"Arrghh!"

The women outside the room flinched, hearing Dorian's painful scream rip through the closed door.

A brilliant, pulsating golden light illuminated the room from within, bleeding through the door and window frames to light up the dark passageway where they stood.

Inside the room, Dorian was on one knee on the ground, his entire body trembling as he held onto Seraphina's hand with both of his.

For a good amount of time, he had been pouring his mana into Seraphina's body, counteracting the dark 'Dead Mana' inside her to the best of his ability.

Just as he had expected, the corrupting energy was fighting back with a malevolent will of its own, trying to overpower his efforts and stop him from advancing any further.

In order to push through, Dorian had to increase his mana output to a level that felt like pure self-destruction, which often led to him tearing his own spiritual flesh and muscles.

This resulted in the loud, agonized screams leaving his mouth.

It took him a while of constant, searing pain before he could fully envelop as many of the viral strains as he could.

Once he did, he immediately changed his approach.

Rather than just forcing his mana into Seraphina, he began the far more dangerous phase: pulling the corrupted energy back into his own body in small, controlled portions, careful not to overrun himself with the virus.

He made sure he was absorbing enough to neutralize but not so much that it would corrupt his own body.

[Caution: Critical exposure to Dead Mana. Abort mission advised.]

Dorian clenched his teeth, a pained growl escaping him. He could already feel the 'Dead Mana' eating away at the skin of his hands, a feeling like acid and frostbite combined.

'If I stop… she dies, right?'

[Negative. Patient survival chance drops to 50%.]

'Good. That is not a chance I am willing to take. Let's keep going.'

Dorian kept at it, his body wracked with tremors, screaming in pain with each passing moment as he drew the poison into himself. It felt like he was absorbing every single bit of her agony along with the virus.

Ever since he had taken hold of her hand and begun the process, the pained grimace on Seraphina's face had softened into a peaceful smile, even in her unconsciousness.

The grotesque virus was visibly receding from her skin.

The more Dorian absorbed, the less he could see the virus on her.

Then, after a couple of agonizing hours, he was finally done.

Dorian knelt on the ground, his body slick with sweat, staring at his damaged hands.

His skin was blistered and raw, almost as though he had dipped both arms in acid. It looked healable, but he knew it would not be something that could be cured so easily.

[Notice: Only 4% of Dead Mana remains in the target's body.]

[Daily purification will keep the numbers low and stop the virus from regaining energy and duplicating.]

Dorian smiled, a weary but triumphant expression, after seeing the message. Temporary or not, he was able to do his best for her.

"Hmph!"

Dorian managed to get back on his feet.

Fortunately for him, he still had a lot of mana within him, so he didn't have to worry about collapsing.

Instead, he moved closer to Seraphina and placed his palm on her cheek, a concerned look on his face as he wondered when she would wake up.

As the system explained, when she would wake up could not be calculated, but the moment she did, she would be thrown into her own mind to battle the dream.

There was even a chance she was already in that dream as he stared at her. All he could do was pray that she got through it.

Regardless, if she were to fail a thousand times, he would still be here to absorb the Dead Mana from her, no matter how long it takes.

He watched as Seraphina snuggled against his palm despite being asleep before he removed it and walked out the door.

…

A few moments later.

Dorian was seated on a plush, high-backed red chair in the royal office.

Maria stood at his left, a silent, armored sentinel. Ciel, in her humanoid form, stood to his right, her draconic aura barely contained.

With his legs crossed, Dorian sipped a cup of tea a maid had provided. He wore black leather gloves to cover the raw injuries on his hands.

Meanwhile, opposite where Dorian was, Revina was seated, with papers arranged on her lap.

"There. All done." Revina spoke, placing the stack of papers on the table before looking directly at Dorian. "These are all the documents you need to officially be a Duke of Lumberg. Once you sign them, it will be finalized."

Dorian stared at the paper, then right at Revina.

'I expected Alex to be the one handling this part of the discussion. But I guess after what happened, it's only normal that he wants to avoid me now.'

Dorian sighed.

He reached for the papers and, after a quick read, handed them to Maria for safekeeping.

"Also, there have been a few issues that came with the decision involving your new title. It seems the three Dukes under my command do not agree with it."

Dorian just played with his gloved fingers, seemingly unbothered by what Revina had just said.

But that didn't stop her from continuing.

"To ease their minds, I made a deal with them for you to gather votes from the Red District."

Maria reacted instantly.

"The Red District? Your Majesty, isn't that where criminals and rebels always end up? I have never been there myself, but I heard a powerful gang leader owns the entirety of the place."

"You'd be right. I have sent my soldiers countless times to contain the area, but they hide behind the civilians, and when we kill one, five more spring up. At some point, the best we could do was try to make the civilians move out from the entire place so we could work on it."

"But they refuse to do so, correct?" Dorian asked, still toying with his other hand.

"Yes. To this day, the gangs are still there. Though they don't seem to be causing any issues with anyone outside their borders, they are just beyond the reach of a simple conversation…"

"A conversation won't work on them. But a dragon is sure to put fear in their hearts. Alright, so the deal was for me to gather votes from the Red District, and then they would accept my Duke title? "

"Yes," Revina affirmed, wondering why Dorian wasn't asking more questions, like who the dukes were and whatnot.

"Then we don't have an issue. Just one more thing to do before I return home."

Revina smiled.

She knew he would accept it.

But her smile faded just as quickly as the next, more serious thought swarmed her head and left her mouth.

"Also, there is something else I would like to discuss with you. It pertains to the Evernight Witch."

Dorian's fingers stopped moving. He slowly looked up, his gaze locking with hers. "You know that name?"

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