The final fight is over. The dragon is dead, Sylvie is gone, Evan and Adon have escaped. And Notch is back alive.
But things aren't the same when suddenly Jubilea collapses and doesn't wake up.
Their only chance is a soul to help him stabilize. Bu...
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As the dust settled and Sylvie's lifeless body hit the rocky ground, a wave of relief swept through me. It's finally over. Adon and Evander had escaped, but they'd need new plans, now that Sylvie was gone. Notch and Jay were next to Henory, who looked about ready to double over and puke from the sudden loss in power the attack cost him. Nighty and Zeph hugged each other, Althea in their middle. Sylvie caused them the most trauma, so it was understandable that they were glad that she was out of the way. Reddie and Lea came to me, tho before I could hug them, there was a quiet thud. Xander immediately freaked out and kneeled down next to Jubilea, who had collapsed randomly. Within seconds Nighty and Notch were by his side, worried. Lea, Althea, Hazel and Cody didn't understand what just happened, and frankly, I didn't either. Sure, Henory's attack drained all of us heavily, but I'm sure Jub wasn't hit the hardest. Right...? Cody headed over and gently nudged the realm. Jub didn't show and reaction, he was completely pale and slightly sweaty. His expression was filled with pain, which was worrisome. Althea tilted her head, glancing at me. "Is he going to be okay, uncle Hero?", she asked softly. I hesitated a bit. "I'm not too sure, kid...", I mumbled. To my surprise she merely nodded, understanding. The kids grew so much more than we thought with Shadow and Jerry teaching them while we were gone, they weren't the naive toddlers anymore that we thought they were. Lea checked Jub's pulse, curious. "Is the pulse of an incubus usually a bit slower than ours?", she asked Nighty. The Shadow demon nodded slowly, deep in thoughts. "Sometimes their heart rate reaches a low of 30 beats per minute.", he replied. "Extremely low, but plenty to survive on." Hazel hid behind Henory, quietly watching the entire situation. She was incredibly uneasy, not aware of what was going on. Her adoptive father looked sick after using a majority of his energy on murdering Sylvie, and the person that taught her a lot and spoilt her, thus becoming her favorite, was fully unconscious on the ground. Nighty carefully picked up Jub, staying careful to not hurt or drop the realm. Jub was fully limp in his arms, it was a terrifying sight. "We need to get home. I don't know what's going on right now, but it's not good at all, so we need to go before it gets worse.", he explained, his voice strained to prevent any sort of panic slipping through while he talked. We nodded and gathered ourselves and everything we brought, leaning this place. Luckily we were able to teleport away from here, so bringing us home was easy and quick. Xander refused to leave Nighty's and Jubilea's side, not wanting to get separated from his partner, in case anything happened. Completely understandable honestly, I'd do exactly the same if this was Reddie who got hurt. Then again, I'm overly attached to him, so that was just normal for me. Once at home Nighty brought Jubilea into a guest room. Xander stayed on his tail, waiting until he gently placed him down on the bed inside before snatching a chair and sitting down next to him. Nighty didn't complain, he was more concerned with Jub's current state that with Xander pulling some shit. I went to them to assist Nighty. Reddie stayed with the others, taking care of the children with Jerry and Shadow. The demon quietly performed an outer checkup on the wounds Sylvie caused to figure out if they were the reason for the sudden collapse. A bit irritated he shook his head after a while. "What's going on?", I asked. Nighty sighed and scratched the back of his neck. "The injuries didn't cause his collapse. It must've been something else, but I'm unsure what actually did cause it.", "Maybe he used too much power?" "I doubt that.", Nighty mumbled, shaking his head. "He barely used anything. Those few attacks were nothing for him, the only person that used enough energy to basically overpower Jub was..." "Henory.", I interrupted. "Could it be that he accidentally took too much of Jub's power? Sometimes, if that happens, people tend to collapse. Others die if it's too much, but most just go unconscious." He started thinking, considering that option. "Well, it's possible.", he mumbled finally. "The attack was extremely strong, taking just a bit of energy from everyone would not have caused that sort of strength, even if he put all of his own into it. There had to have been a bigger source. So either he leeched off of Sylvie herself, he acted as a magnifying glass to concentrate all of the power onto one spot, or he did actually go straight for Jub's powers and took a lot more from him than from us since he doesn't have a limit at which his body will give in. At least not while it's in use, afterwards that's an entirely different story." "And what do we do about that now?", Xander asked, really worried. He held Jub's hand, scared that he could lose it. I thought a bit before looking down at my necklace. "We can put a filled soul gem onto him. The power of the filled soul inside should actively get absorbed by his body, right?", I asked. Nighty shook his head. "Issue is he has a soul. You don't." "What's that supposed to mean?" "It means, that if we accidentally give him power from the wrong soul, he'll go insane. Plus I don't know if a realm soul is capable of taking in a different souls' power and be fine afterwards. You on the other hand are fine with any kind of power. The remains of your soul take them and just use them, refusing to check which sort of soul it is because you already were a villain in the past." I slowly nodded, calming down. "Thought you wanted to insult me there.", I mumbled. "Oh please, you know I can do that better, flashlight eyes.", Nighty hummed. I gasped in offense and was about to shoot back when Xander whined. "Worth a shot or no?", he asked. We paused a bit before Nighty sighed. "I suppose one try shouldn't hurt, we just gotta be careful with the soul.", he finally agreed. Xander cheered up at that and looked at his husband's unmoving form. "We're gonna help you, hunny. Promise."
