CLAIMED

54

"I'm sorry I made you worried." The second Kazan regained consciousness, he briefly smiled and caressed the cheeks of Leah, who was lying next to him on his hospital bed.

You see, unleashing that powerful magic attack against Damari and company in that violent exchange was no easy feat. Not only did it rupture Kazan's inside, but it also burned off over a hundred years of his life force just to do it. Luckily, Damari and company decided to leave instead of continuing the battle, or else who knows how it would have turned out?

"You darn fool," Leah said with tears in her eyes. For the past twenty-four hours while Kazan was unconscious, she's been by his side. Obviously, she was greatly worried about the critical condition he was in right now. You see, despite being miles apart from the pup during the ending phase of the battle between him and those old monsters of the Emerald Ace pack, she was fully aware of the physical and spiritual damage Kazan took using that magic attack on the enemy via their connection. In fact, she thought the pup was going to die in the process and rushed to the scene. Fortunately, when she arrived there, he was still alive but had lost consciousness, and as for the enemies, they left in a pitiful condition. But what about the next time this pup decides to do something this crazy? "You could have died."

"Yes, probably," Kazan replied with brief and painful laughter. Due to the severity of his condition, it hurts when he breathes. And even more so when he sits up.

Leah felt the need to punch him, but she might just end up killing him; that's how fragile Kazan was right now, hence she refrained from doing so. "Promise me you will never do anything like that again."

Kazan remained silent for a while before saying, "I'm sorry, babe. But I—"

"Don't give me that crap," Leah roared. "If you die, I won't forgive you."

"Well, it's a good thing that I didn't die earlier then," Kazan joked, stroking her hair. However, Leah didn't find it funny. She just rolled her eyes and sighed heavily. And so Kazan decided to change the conversation. "How are things currently on the battle field?"

"It's not good." Leah took a deep breath before answering. "The enemy has gathered twice the forces they had on the first day of the war. Several territories have been lost in the violent battles, which are still taking place as we speak. And if it wasn't for Silvio's army holding them back, they might have made it here to the capital city already."

"Did they manage to evacuate all the civilians in those areas to safety?" Kazan asked, fearing that the answer he would get would be disturbing.

"Not all," Leah answered. "According to the report I've received, several thousand civilians have perished in the invasion, and a few thousand have been taken captive by the enemy."

"I see." Kazan clenched his fist tightly and closed his eyes to suppress the anger in his heart for now. Though he had anticipated that a lot of deaths would take place in this war, it doesn't make it any easier when death actually takes place. This is all his fault. Because of his own selfishness, it's costing the lives of his people. Innocent civilians.

Leah, who sensed the turmoil within Kazan's heart, gently took hold of his face to look him in the eyes and said, "I know it hurts, and it's probably not going to get any easier. But stop blaming yourself for this. It won't change anything."

"You are right," Kazan replied after taking a deep breath. "You know, I was planning to wait on the solar eclipse tomorrow to do the Violet Swan bloodline fusion technique, but at the rate of how things are escalating, I'm afraid my pack will be annihilated before then. Therefore, I have no other choice but to resort to another method."

"What other method? What are you planning to do, pup?" Leah was curious and a bit worried that Kazan was about to do something stupid.

"I'm going to use another source of energy to replace the immense energy provided by the solar eclipse to make it possible for us to fuse right now."

"And where will you find this other source?"

"Me," Kazan answered.

"You?" Leah furrowed her brow. "No. I don't like the sound of that. I won't let you do it."

"There is no other way."

"No," Leah said. "If this other method was safe, then you would have done it yesterday evening when you found out about this fusion technique."

"My people are being slaughtered. Silvio and the others are out on the battlefields, sacrificing their lives for us. For you," Kazan said. "It's only fair that I do everything in my power to keep you and my people safe. Even if it cost me my life."

Leah didn't like this, but feelings aside, she knew the pup was right, and at the rate of their conversation, the pup would do whatever he wanted despite her being against his dangerous intentions. It's time like these that she missed the days when she could force him to do as she will.

"Ok, how will we do this?" She got off his bed, turned her back, closed her eyes, and clenched her fist before saying.

"I will use up the massive energy stored within Nathaniel's core embedded in me along with nature as the source of energy to do this." Kazan gave a simple explanation of what he had in mind. "As you already decipher, there is a great risk to doing this. But if I manage to successfully complete our fusion before I burn up all my life force, then it will be a great win for us."

"Just so you know, you saying that just makes me hate this plan of yours even more."

"I know." Kazan appeared behind her, hugging her waist and whispering in her ears. "But—"

"Enough, let's just get this over with and done," Leah interrupted.

"Alright." Kazan began the process of fusion. He started to charge Nathaniel's magic core to the max while absorbing nature's energy, causing a bright light to envelop them both, then the whole room.