiri pushed himself up from the cold stone ledge and stood tall at the edge of the bottomless abyss.

He took one final, deep breath of the freezing underground air and leaned forward into the darkness.

Sagiri plunged headfirst into the Endless Pool, his burning body slicing cleanly through the black, glassy surface.

The shocking cold of the abyssal water hit his skin like a wall of solid ice, instantly drowning the suffocating heat around him.

He sank rapidly into the lightless depths, the heavy stone platform and the cavern ceiling vanishing into total darkness above him.

Deep within the freezing abyss, the chaotic storm of energy inside his chest flared violently in protest against the crushing water pressure.

Red and black flames erupted from his pores, boiling the water around his chest and arms into clouds of silver bubbles.

Then, deep from the bottom of the abyssal floor, the ancient waters began to respond to the Keeper’s presence.

Faint veins of luminous silver light awakened within the dark stone walls hundreds of feet below, pulsing in rhythm with Nokai’s hum.

Massive subterranean currents began to spin beneath him, rising from the abyss like giant silver serpents of pure healing energy.

The silver currents coiled tightly around Sagiri’s sinking body, binding his molten veins and holding his collapsing core together.

As the crushing pressure of the Endless Pool dragged him deeper into the dark, the excruciating battle to reforge his mortal vessel began.