Nix flicked a small ck disc at Kedric, the three men at the table immediately looked up.


    Nix has activated his bloodline.


    [Second Form: Smander]


    The house and everything close to it exploded outwards in a massive release of power. Two barbed strands of emerald mes impaled Roz and Kedric, holding them in ce while they were buffeted by a chaotic storm of power and debris.


    It only took a few seconds for the inferno of destruction to settle. Nix flicked a second disc at Roz since he managed to survive the explosion.


    [Pulsar]


    Nix pumped Gemini mes into the strand holding Roz. The bandaged man instantly convulsed and started screaming.


    [Summons: Ea''Shadai]


    Shadai appeared before him, bowing low. Her new flight harness made her brim with newfound confidence. "How may I serve Nix?"


    Nix sent three more strands of Emerald mes into each of the men, the barbed tips pushedpletely through their torsos and wrapped around them. "Heal them for me, please. I need them to stay alive a bit longer."


    "You okay Beta?" Nix had noticed her when the roof blew apart with her on top of it.


    Beta dropped her stealth a few meters away. "I can''t remember thest time I made such a stupid mistake."


    "Am I in trouble? Is this about training under two different names?" He understood that someone like Beta would already know about ''Pon the Magnificent'' and Nix being the same person.


    [Pulsar: Emerald mes]


    Nix pulsed his mes into the strands that he held his captives with.


    "No. Training names are almost always made up, besides, there''s no rule against training under two separate names." Beta wore a frown on her face, each passing second found her getting angrier with herself.


    "I''ll overlook the fact that you are spying on me. The armor right? I should have known." Nix kept his eyes on Kedric while he spoke. "Time for you to go, there''s nothing more to report on here."


    Beta nodded without saying anything further and gated out. Nix waited for a minute before dropping his Smander form.


    [shde]


    Nix appeared beside Roz, one stroke of his archon de removed his head cleanly. Since he hadn''t pushed any mes into the de, a good portion of the blood sshed onto Kedric.


    "Release me at once!" Kedric''s voice trembled slightly while he pretended outrage.


    Nix pushed Ice mes into the Archon de, without warning the de darted out and removed one of Kedric''s arms. The wound instantly cauterized. "You might not recognize the ck disc I ced on you since it''s from my world.


    ck Hand: Artifact


    Description: You feel a terrifying


    hand grip your neck and hold you in


    ce. You may not gate or resurrect without


    the permission of the person who used it.


    "I''ve done nothing to you." Kedric was no longer hiding the fear he felt. Had he been in, he would have respawned in the Blood Temple.


    "Thanks foring Shadai, I''ll take it from here." Nix smiled when she bowed and summoned a wind tunnel. He waited a few moments before letting his de remove Kedric''s remaining arm.


    The Ain''Dhassi still had enough strength left to summon a blood-curdling scream, it went on for several seconds before tapering off to blubbering. "I-I was only under orders! Morana sent me here, I''m just a messenger."


    Nix nodded in agreement. "Sure, I know that." His yellow eyes stared into the red ones for several seconds. "That being said, going after Hyai... you''ve forfeited your right to exist in this world."


    "I can tell you things! Very important things about the Blood Temple and Morana." Kedric spoke fast, like someone trying to make a deal before time ran out.


    Nix let his archon de me out and pursed his lips as if considering. "Let me tell you my ns first, then you can decide how cooperative you wish to be."


    Kedric turned his head to one side and vomited blood into the wreckage. He coughed a few times, terror slowly creeping upon him. "Show me mercy and I will give you all my secrets."


    Nix smiled and knelt down on one knee. "After I remove your limbs, I''m going to bury you and that artifact deep in the ground. Vampires don''t die very easily right? I expect you''ll linger for quite some time. Between the two of us, I don''t give a shit about your secrets."


    Kedric started screaming, no longer did he bother to hold out for mercy. He had been caught by a demon, escape had be futile.


    [Whisper: Beta to Nix] None of my business, but I thought I would mention that Vampire hearts make great enhancements for crafting especially fresh ones. I''ll give you something nice if you give me Morana''s heart.


    [Whisper: Nix to Beta] Why don''t you take it yourself?


    [Whisper: Beta to Nix] That would get me in a lot of trouble.


    [Whisper: Nix to Beta] Fair enough, no promises.


    Nix took a moment to pilfer all the items Kedric was carrying. "Truthfully I''m toozy to dig a hole to bury you in."


    A noise from behind him caused him to nce over his shoulder. The horse Kedric had been riding apparently survived the house exploding. Nix approached the animal, immediately he sensed a difference in the mare. Her hooves were cloven like a goat, and scales advanced upward to her knees before turning into ck fur. She had a few minor cuts on her chest and back, but nothing life-threatening.


    "This some sort of mutation? Crossbreed maybe?" Nix looked closer and noticed her eyes were blood red. "Oh... hey I like this horse."


    Nix dragged Kedric toward the property''s only well. "As I was saying, I don''t like digging. However, I''ll just dump you in the well and copse it.


    After removing Kedric''s legs, he picked up the screaming vampire and dumped him down the well, after searching carefully, Nix recovered the parts he chopped off and tossed them in also. After some careful thought, he added Roz and his severed head to the well.


    [Balefire: Burst: Gemini me]


    Nix targeted the well and turned into a pile of melted rubble.


