THE LAST KEEPER

Chapter 370: 370: WARNING

After several tense moments, Zaira finally relented.

She lowered her massive body just enough to allow them aboard, though every movement made it abundantly clear that she was doing so only because Sagiri had asked. Even as Salka, N’varu, the Sandshades, and Lotaga climbed onto her broad back, the beast kept one golden eye fixed on them, releasing an occasional warning growl whenever someone moved too suddenly.

Salka glanced down at Sagiri’s pale face and frowned deeply.

”You look like you’re dying,” he said bluntly.

The words had barely left his mouth before Zaira let out a distressed whimper, lowering her head protectively toward Sagiri as though trying to shield him from the statement itself. Despite the agony coursing through him, Sagiri managed the faintest smile.

”Don’t... scare my beast,” he muttered weakly, stroking one of her scales with trembling fingers. Zaira rumbled softly at the touch. Sagiri turned his eyes toward Salka.

”She’ll listen to you... take us north... to Galka.” His gaze drifted back to the beast. ”Follow his instructions... beauty.” Zaira gave a reluctant snort before launching herself forward, her colossal movements carrying them across the northern wilderness with astonishing speed.

”You call this thing beauty?” Koru asked and Yavaga slapped him.

”Shut up. I still don’t feel safe. Don’t provoke beauty.” He said sarcastically. Lotaga was more silent than usual

Throughout the journey, Lotaga barely left Sagiri’s side.

The large warrior worked frantically, forcing antidote after antidote between Sagiri’s lips, applying poultices to the wound, checking his pulse, then trying yet another remedy moments later despite knowing none of them were working.

”Come on...” he muttered repeatedly. ”One of these has to do something.” But the poison ignored them all. ℯℯ𝑙.

”Stop acting like a child. The poison in him is not something that can be healed by our antidotes.” Matasi said standing impossibly still on the head of the beast.

Before long, Sagiri slipped back into unconsciousness.

He briefly surfaced again beneath the warmth of the afternoon sun, his vision catching only flashes of Zaira’s black scales, distant mountains, and Lotaga’s worried face leaning over him before darkness claimed him once more.

The next time he opened his eyes, night had fallen again.

Everything felt colder, even his body. He could hear dripping water somewhere nearby and smell ancient stone.

His body refused to move, however. Voices echoed through the darkness beyond him.

”...we can’t just throw him into the water,” Lotaga protested, panic evident in every word.

”He’s barely breathing!” Another voice answered calmly.

N’varu.

”We have to.” There was no hesitation in the old man’s tone. ”If we don’t, he will die.” Silence followed before the sound of footsteps echoed across the cavern floor. Sagiri slowly realized where he was. They had reached the hidden cave beneath the academy.

Beneath Galka War Academy. And somewhere ahead lay the Endless Pool.

Salka let out a long, weary sigh before stepping toward the edge of the Endless Pool. The ancient waters lay perfectly still, their black surface reflecting nothing. It was as though the pool consumed light itself. He stopped at the water’s edge and looked back once at the unconscious Sagiri lying in Lotaga’s arms.

”You better not die, You pet is too big for me to care for,” he muttered. Without waiting for anyone to answer, he lifted Sagiri onto his shoulder, took one final step, and threw him into the pool.

Zaira immediately surged forward with a distressed roar, stopping only at the very edge as the immense beast lowered herself until her snout almost touched the black water. She released a low, frightened whimper, her golden eyes never leaving her master.

Sagiri struck the surface without a splash. The water simply swallowed him the instant his body disappeared beneath it, every muscle in him convulsed violently. His eyes snapped open, and although no sound should have escaped beneath the depths, his entire body arched in unmistakable agony.

It felt as though every inch of his flesh had been plunged into living acid. The poison within him and the power of the relics reacted instantly to the pool. Veins bulged across his body as darkness burst from his skin in violent streams before being stripped away by the water.

His mouth opened in a silent scream that seemed to shake even the stillness of the pool.

Above, Zaira whimpered again. Beneath the surface, the torment continued. Every wound burned. Every bone felt as though it were being broken apart and forged anew. The poison fought desperately against the waters while the relics surged with unprecedented violence, each trying to dominate the other.

Minutes crawled by. Then, finally, the struggle ceased. The waters beneath Sagiri began to move. The darkness at the bottom of the Endless Pool opened into a vast abyss. A powerful current seized his body and pulled him downward.

Faster and faster he descended, deeper than any ordinary pool could reach. The last traces of light vanished above him. Then even the surface disappeared. Sagiri continued sinking into an endless darkness beneath the world, drawn toward something ancient waiting in the depths.

Above, the waters became perfectly still once more. Only Zaira’s mournful whimper echoed through the cavern as she continued staring into the black pool, waiting for her master to return.

Sagiri continued falling through the endless darkness. There was no up or down, only an infinite abyss that accepted him without resistance. As he sank deeper, the waters around him began to glow with faint streams of silver light. They wound around his body like living threads, probing every wound, every torn muscle, every shattered vessel. Then the healing began.

The Endless just sucked the poison. Dark crimson veins burst beneath Sagiri’s skin as the corrupted substance was ripped from his blood in violent streams. It resisted with desperate fury, twisting through his arteries like a living parasite, but the waters overwhelmed it completely. Every trace of corruption was dragged from his flesh, only to dissolve into nothingness the instant it touched the glowing currents. Sagiri’s body convulsed over and over as organs that had begun to fail were torn apart and remade.

His heart stopped for a second... then beat again with renewed strength. His lungs collapsed before expanding once more, cleaner than before. Bones cracked throughout his body, becoming denser and stronger under the relentless pressure of the pool. Darkness poured from Sagiri’s body in vast rivers.

The Archive spread around him like enormous wings before slowly wrapping around its master, inspecting every fragment of itself that had been damaged during the battle.

Wherever the darkness touched, the waters brightened.

The Archive began healing alongside its Keeper. Then the relics awakened. One after another they drifted free from Sagiri’s body, suspended around him in perfect silence.

Nokai floated before his chest, its black blade humming softly as tiny fractures along its edge sealed themselves. The remaining relics shimmered faintly, each radiating its own ancient presence as they revolved around him in a slow circle.

They were not merely healing him.

They were healing themselves.

The Endless Pool had become their forge once more. Hours—or perhaps days—passed in absolute silence as the process continued. Sagiri descended ever deeper until finally the fall ended.

His back touched solid ground.

At the very bottom of the Endless Pool lay a vast plain of black stone stretching endlessly beneath the water, illuminated only by the silver glow flowing through it like veins beneath the earth.

Sagiri remained suspended just above it, eyes closed, while the relics settled into a perfect ring around him. Then the silence broke.

It was not a voice carried through water. It spoke directly into his mind, ancient beyond imagination, carrying the weight of countless generations. The poison has been purged. The Keeper has been restored.

The words lingered for a long moment before another followed, colder than the first. Hear this warning well, Keeper of the Archive. The silver currents surrounding him slowed. Even the relics became still.

The corruption that entered your body was not of ordinary origin. The relics endured it once. They will not endure it again. Sagiri remained motionless, listening. Should that poison enter your body a second time... neither this Pool, nor the Archive, nor the relics will be able to save you.

The ancient presence fell silent. The warning settled into him with terrifying certainty. If he allowed himself to be struck by that corrupted weapon again, death would not merely be possible.

It would be inevitable.

Sagiri almost laughed. He was already dying... That was inevitable and after seeing that person who saved his aunt he was sure something was in the waiting. His death could be prolonged, yes. Even if the man who wiped his clan di no manage to kill him. He had a choice to make...