Godslayer's Legacy: THE PATH TO SUPREMACY

The airship trembled in the fractured sky, its stabilizers screaming under the strain of the gravitational pull radiating from the Abyssal Scar below. Faint vibrations rippled through the hull as the aftermath of Rui's final strike still clung stubbornly to the air.

Inside, Kovar ran.

His boots slammed against the grated floor of the narrow corridor, each step sharp and frantic. His glass dome glowed with cascading streams of crimson data warnings, flickering erratically with each heartbeat.

"Hold on, Rui. Hold on."

When the doors to the medical bay hissed open, Kovar stumbled inside, his breath ragged as his glass dome cast faint reflections against the sterile walls.

And there Rui lay.

Fragile. Motionless. His black tunic hung in tatters over trembling shoulders, streaked with blood and silver ash. His pale face was carved with faint crimson rivers that had run from beneath his closed eyes. His chest barely rose with each shallow breath.

The faint glow of his cracked mana core, barely visible beneath the damaged fabric, flickered dimly—unstable, like a dying star fighting against the void.

Around him, holographic diagnostic glyphs pulsed with crimson urgency.

Core integrity: 2.3%.

Mana collapse: Imminent.

Life signs: Critical.

Kovar froze for a heartbeat, his chest rising and falling in sharp, uneven breaths. His gloved hands hovered over Rui's chest, trembling—not with hesitation, but with the crushing weight of the impossible.

"You brilliant, reckless… impossible boy."

The words barely escaped him, cracked and raw, before his glass dome flared with a flood of diagnostic data.

"Focus. Focus!"

His hands moved. Fast. Precise. His fingers danced across the glowing glyphs as he barked orders at the ship's AI.

"Deploy primary mana infusion lines! Override safety limiters! Prepare stasis reinforcement protocol—NOW!"

The ceiling above the slab hissed sharply as mana infusion tubes descended, locking into the ports along the edges of Rui's medical slab. Streams of translucent blue liquid began to flow into Rui's shattered pathways, threading faintly beneath his pale skin.

His body arched faintly, trembling as silver light flickered weakly across his cracked veins.

The glyphs flared violently.

Mana rejection detected. Core leakage critical.

Kovar's teeth clenched audibly as his gloved fists slammed against the edge of the slab.

"It's leaking faster than I can stabilize it. His core is cracked—it can't hold the flow."

His eyes darted to the reinforced cabinet embedded in the bay's wall. With a sharp hiss, it slid open, revealing rows of serums and crystalline syringes, each humming faintly with arcane potency.

He grabbed three vials, his gloved hands trembling as he read their etched labels:

Starheart Elixir (Core Stabilization Catalyst) – A volatile serum designed to force mana cohesion within a fractured core.

Veinbinder Draught (Pathway Restoration Agent) – Repairs ruptured mana veins, though at a cost of immense physical strain.

Eidolon's Mercy (Experimental Mana Conductor) – A volatile, untested serum said to fuse raw mana directly into living tissue, bypassing natural pathways entirely. Whispers among scholars claim it can force an awakening in even the most inert, shattered, or dormant mana cores—at the cost of unimaginable strain on the body and soul.

Kovar hesitated on the final vial, the Eidolon's Mercy, as the violet liquid swirled faintly inside its crystalline casing.

"This could destroy him. Or… it could buy him time."

His jaw set like iron.

"Override medical safety protocols. Prepare multi-serum infusion grid!"

"Warning," the AI responded. "Compound instability detected. Risk of core rupture and systemic failure—"

"Override!" Kovar roared, his voice trembling with raw desperation. "Do it!"

The injector arms hissed as the serums were locked into place, their crystalline needles aligning with Rui's trembling form.

"Administering compound sequence," the AI announced coldly.

The slab vibrated faintly. The first vial, Starheart Elixir, hissed as it flooded into Rui's veins.

His chest arched violently, his cracked core flaring with bright silver light. Thin lines of molten light spiderwebbed across his torso, trembling faintly as they stitched themselves across the fractures in his core.

The second vial, Veinbinder Draught, hissed into his bloodstream next.

Rui's body convulsed as the mana pathways across his skin glowed faintly with arcs of silver lightning, the ruptured veins in his arms and neck trembling as they tried to realign.

Finally, the third vial—Eidolon's Mercy—was injected.

The violet liquid flared brilliantly as it flowed through Rui's pathways, sinking deep into his shattered mana core like molten glass being poured into fractured stone.

Kovar clenched his fists so tightly his gloves creaked under the strain.

The glyphs above flickered violently. Red. Yellow. Amber. Red.

For one breathless moment, Rui's body went still.

The medical slab fell silent. The faint hum of mana ceased.

"No. No, no, no—"

And then—

A pulse.

Faint. But undeniable.

Rui's cracked core flickered once, twice—then stabilized into a faint, trembling glow.

The diagnostic glyphs shifted.

Core integrity: 14%.

Mana pathways: Functional (unstable).

Life signs: Stabilized (critical).

Kovar stumbled backward, bracing himself against the wall as his glass dome dimmed faintly. His breathing came in sharp gasps, his shoulders trembling.

It wasn't a cure. It wasn't even a fix.

But it was something.

Rui's breathing was faint but steady, his chest rising and falling in shallow tremors. His silver veins glowed weakly beneath his pale skin, flickering in faint arcs of light.

Kovar stepped forward, his gloved hand hovering over Rui's chest.

"You're still here…" he whispered. His voice cracked faintly, and his glass dome glowed with a faint reflection of Rui's flickering light. "You stubborn, impossible boy… you're still here."

But Kovar's gaze flicked back to the diagnostic glyphs. Every reading screamed the same silent truth: this was temporary.

The cracks were still there. The foundation was too fragile.

His voice dropped to a whisper, heavy with unspoken promises.

"I'll fix this. I'll find a way, Rui. Whatever it takes."

---

The sky above the chasm began to lighten as dawn bled faint streaks of lavender and gold across the fractured clouds.

Below, the Abyssal Scar remained—a hollow wound carved into the world.

And high above, the airship hovered silently, its stabilizers flickering faintly against the dawn light.

Inside, Kovar remained by Rui's side, his head bowed, his gloved hand resting lightly on the boy's shoulder.

The faint hum of mana continued to pulse softly through the stabilization conduits.

And for now, Rui slept.

Alive.

But time was running out.