    [Tides of me]


    [Tides of me]


    After the second Tide, the entire area over the well was smooth like ss. He unsummoned the Kedric''s demon horse and headed back toward town.


    /Alpha Team: Nix: All hands report immediately to I''Fairbal.


    /Alpha Team: Semmi: Special mission?


    /Alpha Team: Pon: On my way.


    /Alpha Team: Fajii: Understood.


    /Alpha Team: Wind: You got it, boss.


    *******************


    When Shae entered her Elemental World she immediately sensed the chaos and ran towards it. She found Fey on the bank next to her favorite hot-pool, half of her body was still in the water. "Not good little lizard."


    Originally Fey''s dark body was sleekly scaled with wings about five meters from tip to tip. The mass of silver and brown blob was barely recognizable as a drake. "What''s wrong Fey? The Ice Dragon Spirit shouldn''t have caused something like this!"


    Shae''s voice was calm, Fey had only been slightlyrger than a warhorse. The shapeless mass of scales was easily four or five times bigger. She gripped Fey by one foreleg and pulled herpletely from the pool.


    "Silver me isbating my natural me Shae, I must have absorbed it from Nix."


    The red-haired Smandery a hand on Fey,panions would often rise in strength when their Spirit bonds did. Just as Nix benefitted from the spiritual bond he shared with Shae, Fey also benefitted from his strength. The difference was that Fey had been a fairly ordinary Lord ss Drake.


    Fey''s breathing wasbored. "The Ice Dragon Spirit isn''tpatible with Nix''s Silver mes, nor my form. I just wanted to be stronger for him."


    Shae nodded, she understood the sentiment. "There is something I can try, I wouldn''t dare do it, but I''ve seen Nix aplish it once."


    "I will try anything." Fey already knew that this failure would lead to her death, not abat death from which she would be revived, permanent death.


    Shae removed her clothes and let warm red mes engulf her. "First, I''m going to pull out your natural mes, that will ease some of the chaos." Once touch had told her everything. The drake was too weak for the silver me. The Ice Dragon spirit was onlypatible with the Ice me. "After I remove the red mes, you will have to focus all of your strength on the silver absorption."


    "I''m too weak for that Shae."


    "This battle you will have to win, if you can manage that, then I will be able to weaken the Ice Dragon Spirit enough for you to meld with it."


    "I will make the attempt." Fey slowly regained her focus, Drakes didn''t rely on fire seeds like smanders. They possessed a core that burned with the mes they were born too. Fey had never heard of a Drake switching mes. She gathered her courage, her will to fly the skies with him pushed her forward.


    Shae nodded to herself when Fey''s red mes pulsed outward, the Smander pulled them in like a sponge in water. As an Archon level Smander, her me tolerance was years ahead of Feys. When her senses told her that the Drake had pushed away everything she could, Shae focuses on the Drake''s core and stole the rest, leaving an empty whirlpool where the red me had housed.


    Fey''s weak body convulsed when her me left her, but she was expecting it and instead of panicking, she managed to pull the smallest bit of Silver mes into her core. Immediately she felt the Ice me follow.


    Shae was deeply focused on the mes raging within Fey when the Ice mes moved, she pulled at them with all of her strength. Silver med wings appeared on her back, the instant mind-numbing pain of Ice mes made the red-haired Archon grit her teeth. She had acquired the small bit of Ice mepatibility from her spiritual bond with Nix, it would have to be enough for her to pull it away from the Drake. "Fey! The Ice me feeds the Ice Dragon Spirit, try to meld with just the spirit!"


    The Ice Dragon Spirit was something that scared Fey to her core, although she wasn''t weak, she was aware that her blood held only the slightest trace amount of Dragon. She had bonded with Nix originally to protect herself, but as their bond grew, so did her desire to protect him. "I..I will pull it all in, even if it kills me!" The weakened Drake encountered an Ice Dragon spirit that was fighting on two fronts. A powerful Archon was pulling away its life fire, while a pitiful drake was pulling at its spirit. Mistakenly, it chose to take on the stronger Archon first.


    Fey felt the Ice Dragon Spirit weaken slightly, and dived in with all her strength. She had decided that she would not be able to survive, at all cost she must protect herpanion''s mate. She released her own Drake identity and focused on be part of the stronger Ice Dragon Spirit.


    "Fey? What are you doing?" Shae felt a moment of panic, she used her own mes topletely cut loose the Ice mes and then yanked them outpletely. An explosion of Ice mes shook her elemental world, tossing Shae into the air like a dried leaf.


    Shae woke a few minutester, oddly enough shended in her ghost pepper garden. She frowned at the half-dozen nts that were wrecked. She limped slowly back to her hot-pool while checking her injuries. There were only a few minor cold burns, nothing serious. "How does he hold the Ice mes?"


    She stopped when the silver form rose from the ground, her pretty brown eyes showed her surprise. Thirty feet of beautiful scaled silver, her furled wings must be nearly twice that. Shae advanced andy a hand on Fey''s smooth shoulder. "Your mes?"


    Fey''s silver eyes showed some confusion, she inhaled and shot mes into the air. Shae pped excitedly when she saw them, they were pure silver. "My mes..."


    Shae nodded and stroked her neck. "That''s not all. Examine yourself."


    Fey [Silver Drakon: Hybrid]