"That was really stupid. Why would you even say that?"
Kareem asked Edoran and sighed heavily.
Edoran wondered why he said so as well. He just could not control himself.
"I don't know what got over me. I felt like I had to say it when I looked at him."
Kareem's face paled when Edoran said it. A look of disgust came over him as though he found out something horrible.
"I am sorry but can you go back to your place by yourself. I will call you a taxi to take you. I got important work."
Edoran nodded. Kareem gave him a square glass card.
"Keep this safe with you. It will come in handy for you in the future if you want to contact me."
Edoran held up the square card and saw that it had a beacon in it.
Kareem stormed back into the building with anger. He punched the button to the 14th floor on the elevator.
Jason's face tensed.
"Why are you here so soon? Did you not drop Edoran?"
"NO! What was that? Why did you make Bacchus attack Edoran's mind?"
Jason relaxed and took a sip of some coffee.p
"It was a precautionary measure. Warmonger will return someday and we need both Edoran and Tobias to stop her."
"Then why pit Edoran against Tobias. And to remind Tobias about that hellhole, you are becoming someone else, Jason."
"Enough, Kareem. You may be my protege and successor but that doesn't give you the right to criticise me. It is all planned properly. Everything will work out."
Kareem's face cringed at Jason's behavior.
"They are just children. If you do anything to them, you will no longer have my support. Remember Velcrina."
Jason's face saddened hearing the last part.
"Don't worry. I am still the Jason you know." He said in a soft voice.
Kareem left and went to the training gym to cool off. Tobias and Lily, the girl recruit, were already there.
"Bacchus is not here even today." Lily said while pouting. "Did you drop that homunculus off?"
Kareem smiled. "Yes, he should have reached his place. Tobias, are you alright now?"
Tobias was working out and lifting weights. He promptly nodded at Kareem and continued working.
Lily used her core and white fur covered her body. Two horns erupted from her head and her eyes were yellow.
She lifted every set of weights in the gym using her telekinesis and concentrated on holding it in the air for as much time as possible.
Kareem sat down and tried to meditate and not think about what had happened.
His mind kept wandering back to Jason and how he had changed ever since he killed Harold's father, Lucas.
He remembered the time he had heard Jason murmur while he napped in his office, "I am sorry. I am sorry, Velcrina."
Velcrina was the name of the warmonger.
'I have to support Jason before he falls apart. These kids too. I am the only one they can rely on now.'
Edoran finally reached Harold's house. It was already afternoon as Harold waved at him.
"I had been waiting for you. Did Jason do anything?"
"No, in fact, he gave me a pretty cool gift."
Edoran used the power of the Draconius Equus.
It began with a pulse.
A low throb in Edoran's spine, barely noticeable at first, until it tore through his nerves like a bolt of molten iron.
He doubled over, choking on his breath. His skin prickled. Muscles seized. Every joint screamed as though his bones were being bent in the wrong direction.
Then the real pain began.
Black scales burst through his skin like shards of obsidian, slicing through flesh.
Blood trickled between the cracks as the armor-like hide fused to his muscle, layer by agonizing layer. His ribs creaked and expanded as a second set of arms exploded out from his sides with a sickening wet sound, flailing before locking into place.
Edoran howled.
It wasn't a scream of fear or rage, it was the kind of sound you make when your body feels like it's being torn apart from the inside.
His wings erupted next, jagged and malformed at first, folding outward with a horrible cracking of cartilage and bone. Membranes stretched tight, like black fire-forged leather, dripping with heatless smoke.
His face split.
Not visibly, but internally, his vision doubled and tripled, then turned red and blue. Every moment in front of him became a mirrored timeline. He saw where Harold had been. Where he was going. Copies of the present layered like broken reflections, flickering with spectral energy.
The pain wasn't just physical.
It was mental, existential. Time screamed in his head. His mind wasn't built for this. The gift of the Draconius Equus came with a price, clarity that cuts.
He could see future possibilities. Too many. The branching futures tangled like thorns. Each one glared back at him, showing his death, Harold's betrayal, a version of himself laughing in fire, another kneeling in chains.
It was like standing at the edge of infinity and trying not to fall in.
Blood poured from his nose. His gums split. His heartbeat staggered under the strain, and his ears rang like church bells in a storm.
His wings flexed.
His extra arms clenched into fists.
His transformation completed, imperfectly. Black-coated, red-eyed, winged and monstrous. He looked nothing like a man.
And yet, at the core, he still was.
For now.
Then the visions collapsed inward. Time caught up with him all at once.
And Edoran dropped like a puppet with cut strings, shaking, vomiting, and barely conscious. His head felt like it had been split open with a hammer. His vision swam.
"You alright?"
Harold asked while approaching him. Edoran's face had turned green.
"Yeah I am goo-"
Edoran vomited on Harold. He could feel his throat burn.
Harold's face turned pale as he looked at his white shirt starched with filth.
"This was a new shirt."
Edoran smiled and winced as his head hurt and he felt his vision double and fe fainted.
He woke up in his bed and saw a maid standing in the corner cleaning his room.
"Ah, you woke up. Let me call master Harold."
She returned with Harold in a blue shirt. He smiled at him.
"Amazing! That old man actually gave you a tier-1 mythical savage. A Draconius Equus at that."
"You don't seem to be able to control it yet but that's why I am here. I thought of giving you only martial arts training but I am also getting you someone to help you become a better reverberator."
Edoran got up from his bed. He felt like things would finally turn for the better.
A thought entered his mind.
'What am I doing this for?'
He wondered why he had felt the urge to help Harold.
(Just follow his lead. He is the best option for you.)
A silent voice rang in his head.
'But what will I get by helping him? I don't even know what I want?'
(Exactly. Listen to him and try to exceed his expectations. He will treat you well.)
Edoran felt compelled to follow the voice's words.
Multiple voices rang through his head all singing,
(Follow, follow, follow,….)
He stopped questioning and believed that he must become the best for Harold out of his own will.
Bacchus entered Jason's office again.
'Cruel child, your great grandson is. Your granddaughter is even worse. To subject a living being with such horror, it makes me question their humanity.'
Jason smiled.
'I thought so as well when I saw my Aria butcher so many people in her thirst for power. She is not normal. She has poisoned that child, Harold too.'
'You could have stopped it but you did not. Your love for them made you turn a blind eye one too many times.'
'I know. That is my greatest regret. Did your power work on Edoran?'
'Yes but the clause is too strong. It will take some time for me to break it. It may take even a year.'
'Take as much time as you want, but succeed. Kareem seems to have noticed that you did something to Edoran's head. Make him continue to think that you are affecting Edoran's mental state rather than helping him.'
Bacchus nodded curtly.
'And about warmonger. Can you still not sense her presence?'
'No. I have searched the entirety of Greenglow. The signal seems to have been blocked by an external source.'
Jason felt worried. 'What kind of forces has she allied with to be able to block Bacchus?'
He opened the top drawer and took out an old yellowing photo. It looked like it was around 10 years old.
He sat in a chair while two cheery kids smiled at his sides. One of them was Kareem and the other was Velcrina.
His face saddened at the sight of his students as he remembered the incident.
'I will definitely protect Kareem. I won't let him go down the same path as Velcrina.'
He knew what had to be done and he was willing to do it.